2. With respect to the work itself.
[1.] You are with brokenness of heart to bewail your corruption and the wretchedness of your natural estate : Luke xviii. 13, ' Lord, be merciful to me, a miserable sinner.'
[2.] Beg grace of God : Jer. xxxi. 18, ' I have surely heard Ephraini bemoaning himself thus, Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke : turn thou me, and I shall be turned ; thou art the Lord my God.' You can pray literally, though not spiritually. ' Take with you words, and call upon the Lord,' and put a natural fervency into them (as the new birth concerneth his happiness), though you have not a spiritual affection to the thing itself.
[3.] Wait for it.
(1.) With patience : ' Of his own will begat he us,' James i. 18. God's time is not yet come : John iii. 8, ' The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it cometh and whither itgoeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.' God acts with liberty, as the wind bloweth when and where it listeth. The wind bloweth freely, but not at the command and beck of any creature. Some lay at the pool for many years ; others had cure soonei". We are not to limit the holy One of Israel, but wait upon him, without throwing up duties, or saying, ' Why should I wait upon the Lord any longer ? '
(2.) With hope. There are absolute promises of taking away the heart of stone : Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27, ' A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you ; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh, and I will
ViSR. 23.] SERMONS UPON 1 PETER I. 23. 315
put my Spirit within yon, and canse you to walk in my statutes ; and ye shall keep my jud^^ments, and do them ; ' Jer. xxiv. 7, ' And I will give them a heart to know me that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God ; and they shall return unto me with their whole heart ; ' " And I will put my laws into their mind, and write them upon their heart,' Heb. viii. 10. These are not only pro- mises to grace, but q/" grace. These encourage us in the constant use of means, especially considering how willing God is to give out grace when the hearts of his creatures are set upon it ; and you lie as fair for them as any others.
[4.] Observe the secret illapses of his grace : Acts x. 44, ' While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them whicli heard the word.' It is not impossible for a spiritual man to feel the very first illapse of the Spirit into the soul. It may sometimes bring that sense with itself, though it is not so always ; for the giving life and the giving sense are distinct things ; they go not always together ; yet observe the stirring of the waters. When he draweth, you should run. Cant. i. 4 ; when he knocketh, we should open, Eev. iii. 20. Sometimes you may feel that he knocketh loud ; observe the impulse. When the wind bloweth, then let loose the sails, John iii. 8 ; when the waters are stirred, put in for cure, John v. 4. Our great duty is to obey the Spirit's sanctifying motions, and before they cool or cease, set about the business.
SERMON III.
Beivg horn again, not of corruptible seed, hut of incorruptible seed. —
1 Peter i. 23.
Use 2. Is trial ; are we born again, or have we been truly acquainted with this work of God upon our hearts? To this end let us see — (1.) What regeneration is ; (2.) How it may be discovered that such a work hath passed upon us.
First, What it is. I shall proceed here both negatively and affirm- atively.
1. Negatively ; and here —
[1.] It is not our visible inauguration into the company of Christ's people by baptism ; for many that are baptized may never enter into the kingdom of God. Baptism indeed is the outward sign and seal of it, and therefore called the ' laver of regeneration,' Titus iii. 5. But we must distinguish between the outward sign and the spiritual effect. There is signum and I'cs terrena, the sign and earthly matter ; and there is signatum and res ccelestis, the heavenly work signified. The sign is water; the thing signified is the Spirit renewing and fashioning us according to the image of God. Now a man may be born again of water, and yet not born again of the Spirit. Both are necessary : John iii. 5, ' Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter
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into the kingdom "of God.' Simon Magus was baptized, Acts viii. 13, but Simon Magus was not regenerated or born again, being as yet la the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity. It is not submission to outward ordinances, but the efficacy of the Holy Spirit that worketli this work in us. As in Christ's baptism the Holy Ghost descended upon him. What was then done visibly must be done spiritually in every baptism, or else it is of little comfort to us ; for without this God will not own us for sons, as he then owned Christ : ' Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' Well, then, it concerneth us to see that we have the effect of baptism, or otherwise we may be miser- able for all that, yea, the more miserable : 1 Cor. x. 2-5, ' And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink ; for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.' And these things happened to them, &)9 rvTToi, as types and pledges of that everlasting destruction which abidetli for them that rest in their outward admission into the church of God, and never take care to be of the church of the first-born, or to fulfil their baptismal engagement ; that glory in external privi- leges without internal grace. Therefore, if this be all you have to say for yourselves, that you were baptized, or visibly washed in the laver of regeneration, your very plea maketh for your condemnation ; for you do but glory in your breach of vows, and do not look after a gracious change. You forget that ever you were baptized or washed from your sins : 2 Peter i. 9, ' He hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.' You neglect and undervalue the prime benefit of it. Therefore it is a vain plea to say, We are christians ; we are baptized in the name of Christ, and dedicated to his service. This is but a vain plea —