318 SERMONS UrON 1 PETER I. 23. [SeR. III.
Gal. V. 25, ' If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.' Spiritual motion and action presupposeth a principle of spiritual life, as a thing previous unto and different from it. Therefore you do but delude yourselves to think to alter your course and way, or do anything pleasing to God, without a principle of life. Therefore it is not enough to look after a change ; is it a spiritual change, a passing from death to life, so that you are born again ?
[3.] It is not a slight tincture and superficial gospel change. Some have good moods, pretend to religion for a while, which may produce some notable reformation ; as those that ' have escaped the ])ollutions of the world throu":h the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.' These may cleanse their outside, and yet be worse than they were before the change ; never renouncing their secret lusts, though forbearing some acts of sin. These have real inclinations to be happy, some slight tincture of holiness, but not a new creature. The carnal nature will return to its old bias again.
[4.] It is not an internal, transient motion. Some are affected at times, as an assumed body by an angel is moved and carried up and down for a time. It is not a transient motion by which the soul is a little moved, as fire is excited by the bellows ; but an infusion of true life, as a principle of operation. Not an actual motion, but an habi- tual mutation : ' He that is born of God, the seed of God remaineth in him,' 1 John iii. 9, which cannot be understood of transient actions, but true and permanent qualities : John iv. 14, ' But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.' The Spirit doth not only work on them, but dwell in them by virtue of those permanent and fixed habits which he hath wrought in the soul. This is not a stream or a pond, but a well, always springing and bubbling up in holy actions ; and by this a renewed man differeth from another, that he hath abiding in him the seed of God, or a gracious principle which liveth and groweth more and more. There may be a transient operation in carnal men : Num. xxiii. 5, ' The Lord put a word into Balaam's mouth ; ' Num. xxiv, 15, ' And Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are opened hath said ; ' and Saul : 1 Sam. x. 10, ' The Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them ; ' as the air enlightened by the sun retaineth that light no longer than the sun shineth into it, because it hath no fountain of light in itself. There are some acts the Holy Ghost worketh as a passenger, not as an inhabitant; but a regenerate man hath the 'anointing abiding in himself,' 1 John ii. 27. Well, then, it is not to have some fleeting motions, as Herod had his joy, and Jehu his zeal, and Felix his trembling, and Balaam and Saul their prophetic fits and starts ; but the Spirit of God doth dwell with us. It is true he doth not act always at the same rate ; and therefoie a christian is sometimes enlarged and sometimes straitened, according to the measure of actual influence ; but still there he is, there is still an indwelling principle of life. The life of God doth not appear with a like activity, but it abideth with us.
2. Let us see what it is, or wherein it consists. It is the infusion of a new life. You may conceive it thus —
[1.] We are united to Christ by the Spirit of sanctification. There is
VeR. 23.] SERMONS UPON 1 PETER I. 23. 319
no fountain of life but God alone, and no means to convey it to us but Jesus Christ : John v. 26, ' For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself ; ' John xiv. 6, ' Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life ; no man cometh unto the Father but by me ; ' Col. iii. 3, ' Your life is hid with Christ in God.' From God, as the fountain of all grace, it cometh out through Christ by the Spirit. There is an inseparable union by the Spirit, often called ' the beginning of the creation of God,' Eev. iii. 14.
[2.] The Spirit that thus worketh in us dwelleth in us, or giveth us that habitual power which enabletli us to do all things spiritually. An habitual power I call it, because there is no fitter name to express it by ; for it abideth constantly in them that receive it, as habits do in those that have them. Notwithstanding it differeth, because habits are partly and wholly acquired by use and often practice ; whereas this is not gotten, but infused. Or you may call it a spiritual principle. But for the name there is no such great mattei' as for the power. This new principle is not a new faculty added to those which are in men by nature. A man that is regenerate hath no more faculties in his soul than he had before as unregenerate ; only those faculties which he had before are improved, and receive a further strength to act spiritually, as before they did naturally. As our bodies in the resurrection from the dead shall have no more nor other parts than they have at pre- sent, only those which are now natural shall then be made spiritual : 1 Cor. XV. 46, ' Howbeit, that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual.' Or as those natural and sensitive faculties which we have in common with the beasts ; what they (having no higher principle than sense) use sensually, we, having the same faculties under the command of a rational soul, use rationally ; so that understanding, will, and affections, which were formerly under the command of reason, and so could produce nothing but rational operations, now being under the guidance of the Spirit of Christ, work spiritually. Therefore a regenerate man is said to ' walk after the Spirit,' Rom viii. 1, in opposition to fleshly interests ; to be led by the Spirit, Gal. v. 18 ; to ' walk in the Spirit,' ver. 25.