still carnal ; but by the infusion of a supernatural permanent prin- ciple into the soul, John iv. 14. " It shall be in him a well ol' water:'" principles are to a course of actions, as fountains or springs are to the streams and rivers that flow from them, and are maintained by them : and hence is the evenness and constancy of renewed souls in the course of godliness.
Nor is this principle or habit acquired by accustoming ourselves to holy actions, as natural habits are acquired by frequent acts, which beget a disposition, and thence grow up to an habit or second nature, but it is infused, or implanted in the soul by the Spirit of God. So we read, Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26. " A new heart also will " I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you :" It grows not up out of our natures, but is put or infused into us : as it is said of the two witnesses, Rev. xi. 11. who lay dead in a civil sense, three days and a half, that the Spirit of life from God entered into them : so it is here in a spiritual sense, the Spirit of life from God enters into the dead, carnal heart : it is all by way of supernatural infusion.
Nor is it limited to this or that faculty of the soul, but grace or life is poured into all the faculties : " Behold, all thing are be* " come new,11 2 Cor. v. 17. The understanding, will, thoughts, and affections, are all renewed by it : the whole inner man is changed ; yea, the tongue and hand, the discourses and actions, even all the ways and courses of the outward man are renewed by it.
But more particularly, we shall discern the nature of this Spiri- tual If e, by considering the properties of it; among which, these are very rema?'kable.
First, The soul that is joined to Christ is quickened with a di- vine life, so we read in 2 Pet. i. 4. Where believers are said to be partakers of the divine nature : a very high expression, and warily to be understood. Partakers of the divine nature : not essentially ; so it is wholly incommunicable to the creature, nor yet hypostatically, and personally ; so Christ only was a partaker of it ; but our par- ticipation of the divine nature, must be understood in a way pro- per to believers ; that is to say, we partake of it by the inhabita- tion of the Spirit of God in us, according to 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17. " Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit " of God dwelleth in you P11 The Spirit, who is God by nature dwells in, and actuates the soul whom he regenerates, and by sanctifying it, causes it to live a divine life : from this life of God the unsanctified are said to be alienated, Eph. iv. 18. but believer3 are partakers of it.
Secondly, And being divine, it must needs be the most excellent, and transcendent life that any creature doth, or can live in this world : it surmounts the natural, rational, and moral life of the
90 THE METHOD OF GRACE. 5EKM. V.
unsanctified, as much as the angelical life excels the life of flies and worms of the earth.
Some think it a rare life to live in sensual pleasures ; but the scripture will not allow so much as the name of life to them ; but tells us, " they are dead whilst they live,'" 1 Tim. v. 6. certainly it is a wonderful elevation of the nature of man to be quickened with such a life as this. There are two ways wherein the blessed God hath honoured poor man above the very angels of heaven. One was by the hypostatical union of our nature, in Christ, with the di- vine nature : the other is by uniting our persons mystically to Christ, and thereby communicating spiritual life to us : this latter is a most glorious privilege, and in one respect a more singular mercy than the former ; for that honour which is done to our nature by the hypostatical union, is common to all, good and bad, even they that perish have yet that honour ; but to be implanted into Christ by re- generation, and live upon him as the branch doth upon the vine, this is a peculiar privilege, a mercy kept from the world that is to perish, and only communicated to God's elect, who are to live eter- nally with him in heaven.
Thirdly, This life infused by the regenerating Spirit, is a most pleasant life. All delights, all pleasures, all joys, which are not fantastic and delusive, have their spring and origin here, Rom. viii. 6. " To be spiritually minded is life and peace," i. e. a most serene, placid life ; such a soul becomes, so far as it is influenced and sanc- tified by the Spirit, the very region of life and peace : when one thing is thus predicated of another, in casu recto, (saith a learned man) it speaks their intimate connection : peace is so connatural to this life, that you may either call it a life that hath peace in it, or a peace that hath life in it : yea, it hath its enclosed pleasures in it, " such as a stranger intermeddles not with," Prov. xiv. J 0. Rege- neration is the term from which all true pleasure commences ; you never live a cheerful day, till you begin to live to God : therefore it is said, Luke xv. 24. when the prodigal son was returned to his father, and reconciled, then they began to be merry.
None can make another, by any words, to understand what that pleasure is which the renewed soul feels diffused through all its fa- culties and affections, in its communion with the Lord, and in the sealings and M'itnessings of his Spirit. That is a very apt and well known similitude, which Peter Martyr used, and the Lord blessed to the conversion of that noble marquis Galeacus : if, said he, a man should see a company of people dancing upon the top of a re- mote hill, he would be apt to conclude they were a company of wild distracted people ; but if he draw nearer, and behold the ex- cellent order, and hear the ravishing sweet music that are among
SERM. T. THE METHOD OF GRACE. 91
them, he will quickly alter his opinion of them, and be for dancing himself with them.
All the delights in the sensual life, all the pleasure that ever your lusts gave you, are but as the putrid, stinking waters of a corrupt pond, where toads lie croaking and spawning, compared to the crystal streams of the most pure and ple&s&nt ^fountain.
Fourthly, This life of God, with which the regenerate are quick- ened in their union with Christ, as it is & pleasant, so it is also a growing increasing life, John iv. 14. " It shall be in him a well of " water springing up into everlasting life."