Obs. 2. That the calling of a soul to God is, as it were, a new beget- ting and regeneration. He ' begat us ; ' there must be a new framing and making, for all is out of order, and there is no active influence and concurrence of our will ; therefore grace is called, 2 Cor. v. 17, Katvr] KTlai<;, ' a new creation ; ' all was a chaos and vast emptiness before. So elsewhere it is expressed by being ' born again,' John iii. 5 ; and so believers are called Christ's seed,' Isa. liii. 10. The point being obvious, I shall the less stay on it. It is useful — (1.) To show us the horrible defilement and depravation of our nature ; mending and repairing would not serve the turn, but God must new make and new create us, and beget us again : like the house infected with leprosy, scraping will not serve the turn ; it must be pulled down, and built up again. They mince the matter that say of nature as those of the damsel, ' She is not dead, but sleepeth ; ' as if it were a languor or a swoon into which Adam and his posterity fell. No ; it was a death, and therefore are those two notions of creation and resurrection solemnly consecrated by the Spirit of God to express our regeneration or new birth. (2.) To show us that we are merely passive in our con- version : it is a begetting, and we (as the infant in the womb) contri- bute nothing to our own forming : Ps. c. 4, ' It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves ; ' we had no hand in it. (3.) It showeth us two properties oi conversion : (1st.) There wfll be life ; the efiectof generation is life Natural men are said, Eph. iv. 18, to be ' alienated from the life of God ; ' they are altogether strangers to the motions and
118 AN ExrosiTiox, WITH NOTES, [Jas. I. 18.
operations of the Spirit. Bat now, when the soul is begotten, there will be acting, and moving, and spiritual feeling ; the soul will not be 80 dead towards Grod. Paul saith, Gal, ii. 20, ' Not I live, but Christ liveth in me.' A man cannot have interest in Christ, but he will receive life from him. (2(1.) There will be a change. At the first God bringeth in the holy frame, all the seeds of grace ; and therefore there will be a change : of profane, carnal, careless hearts, they are made spiritual, heavenly, holy : Eph. v. 8, ' Ye were darkness, but now are light in the Lord.' You see there is a vast difference. If men remain the same, how can they be said to be begotten ? They are filthy still, carnal still, worldly still ; there will be at least a desolatioa of the old forms and frames of spirit.
Obs. 3. It is the proper work of God to beget us : 'he begat.' It is sometimes ascribed to God the Father, as here, and so, in other places, to God the Son : believers are ' his seed,' Isa. liii. 10. Some- times to the Spirit, John iii. 6. God the Father's will : ' Of his own will begat he us. God the Son's merit : through his obedience we have ' the adoption of sons,' Gal. iv. 5. God the Spirit's efficacy : by his overshadowing the soul is the new creature hatched and brought forth. It is ascribed to all the three persons together in one place : Titus iii. 5, 6, ' By his mercy he hath saved us, through the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ.' In another place you have two persons mentioned : Eph. ii. 10, ' For we are his workmanship, created in Jesus Christ unto good works.' It is true, the ministers of the gospel are said to beget, but it is as they are instruments in God's hands. So Paul saith, ' I begat you,' 1 Cor. iv. 15 ; and of Oucsimus he saith, ' Whom I begat in my bonds,' Philem. 10. God loveth to put his own honour many times upon the instruments.
Well, then — 1. liemove false causes. You cannot beget yourselves, that were monstrous ; you must look up above self, and above means, to God, who must form you after his ov/n image. It is said, John i. 13, that we are ' begotten, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.' Not in the outward impure way that is meant by that ' not of blood ; nor by the will of the flesh,' that is, in the carnal manner, as man begetteth man to satisfy a fleshly will or desire ; ' nor of the will of man,' that is, any workings or desires of our will ; but only by the power of the Spirit ; for the intent of that place is to remove gross thoughts and wrong causes, that we might apprehend it right for the nature of it, and look up to the right cause of it,
2. It showeth what an honourable relation we are invested with by the new birth. He begat us. God is our Father ; that engageth his love, and bowels, and care, and everything that can be dear and refreshiog to the creature : Mat. vi. 32, ' Your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of the.se things.' This relation is often urged by the children of God : Isa. Ixiii. IG, ' Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us.' There is comfort in a father, much more in a heavenly Father. Evil men may be good fathers, Mat. vii. 11 ; they cannot but obey those natural and fatherly impressions that are upon their bowuls ; how much more will