Book IV
Of the work which the Holy Spirit effecteth in us, as it is expressed under the
notion of our being begotten unto God, and of a new birth ; from which the
necessity of regeneration is farther demonstrated. Of the nature of the thing
begotten in us, as it is set forth under the notion of spirit, John iii. 6.
CHAPTER I.
Tlie necessity of the new birth demonstrated, and the nature of it described,from
the notion of our being begotten unto God, 1 Pet. i. 3-5.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to
his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resur
rection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, unde-
Jiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the
last time. 1 PET. I. 3-5.
THE believers whom Peter wrote to were stranger Jews, cast out and dis
persed from their own land and inheritances (as ver. 1 insinuates) ; and he
being the apostle of the circumcision, and so the Jews being committed to him as his proper flock (as Paul was the apostle of the Gentiles or uncir-
cumcision, Gal. ii. 7), to comfort them against this their dispersion, he puts them in mind of another and greater inheritance, which also by a birth
higher and diviner than that of theirs from Abraham, who gave them right to the other inheritance in Canaan, was estated on them. Who (i. e.,
God, saith he) hath begotten us to an inheritance, &c. The carnal Jew
boasted of his birth from Abraham, as that whereby also they challenged God to be their Father, John viii., from the 33d to the 45th." And when
they had occasion to bless God for any eminent mercy, their form of bless
ing was, Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, &c., Ps. Ixxii. 18. But Peter, under the New Testament, instructs them that, instead of glory
ing they had Abraham to their father, they should rejoice and glory in this,
that they were begotten again of God, and of the incorruptible seed, the
Spirit of God, ver. 23. And so John Baptist, the son of that Zacharias,
in the early times of the gospel, taught them, John i. 12, 13, compared with Luke iii. 8 ; and by that birth they became a choice generation in
deed, as our Peter speaks in his second chapter.
Again ; instead of entitling God by the name of God of Israel, Peter
in the New Testament teacheth them to enstyle and bless him now as the God and Father of Jesus Christ, and to view him upon that account as become a God and Father unto them. And lastly, instead of boasting of
152 THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK IV.
their Canaan, their so ancient inheritance, from which these saints of that nation were now cast out, and the whole nation was to follow them soon
after his death, he instructs them to solace themselves with a lively hope of an inheritance far better seated and conditioned : An inheritance incor
ruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for
you ; which their new birth had given them right unto. And this is the more special aspect and coherence of those words.
I have no further design upon this text in the opening of it, than what
it offers to us concerning regeneration ; which done, I shall leave it, and
pass to another that speaks of other things about it. This text will put us
upon the consideration of two things concerning it.
I. Why it is termed or called a begetting, as elsewhere a being born
again, and what that metaphor eminently imports, and instructs in it about it.
II. The necessity of it, as without which God shews us no mercy ; we can have no hopes or title to this inheritance.
I. Why is it called birth, or being begotten ? I shall not prosecute the
metaphor, but chiefly insist on it to shew the nature of the thing begotten.
1. It is called a being born again, to shew that it conveys an image, or
likeness of the begetter. Men are said to make many things which are not
like themselves, as artificers do ; but they are not said to beget anything which bears not in species their own likeness. The first Adam had an
image to convey to his seed : therefore, Gen. v. 3, it is said Adam begat Seth after his own image and likeness. So Christ, the second Adam, hath
also an image to convey unto them that are his, 1 Cor. xv. 49 : therefore the way of conveying it is called a birth, and he a Father : Col. iii. 10,
* The new man is renewed after the image of him. that created him, namely, at first, it being for substance the same, which (as it follows) is to be like God and Christ in those gracious dispositions which he shews to be in him
self in his dealings towards us. So, ver. 12, 13, Put on therefore, as the
elect of God, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness,
long-suffering ; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any
: even as Christ forgave you, so also do
ye. As if he had said : As the elect of God, and chosen of God to be his
children, be like unto him and Christ ; so also be you
: or (as our Peter
expresseth it, 1 Pet. i. 15, 16), Be holy, as he is holy. Now God s holi ness lieth in two things
: 1. In the things he willeth and commandeth us.
2. In making his own glory his own end. Therefore the image of God in us must lie in these two things.
(1.) A conformity or frame of spirit suited unto the things he commands or willeth, as the piece is to the pattern : 1 Thess. iv. 2, 3, For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification ; that is, your sanctification lies in a con
formity to his will, and that will of his as expressed in his commands.
(2.) In having God s glory set up in our hearts as our own utmost end, and as the square and measure of all our affections and actions, &c. (as self-love was before in us), and the one to be made as co-natural to us as
self-love once was. This is holiness, and it can be no other or further
thing, even as in God himself it is not ; it being that in him which forms,
orders, disposeth, guides, directs, acts all for himself, and swallows up all
into himself. Now, in the creature, holiness is the likeness of what is in
himself, and so it is a disposition to be for God, even as God is for himself. Therefore whatever is good or excellent in the creature, of what kind soever
CHAP. I.] IN OUR SALVATION. 153
of gifts of righteousness, it falling short of the glory of God, it becomes sin.
So saith the apostle (Rom. iii. 23), setting forth in a summary conclusion
the sinfulness of man s nature as fallen from God, to which he had spoken,
ver. 10, 11, As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one : there
is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God ; that is,
there is none that aimeth at or setteth up God as his chiefest end, or seeks
after him as his chiefest good ; and so they fall short of the glory of God, and his image, in which at first they were created. To be born again and
to become a Christian is to make God s interest my own for ever. It is
the fundamental law of regeneration, and the first enacted in the heart, and
is general to all believers that are truly such ; so Paul says, Eom. xiv. 7, 8, For none of us liveth unto himself, and no man dieth unto himself. For
whether we live, we live unto the Lord ; and whether we die, we die unto
the Lord : whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord s. None of
us, that is, of us that are true Christians, though other men are guided by other principles. Yea, and observe his inference, it is therefore that we
are the Lord s, because we are in both life and death for the Lord. Thus
it is the image of God that is begotten, and although the new creature may have many other workings and stirrings of heart divers ways, in humblings for sin, sight of a man s natural condition, which are as the films in which
the new creature is enwrapped, yet this is the birth, the substance of what
is begotten, and all the other tend unto it. It is the image of God s holi
ness, limb for limb.
II. This work of grace, and the image of God wrought in us, is termed
a beginning, to shew that it is made a nature in us, as that image stamped on us by birth is said to be, and as all dispositions which we have by birth
are said to be natural. To have a thing by birth and by nature is all one
in phrase of speech ; so to be blind by nature signifies that which is so by
birth. Hence this work, which in the scriptures cited hath been termed
the image of God, is by our Peter termed the divine nature, 2 Peter i. 4.
Nature, for its manner of inherency, as natural dispositions use to be in
herent in us ; divine, for its tendency and quality, as that which bears a
likeness to God s nature, and which carries the soul up to him, as nature
doth us unto what is suitable thereto. And that by divine nature, which some would raise up to a higher sublimation of participation of the essence
of God, there is meant such divine, holy dispositions wrought in us, is clear
by its opposite there mentioned by Peter in those words, Having escaped the corruption that is in the rest of the world through lust. Corruption
through lust is that which is destroyed. And as you usually say, that cor-
rupt io unius est generatio alterius, so here, the corruption of this corruption
is the production of the new creature. Now, the corruption that is in all mankind through lust, is the corrupt dispositions and inclinations to evil, which are natural unto us ; this is corrupt nature, as we use to say. The
divine nature is the contrary hereto, which, because freely given, is indeed
called grace, but yet becomes a new nature to a man begotten; and accord
ing as the Spirits acts it, it puts forth itself in dispositions in manner like
to those which are natural, as will appear by bringing James s words to
Peter, chap. iv. 5, 6, The spirit that is in us lusteth to envy, but God
giveth more grace. That is, whereas the natural spirit that is in us puts forth itself in lustings and dispositions to envy, and it doth it naturally, God gives grace or holiness to lust after meekness, humility ; and the one,
after a man is regenerated, is as natural as the other afore. And accord
ingly, as the flesh or corrupt nature is said to have its lusting to evil things,
154 THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK IV.
so the spirit of regeneration is said to have its answerable lustings to things holy, Gal. v. 17, so as a man may come to understand, and withal take an esti mate, whether he have the spirit of regeneration or no. Every man knows by experience what it is to have lustings to evil, dispositions to envy, ambi
tion, uncleanness, pride, and finds they are his nature. Hast thou found the like dispositions of love, ingenuity to God, to seek his glory, to love the communion of saints, &c. ? I need not write to you
: ye are taught of God to love one another, says Paul, 1 Thes. iv. 9. The opposition shews he speaks of it as such an impression as by nature God puts into the crea
tures, and so they are said to be taught of him ; such is this divine new nature. Therefore, measure that good that is in thee by the evil ; I say not for the degree (thou mayest find corruption working more strongly), but for the kind, the one works as naturally, as to the innateness of workings, as the other.
Use 1. We read much in Scripture of men greatly enlightened, receiving the word with joy, made partakers of the Holy Ghost, that yet fall away ; yet among all the great and glorious things said of them, you have it no where said that they are begotten again, or born again, as likewise nowhere that they are justified. And the reason is evident ; 1. Because justification is the act of God towards his, pardoning and accepting of them to life. And therefore if God doth it at all, he doth it truly and really, or not at all ; it can have no counterfeit. So in like manner, to be begotten again notes a state of sonship, a being truly made a child ; for if God begets, he begets genuinely, it proves always a true child of his begetting ; and who ever is born of God hath his image, his nature, or, as the apostle speaks, true holiness: Eph. iv. 24, And that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. They are said to be
sanctified, Heb. x. (for that may have a counterfeit), namely, a setting apart to outward service by gifts and enlightenments ; but to shew it is not true
sanctification, or after God in true holiness, they are never said to be born of God. They as servants live in the family, are put into offices and ser
vices, and to that end do receive gifts and graces to lay out as talents, Mat. xxv., which not improved, they lose; but being not made children, therefore it is they abide not always in the house; "as Christ speaks, John
viii. 35, And the servant abideth not in the house for ever, but the son abideth ever. They are hired servants, not begotten children. They have
gifts from him as a lord, but not his image as from a father, and so are never said to be begotten. Now, take then the poorest soul, whose heart hath childlike dispositions running in his heart to God, good nature, in genuities ; for grace is but good nature to God, and works toward God, as good nature doth to them we love. Take a soul whose heart is taught of God to apply itself unto God in all his dealings, so as still his heart works good naturally and like a child towards him, if he frowns or smiles, loves or chides, whips or gives favours. He fears his goodness more than his wrath, finds the glory of God in some degree naturalized in his soul as the supremest law, as set once next in him before. And though perhaps his faith cannot call God Father, or challenge him as such, yet his heart utters
it, his love cries it. He finds love to God and his people working as kindly in a measure, as he hath found self-love working to and for himself; his affections of fear, joy, desires, hatred, rising and falling according as the glory of God is interested. The least of these are better and surer evi dences than many of those glorious incomes you hear spoken of, that come and visit men s souls at times, as flashes of lightning do a house, tran-
CHAP. I.] IN OUR SALVATION. 155
siently and away ; whereas it is a new nature, a holy frame of heart, that is
constant, a seed of God abiding, that makes man said to be born again. This is regeneration, and without this all other will come to nothing. After
the apostle had spoken such glorious things of men that fall away, Heb. vi., a man then reading ver. 9 that there are better things than these that ac
company salvation, would expect some seraphical manifestations, exceeding
all these, to be those better things. But the apostle instances in love to
the name and glory of God, and his truth and children, as one of those
things that exceeds all these, which is a childlike disposition of one be
gotten and born of God. { Use 2. The second thing to be considered is the necessity hereof to sal
vation, which is demonstrated out of the text thus : All do and will acknow
ledge that without God s being merciful to a man, there can be no salvation. But God s mercy (suppose it is as abundant, as it is, as you are able to
conceive of it) can nor never will save any man without regeneration ; for
it is clear in the text, that herein it is that God shews the abundancy of
his mercy, even to beget again those he means to save, as without which he could not save. *This is clear also from Tit. iii. 5, According to his
mercy hath he saved us ; so then we are saved by mercy only, as the
moving cause, but yet how doth mercy save whom it will have mercy upon? It is by the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Yea, in ver. 4 herein
is made the great appearance or manifestation of the love and kindness of God borne to any soul, that he renews it : After that the kindness and
love of God appeared, 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. So then if God means to manifest love and mercy in the salvation of any, he doth it in and by this, or which is
all one, if he loves any it appears in this. Herein is the love of God
manifested, as John upon another occasion speaks. Now, for the demon
stration of this, take such reasons as are congenial to the text.
(1.) Without regeneration God bears not the actual relation of nor be comes a Father to us. God owns no children but such as are like him, and begotten of him after his image. If you call on him as your Father,
says Peter in the same chapter, ver. 17, then as obedient children you must be holy as he is holy, ver. 14-16, not fashioning yourselves accord
ing to your former lusts ; that is, you must be new cast, new fashioned, and so become holy, as he who called you is holy. All are ready to chal
lenge God to be their Father, as the Jews (John viii. 40) did with a bold and impudent forehead challenge God to be their Father, when yet they were full of envy and malice towards Christ and his disciples. No, says
Christ, Ye are of your father the devil, and his image you bear, and his
lusts you will do, ver. 44. In Jeremiah iii. God, as Christ doth in John,
* Wilt thou not from this time, he speaks what had been their wont from time to time, come and cry to me, My Father? whenas it follows, ver. 5, thou hast done evil things as thou couldst, and thinkest to call me thy Father, or
upbraideth the impenitent Jews for the like impudence
that I as a Father will ever own such. But seeing God will become a Father even to such sinners, how comes it to pass that in the 19th verse God is brought in as consulting with himself how to save these rebels, and how to come to own them for his children ? And he brings it in by way of objection: But I said (God makes a stand at it), How shall I put thee among the children ? come to enroll thee into the catalogue whom I
will own as such ? And it is an objection God himself can never well
156 THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK IV.
answer, without turning and regenerating them, and causing them not to
depart from him. So it follows, Thou shalt call me, My Father; and
shalt not turn away from me. There is the answer, and the only answer can be given to it. So then God is no Father, nor owns any among his
children, without it.
(2.) Without this work wrought in us, Christ becomes not our Lord and husband. When Adam was to be married, God looked over all the beasts of the field, and finding never a fit match for him among them, he made one
like him of his own rib, and in the same image with him. Now, if thou hast the same image wherein thou wast born, thou art a more unfit match
for Christ than beasts for Adam. Would any of you be content to have no other wife but a beast, a cow, or a sow, or a devil succubus ? God would not have Christ unequally yoked
: Now what fellowship can light have with darkness, Christ with Belial? 2 Cor. vi. 14. He speaks it to us in the name and person of Christ, that we should not be unequally yoked, and therefore he would not have Christ much more. God would have his Son have a wife that should please him, and have a beauty suit
able to his mind. Christ loves beauty as well as you, as you may see Ps.
xlv. 11, where Christ is set forth as one who hateth iniquity and loveth
righteousness, ver. 7, 8, and therefore God gives his daughter, the church, commandment to forsake the sins she was born and brought up in : Hearken, daughter, and consider, incline thine ear, that is, to my Son s commandments,
* and forget thy father s house ; so shall the king
(Christ) greatly desire thy beauty.
(3.) Without this we can have no title to, no hope of enjoyment or pos session of, that inheritance, 1 Pet. v. 5. We can have,
[1.] No title. Heaven is an inheritance, and as inheritances go by birth, so doth it also: Who hath begotten us again, saith the text, to an in heritance incorruptible. If no son, no heir ; and if no new birth, no son. Kingdoms upon earth have two ways of succession : first, by choice or elec tion ; secondly, by birth ; and this latter, for a monarchy, is held the best way of succession. Now God (who takes into his dispensations all the
rules that men go by), hath ordained to settkrand establish heaven, to all that shall be saved, by both these titles. 1. By election, but that is secret
to himself: The Lord only knows who are his. Therefore, 2, to declare
it to men themselves, and to others, he hath ordained a heavenly birth
openly and actually to entitle them to it : Whom he hath predestinated, them also hath he called, Rom. viii. 30. As God gave the earth and all
things in it unto Adam, and all that should be born of him, so hath he given heaven and all the promises unto Christ, and unto all that should be born of him also. And as such as was the earthly man, such are the earthly men ; so such as was the heavenly man Christ, such are all his to become even heavenly as he is.
[2.] Without being converted there is no hope of this inheritance. Thou
mayest have a dead hope, a false hope, that will deceive thee, but not a
lively hope. Is any man so fond as to hope for a crown that was not born to it ? How then can we hope for heaven, if we have not the new
birth, God s image, to shew for it ?
[3.] We cannot otherwise possess it. If a reasonable soul, so created by God, would come into this world, and possess the good things in it, it must
necessarily be put in a body, and clothed with flesh, which is to be had from Adam by a fleshly generation (it could else never come to see the
light of this sun, it could else never see this world, nor possess anything
CHAP. I.] IN OUR SALVATION. 157
in it), so nor can men s souls ever come to set a foot into the other world, the kingdom of heaven, if they be not clothed with God s image, and so born of Christ. In 2 Cor. v. 3, there is a parenthesis which bears this sense : If so be that being clothed we be not found naked. He is
aspeaking of the soul s being clothed with a house from heaven when
separate from the body ; and discoursing thereof he casts in this as a cau tion for all Christians, that they look to it their souls be clothed upon with the new man, which is the begotten of Christ ; for if they be found devoid
thereof, and naked, they cannot expect the enjoyment or possession of the house that is above. This is Calvin s interpretation, and it is a true one. And hereof Christ himself useth this expression, that unless a man be born
again, he cannot (so much as) see the kingdom of God, nor peep into it ; and much less can he enter into it, or set a foot in it.
[4.] I may add, fourthly, though he could enter, yet he could not enjoy it. Heaven would not be heaven to him. Heaven is an inheritance of
light, says the apostle, Col. i. 12, and therefore we that are naturally sin and darkness must be made meet for it : Who hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light
: having delivered us from the power of darkness, ver. 13. Heaven is an inheritance incorruptible, 1 Pet. i. 4. Now, if flesh and blood (that is, frail mortal flesh) can not inherit the kingdom of God, nor corruption incorruption, as, 1 Cor. xv. 50, the apostle speaks, then much more not flesh, that is, that sinful defilement which we were born in. If the body must be changed ere it can be glorified, then much more the soul ; for this glory in heaven is an inheritance undefiled, and no unclean thing can enter in, Eev. xxi. 27. Without holiness no man can see God ; that is, so see him as to be happy in him. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, and so be blessed in the sight of him.
Let us see and make* this necessity of the new birth. We are fallen into times in which the thing and doctrine of it is forgotten and laid aside, in which there are multitudes of professors, but few converts, many that seem to walk in the way to life, that never came in at the strait gate. There
is a zeal amongst us to advance this or that reformation in religion, and it hath been all the cry. But, my brethren, where is regeneration called for or regarded ? We have seen the greatest outward alterations that ever were in any age, kingdoms turned and converted into commonwealths, the power of heaven and earth shaken ; but men, although they turn this way and that, from this or that way, from this opinion to that, yet their hearts
generally turn upon the same hinges they were hung on when they came into the world. In this University of Oxford we have had puttings out and
puttings in, but where is putting off the old nature and putting on the new ? Where do we hear (as we had wont) of souls carrying home the Holy Ghost from sermons, of their being changed and altered, and made new, and of students running home weeping to their studies, crying out, What shall I do to be saved ? This was heretofore a wonted cry. Conversion is the
only standing miracle in the church, but I may truly say these miracles are well nigh ceased ; we hear of few of them. With whatever advances in religion and incomes from God, or purity of
reformation, we may flatter ourselves, I am sure that regeneration and con version is it that must make Christians in this age, as in all the ages afore
us. As take the whole generation of mankind, though mankind in one age hath grown up in stature, and in duration of years of life (as afore the flood),
* Qu. mark ? ED.
158 THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK IV.
more than in another, and may be more civilised in manners, more raised
in parts and abilities in one above another ; yet the propagation of the race
of men on earth is one and the same in all, by being born, begotten, formed
in the womb, in all substantial of being. If they be men they must be born. So in the church : of whatever progress in truths or holiness one age may excel in above another, yet if regeneration, the thing itself, and the doc
trine of it, goes not on, the church is not increased, nor is there a multipli cation of inhabitants of the other world.