I have chosen this text to treat of the instrument of the new
birth.
The apostle having advised them (verse 13, 'But let no man say
when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be
tempted to evil, neither tempts he any man') not to charge God as
the author of any temptation to evil, showing it to be contrary
to the nature of God, who is infinite goodness and righteousness;
for as he cannot be tempted with evil, so neither can he tempt any
man; and declaring the true cause and spring of all evil to be
inherent in ourselves, even that lust which is riveted in our
nature, which he calls our own lust, - verse 14, 'But every man
is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed,'
- he takes occasion from thence to show the order of sin's
working. Sin is first conceived by that original corruption in
our nature, and formed and brought forth into action; and when it
is finished, and grows into a habit, it 'brings forth death,'
verse 15. To remove this error, which some in those days had
sucked in out of a natural self-love that man has to excuse
himself, and remove the cause of sin far from him, the apostle
shows that God is the author and fountain of all the good we
have: ver. 17, 'Every good gift and every perfect gift is from
above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no
variableness, nor shadow of change.' God being the infinite
Father of lights, who has no eclipses or decreases, no shadows or
mixtures of darkness, but always shines with a constant and
settled brightness, of this goodness has given a great evidence,
in conferring the choicest mercy upon us, even a new begetting
through the gospel, and thereby the relation of children to him,
that we might be consecrated to him as the first fruits and a
peculiar portion. Of his own will, "bouletheis; by his mere
motion, induced by no cause but the goodness in his own breast.
(1.) To distinguish it from the generation of the Son, which is
natural, this voluntary; of his own will, not naturally, as he
begot his Son from eternity. (2.) Not necessarily, by a necessity
of nature, as the sun, to which he had compared God before, does
enlighten, and enliven, when matter is prepared to receive his
quickening beams; but by an arbitrariness of grace. (3.) Not by
any obligation from the creature; the will of God is opposed to
the merit of man. The new creation answers to election; the first
purpose was free, the bringing that purpose to execution is free
whatsoever obligation there is, results not from the creature,
but from himself, his own immutable nature, which has no
variableness, nor shadow of change. "Begot us,'
"apekuesen", or brought us forth, for the same word
"apokuei", ver. 15, is translated 'brings forth.' 'By
the word of truth', a title given to the gospel both in the Old
and New Testament: in the Old, Ps. xiv. 4, 'And in thy majesty
ride prosperously, because of truth,' or 'upon thy word of
truth,' in the New Testament, Eph. i. 13, 'In whom you also
trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation.' So 2 Cor. vi. 7, and 2 Tim. ii. 15. And it is called
truth by way of excellency, as paramount to all other truth. (1.)
Either, by an Hebraism, the word of truth; that is, the true
word. (2.) Or rather, by way of eminency, as containing a higher
truth, more excellent in itself, more advantageous for the
creature, than any other divine truth; wherein the highest glory
of God, the sure and everlasting happiness of the creature, is
set forth; a word which he has 'magnified above all his name,'
Ps. cxxxviii. 2.
And called the word of truth.
1. In regard of the author, truth itself; and the publisher,
he who was 'the way, the truth, and the life.'
2. In opposition to all false doctrines, which can never be
the instruments of conversion; for error to convert to truth, is
the same thing as for darkness to diffuse light, or water to
kindle fire.
3. In opposition to the windy and flashy conceits of men,
which can no more be instrumental in the begetting a Christian,
than mere wind can beget a man.
4. In opposition to the legal shadows; the gospel declares the
truth of those types. Both the law and prophecy were but as a dim
candle 'in a dark place,' 2 Peter i. 19, but this as a sun
shining out at noonday. All other discourses did stream to this
as their great ocean, wherein they were to be swallowed up. The
law was the word of truth, but referred to the gospel as the
great end of it. This contains the whole and ultimate purpose of
God, for saving men by Jesus Christ, and in him enriching them
with all spiritual blessings, and not by the works of the law,
and thus the Spirit, which enlightens and seals instruction upon
our souls, is called 'the Spirit of truth,' John xiv. 17, as it
is called a Spirit of holiness, as it makes us holy, a Spirit of
grace, as it makes us gracious, or as it declares the grace of
God. Some by the word of truth understand Christ, the
essential and uncreated "logos", Word, as it is
understood by some in 1 Peter i. 23, 25, 'By the Word of God,
which lives and abides for ever; and this is the Word which by
the gospel is preached to you.' Possibly it may be meant of
Christ, who by the gospel is declared and preached to be the
mediator between God and man, appointed to raise up those that
are given to him. Others by the word there, mean the will
of God of giving grace in Christ, which is manifest in, and
expressed by, the gospel. But here it is evidently meant of the
gospel, because of the inference the apostle makes: ver. 19, 'Be
swift to hear;' that is, prize the word, wait upon the means with
all readiness; 'slow to speak,' to utter your judgment of it, or
be wise in your own conceit, whereof a readiness to speak
peremptorily in divine truth is sometimes an evidence; 'slow to
wrath' and passion, which hinder any profit by the word. 'That we
should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures;' the chief
among his creatures. The first fruits were the best of every kind
to be offered to God, whereby they acknowledged God's gift of
them, and desired his blessing upon them, and were given as God's
peculiar right and portion. It was commanded in the law, Deut.
xviii. 4. It was a custom among many of the heathens. To offer
them was a token of thankfulness; not to offer them, was
accounted a sign of atheism and profaneness. The new creature is
God's peculiar portion taken out of mankind; and it bespeaks duty
too: being consecrated to God by a new begetting, they should
serve God with a new spirit, new thankfulness, new frames.
We see here,
1. The efficient of regeneration, God; 'he,' the Father of
lights.
2. The impulsive or moving cause, 'his own will.'
3. The instrumental cause 'with the word of truth.'
4. The final cause, 'that we may be a kind of first fruits.'
The doctrine I am to handle is,
Doctrine. That the gospel is the instrument whereby God brings
the soul forth in a new birth.
The Scripture does distinguish the efficient and instrumental
cause by the prepositions "ek", or, "eks",
and "dia". When we are said to be 'born of the Spirit,'
it is, John iii. 5, "ek pneumatos"; 1 John iii. 9, v.
1, "ek Theou"; never "dia pneumatos", or
"dia Theou:" but we are nowhere said to be born of
the word, or begotten of the word, but "dia
logou", by or with the word, 1 Peter i. 23;
and "dia euangeliou", 1 Cor. iv. 15, I have begotten
you 'through the gospel.' The preposition "ek" or
"eks", usually notes the efficient or material cause;
"dia", the instrumental or means by which a thing is
wrought. Sin entered into the heart of Eve by the word of the
devil, grace enters into the heart by the word of God; that
entered by a word of error, this by a word of truth: 'Ye are
clean through the word I have spoken to you, John xv. 3, whereby
our Saviour means the word outwardly preached by him, for it is
the word spoken by him. Not that it had this efficacy of itself,
but as an instrument of their sanctification, rendering them
ready to every good work. The holiness, therefore, which it
begets, is called the holiness of truth, Eph. iv. 24, opposed to
the "epithumiai tes apates", 'lusts of deceit,' ver.
22. Lusts grow up from error and deceit, and holiness of the new
man grows up from truth. The gospel administration, in regard of
the effects of it, is called 'the kingdom of God,' Mark i. 14; it
erects the kingdom of God in the world and in the hearts of men,
and called the regeneration: Mat. xix. 28, 'Ye which have
followed me in the regeneration;' the gospel administration being
a creating of 'new heavers and a new earth,' Isa. lxv. 17. This
is the triumphal chariot, wherein Christ rides majestically to
the conquest of hearts: Ps. xiv. 4, 'And in thy majesty ride
prosperously, because of truth,' "'al dvar 'emut", a
psalm the Jews themselves understand of the Messiah. The word of
his truth is the support of his kingdom, whereby he awes sinners
into submission. Peace from heaven, and the health of our nature,
is 'the fruit of the lips,' though of God's creation, Isa. lvii.
19. It is like the dew or mist which watered the ground, and
prepared the earth for the formation of Adam's body, into which
God breathed afterwards a living soul, Gen. ii. 6. 7.
I. For explication, take some propositions:
1. It is not the law that is this instrument. The law, taken
in general for the legal administration prescribed to the Jews,
was instrumental for renewing, because there was a typical gospel
in that Judaic administration: Heb. iv. 2, 'For to us was the
gospel preached as well as unto them.' They were evangelised,
"Euangelismenoi", as the word signifies. The Judaic
administration was composed of law and gospel: the moral law, as
a covenant of works; the ceremonial law, representing the
covenant of grace. The law of God, or gospel among them, is said
to convert the soul, Ps. xix. 7. But the law, taken as a covenant
of works, was not appointed for renewing the soul, otherwise what
need had there been of enacting another law for that work? And
those that say the law is instrumental in conversion, or
inflaming our affections to obedience, say that all the benefits
by it are to be ascribed to the covenant of grace in Christ. It
is true, the law considered in itself is preparatory to cast men
down, and show them their distance from God and contrariety to
his command; but the law without the gospel never brought any man
to Christ. Whatsoever it does in this case is not of itself, but
by the mingling the gospel with it, which spirits it to such an
end. Though the law did not encourage sin, yet it gave no help
against it, but left the soul under the dominion of it, which is
evident by the apostle's inference: Rom. vi. 14, 'Sin shall not
have dominion over you; for you are not under the law, but under
grace.' Hence the property of the law, which is meant by 'the
letter,' 2 Cor. iii. 6, is to kill, but 'the Spirit' gives life;
that leaves under the severity of justice, after sin had entered;
but the spiritual administration, wherein the Spirit works, is to
quicken and renew the soul, and make it able to get above the
guilt and power of sin. The apostle, therefore, wholly excludes
the law: Gal. iii. 2, 'Received you the Spirit by the works of
the law, or by the hearing of faith?' that is, the word of faith,
as the gospel is called, Rom. x. 8. By Spirit is meant, says
Calvin, the grace of regeneration, as by faith is meant the
doctrine of faith. I might have preached (as if the apostle had
said) the works of the law till my lungs had been worn out, and
the renewing Spirit would never have entered into you by that
fire, but it descended upon you in the sweet gospel dew. The
gospel is therefore called the 'ministration of the Spirit,' and
the 'ministration of righteousness,' 2 Cor. iii. 8, 9. It is the
chariot or vehiculum wherein the Spirit rides, the
proclamation by which it is declared, the channel through which
it is conveyed. The law discovers the righteousness of God as
well as the gospel; but that demands a righteousness from the
creature, the gospel confers a righteousness upon the creature;
the law shows us God's righteousness in his nature, the gospel
shows us God's righteousness in his nature and grace. The law is
a hammer to break us, the gospel God's oil to cure us; the law
makes sin live and our souls die,—Rom. vii. 9, 'When the
commandment came, sin revived, and I died,—the gospel makes
sin die and our souls live; the law awakens the lion, the gospel
lets out his blood. At the best, the terrors of the law do chain
up our furious affections, but the sweetness of gospel mercy
changes them. The law prepares the matter, the gospel brings the
new form. That was appointed for the rule of our walk, not for
the restoration of our life. And they are the promises of mercy
which are the motives to return; rebels will not submit to their
prince as long as they know they shall have no quarter. Hue and
cry makes the thief fly away the faster. By the 'great and
precious promises;' we 'are made partakers of the divine nature,'
2 Peter i. 4. The promises of the law being conditional, belong
not to us without fulfilling the condition, of which we are
incapable of ourselves. The law, therefore, since the fall, is
destructive, the gospel restorative, and the promises of it the
cords whereby God draws us.
2. The gospel is this instrument. It is an instrument to
unlock the prison doors, and take them off the hinges, strike off
the fetters, and draw out the soul to a glorious liberty. It is
by the voice of the archangel men shall rise in their bodies; it
is by the voice of the Son of God in the word that men rise in
their souls. Nothing else ever wrought such miraculous changes.
To make lions become lambs, Isa. vi. 6, Hosea iv. 13; beloved
idols to be cast away with indignation; to make its entrance like
fire, and consume old lusts in a short time: these have been
undeniable realities, which have created affection and
astonishment in some enemies as well as friends. It has a more
excellent instrumentality in it than other providences of God,
because it is a higher manifestation. Every creature conducts us
to the knowledge of God, by giving us notice of his power,
wisdom, and goodness, Rom. i. 20. The declaration of his works in
the world is instrumental to make men seek him, Acts xvii. 27.
Every day's providence declares his patience, every shower of
rain his merciful provision for mankind, Acts xiv. 17, every
day's preservation of the world under a load of sin manifests his
mercy. The heavens have a tongue, and the rod has a voice; the
design of all is to lead men to repentance, Rom. ii. 4. If these,
therefore, be some kind of instruments upon the hearts of
considering men, the gospel being a discovery superior to all
these, in manifesting not only a God of nature, but a God of
grace, must be designed to a choicer and nobler work. The heavens
and providence are instruments to instruct us, this to renew us.
It is an instrument; but,
(1.) It is not a natural instrument, to work by any natural
efficacy, as food does nourish, the sun shines, or the air and
water cools, or as a sharp knife cuts if it be applied to fit
matter. If it were thus natural, it would not be of grace. Though
the shining of the sun, or the healing by a plaster, are acts of
the goodness and mercy of God, yet the Scripture calls them not
by that higher title of acts of grace. If the operation were
natural, the gospel would never be without its effect wherever it
were preached; as the sun, wherever it shines in any land, does
both enlighten and warm. Our Saviour then would have had more
success, since the gospel could not have greater natural efficacy
than from his lips; yet the number of his converts were probably
not much above five hundred, for so many he appeared to after his
resurrection, 1 Cor. xv. 6, when many thousands in that land
heard his voice, and saw his miracles. Christ, who was always
able to give himself success, would not, perhaps for this among
many other reasons, to advance his spiritual above his corporal
presence, and to prevent any thoughts of any natural virtue in
the word, without the power of the Spirit working by it. Every
day teaches us, that though many see the glass of the gospel, yet
few see the glory of God in that gospel. Were it natural, then,
that all that hear it were not renewed, would be more miraculous
than that any are; as it was more a miracle that the sun should
stand still in Joshua's time, against its natural course of
motion, than that it moves every day in the heavens. If it were a
natural instrument, it must then have life in itself, but how can
the voice of a man, or the words and syllables in a book, be
capable of receiving spiritual life, which they must have before
they can naturally convey it to others? Were it a natural
instrument, it would have the same effect upon the soul at one
time as at another. But does not daily experience witness, that
the word shines at some particular times upon the soul with a
clearer ray than at other times, that such a soul has thought
itself in another world (as it were), and that too when it has
been much clouded by the weakness of the instrument declaring it?
Lastly were it natural, the wisest men, men of the sharpest
understandings, could not resist it, no man can hinder the sun's
shining upon him, when he is under the beams of it, it would warm
him whether he would or no, yet have not such been the most
desperate opposers of it in all ages of the world, as well as in
the times of the apostles? It is not then a natural, but a moral
instrument, which will follow afterwards, when we come to
consider how it works.
(2.) It is the only instrument appointed by God to this end in
an ordinary way. God has made a combination between hearing and
believing, Rom. x. 14, 17, so that believing comes not without
hearing. The waters of the sanctuary run only through the
channels of the gospel; the mines of grace are found only in the
climates of the word. Why does not air nourish? Because God did
not set that, but meat, apart for each an end. Though God could
by his almighty power bless air to this end, yet in an ordinary
way he has fixed his blessing on these natural causes of his own
ordaining. God has appointed second causes for natural
operations; if we would be warm, God has appointed fire and sun
to warm us; he could do it immediately, by spreading a lively
heat in every member, as well as he gave at first a power to fire
to burn; but he uses natural instruments in natural effects, and
likewise spiritual instruments in spiritual productions. God may
blow in an extraordinary way upon the soul by a divine breath
without any instrument, as he did immediately upon the prophets,
or as he gave light to the world the three first days of the
creation without a sun, but since only by the sun and stars. But
God seems here to have fixed his power: Rom. i. 16, the gospel is
'the power of God to salvation;' not that his power shall always
attend it, but that he will exert his power, at least ordinarily,
only by it; no other organ through which the wind of the Spirit
shall blow, no other sword which the Spirit shall manage but
this, Eph. vi. 13. Though our Saviour prayed upon the cross for
some of his greatest enemies, who had their hands embrued in his
precious blood, though he was heard, yet his prayer was not
answered but through Peter's ministry, to grace the first
spiritual discovery of the gospel. Nothing else can have that
efficacy. Had every man in Israel made a brazen serpent, and
looked upon it when they had been stung, they might have looked
till they had groaned their last, before they had met with any
cure, because only one was of God's appointing. To a cast of an
eye upon that, he had only promised his healing virtue, in that
only then he had lodged his power.
(3.) It is therefore a necessary instrument.
[1.] In regard of the reasonable creature there must be some
declaration. God does not ordinarily work but by means, and does
not produce anything without them which may be done with them.
God does not maintain the creatures by a daily creation, but by
generation; he maintains that faculty of generation in them by
the means of health and nourishment, and that by the means of the
fruits of the earth, and does all this according to the ordinance
he fixed at the creation, when he appointed every kind of
creatures their proper food, and bestowed his blessing upon them,
'Increase and multiply.' So according to the method God has set
of men's actions, it is necessary that this regeneration should
be by some word as an instrument, for God has given understanding
and will to man. We cannot understand anything, or will anything,
but what is proposed to us by some external object; as our eye
can see nothing but what is without us, our hand take nothing but
what is without us, so it is necessary that God by the word
should set before us those things which our understandings may
apprehend, and our wills embrace. Now we believe things as we
conceive them true, or not believe them as we conceive them
false. We love, desire, delight in things, as we conceive them
honest or profitable; we hate, we refuse, or grieve, as we
conceive them dishonest, or troublesome, or hurtful to us;
whatever we are changed by in our understandings, wills, and
affections, is represented to us under some of these
considerations. To make an alteration in us according to our
nature of understanding, will, and affection, it is necessary
there should be some declaration of things under those
considerations of true, good, delightful, &c., in the highest
manner, to make a choice change in every faculty of the soul, and
without this a man cannot be changed as a rational creature; he
will otherwise have a change he knows not why, nor to what end,
nor upon what consideration, which is an inconceivable change in
a rational creature.
[2.] It is necessary the revelation of this gospel we have
should be made. There is a necessity of some revelation, for no
man can see that which is not visible, or hear that which has no
sound, or know that which is not declared. There is also a
necessity of the revelation of this gospel, since faith is a
great part of this work. How can any man believe that God is good
in Christ, without knowing that he has so declared himself? Since
the Spirit takes of Christ's, and shows it to us, there must be a
revelation of Christ, and the goodness of God in Christ, before
we can believe. Though the manner of this revelation may be
different, and the Spirit may renew in an extraordinary manner,
yet this is the instrument whereby all spiritual begettings are
wrought; the manner may be by visions, dreams, by reading or
hearing, yet still it is the gospel which is revealed; the matter
revealed is the same, though the formal revelation or manner may
be different. Paul's regeneration was by a vision, for at that
vision of the light, and that voice of Christ, I suppose him to
be renewed, because of that full resignation of his will to
Christ, Acts ix. 6, yet the matter of the revelation was the
same, that Christ was the Messiah, for so Paul understands it, in
giving him the title of Lord. Though God may communicate himself
without the written word to some that have it not, yet according
to his appointment, not without a revelation of what is in that
word.
[3.] This necessity will further appear, if we consider that
it always was so. Adam and Eve were the first after the fall
wherein God did constitute his church, whose regeneration and
conversion were wrought by that promise of the seed of the woman
made to them in paradise; God surely putting an enmity in the
heart of those to whom this first promise of an enmity was made,
upon which promise a sacrifice followed, which some ground on
Gen. iii. 21, 'God made them coats of skins' of beasts, which the
word "'od" signifies, and is never taken in Scripture
otherwise than for the outward skin of a beast. And, indeed, it
is not likely that 129 years should be between the promise and
the first sacrifice, for some think Abel was killed by Cain in
the 129th year after the creation, for it is certain 130 years
after the creation Seth was born, Gen. v. 3. And this is
confirmed, Heb. ix. 32, 'Neither the first testament was
dedicated without blood.' The first testament was of more ancient
date than the Jewish service ordained by Moses; and some
ceremonies, as sacrifices, and distinction of clean and unclean
beasts, were in use before, Gen. viii. 20, so that there seems to
be a sacrifice representing the Messiah for the dedication of the
first testament, which Adam had received from God and transmitted
to Abel, whom he taught the way of sacrificing. What regeneration
Adam had was by this word of the gospel. Had not Adam believed
it, he would not have delivered it to Abel; and Abel had not
sacrificed, unless he had been taught so by his father, or
immediately by God; but most likely by his father, because God
does not use extraordinary means, when ordinary will serve. And
Abel was regenerate, for it is said 'by faith he offered' this
sacrifice, Heb. xi. 4: and it was faith in Christ, faith in the
promised seed, for all of them in that catalogue, Heb. xi., did
eye Christ by faith, as well as Moses. of whom it is particularly
expressed, ver. 26, that 'he esteemed the reproach of Christ
greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.' Considering all
this, it is evident, that the ancient restoration was by the
revelation of Christ and the gospel as the only necessary means.
Abraham, it is likely, had some external word in his father
Terah's family, by tradition from the patriarchs, and had the
revelation of the promise made to him by God, Gen. xviii. 19. And
it was wrought then in an ordinary way by instruction, for, for
that Abraham is commended, and no doubt but Isaac and Jacob did
the same, so that all along this change of the heart was wrought
by a declaration of the word of the gospel.
(4.) It seems to be the standing instrument of it to the end
of the world. Some indeed think the conversion of the Jews shall
not be by the declarations of the word in a way of preaching and
instruction, as the Gentiles were brought in, but by a visible
appearance of Christ, which they ground upon Zech. xii. 10, 'They
shall look upon him whom they have pierced,' they shall see
Christ in the clouds as pierced by them, and understand Paul's
conversion by an extraordinary light shining round about him, and
a voice from heaven, to be a type and pattern of God's manner of
the future conversion of the Jews, which is intimated, 1 Tim. i.
16, that the mercy he obtained was 'a pattern for them which
should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting'. Whether
this be so or no, yet however the conversion is by a revelation
of that which is the matter and substance of the gospel, it is
the revelation of Christ himself; and if, like Paul's conversion,
by a voice, as well as by sight, by instruction as well as
apparition; but it seems to me to be the perpetual standing means
of regeneration. The fruits of our Saviour's ascension shall
endure to the end of the world, and the enduing men with gifts
for the building him a spiritual house is a great end of his
ascension, Ps. lxviii. 18, compared with Eph. iv. 8, 9, 'Thou
hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast
received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the
Lord might dwell among them.' He receives gifts upon his
ascension, for the subduing and changing the hearts of the
rebellious, that they may be a fit habitation for God, who dwells
in them by his Spirit; these gifts being the fruit of so glorious
an ascension, and a rich donative to him for the accomplishment
of his undertaking in the world, and being given for the
smoothing, polishing, and fitting rude stones to combine together
for a temple for the Lord to dwell in (which is the reason why he
keeps up the world). As long therefore as God has a temple, and
any stone to polish, these gifts will remain in the ministry of
the word, and be exercised in order to so great a building; and
we may infer also by the way, that it is not likely that God does
dwell in any, but such who are so subdued and formed by the
ministry of the word, which is the fruit of Christ's ascension.
It seems also to have an more ancient date, and founded upon the
covenant of redemption between the Father and the Son. All that
prayer in the 17th of John seems to me to run upon those articles
agreed on between them. Those that were given to Christ were
given to keep his word: John xvii. 6, 'Thou gave them me, and
they have kept thy word.' Which word was given to Christ by God
in order to be given to them: ver. 8, 'I have given them the word
which thou gave me.' And in his prayer for their sanctification,
her. 17, he seems to intimate that this was the ordinary method
then subscribed to by both, and the settled means of
sanctification; he does not only propose his desire for their
sanctification, but the means, 'through thy truth,' and specifies
what he means by truth, 'thy word is truth.' And what he did here
pray for, for them that were then with him, he did for all that
should hereafter believe, ver. 20; and though this be meant of a
further sanctification of those that were already regenerate, yet
it will, I think, evidently follow that if the word by agreement
between the Father and the Son be the instrument of every degree
of sanctification, it must be also of the first; since there can
be no faith, but refers to the object believed, and the ground
why it is believed, whence 'belief of the truth' is joined with
the 'sanctification of the Spirit,' 2 Thes. ii. 13; besides, ver.
20, all belief for the future was to be through the word,
'through their word.' Let me add another inference from this;
what an excellent argument is this to plead in prayer, before you
go to hear or read the word; Lord, was not this an article of
agreement between thee and thy Son? Was not this the desire of
our Saviour, who knew the best means of sanctifying?
[5.] It is necessary, by God's appointment, for all the
degrees of the new birth, and all the appendixes to it. When God
shows his own glory for a further change, he represents the
species of it in the glass of the gospel: 2 Cor. iii. 18,
'Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into
the same image, from glory to glory.' It is the ministration of
the Spirit in all the acts of the spirit. If the Spirit quicken,
it is by some gospel precept; if it comforts, it is by some
gospel promise; if it startles, it is by some threatening in the
word. Whatsoever working there is in a Christian's heart, it is
by some word or other dropping upon it. If any temptation which
assaults us be baffled, it is by the word, which is the sword of
the Spirit. The life of a Christian is made up of increasing
light, refreshing comforts, choicer inclinations of the heart
towards God. By the same law whereby the soul is converted the
heart is rejoiced, and the eyes further enlightened: Ps. xix. 7,
8, 'The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul, making
wise the simple, rejoicing the heart, enlightening the eyes.' The
Spirit makes the word not only the fire to kindle the soul, but
the bellows to blow; it is first life, then liveliness to the
soul. It is through the word he begets us, and through the word
he quickens us: Thy word has quickened me,' Ps. cxix. 50, 93. It
is by the word God gathers a church in the world; by the same
word he sanctifies it to greater degrees, Eph. v. 26. It is the
seed whereby we are born, the dew whereby we are refreshed. As it
is the seed of our birth, so it is the milk of our growth, 1
Peter ii. 2. Faith comes by hearing, and salvation after faith by
the 'foolishness of preaching,' 1 Cor. i. 21. It helps us after
we have believed through grace, Acts xviii. 27. Our fruitfulness
depends upon our plantation by this river's side. The influence
of other ordinances depends upon it. Sacraments that nourish and
increase, are not efficacious, but by virtue of the word; they
have their dependence on the word, as seals upon the covenant.
The word is operative without sacraments; sacraments are not
operative without the influence of the word, they are only
assistants to it. This quickens and increases habitual grace, as
well as it was the instrument first to usher it into the heart:
Eph. v. 26 'That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the
washing of water by the word.' As God will have the mediation of
his Son honoured in the whole progress and perfection of grace as
the meritorious cause, the efficacy of the Spirit as the
efficient cause, so he will have the word in every step to heaven
honoured as the instrumental cause; that as Jesus Christ is all
in all, as the chief, so the word may be all in all as the means.
As God created the world by the word of his power, and by the
word of his providence bid the creatures increase and multiply,
so by the word of the gospel he lays the foundation, and rears
the building, of his spiritual house.
4. As it is not a natural instrument, but the only instrument
appointed by God, and therefore, upon these and upon other
accounts, a necessary instrument, so it is an instrument which
makes mightily for God's glory. The meaner the appearance of the
instrument, the more evident the power and skill of the workman.
It would be miraculous for a man to raise up another from death,
by a composition of medicines syringed down the throat, but a
greater miracle to raise him by speaking a word. In the new birth
there is nothing sensible to man but the word, the other causes
are secret; like the wind, you know not whence it comes, nor
whither it goes. The instrument being weak in itself, none can
claim any share with God in the glory of the work. But were there
a natural strength in the means, much of the honour would be
pared from God, and assumed by the creature. It is like the
trumpet in the right hand of Gideon's soldiers, and a pitcher
with a lamp in the left. Upon the blowing of the trumpet and the
breaking of the pitcher, the enemies fled; and God would have the
means but small, but three hundred of thirty-two thousand, that
Israel might not vaunt, and say, Mine own arm has saved me,
Judges vii. 2. It had not been so admirable for Samson to have
killed so many with a sword or spear, or if the walls of Jericho
had fallen flat by the force of some battering engine; but it was
wonderful to see them tumble at the blast of ram's horns. Is it
not the same to see strong-holds, high thoughts, Goliath-like
corruptions, and spiritual death itself, fly before the voice of
the word? To see a man like the Babel-builders, swelling and
rearing up his own confidences against God, to have all the
former language of his soul confounded by a word; to think of
other objects, speak in another strain, descend from self to
dust, deny pleasure, embrace a crucified Christ; that carnal
reason should be silenced, legions of devils driven out, a messy
Dagon fall before an ark of wood, that has nothing in it but the
rod of Aaron and the pot of manna: in such weak means is the
power of God exalted, and no other cry can reasonably be heard
but 'This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.'
So it was more glorious for our Saviour to turn many of the Jews
to him after his death than in his life, to bring them to believe
by a Word, upon a person they had crucified as a malefactor, than
if he had brought them to believe while he was attended with a
train of miracles. The power of his miracles might seem in their
eyes to be extinct with his death, since he that delivered others
did not deliver himself from the hands of his murderers. He now
honours both his own words and their faith, in bringing them to
believe by the preaching of men, who did not believe by the Word
from his lips, attended with the seals of so many glorious
miracles.
5. Consider, as it is an instrument, so but an instrument. God
begets by the word; the chief operation depends upon the Spirit
of God. No sword can cut without a hand to manage it, no engine
batter without a force to drive it. The Word is objective in
itself, operative by the power of the Spirit; instrumental in
itself, efficacious by the Holy Ghost. The Word of Christ is
first spirit and then life. 'The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life,' John vi. 63. The word is the
chariot of the Spirit, the Spirit the guider of the word; there
is a gospel comes in word, and there is a gospel comes in power,
1 Thes. i. 5. There is a publishing of the gospel, and there is
the 'fullness of the blessing of the gospel,' Rom. xv. 29. 'There
was the truth of God spoken by Peter and Paul, and God in that
truth working in the heart: Gal. ii. 8, 'He that wrought
effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the
same was mighty in me towards the Gentiles.' The gospel in itself
is like Christ's voice; the gospel with the Spirit is like
Christ's power raising Lazarus; other men might have spoken the
same words, but the power of rising must come from above. It is
then successful when an inward unction drops with the outward
dew, when the veil is taken from the heart, and the curtain from
the word, and both meet together, both word and heart; when
Christ kisses with the kisses of his mouth, and the man embraces
it with the affections of his heart. The light in the air is the
instrument by which we read, but the principle of that light is
in the sun in the heavens. The word is a rod, a breath, but
efficacious in smiting and slaying the old man, as it is the rod
of Christ's mouth, the breath of his lips, Isa. xi. 3; a rod like
that of Moses to charm us, but as it is the rod of his strength,
Ps. cx. 2; a weapon, but only 'mighty through God,' 2 Cor. x. 4;
a seed, but brings not forth a plant but by the influence of the
sun. The word has this efficacy from the bleeding wounds and
dying groans of Christ. It is by making his soul an offering for
sin that he sees the travail of his soul in his new born
creatures. By his blood are all the promises of grace confirmed;
by his blood they are operative. The word whereby we are begotten
was appointed by God, confirmed by Christ, and the Spirit which
begets us was purchased by the same blood. To conclude: the word
declares Christ, and the Spirit excites the heart to accept him;
the word shows his excellency, and the Spirit stirs up strong
cries after him; the word declares the promises, and the Spirit
helps us to plead them; the word administers reasons against our
reasonings, and the Spirit edges them, the word shows the way,
and the Spirit enables to walk in it; the word is the seed of the
Spirit, and the Spirit the quickener of the word; the word is the
graft, and the Spirit the engrafter; the word is the pool of
water, and the Spirit stirs it to make it healing.
II. Quest. How does the word work?
1. Objectively, as it is a declaration of God's will, as it
does propose to the understanding what is to be known, in order
to salvation hereafter and practice here, as it does declare the
purpose of God to save only by Jesus Christ the Mediator, and by
him to deliver us from sin, Satan, and whatsoever is contrary to
everlasting happiness; and thus is significative of something to
our minds and understandings. The Spirit gave us an eye to see,
and the word is the light which discovers the object to the eye.
The Spirit gives us an organ, but something must be proposed for
that organ to exercise itself about, otherwise there is no use of
the understanding in any rational operation; which certainly
there is, for though the object is supernatural, and the inward
work upon the mind supernatural, yet the proposal of the object
to the mind is made in a rational manner. The word does
objectively propose life and death in a way suitable to the
nature of man, that he may rationally choose life: 'I have set
before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose
life,' Deut. xxx. 19. Both the blessings of the gospel and the
curses of the law are presented in the word, that the one may be
chosen, the other avoided. The word is proposed under various
notions: as true, and so it is the object of the
speculative understanding; as good, so it is the object of
the practical understanding and will; as profitable, so it
is the object of the appetite and affections. When it is received
into the speculative understanding, it is a preparation to the
new birth; when it is received into the practical understanding
and will, it is the new birth. It discovers the wonders in God's
own heart, his Son, and his promise; the Spirit demonstrates it,
and gives power to embrace it. It first presents the promise and
then answers the pleas the stubborn heart makes against it, yet
by the same gospel, it fetches demonstrative arguments from that
quiver to satisfy a cavilling understanding, and motives from
thence to overcome a resisting will, it silences the fears,
points to the way, excites the soul to an acceptance of Christ,
all by this gospel, and so draws us, as a man draws a child, by
presenting some alluring object to him. The Spirit immediately
himself touches the soul, but by the word, as an instrument
proposing the object, and drawing out the soul into an actual
believing. The two chief parts of the word are,
(1.) The discovery of our misery by nature. The heart is
ripped open, our putrefied condition in our blood evidenced, our
deplorable state unfolded, and thereby the conscience awakened to
sensible reflections. It dissects the heart, discovers the secret
reserves, unravels the thoughts, pursues sin to its fastnesses,
and pulls and brings it out, as Joshua the kings to execution: 1
Cor. xiv. 26, 'And thus are the secrets of his heart made
manifest, and so falling down on his face he will worship God,
and report that God is in you of a truth.' It opens sin to the
very bowels, discovers the inward filth, takes off its beautiful
disguise, its silken covering, and shows the running ulcer under
it. It discovers the forlorn estate by nature, and the
insufficiency of flesh and blood to inherit the kingdom of God.
Let the word be whispered by the Spirit in the ears of a ruffling
sinner, and the curtains which obscured his sin from his eye
drawn open, that he may see what a nest of devils he has, what
astonishment will it raise in him! How will he stand amazed at
his own folly! How will he loathe that self which before he so
vehemently loved!
(2.) A second discovery is of the necessity and existence of
another bottom. It discovers our misery by nature, and our remedy
by Christ, the plague brought upon the world by the first Adam,
the cure brought to the world by the second. It proclaims a
peace, concluded between God and the humbled sinner, by his Son,
the great ambassador, confirmed by his blood, assured by his
resurrection. It shows him the fountain of death in his sin, the
fountain of life in Christ, the free streams and gracious
communications of it. The promise discovers the gracious nature
of God, his kindness to man, the openness of his arms to receive
him, and thus bring the soul off from itself to the foot of God
and the bottom of the cross. When the word like fire and the
heart like tinder come close together, the heart catches the
spark and burns. From the word reconciliation and peace step out
and meet the soul, it finds the kisses of Christ's mouth
inspiring it with life, the box of the gospel promises broke
open, the window of the gospel ark opened, and the dove flying
out of it into the desert heart. The word proposes things as they
are in reality, and the soul knows things as it ought to know, 1
Cor. viii. 2. It understands the unavoidable necessity and the
infallible excellency of the things proposed; it sees the rocks
and shelves wherein the danger lies, and a compass whereby to
steer, a road wherein to lie safe at anchor; whereupon he relents
for his sin, is astonished at divine kindness, rejoices at the
promise as before he trembled at the threatening, and has far
other thoughts of God than he had before, in which act divine
life is breathed into the soul.
2. The word seems to have an active force upon the will,
though the manner of it be very hard to conceive. It is operative
in the hand of God for sanctification. The petition of our
Saviour, John xvii. 17, 'Sanctify them through thy truth, thy
word is truth,' seems to intimate more than a bare objective
relation to this work; it both shows us our spots and cleanses
them. It is a seed. Seed, though small, is active, no part of the
plant retains a greater efficacy; all the glory and strength of
the plant, in its buds, blossoms, and fruit, are hidden in it.
The word is this seed, which being settled in the heart by the
power of the Spirit, brings forth this new creature. It is a
glass that not only represents the image of God, but by the
Spirit changes us into it, 2 Cor. iii. 18. A word that pierces
the heart, Heb. iv. 12, ye, 'sharper than a two-edged sword,
dividing asunder the soul and spirit.' It is a fire to burn. The
Spirit does so edge the word that it cuts the quick, discerns the
very thoughts, insinuates into the depths of the heart, and rakes
up the small sands from the bottom, as a fierce wind does from
the bowels of the sea. It is God's ordinance to batter down
strongholds. Though it be not a natural instrument to work
necessarily, yet it is likened to natural instruments, which are
active under the efficiency of the agent which manages them; and
this also, in the hands of the Spirit, works mighty effects. The
'sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth ' are
joined together, one subordinate to another, 2 Thes. ii. 13. The
Spirit efficiently infusing holy habits; the word objectively and
actively—objectively, as outwardly proposed; actively, as
inwardly engrafted;—it at least excites the new infused
gracious principle, and produces our actual conversion and
believing. As the pronouncing excommunication in the primitive
times filled the person with terror; and no question but upon the
same account the authoritative pronouncing the pardon of sin by
the apostles, though only declarative, might have a mighty
operation upon the soul in filling it with joy; yet both, as
managed by the Spirit, concurring with his own ordinance. So that
the word is mighty in operation as well as clear in
representation; for an activity seems to be ascribed to it by the
Scripture metaphors. The chief activity of it is seen in that
likeness which it produces in the soul to itself. Seeds have an
efficacious virtue to produce plants of the same kind with that
whose seeds they are; so the word produces qualities in the heart
like itself. The law in the heart is the law in the word
transcribed in the soul; a graft which changes a crabbed stock
into a sweet tree, James i. 21; like a seal it leaves a likeness
and impression of itself; it works a likeness to God as he is
revealed in the gospel, for we are changed into the same image.
What image? The same image which we behold in that glass, 2 Cor.
iii. 18; not his essential image, but the image of his glory
represented in the gospel for our imitation. The word is the
glory of God in a glass, and imprints the image of the glory of
God in the heart. It is a softening word, and produces a
mollified heart; an enlightening word, and causes an enlightened
soul; a divine word, and engenders a divine nature; it is a
spiritual word, and produces a spiritual frame; as it is God's
will, it subdues our will; it is a sanctifying truth, and so
makes a sink of sin to become the habitation of Christ. To
conclude: this is certain: the promise in the word breeds
principles in the heart suitable to itself; it shows God a
father, and raises up principles of love and reverence; it shows
Christ a mediator, and raises up principles of' faith and desire.
Christ in the word conceives Christ in the heart; Christ in the
word, the beginning of grace, conceives Christ in the soul, the
hope of glory.
III. The Use. 1. Information.
1. How admirable, then, is the power of the gospel! It is a
quickening word, not a dead; a powerful word, not a weak; a
sharp-edged word, not dull; a piercing word, not cutting only
skin deep, Heb. iv. 12. That welcome work does it make, when a
door of utterance and a door of entrance are both opened
together! It has a mighty power to out-wrestle the principalities
of hell, and demolish the strongholds of sin in the heart. It is
a word of which it may be said, as the psalmist of the sun, Ps.
xix. 6, 'His circuit is to the ends of the earth, and there is
nothing hid from the heat thereof.' To part of the soul is hidden
from a new birth by the warm beams of it, when directed by God to
the soul. What a powerful breath is that which can make a dead
man stand upon his feet and walk! If you should find your faces,
by looking in a glass, transformed into an angelical beauty,
would you not imagine some strange and secret virtue in that
glass? How powerful is this gospel word, which changes a beast
into a man, a devil into an angel, a clod of earth into a star of
heaven!
(1.) It is above the power of all moral philosophy The wisdom
of the heathens never equalled the gospel in such miracles; the
political government of the best states never made such
alterations in the hearts of men. How excellent is that gospel
which has done that for the renewing of millions of souls, which
all the wit and wisdom of the choicest philosophers could never
effect upon one heart! All other lectures can do no more than
allay the passions, not change them; bring them into an order fit
for human society, not beget them for a divine fellowship; not
draw them forth out of a principle of love to God, and fix them
upon so high an end as the glory of God that is invisible. This
is the glorious begetting by the gospel, which enables not only
to moral actions, but inspires with divine principles and ends,
and makes men highly delight in the ways they formerly abhorred.
What are a few sprinklings of changes moral philosophy has
wrought in the lives of men, to the innumerable ones the gospel
has wrought, which were such undeniable realities, that they were
never openly contradicted by any of the most violent persecutors
of the Christian religion, and were always the most urged
argument for the truth of the gospel in the ancient apologies for
it? How long may we read and hear mere moral discourses, and
arrive no higher than some reformation of life, with unchanged
hearts: have sin beaten from the outworks, yet retain the great
fort, the heart!
(2.) Above the power of the law. The natural law sees not
Christ, the Mosaical law dimly shows him afar off; the gospel
brings him near, to be embraced by us, and us to be divinely
changed by him. The natural law makes the model and frame of a
man, the Mosaical adds some colours and preparations, and the
gospel conveys spirit into them. The natural law begets us for
the world, the Mosaical kills us for God, and the gospel raises
up to life. The natural law makes us serve God by reason, the
Mosaical by fear, and the gospel by love. It is by this, and not
by the law, those three graces which are the main evidences of
life are settled in the soul. It begets faith, whereby we are
taken off from the stock of Adam, and inserted in Christ; hope,
whereby we flourish; and love, whereby we fructify. By faith, we
have life; by hope, strength; by love, liveliness and activity.
All these are the fruits of the gospel administration.
(3.) Its power appears in the subjects it has been
instrumental to change. Souls bemired in the filthiest lusts,
have been made miraculously clean; it has changed the hands of
rapine into instruments of charity, hearts full of filth into
vessels of purity; it has brought down proud reason to the
obedience of faith, and made active lusts to die at the foot of
the cross; it has struck off Satan's chains, and snatched away
his captives into the liberty of God's service; it has changed
the most stubborn hearts. The conversion of a great company of
those Jewish priests that were most violent against it and the
author of it, is ascribed to the power of the word: Acts vi. 7,
'And the word of God increased, and a great company of the
priests were obedient to the faith.' How many were raised to life
by Peter's sermon! More souls turned than words spoken upon
record. It subdues the will, which cannot be conquered but by its
own consent. Light can dart in upon the understanding whether a
wan will or no, and flash in his face though he keep it in
unrighteousness. Conscience will awaken and rouse them, though
men use all the arts they can to still it. The will cannot be
forced to any submission against its own consent; the power of
the gospel is seen in the conquest of the will, and putting new
inclinations into that.
(4.) The power of it is seen in the suddenness of its
operation. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, like the
change at the last resurrection: 1 Cor. xv. 51, 52, 'We shall all
be changed, in a moment, at the last trumpet.' How have troops of
unmastered lusts fled at the voice of the gospel trumpet, like a
flock of frightened birds, and left their long-possessed mansion!
How have the affections, which have sheltered so many enemies
against God, been on the sudden weary of their residence, and
abhorred what they loved, and loved what the moment before they
abhorred! How have welcome temptations been upon this sudden
change rejected, a despised Saviour dearly embraced, a furious
soul tamed, a darling self crucified, and a soul open to every
temptation strongly fortified against it! How frequent are the
examples, in the first times of Christianity, of men that have
been almost as bad as devils one day, one hour, and joyful
martyrs the next; and as soon as ever they have been begotten by
it, asserted the power of it in another new birth by flames!
(5.) And this has been done many times by one part, one
particle of the word. One word of the gospel, a single sentence,
has erected a heavenly trophy in a soul, which all the volumes of
the choicest mere reason could never erect; one plain scripture
has turned a face to heaven that never looked that way before,
and made a man fix his eye there against his carnal interest. One
plain scripture has killed a man's sins, and quickened his heart
with eternal life; one word of Christ, remembered by Peter, made
him weep bitterly, and two or three scriptures, pressed by the
same Peter upon his hearers, pricked their hearts to the quick.
How has hell flashed in the face of a sinner, out of a small
cloud of a threatening, and heaven shot into the soul from one
little diamond spark of a promise! A little seed of the word,
like a grain of mustard seed, changed the soul from a dwarfish to
a tall stature! This the experience of every eye can testify.
(6.) And this power appears in the simplicity of it.
Savonarola observes, that when he neglected the preaching of the
Scripture, and applied himself to discourses of philosophy, he
gained little upon the hearts of people; but when he came to
illustrate and explain the Scripture, the minds of people were
wonderfully inflamed and excited to a serious flame; and that
when he discoursed in a philosophical manner, there was a
non-attention, not only of the more ignorant, but the more
learned sort too; but when he preached Scripture truths, he found
the minds of men mightily delighted, sting with divine truth,
brought to compunction, and a reformation of their lives, which
shows, says he, the power of the word, acting more vigorously
than all human reason in the world. And indeed Scripture, and
Scripture reason, is the wisdom of God; all other reason is the
wisdom of man. God will depress man's wisdom and advance his own.
It works as it is 'the word of God which lives and abides for
ever', 1 Peter i. 23. To wrap a fine piece of silk about a sword,
or gild a diamond, is to hinder the edge of the one, and the
lustre of the other.
2. Information. The gospel is then certainly of divine
authority, since in this 'God has set a tabernacle for the Sun of
righteousness to move in, as the heavens are the tabernacle for
the material sun, Ps. xix. 4. That word that raises the dead,
must needs be the word of no less than God. Our Saviour's
discovery of men's thoughts argued his deity. The word's
discovery of the inward workings of the heart, and the alteration
it makes there, evidences a divine stamp upon it. God would never
have made a lie so successful in the world, or blessed it in
making those alterations in men, so comely in the eye of moral
nature, so advantageous to human society, as the principles it
instils into the minds of men are. A lie would never have been
blessed to be an instrument of so much virtue and truth; it would
not consist with the righteousness of God's government, or his
goodness and truth as governor, to bring the hearts of men into
so beautiful an order by a deceitful gospel. What word ever had
such trophies! What engine ever battered so many strongholds! If
the lame walk by the strength of it, if the dead are raised by
the power of it, if lepers are cleansed by the virtue of it, if
impure souls are sanctified, dead souls enlivened, are we to
question its divine authority? Should a word work such wonderful
effects for so many ages, that had no stamp of divine authority
upon it? Would all those witnesses be given by God to a mere
imposture? Let the victories it has gained evidence the arm that
wields it. What sword was used at the first conquest of the world
through grace, but this of the Spirit? How soon was the devil,
with all his heap of idols, fain to fly before it! How soon was
the devil, with all his pack of lusts, forced to leave his
habitation in the hearts of men! Is not that of divine authority
that so routs the enemies of God, puts sin to flight, expels
spiritual death, breaking the bands of that worst king of
terrors; that had skill to find out sin in its lurking holes, and
power to dispossess that, and introduce spiritual life into the
soul? Can that be a thing less than divine, that restores man to
his due place as a creature respecting his Creator, referring all
things to his glory; that implants the love, fear, hope of God in
the mind; that makes man, of a miserable corrupt creature, to
become divine; that roots out the vices of hell, and stores the
soul with the virtues of heaven? Can such a gospel be termed less
than a divine word of truth? If there be any word that can so
change the nature, and transform wolves into lambs, let it have
the honour and due praise when it is found out; but whatsoever
the atheism of the world is, that never felt the powerful
efficacy of it, you surely that have felt it a mighty weapon to
conquer the devils that once possessed you, and an instrument to
new beget you when you lay in your blood, should entertain no
whisper against the divine authority of it, but count it the
power and wisdom of God as, indeed, it is in itself, and in its
effects upon souls, Rom. i. 16. It is said there to be 'the power
of God to salvation.' Upon that account the apostle was not
ashamed of it; neither should we, but conclude as the same
apostle says, 'If I be not an apostle, yet to you I am an
apostle.' So if the gospel be not in itself the gospel of God,
surely it is so to you who have been renewed.
3. Information. It shows us the reason why the gospel is so
much opposed by Satan in the world. It begets those for heaven
whom he had begotten for hell. It pulls down his image and sets
up God's; it pulls the crown off his head, the sceptre from his
hand, snatches subjects from his empire, straitens his
territories, and demolishes his forts, breaks his engines,
outwits his subtilty, makes his captives his conquerors, and
himself, the conqueror, a captive; it pulls men 'out of the
kingdom of darkness, and translates them into a kingdom of
light,' Col. i. 13. And all this, as it is a word of truth,
opposed to his word of deceit, whereby he has cheated mankind and
deceived the nations; that we may well say of him, as the apostle
of death, 'O death, where is thy sting?' 1 Cor. xv. 55. O hell,
where is thy sting? O Satan, where is thy victory? This slays
Satan and revives the soul.
4. We see then how injurious they are to God, who would
obstruct the progress of the gospel in the world; that, as the
papists, would hinder the reading and the preaching of the word.
Whose seed are they, but the seed of that dragon, that would as
well hinder the new birth as devour a divine-begotten babe 'as
soon as ever it were born,' Rev. xii. 4. Such would hinder the
greatest and most excellent work of God upon the souls of men,
would have no spiritual generations for God in the world. Such
envy Christ a seed, and God a family, they would despoil him of a
family on earth, though they cannot of a family in heaven. In
banishing the word, they would banish the grace of God out of the
world, and leave no place in a world drowned with ignorance,
where this dove should set her foot. Those that would take away
the seed, would not have a spiritual harvest, but reduce souls to
a deplorable famine, lock them up in the grave, and keep them
under the bands of a spiritual death.
5. It informs us, that the gospel shall then endure in the
world, as long as God has any to beget. Men may puff at it, but
they cannot extinguish it, it is a word of truth, and truth is
mighty, and will prevail. It was a mighty wind wherein the Spirit
came upon the apostles, to show not only the quick and speedy
progress of the gospel, as upon the wings of the wind, but the
mighty force of it, that men can no more silence the sound of the
gospel than they can the blustering of the wind. It shall prevail
in all places, where God has a seed to bring in, a people to
beget. Those given to Christ shall come from far: 'from the
east,' Isa. xlix. 12, 'and from the west, and from the land of
Sinim' (now, I think, called Damiata, in Egypt). The word, being
the instrument, shall sound everywhere, where he has sons and
daughters to beget for Christ. As long as Christ does retain his
royalty, 'his mouth shall be a sharp sword,' Isa. xlix. 2. That
is the first thing concluded on between God and Christ, before
they come to any further treaty, which is expressed in that
chapter. As Christ shall be his salvation to the ends of the
earth, so shall the word be the instrument of it to the end of
the world: the 'polished shaft' is 'hid in his quiver.' As he is
a light to the Gentiles, so the golden candlestick of this gospel
wherein this light is set, shall endure in spite of men and
devils. Since his promise of a seed to Christ stands sure, the
word, whereby he begets a generation for him, is as sure as the
promise, and shall not return void: Isa. lv. 11, 'but it shall
accomplish that which he pleases, and it shall prosper in the
things whereto he sent it.' Never fear then the removal of the
gospel out of the world, though it be removed out of a particular
place, since it is a word of truth, and an instrument ordained to
so glorious an end.
6. It is a sign, then, God has some to beget, when he brings
his gospel to any place. He has a pleasure to accomplish, and it
shall not return unto him void. Prosperity is entailed upon it
for the doing the work whereto he sent it. Since then it is
appointed an instrument, in the hand of the Spirit, for a new
begetting, it will be efficacious upon some souls where it comes,
for the wise God would not send it, but to attain its main end
upon some hearts. God never sends his word to any place, but it
is received and relished by some as the savour of life. It looses
the bands of spiritual death in some, and binds them harder upon
obstinate sinners, to them that perish it is the savour of death.
In every place the gospel was savoury to some: 2 Cor. ii. 14, 15,
'God made manifest the savour of his knowledge,' by the apostles,
'in every place.' Wherever this seed is sown, the harvest has
been reaped, either more or less. It is fruitful at Corinth, for
there God had much people, Acts xviii. 10. It is not fruitless at
Athens, though the harvest was less; most mocked, but some
believed, and but one man of learning and worldly wisdom, Acts
xvii. 32, 34. When God sends John in a way of righteousness, if
the Pharisees believe not, God will make a conquest of publicans
and harlots: Mat. xxi. 32, 'John came to you in the way of
righteousness, and you believed not: but the publicans and
harlots believed him.' The net of the gospel is not cast wholly
in vain, but from the time of its coming, to the time of its
removal, some souls have been caught, though not of the most
delicious fish, yet of the worst sort.
7. It informs us, what an excellent thing is a new birth! The
end is more desirable than the means, this is the chief end of
all the ordinances of God in the world. The gospel had never been
revealed but for this intent, this is the 'design of the Spirit's
operation in any gospel administration. All the lines of the word
are to draw the lineaments of grace in the heart. This must be a
noble and excellent thing, for which chiefly the oracles of God
sound in the world, for which so great a light is set up in the
gospel. All the love of Christ breathes in the gospel; the whole
Testament is sealed by his blood; the perpetual workings of the
Holy Ghost, the preaching of the word, the celebration of the
sacraments, are in subservience to this end, the one to make us
live, the other to make us grow. How inconceivably excellent is
that, how valuable in the eye of God, how advantageous to the
happiness of men, that is, the design wherein so many divine
operations meet!
8. What a lamentable thing is it, that so few should be new
begotten by the word of truth! How many are there among us that
understand not what a new begetting and birth is, no more than
Nicodemus when he discoursed with our Saviour! What a deplorable
thing is it that the word should be preached, and so little
regarded! that not only an hour's, but many years' discourses
should pass away (as the Psalmist speaks of our lives) 'like a
tale that is told!' Ps. xc. 9. How miserable is that man that has
the objective cause of the new birth, without the effective! It
is the word of truth. What will become of you, if you prefer a
word of error before it; if you prefer the devil's killing
suggestions before God's reviving, oracles? What does the word of
truth move you to, but to a new birth? Why will any man struggle
against it? Every resistance of the word is a resistance of God
himself. It is God hews by the prophets, Hos. vi. 5; it is God
offers to beget by the word; every reluctance then against the
word is a reluctance against God. The word will either bring in a
new form of grace, or a new form of torment. If the working of
the one be rejected, the in-working of the other cannot be
avoided; it will either cut the bands of a spiritual death, or
cut the sinews of our souls. That piece of timber that has not
its knots cut off for the building, shall be cut in pieces for
the fire. A new life waits for them that obey the gospel; an
endless death for them that reject it; they that obey not the
gospel, know not God, 2 Thess. i 8. And what is reserved for
such, but revenging flames in another world? It would be happy
for such, that they had never heard of a renewing gospel. Every
gospel discourse that might have been the cause of a spiritual
life, and a divine cordial, if sucked in, rejected, will be a
bitter drug in that potion which shall be drunk in an eternal
fever.
9. Hereby you may examine whether you are new begotten. It is
the word of truth whereby God befits. In this word he opens the
glory of his grace, and through this he conveys the power of his
grace. The conquests of Christ were to be made by the word, and
it was so settled at the first constitution of him as Mediator
and Redeemer: Isa. xlix. 2, 'He has made my mouth like a sharp
sword.' It was by this the hearts of men were to be conquered.
And what heart is not subdued by the sword of his mouth, is not
subdued by the power of his arms. Some word or other was the
instrument to beget you (I speak of people grown up). The
apostle's interrogation is a strong negative. There is no
believing without hearing, Rom. x. 14. Hearing goes before
believing; he lays it down as a certain conclusion from his
former arguing: 'So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by
the word of God.' If you conclude yourselves new begotten, how
came you by it? Is it by the word, or no? That is God's ordinary
means. If you be not renewed by this, it is not likely you are
renewed at all; no other instrument has God ordinarily appointed
to this end. Afflictions may plough men for it, but the word is
the only seed that renews the face of the earth. All false
notions or presumptions of the new birth must be brought to this
touchstone; it is a misshapen and monstrous birth, that is not by
a seed of the same kind; the law in the heart has no seed of the
same nature with it to engender it, but the law in the word, that
word which we properly call gospel; the word of truth, not the
word of philosophy, which is a word of uncertainty; God's word,
not Plato's word. If a thousand beasts had been consumed by
common fire, not one of them had been an holocaust, a grateful
sacrifice, unless consumed by the fire of the altar which came
down from heaven. Moral wisdom is not that fire, has not that
eminent descent from heaven; it is not that speech from heaven
whereby our Saviour is said yet to speak, Heb. sit. 26. A little
spark kindled by the voice of Christ from heaven, from whence he
yet speaks in the gospel, is more worth than all the bonfires in
the world, kindled by the sparks of moral wisdom. Those
qualifications which grow of their own accord, without the word,
are like the herbs which sprout in wild places without any
tillage, which are of a different kind than what are planted and
watered in a garden, and overlooked by the care of man. If your
dispositions you boast of were not planted by the word, how fair
soever they may look, they are but a wild kind of fruit;
therefore, it concerns you to look back upon yourselves, think
what word it was whereby you were begotten. If no particular word
can be remembered, if your regeneration were wrought insensibly
in your younger years, examine what suitableness there is between
the word and your souls, whether your hearts are turned into the
nature of it. The measures of grace are according to the measures
of the word. If you cannot remember the first glorious entrance
of it, you must see for the rich dwelling of it. An inhabitant
may enter into our houses unseen, but he cannot dwell there
without our knowledge; the lines of the word will be seen in the
heart, though the particular pencil whereby they were wrought may
not be remembered.
10. It instructs ministers how to preach. It is the word of
truth, the gospel, that must be the main matter of our preaching;
and those things in the gospel that have the greatest tendency to
the new begetting men, and working this great change in them, and
driving it on to greater maturity. The instrument of conversion
is not barely the letter of the word, but the sense and meaning
of it, rationally impressed upon the understanding, and closely
applied to the conscience. The opening the word is the life of
it, and the true means of regeneration. If any man would turn his
servant or child from a course of sin, would he discourse to them
of the nature of the of the sun and stars, their magnitude,
motions, numbers, and qualities? This would be nothing to the
purpose; his way would be to show them the deformity and danger
of their sin. The word of truth is God's instrument, and it
should be ours; what is the end of the word, should be the end of
our preaching. It was through the gospel the apostle begot the
Corinthians; not that the preaching of the law is excluded, but
it must be preached in order to the gospel as a preparation to
it. Whatsoever in the word of truth does prepare for the new
birth, produce it, cherish it, preserve it, centre in one and the
same end. How careful and industrious should we be to beget
children to God, that we may present them, and say, 'Here am I,
and the children, which thou hast given me.' The new birth will
be your joy, and crown and you will be ours, 1 Thess. ii. 19,20.
Aaron's sons are called the generations of Moses, as well as
Aaron, Num. iii. 1, though none of his natural sons are reckoned;
Aaron's by natural generation, Moses' perhaps by a spiritual
regeneration and instruction.
Use 2. Of exhortation.
1. Highly glorify God for the word of truth, which is so great
an instrument. How thankful should we be for an intention, to
secure our estates from consuming, houses from burning. bodies
from dying! The gospel, the word of truth, does much more than
this: it is an instrument to beget a soul for God; an instrument
whereby God makes himself our Father, and us his children. It is
but an instrument; let not the glory be given to the instrument,
but to the agent. As it is an instrument, let it have part of
your affections, but nothing of the glory that belongs to God;
love the truth, but glorify and bless the God of truth, that has
ordained it to be so excellent an instrument.
(1.) Bless God in your hearts. [1.] That ever you had the word
of truth made known to you. How many millions sit in a spiritual
darkness, without so much as the means of a new begetting!
Millions never heard the sound of it, nor ever will. [2.] Much
more that it has been successful to any of' you. Have you any
thing in your spirits that bears witness to the truth of it? When
you read or hear it, do you find something of kin to it in your
souls, and feel something within you rise up and call it blessed?
How should you read and hear it, with eruptions of thankfulness
to God for it, hearty embraces for it, and fervent ejaculations
to God to work more in you by the power of it! Why has the word
grappled with any of our souls, and not with others; arrested any
of you in a course of sin, and left others to walk in their own
ways, to ran down silently like the streams of' a river, till
swallowed up in an ocean of death? The apostle Paul heard the
voice, others with him only a sound of words, Acts ix. 9, 7,
xxii. 9; some have heard a sound of words, without the voice of
God in it, while others have heard a divine voice in a human
sound. The wind has blown upon many, God in that wind only upon
few; some have received air, whilst others have received Spirit
and life; some have only the body of the word, while others feel
the spirit and power of it in their hearts. Shall not God be
glorified for this? Had it not been for him, and his Spirit,
words had been only words and wind to all as well as to some.
(2.) Glorify God in your lives. As you feel the power of it in
your hearts, let others see the brightness and efficacy of it in
your actions. The new born creature should principally aim at the
glory of God, since the instrument whereby he is begotten was
first published for the 'glory of God in the highest,' Luke ii.
14. What is produced by the efficacy of such an instrument must
have the same end, viz. the glory of God in the practice of
holiness. A holy gospel imprinted can never leave the heart and
life unholy. A gospel coined for the glory of God, when wrought
in the heart, can never suffer the soul to aim chiefly at self;
but at the great end for which the gospel was first discovered.
The gospel of holiness and truth in the heart will engender
sincerity and holiness in the life.
2. Prize the word of truth, which works such great effects in
the soul. Value that as long as you live, which is the cord
whereby God has drawn any of you out of the dungeon of death.
Never count that foolishness by which God has inspired you with
the choicest wisdom, and never count that weakness which has made
any of you of death, living; and of darkness, light; and of
miserable, happy by grace. If a soul be worth a world, and
therefore to he prized, how precious ought that to be which is an
instrument to let a soul for the felicity of another world! How
should the law of God's mouth be better to us than thousands of
gold and silver! Ps. cxix. 72. How should we prize that word
whereby any of us have seen the glory of God in his sanctuary,
the glory of God in our souls! When corruptions are strong, it is
an engine to batter them; when our hearts are hard, it is a
hammer to break them; when our spirits are impostumated, it is a
sword to cut them; when our hearts are cold, it is a fire to
inflame them; when our souls are faint, it is a cordial to
refresh them, it begins a new birth and maintains it. It is the
seed from whence we spring, 1 Peter i. 23, the glass wherein we
see the glory of God, 2 Cor. iii. 18. By the waters of the
sanctuary, we have both meat for nourishment, and medicines for
cure, from the tree that grows by its streams: Ezek. xlvii. 12,
'The fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf for medicine.'
Have a great regard to it, keep it in the midst of your hearts,
for it is life, Prov. iv. 21, 22.
3. Pray and endeavour for the preservation and success of the
word of truth. Were there a medicine that could preserve life,
how chary should we be in preserving that? The gospel is the
tree, whose leaves cure the nations, Rev. xxii. 2. It was a
blessing God endued the creatures with, when he bid them increase
and multiply, Gen. i. 22. It was an evidence that he intended to
preserve the world. If the gospel get ground in the hearts of
men, it is an evidence it shall continue in spite of the
oppositions of men or devils.
4. Wait upon God in the word. Where there is a revelation on
God's part, there must be a hearing on ours. Sit down therefore
at the feet of God, and receive of his words, Dent. xxxiii. 3.
(1.) Despise it not; he that contemns it never intends to be new
begotten, since he slights the means of God's appointment; he
that intends an end, will use all means proportionately to his
desires for that end; he that contemns it never was renewed.
Habitual grace being wrought by it, cannot, but in its own
nature, have a great affection to it. He that loves Christ cannot
but love all the methods of his operations. (2.) Despise it not
because it is but an instrument: say not, because God is the
chief agent, therefore you need not come to the word. Our Saviour
knew that 'man did not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceeds out of the mouth of God,' Mat. iv. 4. Did he
therefore neglect means for preserving his life? Because God
gives the increase, should not the husbandman plough and sow? If
God does not work upon you by the means, you can have no rational
hopes he will do it any other way. What though ministers can only
speak to the ear? John Baptist could do no more, whose ministry
was notwithstanding glorious, in being the forerunner of Christ.
To neglect it, therefore, is to double-bar your hearts against
the entrance of grace, and slight the truth which Christ brought
down from the bosom of God.
(1.) Never did God appoint any other way but this. Miracles
were never appointed but as attendants upon this. Miracles come
after teachings in the great gifts to the church, 1 Cor. xii.
7-10. First, the 'manifestation of the Spirit," the word of
wisdom and the word of knowledge,' then 'gifts of healing and
miracles.' Miracles are ceased, as being not absolutely
necessary; but the ministry of the word will last to the end of
the world. By the prophets God brings souls out of a state of
bondage, and by the prophets he preserves them in a state of
grace: Hosea xii. 13, 'By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out
of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.' Miracles and the
resurrection of one from the dead, was never appointed under the
legal administration, but Moses and the prophets, Luke xvi. 13.
These were the ordinary means, and if these did not work,
miracles were inefficacious.
(2.) God never made any promise but in this way. God promised
to circumcise their hearts to love him with all their soul, but
in the way of hearing his voice, and observing his statutes,
Deut. xxx 6, 10, 11. He meets souls only that remember him in his
way, Isa. lxiv. 5. And to the preaching of the gospel only, our
Saviour promised his presence to the end of the world, Mat.
xxviii. 20; the promise is perpetually and immovably throughout
all ages of the world fixed to this command. The promising his
presence to the preaching of the gospel, implies that his
presence shall be enjoyed only by attendance on the gospel. The
gracious workings of the Spirit are by this, they are the words
of Christ brought to remembrance by him, whereby he does so
mightily operate.
(3.) No other way did God apparently work by formerly. In the
time when God did especially manifest himself to his people by
visions, dreams, and apparitions of angels, and in those days
made revelations to them, he converted not any either from a
state of nature, or from a particular fall, but by the word.
Manasseh's conversion was by the word of the seers, 2 Chron.
xxxiii. 18; nor was David reclaimed after his fall by an
immediate vision, but by the ministry of Nathan; Peter by a look,
which revived the word spoken to him, Luke xxii. 61. The angel
that attended the eunuch, Acts viii. 26, made no impressions upon
him, but was ordered to direct Philip thither to explain to him
the mystery of the gospel; and the Spirit particularly orders him
to go near the chariot, ver. 29, but makes no impression upon him
but by the ministry of the word. An angel is sent to direct
Philip, but Philip is sent to discover Christ. An angel is sent
to Cornelius, not to preach the gospel, but to direct him where
to send for a teacher, Acts x..3, 5, 6, the Spirit prepares Peter
to go, verse 19, 20, and 1ikewise prepares Cornelius for his
reception; God prepares the jailer by an earthquake, but renews
him not but by the ministry of Paul, Acts xvi. 26, 32. In the
times of the gospel there was first to be a teaching of God's
law, before a walking in his paths, Isa. iii. 3. The arm that
made heaven and earth makes the new heart and new spirit, but by
a word as well as them. The net of the gospel is only appointed
to catch the fish, though the fish that had the tribute-money in
its mouth was immediately for the service of Christ, yet he would
not use his power to bring it to the shore, without Peter's
casting out the net. Christ first brings souls to the net, and by
the net to himself.
(4.) God has always blessed this more or less. Moses' rod in
Moses his hand has brought miracles, Christ's rod in the Spirit's
hand has wrought greater; the new creations have been always by
it, and the after-breathings of the Spirit through it. By this he
makes men righteous, holy, sincere, in a way of eminency, as the
morning light which increases to a perfect day, and no longer as
a morning cloud which quickly vanishes, Hosea vi. 5, which some
understand of a gospel promise mixed with that discourse. How has
the light of the beauty and excellency of God, flashing upon the
understanding from the glass of the gospel, filled the will and
affections of many with desire and love to that glory it
represents, and that state it offers! The very leaves of it, the
profession has healed nations, and brought human societies into
order, and the fruit of it has been the cure of many a soul. Wait
therefore for the falling of this fruit. Grace is a beam from the
Sun of righteousness, but darted through the medium of gospel
air; a pearl engendered by the blood of Christ, but only in the
gospel sea. It has not been without its blessing to others, it
has raised men from death to life. Is the virtue of the seed
expired? or the strength of the Lord grown feeble? If ever
therefore you could have the image of God in inward impressions
of grace, and outward expressions of holiness, you must look for
your transformation in and by the gospel. All the other knowledge
in the world cannot give a man a right notion of the new birth,
much less produce it. Look not after enthusiasms, nor expect it
in new ways, 'to the law and to the testimony,' ways of God's
appointment. The Jews could not expect an angel to bring them
soundness of limbs, but by the pool; nor we the Spirit to infuse
grace into us, but by the word. It is from the mercy-seat only
God speaks to Israel; wisdom's gates are the places where to
expect her alms, Prov. viii. 34. Wait therefore upon the word,
Herein the Spirit of God travails with souls.
Quest. How shall we wait upon the Lord, so as that we may be
new begotten by it?
1. Wait upon the word frequently. Be often in reading and
hearing, and meditating on it. Men set upon these works as if
they were afraid they should be new born too soon, or prejudiced
in their concerns and contentments in the world, as if they
feared the mighty wind of the Spirit should blow away their
beloved dross too fast, as if it were a matter of indifference to
be like their Maker. If you had gold not thoroughly refined,
would you not cast it again and again into the fire? If filth not
wholly purged, would you not use the fountain again and again?
Those that are in the sun are coloured and heated by it, and have
things more visible; those that are much in the word, see more of
the wonders, feel more of the warmth, receive deeper impressions,
are endued with the grace and holiness of truth, have a purer
flame in their affections for heaven. How do you know but an
opportunity missed, might have been the best market? How do you
know but the Spirit might have joined himself to the word, as
Philip to the eunuch's chariot, while he was reading? 'While
Peter yet spake those words (it is said), the Holy Ghost fell
upon all them which heard the word,' Acts x. 44. What words? Even
the marrow of the gospel, ver. 43, 'that through his name,
whosoever believes in him shall receive remission of sins.' God
may have a portion ready for us, and we go without it, because we
are not ready to receive it. We must not expect a raven to bring
us food upon a bed of sluggishness. Do it the rather, because you
may live to see such times, wherein Bibles may be as much shut as
they are now open, wherein (as in former times) you may be
willing to give a large parcel of your goods for one chapter of
it. We read of some that have given a load of hay for one chapter
of St James. Be frequent in waiting upon the word.
2. Let your hearts be fixed upon that which is the great end
of the word. New begettings are the end of the gospel. Come,
then, with minds fixed upon this end, and desires for it. Regard
it not as a mere sound of words, but as an instrument of the
noblest operations in the soul. If this be the great work of the
gospel, we ought to read and hear it, with desires to be
enlivened where we are dead, quickened where we are dull, be made
new creatures where we are yet but old, taller creatures where we
are yet but of a low stature; not only to have our understandings
instructed, but our hearts changed; to inquire after God to
behold the beauty of the Lord, Ps. xxvii. 4, that we may be
transformed into it; to look for God, who is in the word of a
truth, for the kingdom of God comes nigh to you in the gospel.
That was that word that Christ, when he sent his disciples out
first to preach, bid them speak unto men, Luke xii. Men usually
get more than they come to seek. He that goes to market,
intending only to lay out his money upon some trifle, returns for
the most part with no better commodity. Zacchaeus got upon the
tree to meet with Christ, and so noble an end wanted not an
excellent success: that day came salvation into his house, Luke
xix. 9. When the Jews did not mind the end of sacrifices, and
regarded not the things God principally looked for in then, God
slighted them, and they went without any divine operations upon
their souls by them, Isa. i. 11, 18, 14. When our ends suit the
gospel, then are we like to feel gospel influences. We come with
wrong ends, and, therefore, return with unchanged hearts; we come
for a sound, and go away with no more. One end therefore in
coming should be to gain this new begetting, or increase the
growth of the new creature; our ends are not else conformable to
the ends of God in it; therefore, as the earth sucks in the rain,
and the roots in the earth attract it unto themselves that they
may bring forth fruit, so should we open our hearts to receive
the showers of the word with an aim at a new birth, or a further
growth. As this is finis operis, so it should be finis
operantis.
3. Mind the word in the simplicity of it, and that in it which
tends to that end. Some men are more taken with colours than
truth, more enamoured with words than matter, fill themselves
only with air, and neglect the substance. Such are like those
that are pleased with the colours of the rainbow, more than with
the light reflected, or the covenant of God represented by it. No
man is renewed by phrases and fancies; those are only as the oil
to make the nails of the sanctuary drive in the easier: in
Eccles. xii. 11, 'Acceptable words,' joined with 'words of
truth,' are as the ' fastening of the nails,' both 'given by one
shepherd.' Words there must be to make things intelligible;
illustrations to make things delightfully intelligible, but the
seminal virtue lies not in the husk and skin, but in the kernel;
the rest dies, but the substance of the seed lives, and brings
forth fruit; separate, therefore, between the husk and the seed.
The word does not work as it is elegant, but as it is divine, as
it is a word of truth. Illustrations are but the ornaments of the
temple, the glory of it is in the ark and mercy-seat. It is not
the engraving upon the sword cuts, but the edge; nor the key, as
it is gilded, opens, but as fitted to the wards. Your faith must
not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God, 1 Cor.
ii. 5. It is the juice of the meat, and not the garnishings of
the dish, that nourishes. Was it the word as a pleasant song, or
as a divine seed, that changed the souls of old, made martyrs
smile in the midst of flames? It was the knowledge of the
excellency of the promise, and not worldly eloquence, made them
with so much courage slight gibbets, stakes, executioners; they
had learned the truth as it is in Jesus.
4. Mind the word as the word of truth. Take it not upon the
account of persons, value it for its own sake, as it is a word of
truth. It is neither Paul nor Apollos, but God that gives the
increase. Value it not by men; it is no matter what the pipe is,
whether gold or lead, so the water be the water of life; the word
has an edge, because it is the word of God, not because it is
whetted upon this or that grindstone. Some will scarce receive a
truth, but from one they fancy; as if a man should be so foolish
as to refuse a medicine which will preserve his life, because it
is not presented to him in a glass which he has a particular
esteem of. To receive or refuse any truth upon the account of the
person, is a sign of carnality, and the way to remain carnal;
upon this account the apostle pronounces the Corinthians again
and again carnal, 1 Cor. iii. 4. Despise not the meanest
instrument. Our Saviour in his agony was comforted by an angel,
much more inferior to him who was the Lord of angels, than any
minister can be to a hearer. Mr Peacock, being fellow of a
college, in great despair, when some minister had been
discoursing with him, and prevailing nothing, offering to pray
with him, No, says he; dishonour not God so much, as to pray for
such a reprobate. A young scholar of his standing by, answered,
Surely a reprobate could not be so tender of God's honour; which
cords prevailed more to the bringing him to believe than all that
the other had spoken. When men turn their backs upon the word,
because the mouth does not please them, they turn their backs
upon God, John xiii. 20, and perhaps upon their own mercy. When
any have respect to the man more than the word, God will leave
them to the operation of the man, and withdraw his own.
5. Attend upon the word with an eye to God. Look not for the
new birth only from the word. It was the folly of the Jews to
think to find life in the Scriptures without Christ; life in the
letter, without the original of life, John v. 39, 40. 'Except the
Lord build the house' (that is the temple), 'they labour in vain
that build it,' Ps. cxxvii. 1. Without God all our endeavours to
build a spiritual temple are like the strivings to wash a
blackamore white. No believing the word, though preached a
thousand times, without God's revealing his arm, Isa. liii. 1. It
is not the file that makes the watch, but the artist by it. No
instrument can act without the virtue of some superior agent. It
is the altar that sanctifies the gold, and Christ that sanctifies
the ordinances. Paul may plant by his doctrine and miracles;
Apollos may water by his affectionate eloquence; but God alone
can give the increase by his almighty breath. Man sows the seed,
but God only can make it fructify. The richest showers cannot
make the ground fruitful, but as instruments under God's
blessing. It is not said the prophets did hew them, but God by
his prophets, Hosea vi. 5. Then have your eyes fixed upon God. It
is the word of his lips, not of man's, whereby any are snatched
out of the paths of the destroyer, as well as kept from them.
Man's teachings direct us to Christ; God's teachings bring us to
Christ; man brings the gospel, at most, to the heart, the Spirit
only brings the gospel into the heart, man puts the key in the
lock, God only turns it, and opens the heart by it, man brings
the word of truth, and God the truth of the word into the soul,
man brings the objective word of grace, God alone the attractive
grace of the word. If where there is already the new birth, the
soul must he fixed on God for further openings, much more where
it is not yet wrought. David had an excellent knowledge, yet
cries out for the opening of his eyes to see the wonders in God's
law. It is God only can knock off the fetters of a spiritual
death, and open the iron gates, that the King of glory may enter
with spiritual life. If any, therefore, will regard the word more
than as an instrument, as a partner with God in his operation, he
may justly leave you to the weakness of that, and deny the influx
of his own strength.
Therefore let the word be attended with prayer.
(1.) Before you wait upon God in any ordinance, plead with him
as Moses did in another case, 'To what purpose should I go,
unless thy presence go with me?' What can the letter do without
the Spirit, or words without that powerful wind to blow them into
my heart? None can have life by the bread of the word, without
the blessing of God. As man brings the graft, desire God to
insert it. As God has promised gifts to his church, so he
promised his own teachings: Heb. viii. 11, 'All shall know me,
from the least to the greatest.' Urge God with his own promise,
desire him to open his mouth, and to open your hearts; his mouth
to breathe, and your hearts to receive. When men overlook God, he
makes a separation between the word and his own quickening
presence. The end does not necessarily arise from the means; and,
therefore, in the use of them, there must be a fiduciary recourse
to the grace of God. In the time, too, of waiting upon God, let
there be ejaculations; let your hearts be continually lifted up
to God; let your expectations be from him. We should be like
Jacob's ladder; though the feet stand in Bethel, the house of
God, our heads should reach to heaven in all our attendances.
(2.) After you have been at the word. God is the great seer,
Christ the great prophet; we should go to him for the repetition
of things upon our hearts; we may have that wind afterwards by
prayer, which we felt not so stiff at hearing. The operations of
truth, as well as the knowledge of it, are best fetched out upon
our knees by earnest prayer. How do you know but, while you are
praying, the fire may descend from heaven, and transform you into
a divine likeness? Thus you will make God the Alpha and Omega
of his own ordinances, in your acknowledgement of him, as well as
he is so in himself.
(3.) Rest not in bare hearing. Look for God in the ordinances
as he is the living God, who lives in himself and gives life to
men and means: Ps. xxxiv. 2, 'My soul longs for the living God,'
there is a strength and glory of God to be longed for in the
sanctuary; no means are to be rested in or used, but as to lead
to such an end for which they are fitted. To rest in the word
heard, or read, is to make that our end, which God has appointed
only as the means. The word is sweet, but as it is the pipe
through which God and his image, God and his grace, which is
sweeter and higher than all ordinances, stream to the soul.
Rejoice in the word, but only as the wise men did in the star, as
it led them to Christ. The word of Christ is precious; but
nothing more precious than himself, and his formation in the
soul. Rest not in the word, but look through it to Christ.
6. Attend upon the word submissively. It is not the hearer,
but the humble hearer, shall find the power of the word working
in him; as it is not the speaking a prayer, but the wrestling and
struggling of the heart with God in prayer, receives a gracious
answer. The humble are the fittest subjects for grace, those that
lie upon the ground with their mouth close to the pipe. 'He gives
grace to the humble.' Resign yourselves up to the word, struggle
not against the battery it makes, nor the wind that blows;
receive every stroke till you see the frame of the new creature.
Let a silence be imposed upon the flesh, and self bowed down to
the dust, while Christ the great prophet speaks. Be not peevish,
not expostulate with God's sovereignty, as they did: Isa. lviii.
3, 'Wherefore have we fasted, and thou seest not? Wherefore have
we afflicted our soul, and thou takes no knowledge?' Acknowledge
God a free agent, submit to his sovereign pleasure. A truly
humble bow to God will prevail more than all the saucy
expostulations of proud flesh. In hearing the word, pick not here
a part, and there a part, as suits your humour, but consider what
really is God's will, and submit to it. Cornelius was of this
resigning temper when the Spirit descended upon him: Acts x. 33,
'We are here present before God, to hear all things that are
commanded thee of God.' An humble soul, says Kempis, by the grace
of God, understands more the reasons of eternal truch in a trice,
than a man that has studied many years in the schools, because he
has the operations of them in his heart.
7. Receive the word with faith. I mean, not the faith which is
a part of the new creature, but an assent. There is a rational
belief that it is the word of truth, which is in many men that
have no justifying faith. Actuate this. The believing the word to
be so, to be the word of God, is the first step to the receiving
advantage by it. No man will ever comply with that which he
believes not to be true, or believes not himself to be concerned
in. It is said by the apostle, Heb. iv. 1, 2, 'The word profited
not, because it was not mixed with faith.' There was truth in the
word, but no firm assent to it in their hearts. There can never
be a full compliance with Christ, in order to a new birth, if
there be not first an assent to the word. Where there is a defect
in the first concoction, there will also be a defect in the
second and third. If you do not believe with Naaman, that the
waters of Jordan are appointed by God for this end, and not those
of Abana and Pharpar, you will never be rid of the spiritual
death, no more than he would have been of his leprosy. You never
see God in his sanctuary, nor feel God in his power for want of
this. Surely as this made our Saviour suspend the power of his
miracles, by the same reason it makes him suspend the power of
his word: Mat. xiii. 58, 'He did not many mighty works there,
because of their unbelief.' If men did believe there were a place
where they might enjoy all earthly delights in a higher measure,
at an easier rate, how ambitious would they be of putting
themselves into a state to enjoy them? If men did believe the
report of the gospel, would they not be full of great
undertakings for the enjoyment of the proffers of it? But the
gospel, more is the pity, has not naturally that credit with men
that a fiction has.
8. Observe much the motions upon your hearts while you are
attending upon God. If the sails be not skilfully ordered to
catch and hold, and make the best improvement of the wind that
blows, much of the wind will pass beside it, and the ship lag
many leagues behind, or lie wind-bound a long time before it
receive a like gale. God has particular seasons: Heb. iv. 7,
'Today if you will hear his voice.' Sometimes the Spirit is more
urging than at another time, and sends his motions thicker upon
the heart; let those times be observed, and when there are
motions on the Spirit's part, let there be compliance on yours.
Catch a promise when the Spirit opens; bind yourselves to an
observance of the precept when the Spirit shows it; let God's
drawing be answered with the soul's running; observe what
precious oil is dropped through the golden pipes upon the heart,
and spill it not; take notice of what sparks light upon you, and
lose not the warmth they may convey to your hearts; what beam of
light breaks in, let it not be puffed out by a temptation or
diversion; observe what is afforded to make your hearts burn, and
your corruptions and sinful inclinations cool. Regard not so much
your affections, as what touches are upon your wills. Affections
may arise from a natural constitution of the body, some tempers
being more easily excited to exert affections than others, yet
they are not always, nor altogether, to be disregarded, nor are
they always to be looked upon as ciphers; but, especially, see
what influence the word has upon the understanding and will
chiefly, as well as upon the affections. Judge of yourselves by
the inward power and might, by the breakings in of the light, and
the sprightly strain of your wills. The might of the Spirit works
in the inner man, Eph. iii. 16; not in a part of the inner man,
but in every faculty. See what compunction there is in your
souls, what strong desires in the will. Bare affections are but
like a sponge, which will by a light compression let out that
water which it so easily sucked up. Men may 'receive the word
with gladness' without having any root of spiritual grace, Mark
iv. 16, 17. When men regard only particular affections, they
usually sit down in those sparks of their own kindling, and look
not after a thorough change. Or if you find such affections see
whether those affections are raised rather by the truth than the
dress; whether they be kindled by the consideration of those
attributes of God, his mercy, goodness, wisdom, holiness, which
have a great hand in the new birth, whether by the deep
consideration of our Saviour's death and resurrection, the great
designs of the gospel; whether the motion be orderly, first,
understanding, then will, and afterwards affections. This is a
genuine flame kindled by a fire which comes down from heaven,
working upon all the parts of the soul. A bare work upon the
affections is rather a strange and carnal fire. Observe,
therefore, what tender blades bud and shoot forth in the higher
faculties of your souls.
9. Press the word much upon your hearts after hearing. How
great is the neglect of this application of the word of truth!
Men will spend hours in hearing, and not one minute in serious
reflections, as if the word in their ears, or a receipt in their
pockets, could cure the disease in the heart. This is the worm at
the root of all our spiritual advantages. What is only dashed
upon the fancy, or lightly coloured, may soon be washed off. The
soil must be made tenacious of the seed by the harrow of
meditation, which hides it in the heart, and covers it with
earth; for want of being laid deep, and branded by serious
meditation, the seed takes no root, because there is not much
earth about it, Mark iv. 5, 6, 16. How can food nourish your
body, unless it be concocted by natural heat? or spiritual food
enliven you, unless concocted by meditation? The shepherds, after
they had heard the news of Christ's incarnation from the mouth of
the angel, reflected upon their duty, Luke ii. 14,15. Words must
be kept some time upon the mind, and rolled over and over again,
before they can work any sensible change, because the heart
naturally has an averseness to God and his word; as the strongest
physic must be in the body some time, and be wrought upon by the
stomach, before it can work upon the humours. How do you know,
but while you are musing, a divine fire may sparkle in your
souls, and Christ rise in your hearts? Grapes must be pressed to
get out the wine that will cheer the heart. Put the question to
your soul, in every part you can remember, as our Saviour did to
Martha, John xi. 25, 26, 'I am the resurrection and the life.
Believest thou this?' There is such a thing as the new birth:
believest thou this? It is necessary to be had: believest thou
this? God only can work it: believest thou this? And so for every
divine truth. Leave not thy soul to its vagaries, hold it on to
the work, press it to give a positive answer whether it believe
this or that truth. Put not yourselves off with a slight answer
to the question, but examine the reasons of your belief of it.
Look upon yourselves as really concerned in the word you hear,
otherwise it will no more affect you than if you should tell an
ambitious ma, gaping after preferment in England, of a wealthy
place fallen in Spain, which will not engage his thoughts, as
being out of his sphere and at too great a distance. To have a
listlessness to such duties, or any spiritual duty, after hearing
the word, which is the food of the soul, shows a great corruption
within, as the heaviness in the body, and corrupt vapours in the
mouth, show the badness of concoction.
10. Labour to have the savour of truth upon your spirits, as
well as the notions of it in your heads. The kingdom of God
consists not in word, but in power: the new birth consists not
in a bare notion but in spiritual savour. The highest notional
knowledge comes far short of experimental; the knowledge a blind
man has of light and colours, by hearing a lecture upon it, is
but mere ignorance to the knowledge he would have if his eyes
were opened. Endeavour to have the savour of Christ's ointments,
Cant. i. 8, and inward sense exercised, Heb. v. 14. The apostle
distinguishes knowledge and judgement, Philip. i. 9. Knowledge is
a notion in the head, judgement, or "aisthesis", is the
sense or savour of it in the heart. What a miserable thing is it
to spend our lives without a taste! Knowledge is but as a cloud
that intercepts the beams of the sun and does not advantage the
earth, unless melted into drops, and falling down into the bosom
of it; let the knowledge of the word of truth drop down in a
kindly shower upon your hearts, let it be a knowledge of the word
heated with love.
I might have added more; bring plain hearts to the word, put
off all disguises. Moses took off his veil when he went into the
presence of God. Bring not flesh and blood as your counsellors;
these are no friends to a new birth. And come with love; love
makes the strongest impressions upon the soul.
It might here be also worth the inquiry, why so few are
renewed by the word of truth in this age; why the gospel has no
more powerful effect among us, as in former ages? It is a wonder
to see a man begotten by the word, as it was a wonder for the
woman to bring forth a man-child, Rev. xii. When our Saviour was
brought into the temple, not a man but Simeon knew him; no
question but many pharisees, doctors, and gentlemen were walking
there, but none but Simeon knew him, to whom he was revealed,
Luke ii. 22, 25, the rest looked upon him as an ordinary child.
Formerly men flocked to Christ as the doves to the windows. The
sword of the Spirit was never unsheathed, but it cut some hearts,
the word seems now to have lost its edge and efficacy, which
ought to be considered and laid to heart.
Many causes may be rendered; I will only hint a few.
(1.) Taking religion upon trust. Old customs are hardly to be
parted with: 'Every man will walk in the name of his God,' Micah
iv. 5. To root out false conceptions in religion, which either
education, fancy, or humour have rooted, is very difficult.
(2.) A conceit of the meanness of the word, whereby there is a
secret contempt of it, and so a formal and customary use of it.
(3.) A conceit of men, that they are new born already. Many
think their condition good, because of their civil honesty.
Though that be a very comely and commendable thing, yet security
in it kills its thousands. Many, because they are free from the
common pollutions of the world, and possessed with many amiable
virtues, never consider how much their hearts are stored with an
enmity against God. Such count their righteousness their gain,
and think it a sufficient bribe for God's mercy.
(4.) A conceit that to be new born is but to change an
opinion. A change of opinion may look like faith, as presumption
does, but it is not faith. The devil holds some men in the chain
of sublimated speculations, which hinder the working of the most
spiritual and influential truths.
(5.) Pride of reason, frequency of disputes. It is a rational
age, an age overgrown with reason, and the Scripture tells us,
'not many wise,' &c. The truths of God are very much turned
into scepticism.
(6.) The common atheism that so much prevails among us. How
should men regard a discourse of the new birth, a begetting to
God, when they scarce believe there is a God at all, but their
own lusts, to be like unto? How should they be wrought upon by
the word of God, that scarce believe there is any God to reveal a
word, and that there is no word of God?
(7.) Hardness of heart, occasioned (through the just judgment
of God) by the frequency and unprofitable hearing of' the word.
The word is most operative when it comes first into a nation or
town. When the heart is not broken by hearing the word of truth,
it becomes more hardened and compact in sin. Many other reasons
might be rendered, but I have held you too long upon this
subject.
End of A Discourse of the Word, the Instrument of
Regeneration.