Practical Discourses on Regeneration. [ThML]
<generalInfo> <description>Philip Doddridge was an 18th century hymn writer, theologian, and preacher. <i>Practical Discourses on Regeneration</i> is a compilation of ten of his sermons on regeneration. All of the sermons were delivered to a group of young students entering the ministry. Consequently, they are immensely practical. These sermons are a welcome reminder of enriching theology. They cover all aspects of regeneration. (For example, they describe the difference between the unregenerate man and the regenerated man.) <i>Practical Discourses on Regeneration</i> is thus interesting both for historical and theological reasons. It is an interesting, historical window into 18th century theology, <i>and</i> an instructive treatise on the doctrine of regeneration.<br></br><br></br>Tim Perrine<br></br>CCEL Staff Writer</description> <pubHistory> </pubHistory> <comments> </comments> </generalInfo> <printSourceInfo> <published>Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society (1855)</published> </printSourceInfo> <electronicEdInfo> <publisherID>ccel</publisherID> <authorID>doddridge</authorID> <bookID>regen</bookID> <version> </version> <editorialComments> </editorialComments> <revisionHistory> </revisionHistory> <status> </status> <DC> <DC.Title>Practical Discourses on Regeneration.</DC.Title> <DC.Creator sub="Author">Philip Doddridge</DC.Creator> <DC.Creator sub="Author" scheme="file-as">Doddridge, Philip (1702-1751)</DC.Creator> <DC.Publisher>Grand Rapids: Christian Classics Ethereal Library</DC.Publisher> <DC.Subject scheme="LCCN"></DC.Subject> <DC.Subject scheme="ccel">All</DC.Subject> <DC.Contributor sub="Digitizer"></DC.Contributor> <DC.Date sub="Created">2006-07-28</DC.Date> <DC.Type>Text.Monograph</DC.Type> <DC.Format scheme="IMT">text/html</DC.Format> <DC.Identifier scheme="URL">/ccel/doddridge/regen.html</DC.Identifier> <DC.Source> </DC.Source> <DC.Language>en-us</DC.Language> <DC.Rights>Public Domain</DC.Rights> </DC> <comments> </comments> </electronicEdInfo>
Title Page
3Philadelphia:
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by the
AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in
and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
STEREOTYPED BY GEORGE CHARLES.
Prefatory Material
Introduction
PRACTICAL Discourses on Regeneration are among the most vital wants of this age. Although for the last century much has been written on this great doctrine, nothing has fallen under our observation so popular, so plain, so scriptural, and so practical, as the following production of Dr. Doddridge.
These Discourses were prepared with great care by their excellent author, and delivered on Sabbath evenings to his own flock at Northampton; which embraced, let it be remembered, about forty young men, of his Academy, most of them candidates for the Christian Ministry. They attracted the attention of members of other congregations—"a great many such persons of different persuasions and communions making up a part of the auditory." They were 6attended with uncommon diligence to the last, and long before the series was finished, were earnestly requested for publication. The request grew more importunate at the close. Strangers from a distance joined in it, including several ministers--believing that what had proved so beneficial in the hearing, would be no less so in the reading, both at home and abroad. "I thought myself bound in duty," says Dr. Doddridge, "at length to comply; which I was the rather encouraged to do from the several instances in which I had reason to believe the Divine blessing had in some measure attended these sermons from the pulpit, and had made them the means of producing and advancing the change they described and enforced."
This was in 1741. It was the period of the "Great Awakening" under the labors of Whitefield, Edwards, and others in this country, the effects of which were felt so powerfully at the time, in breaking up old systems of formalism, and inveterate habits of ungodliness; and which, with all its incidental excesses and evils, has been the 7main instrument in moulding the evangelical religion of this land, to this day. The impulse then given, the ideas then set forth, with the demonstration and power of the Spirit of God, are yet at work among us for good. It is well known that Drs. Watts and Doddridge shared in this impulse with a vital sympathy. They were in communication with Edwards for years. Northampton in old England and Northampton in New England, were centres of kindred ideas and feelings.
And what was the Great Doctrine, which above all others was made prominent in the preaching of that time of God's power? What was that fundamental and fruitful Truth, which, before unknown, or inoperative because misunderstood, or neglected, now shook society to its centre, and cleared away old and worthless foundations, in order to rear anew the Spiritual Temple of the Most High? What but this very Doctrine of Regeneration, to the discussion of which the following pages are so wisely and yet so warmly devoted.
The same great Truth, which in the age 6of Christ and his Apostles swept away the false hopes of hereditary profession—"the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God"—became again the Ruling Idea of the Age of Revival. So testifies the historian of "The Great Awakening." Speaking of this period he says, "The history of religious opinions and practices shows, that the most important practical idea, which then received increased prominence and power, and has held its place ever since, was the idea of the New Birth." "This doctrine of the New Birth, as an ascertainable change, was not generally prevalent in any communion, when the revival commenced; it was urged as of fundamental importance by the leading promoters of the revival; it took strong hold of those whom the revival affected; it naturally led to such questions as the revival brought up, and caused to be discussed; its perversions grew into, or associated with such errors as the revival promoted; it was adapted to provoke such opposition, and in such quarters, as the revival provoked; and its caricatures would 7furnish such pictures of the revival as opposers drew."[1]
When it is said above that the doctrine of the new birth was not generally prevalent in any communion before the beginning of the Great Revival, we must understand that while held as a part of an orthodox creed, it was not generally preached, and consistently applied. In some communions, as, for instance, in the Church of Rome and in the Church of England, the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration prevailed. In New England the scheme of church membership, called the "Half-Way Covenant," had been generally adopted, with an effect almost equally fatal. Men of sounder views in Congregational and Presbyterian churches--to say nothing of the Lutheran, and Dutch and German Reformed--found their evangelical teaching on this point unpalatable to those who had been trained to believe that by baptism in infancy they were brought into covenant with God. These and similar causes had 8lulled conscience asleep as with stupefying opiates, and "the form of godliness" to a great extent had supplanted its "power."
The scriptural doctrine of the New Birth struck at the root of all these forms of error. It was mighty through God. It became the leading idea of the age. "Ye must be born again," flashed from every pulpit, and penetrated every heart.
This great idea must in like manner take possession of our age, or Formalism will return. It must breathe into our countrymen the breath of a new life, or we shall become like the dry bones in the Valley of Vision. It must be set forth in our pulpits with all possible scriptural plainness; guarded from all perversion, on the right hand and on the left; fortified at every point by the testimony of God; and pressed to its genuine and resistless applications. All this must be done before the Church of Christ can rise again in her original beauty and vigor, or spread to her predestined greatness and glory—as the joy of the whole earth.
J. N. B.
Philadelphia, Dec. 13, 1854.
23Contents
Page | |
DISCOURSE I. | |
---|---|
Of the Character of the Unregenerate |
25 |
DISCOURSE II. | |
Of the Nature of Regeneration, and particularly of the Change it produces in Men's Apprehensions |
54 |
DISCOURSE III. | |
Of the Nature of Regeneration, with respect to the Change it produces in Men's Affections, Resolutions, Labors, Enjoyments, and Hopes |
82 |
DISCOURSE IV. | |
The Necessity of Regeneration, argued from the immutable Constitution of God |
115 |
DISCOURSE V. | |
Of the Incapacity of an Unregenerate Person for relishing the Enjoyments of the Heavenly World |
150 |
24DISCOURSE VI. | |
Of the Importance of Entering into the Kingdom of Heaven |
180 |
DISCOURSE VII. | |
Of the Necessity of Divine Influence to produce Regeneration in the Soul |
212 |
DISCOURSE VIII. | |
Of the various Methods of the Divine Operation in the production of this Saving Change |
245 |
DISCOURSE IX. | |
Directions to Awakened Sinners |
289 |
DISCOURSE X. | |
An Address to the Regenerate, founded on the preceding Discourses |
315 |
Postscript | 343 |
Practical Discourses on Regeneration.
Discourse I. Of the Character of the Unregeneration.
And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
AMONG all the various trusts which men can repose in each other, hardly any appears to be more solemn and tremendous, than the direction of their sacred time, and especially of those hours which they spend in the exercise of public devotion. These seasons take up so small a part of our lives, when compared with that which the labors and recreations of them demand; and so much depends upon their being managed aright, 26that we, who are called to assist you in the employment and improvement of them, can hardly be too solicitous, that we discharge the trust, in a manner which we may answer to God and to you.
If this thought dwell upon the mind with due weight, it will have some sensible influence upon our discourses to you, as well as on the strain of those addresses which we present to the Throne of Grace in your name, and on your account. We shall not be over-anxious about the order of words, the elegance of expression, or the little graces of composition or delivery; but shall study to speak on the most important subjects, and to handle them with such gravity and seriousness, with such solemnity and spirit, as may, through the Divine blessing, be most likely to penetrate the hearts of our hearers; to awaken those that are entirely unconcerned about religion, and to animate and assist those, who, being already acquainted with it, desire to make continual advances—which will be the case of every truly good man.
It is my earnest prayer for myself,
and for my brethren in the ministry of all denominations, that we may,
in this respect, approve our wisdom and integrity to God, and commend
ourselves to the consciences of all men.
If there be any, in one body of Christians or another, that abet men's natural disposition to flatter themselves in a way that is not good, by encouraging them to hope for salvation, because they were baptized in their infancy; because they have diligently attended on public worship, or merely because they do nobody any harm, but are rather kind and helpful to others; or because their faith is orthodox, their transports of affection warm, or their assurance confident; I pray God to awaken them by the power of his grace, before they are consumed, with their hearers, in the ruins of their deceitful-building.
Those of you who are my stated hearers
can witness for me, that in this respect I have delivered my own soul.
It shall be my care, in the series of these discourses,
as God shall enable me, to speak the words of truth and soberness; (
The plan, on which I intend to proceed in the course of these lectures, is this: I will endeavor to describe the character of those whom we may 30properly call persons in an unregenerate state. I will describe the nature of that change, which may properly be called regeneration, or conversion. I will show at large the absolute necessity of this change, and the consequent misery of those that are strangers to it. I shall endeavor to prove the reality and necessity of the Divine influences on the mind, in the production of such a change. I shall describe some of those various methods, by which God is pleased to operate in the production of this holy and important work. I shall propose some advice to those who are already awakened, as to the method in which they are to seek renewing and converting grace. After which, I shall conclude these discourses with an address to those who have experienced this happy change, as to the manner in which they ought to be affected with such a series of sermons as this, and the improvement they should make of what they hear and what they have felt agreeable to it.
I should be peculiarly inexcusable, if I entered upon such a subject, without earnest and importunate prayers to the Fountain of light, grace, and holiness, that while you hear of this important doctrine, you may have that experimental knowledge of it, without which such discourses will indeed seem obscure and enthusiastical, according 31to the degree in which they are rational and spiritual. I shall only add that these lectures will take their rise from a variety of texts, which I shall not, according to my usual method, largely open and dilate upon, but only touch on them as so many mottoes to the respective sermons to which they are prefixed.
As I intend not philosophical essays, but plain, practical, and popular addresses, I shall begin,
First, With describing the CHARACTER OF THOSE WHOM WE MAY PROPERLY CALL UNCONVERTED AND UNREGENERATE PERSONS. It is absolutely necessary that I should do this, that you may respectively know your own personal concern in what is further to be laid before you in the process of these lectures.
Now you have the general character of such, in the words of my text; and a very sad one it is. They are represented, as dead in trespasses and sins, utterly indisposed both for the actions and enjoyments of the spiritual and divine life; as walking according to the course of this world, a sad intimation that it was the state of the generality of mankind; nay, according to the prince of the power of the air, that impure and wicked spirit, who works, or exerts his energy, in the children of disobedience, that is, in those who reject and despise the gospel; in which it is 32implied, and a dreadful implication it is, that the course and conduct of those, who reject the gospel, is according to the desire and instigation of the prince of darkness: they are going on as the devil himself would have them, and choose that path for themselves, which he chooses for them, as leading them to most certain and most aggravated ruin.
And who are these unhappy persons? Surely there must be some of them among us: for who can flatter himself, that in so numerous an assembly, the course of all is different from that of the world: and that all have happily triumphed over the artifices of that accursed spirit, who is, by God's righteous permission, become its prince, while it continues in its apostate state? I shall however think it a very happy point gained, if I could convince any of you, who are justly liable to that conviction, that you are the men; if I could, as it were, render visible to your eyes those subtile, yet strongly complicated chains, in which Satan is binding you, and by which he is drawing you on to eternal ruin; that you might recover yourselves out of the snare of the devil, who are led captive by him at his will.
I am now to describe the character of unregenerate men; but I cannot pretend to do it in all the variety of circumstances which may attend it. 33I shall therefore mention only some particulars which are most important, and which most certainly demonstrate a person to be of that wretched number. There are a great variety of countenances in the human species; yet the principal features in all are the same, though their proportion and lineaments may differ: and I apprehend, the characters which I am now to lay down, will most of them suit every unregenerate person, though they may appear in various persons in different degrees and different instances. I shall chiefly lay down these characters in negatives, as I apprehend it is the safest way: and would only observe, what you may easily imagine, that I speak only of the adult; for I would cautiously avoid entangling this Discourse with what relates purely to the case of infants, lest Satan should get an advantage over us, and turn that into an occasion to amuse curiosity, which I humbly hope, under the influence of the Spirit of God, will be a means of awakening conviction, and of breaking that delusive peace, in which, like the strong man armed, he keeps his vassals, till the fatal hour come which is to complete their ruin.
To waive the formality of labored demonstrations in a case which admits of such easy evidence, I shall go upon this obvious principle in the whole of my reasoning: That to be regenerate, 34and to be born of God, are in scripture terms of the same import; and consequently, that whatever temper and disposition is in scripture declared to be inconsistent with the character of a child of God, must necessarily denominate a man an unregenerate person. And one would think this principle could hardly be disputed, since all that allow of regeneration at all, in a Christian sense, seem to understand by it, that change, whatever it is, by which a person is made a child of God, and by consequence an heir of heaven.
Now on this principle, you may take the marks of an unregenerate person in such particulars as these; and let those, whose conscience owns them, hear and tremble.
1. The soul that never seriously inquired into its spiritual state, is, beyond all doubt, an unregenerate soul.
The Apostle earnestly presses
it upon the Christians to whom he wrote, that they should diligently
examine themselves whether they were in the faith; (
2. The soul that is not deeply convinced of its guilt before God, and desirous to seek deliverance from it by the Lord Jesus Christ, is still in an unregenerate state.
All the promises of God's paternal favor do certainly imply the promise
of forgiveness; and you well know, that these are appropriated to such
as humble themselves before God: and that humbling which is merely external,
and implies no deep sense of inward guilt can pass for very little with
that God, who searches the heart, and tries the reins of the children
of men.
The Scripture assures us, that whosoever believes
that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God; (
But imagine not you are secure, because you acknowledge yourselves to
be sinners. If that acknowledgment be slight and formal, it shows you
are strangers to the operation of that Spirit, whose office it is to
convince men of sin.
3. The soul that is unconcerned about the favor of God, and communion with him, is still in an unregenerate state.
Common reason may tell you, that a soul destitute
of the love of God, can never be the object of his complacential regards;
and that it is impossible you should love him, while you are unconcerned
about his favor, and habitually indifferent to converse with him. You
believe there is a God; you acknowledge that he is the great benefactor
of the whole world; you know your happiness depends upon his favor;
you wish therefore that you may enjoy it; that is, you wish that some
way or other you may be happy, rather than miserable. But let conscience
say, whether you have ever felt, that in his favor is life; (
4. The soul that is destitute of a sincere love to mankind, has reason to consider itself as in an unregenerate state.
You may, perhaps, think it unnecessary
to mention this; but the Apostle was undoubtedly a much better judge,
and his own words suggest this particular to me: Beloved, let us love
one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth, is born
of God, and knoweth God; he that
40loveth not, knoweth not God, and consequently cannot
be born of him; for God is love.
Let me entreat you therefore, that
you would now look into your lives and hearts. Do any of the malignant
passions harbor there? Ask yourselves, "Is there any of my fellow-creatures,
whom I wish to see miserable; or would make so, if it were in my power
to do it by the secret act of my will, so that no mortal on earth should
ever know me to be the cause of the calamity?" If it be so,
41and this be your settled temper, you
hate your brethren and are murderers; (
But reflect farther,
If you wish others no harm, do you really wish them well? and that so
really, and so sincerely, as to be ready to do them good? For merely
to say unto them, depart in peace, be warmed and filled, (
Nay, permit me to add once more upon this, 42that if all your compassion is only moved by men's temporal calamities, and works not in any degree with respect to their spiritual and eternal interests, you have reason to fear, that it is no better than an unsanctified humanity; and indeed, that you never have learnt the worth of your own souls, while you set so little value on the souls of others, even of those, to whom you profess and intend friendship. And this concluding hint is of importance to prevent a dangerous mistake, in which too many good natured sinners are ready to flatter themselves, and in which, perhaps, others are too ready to join in flattering them.
5. He that does not know what it is, to struggle with indwelling sin, and heartily to resolve against indulging it in any kind or degree, is undoubtedly still in an unregenerate state.
You will observe, I do
not say, that every one who knows what it is, to feel a struggle in
his own mind, when assaulted by temptations to sin, is a truly good
man: the contrary is dreadfully apparent. A principle of natural conscience
often makes very strong remonstrances against sin, and sends out bitter
cries when subjected to its violence; and this is so far from denominating
a, man a real Christian, that it rather illustrates the power of sin,
and aggravates its guilt. But when a man's inclinations run entirely
one way, and
43when he gives a swing to his natural
passions without any guard or restraint; when he is a stranger to any
inward conflict with himself, and any victory over his own lusts, and
his corrupted will; it is a certain sign, he is yet under the dominion
of Satan, and is to be numbered among the tamest of his slaves. For
they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections
and lusts; (
It is
also of great importance to add, that there must be a resolution to
oppose sin in every kind, and in every degree; for he that is born of
God sinneth not; (
6. He that does not know what it is, to overcome this world, and to place his happiness in another, is yet in an unregenerate state.
This
is another of those certain marks, which God has given us of his own
children. Whatsoever is born of God--as it is very emphatically expressed
in the original--overcometh the world.
You have reason, therefore, to judge very
sadly concerning your state, if you are strangers to this lively hope;
which is a very different thing from that hope to be saved, of which
some people talk in so indolent, not to say in so profane a manner,
as to show, that it is the hope of the hypocrite, which will perish,
when God takes away his soul.
7. The soul that does not long for greater improvements in the divine life, is still a stranger to the first principles of it.
You know, that we are called, as Christians,
with an high and holy calling; (
Now if there be any of you, who know nothing of this temper, you are certainly in an unregenerate state; for none can be born of God, that do not love him; and none can truly love him, that do not earnestly desire, more and more to resemble him. So that if your hearts can indulge such a thought as this, "I wish I knew how much religion would be just sufficient to save me, and r would go so far, and stop there;" your conscience must tell you that you secretly hate religion, and are unwillingly dragged towards the form of it, by an unnatural and external violence--the fear of misery and ruin in neglecting it; and that you 48are not actuated by the free and liberal principle of a nature savingly renewed.
8. The soul that does not know what it is, to live by faith in Christ, and in dependence on his Spirit, is still in an unregenerate state.
We are all the children of God, by faith
in Christ Jesus, (
These things, as you see, are not only hinted in Scripture, but are copiously insisted upon, as very material points; and though I readily acknowledge, good men may apprehend and consider them very differently, and may express those apprehensions in different phrases; yet as experience makes it plain, that those souls generally flourish most, who have the most distinct conceptions 49of them, and the most habitual regard to them; so I think it is plain from these Scriptures, that there can be no religion at all, where there is a total insensibility of them.
If, therefore there are any of you, that apprehend it is enthusiasm
to talk of the assistances of the Spirit; nay, I will add, if there
are any of you, that do not earnestly desire these assistances, and
do not seek them daily from the hand of Christ as the great covenant
head of his people, you are, I fear, strangers to some of the first
principles of the oracles of God, (
Here I apprehend multitudes will miscarry, who have made a fair show in the eyes of men; and if you are condemned by this mark, I am sure you will not be acquitted by any of the preceding. For all the branches of a holy temper have such connection with this, and such a dependence upon it, that a man, who is destitute of this, can have only the semblance of the rest.
And thus, I have with all plainness and faithfulness, as in the sight of God, and sensible of my account to him, laid before you a variety of hints, by which I think you may safely and truly judge, whether you be, or be not, in an unregenerate state: and I shall now beg leave to conclude this Discourse with one plain inference from the whole, viz:
That BAPTISM IS NOT REGENERATION, in the scriptural and most important sense of the word.
To prove this as a corollary from the preceding Discourse, I shall only assume this most reasonable concession, with which you may remember I 51at first set out: that regeneration, and being born of God, signify the same thing. Now I have shown you from a variety of scriptures, under the former heads, that every one whom the Sacred Oracles represent as born of God receiveth Christ, overcometh the world, and sinneth not. But it is too plain, that these characters do not agree to every one that is baptized: and consequently it evidently follows, that every one who is baptized is not of course born of God, or regenerate; therefore, that baptism is not scriptural regeneration.
I think no mathematical demonstration plainer, and more certain than this conclusion; and therefore, whatever great and ancient names may be urged on the other side of the question, I shall rest the matter here, without leading you into the niceties of a controversy so easily decided.[1] I would only further observe, that they who most vigorously contend for the other manner of speaking, (for after all it is but a dispute about a word,) acknowledge expressly, that a man may be saved without what they call regeneration, and that he may perish with it. And though persons are taught to speak of their state, in consequence of baptism, in very high, and, I fear, dangerous terms; yet when wise and good men come to explain those terms, it evidently appears, that many 52of whom they are used, are so in a state of salvation as to be daily obnoxious to damnation! so the children of God, as also to be the children of the devil! and so inheritors of the kingdom of heaven, as to be children of wrath, and on the brink of hell!
Where persons of real piety apprehend themselves under a necessity of using such phrases with respect to all that are baptized, we cannot blame them for endeavoring to bring down their signification as low as possible; but they will, I hope, excuse those who choose to speak, in what they apprehend to be a more scriptural, rational, and edifying language.
It was matter of conscience with me, to state the matter as you have heard. I do therefore earnestly entreat you, my dearly beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and for the sake of your own immortal souls, that you deceive not yourselves with vain words; but that where your eternal salvation is so plainly concerned, you bring the cause, the important cause, to an immediate trial. And if you are convinced, as I suppose many of you quickly may be, that you are at present dead in trespasses and sins, then let me beseech you to reflect on what the most transient survey of the Scriptures may teach you, as to the danger of such a case. For though it will 53be my business, in the process of these Discourses, more largely to represent it, when I come to speak of the necessity of the new birth, God only knows, whether your lives may be continued, till we advance so far in the subject: and where a case of this kind is in question, the delay of a week, or even of a day, may be inevitable and eternal ruin.
54Discourse II. Of the Nature of Regeneration, and Particularly of the Change It Produces in Men’s Apprehensions.
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.
THE knowledge of our true state in religion, is at once a matter of so great importance, and so great difficulty that, in order to obtain it, it is necessary we should have line upon line and precept upon precept. The plain discourse, which you before heard, was intended to lead you into it; and I question not but I then said enough to convince many, that they were in an unregenerate condition. Nevertheless, as there are various approaches towards regeneration and conversion, which on the whole fall short of it; I think it very expedient now to give you, what I may properly enough call the counterpart of this view; which I shall, by Divine assistance, attempt from the words I have now been reading.
55The Apostle, who wrote them, was transported
to such a zeal for Christ, and for the souls of men, that some thought
him beside himself, (
The second general head I proposed, which is, Particularly to describe the nature of that great change, which passes on every soul, that is truly 57regenerate, in the scriptural, and most important sense of the word.[1]
And here it may hardly seem necessary to tell you, that I do not mean to assert, that the substance of the soul, and its natural faculties, are in a strict and proper sense changed; a man might as reasonably assert from such a Scripture, that the former body was annihilated, and a new one produced; and common sense and decency will not allow us to imagine, that the Apostle meant anything of this nature, by the general terms he uses here. But the plain meaning is, that when a man becomes a real Christian, the whole temper and character of his mind is so changed, as to become different from that of the generality of mankind, and different from what it formerly was, while in an unenlightened and unrenewed state. It is not merely a little circumstantial alteration; it is not assuming a new name, professing new speculative opinions, or practising some new rites and forms; but it is becoming, as we frequently 58say, in our usual forms of speech, a different creature or a new man.
And thus the sacred writers express themselves in many
other passages, which very happily serve to illustrate this. They, in
particular, represent God as promising, with relation to this work;
(
The general nature of this change may then be understood by an attentive consideration of such Scriptures as those mentioned above: which indeed contain what is most essential on this subject. But for the more complete illustration of the matter, I shall particularly show you, that where there is reason to speak of a man, as one of those who are in Christ Jesus, or who are truly regenerate, there will be new apprehensions--new affections--new resolutions--new labors--new enjoyments--and new hopes.
Perhaps there are few important branches of the Christian character, which may not be introduced as illustrating one or other of these remarks. The former of them is indeed the foundation of the rest; because, as religion is a reasonable service, all the change which is made in the affections and resolutions, in the pursuits, enjoyments, and hopes of a good man, arises from that different view, in which he is now taught to look on those objects, the nature of which is to direct his choice, to determine his conduct, and regulate his passions; 60it will therefore be the business of this Discourse to show you,
I. That wherever there is a real principle of regeneration, there will be new apprehensions of things.
When God created
the natural world, he said, in the very beginning of his work, Let there
be light, and there was light.
Now this illumination, of which I am speaking,
does not so much refer to a speculative, as to a practical and heart-impressing
knowledge. It is true, that when a man once comes to be in good earnest
in religion, he generally arrives at a clearer and fuller knowledge,
even of the doctrines of Christianity, than he had before: for he then
sets himself to inquire with greater diligence, and to seek light of
the great Father of Lights with
61greater earnestness; he gets clear of many
evil affections, that put a corrupt bias upon his judgment; and he comes
within the reach of those promises, Then shall we know, if we follow
on to know the Lord; (
Yet, I think, I may very properly say, that at various times, when our judgment of any object is the same, our apprehensions of it are very different. It is one thing, for instance, to believe that God is the omnipotent, all-wise, and all-gracious governor of the world; and another, and very different thing, to have the heart powerfully impressed with an apprehension of his ability and readiness to help us. I will, therefore, a little more particularly illustrate those respects, in which the apprehensions of such as are really regenerate, differ from those which they formerly had: and I hope you will do yourselves the justice to reflect, as we go along, how far you have ever felt these apprehensions which you hear me describe. I have a pleasing persuasion, that many of you have felt them, in a much livelier manner than they can be described. I would observe then to you, that a regenerate soul has new apprehensions of God--of itself--of Christ—of eternity62--and of the way and method that God has marked out for its being happy there.
1. A regenerate soul has new apprehensions of the blessed God.
There are very few who pretend so much as to doubt
of the being of a God; and fewer yet, that will venture to deny it.
And, even among those who have denied it, and disputed against it, some,
by their own confession, have felt their hearts give, them the lie,
and upbraid them for using the powers of reason and speech against the
Giver and Preserver of both. I persuade myself at least, there are none
that hear me this day, who would not look upon a professed Atheist as
a monster, unworthy to be a member of human society, and little to be
trusted in any of its relations. Yet after all, while the being of the
blessed God is warmly asserted, his nature is so little understood and
considered, that there are thousands who may still properly be said
to be without God in the world, (
The person of whom we now speak, has new apprehensions of the spirituality and omnipresence of God,—-of his majesty and purity,—-of his power and patience,—-of his goodness,—-and his intimate access to men's spirits, with the reality and importance of his operations upon them. Permit me a little to represent the views of each, both to direct your inquiries, and also to impress your minds, and my own, with truths in which we have all so intimate a concern.
The divine spirituality and omnipresence is apprehended by the good
man in a peculiar manner. That there is some immaterial Being, and that
matter is moved by his active power continually impressed upon it, according
to stated laws, is indeed so plain a dictate of reason, that I question
not but the thought influences the minds of some, who have not so much
acquaintance with language as to be able properly to express it: but,
alas I it easily passes through, as if no way important. It is quite
a different thing to feel, as it were, the presence of an infinite,
intelligent and all-observing Deity, actually surrounding us in all
times and
64places: to say from the heart, O Lord, thou hast
searched me, and known me, so that thou understandeth my thoughts afar
off: whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall Iflee from
thy presence? Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand
upon me; (
With this conception of the divine observance
are closely and intimately connected new apprehensions of the purity of God, and of his infinite
majesty; views which mutually assist and illustrate each other. The irreverence with which the generality of men
behave in the presence of God, and the easiness with which they admit
the slightest temptation to sin against him, plainly
65show what low notions they have of him; but
God does, as it were, appear to the eye of a renewed mind, arrayed in
his robes of light and majesty; so that he is ready to cry out, 'I have
heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee;
(
And such too are the views it has of his almighty power, that the enlightened mind will further add, ‘A God of almighty power, who could speak a whole world into ruin. as he spoke it into existence--who by one single thought, by one silent volition, could easily abase the proudest creature in the universe, must have it in his power to bring me in a moment to the dust of death, and to the flames of hell; to lay me as low in misery, and to hold me as long in it as he should please. This, 66O my soul, this is the God, against whom such feeble worms as we are daily offending, and whom we madly presume to make our enemy.’
This gives the regenerate man a further sense of the patience
of God, than ever he had before. Others may look round upon the world,
and wonder there is so much penal evil in it; but the renewed soul wonders
there is not a thousand times more. When he sees, how the world lieth
in wickedness; (
He
has also more affecting views than ever of the Divine Goodness. Most
men speculatively believe
67it; and they take occasion, even from
that belief, to affront it; but a good man views it at once as a delightful
and a venerable thing: he fears the Lord and his goodness; (
And once more, the regenerate
man has quite different notions than before, of the intimate access
which God has to the spirits of men, and his power of operating upon
them. The greatest part of men indeed consider not, as they ought, how
the whole material world perpetually depends upon a Divine agency, and
is no other than one grand machine, on which the great artificer continually
acts, to make it an instrument of mercy to his sensitive and intelligent
creatures. But there are yet fewer, who seriously consider, how entirely
the hearts of men are in the hand of the Lord, and how much depends
on his influences upon them. Nevertheless, experience teaches the renewed
soul, that he is the God of the spirits of all flesh, (
2. New apprehensions are connected with these sentiments in the regenerate soul, concerning itself, and its own state.
It is surprising to think, how many run through successive years in life, without ever turning the eye of the mind inward, that the soul may survey itself. I speak not of a philosophical survey of the faculties of the mind; which, though indeed in its place it be useful and entertaining, is no more necessary in its refinement to a well-ordered state, than skill in anatomy is to a healthful constitution: but I speak of those views of the mind, which are in the reach of all, how low soever their genius, or their education may have been.
As all true happiness
is an internal thing,
69wherever God intends to produce it in the
heart of a revolted, corrupted creature, and such, alas! we all naturally
are, he leads it into a view of itself; and shows it, if I may be allowed
the expression, a mixture of grandeur and misery, that lies within;
which yet the greatest part of mankind live and die without ever observing.
"I am here," does the awakened creature say, "an intelligent being;
far superior to this well-wrought frame of flesh and blood, which God
has given me for a little while to command, and which I must quickly
drop in the dust; I am made capable of determining my own choice, of
directing my own actions, of judging concerning the importance of ends,
and the propriety of means in subserviency to them; and while I see
a vast variety of creatures in different forms beneath me, I see no
rank of creatures above me, nothing nobler than man, here on earth,
where I dwell. Yet I see man, in the midst of his glory, a feeble, dependent,
mortal creature, who cannot possibly be his own end, nor can of himself
alone, by any means command or ensure his own happiness. Everything
tells me, that he is the creature of God; and that it is the greatest
honor and felicity, to know, and practically to acknowledge himself
to be so: everything tells me, that it is most reasonable, that God,
who is the great Original of man, should also be the
70end of his being; but have I made him the end of
mine? My soul, thou art conscious to thyself, thou hast lived in many
instances without him in the world.
"And whom, oh my soul, hast thou offended? whose law hast thou
broken? whose grace hast thou despised? The law, the grace of that eternal
God, of whom I have now been hearing; who is here present with me, who
is even within me, and who sees, O my heart, more distinctly than thou
canst see, all thy guilt, and all its aggravations. Oh Lord! I abhor
myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
Thus does God teach the mind, by its inward reviews and reflections, this important lesson of its own impotence and guilt, of its depravity and ruin; and so prepares it for those new apprehensions of Christ; which I mentioned as the third particular.
3. The regenerate soul has new apprehensions concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, considered as 72a Mediator in general, and as such a particular Mediator as he is exhibited in the word of God.
That affecting view
which the regenerate soul has of the majesty, glory, power, and purity
of the blessed God, will undoubtedly convince him how unfit he is in
himself to appear before his awful presence. He is ready to sink down
in the dust at the very thought, and to say, "Who is able to stand
before such a great and holy God, as thou art?
And when he comes to take a more near
and intimate view of this Mediator which GOD has exhibited in the Gospel,
the renewed soul is even charmed and transported with the view: and
that Jesus, whose name he before pronounced with so much coldness, that
the very mention of it was a kind of profanation, now is regarded by
him as the chiefest among ten thousand.
4. The regenerate soul has also new apprehensions of the importance of eternity, when compared with time and all its concerns.
It is indeed a most pitiable thing, and awakens
our astonishment, grief,—and indignation, to observe how the things
of this world press down immortal spirits, and reduce them almost indeed
to a state of brutality. Most deplorable it is, to see the power and
energy of those motives, which are taken merely from this earth, and
its little concernments, so that if a man did but know what was the
favorite vanity, he might almost
75predict, from the knowledge of circumstances,
how a man's actions would be ordered; and might almost be sure that
he would follow, whithersoever this interest, or that pleasure, this
ambitious, or that mercenary view, called him; though all the prospects
for an eternal world pleaded the contrary way. Such is the folly and
madness that is in men's hearts while they live; and after that they
go down to the dead, (
But when a soul
becomes wise to salvation, it is taught to look not at the things which
are seen, but at the things which are not seen; because it has now a
full sense of what before it only notionally confessed, that the things
which are seen, are temporal; but the things that are not seen, are
eternal!
I might add upon this head, that the regenerate soul has not only new views of the importance, but likewise of the nature of the invisible and eternal state; and particularly of the nature of the celestial happiness. It does not consider it merely, or chiefly, as a state of corporeal enjoyment, formed to gratify and delight the senses; but as a state of perfect conformity to God, and most endearing intercourse with him; of which, as it begins already by Divine Grace to taste the pleasures, so it most ardently thirsts after them; and would be heartily willing to lose this body forever, and to bid an eternal adieu to every object capable of giving it delight; rather than it would consent to lose, in a perpetual succession of such objects, the sight of the Father of Spirits, and that sensibility of his love, which adds the most substantial solidity, and exalted relish, to every inferior good that can be desired from it.
5. A regenerate man has also new apprehensions of the way which God has marked out to this happiness.
77Nothing is more common than for carnal and
ignorant men to imagine, that it is a very easy thing to get to Heaven;
and upon this presumption, they hew out to themselves cisterns, broken
cisterns, that can hold no water; (
No, my brethren, when a man's eyes are
enlightened by God's renewing Spirit, he sees and feels that, in the
language of Scripture, he must be created anew in Christ Jesus; (
And I will add once more,
the good man is also made sensible of the place which faith and holiness
hold, in the scheme which God has laid, for our justification before
him, and our acceptance with him. I do not say that all Christians conceive
of this with equal perspicuity, or express their conceptions with equal
exactness: the most candid allowance should here be made for the different
ideas they fix to the same phrases, as they have been used to look upon
them with veneration, or with suspicion. But this I will venture to
say, because I am persuaded the Scripture will bear me out in it--that
the confidence of a regenerate soul is not fixed on his own holiness,
or faith, as the meritorious cause of his acceptance with God. He is
deeply and cordially sensible, that he is made accepted in the Beloved;
(
Let it suffice for the present, that I have given you this plain representation of that change, which is wrought in a man's apprehensions, when he is made a new creature. When old things are passed away, he has new apprehensions of God, of himself, of Christ, of eternity, and of the way to obtain the happiness of it: and as at this happy time all 81things are become new, there are, "new affections, new resolutions, new labors, new enjoyments, and new hopes," which are the result of the change already described. But it will be much more difficult to reduce what I have to offer on these heads, within the bounds of the next Discourse, than proper to attempt any of them in this. Go home, my friends, and try yourselves by what you have al. ready heard; and be assured, that if you are condemned by this part of the description, it is impossible you should be approved by any that will follow; since they have all their foundation in this.
82Discourse III. Of the Nature of Regeneration, with Respect to the Change It Produces in Men’s Affections, Resolutions, Labors, Enjoyments and Hopes.
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new.
AMONG the various subjects, which exercise the thoughts and tongues of men, few are more talked of than Religion. But it is melancholy to think how little it is understood; and how much it is mistaken and misrepresented in the world.
The text before us gives us a very instructive view of it: such a view, that I am sure, an experimental knowledge of its sense would be infinitely preferable to the most critical and exact knowledge of all the most curious passages, both of the Old Testament, and the New. From it, you know, I have begun to describe that great change, which the word of God teaches us to represent under the notion of regeneration, or, according to the language of St. Paul, in this passage of his 83writings, by a new creation. I know I am explaining it to many, who have been much longer acquainted with it than myself; and it becomes me to believe, to many that have attained much higher advancement in it: but I fear also at the same time, I speak of it to many, who are yet strangers to it; and I am laboring, by the plainest addresses that I can, to give them at least some just ideas of it. Oh, that to all the descriptions that either have, or shall be given, God may, by his grace, add that understanding which arises from feeling correspondent impressions on the mind!
I have already endeavored to illustrate those new apprehensions, which arise in the regenerate mind; apprehensions of the blessed God, of itself, of Christ, of the eternal world, and of the way to obtain the happiness of it. It now remains, that I consider those "new affections, resolutions, labors, enjoyments, and hopes," which result from them. I observe, therefore,
II. That these new apprehensions will be attended with new Affections.
I readily acknowledge, that the degree in which the affections operate, may, and will be different, in different persons, according to their natural constitution: but, as in some degree or another, they make an essential part of our frame, it is impossible 84but they must be impressed with a matter of such infinite importance, as religion will appear. And the apprehensions described above, must awaken the exercise of correspondent affections, and direct them to objects very different from those by which they were before excited, and on which they were fixed. And here now,
1. This may be especially illustrated in love.
Love is indeed the ruling passion
of the mind, and has all the rest in an avowed and real subjection to
it. And here lies the very root of human misery in our fallen and degenerate
state: we are naturally lovers of ourselves in a very irregular degree--lovers
of pleasures, more than lovers of God.
Yet that the love of God should be the prevailing affection,
is not merely a circumstance, but an essential
85part of true religion. While the
good man sees Him who is invisible, (
And as the real Christian loves him that begat, he loves him
also that is begotten of him.
We may further recollect on this head, that the Apostle,
in a solemn manner, adjures Christians by the love of the Spirit; (
And most natural
is it, that a soul filled with these impressions and views should overflow
with unutterable joy, and feeling itself thus happy in an intercourse
with its God, should be enlarged in love to man: for, says the Apostle,
ye are taught of God to love one another.
And where the good man cannot love others with a love of complacency and esteem, he at least beholds them with a love of compassion and 88pity; and remembers the relation of fellow-creatures, where he sees no reason to hope that they are fellow-heirs with him. In a word, the heart is melted down into tenderness; it is warmed with generous sentiments; it longs for opportunities of diffusing good of all kinds, both temporal and spiritual, wide as its influence can reach; it beats with an ardor, which sometimes painfully recoils upon a man's self, for want of ability to help others in proportion to his desire to do it; and that God, who knows all the inmost workings of his mind, hears many an importunate intercession for others in the hour of solemn devotion, and many a compassionate ejaculation, which he is occasionally sending up to Heaven from time to time, as he passes through so sinful and so calamitous a world.
These are the ruling affections in the heart of a good man; and though it is neither reasonable nor possible, that he should entirely divest himself of self-love, yet he endeavors to regulate it so, that it may not interfere with the more important consideration of general good. Self has the lowest place in his regards, nor does he limit his affection to a party; but aiming at extensive usefulness, he guards against those immoderate attachments to particular friendships, and those extravagant sallies of personal fondness, which 89are often no more than self-love under a specious disguise; which at once alienate the heart from God, and contract the social affections within very narrow, and those very irregular bounds; and so prove almost as fatal to the health of the mind, as an excessive flow of blood into one part would be to that of the body.
I have enlarged so copiously on this change in the leading affections of the mind, that I must touch in a more transient manner on the rest. I add, therefore,
2. That a regenerate soul has new aversions.
He once hated knowledge,
and did not choose the fear of the Lord.
3. The regenerate man has also new desires.
There was a time, when sinful passions, as the Apostle expresses it,
did work in his members to bring forth fruit unto death.
But I waive the farther illustration of this, till I come to consider the new hopes which inspire him. I therefore add, as a necessary consequence of these new desires,
4. That the regenerate man has new fears.
Pain and sorrow, disappointment and affliction, he naturally feared; and the forebodings of his own mind would sometimes awaken the fears of future punishment, according to the righteous judgment of an offended God: but now he fears not merely punishment, but guilt; fears the remonstrance 92of an injured conscience; for he reverences conscience as God's vicegerent in his bosom. He therefore fears the most secret sins, as well as those which might occasion public disgrace; yea, he fears, lest by a precipitate and inconsiderate conduct he could contract guilt before he is aware. He fears, lest he should inadvertently injure and grieve others, even the weakest and the meanest. Hte fears using his liberty, in a manner that might ensnare his brethren, or might occasion any scandal to a Christian profession: for such is the sensibility of his heart in this respect, that he would be more deeply concerned for the dishonor brought to God, and the reproach which might be thrown on religion by any unsuitable conduct of his, than merely for that part of the shame that might immediately and directly fall upon himself. But again,
5. The regenerate man has new joys.
These arise chiefly from an intercourse with God through Jesus Christ; and from a review of himself, as under the sanctifying influences of his grace, and as brought into a state of favor with him, in proportion to the degree in which he can discern himself in this character and state.
You know David, speaking
of God, calls him his exceeding joy; (
Perhaps there was a time, when the good
man censured all pretences of this kind, now at least in these latter
days of Christianity, as an empty, enthusiastic pretence; but since
he has tasted that the Lord is gracious, (
The survey of the Lord Jesus Christ gives him also
unutterable joy; while he reflects on that ample provision, which God
has made by him, for the supply of all his necessities; and that firm
security which is given to his soul by a believing union with Christ;
whereby his life is connected with that of his Saviour. In his constant
presence, in his faithful care, he can boast all the day long; (
I
add, that he also rejoices in the consciousness of God's gracious work
upon his own soul, so far as he can discern the traces of it there.
He delights to feel himself, as it were, cured of the mortal disease
with which he once saw himself infected; to find himself in health and
vigor of mind, renewed to a conformity with the Divine Image. He delights
to look inward, and see that transformation of soul, which has made
the wilderness like the garden of the Lord, (
But this head has so near a resemblance to some that are to follow, that were I to enlarge upon it, as I easily might, I should leave room for nothing different to be said upon them. I will only add,
6. That as the counterpart of this, new sorrows will arise in the mind of a regenerate man.
These are particularly such as spring--from the withdrawings of God's presence--from the remains of sin in the soul--and from the prevalence of it in the world about him.
The
regenerate man will mourn, when the reviving manifestations of God's
presence are withdrawn from his soul. It seems very absurd to interpret
the numberless passages in the sacred writers, in which they complain
of the hidings of God's face from them, as if they merely referred to
the want of temporal enjoyments, or to the pressure of temporal calamities.
If the light of
96God's countenance, which they so expressly oppose
to temporal blessings, signify a spiritual enjoyment, the want of it
must relate to spiritual desertion. And I believe there are few Christians
in the world, who are entirely unacquainted with this. They have most
of them their seasons, when they walk in darkness, and see little or
no light: (
The sorrow of a good man also arises
"from the remains of sin in his soul." Though he is upright before God,
and proves it by keeping himself from his iniquity; (
And once more, "The prevalence of sin
in the world around him," is a grief to one that is born of God. It
pierces him to the heart to see men dishonoring God, and ruining themselves:
he beholds transgressors, as David well expresses it, with a mixture
of indignation and sorrow; (
Such are the affections of love and aversion, of desire and fear, of joy and sorrow, which fill the breast of the regenerate man, and naturally arise from those new apprehensions which are described under the former head. I add,
III. That he has also new RESOLUTIONS.
You will easily apprehend I speak of those that are formed for the service of God, and against sin. I readily acknowledge, that there are often, in unregenerate men, some resolutions of this kind, and perhaps those very warm, and for the present very sincere; yet there is considerable difference between them and those we are now to represent; as the resolutions of the truly good man are more universal, more immediate, and more humble.
1. The resolutions which he now forms, are more universal than they ever were before.
He does not now resolve against this or that
99sin, but against all; against sin, as sin;
as opposite to the holiness of God, and destructive of the honor and
happiness of the rational creation. He does not say with Naaman, concerning
this or that more convenient iniquity, the Lord pardon thy servant in
this thing; (
2. The resolutions of the regenerate man are more immediate.
It very frequently happens, that while others are under awakening
impressions, as they see a necessity for parting with their sins, and
engaging in what they may call a religious life, they resolve upon it:
but then they think it may be delayed a little longer; perhaps a few
years, or at least a few weeks or days; or they, perhaps, refer it to
some remarkable period which is approaching, which they flatter themselves
they shall make yet more remarkable, as the era of their reformation:
but, in the mean time, they will take their farewell of their lusts
by a few more indulgences:
100and thus they delude themselves, and rivet their
chains faster than before. But the good man, with David, makes haste,
and delays not to keep the commandments of God.
3. His resolutions are more modest and humble than they have ever been before.
And this indeed is the great circumstance that renders
them more effectual. When an awakened sinner feels himself most enslaved
to his vices, he pleases himself with this thought, that there is a
secret kind of spring in his mind, which, when he pleases to exert,
he can break through all at once,
101and commence, whenever the necessity comes
upon him, a very religious man in a moment. And when conscience presses
him with the memory of past guilt, and the representation of future danger, he cuts off these remonstrances with a hasty resolve, "I will
do so no more;" but then, perhaps, the effects of this may not last
a day; though possibly it may, at other times, continue a few weeks
or months, where the grosser acts of sin are concerned: and indeed his
resolutions seldom reach farther than these; for the necessity of a
sanctified heart is a mystery which he has never yet learned. But a
truly regenerate man has learned wisdom from this experience of his
own, and the observation of other men's frailty. He feels his own weakness,
and is so thoroughly aware of the treachery of his own heart, that he
is almost afraid to express in words the purpose which his very soul
is forming: he is almost afraid to turn that purpose into a vow before
God, lest the breach of that vow should increase his guilt: but this
he can say, with repenting Ephraim, Lord turn thou me, and I shall be
turned; (
IV. The regenerate man has new LABORS and EMPLOYMENTS.
Not that his former employment in secular life
is laid aside: it would ordinarily be a very dangerous snare for a man
to imagine that God requires this. On the contrary, the Apostle gives
it in charge to Christian converts, that in what calling soever a man
is found when he is called into the profession of the Gospel, he should
therein abide with God.
And I will further add, that regeneration introduces a set of new labors, added to the former, with which the man was before utterly unacquainted. We may consider, as the principal and chief of these, the great labor of purifying the heart, of conquering sinful inclinations, and affections, and of approaching God by a more intimate access and more endeared converse. Now they that imagine this to be an easy matter, know little of the human heart, little of the spirituality of God's nature, and his law.
Give me leave to say, that the labors of the body, in cultivating the earth, are much more 104easily performed than this spiritual husbandry. To weed a soil so luxuriant in evil productions, and to raise a plentiful harvest of holy affections and actions in a soil so barren of good; to regulate appetites and passions so exorbitant as those of the human heart naturally are, and to awaken in it suitable affections; to be abundant in the fruits of righteousness, and to converse with God in the exercise of devotion: these are no little things; nor will a little resolution, watchfulness, and activity suffice, in order to the discharge of such a business. It is comparatively easy to go through the forms of prayer and praise, whatever they are: to read, or from present conception to utter, a few words before God: but to unite the heart in God's service, to. wrestle with him for a blessing, to pour out the heart before him, to speak to him as searching the very heart; so that He should say, "This is prayer:" this, my brethren, is a work indeed; and he that is conscientious in the discharge of it will find, that it is not to be dispatched in a few hasty moments, nor without serious reflection, and a resolute watch maintained over the spirit.
New labors also arise to the regenerate soul, in consequence of the concern it has to promote religion in the world. Being possessed, as I formerly showed you the heart of the good man is, 105with an unfeigned love to his fellow-creatures, and knowing of how great importance religion is to the happiness of men, he pleads earnestly with God for the propagation and success of the Gospel: and he endeavors, according to his ability and opportunity, to promote it; to promote pure and undefiled religion in his family and his neighborhood, even in all around him. And this requires observation and application, that this attempt may be prudently conducted, and great resolution, in order to its being rendered effectual: it requires great diligence in watching over ourselves, lest our examples prove inconsistent with our precepts; and no small degree of courage, considering how averse the generality of mankind are to admonitions and reproofs; in consequence of which, a person can hardly act the part of a faithful friend, without exposing himself to the hazard of being accounted an enemy.
Such are the new labors of the real Christian. Let any man try to perform them, and he will not find them light; but to encourage the attempt, let me further add,
V. That the regenerate soul has its new ENTERTAINMENTS too.
He has pleasures, which a stranger intermeddles not with, (
1. The Christian finds new pleasures in the word of God.
You know with what relish the saints
of old spake of it. Thy words were found, says the Prophet, and I did
eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart.
2. He also finds new pleasures in the ordinances of Divine worship.
He is glad when it is said unto him, Let
us go into the house of the Lord.
3. He likewise finds a new entertainment in the conversation of Christian friends.
He now knows
what it is to have fellowship with those whose communion is with the
Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
VI. That in consequence of all this, the regenerate soul has new HOPES and PROSPECTS.
Men might be very much assisted in judging of their true
state, if they would seriously reflect what it is they hope and wish
for. What are those expectations and desires that most strongly impress
their minds? A vain mortal, untaught and unchanged by Divine grace,
is always dressing up to himself some empty phantom of earthly happiness,
which he looks after and pursues, and foolishly imagines, "Could I grasp
it, and keep it, I should be happy." But Divine grace teaches the
real Christian to give up these empty schemes. "God," he says, "never
intended this world for my happiness: he will make it tolerable to me; he will
give me so much
110of it as he sees consistent with my highest interest;
he will enable me to derive instruction, and it may be consolation,
out of its disappointments and distresses: but he reserves my inheritance
for the eternal world. I am begotten again to a lively hope, by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, even to the hope of an inheritance
incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away; (
And this indeed is the true character of a good man. Eternity fills
his thoughts; and growing sensible, in another manner than he ever was
before, of the importance of it, he pants after the enjoyment of eternal
happiness. Assign any limited duration to his enjoyment of God in the
regions of glory, and you would overwhelm him with disappointment: talk
of hundreds, of thousands, of millions of years, the disappointment
is almost equal: periods like these seem scarce distinguishable from
each other, when compared with an eternal hope. To eternity his desires
and expectations are raised; and he can be contented with nothing less
than eternity; perfect holiness, and perfect happiness for ever and
ever, without
111any mixture of sin, or any alloy of sorrow;
this he firmly expects, this he ardently breathes after; a felicity
which an immortal soul shall never outlive, and which an eternal God
shall never cease to communicate. This heavenly country he seeks; he
considers himself as a citizen of it, and endeavors to maintain his
conversation there; (
This is the change, the glorious change, which regeneration makes in a man's character and views; and who shall dare to speak, or to think contemptibly of it? Were we indeed to represent it as a kind of charm, depending on an external ceremony, which it was the peculiar prerogative of a certain order of men to perform, and yet on which eternal life was suspended; one might easily apprehend, that it would be brought into much suspicion. Or should we place it in any mechanical transports of animal nature, in any blind impulse, in any strong feelings, not to be described, or accounted for, or argued upon, but known by some inward inexplicable sensation to 112be divine; we could not wonder, if calm and prudent men were slow to admit the pretension to it, and were fearful it might end in the most dangerous enthusiasm, made impious by excessive appearances of piety. But when it is delineated by such fair and bright characters as those that have now been drawn; when these divine lineaments on the soul, by which it bears the image of its Maker's rectitude and sanctity, are considered as its necessary consequence, or rather as its very essence; one would imagine, that every rational creature, instead of caviling at it, should pay an immediate homage to it, and earnestly desire, and labor, and pray, to experience the change: especially as it is a change so desirable for itself--as we acknowledge health to be, though a man were not to be rewarded for doing well, nor punished, any farther than with the malady he contracts, for any negligence in this respect.
Where is there anything can be more ornamental to our natures, than to have all the powers of the mind thus changed by grace, and our pursuits directed to such objects as are worthy of the best attention and regard?--to have our apprehensions of divine and spiritual things enlarged, and to have right conceptions of the most important matters;—-to have the stream of our affections turned from empty vanities, to objects that are 113proper to excite and fix them;—to have our resolutions set against all sin, and a full purpose formed within us of an immediate reformation and return to God, with a dependence on his grace to help us both to will and to do;—-to have our labors steadfastly applied to conquer sin, and to promote religion in ourselves and others; to have our entertainments founded in a religious life, and flowing in upon us from the sweet intercourse we have with God in his word and ordinances, and the delightful conversation that we sometimes have with Christian friends;—and finally, to have our hopes drawn off from earthly things, and fixed upon eternity?
Where is there anything can be more
honorable to us, than thus to be renewed after the image of him that
created us, (
But I shall quickly show you, that regeneration is not only ornamental, honorable, and desirable, but absolutely necessary, as ever we would hope to share the blessings of God's heavenly kingdom, and to escape the horror of those that are finally and irrevocably excluded from it. This argument will employ several succeeding Discourses.
But I would dismiss you at present with an earnest request, that you would, in the mean time, renew your inquiries, as to the truth of regeneration in your own souls; which, after all that I have been saying, it will be very inexcusable for you to neglect, as probably you will hear few discourses, in the whole course of your lives, which centre more directly in this point, or are more industriously calculated to give you the safest and clearest assistance in it. May God abase the arrogance and presumption of every self-deceiving sinner; and awaken the confidence and joy of the feeblest soul, in whom this new creation is begun!
115Discourse IV. The Necessity of Regeneration, Argued from the Immutable Constitution of God.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
WHILE the ministers of Christ are discoursing
of such a subject, as I have before me in the course of these Lectures,
and particularly in this branch of them which I am now entering upon,
we may surely, with the utmost reason, address our hearers in those
words of Moses to Israel, in the conclusion of his dying discourse:
Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day,
which ye shall command your children to observe and do, even all the
words of this law; for it is not a vain thing for you, because it is
your life.
The occasion of his saying it deserves our notice; though the niceties of the context must be waived in such a series of sermons as this. He said it to a Jew of considerable rank, and, as it appears, one of the grand Sanhedrim, or chief council of the nation; who came not only for his own private satisfaction, but in the name of several of his brethren, to discourse with Christ concerning his doctrine, at the first passover' he attended at Jerusalem, after he had entered on his public ministry. Our Lord would, to be sure, be peculiarly careful what answer he returned to such an inquiry: and this is his answer, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God: as if he should have said, "If the princes of Israel inquire after my character, let them know that I came to be a preacher of regeneration; and that the blessings of that kingdom, which I am come to reveal and erect, are to be peculiar to renewed and sanctified souls; who may, by an easy and natural figure, be said to be born again." And the figure appears very intelligible, and very instructive to those that will seriously consider it; and might 117well lead us into a variety of pertinent and useful remarks.
You easily perceive, that to be born again must intimate a very great change; coming, as it were, into a new world, as an infant does; when after having lived awhile a kind of vegetative life in the darkness and confinement of the womb, it is born into open day; feels the vital air rushing in on its lungs, and light forcing itself upon the awakened eyes; hears sounds before unknown; opens its mouth to receive a yet untasted food, and every day becomes acquainted with new objects, and exerts new powers, till it grows up to the maturity of a perfect man. Such, and in some respects greater and nobler than this, is the change which regeneration makes in a heart, before unacquainted with religion: as you may have seen at large from the preceding discourses.
But I might further observe, that the phrase in the text may also express
the humbling nature of this change, as well as the greatness of it.
Erasmus gives this turn to the words; and it is so edifying, that I
should have mentioned it at least, though I had not thought it so just,
as it appears. To be born again, must signify to become as a little
child; (
I might observe once more, that these words intimate
the divine power, by which this great and humbling change is effected.
Our first formation and birth is the work of God, and no less really
so in the succeeding generations of men, than the first production of
Adam was, when God formed him of the dust of the earth, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life.
But I omit the farther prosecution of these remarks at present, because they coincide with what I have said in former discourses, or what will occur in those which are yet to come: and shall only further consider the words, as they are a confirmation of, and therefore a proper introduction to, what I am to lay before you under the third general head of these discourses; in which--as I have already shown who may be said to be in an unregenerate state, and how great that change is which regeneration makes in the soul--I shall now proceed,
Thirdly, to show the high importance, yea, the absolute NECESSITY of this change.
Our
Lord expresses it in a very lively and awakening manner, in these few
determinate words,
120which are here before us.: Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God. You see how emphatical the words are: he who is himself invariable
truth, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, (
That we may more fully understand, and enter into this weighty argument, I shall from these words,
I. Briefly consider, what it is to see the kingdom of God.
II. Show how absolutely impossible it is, that any unregenerate man should see it. And,
121III. How wretched a thing it is to be deprived of the sight and enjoyment of it.
And I am well persuaded, that if you diligently attend to these things, you will be inwardly and powerfully convinced, that no argument could be more proper to demonstrate the importance and necessity of regeneration, than this, which our Lord has suggested in these awful, emphatical, and comprehensive words.
I. I am to show you what it is to see the kingdom of God.
And for the explication of it, it will be necessary to consider--what we are to understand by this kingdom; and what is meant by seeing it.
I will show you now what we are to understand by the kingdom of God. And you will pardon me if I state the matter pretty largely; because the phrase is used in scripture in different senses; and the true interpretation of many passages in it depends on a proper distinction between them. You may observe then, for the explication of this phrase, that the kingdom of God in general signifies, 'the society of those, who profess themselves the servants and subjects of Christ;' and in consequence of this, that there are some passages, in which it peculiarly relates to the imperfect dispensation of this kingdom, and the beginning of it in the world; and others, in which it 122relates to the more perfect form, which this society is to bear in the world of glory.
1. The kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven—for they are synonymous phrases--does in the general signify the society of those, who profess themselves the servants and subjects of Christ.
You well know this was a phrase used among the Jews: and
therefore the original of it is to be traced from the Old Testament;
and I apprehend it to be this: Almost every Christian is aware, that
in the early days of the Jewish commonwealth, as Samuel with great propriety
expresses it, God was their king.
By degrees their peculiar
regard to the civil authority of God among them, as well as to his religious
authority, which was nearly connected
123with it, in a great measure wore out;
and their government went through a great many different forms, which
it would be unnecessary here particularly to describe. Nevertheless,
God was pleased to declare by king David, and by many others of his
holy prophets, that he would in due time interpose to erect another,
and a far more extensive kingdom in the world; not indeed upon the same
political principles with that which he exercised over the Jews; which
principles would by no means have suited this extensive design: but
it should be a kingdom in which the authority of the God of heaven should
be acknowledged, and his laws of universal righteousness observed with
greater care, and to nobler purposes, as well as by a vastly greater
number of subjects than ever before. This kingdom he determined to commit
to the government of the Messiah, who, with regard to this was called
the Lord's anointed, his king whom he set upon his holy hill of Zion;
(
This plainly appears from the whole tenor of the
Old and New Testament, to have been the grand plan of God, with respect
to the Messiah's kingdom: and you will easily see, that coming from
God as its great author, and referring to him as its end, it may, with
great propriety, be called the kingdom of God; and ultimately terminating
in the heavenly state, it may also properly be called the kingdom of
heaven. These were phrases, which prevailed in the Jewish nation, before
Christ, or his immediate forerunner appeared; and indeed they were used
by Daniel in a very remarkable manner, which probably made them so familiar
to the Jews, who had some peculiar reason for studying his writings,
even more than those of some other prophets. After that prophet had
foretold the rise and fall of several great empires of the world, he
adds, and in the days of these last kings, i. e. of the Romans, shall
the God of Heaven set up a kingdom which shall not be destroyed,—-but
shall stand forever.
In allusion to this, when our Lord
Jesus Christ appeared, he called himself the Son of Man; and he particularly
used this phrase, and it was exceedingly proper that he should, in this
conference with Nicodemus, again and again.
Agreeably to this meaning of the phrase,
and to this view with respect to the establishment of his kingdom, our
Lord opened his ministry with
126preaching, as John the Baptist had done, the kingdom
of heaven.
I shall only add, that
the phrase, by a near connection with this sense, sometimes signifies
the character of this society, or the privileges which it affords to
its members; as when our Lord says, Whosoever shall not receive the
kingdom of God as a little child, shall in no wise enter therein.
This then is the general sense of this phrase; it signifies the society of those who should submit themselves to the government of Christ, as appointed by God to rule over them; who are thereby to be considered as God's people and subjects. In consequence of this you will easily apprehend,
2. That it comprehends the more imperfect dispensation, under which the members of this society are, during their abode in the present world.
All that passes here is indeed but the opening of Christ's
kingdom: nevertheless, the phrase does sometimes more particularly refer
to this opening; and there are several passages, in which it would be
apparently absurd to suppose it comprehended the glories of the invisible
state, to which Christ intended finally to conduct his faithful servants.
Thus our Lord tells the Pharisees, The kingdom of God is come unto you,
(
3. It ultimately relates to the more perfect form and state of this society in the kingdom of glory.
You very well know,
that the design of God in his Gospel was not to establish a temporal
kingdom, as the Jews expected: nor merely to form a body of men, who
should live upon earth with some peculiar forms of worship, under very
excellent rules, and with distinguished privileges of a spiritual nature;
but that all these ultimately referred to the invisible world. Thither
the Son of Man was removed, when he had finished the scenes of his labor
and sufferings upon earth; and thither all the true and faithful members
of the kingdom were sooner or later to be brought, and there were to
have their final settlement and everlasting abode, in a far more splendid
and happy state, than the greatest monarch on earth has ever known:
they shall there, as the Apostle most properly expresses it, reign in
life by Jesus Christ.
Now as the kingdom of God upon earth
is to be considered with a leading view to this, so we sometimes find,
that this glorious state of its members, or which will come much to
the same thing, the society of the faithful in this glorious state,
is,
130by way of eminence, called the kingdom of God:
and with regard to this, they whose characters are such that they shall
be excluded from thence, are represented as having no part in the kingdom
of heaven, though they have been by profession members of the church
of Christ on earth. Of this you have a remarkable instance, where our
Lord says, Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father which
is in heaven: (
2. What we are to understand by seeing the kingdom of God.
Now, in general, you
will easily apprehend, that to see the kingdom is to enjoy the blessings
of it. There is no need of enumerating many passages of Scripture, where
to see properly signifies to enjoy. This is apparently the sense of
it, when Christ declares, Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall
see God: (
This
therefore is, upon the whole, the meaning of this passage: That no unregenerate
soul shall finally have any part in the glory and happiness which Christ
has prepared for his faithful subjects; nor can any that appear to be
such, according to the tenor and constitution of the gospel, be admitted
into the number even of professing Christians. It is true, indeed, a
man may appear under such a disguise, that those who are in this sense
the stewards of the mysteries of God, (
Having thus largely explained the meaning of this phrase, I now proceed,
II. To show you how CERTAIN this declaration of our Lord in the text is, or how absolutely impossible it is, that any unregenerate man should thus see the kingdom of God.
Now this I shall argue, partly from the immutable constitution of God, whose kingdom it is: and partly from the nature of its blessings, which are such, that no unregenerate man, while he continues in that state, can have any fitness or capacity to enjoy them.
The first of these considerations is copious and 134important enough, to furnish out abundant matter for the remainder of this discourse: and it will be difficult to dispatch it within these limits.
1. The impossibility there is, that any unregenerate man should enter into the kingdom of God, appears from the IMMUTABLE CONSTITUTION of that God, whose kingdom it is.
This might be sufficiently
argued, from the express and emphatical words of our Lord Jesus Christ
in the text. For he bore his Father's commission to preach the Gospel
of the kingdom, to publish the good news of its erection and success,
and likewise to declare its nature, and the method of admittance into
it. And he is himself the great Sovereign of that kingdom; and consequently
cannot but perfectly, and beyond all comparison with any other, know
the whole of its constitution. But God has repeated the declaration
by him, and by his other messengers to the children of men, in different
ages, and under different dispensations, in such a manner as suited
its infinite importance. And, therefore, for the further illustration
of the argument, I shall enumerate a great variety of scriptures that
speak the same language; not so much aiming therein at the speculative
proof of the point, as attempting to impress the conscience of my hearers
with a sense of its certainty; and humbly hoping that
135some of those sharp-pointed arrows, which
I am now drawing out of the quiver of God, may, by the direction of
his Spirit, enter the reins of some against whom they are leveled, (
That I may not be confounded in the multiplicity of my proofs, I shall range them under these three distinct heads. The prophets of the Old Testament were commissioned to make this declaration:—it was renewed by the preaching of Christ;—and was supported by the testimony of the Apostles under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
The prophets of the Old Testament were commissioned in effect to make this declaration, that no unregenerate sinner should enter the kingdom of God.
Well might our Lord say to Nicodemus, Art thou 136a teacher in Israel, and knowest not these things? For to this in effect all the prophets bear witness, and it might be learned from almost every page of their writings. It is true the particular phrase of being born again, or regenerated, does not occur there; nor is it expressly said, that an unregenerate man shall not be admitted into God's kingdom. But then the prophets everywhere assert, what is in effect the same, that no wicked man, who does not heartily repent of his sins, and turn from them to God, must expect the Divine favor. Now if you consider what we mean by an unregenerate man, according to the description I have given before, you will find it is just the same as an impenitent sinner; and if it be declared that such are not to expect the Divine favor, nay, that they must certainly prove the object of his displeasure, this must certainly. imply an exclusion from his kingdom, and must intend a great deal more than being deprived of everlasting happiness. And thus you see that all those scriptures, which speak of the irreconcilable hatred of God against sin, and against all impenitent sinners, come in to do service here, and are equivalent to the declaration in the text. And I may hereafter show you, that there are many scriptures in the Old Testament which lead men to consider that change, said to be so necessary, as 137what must be effected by a Divine operation on their souls. But as that will more properly come in under a following head, I shall at present content myself with selecting a few scriptures as a specimen of many hundred more, in proof of the main point before us: and I beseech you that you would endeavor to enter, not only into the sense, but into the spirit of them.
You well know that unregenerate
sinners are wicked men; and of such it is said, God is angry with the
wicked every day; (
None of the prophets speak in milder and more gentle language to returning
penitents than Isaiah; yet he declares, there is no peace, saith my
God, to the wicked.
The enumeration would be endless; and it would require more than the time of a whole discourse, only to read over, without any comment or remark one half of the passages which might 139properly be introduced on this occasion. I will therefore only mention two more, which, though some of you may hear with indifference, I confess I cannot read without a very sensible inward commotion.
The one is that passage in the Mosaic law, where God
directs his servant to say, "If there be among you a root that beareth
gall and wormwood, (i. e. any unregenerate soul,) who when he hears
the words of this curse, shall bless himself in his heart, saying, I
shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to
add drunkenness to thirst, (i. e. run into one debauchery and sin after
another:) the Lord will not spare him, but the anger of the Lord, and
his jealousy shall smoke against that man;—-and the Lord shall separate
him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the
curses of the covenant, that are written in the book of the law."
This therefore is a passage full of apparent terror:
the other is indeed a language of mercy; but it contains a most awful
insinuation, which appears, as good Archbishop Tillotson expresses it,
"like a razor set in oil, which wounds with so much the keener edge."
As I live, saith the Lord God, 1 have no pleasure in the death of the
wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn
ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? (
And how, sirs, will any of you that continue in an unregenerate state, arm yourselves against these terrors? Is it by saying, 'that these are the thunders of Mount Sinai; that these are denunciations of the Old Testament; whereas the New speaks in milder language?' You may easily know the contrary.
And to this purpose I am further to show you, that this declaration was renewed by the preaching of Christ.
It
is true, indeed, that grace and truth came by Jesus Christ: (
And that this
must produce a universal change in the life as well as the heart, and
a faithful subjection to the will of God--without which no profession
will stand a man in any stead--our Lord solemnly declares in the conclusion
of his incomparable discourse on the Mount: "Not every one that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he
that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven: many will say to me
in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in
thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew
142you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
And shall you, sirs, merely for having a name and place
in his house, escape; when those that have preached his Gospel, and
wrought miracles in confirmation of it, when those that personally conversed
with Christ, and those that ministered unto him shall perish, if destitute
of a holy temper of heart, and of its solid fruit in their lives? Has
not our Lord expressly said, that he will gather out of his kingdom
all things that offend, and them that do iniquity; and will cast them
into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth?
It only remains that I show you, that the same testimony was renewed by the Apostles, under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
You know that they were authorised by their Great Master to
declare, in an authentic manner, the constitution of his kingdom; and
that he who despises them, despises Christ.
The apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, does indeed speak of
God's justifying the ungodly; (
In
another epistle he mentions it as a first principle, in which it might
rationally be supposed, no Christian was uninstructed. Know ye not,
says he, that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?
Let us now hear his brethren, the other apostles
of the Lord. James urges sinners, if they ever desire to draw nigh to
God, and to have him draw nigh to them, to cleanse their hands, and
purify their hearts.
This then appears, from the whole tenor of the Scriptures, to be the positive and immutable constitution of the great God—that none who are unregenerate shall be admitted to enjoy the happiness of heaven.
And from the view that we have taken of the sacred writings it is manifest, that this, in every age, has been the language of the word of God; and under every dispensation we have sufficient evidence of this important truth. This is the doctrine of the Old Testament; and many are the passages that I have offered from the law of Moses, and from the Prophets, and the Psalms, that show it is impossible an unrenewed soul should enter into heaven. And the same also is asserted 148in the strongest terms in the New Testament; and when Christ came to set the Gospel of the kingdom in a clearer light, the purport of the declaration that he makes to Nicodemus in the text, was frequently repeated by him in the course of his preaching, and represented as the rule he would regard at the last day. And the inspired apostles speak the same thing with a united voice, and testify at large in their epistles, that it is absolutely necessary we should be born again, if ever we would hope to see the kingdom of God.
So that now, sirs, I may
say, Call, if there be any that will answer; and to which of the saints
will you turn, (
But it is much greater folly for a man, while he continues in an unregenerate state, to promise himself a part in the kingdom of heaven. For though there would be no reason in the world to expect a miraculous interposition, to save a life which a man was so resolutely bent to destroy; yet none can say, that such an interposition would contradict any of the express engagements of God's word; whereas to admit an unregenerate sinner into the regions of glory, would be violating, not this, or that single declaration, but the whole series and tenor of it; and we shall farther show, in the next Discourse, that it would also be, in effect, altering the very nature of the heavenly kingdom itself, as well as its constitution. Now what hope can be more desperate, than that which can have no support, but in the subversion of the Redeemer's kingdom, and even of the eternal throne of God, the foundations of which are righteousness and truth!
150Discourse V. Of the Incapacity of an Unregenerate Person for Relishing the Enjoyments of the Heavenly World.
—Except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God.
IN order to demonstrate the necessity of regeneration, of which I would fain convince not only your understandings, but your consciences, I am now proving to you, that without it, it is impossible to enter into the kingdom of God; and how weighty a consideration that is I am afterwards to represent.
That it is thus impossible, the words in the text do indeed sufficiently prove: but for the further illustration of the subject, I have proposed to consider it under two distinct views.
I have already shown it is impossible, because the constitution of the kingdom of heaven is such, that God has solemnly declared, and this under different dispensations, and more or less 151plainly in all ages of his church, that no unregenerate person, i. e. no impenitent sinner, shall have any part in it. And I am now further to show,
That the nature of the future happiness, which is here chiefly signified by the kingdom of God, is such, that an unregenerate person would be incapable of relishing it, even upon a supposition of his being admitted into it.
This is a thought of so great importance, and so seldom represented in its full strength, that I shall at present confine my discourse entirely to it.
I know, sinners, it will be one of the most difficult things in the world, to bring you to a serious persuasion of this truth. You think heaven is so lovely, and so glorious a place, that if you could possibly get an admittance there, you should certainly be happy. But I would now set myself, if possible, to convince you that this is a rash and ill-grounded persuasion; and that on the contrary, if you were now in the regions of glory, and in the society of those blessed inhabitants, that unrenewed nature and unsanctified heart of yours, would give you a disrelish for all the sublimest entertainments of that blissful place, and turn heaven itself into a kind of hell to you.
Now for the demonstration of this, it is only 152necessary for you seriously to consider what kind of happiness that of heaven is, as it is represented to us in the word of God; for from thence undoubtedly we are to take our notions of it.
You might to be sure sit down and imagine a happiness to yourselves, which would perfectly suit your degenerate taste; a happiness, which the more entirely you were enslaved to flesh and sense, the more exquisitely you would be able to enter into it. If God would assign you a region in that beautiful world, where you should dwell in fine houses magnificently furnished, and gaily adorned; where the most harmonious music should soothe your ear, and the most delicious food and generous wines in a rich variety should regale your taste: if he should give you a splendid retinue of people, to caress and attend you, offering you their humblest services, and acknowledging the most servile dependence upon your favor: especially if with all this he should furnish you with a set of companions just of your own temper and disposition, with whom you might spend what proportion of time you pleased, in gaming and jollity, in riot and debauchery, without any interruption from the reproof, or even the example of the children of God, or from indispositions of body, or remorse of conscience: this you would be ready to call life and happiness indeed: and 153if the great Disposer of all things were but to add perpetuity to such a situation, you would not envy persons of a more refined taste the heaven you lost, for such a Paradise as this.
Such indeed was the happiness which Mahomet promised to his followers:
flowery shades and gay dresses, luxurious fare and beautiful women,
are described with all the pomp of language in almost every page of
his Alcoran, as the glorious and charming rewards which were to be bestowed
on the faithful after the resurrection. And if this were the felicity
which the Gospel promised, extortioners and idolators, whoremongers
and drunkards, would be much fitter to inherit the kingdom of God, than
the most pious and mortified saints that ever appeared on earth. But
here, as almost everywhere else, the Bible and the Alcoran speak a very
different language; and far from leading us into such gross and sensual
expectations, our Lord Jesus Christ has told us that the children of
the resurrection neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are like
the angels of God in heaven, (
It is true that in the book of Revelations, stately palaces and shining habits, delicious fruit and harmonious music are all mentioned, as contributing 154to the happiness of those, who have the honor to inhabit the New Jerusalem. But then the style of that obscure and prophetical book naturally leads us to consider these merely as figurative phrases, which are made use of to express the happiness that Divine wisdom and love has prepared for the righteous, in a manner accommodated to the weakness of our conceptions; or at least, if in any of these respects provision be made for the entertainment of a glorified body, whatever its methods of sensation and perception will be, all will be temperate and regular; and after all, this is even there represented but as the least considerable part of our happiness, the height of which is made to consist in the most elevated strains of devotion, and in an entire and everlasting devotedness to the service of God and of the Lamb.
Let us therefore immediately proceed to settle the point in question, by a more particular survey of the several branches of the celestial felicity, as represented to us in the word of God; and from thence it will undeniably appear, that were an unregenerate soul in the same place with the blessed, and surrounded with the same external circumstances, the temper of the mind would not by any means allow him to participate of their happiness. For it is plain the Scripture represents 155the happiness of heaven as consisting,—-in the perfection of our minds in knowledge and holiness;—-in the sight and service of the ever blessed God,—-in beholding the glory of our exalted Redeemer;—-and enjoying the society of glorious angels and perfected saints,—-throughout an endless eternity. Now, sinners, it is impossible you should enter into any such delights as these, while you continue in an unregenerate state.
1. One very considerable part of the happiness of heaven consists in that perfection of knowledge and holiness to which the blessed shall be there exalted; but in which the unregenerate soul can have no pleasure.
Thus we are told, that the spirits of just men
shall there be made perfect; (
Now from this perfection and holiness, which shall then be wrought in the soul, there will naturally arise an unspeakable complacency and joy, something resembling that which the blessed God himself possesses, in the survey of the infinite and unspotted rectitude of his own most holy nature. And in proportion to the degree, in which the eyes of our understandings are enlightened to discern wherein true excellency consists, will the soul be delighted in the consciousness of such considerable degrees of it in itself.
But surely it will be superfluous for me to undertake to demonstrate, that an unregenerate soul can have no part in this divine pleasure, which implies the complete renewal of the mind as its very foundation. For to imagine that he might, would be supposing him regenerate and unregenerate at the same time. As Mr. Baxter very well expresses it, "The happiness of heaven is holiness; and to talk of being happy without it is as apparent nonsense, as to talk of being well without health, or being saved without salvation."
I would only add on this head, that the highest improvement of our intellectual faculties could not make us happy, without such a change in the 157affections and the will, as I have before described under the former general head. For the more clear and distinct the knowledge of true excellence and perfection is, the greater would be your anguish and horror, to see and feel yourselves entirely destitute of it; and it is exceedingly probable that spirits of the most elevated genius have the keenest sensation of that infamy and misery, which is inseparable from the prevalence of sinful dispositions in such minds as these.
2. Another very considerable branch of the celestial happiness, is that which arises, from the contemplation and enjoyment of the ever blessed God; but of this likewise an unregenerate sinner is incapable.
As our own reason assures us, that God is the greatest and
best of beings, and the most deserving object of our inquiries and regards, one
would think it would naturally lead us to imagine, that the perfection and
happiness of the human soul consists in the knowledge and enjoyment of him; and
that when it arrives at the seat of complete felicity, it must intimately know
him, and converse with him. And in this view, I have sometimes been surprised,
that men of such distinguished abilities, as some of the heathen poet, and
philosophers appear to have been, should have had no greater regard to the
Supreme Being
158in the description which they give us of the future
happiness. That sort of friendship for them, which an acquaintance with
their writings must give to a person of any relish for the beauties
of composition, makes one almost unwilling to expose the low and despicable
ideas, which they often give of the state of their greatest heroes in
the regions of immortality. But the word of God speaks a very different
language. Our Lord represents the rewards to be bestowed on the pure
in heart, by telling us that they shall see, i. e. contemplate and enjoy
God; (
But now,
sinners, it is utterly impossible that while you continue in an unregenerate
state, you should behold the face of God with pleasure. The unutterable
delight which the blessed inhabitants of heaven find in it, arises not
merely from the
159abstract ideas of his essential perfections,
but from a sense of his favor and love to them. It is this that gives
a relish to the whole survey, and rejoices the heart of all the saints,
both in heaven and on earth. He is a God of awful majesty and irresistible
power, of infinite wisdom and unspotted holiness, of unerring justice,
invariable fidelity, and inexhaustible goodness; and this God is our
God; he will be our guide and our portion forever.
Now it is certain, sinners, that while you continue in an unregenerate
state, under the influence of that carnal mind which is enmity against
God, (
How, sirs, could your hearts, possessed with these diabolical passions, bear to see the beams of his glory surrounding you on every side? How could you bear to hear the songs and adorations, that were continually addressed to his throne; and to observe the humble attendance of all the hosts of heaven about it, who perpetually reckon it their honor and happiness to be employed in obedience to his commands? Such a sight of the glory and felicity of your Divine Enemy would make you, so far as your limited nature was capable of it, miserable even in proportion to the degree in which he is happy. This was, no doubt, the torment of the devils as soon as they had harbored a thought of hostility against God; and the remembrance of that glory in which they once saw him, and which they know he still invariably possesses, is surely an everlasting vexation to them: and it would be so to you, if you were within the sight of it.
But further,
the blessed in heaven find their everlasting entertainment in the service
of God. They rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord
God Almighty; (
You may the more easily apprehend
and believe this when you consider what little relish you now have for
those solemnities of Divine worship, in which sincere Christians have
the most lively foretaste of heaven. You know, in your own consciences,
that short and interrupted as our public services are, they are the
burden of your lives. You know that you say, in your hearts at least,
163When will the Sabbath be past, and
the new moon be gone?
3. Another very considerable branch of the happiness of heaven, is that which arises from the sight of the glory of an exalted Redeemer; but for this likewise no unconverted sinner can have any relish.
This is a view of the future happiness, which our
Lord gives us, when he prays for his people in those memorable words,
engraven, as I hope, upon many of our hearts; Father, I will that they
whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold
my glory which thou hast given me.
The sight
of Christ will afford holy souls a transporting delight, because they
will regard it as the glory of their Redeemer and their Friend, and
as a pledge and security of their own glory. But what foundation can
you, sinners, find for such a joyful sympathy with Christ, and such
a comfortable conclusion with regard to yourselves? Such is the wretched
degeneracy of your nature, that though Christ be indeed the chiefest
among ten thousand, and altogether lovely, (
4. Another very considerable branch of the celestial happiness will be the society of angels and glorified saints; but for this likewise an unregenerate sinner must be unfit.
You know that when the apostle
speaks of our alliance to the heavenly world, he represents it as
166a social state; where excellent spirits dwell together,
and converse with each other with mutual esteem and endearment: ye are
come, says he, to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company
of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which
are written in heaven, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.
There is no reason to doubt, but that at your first entrance into the regions of glory you would be agreeably struck with the view of those inhabitants. As for those beauties of their character, which consist in love to God, and in zeal for his honor and interest, it is certain, that you would be insensible of them, and pay but little regard to them: but the humanity and benevolence of their temper would, no doubt, render them agreeable to you; and so much the more, as self-love might lead you to expect some personal 167advantage by it. And it is more than possible, that you would be much prejudiced in their favor by those resplendent and attractive forms in which they appear; forms, no doubt, far more beautiful and engaging than any which the children of men ever saw upon earth. On both these accounts it might be natural enough for you, at first, to address them with an air of respect, as persons that you could be glad to be upon good terms with, and in whose friendship you could desire a share.
But how do you think that any such proposal
of friendship would be received by an angel, or a glorified saint? No
doubt, if there were any prospect of converting you, or any hope you
might be brought to a devout and holy temper, they would immediately
become preachers of righteousness to you; and endeavor by the most rational,
the most pathetic, and the most insinuating address, to awaken and charm
you to a sense of religion, and so to form you to a capacity for happiness.
But they would know, that according to the eternal constitution of God,
there could be no room to entertain such a hope; but that being filthy,
you must be filthy still: (
And do you not easily
apprehend, that such a refusal on their part would be both shameful
and very provoking to you? For which way could you bear it, to be thus
rejected and dishonored by the most excellent part of the creation;
by those whom perhaps you once intimately knew, and with whom you conversed
upon equal terms; nay, by many who were once much your inferiors, and
whom, perhaps, in the pride of your hearts, you would not condescend
to regard? The natural effect of this must surely be, that you would
soon be proportionably displeased and enraged with the refusal, as you
were at first charmed at their appearance; and when you saw that transporting
pleasure which they took in the affection and friendship of each other,
and the joy which the Divine favor poured into their souls, while you,
in the very same place, were excluded from
169these rich entertainments, your hearts
would soon burn with envy and indignation; and as much as you before
admired them, you, upon this, would come to hate them. And, perhaps,
that hatred would put you upon some attempt to interrupt, or even, if
it were possible, to destroy that happiness which you were not allowed
to share. But, then, when you saw them continually under the Divine
protection, and compassed with his favor as with a shield, (
But if you should not be transported to this diabolical excess--if it were possible for you to behold the glorified saints, and to live among them, without these envious and tormenting passions; yet surely you would want a relish for the most entertaining part of their conversation. Had you indeed a good natural genius, which to be sure many unconverted sinners have, it might be very agreeable to hear them discoursing of the 170wonders of nature; and that curiosity, which is in some measure incident even to persons of the meanest capacities, would make it pleasant to hear them recount the important history relating to the revolutions of the angelic world, which we on this earth are entirely strangers to, or at least have been very little acquainted with them. But surely the most delightful topics of conversation, which heaven itself can furnish out, must be those which are religious and divine; the infinite perfections of the ever blessed God; the personal glories and incomparable love of his condescending, but exalted Son; and the sanctifying operations of the blessed Spirit on the soul, transforming it into the Divine Image, and making it meet for eternal glory. Yes, even when the blessed spirits above are handling philosophical or historical subjects, they still consider them with a regard to God, as his perfections are displayed and illustrated in the works of his hands, and in the conduct of his providence. And here their pleasure flows, not merely from a set of rational ideas, which arise in their own minds, or are suggested to them by others: but from the exercise of those devout affections upon the blessed God, which are correspondent to these several subjects of discourse.
And can you, sirs, who are alienated from the
171divine life, (
5. Another considerable branch of the happiness of heaven arises from the assured prospect of the everlasting continuance of this felicity; but, if an unregenerate soul could find any entertainment at all in heaven, he certainly could have no ground for such an expectation of its continuance.
When the
children of God on earth think of the happiness of heaven, the eternity
of it makes a very deep impression on their hearts, and even swallows
up their souls with ardent desire and unutterable joy: it raises their
esteem, and animates their hope, while they reflect on that exceeding
and eternal weight of glory, (
But suffer me a little to discourse upon another supposition; and let me now, for argument sake, waive what I have been so long insisting upon, and suppose, that you could so far command the turbulent passions of your own heart, and so unite, as it were, the whole powers of your soul, to attend to the beauty of place, the harmony of music, and whatever else may be supposed capable of regaling the senses or the imagination, as upon the whole, to find heaven a pleasing and delightful abode, and to wish, that though some of its entertainments were above your taste and capacity, yet you might be allowed an eternal enjoyment of the rest; could there be any room for you to expect a perpetual abode in these blissful seats? No, sinners, you would not be able so much as to hope it. The good itself is so great, 173and perpetual enjoyment, even in any degree, has such a kind of infinite value, that I know not how the purest and noblest spirits in heaven could absolutely have been secure of it, separate from the engagement of a Divine promise.
And what Divine promise would you be able to have recourse to in such a circumstance as we now suppose? Where could you find it in all the book of God, that persons of your character should ever enter into heaven at all, much less that you should forever continue there? You could have therefore no security of the continuance of your abode in heaven, if it were possible that you should enter on the possession of it: but when you should consider the unsullied holiness of the ever blessed God, the sovereign of this sacred province, and the spotless purity of that gracious Redeemer, to whom the government of it is committed, you could not but fear, that you should quickly be seized by the hand of vengeance, be hurled from the battlements of heaven, and plunged low into the pit of destruction. You know this was the condemnation of the rebel angels, and your guilt, compared with that dreadful event, which makes so considerable a scene of the history of heaven, would, I doubt not, be sufficient to create everlasting jealousy and uneasiness, and to turn every pleasurable circumstance into a 174source of horror, in the apprehensions of being deprived eternally of it.
Thus you see, sirs, from a particular survey of the various lights in which heaven is represented, and of the various branches of which its happiness consists, an unregenerate sinner is incapable of it, even though we would suppose that he was actually admitted to it. Let me entreat you to reflect on all these things, and you will see the reasonableness of that one remark with which I shall conclude this discourse, viz.:
How vain are all those hopes of heaven, which in your present condition you are ready to entertain!
I have been proving at large, that if God were to admit you to the possession of heaven, which it is certain he never will, you would be incapable of relishing the enjoyment of it: nay, that there would be a solid foundation in your own hearts, for many of the most tumultuous and disquieting passions. Envy and grief, fear and rage, those roots of bitterness, would spring up even in the Paradise of God, and turn the fertility of that blessed soil into their own nourishment. And do you imagine that any external accommodations or ornaments could make you easy and comfortable, under the transports of such hellish passions? What if you were to take a man that was tormented 175with a violent fit of the stone or gout, and to place him in a most delicious garden, or in a palace of marble and cedar, to set him on a throne of gold under a canopy of purple, to clothe him with robes of velvet and embroidery, regaling him with the most delicious fruits and generous wines, and at the same time soothing his ear with all the harmony of sound, which the most melodious symphony of instruments and voices could afford? Would all this magnificence and luxury make him insensible of that anguish which was racking his very vitals? or would not that inward torture rather render him insensible of this association of pleasurable impressions from without? Yea, would it not incline him to suspect, that you intended all these pompous preparations only to deride and insult him?' As little would your distempered and unholy souls be capable of relishing the entertainments of heaven, while these entertainments and these souls of yours, continue what they are at present.
There must be therefore
a change: and will you consider where that change must be made? If you
continue still in your present character and circumstances, there must
be a vast change in heaven itself, before you can be happy in it. The
whole temper, character, and disposition of every saint and angel there,
must be changed from what
176it now is, before they can be capable of any friendly
and complacential conversation with you. Yea, our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, (
What then do you imagine? Do you think that God will prepare some separate apartments in heaven, furnished with a variety of sensual pleasures, for the entertainment of persons of your character? some apartments from whence the tokens of his presence shall be withdrawn, from whence the exercise of his worship shall be banished, from whence saints and angels shall retire to make way for those inhabitants, who, like you, have sinned themselves beyond a capacity of enjoying God, or of being fit companions for any of his most excellent creatures? This were to suppose the Christian religion false, and to contradict the light of natural reason too, which not only shows such a disposition of things to be unworthy the Divine sanctity and majesty, but also shows that if there be a future state, it must be a state of misery to wicked men, in whose minds those vicious habits prevail, which are even now the beginnings of hell; which therefore they must carry along with them wherever they are, in proportion to the degree in which they are predominant.
Upon the whole then, you must evidently see that
it is absolutely necessary that you, sinners, should be changed, if
ever you expect to have any part or lot in the future happiness. And
when do you expect that change should be wrought?
178Do you expect it when death has done its dreadful
office upon you, and your soul arrives at the invisible world? Is the
air of it, if I may be allowed the expression, so refined that it will
immediately purify, and transform every polluted sinner that comes into
it? You cannot but know, that the whole tenor of scripture forbids that
presumptuous destructive hope. It assures us that there is no work,
nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave; (
If ever therefore you are regenerate at all, it must be while you are here below, in this state of education and trial: and if you continue in your sins till death surprise you, your souls will be forever sealed up under an irreversible sentence, and by the decree of God, and the constitution of things, will be excluded from happiness, as by no means either entitled to it, or prepared for it. So evident is the truth of this assertion in the text, that Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.
And will you then sit down contentedly under such conclusion as this, "I shall be excluded from this kingdom, as accursed and profane?" Alas, 179sirs, the conclusion is big with unutterable terror and death, as I should now proceed to show you at large if my time would allow: for I am next to represent the infinite importance of entering into that kingdom, and consequently of that entire change which has been proved to be necessary to that entrance. But I must reserve that to the next opportunity of this kind.
In the mean time let me add,
that I doubt not but there are many present, who have heard this description
of the heavenly world with delight, and who are saying in their hearts,
"This is my rest forever: here will I dwell, for I have desired it:
(
Discourse VI. Of the Importance of Entering Into the Kingdom of Heaven
--Except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God.
How impossible it is that an unregenerate sinner should see the kingdom of God, or enjoy that future blessedness to which the Gospel is intended to lead its professors, I have shown you at large. I have appealed to the testimony of God's holy prophets, and apostles, in concurrence with that of his incarnate Son, to prove that persons of such a character are, by the inviolable constitution of that kingdom, excluded from it. And I have further, in my last discourse, proved, that if they were actually admitted to it, they would be incapable of relishing its pleasures: that their vitiated palate would have a distaste to the choicest fruits of the Paradise of God; yea, that in these blessed regions thorns and briers would spring up 181in their paths, and make them wretched in the very seat of happiness.
I doubt not, but you are in your consciences generally convinced, that the truth of these things cannot be contested. You are inwardly persuaded that it is indeed so; and I fear many of you have also reason to apprehend, that you are of this unhappy number, who are hitherto strangers to regenerating grace. But how are your minds impressed with this apprehension? Do I wrong you, sirs, when I suspect that some of you are hardly impressed at all? Do I wrong you when I suspect there are those of you, who have spent the last week with very little reflection upon what you have heard? The cares and amusements of life have been pursued as before, and you have not taken one hour to enter into the thought with self-application, and seriously to consider, 'I am one of these concerning whom eternal wisdom and truth has pronounced, that if they continue such as at present they are, they shall not see the kingdom of heaven.' You have not paused at all upon the awful thought; you have not offered one lively petition to God, to beg that you may be recovered from this unhappy state, and brought to a meetness for his kingdom, and a title to it. For your sakes therefore, and for the sakes of others in your state, having already explained, 182illustrated, and confirmed the proposition in my text, I proceed,
III. To represent to you the IMPORTANCE of the argument suggested here; or to show you how much every unregenerate sinner ought to be alarmed to hear, that while he continues in his present state, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
And oh! that while I endeavor to illustrate
this, my words might enter into your minds, as goads, and might fix
there as nails fastened in a sure place! The substance of my argument
is given forth by the one great Shepherd; (
Now in order to illustrate the force of this argument, I beseech you seriously to consider,—-what this kingdom is, from which you are in danger of being forever excluded:—and what will be the condition of all those, who shall be finally cut off from any interest in it.
Consider first what that kingdom is, from which the unregenerate, or those who are not born again, shall be excluded.
And here you are not
to expect a complete representation of it: for that is an attempt in
which the tongues of angels, as well as men, might fail; or how proper
soever their language
183might be in itself, to us it would be
unintelligible: for eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that
love him.
Yet there are just and striking representations of this kingdom made in the word of God; and we are there often told in general, wherein it shall consist. You no doubt remember that I was, in the last of these Lectures, going over several important views of it. I then told you, it will consist in the perfection of our souls in knowledge and holiness; in the sight of God and our blessed 184Redeemer; in exercising the most delightful affections towards them, and in being forever employed in rendering them the most honorable services; in conversing with saints and glorious angels; and in the assured expectation of the eternal continuance of this blessedness in all its branches. That this is the scriptural representation of the matter, I proved to you from many express testimonies in the word of God; and I doubt not, but you have often heard the excellency of each of these views represented at large, in distinct discourses on each.
I will not therefore now repeat what has been said upon such occasions;
but will rather direct you to some general considerations, which may
convince you of the excellency of that state and world, from which,
if you continue unregenerate, you must forever be excluded: for I would
fain fix it upon your minds, that it is in this connection, and for
this purpose, that the representation is made. And oh! that you might
so review it, as no longer to neglect so great salvation, (
1. Consider, by what a variety of beautiful and magnificent images this happiness is represented in the word of God; and that may convince you of its excellency.
When the blessed God himself would raise our conceptions of a state of being, so much superior to anything we have ever seen or known, unless he intended a personal and miraculous revelation of it, he must borrow our language, and in painting the glory of heaven must take his colors from earth. And here the magnificence of a city, the sweetness of a garden, the solemn pomp of a temple, the lustre of a crown, and the dignity of a kingdom, strike powerfully on the human mind, and fill it with veneration and delight. But when such figures as these are borrowed from this lower world of ours, faintly to shadow out that which is above, there is always the addition of 186some important circumstance, to intimate how far the celestial original: exceeds the brightest earthly glory, by which the Divine condescension has vouchsafed to describe it.
The enumeration
of a variety of scriptural descriptions will set these remarks in the
strongest light. If therefore heaven be described as a city, it is the
New Jerusalem, the city of our God, that cometh down from God out of
heaven; (
But further, the value of these illustrious representations is much
enhanced, if we consider the character of the persons by whom they are
made. They were persons well acquainted with these things, having received
their information from a Divine revelation, and from the immediate visions
of God. They were also persons of such sublime and elevated sentiments,
that they had a sovereign contempt for all the enjoyments of time and
sense, even those which the generality of mankind set the greatest value
upon: and counted all things but loss for the knowledge of Christ, (
2. It is the state and world, which God has prepared for the display of his glory, and the entertainment of the most favored of his creatures.
This argument seems to be hinted at, when it is said, as in the place
I referred to before, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath
entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for
them that love him.
And here, to
assist our imagination in some degree, let us look round us, and take
a survey of this visible world. This earth, how conveniently has he
furnished it, how beautifully has he disposed it, how richly has he
adorned it! What various and abundant provision has he made for the
subsistence, the accommodation, and the entertainment of the creatures
that inhabit it and especially of man, in whom this scheme and system
of things appears to centre, and to whom it is almost wisely and graciously
referred! Yet earth is the habitation of a race of mean and degenerate
creatures, who are but in a state of trial; nay, it is the habitation
of thousands and ten thousands of God's incorrigible enemies, with whom
he is angry every day.
And when, with even these in our view, we further reflect, that there is another apartment, as yet invisible, of which this spangled firmament is but, as it were, the shining vail; an apartment, where the great Creator and Governor of all has fixed his stated residence, and erected the throne of his glory; even that throne which is forever surrounded by all the most holy and excellent of his creatures; we must be convinced, it is something more beautiful, and more magnificent than this harmonious system itself. And, methinks, when we have said more beautiful and more magnificent than this, imagination is ready to fail 192us, and to leave the mind dazzled and overwhelmed with an effulgency of lustre which it cannot delineate, and can scarce sustain. Yet will our venerable apprehensions of it be farther assisted if we consider,
3. That the kingdom of heaven is the great purchase of the blood of God's only begotten Son; and therefore to be sure it must be inconceivably valuable.
If you are at all acquainted with your
Bibles, you must know that we are by sin in a state of alienation from
God; (
Now let us seriously reflect, and consider what this
blood of the Lamb is. The apostle Peter tells us, that silver and gold,
and all the peculiar treasures of kings and princes, are but corruptible
things, (
4. The excellency of the heavenly kingdom will further appear, if we consider, that it is the main work of the Spirit of God upon men's hearts, to prepare them for an admittance into it.
You well know, that the blessed Spirit of
God
195is spoken of as that Divine Agent, by
whom all the hosts of heaven were created, and all God's various works
produced; (
That
the Spirit should condescend to engage at all in such a work, must give
us a very sublime idea of the end at which it aims. But much more will
that idea be raised, when we consider with what a variety, and what
a constancy of operations he begins, continues, and perfects it. He
attempts it, as we shall hereafter more particularly show you, sometimes
by convictions of terror, and sometimes by insinuations of love; and
by one method or another, in the hearts of all the heirs of this glory,
he works so great a change, that it is represented by turning a heart
of stone into a heart of flesh, (
And when, perhaps, the sincere convert makes the most ungrateful return for the experience of his goodness, even after he has acknowledged, and at length obeyed it: when under the fatal transport of some ungoverned passion, and the influence of some strong temptation, he acts as if he were intent upon tearing down the work of the Spirit of God upon his soul, and driving him forever away; yet in how many instances does he return again after all these injuries, pleading the cause of God with a sweetly prevailing eloquence, and thus healing the wound, and repairing the breach, and making it perhaps stronger than before I And all this, for what? That the happy 197subject of all these kind operations may be formed to a fitness for the kingdom of heaven.
And are we to regard this blessed Spirit as an unmeaning agent, or as incapable of judging of the importance of this end for which he acts? Is that almighty energy of his employed in an insignificant manner? Surely Nicodemus, slow of understanding as he was, must apprehend the importance of entering into the kingdom of heaven, when he heard, that in order to be admitted to it, a man must be born of the Spirit. And let me add once more,
5. That the excellency of the heavenly kingdom may further be argued from the eagerness with which the enemy of souls is endeavoring to prevent our entrance into it.
You know the devil is always represented as the
inveterate enemy of our happiness. His rage is expressed by that of
a roaring lion, that walks about, seeking whom he may devour: (
Or, if Divine Grace surmount all this opposition, and the sinner resolutely chooses his portion in heaven, and puts his soul into the hands of Christ to be conducted to it, the malice of Satan pursues him even to that sacred retreat, which he has sought in the arms of his Saviour: and if he cannot prevent the soul from entering into heaven, he will at least labor to bring it into such a state of negligence, and to seduce it into those delays and relapses, which may divert its regards to that blessed world, which may cloud its evidences of it, and may at least, as much as possible, diminish the degree of its glory there.
Now permit me, in this instance, to turn the artillery of this cunning enemy against himself, 199and to argue the excellency of this kingdom, from the zeal and attachment with which he endeavors to obstruct your attaining it. Though Satan be now a very degenerate creature, he was once an angel of light, and still retains much of the knowledge, though he has lost the rectitude and integrity of the angelic nature. And he particularly knows what heaven is because he was once an inhabitant there; and while he is endeavoring to persuade the sinner to prefer earth before it, he does, by that very endeavor, incontestably prove, that he himself knows the contrary, and is fully apprized that there is nothing here to be compared with the felicity of the future state. And therefore while he seeks the destruction of the soul, he can leave it in the enjoyment of all its worldly prosperity; nay, he will attempt to lead him into methods, by which this prosperity may be promoted and increased.
And thus, sirs, I have endeavored a little to represent to you, what this kingdom of heaven is from which we are assured that unconverted sinners shall forever be excluded. I have argued its excellency--from the representations which are made of it in the word of God--from its being the preparation of Divine love--from its being the purchase of a Redeemer's blood--and the end to which, on the one hand, the glorious 200operations of the blessed Spirit lead--and of which, on the other hand, all the stratagems and assaults of the prince of darkness are intended to deprive us. If, therefore, there be truth in scripture, if there be wisdom in heaven, or policy in hell, it must surely be infinitely important. And will any of you be such mean-spirited creatures, as, when that happiness is proposed to you, basely to relinquish the pursuit of it, and to sacrifice this blessed hope to any perishing trifle of mortal life? Surely it would be madness; though nothing more were to be apprehended than the loss of it; and though, when heaven were lost, all that earth can give should remain, if not to counterbalance the loss, yet at least to make you less sensible of it. But the weight of the argument will much more evidently appear, if you consider,
Secondly, What will at last become of all those who are excluded from this heavenly kingdom?
And here I beseech you to ask your own consciences, whether they be not inwardly persuaded, that those who are excluded from heaven, will remain in a state of existence, in which they will be ever sensible of their loss, and will be delivered over by Divine vengeance into that seat of torment, which God has prepared for the punishment of his implacable and incorrigible enemies. 201This many of you do undoubtedly believe of such persons in general; believe it, therefore, of yourselves, if you are, and continue, in an unregenerate state.
1. You will still continue in a state of existence, in which you will be ever sensible of your unspeakable loss.
It might afford some wretched kind of consolation to you, if, as soon as you died out of this world, your being or your apprehensive powers were immediately to cease. Then the loss of heaven would only be an affliction to you in your dying moments, when you saw the enjoyments of earth were come to an end, and that you must have no part in any future happiness. But, alas! sirs, you cannot but know that when your bodies are dead, and consumed in their graves, your thinking faculties will still be continued to you: and, oh, that you would seriously reflect, how they will then be employed! You will then be thinking what you have done in life, what you have chosen for your happiness, and what has been the consequence of that choice. You will look round in vain for such accommodations and pleasures as you were once most fond of: but they will be no more. And when you perceive them vanished, like the visionary amusements of a dream, you will lift up your astonished eyes 202towards the regions of glory. And you indeed will have a lively view of those happy regions: but to what purpose will that view serve? Only through the righteous vengeance of God to aggravate your misery and despair.
"Alas," you will think, "there are millions
of creatures yonder in heaven, who are rejoicing in the sight and favor
of God, and are as full of happiness as their natures can contain, and
shall be so forever; while I am cut off from all share in the Divine
bounty. Rivers of pleasures are flowing in upon them, while not one
drop is sent down to me; nor could I obtain it, though I were to ask
the favor from the least of Christ's servants there. I am cast out as
an accursed wretch, with whom God and his holy and blessed creatures
will have no farther intercourse, or communion. And why am I thus cast
out? and why am I thus cut off from God's favor, and driven from his
presence, while so many that dwell with me on earth are admitted to
it? My nature was originally as capable of happiness as theirs: and
though it was sadly degenerate, it might, like theirs, have been renewed.
God was once offering me that grace, by which my disordered soul might
have been transformed, and I might have been fitted for the regions
of glory: but I despised all these offers, and gave the
203preference to those fading vanities,
which, alas I have forever forsaken me. And now they that were ready
are gone in to the delightful banquet, and the door is shut; (
Such reflections, as these,
sirs, will cut deep into your souls; and accordingly our Lord declares
to impenitent sinners in his own days, There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth, when you see others sitting down in the kingdom of God, and
you yourselves thrust out.
It is to no purpose to object, that upon the principles of my last discourse, there will be no room to lament your exclusion from those entertainments, which you would be incapable of relishing if you were admitted to them: for you will then see, and lament that incapacity as a very great misery. As if a man, who was naturally fond of feasting and mirth, should see a great many regaling themselves, and reveling about him, while he was languishing under some painful distemper, which made him incapable of joining in the entertainment; he would yet grieve that he had no part in it: and it would be the increase, rather than the alleviation of his uneasiness, that it was his sickness which unfitted him for it; especially if, as in your case, it was a sickness, which he had brought upon himself by his own folly, and for which he had been offered an easy, pleasant, and infallible remedy, which he had refused to use till the malady was grown utterly incurable. One would imagine, this thought would be enough to impress you; but if it do not, let me entreat, and even charge you, to consider.
2. That if you are excluded from the kingdom 205of heaven, you will be consigned over to those regions of darkness, despair, and misery, which God has prepared for those unhappy criminals, who are the objects of his final displeasure, and whom he will render everlasting monuments of his wrath.
There is something in human nature, that starts back at the thought
of annihilation with strong reluctance: and yet how many thousands are
there in this miserable world, who would with all their souls fly to
it as a refuge! They shall seek death, as an inspired writer strongly
expresses it, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
It is painful to a tender mind to think of this, as what its fellow-creatures are obnoxious to: it is grievous to speak of it in these dreadful terms. But who are we, that we should be more merciful than God? Or rather, how can we imagine it is mercy, to avoid speaking of the appointment of infinite wisdom, for the punishment of impenitent sinners? What mercy were that, sirs, to avoid to mention these terrors to you, and to neglect to warn you of them, because they are great? which is indeed the very reason why the scripture thus pathetically describes them.
Away therefore with this foolish, this treacherous
207compassion, which chooses rather
to leave men to be consumed, than to disturb their slumbers. Think,
sirs, of that wretched man, whom Christ describes as lifting up his
eyes in hell, being in torments; seeing the regions of the blessed at
an unapproachable distance, and begging in vain that one drop of water
might be sent to cool his tongue, amidst all the raging thirst with
which he was tormented in this flame.
And let
me farther add, that conviction will quickly come in this terrible way,
if you are not now prevailed upon to consider these things; things which,
if you have the least regard to the word of God, you cannot but notionally
believe. Do not then go about to annihilate, as it were, these prospects
to your mind, by placing them at a long distance. The distance is not
so great as to deserve mention. The patience of God will not wait upon
you for thousands, or even hundreds of years; you have a few mortal
days, in which to consider of the matter; or rather, you have the present
moment to consider of it. And if you improve the opportunity, it is
well; but if not, the just and uniform methods of the divine administration
shall proceed, though it should be to your ruin. God has vindicated
the honors of his violated law, and despised Gospel, upon millions,
who with the rebel-angels, by whom they have been seduced, are even
now reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment
of the great day; (
And thus I close this copious and important argument: this argument, in which life and death, salvation and damnation are concerned. View it, my friends, in all its connection, and see in what part of it the chain can be broken. Will you say, that without regeneration you can secure an interest in the kingdom of heaven, though the constitution of heaven oppose it, and all the declarations of God's word stand directly against it; and though nature itself proclaim, and conscience testify your incapacity to enjoy it? Or will you say, that being excluded from it, you shall suffer no considerable damage, though you lose so glorious a state, the noblest preparation of Divine love, the purchase of redeeming blood, and the end of the Spirit's operation on the soul; though you ever remain sensible of your loss, and be consigned over to dwell in that flaming prison, which God has prepared for the devil and his angels, and where all the terrors of his righteous judgment are made known?
But if you are indeed inwardly convinced of the truth and importance of these things, and will go away, and act as before, without any regard to them, I can say no more The reason 210of man, and the word of God can point out no stronger arguments, than an infinite good on the one hand, and an infinite evil on the other.
Hear, therefore, O heavens! and give ear O earth! and
let angels and devils join their astonishment; that creatures, who would
strenuously contend, and warmly exert themselves, I will not say merely
for an earthly kingdom, but in an affair where only a few pounds, or
perhaps a few shillings or pence were concerned, are indifferent here,
where, by their own confession, a happy or miserable eternity is in
question. For indifferent, I fear, some of you are and will continue.
I have represented these things in the integrity of my heart, as in
the sight of God, not in artful forms of speech, but in the genuine
language, which the strong emotions of my own soul, in the views of
them, most naturally dictated. Yet I think it not at all improbable,
that some of you, and some perhaps who do not now imagine it, will,
as soon as you return home, divert your thoughts and discourses to other
objects; and may, perhaps, as heretofore, lie down upon your beds without
spending one quarter of an hour, or even one serious minute, in lamenting
your miserable state before God, and seeking that help and deliverance
which his grace alone can give. But if you thus lie down, make, if you
can, a covenant
211with death that it may not break
in upon your slumbers; and an agreement with hell, (
Discourse VII. Of the Necessity of Divine Influences to Produce Regeneration in the Soul.
Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
IF my business were to explain and
illustrate this scripture at large, it would yield an ample field for
accurate criticism and useful discourse, and more especially would lead
us into a variety of practical remarks, on which it would be pleasant
to dilate in our meditations. It evidently implies that those, who are
saved of the Lord, are brought to the practice of good works, without
which faith is dead, (
But I must necessarily, in pursuance of my general scheme, waive several of these remarks, that I may leave myself room to insist on the grand topic I intend from the words.
I have already shown you, who may be said to be in an unregenerate state: I have also described the change which regeneration makes in the soul; and have largely shown you, in the three last discourses, the absolute necessity and importance of it. And now I proceed,
To show the necessity of the Divine power, in order to produce this great and important change.
This is strongly implied in the words of the text: in which the apostle, speaking of the method God has been pleased to take for the display of his goodness in the salvation and happiness of fallen men, gives us this affecting view of it, that it is not by works of righteousness which we, i. e. any of us Christians, have done; but according to his free grace and mercy that he has 214saved us by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. . . . . .
Lest any should imagine, that an external
ceremony (baptism) was sufficient, or that it was the chief thing intended,
the apostle takes the matter higher. And as the apostle Peter tells
us, that the baptism which saves us is not merely the putting away the
filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God;
(
Agreeably therefore to the
general design and
215purport of these words, I shall go
on to demonstrate the absolute necessity of a Divine agency and operation
in this great work of our regeneration; which I shall do from a variety
of topics. And here I shall studiously waive many controversies, with
which the Christian world has been afflicted, and the soundest part
of it disturbed, with relation to the kind and manner of this influence.
I will not so much as mention them, and much less discuss them; lest
Satan should take an advantage of us, (
First, from the general and necessary dependence of the whole created world upon God.
There was a philosophical as well
as Divine truth, in that observation of the apostle Paul at Athens,
which was well worthy the most learned assembly; In him, i. e. in God,
we live, and move, and have our being.
And if their being be dependent, then surely it will follow, that all their perceptive and active powers, whatsoever they are, must continually depend upon God: for to exist with such powers 217is evidently more than simply to exist; and if a Divine agency be necessary for the latter, much more must we allow it to be necessary for the former.
The human mind, therefore,
with all its capacities and improvements, must acknowledge itself perpetually
indebted to God, who is the fountain of truth and wisdom, as well as
of being: accordingly we are told, it is he that teacheth man knowledge.
Secondly, to the greatness and excellency of this regenerating change, which speaks it aloud to be the Divine work.
I must, upon this occasion, desire you to recollect what I laid before you in several of the former discourses. Think of the new light that breaks in upon the understanding; of the new affections that are enkindled in the heart; of the new resolutions, by which the will is sweetly and powerfully, though most freely influenced; and think of the degree of vigor attending these resolutions, and introducing a series of new labors and pursuits; and surely you must confess, that it is the finger of God; especially when you consider, how beautiful and excellent, as well as how great the work is.
Do we acknowledge, that it was the voice of God that first commanded the light to shine out of darkness, and that it was worthy of a Divine agency to produce so Beautiful a creature as the sun, to gild the whole face of our world, and to dress the different objects around us in such a varied and vivid assemblage of colors? And shall we not allow it to be much more worthy of him, to lighten up a benighted soul, and reduce its chaos into harmony and order? Was it worthy 219of God to form the first principles even of the vegetative life, in the lowest plant or herb, and to visit with refreshing influences of the rain and sun the earth wherein these seeds are sown? And is it not much more worthy of him to implant the seed of the divine life, and to nourish it from time to time by the influence of his Spirit? Did it suit the Divine wisdom and mercy to provide for sustaining our mortal lives, for healing our wounds, and recovering us from our diseases? And shall it not much more suit him, to act as the great Physician of souls, in restoring them to ease, to health and vigor?
They must be dead indeed to all sense of spiritual excellence, who do not see how much more illustriously God appears, when considered as the author of grace, than merely as the author of nature. For indeed all the works of nature, and all the instances of Divine interposition to maintain its order and harmony, will chiefly appear valuable and important, when considered in subserviency to the gracious design of recovering apostate man from the ruin of his degenerate state--without which it had been far better for him never to have known being, and never to have inhabited a world so liberally furnished with a variety of good. And, therefore, I would appeal to every Christian, whether he does not find a much more ardent 220gratitude glowing in his heart when he considers God as the author of the religious and divine, than merely of the animal or the rational life?
And permit me here to remark, that, agreeably to these reasonings, some of the pagan philosophers have said very serious and remarkable things concerning the reality and the need of Divine influences on the mind, for the production of virtue and piety there. Thus, Seneca, when he is speaking of a resemblance to the Deity in character, ascribes it to the influence of God upon the mind: "Are you surprised," says he, "that man should approach to the gods? It is God that comes to men; nay, which is yet more, he enters into them; for no mind becomes virtuous but by his assistance."[1] Simplicius, also, was so sensible of the necessity of such an influence, that he "prays to God, as the father and guide of reason, so to co-operate with us, as to purge us from all carnal and brutish affections, that we may be enabled to act according to the dictates of reason, and to attain to the true knowledge of himself."[1] And Maximus Tyrius argues, agreeably to what is said above, that "if skill in the professions and sciences is insinuated into men's minds, by a Divine influence, we can much less imagine, that a thing so much more excellent, as virtue is, can 221be the work of any mortal art; for strange must be the notion that we have of God, to think that he is liberal and free in matters of less moment, and sparing in the greatest."[1] And in the same discourse he tells us, "that even the best disposed minds, as they are seated in the midst, between the highest virtue and extreme wickedness, need the assistance and the help of God, to incline and lead them to the better side."[1] I am sensible that all these philosophers, with many more who speak to the same purpose, living after Christ's time, may be said to have learned such language from Christians: and if they did so, I wish all who have since worn the name had been equally teachable. But some who appeared much earlier, speak much in the same manner,[1] as I might easily show 222you, if it were not already more than time to observe,
Thirdly. That we may further argue the Divine agency in this blessed work, from the violent opposition over which it prevails in its rise and progress.
The awakened soul, when laboring towards God, and aspiring
after further communications of his grace to form it for his service,
may justly say with David, Lord, how are they increased that trouble
me? How many are they that rise up against me?
I persuade myself,
that when I am speaking on this head, though some may imagine it to
be mere empty harangue, and common place declamation, the experienced
soul will attest the truth of what I say. It may be s6me of you, who,
by what of these sermons you have already heard, have come under some
serious convictions, and been awakened in go6d earnest to be thoughtful
about being born again, have felt such a struggle in your own minds
that you may say, you never knew before what the flesh, the world, and
the devil were, nor could have imagined that their opposition to this
work was so forcible and violent as you now find it. To reform the irregularities
of the life is comparatively easy; but to root sin out of the soul,
to consecrate the whole heart to God, and demolish those idols that
have been set up, as it were, in the secret chambers of imagery, (
Fourthly, By what feeble means this change is accomplished.
The apostle observes,
that in his day they had the treasure of the gospel lodged in earthen
vessels, that the excellency of the power, which rendered it successful,
might appear to be of God and not of man.
Now whenever
this work is accomplished by the preaching of the gospel in a Christian
country, there is generally some circumstance that shows it is a divine,
and not a human work. It is not the novelty of the doctrine which strikes;
for all the main truths, on which the conviction and impression turns,
have been known even from early infancy. No miracles awaken the attention,
no new doctrines astonish the mind; but what has a thousand times been
heard, and as often neglected, breaks in upon the mind with an almost
irresistible energy, and strikes it as if it never had been heard of
before. They seem as Israel did, when the Lord turned again their captivity,
to awake out of a dream, (
Fifthly, That the Scripture teaches us to ascribe this great change on the mind to a Divine agency and operation.
And here you will see, that it does not merely drop here and there an expression which is capable of such an interpretation, but that the whole tenor of the word of God leads to such a conclusion: and surely, if we own the word to be divine, we need no more convincing argument of the truth of this remark. The only difficulty I shall here find, will be like that which occurred under the former head, and proceeds from the variety and multiplicity of texts which offer them selves to me while reflecting on this subject; however, I will endeavor to rank them in the plainest and best order I can, under the following particulars. We find God sometimes promises to produce such a change in men's minds; and at other times he speaks of it as his own work, when it has been already produced: the scripture represents even the increase of piety in a regenerate heart, as the effect of a Divine 229power; and how much more must the first implanting of it be so: nay, it goes yet further than this, and expresses the necessity as well as the reality of a Divine influence on the mind to make it truly religious, and resolves the want of true religion into this, that God withholds his influence. If, therefore, any one, and much more if all these particulars can be made out, I think it must force a conviction on your judgment at least, that what we are endeavoring to confirm in this discourse is the doctrine of scripture.
1. There are various places in scripture, wherein God promises to produce such a change in men's minds as we have before described; which plainly shows that it is to be acknowledged as his work.
Thus Moses says to
Israel, without all doubt by the Divine direction, The Lord thy God
will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest
live.
On the
same principle, the Father promises to Christ, thy people shall be willing
in the day of thy power.
Now such a transformation of the heart and spirit as may be represented by a thorough renovation, or by changing stone into flesh, speaks the doctrine I am asserting in as plain terms as we could contrive or express; and beautifully points out at once the greatness and excellency of the change, and the Almighty power by which it is effected; for we may assure ourselves God would never promise such influences, if he did not really mean to impart them. But again,
2. Agreeably to the tenor of these promises, the scripture also ascribes this work to a Divine agency, when it is effected.
Thus the apostle
John, when he is speaking of those who, on receiving Christ, become
the sons of
232God, declares concerning them that they were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God: (
And as this great work of regeneration chiefly consists in being
brought to faith and repentance, you may observe, that each of these
are spoken of as a Divine production in the mind, or as the gift of
God to it. Thus the believing Jews, with one consent, expressed their
conviction when they heard the story of Cornelius and declare, then
has God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.
And in this view it is, that this change is called a new creation;
(
3. The increase of piety in a heart already regenerated, is spoken of as the work of God.
Thus David,
even when he felt himself disposed to the most vigorous prosecution
of religion, solemnly declares his dependence upon continued Divine
influences, to enable him to execute the holy purpose he was then most
affectionately forming: I will run the way of thy commandments, says
he, when thou shalt enlarge my heart, (
4. That the scripture often declares the necessity as well as the reality of such influences, and refers the ruin of man to this circumstance, that God in his righteous judgment had withheld or withdrawn them.
When
Moses would upbraid the obstinacy of the Israelites, that all the profusion
of wonders wrought for them in Egypt, and in the wilderness, had not
produced any suitable impressions; so much was he accustomed to think
of every thing good, in the moral, as well as in the natural world,
as the gift of God, that he uses this remarkable expression: Yet the
Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears
to hear, unto this day.
Those other words of our Lord must not be omitted
here, in which he says, No man can come unto me, except the Father which
hath sent me draw him: (
These, to be sure, are very emphatical scriptures: 238and though it is necessary to understand them in such a qualified sense as to make them consistent with other scriptures which charge men's destruction, not on any necessitating decree of God, but upon themselves and the abuse of their own faculties; yet still these expressions must stand for something; and in the most moderate sense that he can put upon them, they directly confirm what I have here brought them to prove. So that on the whole, the matter must come to this--That the cause of men's final and everlasting ruin may be referred in one view of it, to God's withholding those gracious influences, which if they had been imparted, would indeed have subdued the greatest perverseness; but his withholding these influences is not merely an arbitrary act, but the just punishment of men's wickedness; and of their obstinate folly in trifling with the means of his grace, and grieving his Spirit till he was provoked to withdraw. This thought, which I might largely prove to you to be a compendium of the scripture scheme, reconciles all; and any consequences drawn from one part of that scheme to the denial of the other, how plausible soever, must certainly be false.
I hope what I have here said may be sufficient to fix a conviction in your judgments and consciences, that regeneration is ultimately to be referred 239to a Divine influence upon the soul: or, as the apostle expresses it in the text, that God saves us of his mercy, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
I shall conclude with two or three reflections, which, though so exceeding obvious, I shall touch upon, in regard to their great importance, without offering, as I might, to dilate on each of them at large.
1. Let those who have experienced this divine change in their souls give God the glory of it.
Perhaps there are many of you who may see peculiar reason to do it; perhaps you may be conscious to yourselves, that the arm of the Lord was remarkably revealed in conquering, every sensible opposition, and getting itself the victory, even when you seemed, as if you had been resolutely bent upon your own destruction, to struggle to the utmost against the operation of his grace on your soul. Others may perhaps have perceived the strength of the Divine agency in the slightness of the occasion, or in the weakness of the means by which he wrought; which indeed is often matter of astonishment to those that seriously reflect upon it. But whatever your inclinations may have appeared, and whatever 240means or instruments were used, give God the glory of all.
If you have found yourselves, from your early years, inclined
to attend to divine things, and susceptible of tender impressions from
them, that attention and those impressions were to be resolved into
this; that God prevented you with the blessings of his goodness. If
you have enjoyed the most excellent public ordinances, even with all
the concurrent advantages that the most pressing exhortations, and.
the most edifying example of parents, ministers, and companions could
give; it was Divine Providence that furnished you with those advantages,
and Divine grace that added efficacy to them--else they had only served
to display their own weakness, even where they might have appeared most
powerful, and to illustrate that insensibility or obstinacy of heart
which would have rendered you proof against all. You do well indeed
to honor those whom God has blessed as the means of your spiritual edification:
but if they think aright, it would grieve them to the very heart to
have those applauses given, and those acknowledgments made to them,
which are due to God alone. All they have done is so little that it
deserves not the mention; and the greater attainments they have made
in religion, the more cordially will they join with the
241holy apostle in saying, Neither is
he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth
the increase.
2. We may further infer, that they who attempt the conversion of sinners, should do it with an humble dependence on the co-operation of Divine grace.
Otherwise they will probably find
themselves fatally disappointed; and after their most skillful or most
laborious attempts, they will complain that they have labored in vain,
and spent their strength for nought; (
Let me therefore especially recommend
this to those who are coming forth as young officers in the army of
Christ. See to it, my brethren, that in the name of your God you set
up your banners; (
3. That you do not abuse this doctrine of the necessity of Divine influences, which from the word of God, has been so abundantly confirmed.
God does indeed act upon us, in order to produce this happy
change: but he acts upon us in a
243manner suitable to our rational nature,
and not as if we were mere machines. He saves us, as the scripture expresses
it, by awaking us to save ourselves: (
Sirs, the dependence of the creature on God, though it be especially, yet it is not only, in spiritual affairs: it runs through all our interests and concerns. We as really depend upon his influence to stretch out our hands, as we do to raise our hearts towards him in prayer. Your fields could no more produce their fruit without his agency, than his word could, without it, become fruitful in your hearts: yet you plow and sow; and would look upon him as a madman, 244that upon this principle should decline it, urging, that no crop could be expected if God did not produce it; and that if he pleased to produce it, it would come up without any human labor. The argument is just the same in that case, as when men plead for the neglect of means or endeavors, from the reality and necessity of a divine concurrence. And if they apply this argument to the concerns of their souls, when they do not apply it to those of their bodies, it plainly shows, that they regard their bodies more than their souls; and that in pretending to make these excuses, they belie their conscience, and act against the secret conviction of their own heart. Such persons do not deserve to be disputed with, but rather should be solemnly admonished of the danger of such egregious trifling, where eternity is at stake.
And sure I am, that it is offering a great affront to the memory of
the blessed Paul, when men pretend to encourage themselves in this perverse
temper from anything he has said. For when he gives us, as it were,
the substance of all I have now been saying, in those comprehensive
words, It is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do, of his
good pleasure, (
Discourse VIII. Of the Various Methods of the Divine Operation in the Production of This Saving Grace.
246There are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
WHATEVER the original sense of these words was, and how peculiarly soever they may relate to the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit, the whole tenor of this discourse will show with how much propriety they may, at least, be accommodated to the operations of his grace. I have proved to you in the last of these lectures, that wherever regeneration is produced, it is ultimately to be ascribed to a Divine agency; and though I cannot say it is equally important, yet I apprehend it may be both agreeable and useful to proceed,
Fifthly, To survey the VARIETY OF METHODS which God is pleased to take in producing this happy change: or, to borrow the language of the text, to consider the diversity of operations, by 247which the same God, who worketh all in all, i. e. who produces all the virtues and graces of the Christian character, in some degree, in all his people, is pleased, according to his own wise and gracious purposes, to proceed in his agency, on those whom he regenerates and saves.
And this survey will not be matter of mere curiosity, but may probably revive the hearts of some amongst you by the recollection of your own experience: and it may be a caution to others, who, for want of due compass and extent of thought and knowledge, are ready to argue, as if God had but one way to work on the human heart, and that one the particular manner by which he recovered them. Of this I shall speak more largely hereafter. In the mean time, I judged it necessary to premise this hint, to direct us as to the temper with which this discourse should be heard, as well as to the purpose to which it is to be improved.
Now what I have to offer on this subject will be ranged under these three heads. There is a diversity and variety observable—in the time—the occasion--and the manner, of the Divine operations on the soul.
I. There is an observable variety, as to the TIME of God's gracious operations on different persons.
248Some are called in their infancy:--others, and these perhaps the greatest part, are wrought upon in youth:--and some very few in the advance, and even in the decline of life.
1. Some are wrought upon by Divine grace in their infancy.
This is often the case; and I doubt not, but if parents were to do their duty, it would much more frequently be so. And it is an honor which God is pleased, in some instances, remarkably to confer on a good education; which is indeed so important a duty on one side, and so great a privilege on the other, that it is the less to be wondered at, that he so mercifully encourages Christian parents in the discharge of it: thus granting, as it were, an immediate reward for this labor of love. And I must here take the freedom, on my own observation, to say, that God seems especially to own the faithful endeavors of pious mothers in this respect. He has wisely and graciously given that sex a peculiar tenderness of address, and an easy and insinuating manner, which is admirably adapted to this great end, for which, no doubt, he especially intended it, that of conveying knowledge to children, and making tender impressions on their minds: and there is hardly any view in which the importance of the sex more evidently appears.
249We have encouragement to believe, there are a considerable number who are, as it were, sanctified from the womb, and in whom the seeds of Divine grace are sown, before they grow up to a capacity of understanding the public preaching of the word: a remark, which Mr. Baxter carries so far as to say, that he believes, "if the duties of religious education were conscientiously discharged, preaching would not be God's ordinary method of converting souls: but the greater part would be wrought upon before they were capable of entering into the design of a sermon." And indeed it seems to me, that children may early come to have some apprehensions of what is most important in religion. They may have a reverence for God, and a love for him, as that great Father who made them, and that kind Friend who gives them everything that they have: they may have a fear of doing anything that would displease him; and though it is not so easy for them to understand the doctrines peculiar to a Redeemer, yet when they hear of Christ as the Son of God, who came down from heaven to teach men and children the way thither; who loved them, and did them good every day, and at last died to deliver them from death and hell; their little hearts may well be impressed with such thoughts as these, and they may find a growing desire to be instructed in 250what Christ is, and what he taught and did, and to do what shall appear to be his will. And wherever this is the prevailing disposition, it seems to me that the seeds of holiness are sown in that soul, though but small proficiency may be made in knowledge, and though the capacities for service be very low.
I will add, that some remarkably
pertinent and solid things, which little children have said concerning
religion, seem to me plainly to evidence, that they have been, in many
instances, under some uncommon teachings of the Divine Spirit: and it
seems perfectly suitable to the genius of Christianity, that in this
sense God should ordain strength out of the mouth of babes and sucklings,
(
2. Others, and these perhaps the greatest part of real Christians, are wrought upon in their youthful days.
Many parents are very deficient
in a due care to cultivate the infant minds of their little ones; or
the feeble and general impressions then made are, perhaps, worn out
and lost, in the growing vanities of childhood and youth. They begin
to be drawn away by evil inclinations and examples, and by the delusions
of a flattering world, which then puts on its most attractive charms,
to gain upon their inexperienced minds: and hereupon they follow after
vanity, and become vain: (
3. Some few are wrought upon by Divine grace in the advance, and even in the decline of life.
I confess that the number of these is comparatively
small: and it is not to be wondered at, that it is so. They are not
many who arrive at what can properly be called old age; and of them
but a very inconsiderable part are then brought to anything which looks
like a saving change. Nor shall we be much surprised at this, if we
consider
253the inveterate nature of bad habits,
which render it almost as hard for them that are accustomed to do evil,
to learn to do good, as it is for the Ethiopian to Change his skin,
or the leopard his spots.
Nevertheless, to prove the infinite energy and sovereignty
of Divine grace, God is sometimes pleased to work even on such. He touches
the rock which has stood for ages unmoved, and the waters flow forth:
he says to the dry bones, Live, and they obey; they are clothed with
beauty, they are animated with life, and stand up as with the vigor
of a renewed youth, to pursue the labors of religion, and to fight the
battles of the Lord.
But besides this variety in the time, there is also,
II. An observable diversity, in the OCCASION, which Divine grace takes to operate upon different persons.
The occasions are indeed so various, that it would be impossible to enumerate them; I shall however just touch on some of the chief.
And here I might particularly consider a religious education in this view, and that daily converse with pious friends, which is of course connected 255with it. But though perhaps there may be no occasion more considerable in itself, and none that has been more eminently honored of God; yet it is proper to waive it here, as having been mentioned under the former head.
I proceed therefore further to observe, that some are wrought upon by the word of God; others by some remarkable providences; some by little incidents, which, inconsiderable as they seem in themselves, grow memorable by the noble effects they are made to produce: and others by secret and immediate impressions of God upon their spirits, which cannot be resolved into any external cause, or any visible occasion at all.
1. The administration of Divine ordinances, and especially the word of God and prayer, is an occasion, which he most frequently takes to work upon men's hearts by his grace.
I do not mention the administration of the sacraments upon this occasion; because, though they have so noble and effectual a tendency to improve men's minds in piety, and to promote Christian edification; yet I do not remember to have heard of any instance, in which they have been the means of men's conversion; which is the less to be wondered at, as they were appointed for a very different end.
There are many, however,
that have been
256wrought upon in prayer, as there are many things
concur in this to awaken and impress the mind. The solemn acknowledgments
then made of the Divine perfections, the praises offered to his tremendous
Majesty, the deep and humble confession of our various and aggravated
guilt in his holy presence, the lamentations over it, the importunate
pleadings for a variety of blessings both for time and eternity; in
a word, all the overflowings of pious affections in the breast of him
that leads the devotion, and especially the earnest entreaties then
offered for unconverted sinners, the genuine expressions of an undissembled
apprehension of their danger, and the fervent breathings after Divine
grace, to be communicated to them for their spiritual life: all these
things, I say, and many more, which occur in prayer, when it is managed
aright, may, by the Divine blessing, be singularly useful. And I am
well assured, there have been happy instances, in which, while God's
people have yet been speaking to him on this head, he has graciously
heard, and signally answered them.
But the reading, and
especially the preaching of the word of God, is the grand occasion and
instrument in the conversion of souls. Of his own will he begets them
with' the word of truth: (
Evangelical subjects, when opened with perspicuity, and
enforced with vigor and tenderness, by those that have experienced the
transforming energy of them on their own hearts, and desire
258above all things, to be wise to win the souls of
others, (
Would to God, that the teachers of our Israel may consider the importance of it, and grow wise by such experiments as these! that they may act the part of prudent physicians, who prescribe the medicines they find in fact most useful, and not those concerning which the finest speculations may be framed. Till then, whatever their learning, politeness, and parade may be, it cannot be expected that our health should be generally recovered; but we are like to continue, what we have long been, a vicious people, amidst the 259finest encomiums of virtue, that are anywhere to be found: nor will there be much room to wonder, if some of its most eloquent advocates should appear, even in their own practice, insensible of those charms which they so gracefully recommend to others, and sink in their character below those heathen moralists, whom they may choose to imitate, rather than Christ and his apostles. Nevertheless, I am persuaded, that if God intend mercy for us as a people, he will support among us a succession of those who shall dispense his truths in such a manner, as he has generally chosen to honor with success. But though the greater part of sincere converts are won by these, I am to add,
2. That remarkable providences, whether merciful or afflictive, are occasions which God takes to work upon the hearts of many others.
When
ordinary means have long been attended in vain, God perhaps interposes,
by other more peculiar and signal methods, to pluck the trifling and
lethargic sinner as a firebrand out of the burning.
Sometimes
remarkable mercies and deliverances accomplish the work. An appearance
of God in their favor, when they are conscious to themselves that they
are the unworthiest of all his creatures, shall shame and melt them,
and powerfully prevail on their minds to turn unto the
260Lord, who daily loads them with his benefits; (
But we more frequently see, that
afflictions are the means of performing this happy work. By a gracious
severity God is pleased to lay hold on many, and to give them reason
to bless the hand, which, though by a rough motion, delivers them from
the flames that were kindling around them, and shows the Lord to be
merciful to them.
And there seems to be no affliction by
which God more frequently works upon men than by sickness. When he weakens
their capacity for the business of life, and spoils their relish for
its enjoyments; when he confines them to their chambers, or even to
their beds, and makes their chain straight and heavy; (
Yet it must be acknowledged, that, in other instances, the remorse which a man expresses upon a sick bed, and in the near views of eternity, proves but like that of some condemned malefactor, who, when he has obtained a pardon, throws off all those appearances of repentance with which he had once deceived himself, and perhaps deceived others too, and plunges himself anew into capital crime; it may be, into crimes for which he afterwards suffers death, without those compunctions of conscience which he before felt, being hardened by a return into sin, attended with such dreadful aggravations. This has been the case of many; and I pray God it may not be thus with any of you.
But if there
be any among you that were once under powerful awakenings; and that
have cried out of terrors on every side; (
But to return from a digression, into which compassion towards such a deplorable case has insensibly led me, I would farther observe, that as these various interpositions of a remarkable Providence are often the means of working saving impressions on men's minds, so,
3. God is sometimes pleased to overrule little and inconsiderable incidents in life, as the occasion of accomplishing this happy change.
As the
treasure of the Gospel was at first put into earthen vessels, that the
excellency of the power
264might appear to be of God, and not of man; (
4. Sometimes this great work is accomplished by secret and immediate impressions from God upon the mind, without any visible means, instruments, or occasions at all.
These things do not frequently happen; nor does it seem fit
they should, lest any should be encouraged to expect them in the neglect
of the appointed means. Nevertheless, it is plain, in fact, that God
is sometimes pleased to go out of the common way; and his mighty hand
is to be acknowledged in it. The reasons are known to himself; and the
praise is humbly to be ascribed to him who giveth not an account of
any of his matters.
It is not, to be sure, so common
now as it was in the days of Elihu, that God should speak to men in
a dream, or seal instruction to them in slumberings on their bed; (
I have known those that, in the circle of
their vain companions, and in the midst of their sensual delights, have
been struck to the very heart with some such scripture as this: to be
carnally minded is death: (
Yea, to add no more instances of this kind, I have known those of distinguished genius, polite manners, and great experience in human affairs, who, after having outgrown all the impressions of a religious education; after having been hardened, rather than subdued, by the most singular mercies, even various, repeated, and astonishing deliverances, which have appeared to themselves no less than miraculous; after having lived for years without God in the world, notoriously corrupt themselves, and laboring to the utmost to corrupt 267others; have been stopped on a sudden in the full career of their sin, and have felt such rays of the Divine presence, and of redeeming love, darting in upon their minds, almost like lightning from heaven, as have at once roused, overpowered, and transformed them; so that they have come out of their chambers with an irreconcilable enmity to those vices, to which, when they entered them, they were the tamest and most abandoned slaves; and have appeared, from that very hour, the votaries, the patrons, the champions of religion; and after a course of the most resolute attachment to it, in spite of all the reasonings, or the railleries, the importunities, or the reproaches of its enemies, they have continued to this day some of its brightest ornaments: a change which I behold with equal wonder and delight, and which, if a nation should join in deriding it, I would adore as the finger of God.[1]
In mentioning these things thus publicly, I do indeed
take an uncommon freedom, which some may perhaps censure; but so far
as human testimony can give an assurance of truth, I may justly say,
that I speak what I know, and testify what, in its genuine and powerful
effects, I have myself seen.
These remarks must for the present suffice, with regard to the various occasions by which God works upon men's minds.[1] And I hope you will excuse me, if in illustrating some of them, I have a little anticipated some things which might have been mentioned under the third head, in which I proposed,
III. To consider some varieties observable in the manner in which Divine grace operates on the mind.
And this variety, by the way, will be observable 269in many instances where the occasions are in general the same. Thus among those that are awakened by the word of God, or by his providence, some are shaken by strong terrors, some are melted into deep sorrows; others are astonished, as it were, and captivated at once, by the discovery of the love of God in Christ, and others are led on by such gentle and gradual impressions, that they can hardly recollect any remarkable circumstance at all relating to the manner in which this blessed work was begun, or conducted in their souls.
1. Some converts are awakened by strong terrors.
It is obvious,
that conviction of sin, in some degree or other, is absolutely necessary
to make way for the entrance of the gospel into the soul. But the degrees
are various in different persons; and as for those of whom we now speak,
God reproves them aloud and sets their sins in order before them, (
They come, as it were, to the
trembling and terrifying Mount Sinai, to blackness, and darkness, and
tempest.
They are filled with such
deep remorse for their past sins, that they verily think no iniquity
was ever like theirs, and that no punishment will be like theirs. They
hardly see a glimmering of hope that they shall obtain deliverance,
but expect, in a very little while, to be sealed up under wrath, if
they are not already so. When they bear the offers and the promises
of the Gospel, they can apply none of them to themselves, and
271find comfort in none: but every threatening
and every curse of the book of God seems to have been written as their
intended portion. And thus, perhaps, they continue for weeks or for
months together, expecting every day and every night that destruction
from God, which is now a terror to them. (
2. Others are melted into deep sorrows.
Their eyes run down with tears; and they are ready to wish that their
head were waters, and
272their eyes fountains, that they might continue
to weep day and night.
It may be, indeed, a considerable
time before they can persuade themselves there is any help for them
even in God. They know there is help in him through Christ for penitent
and believing sinners: but they cannot easily be convinced that they
believe, because they do not feel that confident trust which some others
have much sooner been brought to; and they are afraid, lest whatever
they experience, which looks like repentance, should be only the false
appearance of it, proceeding from mere self-love and a natural dread
of future misery. They dwell perpetually on the dark side of things:
they read over the catalogue of their iniquities again and again, and
attend to those passages in which the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against every kind
273and degree of sin; (
The state of such souls, when they are first savingly enlightened, is like that of the earth, when fogs and mists
have vailed the face of the sun after it is risen. But it very often
happens, with respect to such souls, that when these mists are at length
dispersed, a very bright and cheerful day opens: they are comforted
by the warmer beams of the Sun of Righteousness, according to the hours
in which they have been beclouded, and are made glad according to the
days in which they were afflicted: (
3. Some are captivated with astonishing and delightful views of the love of God in Christ.
There is always, as we observed before, in the awakened
soul, some conviction of sin and apprehension of danger; nevertheless,
there are instances in which God heals almost as soon as he
274wounds, and speaks peace almost as soon as he speaks
trouble. He graciously shortens, to some souls, the pangs of the new
birth, and gives them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning,
and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.
This was remarkably the case of
the jailer, who in the very night in which he was converted, that same
night in which the foundation of his house had been shaken, and his
own soul too shaken, by an earthquake, so that he had endeavored to
lay violent hands on himself: yet, I say, that very night, before the
day appeared, having been directed to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
that he might be saved, and been enabled, by Divine grace to comply
with the exhortation, it is added concerning him, that he rejoiced,
believing in God with all his house.
4. Others--and these perhaps the greatest part of such as are religiously educated--are led on by such gentle and insensible degrees, that they can hardly recollect any remarkable circumstances that have attended their conversion, nor can certainly fix on the particular time of it.
God is sometimes, in the preceding instances, in the whirlwind,
the earthquake, and the fire; but he is also frequently in the still
small voice.
These operations, where there is a religious education, often begin very early: but then, in some degree, the impressions wear off from the weak and flexible mind; and perhaps there are various instances in which they alternately revive and decay again. And this vicissitude of affectionate applications to religion under moving ordinances, afflictions, or deliverances, and of backslidings and remissness in it, with respect to many, may be permitted to continue for a long time. At length, under the various methods of Providence and Grace, the soul attains to greater steadiness, and a more habitual victory over the remains of indwelling sin: but it may be exceeding hard, and perhaps absolutely impossible, to determine concerning some remarkable scenes through which it has passed, whether such a one in particular, perhaps the last which strikes the memory, were the season of its new birth; or whether it were merely a recovery from such a 277degree of negligence and remissness, as may possibly be consistent with real religion, and be found in a regenerate soul.
These balancings of backsliding and recovery often occasion very great perplexity; and such sort of converts are frequently much discouraged, because they cannot give the history of their religious experiences in so clear and distinct a manner as others: and particularly, because they have not passed through such violent terrors and agitations of mind as many, who were perhaps once sunk into much deeper degeneracy have done. Nevertheless, where there is a consciousness of an undissembled love to God, an unreserved devotedness to his service, a cordial trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and a sincere affection to mankind in general, and especially to those of the household of faith, a man ought not to perplex himself on this account. For as every man knows he was born into the world, by a consciousness that he now lives and acts here, though it is impossible he should remember anything of the time or circumstances in which he was first introduced into it; so may a Christian be assured, that some way or another he was born of the Spirit, if he can trace its genuine fruits and efficacious influences in a renewed heart and life.
I have thus laid down several particulars. which 278appeared to me important, in order to illustrate that diversity which is observable in the methods of the Divine operations on the heart; and they will naturally lead us to these three reflections, with which I shall conclude my present Discourse. Let us not make our own experiences a standard for others,—nor the experiences of others a standard for ourselves;—nor let us be unwilling, in a prudent manner, to communicate our spiritual experiences to each other.
1. Let us not make our own experiences a standard for others.
Let us remember that there is, as we have heard, a diversity of operations; and that many a person may be a dear child of God, who was not born just with those circumstances which attended our own regeneration. Others may not so particularly have discerned the time, the occasion, the progress of the change; they may not have felt all that we have felt, either in the way of extraordinary terror or extraordinary comfort; and yet, perhaps, may equal, or even exceed us in that holy temper, to which it was the great intention of our Heavenly Father, by one method or another, to bring all his children. Nay, I will add, that Christians of a very amiable and honorable character may express themselves but in a dark, and something of an improper manner, 279concerning the doctrine of regeneration, and may, in conscience, scruple the use of some phrases relating to it, which we judge to be exceeding suitable; and yet, that very scruple which displeases us may proceed from a. reverence for God and truth, and from such a tenderness of heart as is the effect of his renewing grace. We should therefore be very cautious how we judge each other, and take upon us to reject those whom perhaps God has received.
I remember good Dr. Owen, whose candor was, in many respects, very remarkable, carries this so far, as somewhere to say, "that some may, perhaps, have experienced the saving influences of the Holy Spirit on their hearts, who do not in words acknowledge the necessity, or even the reality of those influences." Judging men's hearts, and judging their states, is a work for which we are so ill qualified, that we have reason to be exceeding thankful it is not assigned to us. And when we are entering into such an examination of their character, as our duty may in some particular circumstances seem to require, we should be very solicitous that we do not lay down arbitrary and precarious rules. It seems, indeed, that so far as we can learn it, we may more safely judge by their present temper and conduct, than by the history 280of anything which has formerly passed in their minds.
And let me add it as a necessary caution here, that they who
never felt any of the extraordinary emotions of mind, which have been
described under some former heads, but have been brought to religion
by less observable methods, perhaps by calm, rational views of it--of
whom I believe there are great numbers—should be very cautious that
they do not rashly censure such things as I have now been representing,
as if they were mere enthusiasm. I can not but think this a criminal
limiting the Holy One of Israel, (
2. Let us not make the experiences of others a standard for ourselves.
This is frequently the case, and especially with those who are naturally of an humble and tender temper; for whose peace and comfort therefore one can not but be peculiarly solicitous. Having heard of some extraordinary experiences of others, they are ready to imagine, because they can trace nothing correspondent to these in their own minds, that they are utter strangers to real regeneration, and have nothing more than such religious notions and forms, as natural men may easily learn of each other.
But what I have now been saying
of the variety of the Divine operations on the heart, affords a solid
answer to such scruples, when they arise in a pious mind. Reflect, on
this occasion, how it is in the works of nature: there we know that
God works in all, so that he is the life and existence of the whole
creation; and yet, as an excellent writer expresses it, "He alone seems not
to work.'' His agency is so invisible and secret, that did not reason and
scripture join to teach it, one might live a great many years in the world
without knowing anything more, than that such
282and such effects are produced by correspondent
second causes: though in strict propriety of speech they are no causes
at all, but owe all their efficacy to the Divine presence and operation.
Sense tells us that the sun enlightens the earth, and warms it; that
the rain waters it, the seeds produce vegetables, and the animals continue
their proper race; but that God is the Father of lights, (
Be not therefore surprised, and be not dejected, though
you cannot assign the place, the time, the manner, in which your conversion
began; and though you are strangers to the terrors, the sorrows, or
the transports of joy, which you have heard one and another express.
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and the Spirit dispenses his influences
where and when, and in what measure and degree he pleases; but while
the way and manner of his operation may be secret and unknown, the effects
of it are sensible and evident; and as with regard to the wind, thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and
whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
It is indeed desirable to be able to give an account
284of the beginning and the progress of the
work of God upon your souls, as some that are regenerate can do; but
this is not necessary to evidence the truth of grace. Happy is he who
in this case can say as the blind man in the gospel, One thing I know,
that whereas I was blind, now I see.
And therefore, on the whole, guarding against both these extremes, and to cure them both,
3. Let Christians, in a prudent and humble manner, be ready to communicate their religious experiences to each other.
God undoubtedly intended that the variety of his operations should be observed and owned in the world of grace, as well as in that of nature; and as these things pass in the secret recesses of men's hearts, how should they be known, unless they will themselves communicate and declare them? And let me caution you against that strange averseness to all freedoms of this kind, which, especially in persons of a reserved temper, is so ready to prevail.
Let not any
think it beneath them to do it. You well know that David, who was not
only a a man of an admirable genius, but a mighty prince, too, was far
from thinking it so; on the contrary, deeply impressed with the Divine
condescension in all the gracious visits he had received from him, he
calls, as it were, the whole pious world around him, that they might
be edified and comforted by the relation: Come, says he, and hear,
all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he has done for my soul.
There may indeed be an over-forwardness, which is the apparent effect of pride and self-conceit, and which, with thinking people, may bring even the sincerity of the speaker into question, or put his indiscretion beyond all possibility of being questioned. But it would be very unreasonable to argue, that because a thing may be done ill, it cannot possibly be done well.
Why may not intimate friends open their hearts to each other on such delightful topics? Why may not they, who have met with anything peculiar of this kind, communicate it to their minister? And though I must in conscience declare against making it absolutely and universally a term of communion, yet I am well assured that in some instances a prudent and serious communication of these things to a Christian society, when a person is to be admitted into fellowship with it, has often answered very valuable ends. 287By this means God has the honor of his own work: and others have the pleasure of sympathizing with the relator, both in his sorrows and his joys: they derive from hence some additional satisfaction as to his fitness for an approach to the Lord's table; they learn with pleasure the Divine blessing which attends the administration of ordinances among them: and make observations and remarks which may assist them in offering their addresses to God, and in giving proper advices to others who are in circumstances like those related. To all which we may add, that the ministers of Christ do, in particular, learn what may be a means of forming them to a more experimental manner of preaching, as well as in many instances discover those, before unknown, tokens of success which may strengthen their hands in the work of their great Master.
It is by frequent conversations of this kind, I have learned many of the particulars on which I have grounded the preceding discourse. I hope therefore you will excuse me, if, on so natural an occasion, I have borne my public testimony to what has been so edifying to me, both as a minister and a Christian. And the tender regard which I have for young persons training up for the work of the ministry, and my ardent desire that they may learn the language of Zion, and 288have those peculiar advantages which nothing but an acquaintance with causes, and an observation on facts can give, has been a further inducement to me to add this reflection, with which I conclude my discourse; humbly hoping that what you have heard upon this occasion will, by the Divine blessing, furnish out agreeable matter for such conversation as I have now recommended, to the glory of God, and to the advancement of religion among you. Amen.
289Discourse IX. Directions to Awakened Sinners.
And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do.
THESE are
the words of Saul, who also is called Paul, (
He was engaged in a course of such savage cruelty as can upon
no principle of common morality be vindicated, even though the Christians had
been as much mistaken, as he rashly and foolishly concluded they were. After
having
290dragged many of them into prison, and given his
voice against some that were put to death, he persecuted others
into
strange cities; and had now obtained a commission from the Sanhedrim
at Jerusalem to carry this holy, or rather this impious war into Damascus,
(
But behold, as he was in the way, Jesus interposes, clothed with a lustre
exceeding that of the sun at noon.
Any one would have
imagined, from the circumstances in which he now beheld Saul, that Divine
vengeance had already begun to seize him, and that full execution would
quickly have been done. But God's ways are not as our ways, nor are
his thoughts as our thoughts.
There is, methinks, a poignant kind of eloquence in this short expression, far beyond what any paraphrase upon it can give: and our compassionate Lord accepted this surrender. All his former rebellions were no more remembered against him; and before he rose from the ground, to which he fell on so terrible an occasion, Christ gave him an intimation, not only that his forfeited 292life should be spared, so that he should get safe into the city to which he was bound, but that he should there be instructed in the service which Jesus, whom he had persecuted, would now condescend to receive at his hands.
I represent the case thus largely, because
I hope it is a case, which, in some measure, suits the experience of
some that hear me this evening. Paul tells us, it was for this reason,
among others, that he himself obtained mercy, though he was the chief
of sinners, that in him, as the chief, Jesus Christ might show forth
all long-suffering, for a pattern to them who should afterwards believe.
Is there then, in this assembly, any awakened and
convinced sinner; any one that, apprized of his folly, and sensible
of his misery, is desirous to fall at the foot of Christ, and say with
Saul, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? That which I see not, teach
thou me; and wherein I have done iniquity, I will do so no more!
Sixthly, to give some directions to such as are awakened by Divine grace to a sense of their misery in an unregenerate state, and are brought to desire recovery from it.
To such I propose to give directions: and to what purpose would it be to undertake to offer them to any others? Who would pretend to teach those who are unconcerned about their salvation, what methods they are to take in order to their becoming truly regenerate? This, methinks, would be like giving directions how those might learn to write who do not desire it, and will not take a pen into their hands. All I could say to such, while they continue in this character, would vanish into empty air. It would not, probably, be so much as observed and remembered.
I speak therefore to awakened souls, and it is pleasant to
address such on this head. Ananias undoubtedly undertook his message to Saul
with cheerfulness, to tell him what Christ would have him to do: and I would
with pleasure and cheerfulness
294engage in the like work; humbly hoping,
that some will hear with observation and attention--will hear for themselves
and so hear for their good.
1. I would advise you to attend to the impressions made upon you with great seriousness.
They may perhaps
take you a little off the world and its concernments; and some will
blame you for suffering such an interruption: but regard not that censure.
The time will come, if you pursue these things aright, when renewed
diligence, prudence, and the Divine blessing, will amply make amends
for any present hindrance which these impressions may occasion. And
if it should be otherwise, is there not a cause? If a man seized with
a threatening distemper should choose, for a little while, to lay aside
his usual business, that he might attend to the care of his health,
before the symptoms grew incurable would any body blame him for this?
On the contrary, would it not be looked upon as acting a very wise,
prudent, and necessary part? Much more may be said here. It is not a
light thing for you, because it is your life.
I may apply to you, on this occasion, those
words of Solomon: Through desire a man having separated himself, seeketh
and intermeddleth with all wisdom.
2. Let me advise you to break off everything which is contrary to such impressions as these.
Sin will immediately appear to have been your disease and your ruin:
and therefore, if ever you hope for recovery, you must resolutely break
with that; not merely with this or that particular evil, but with every
sin; and that not only for a little while, but entirely and forever.
A mortal, irreconcilable war must be declared against it. Every fleshly
lust must be denied, every immoral practice, for which your heart may
at any time smite
297you, must be reformed; and if ever
you expect to reap mercy and life, you must, as the prophet expresses
it, break up your fallow ground, (
3. Seek further knowledge, especially from the word and ordinances of God.
The influences of Divine grace are not to be
considered as a blind impulse: but God's Spirit works on the spirit
of man, as one rational being on another. The apostle therefore put
the question with great reason, How shall they believe in him, of whom
they have not heard?
Come, therefore, to the house of God, and attend spiritual preaching. The question is not about forms, but things. Be not therefore over-scrupulous about what is merely circumstantial in religion, on the one hand or the other: but where you find more spiritual light and improvement, there choose generally to attend: not confining religion to any particular party, nor judging those who differ from you in their sentiment or practice; but calmly and humbly seeking your own edification, leaving others to seek theirs where they are persuaded, in the sight of God, they may most probably find it.
Above all, remember,
in this circumstance, to make the word of God the man of your counsel,
(
4. Pour out your soul before God in earniest prayer.
You cannot be unacquainted with the many promises
God has made in scripture for the encouragement of those who desire
to pray to him in the sincerity of their hearts. You know into how little
a compass Christ has crowded together three equivalent promises. Ask,
and it shall be given you: seek and ye shall find: knock, and it shall
be opened unto you; (
It will be no wonder at all, if in these circumstances Satan
should endeavor to terrify you. It is his common practice. So many souls
have vanquished him upon their knees, that he dreads and hates the posture:
but draw an argument from that very opposition to make you so much the
more eager and importunate; and when your
301heart is overwhelmed within you,
fly unto the rock that is higher than you.
I will add,
Be not discouraged, though help be not immediately imparted. Though
you may seem to be cast out of God's sight, yet look again towards his
holy temple: (
5. I would advise you farther, that you immediately communicate the state of your case to some experienced Christian.
I know there is a backwardness in persons of your
circumstances to do it; and it has been surprising
302to me to learn from some, who, in this
respect, have afterwards grown wiser, how long they have been pining
away. in their sorrows before they could be persuaded to consult their
ministers or Christian friends. It is a stratagem of Satan, against
which I would by all means caution you. And one would think your own
reason should suggest some very obvious advantages attending the method
I propose, of opening your case freely to those whom you think to be
more experienced in these things. The impression may be revived upon
your own souls, even by the account you give them: and their advice
may be exceeding useful to you to guard you against the wiles of the
enemy which they have known, though hitherto you have been strangers
to them; and to guide you into such methods as, by the Divine blessing,
may farther promote that good work which seems, in any measure, to have
been begun within you. You may also depend upon it that it will engage
their prayers for you; which, in this case, may have great prevalency.
And it will also naturally lead them to inspect your conduct: and if
they see you afterwards in danger of being drawn aside, they may remind
you of the hopes once entertained, and the impressions once made upon
your mind. In this respect you may hope, that by
303walking with wise men you will be
yet wiser; (
6. I would also advise that you endeavor to search out those, if there be any such about or near you, who are much in your own circumstances.
Observe, especially
among young people, whether there are any that seem of late to have
grown more serious than ordinary; and particularly more constant in
attending the ordinances of God, and more cautious in venturing on occasions
and temptations to sin; and if you can discover such, endeavor to form
an acquaintance with them. Try by proper hints how far their circumstances
resemble yours; and as you find encouragement, enter into a stricter
friendship with them, founded on religion, and intended to promote it
in each other's hearts. Associate yourselves in little bands for Christian
converse and prayer; and by this means you will quicken
304and strengthen the hearts of each other. For on
the one hand, what they tell you of their own experience will much confirm
you in a persuasion that what you find in yourselves is not a mere fancy,
but is really a Divine work begun on your hearts, and will give you
encouragement to pursue it as such; for as face answers to face, in
water, so does the heart of man to man.
7. It is an advice of the highest importance, that whoever you are, you should immediately fly to Christ, and repose the confidence of your souls upon him.
Observe that I urge you, WHOEVER YOU ARE, to
305fly immediately to Christ: and this
I do, to guard against a strange notion which some are ready to entertain,
as if we were to bring something of our own righteousness and obedience
to him, to render us worthy of being accepted by him. But this is a
grand mistake. The blessings of the gospel are not to be considered
as matter of bargain and sale: no, if we come to buy wine and milk,
it must be without money and without price; (
Let this
then be your language, "Lord, I have undone myself, and in me is no
help; I see nothing in myself which makes me worthy of thy regard; but
this I know, that where sin has abounded, grace does much more abound,
and reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ;
(
You will not, I hope, imagine that when I give such advice as this, I mean to insinuate that a person, purposing to continue in his sins, may nevertheless come and receive the blessings of the gospel: for that would be no other than in the grossest manner to pervert and contradict the whole tenor of it. But this I say, and repeat it, that when once a sinner finds himself, by Divine grace, disposed to turn from his sins to God, and made willing to accept the mercy tendered in the gospel, of which a deliverance from sin and a renovation of nature are a great, important, and essential part; he may with cheerfulness apply himself to the great Redeemer, as one of those whom he came on purpose to deliver; and in proportion to the degree in which he can discern the sincerity of his sentiments, he may open his heart to comfort, how great soever his former unworthiness has been, and how lately 307soever such impressions may have been made upon his heart.
8. Make the dedication of yourselves to Christ and his service as solemn a thing as you can.
We read in the Acts of
some that were baptized, and publicly received into the church the very
same day in which they were converted.
And surely, if you feel the love of the blessed Jesus glowing in your hearts as you ought, you 308will need no other engagement to yield yourselves to him: that love will be instead of ten thousand arguments; and you will see a secret charm in the view of serving him, which will engage your very soul to spring forward with vigor and eagerness to every proper instance of it. The dread of future punishment has certainly its use to restrain from the commission of sin, especially in an hour of pressing temptation; and the hope of that exceeding and eternal weight of glory, which the gospel promises, will have a still greater efficacy upon a generous mind: yet I will venture to say, that a heart powerfully impressed with the love of Jesus will have a stronger influence than either of these. Cordial friendship needs not to be hired to perform its proper office. Love is a law to itself: it adds a delightful relish to every attempt for the service of its object: and it is most evidently thus in the present case.
"Lord," will the Christian say, "wilt thou do
me the honor to accept any feeble attempt for thy service which I can
form? I thank thee for it, and bow my head before thee in the most grateful
acknowledgments, that thou favorest me with an ability to discharge,
in any degree, the fullness of my grateful heart in presenting them.
O that my whole soul might daily rise before thee as an acceptable sacrifice
in the flame of love! O that
309I might always feel my heart enlarged,
to run the way of thy commandments!
9. Gird up the loins of your mind to encounter a great deal of difficulty in your Christian course.
Many are the difficulties that you must expect;
great, and possibly for a while increasing difficulties. It is commonly
said, indeed, that those difficulties which attend the entrance on a
religious life are the greatest; and in themselves considered, no doubt
but they are so: they arise from many quarters, and unite all together
in the same design of keeping you from a believing application to Christ,
and a resolute closure with him. In this respect, evil sometimes arises
to a man in his own house; (
Nor must you, my friends, though as soon as you have put
on your harness you gain some important victory, boast as if you might
securely put it off.
10. Let every step in this attempt be taken with a deep sense of your own weakness, and on humble dependence upon Divine grace to be communicated to you as the matter requires.
Recollect seriously what I was telling
you in a former discourse, of the necessity of a Divine agency and interposition;
and remember, it depends upon God, not only to begin the good work,
but also to carry it on, and perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Go, therefore, my friends, into
the Divine presence; and while under a sense of this be not discouraged,
though mountains of opposition may lie in your way. Those mountains
shall be made low, and spread themselves into a plain before you; (
If
he be thus with you, my dear friends, you will be established and built
up in your most holy faith.
And now if these directions, which I have offered
to you with great plainness and freedom, but with the sincerest desire
of your edification and establishment in religion, be seriously pursued,
I shall have the satisfaction of thinking, that though I might find
you in the number of the unregenerate when I began these lectures, I
shall carry you on along with me in a new character through the only
head that yet remains to be handled. I shall indeed address myself to
you, as those who were sometimes darkness, but are now light in the
Lord, (
Discourse X. An Address to the Regenerate, Founded on the Preceding Discourses.
Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
I INTEND the words which I have now been reading, only as an introduction to that address to the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, with which I am now to conclude these lectures; and therefore shall not enter into any critical discussion, either of them, or of the context.
I
hope God has made the series of these discourses, in some measure, useful
to those for whose service they were immediately intended: but if they
have not been so to all, and if with relation to many I have labored
in vain from Sabbath to Sabbath, I cannot be surprised at it. What am
I better than my fathers?
When indeed we consider the infinite importance of the
message we address to you, O ye perishing sinners I we hardly know how
to give over, or to take a denial. We feel a strong impulse on our hearts
to give line upon line, and precept upon precept: (
The time will certainly come, when
you will see and own the importance of these things. The word of God
will, in one sense or another, take hold of every soul that hears it,
and, perhaps on some of you in a very terrible manner, and in a very
little time. But if it do, I may say with the apostle Paul, when in
token of the solemnity with which he spoke, he shook his raiment, and
took leave of his obstinate hearers, I am clean from your blood; (
Seventhly, To conclude these discourses with an address to those who, by Divine grace, are experimentally acquainted with this great work of regeneration; to show them how they ought to be affected with the consideration of the truths that have been offered, and what improvement 318they should make of such a course of sermons as you have lately been attending.
Out of a general regard to the glory of God and the good of souls, you have attended on what has hitherto been spoken to persons of a very different character; and I hope not altogether without some sensible refreshment and advantage; but now hear more immediately for yourselves, and suffer a word of exhortation in such particulars as these: Be thankful to God for what you have experienced; improve it as an engagement to behave in a suitable manner; study to promote the work of God upon the hearts of others; and long for that blessed world where the change that is now begun, and is gradually advancing in your souls, shall be universal and complete. Your own wisdom and piety have, no doubt, anticipated me in each of these particulars; but you will be glad to enter more fully into the reflection than you could do, while it was intermingling itself with other thoughts.
I. Return the most affectionate acknowledgments of praise to the God of all mercy for the experience you have had of a regenerating change.
I would now
address this exhortation and charge to every one of you, who, through
Divine grace, hope you can say, that you are born again;
319to all who can say, that God has, of
his own will, begotten you with the word of truth, that you may be a
kind of first fruits of his creatures. To you I would say, Sing unto the
Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his
holiness and goodness.
1. Consider, my Christian friends, how important this favor is which God has bestowed upon 320you, in thus begetting you as a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
Justly indeed may we say, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that
we should be regenerated by his
grace, and so be called, and that with propriety, the sons of God!
My brethren, it is a favor in which the salvation of your souls is concerned;
and can that be small? or ought it ever to be thought of but with the
highest emotion and enlargedness of heart? The gracious purposes of
God towards his children are to make every one of them higher than
the kings of the earth, (
And
is not this too, O thou afflicted soul, who art called to encounter
the most painful difficulties,
322enough to be the means of thy support, and to afford
thee matter for thy strong consolation? You that are tossed with tempests,
(
2. How few there are who partake of this important favor, which God has extended to you.
I hope I need not, after all I
have said, remind you at large, that I intend not by any means to speak,
as excluding those of different forms and different experiences; as
if, in consequence of that diversity, they had neither part nor lot
in this matter.
Now that you are not left among the wide
extended ruins of mankind, but are set as pillars in the building of
God, is what you have been taught by the preceding discourses to refer
to the grace of God, which has taken and polished you to the form you
now bear. Or, as the Evangelist expresses it, in language more suitable
to the subject before us, the power, or privilege, to become the sons
of God, is what he gives to as many as receive him; and it is manifest
as to your regeneration, that you are born, not of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God: (
And now, when these two thoughts are taken in this
comparison with each other, how deeply should they impress our minds!
And how should it excite us to the most lively gratitude, to consider
that when so many of our fellow-creatures perish, even under the sound
of the gospel; that when they live and die under the power of a
325corrupt and degenerate nature, despising
all the means which God has given them of becoming better, and turning
them into the occasion of greater mischief; God should graciously incline
our hearts to a wiser and better choice! It is indeed a melancholy
reflection, that the number of those who are made wise to salvation
should be so small; yet it is an endearing circumstance in the Divine
goodness to us, that when it is so small, we should be included in it:
as no doubt it would appear to every truly religious person in the ark,
that when but eight souls were saved from the deluge, he should be one.
There is now a remnant, says the Apostle, according to the election
of grace: (
3. Consider, in the midst of how much opposition the grace of God has laid hold on your souls, and wrought its wonders of love there.
Christians, look into your own hearts; yea, look back upon
your own lives, and see whether many of you have not reason to say, with the
326great Apostle, It is a faithful saying, and worthy
of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,
of whom I am chief: (
"Oh," may one Christian say, "how obstinately did I
strive against my own happiness! like a poor creature that, having received
some dangerous wound, and being delirious with a fever attending it,
struggles with the hand that is stretched out to heal him. How did I
draw back from the yoke of God! How did I trifle with convictions,
and put them off from one time to another! So that God might most righteously
have awakened any heart rather than mine. He admonished me by his word,
and by his providence; he sent afflictions; he wrought out deliverances
for me; and yet I went on to harden my heart, as if I had been afflicted
and delivered, that I might work greater abominations; (
And here another Christian will be ready to
say within himself, ''If the grace of God wrought sooner upon me, when
my soul was more pliant, when my heart was comparatively tender in
327infancy or childhood, or in early youth;
yet what ungrateful returns have I since made for his mercy I How defective
have I been in those fruits of holiness which might reasonably have
been expected from me, who have so long a time been planted in the house
of the Lord! Alas for me! that I have flourished no more in the courts
of my God.
In the mean time, Christians, I call you often to entertain yourselves with such views as these, often to excite your hearts by such lively considerations; I call you, in the name of your Father and your Saviour, to a whole life of gratitude and praise. And this leads me to add,
II. Improve those experiences you have had of Divine grace, as an engagement to behave in a suitable manner.
Remember
the lively admonition of the text,
329that you were begotten by him for this
very purpose, that you should be a kind of frst-fruits of his creatures.
See, therefore, that ye be entirely consecrated to him; and behave as
becomes the children of God, in the midst of a crooked and perverse
generation: being not only harmless and blameless among them, but shining
as lights in the world, and holding forth that word of life, (
God has now
brought you into a most honorable relation: he may therefore well expect
more, much more from you than from others. He has made you as his children,
kings and priests to himself, (
Christians, the dignity of our birth
and our hopes is too little considered and regarded; and the reason
why the world thinks so meanly of it, is because we ourselves are so
insensible of its excellency. Did we apprehend it more, we should surely
be more solicitous to walk worthy of that calling wherewith we are called,
(
III. Let those who have experienced the power of Divine grace themselves, study to promote the work of God upon the hearts of others.
Labor, as much as possible,
to spread this temper which God has wrought in your hearts; for you
cannot but know that with it you spread true happiness, which alone
is to be found in that intercourse with the great Author of our being,
for which this lays the foundation, and in the regular exercise of those
powers which are thus sanctified. No sooner was Paul converted himself,
but he presently set himself to bring others to Christ, and to preach
the faith which once he destroyed.
If,
therefore, God has called us to the office of the ministry, as the experience
of this change on our own hearts will be our best qualification for
our public work, and indeed such a qualification that nothing else can
supply the want of it; so it will surely excite us in a very powerful
manner to apply vigorously to this care. That which we have not only
heard, but seen with our eyes, and looked upon, and handled of the word
of life, let
332us declare to others; that their fellowship also
may be with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
And let me beseech you, my beloved hearers in other stations
of life, that you would not imagine the work is so entirely ours that
you have nothing to do with it. Are we alone redeemed by the blood of
the Son of God? Are we alone renewed and sanctified by his grace? Are
we alone the brethren and friends of mankind, that the generous care
and endeavor to promote their eternal happiness should be entirely devolved
upon us? We wish so well to the world, and permit us to say, we wish
so well to you, to your own religious consolation and establishment,
to your comfortable account, to your eternal reward, that we can not
but earnestly exhort you all, even as many as have tasted that the Lord
is gracious, (
Let me particularly address this exhortation to those of
you who bear any distinguished office in the society, to whom therefore
its religious interests are dear by additional ties Let me address those
of you whose age and experience, in the human and the divine life, give
you something of a natural authority in your application, and command
a distinguished regard. Look round
334about you and observe the state of religion in
your neighborhood; and labor to the utmost to propagate, not so much
this or that particular opinion or form of worship, but real vital Christianity
in the world. Bear your testimony to it on all proper occasions: be
not ashamed of it in your familiar discourse; and above all, labor to
adorn it by your actions. And when you see any under serious impressions,
as it is certain they will have a great deal discouraging and difficult
to break through; and as the devil and his instruments, among whom I
must necessarily reckon licentious company, will be doing their utmost
to draw them back into the snare of the fowler; let me exhort and charge
you to be as solicitous to save as others are to destroy. I know how
many excuses our cowardly, and indolent hearts are ready to find out
upon such an occasion: but I think those words of Solomon are a sufficient
answer to all, and I beg you would seriously revolve them; If thou forbear
to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready
to be slain: if thou sayest, Behold we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, thine,
Oh Christian, with such peculiar and gracious care, doth not he know
it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?
Let me especially leave this
exhortation with you who are parents and heads of families. And one
would imagine there should need but little importunity in such a case
as this: one would think your own hearts should speak to you, upon such
an occasion, in very pathetic language. Look upon your dear children,
to whom you have conveyed a nature which you know to be degenerate and
corrupt; and be earnest in your prayers before God, and your endeavors
with them, that it may be renewed. And take care that you do not in
this sense despise the soul of your manservant, or of your maid-servant.
Let me conclude this part of my address
with entreating you all to express your concern for the souls of others,
by your importunate prayers to God for them. Pray for the success of
gospel ordinances: and for a blessing on the labors of all God's faithful
servants throughout our whole land, of one or another denomination in
religion. Yea, pray that throughout the whole world, God would revive
his work in the midst of the years; (
IV. Let all that are born again, long for that blessed world, where the work of God shall be completed, and we shall appear with a dignity and glory becoming his children.
As for God, his work is perfect; (
But let it be remembered, Christians, as the matter
of your joy, that the struggle shall not be perpetual, that it shall
not indeed be long. Look up with pleasure then, and lift up your heads;
for your redemption draweth nigh.
O happy day! when dropping
this body in the grave, we shall ascend pure and joyful spirits to that
triumphant assembly, where there is not one vitiated affection, not
one foolish thought to be found among the thousands and ten thousands
of God's Israel! O blessed period of a regenerate state I Though all
the schemes of the Divine love were to rest here, and these bodies were
forever to be laid aside, and utterly to be lost in the grave; the rejoicing
soul might say, "Lord, it is enough!" And it might be indeed enough
for us; but it is not enough to answer the gracious purposes of God's
paternal love. God will show, in the most conspicuous manner, what a
family he has raised to himself among the children of men; and therefore
he will assemble them all in their complete persons, and will do it
with solemn pomp and magnificent parade. He will for this purpose send
his own Son, with all his holy angels, (
O, Christians, how reasonable is
it that our souls should be rising with a secret ardor towards this
blessed hope, this glorious abode!—It is pleasant for the children
of God to meet and converse with one another upon earth; so pleasant,
that I wonder they do not more frequently form themselves into little
societies, in which, under that character, they should join their discourses
and their prayers. It is delightful to address those that, we trust,
through grace are born of God. No discourses are more pleasant than
those that suit them: and could we, that are the ministers of Christ,
reasonably hope, that we had none but such to attend our labors, we
should joyfully confine our discourses to such subjects. Yet while we
are here, we see imperfections in others, we feel them yet more painfully
in ourselves:
341and as there is no pure, unmixed
society, no fellowship on earth that is completely holy and without
blemish, so there is now no pure delight, no perfect pleasure to be
met with here. Oh when shall I depart from this mixed society, and reach
that state where all is good, all glorious: where I shall see my heavenly
Father, and all my brethren in the Lord; and shall behold them all
forever acting up to their character! All giving thanks to the Father,
who has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light!
With the most earnest desire that you, my dear brethren and friends, may at length attain to this state of perfection and glory; and with a cheerful expectation, through Divine grace, that I shall ere long meet many of you in it, I close this sermon, and these discourses: not without an humble hope, that when we arrive at this blessed world, these hours, which we have spent together in the house of God, in attending them, will come into 342a pleasant remembrance; and that the God of all grace, to whose glory they are faithfully devoted, and to whose blessing they are humbly committed, will honor them as the means of increasing his family, as well as of feeding and quickening those who are already his regenerate children!--Amen.
343Postcript. Meaning of the Word Regeneration.
To what I have said in the conclusion of the first discourse concerning the proper import of the word Regeneration, I beg leave to add the following remarks for the farther satisfaction of some worthy persons, who think it may be convenient to state the matter a little more particularly.
I ACKNOWLEDGE that many learned and pious divines have taught and contended, that Regeneration does, in the strictest propriety of speech, signify Baptism--so that no unbaptized person, how well disposed soever, can properly be said to be regenerated; whereas that title may justly be given to all who have been baptized, how destitute soever they might have been of Christian faith and holiness when they received the ordinance, or how grossly soever they may since have forfeited the final blessings of a regenerate state. Dr. Waterland has stated this matter at large in his 344labored and ingenious treatise on the subject, which is the best I know on this side of the question. And though this would be a very improper place to enter on a critical examination of that piece, I will briefly touch on the chief arguments which he, or others in his sentiments, have urged in vindication of this favorite notion. So far as I can recollect, what they say is capable of being reduced to two heads;—that Christian antiquity uses the word in this sense;—and that there are passages of Scripture which authorize such an application of it.
As to the first of these, I readily own that the word has this sense in the generality of the Christian writers, from about the middle of the second century, though I think not so universally as some have concluded:[1] but I think it easy to account for such a use of it among them. For in the earliest ages of the church, persons were generally baptized as soon as they were converted to the cordial belief of Christianity; and therefore the 345time of their conversion, and that of their baptism, might naturally enough be spoken of as one: and as this was a period when they did, as it were, come into a new world, it is no wonder that the action by which they testified a change so lately made, should be put for that change itself. Just as illumination also among the ancients signifies baptism: not to intimate that the grand illumination of the mind was made by this rite, or at the time of it; for that would be supposing the person in darkness when he embraced the Gospel, and determined to be baptized: but because it was taken for granted, and that very justly in those days, that every one savingly enlightened would soon be baptized, that so he might be regularly joined to the society of enlightened or regenerated persons, that is, to the Christian church: which no doubt had the best right of any body of men in the world to that title, though in its purest state it contained some ignorant and wicked members.
In a word, a man by baptism solemnly professed himself a Christian; and as it was generally the first overt act by which his believing the Gospel could be publicly and generally known, and was also supposed to be very near the time of his inward conversion, they dated his regeneration, that is, his happy change (as that word used to signify 346even among the heathen[1]) from that time. We own therefore that these ancient Christians (of whom I always think and speak with great respect) had a very good excuse for this method of speaking: but whether they were perfectly accurate in this, and whether they did not recede from the scripture use of the word, may be matter of farther inquiry.
As to the arguments from Scripture in support of the interpretation I oppose, they are taken partly from particular places; but chiefly, as I apprehend, from the general tenor of it, in which Christians are spoken of as regenerated.
The particular texts are
As to the former of them,
Nothing
therefore can be more absurd than to infer from this text, that if there
be two persons, one of whom is born of the Spirit, and not of water;
another of water, and not of the Spirit; the latter, that is, the wicked
man, who has perhaps with some iniquitous design been baptized, may
properly be said to be regenerated, or born of GOD, and consequently
to be an heir of GOD, (
As to the text in Titus (
After all, then, if any argument can be deduced from scripture in favor of the manner of speaking now in debate, it must be from the general tenor of it; according to which it seems that all who are members of the visible church are spoken of as regenerate; from which it may be inferred, with some plausible probability at least, that baptism, by which they are admitted into that society, may be called Regeneration. And I am ready to believe, as I hinted above, that this was the chief reason why the ancients so often used the word in the sense I am now opposing.
Now with relation to this, I desire it may be recollected,
that when Christianity first appeared in the world, it was attended
with such discouragements, as made the very profession of it, in a great
measure, a test of men's characters. The Apostles therefore, knowing
the number of hypocrites to be comparatively very small, generally take
no notice of them, but address themselves to whole bodies of Christians,
as if they were truly what they professed to be. Just as our Lord Jesus
Christ, though he knew the wickedness of Judas, often addressed himself
to the whole body of his Apostles, as if they were all his faithful
servants, and makes gracious declarations and promises to
352the whole society, which could by no means be applicable
to this one corrupt and wretched member of it; telling them, for instance,
that they should share in his final triumph, and sit on twelve thrones,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
This is therefore
the true key to all those passages in which Christians are, in the general,
said to be adopted, sanctified, justified, &c., as well as regenerated.
The Apostles had reason, in the judgment of charity, to think thus of
by far the greatest part of them; and therefore they speak to them all,
as in such a happy state. And agreeably to this, we find not only such
privileges, but also such characters, ascribed to Christians in general,
as were only applicable to such of them as were Christians indeed. Thus
all the Corinthians are spoken of by the Apostle Paul, as waiting for
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, (
I state the matter thus particularly, because I think this obvious remark is a sufficient answer to what is most peculiar and important in a late Discourse, consisting of near 130 quarto pages, and entitled A Key to the Apostolic Writings, &c., prefixed by the Rev. Mr. Taylor, of Norwich, to his late Paraphrase and Notes on the 354Romans.[1] I think what I have briefly advanced here, will much more effectually answer the end of fixing the true sense of the scripture phrases in question. And I cannot forbear saying, that to determine the sense of the words called, redeemed, sanctified, &c., when applied to the Christian church, by that in which they are used in Moses and the prophets with respect to the whole people of Israel, seems to me as unreasonable, as it would be to maintain, that the dimensions, the strength, and the beauty of a body are to be most exactly estimated by looking on its shadow.
Yet on this evidently weak and mistaken principle, the learned and ingenious Author referred to above, ventures not only to attempt an entire alteration in the generally-received strain of theological Discourses, but to throw out a censure, which, considering its extent and its severity, must either be very terrible, or very pitiable. He not only seems to think, if I understand him right, that we were all regenerated (if at all) as well as justified, in those of our parents who were first converted from idolatry to Christianity, (Key, § 81, 82, and 246,) as indeed he expressly says, "that we are born in a justified," and therefore 355undoubtedly, (if the word is to be retained,) in a regenerate "state:" but he presumes to say, that such doctrines as have been almost universally taught and received among Christians, concerning "Justification, regeneration, redemption, &c., have quite taken away the very ground of the Christian life, the grace of God, and have left no object for the faith of a sinner to work upon." (§ 357.) And hereupon, lest it should be forgot, he repeats it in the same section, that to represent it as "the subject of doubtful inquiry, trial, and examination, whether we have an interest in Christ, whether we are in a state of pardon, whether we be adopted, (and by consequence, to be sure, whether we be regenerated,) "is" (as the Antinomians I imagine would also say,) "to make our justification, as it invests us in those blessings, to be of works, and not by faith alone;" and (as we just before said in the same words,) "to take away the very ground of the Christian life, the grace of God, and to leave no object for the faith of a sinner to act upon." And this way of stating things, which has so generally prevailed, is joined with the wickedness and contentions of professing Christians, as a third cause of that disregard to the Gospel which is so common in the present day.
Now as no book can fall more directly under 356this censure, than this of mine, in which, it is the business of the first three discourses to direct professing Christians into an inquiry, whether they be or be not in a regenerate state; I thought it not improper, in this postscript, briefly to acquaint my reader with the principles on which I continue to think the view, in which I have put the matter, to be rational and scriptural,[1] and do still in my conscience judge it far 357preferable to what the advocates of baptismal regeneration on the one hand, or Dr. Taylor on the other, would introduce.
It seems to me, that the points in dispute with him are much more important than our debates with them, as a much greater number of Scriptures are concerned, and the whole tenor of our ministerial addresses would be much more sensibly affected. Had I leisure to discuss the matter more largely with this gentleman, I should think it might be an important service to the Gospel of Christ. I hope it will be undertaken by some abler hand; and shall, in the mean time, go on preaching and writing in the manner so solemnly condemned, with no apprehension from the discharge of all this overloaded artillery, except it be what I feel for the zealous engineer himself, and a few other friends who may chance to stand nearer him than in prudence they ought.
P. D.
Northampton, June 13, 1745.
Indexes
Index of Scripture References
Genesis
1:3 2:7 19:16 20:16 49:4 49:18
Exodus
14:16 20:19 30:18 30:28 31:9 36:1 36:2
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
4:22 10:16 29:4 29:18-21 30:6 30:6 32:4 32:18 32:41 32:42 32:46 32:47 32:47
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
19:1 19:4 19:11 19:12 19:12 20:11
2 Kings
2 Chronicles
Job
5:1 5:27 6:3 6:4 6:4 8:13 9:33 13:5 15:21 18:11 22:22 23:12 27:3 31:13 31:23 33:4 33:13 33:15 33:16 33:19-24 34:32 42:6 43:5
Psalms
1:21 2:2 2:5 2:6 3:1 4:6 4:6 4:7 4:7 4:14 4:30 4:34 5:5 5:12 7:2 7:11 7:12 7:13 8:1 8:2 9:7 9:18 10:3 11:6 12:24 16:3 16:3 16:5 16:7 16:7 17:1 17:5 17:15 18:16 18:23 19:10 19:12 19:24 19:32 19:32 19:32 19:59 19:60 19:63 19:96 19:104 19:106 19:115 19:122 19:128 19:136 20:5 20:5 22:1 22:30 23:3 23:6 24:1-5 25:10 26:1 26:5 29:9 30:4 30:5 30:7 32:14 34:1 34:12 35:3 37:4 39:1-7 39:16 39:21 43:4 44:8 48:14 51:13 56:12 58:4 58:5 61:2 63:5 65:9 65:10 66:2 66:16 68:19 73:26 74:16 77:3 78:41 78:57 84:1 84:10 84:11 90:15 92:13 94:1 119:113 199:131
Proverbs
1:29 3:5 3:6 4:18 11:30 13:20 14:10 14:14 17:5 18:1 18:1 20:9 21:1 24:11 24:12 27:19 28:26
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
Isaiah
1 1:10 2:3 3:10 3:11 6:5 8:20 11:4 15:2 23:10 23:18 26:8 28:10 28:15 28:26 30:33 33:14 35:3 40:15 40:17 40:22 40:30 40:30 40:31 40:31 43:6 44:20 49:4 49:4 50:10 53:2 54:1 54:11 54:11 55:1 55:8 55:13 57:21 61:3 65:24 66:9 66:9
Jeremiah
2:13 3:19 4:3 4:4 4:4 5:22 6:29 6:29 6:30 7:10 9:1 9:18 13:23 15:16 17:10 31:18 31:18 31:20 31:33 33:32 33:39 33:40
Lamentations
Ezekiel
8:12 11:19 11:20 13:10-14 18:31 33:9 33:9 33:11 33:32 36:26 36:26 36:26 36:26 36:27 37:13 38:20
Daniel
Hosea
Amos
Jonah
Micah
Habakkuk
Zechariah
Malachi
Matthew
3:2 3:11 4:1 4:8 4:10 5:3 5:3 5:6 5:8 5:8 5:45 5:48 6:20 6:21 6:25 6:33 7:7 7:8 7:20 7:21 7:21 7:22 7:23 7:23 8:11 10:24 10:35 10:36 10:36 11:25 11:25 11:26 11:26 12:28 13:20 13:21 13:25 13:41 13:41 13:42 13:43 13:48 14:12 15:27 16:19 16:24 18:3 19:28 19:28 21:43 22:30 22:37 22:38 25:10 25:31 25:41 28:18
Mark
Luke
1:46 1:47 9:62 9:62 10:16 10:42 11:21 11:22 13:3 13:28 13:29 14:28 14:30 15:18 15:20 16:23 16:24 16:24 17:20 17:21 18:16 18:17 18:17 21:28
John
1:6 1:12 1:13 1:13 1:14 1:16 1:17 3:3 3:3 3:3 3:3 3:3 3:5 3:5 3:5 3:5 3:8 3:11 3:13 3:14 3:20 6:37 7:17 7:39 8:44 9:6 9:25 10:30 12:26 12:32 12:39 12:40 14:28 15:16 15:16 16:8 16:22 17:24
Acts
2:37 2:40 2:41 2:47 8:21 8:21 8:21 8:23 9:2 9:4 9:6 11:18 11:21 13:9 13:46 16:14 16:26-30 16:34 16:41 17:28 18:6 20:28 20:35 26:2 26:10-12 26:13 26:27
Romans
1:18 1:18 2:5 2:6 2:8 2:8 2:9 4:5 5:5 5:11 5:17 5:20 5:21 6:12 6:13 6:13 6:23 7:5 7:5 7:14 7:22 7:23 7:24 7:24 8:2 8:6 8:6 8:6 8:7 8:7 8:7 8:9 8:17 8:19 8:21 8:23 9:15 9:18 10:14 10:21 11:5 12:2 12:2 12:2 13:14 15:7 15:7 15:30
1 Corinthians
1:7 1:18 1:24 1:30 2:9 2:9 2:11 2:11 3:6 3:6 3:7 3:7 3:7 3:16 3:18 3:18 3:19 3:31 4:1 4:3 6:9 6:11 6:17 6:19 7:19 7:20 7:24 7:25 9:25 12:6 13:9 13:10 14:20 15:10 15:10 15:10 15:10 15:10 15:58 15:58
2 Corinthians
1:12 3:8 4:6 4:6 4:6 4:7 4:9 4:17 4:18 4:18 4:18 5:1 5:5 5:8 5:8 5:10 5:13 5:14 5:14 5:14 5:15 5:16 5:17 5:17 5:17 5:17 6:14 7:1 8:9 9:8 10:4 12:2 12:2 12:4 12:9 13:5 15:50
Galatians
1:13 3:24 3:26 4:6 4:6 4:27 5:6 5:17 5:24 6:14 6:15 6:15
Ephesians
1:5 1:6 1:7 1:11 1:15 1:19 1:19 1:20 2:1 2:1 2:1 2:2 2:3 2:5 2:5 2:6 2:6 2:8 2:10 2:10 2:10 2:12 2:12 2:13 2:19 3:8 4:1 4:15 4:18 4:18 4:18 4:18 4:22-24 4:24 5:8 5:8 5:26 6:11 6:13 6:24 9:30
Philippians
1:6 1:6 1:6 1:28 1:29 2:13 2:13 2:16 2:16 3:3 3:8 3:12-14 3:14 3:19 3:20
Colossians
1:4 1:10 1:11 1:12 1:12 1:12 2:7 3:1 3:2 3:3 3:5 3:10 3:10
1 Thessalonians
2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
1:16 2:11 2:12 2:14 3:5 3:5 3:5 3:5 3:5 3:6 3:6 3:8
Hebrews
1:3 1:3 1:13 2:3 3:13 3:31 4:12 4:16 5:12 6:19 7:26 8:19 10:20 10:29 11:26 11:34 11:34 12:1 12:14 12:14 12:18 12:22 12:23 12:23 12:28 13:8 13:9 13:23
James
1:12 1:13 1:17 1:17 1:18 1:18 1:18 1:18 2:10 2:16 2:17 2:19 4:4 4:8
1 Peter
1:3 1:3 1:3 1:3-5 1:4 1:4 1:4 1:6 1:8 1:8 1:8 1:8 1:14 1:15 1:18 1:19 1:22 1:23 1:23 2:2 2:2 2:2 2:3 2:3 2:5 3:21 4:3 5:3 5:4 5:9
2 Peter
1 John
1:1 1:3 1:3 1:3 2:29 3:1 3:1 3:2 3:2 3:2 3:2 3:2 3:3 3:8 3:8 3:9 3:15 3:17 4:7 4:8 4:9 4:12 5:1 5:1 5:4 5:18 5:18 5:19 6:44 6:45 6:65
2 John
Jude
1:6 1:9 1:12 1:14 1:15 1:19 1:20 1:23 1:23
Revelation
1:6 1:6 2:7 3:1 3:12 3:12 3:12 3:14 3:21 3:21 4:4 4:8 4:8 5:8 5:9 5:10 7:14 7:15 9:6 12:11 20:25 21:2 21:8 21:19 21:21 21:23 21:27 22:1 22:2 22:3 22:4 22:4 22:5 22:11 22:17
Greek Words and Phrases
Latin Words and Phrases
Index of Pages of the Print Edition
3 4 5 6 7 6 7 8 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357
[1]The Great Awakening. By Joseph Tracy, Boston, 1842, p. ix. Preface.
[2]See Postscript, at the end.
[3]Some choose to call the change here described, renovation rather than regeneration. I have given my reasons, (in the Postscript,) why I use the words promiscuously: but I shall endeavor, through the whole of these Discourses, so to state the nature of this change, as to have no controversy with good men of any persuasion about anything but the name of it; concerning which, I hope, they will not contend with me, as I am sure I will not quarrel with them
[4]Senec. Epistol. LXXIII.
[5]Simplic. in Epictet. ad fin.
[6]Max. Tyr. Dissert. xxii.
[7]Max. Tyr. ibid.
[8]It is here remarkable, that Xenophon represents Cyrus, with his dying breath, "as humbly ascribing it to a Divine influence on his mind, that he had been taught to acknowledge the care of Providence, and to bear his prosperity with a becoming moderation."--Xen. Cyropæd. lib. viii. cap. 7, § 1. And Socrates is introduced, by Plato, as declaring, "that wheresoever virtue comes, it is apparently the fruit of a Divine dispensation."--Plat. Men. ad. fin. p. 428. And to this purpose Plato has observed, "that virtue is not to be taught but by Divine assistance."--Epinom. pag. 1014. And elsewhere he declares, "that if any man escape the temptations of life, and behave himself as becomes a worthy member of society, as the laws of it are generally settled"--which, by the way, is something very far short of religion—"he has reason to own, that it is God that saves him."--De Repub. lib. vi. pag. 677. edit. Franc. of 1602.
[9]The conversion of Col. Gardiner is evidently alluded to here, in which Dr. Doddridge was deeply interested.--J. N. B.
[10]It is well to notice that the revealed word of God is in all these different modes of application the powerful instrument. This is the only safeguard against delusions of all kinds.--J. N. B.
[11]Clemens Alexandrinus, so often, and to be sure reasonably, quoted on the other side, plainly uses the word for a change of character by true repentance; (Strom. lib. ii. page 425,) where, speaking of a penitent harlot, he says, "that being born again by conversion, or a change in her temper and behavior, she has the regeneration of life:" αναγεννηθεισα κατα την επισστοφην του βιου παλιγγενεσιαν εχει ζωης.
[12]It is well
known that Cicero expresses the happy change made in his state, when
restored from his banishment, by this word. (Cic. ad Attic. lib. vi.
Epist. 6.)
The Greeks expressed by it the doctrine of the Brahmans,
in which they affirmed our entering on a new state of being after death.
(Clem. Alex. Strom. lib. iii. pag. 451.) And the Stoics used it to denote
their expected renovation of the world after successive conflagrations.
(Marc. Antonin. Medit. lib. xi. § l. v. 13, x. 7. See Lucian, Oper. pag.
532. Euseb. Præp: Evang. ex numen. lib. xv. chap. 19. Phil. Jud. de
Mundi Immort. pag. 940, 951, and in many other places.) And so the fathers
often use it to signify the resurrection which Christians expect. (See
Euseb. Eccl. Hist. lib. v. chap. 1. in fin.) Compare
[13]The original is δια λουτρου παλυγγενεσιασ. Now it is certain the seventy use another word, that is Λουτηρ, to signify Laver, Exod. xxx. 18, 28; xxxi. 9; and I think (so far as I have observed) everywhere else: and Λουτρον (St. Paul's word here) is used where it can not signify laver, for the water in which sheep are washed, Cant. iv. 2, and for a large quantity of water in which an adult person was washed or bathed. Eph. v. 26. And this remark quite overthrows all the argument from this text, if any argument would follow from rendering it laver: but I think I need not urge this.
[14]And with singular inconsistency adopted by Dr. Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the New Testament, now so widely circulated.--J. N. B.
[15]For the full proof of this, that
it is the most scriptural sense, I must desire the reader diligently
to examine, and seriously to consider, the several texts which are quoted
in the foregoing Discourses.
Let it still be remembered, that to be
regenerated, and to be born of GOD, are equivalent phrases: And with
this remark, let any one that can do it paraphrase all the passages
referred to, in two different views; first putting the word baptism
for regeneration, and baptized persons for born of
GOD; and then substituting
our definition of regeneration or of a regenerate person, instead of
the words themselves: and I can not but think he will be struck with
that demonstration, which will (as it were) emerge of itself upon such
a trial. And I must add, that if he looks into the context of many of
these passages, he will at the same time see how utterly ungrounded
it is to assert, as some have done, "that regeneration is only used
when applied to Jewish converts to Christianity, referring to their
former birth from Abraham;" a notion so fully confuted by our Lord's
discourse with Nicodemus,