{2d.) The word ' abideth for ever.' The word dieth not when we die : Luke xxi. 33, ' Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away ; ' Ps. cxix. 89, ' For ever, 0 Loid, thy word is settled in the heavens.' It is an eternal truth. The word abideth in the effects of it upon the regenerate. The sum of the words is this, that life which we have by natuial generation is a mortal, frail life, but that life which we have by being born again is eternal.
VeR. 23.] SERMONS UPON 1 PETER I. 23. 30 1
The first point is, Those that do truly believe in God through Jesus Christ are born again.
Such are spoken of in the context; and of such the apostle snith, ' Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by tlie word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.'
I shall inquire — (1.) What is regeneration, or what it is to be born again ? (2.) The necessity of such a work, if we would be Christ's disciples, or truly believe in hira.
First, What is regeneration ? It is a notion often used in scripture : John iii. 3, ' Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God/ And baptism is called Xovrpov TraXtyyeveala^;, ' The laver of regeneration,' Titus iii. 5 ; and a godly man is said to be born of God, and that his seed abideth in him, 1 John iii. 9. The occasion of the expression might be, that the Jews were wont to call their proselytes recens natos, men new born. But whatever tlie occasion were, the expression is solemnly consecrated by the Spirit of God to note our first implantation into Christ, and doth not barely signify outward profession, nor yet naked faith, or persuasion of the truths of the gospel, as appeareth by the dialogue between Christ and Nicodemus, who came to him and owned him as a teacher sent from God ; yet Christ presseth it upon him to be born again. Let us see then what is the true import- ance of this notion in the christian faith. It implieth such a work of God upon the heart as carrieth proportion with the outward and first birth, as appeareth by all the places where it is used. And it is that work of God whereby a new spiritual life and nature is communicated to us. The analogy may be supposed to stand in these things —
1. A child is not born without some pain more or less, so neither is this change carried on without its pangs. The first work of the Spirit is to give us a sight of our own vileness and sinfulness, and to work in us the fear of deserved wrath; therefore called a 'spirit of bondage;' Rom. viii. 15, ' We have not received the spirit of bondage, again to fear.' The Spirit worketh according to the covenant that we are under. In our sinful estate we are obnoxious to the first covenant, unable to per- form the duty, and liable to its curse ; so the Spirit maketh us sensible of it. Those converts in Acts ii. 37 ' were pricked in heart ; ' they had their pangs and troubles; and still this is the ordinary way of coming to the new birth, by sorrow and brokenness of heart, as the child cometh into the world by the soriows of travail.
2. It is not a birth when there is nothing brought forth, though there be never so much pain ; so convictions, qualms of conscience, and pangs of legal sorrow, terrors wrought in us by the spirit of bondage, will never prove a man regenerate unless the new creature be brought forth. There is in many some deliberation and trouble about the ways of God, yet no actual choice ; as the young man went away sad when lie heard the terms, Mat. xix. 22 ; he was sorry because he could not have heaven in his own way. Some anxious thouglits they have, but go not further. They have some throes, and give over.
3. A new creature is brought forth entire and whole ; so it is when the birth is legular; but in the new birth it is so always. No new creature is born nuiimed, but of perfect shape, because that is the immediate work of the Spirit, who cannot miscarry in his operations;
302 SERMONS UPON 1 PETER I. 23. [SeR. I.
and a defect in parts cannot be supplied by after growth, and it is fitted for the sight of God. Therefore here is a new creature brought forth, not a new substance of soul or body, but the faculties renewed and purified, and fitted for God's use and service, by certain infused qualities or graces, which is called the * inward man,' 2 Cor. iv. 16; Eph. iii. 16, 'That he would grant unto you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man ; ' and the ' hidden man of the heart,' 1 Peter iii. 4. And it is entire; a new mind, heart, conscience, will, and affections; new thoughts, new desires, comforts, and contentments. It is all perfect as to parts, though not degrees. In the natural birth, from little begin- nings there is a going on to perfection; so in the new birth, from the stature of a child there is a growing up to a perfect man in Christ Jesus, as they get more knowledge, more grace, and more experience.