2. It is suited to our lost estate. We were in a state of apostasy and defection from God, averse from all good, prone to all evil. Now that we might have a new being and life, the Son of God came in our nature to rectify the disordered creation. The scripture repre- senteth man as blind in his mind, perverse in his will, rebellious in his affections, having no sound part left in him to mend the rest ; therefore we must be changed. But by whom ? who shall make us of unclean to become pure and holy ? Not one amongst all the bare natural sons of men, Job xiv. 4. Of carnal to become spiritual ? AVe must be new made and new born : John iii. 6, ' That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit ; ' that we may mind the things of the Spirit, and not of the flesh. Of worldly to become heavenly ? ' He that formeth us for this very thing is God,' 2 Cor. v. 5. He that is the framer and maker of all things ; a God of infinite wisdom, power, and love, he frameth and createth us anew.
Use 1. To show us the necessity of regeneration.
Use 2. The excellence of it.
1. The necessity. We must have another beginning than we had as bare creatures : it is one thing to make us men, another to make us saints or Christians. We have understanding, will, affections, and senses as men, but we have these sanctified as Christians. The world thinketh Christianity puts strange names upon ordinary things ; but is it an ordinary thing to row against the stream of flesh and blood, and to raise men to those inclinations and affections to which nature is an utter stranger— to have a divine nature put into us ? 2 Pet. i. 4. The necessity is more bound upon us if we look upon ourselves not only as men but Christians"; for whosoever is in Christ is a new creature. Some are in Christ by external profession, de jure ; they are bound to be new creatures, that they may not dishonour their head. Others by real internal union. They not only ought to be, but de facto are, new creatures, because they are made partakers of his Spirit,
Col. I. 18.] christ the author of the new creation. 467
and by that Spirit are renewed and sanctified. Little can they make out their recovery to God, and interest in Christ, who are not sensible of any change wrought in them, who have the old thoughts, the old discourses, the old passions, and the old atfectious, and their old con- versations still ; the same deadness to holy things, the same proneness to please the flesh, the same carelessness to please or honour God ; and the drift and bent of their lives is as much for the world, and as little for God and heaven as before.
2. The excellency of regeneration or renewing grace. What a bene- fit it is, it appeareth in two things : —
1. That it is the fruit of reconciling grace : 2 Cor. v. 18, ' All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.' God gives grace only as the God of peace, as pacified by the death of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the gift of his love, and the fruit of this peace and reconcili- ation which Christ made for us. Our Lord Jesus Christ merited this grace by the value of his sacrifice and bloody sufferings, Titus iii. 5, 6.
2. It is applied to us by the almighty power of his Spirit. Christ is first the ransom for, then the fountain of life to, our souls ; and so the honour of our entire and whole recovery is to be ascribed only to our Kedeemer, who, as he satisfied the justice of God for our sins, so he also purchased a power to change our hearts ; and he purchased this power into his own hands, not into another's, and therefore .doth accom- plish it by his Spirit, 2 Cor. iii. 18. We should often think what a foundation God hath laid for the dispensation of his grace, and how he would demonstrate his infinite love in giving us his Son to be a pro- pitiation for us, and at the same time showeth forth his infinite power in renewing and changing the heart of man, and all to bring us back to him, to make us capable of serving and pleasing him.
I come now to the other title, which respects the life of glory : ' The first-born from the dead.' The same appellation almost is given to Christ when he is called. Rev. i. 5, ' The first-begotten from the dead.' The reason of both is, because those that arise from the dead are, as it were, new born, and, therefore, the resurrection from the dead is called a regeneration, Mat. xix. 28. And as to Christ in particular, the grave, when he was in it, is represented as being under the pains and throes of a woman in travail: Acts ii. 24, Xva-a'i Ta<; ooSlva^ tov Oavdrov, ' God having loosed the pains of death, for it was not possible that he should be holden of it ; ' but which is not only a metaphor, but a higher mystery. St Paul referreth that prophecy, Ps. ii. 7, ' Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee,' in Acts xiii. 33, to the resur- rection of Christ : ' God hath raised up Jesus from the dead ; as it is also written. Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.' Things are said to be done when they are manifested to be done. Compare Rom. i. 4, ' Declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.' So the adoption of believers shall appear by their resurrection : Rom. viii. 19, ' The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God ; ' ver. 23, ' And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body;'