quickening of a dead man, Eph. ii. 1, 5. Man, in his depraved state, is mere non enity in grace, and is brought into a new being, by the power of him "who calleth things that be not, as though they were: being created in Jesus Christ unto good works," Eph. ii. 10. Therefore our Lord Jesus, to give ground of hope to the Laodiceans, in their wretched and miserable state, proposeth himself as "the beginning of the creation of God," Rev. iii. 14. Namely, the active beginning of it; for all things, "were made by him at first," John i. 3. From whence they might gather, that seeing he made them when they were nothing, he could make them over again when worse than nothing; the same hand that made them his creatures, could make them new creatures.

THIRDLY, As the child is merely passive in generation, so is the child of God in regeneration. The one contributes nothing to its own generation; neither does the other contribute any thing by way of efficiency, to its own regeneration: for though a man may lay himself down at the pool; yet he hath no hand in moving of the water, no efficacy in performing of the cure. One is born the child of a king, another the child of a beggar: the child has no hand at all in this difference. God leaves some in their depraved state; others he brings into a state of grace or regeneracy. If thou be thus honoured, no thanks to thee; for "who maketh thee to differ from another?" 1 Cor. iv. 7.

FOURTHLY, There is a wonderful contexture of parts in both births. Admirable is the structure of man's body, in which there is such a variety of organs: nothing wanting, nothing superfluous. The Psalmist, considering his own body looks on it as a piece of marvellous work; "I am fearfully and wonderfully made," saith he, Psal. cxxxix. 14, and " curlously wrought in the lower parts of the earth," ver. 15. That. is, in the womb, where I know not how the bones do grow, more than I know what is doing in the lowest parts of the earth. In natural generation, we are curiously wrought, as a piece of needle work; as the word imports: even so it is in regeneration, Psal. xlv. 14. "She shall be brought unto the King, in raiment of needle-work, raiment curiously wrought." It is the same word in both texts. And what that raiment is, the Apostle tells us, Eph. iv. 24. It is "the new man, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness." That is the raiment he saith, in the same place, we must put on; not excluding the imputed righteousness of Christ. Both are curiously wrought, as master-pieces of the manifold wisdom of God. O the wonderful contexture

A man

of graces in the new creature! O glorious creature, new-made after the image of God! It is grace, for grace in Christ, which makes up this new man, John i. 16. Even as in bodily generation, the child has member for member in the parent; has every member the parent has, in a certain proportion. FIFTHLY, All this in both cases hath its rise from that which is in itself very small and inconsiderable. O the pow er of God, in making such a creature of corruptible seed! and much more in bringing forth the new creature from so small beginnings: it is as "the little cloud like a man's hand, which spread till heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain," 1 Kings xviii. 42-45. gets a word at a sermon, which hundreds beside him hear and let slip: but it remains with him, works in him, and never leaves him, till the little world be turned upside down by it: that is, till he become a new man. It is like the vapour that got up into Ahasuerus's head, and cut off sleep from his eyes, Esth. vi. 1, which proved a spring of such motions as never ceased, until Mordecai, in royal pomp, was brought on horseback through the street, proud Haman trudging at his foot; the same Haman afterwards hanged, Mordecai advanced, and the church delivered from Haman's hellish plot. The grain of mustard seed-becometh a tree, Mat. xiii. 31, 32. God loves to bring great things out of small beginnings.

SIXTHLY, Natural generation is carried on by degrees, Job x. 10. "Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and cruddled me like cheese?" So is regeneration, It is with the soul, ordinarily, in regeneration, as with the blind man cured by our Lord, who first saw men as trees walking, afterwards saw every man clearly, Matth. viii. 23, 24, 25. It is true, regeneration being, strictly speaking, a passing from death to life, the soul is quickened in a moment: like as, when the embryo is brought to perfection in the womb, the soul is infused into the lifeless lump. Nevertheless, we may imagine somewhat like conception in spiritual generation, whereby the soul is prepared for quickening: and the new creature is capable of growth, 1 Pet. ii. 2, and of life more abundantly, John x. 10.

SEVENTHLY, In both there are new relations. The regenerate may call God, Father; for they are his children,-John i. 12, 13, begotten of him, 1 Pet. i. 3. The bride, the Lamb's wife, (that is, the church) is their mother, Gal. iv. 26. They are related, as brethren, and sisters, to angels and glorified saints, and the family of heaven. They are of the heavenly

stock: and the meanest of them, "the base things of the world," 1 Cor. i. 28, the kinless things, as the word imports who cannot boast of the blood that runs in their veins, are yet, by their new birth, near of kin with the excellent in the earth. EIGHTHLY, There is a likeness betwixt the parent and the child. Every thing that generates, generates its like; and the regenerate are "partakers of the divine nature," 2 Pet. i. 4. The moral perfections of the divine nature, are, in measure and degree, communicated to the renewed soul; and thus the divine image is retrieved: so that, as the child resembles the father, the new creature resembles God himself, being "holy as he is holy."

LASTLY, As there is no birth without pain, both to the mother and to the child; so there is great pain in bringing forth the new creature. The children have more or less of these birth pains, whereby they are pricked in their heart. Acts ii. 37. The soul has sore pains when under conviction and humiliation: "A wounded spirit who can bear?" The mother is pained, Zion travails, Isa. lxvi. 8. She sighs, groans, crieth, and hath hard labour in her ministers and members, to bring forth children to her Lord, Gal. iv. 19, "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you." And never was a mother more feelingly touched with joy, that a man-child was born into the world, than she is upon the new birth of her children. But what is more remarkable than all this, we read not only of our Lord Jesus Christ's travail, (or toil of soul) Isa. liii. 11, but (what lies more directly to our purpose) of his pains, or pangs, as of one travailing in child-birth; so the word used, Acts ii. 24. properly signifies. Well may he call the new creature, as Rachel called her dear-bought son, Benoni, i. e., "The son of my sorrow:" and, as she called another, Napthali, i. e. "My wrestling:" for the pangs of that travail put him to "strong crying and tears," Heb. v.7, yea, into "an agony and bloody sweat," Luke xxii. 44. And, in the end, he died of these pangs; they became, to him, the pains of death, Acts ii. 24.

The Doctrine of Regeneration Applied.

USE I. By what is said, you may try whether you are in the state of grace or not. If ye be brought out of the state of wrath or ruin, into the state of grace or salvation; ye are new creatures, ye are born again. But ye will say, How shall we known whether we be born again or not? Ans. Did

Q

you

ask me

if the sun were risen; and how you should know, whether it were risen, or not? I would bid you look up to the heavens, and see it with your eyes. And would ye know if the light be risen in your heart? Look in, and see. Grace is light, and discovers itself. Look into thy mind, see if it have been illuminated in the knowledge of God. Hast thou been inwardly taught what God is? Were thine eyes ever turned inward, to see thyself, the sinfulness of thy depraved state; the corruption of thy nature; the sins of thy heart and life? Wast thou ever let into a view of the exceeding sinfulness of sin? Have thine eyes seen King Jesus in his beauty; the manifold wisdom of God in him; his transcendent excellency, and absolute fulness and sufficiency, with the vanity and emptiness of all things else? Next, What change is there on thy will? Are the fetters taken off, wherewith it was sometimes bound up from moving heavenwards? And has thy will got a new set? Dost thou find an aversion to sin, and a proneness to good wrought in thy heart? Is thy soul turned towards God as thy chief end? Is thy will new-molded into some measure of conformity to the preceptive and providential will of God: art thou heartily reconciled to the Covenant of peace, and fixedly disposed to the receiving of Christ, as he is offered in the Gospel? And as to a change in your affections, are they rectified and placed on right objects? Are your desires going out after God? Are they "to his name and the remembrance of him?" Isa. xxvi. 8. Are your hopes in him? Is your love set upon him, and your hatred set against sin? Does your offending a good God affect your heart with sorrow; and do you fear sin more than suffering? Are your affections regulated? Are they, with respect to created comforts, brought down, as being too high; and with respect to God in Christ, screwed up, as being too low? Has he the chief seat in your heart? And are all your lawful worldly comforts and enjoyments laid at his feet? Has thy conscience been enlightened and awakened, refusing all ease, but from the application of the blood of a Redeemer? Is thy memory sanctified, thy body consecrated to the service of God? And art thou now walking in newness of life? Thus ye may discover, whether ye are born again or not.

But, for your further help in this matter, I will discourse a little of another sign of regeneration, namely, The love of the brethren: an evidence whereby the weakest and most timorous saints have often had comfort, when they could have little or no consolation from other marks proposed to them. This the Apostle lays down, 1 John iii. 14, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the

brethren." It is not to be thought, that the Apostle, by the brethren, in this place, means brethren by a common relation to the first Adam, but to the second Adam Christ Jesus; because, however true it is, that universal benevolence and good-will to the whole race of mankind, takes place in the renewed soul, as being a lively lineament of the divine image; yet the whole context speaks of those that are the sons of God. ver. 1, 2, children of God. ver. 10, born of God, ver. 9. distinguishing betwixt the children of God, and the children of the devil, ver. 10, betwixt these that are of the devil, ver. 8, 12, and these that are of God, ver. 10. And the text itself comes in as a reason why we should not marvel that the world hates the brethren, the children of God, ver. 13. can we marvel at it, seeing the love of the brethren is an evidence of one's having passed from death to life? And therefore it were absurd to look for that love amongst the men of the world, who are dead in trespasses and sins. They cannot love the brethren: no marvel then that they hate them. Wherefore it is plain, that by brethren here, are meant brethren by regeneration.

How

Now, in order to set this mark of regeneration in a true light, consider these three things. (1.) This love to the brethren, is a love to them as such. Then do we love them in the sense of the text, when the grace, or image of God in them, is the chief motive of our love to them. When we love the godly for their godliness, the saints for their sanctity or holiness, then we love God in them, and so may conclude, we are born of God; for " every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him," 1 John v. 1. Нуроcrites may love saints on account of a civil relation to them; because of their obliging conversation; for their being of the same opinion with themselves in religious matters: and on many other such like accounts, whereby wicked men may be induced to love the godly. But happy they, who can love them for naked grace in them; for their heaven born temper and disposition; who can pick this pearl out of a dung hill of infirmities in and about them; lay hold on it, and love them for it. (2.) It is a love that will be given to all, in whom the grace of God appears. They that love one saint, because he is a saint, will have love to all the saints Eph. i. 15. They will love all who, to their discerning, bear the image of God. They that cannot love a gracious person in rags, but confine their love to those of them who wear gay clothing, have not this love to the brethren in them. These who can confine their love to a party, to whom God has not confined his grace, are souls too narrow to be put among the children. In what