3. This habitual power or spiritual principle, as it worketh forth towards several objects, and in several kinds and ways of operation, hath divers names; as faith, hope, love, meekness; all which are called so many graces or fruits of the Spirit, but indeed are but the various discoveries of the same principle of spiritual life, according to the several uses for which it serveth. Or if you will distinguish them for clearness, there is, first, a spiritual principle ; secondly, spiritual habits ; thirdly, actual operations and motions according to those habits ; the spiritual principle of saving grace flowing in a regenerate man from Christ, his head, by the Spirit of God.
This habitual grace with relation to various objects is called charit}', faith, hope, temperance, &c. ; all which are but the diversification of the actings of that spiritual principle. These are much increased and strengthened by the use and much exercise of them.
But you will say, How cometh it then to pass that christians excel more in one grace than another ?
Ans. Becau.se the spiritual principle is more exercised and drawn out
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that way, as most suitable to their temper ; Abraham for faith, Timothy for temperance, Moses for meekness, and Job for patience.
Out of all we may gather, that regeneration is not the improving what was in us before, nor the strengthening of what was weak, but the bestowing of something that we had not before ; a vital principle or habitual power.
Secondly, How we may discover that such a work hath been wrought in us. There are ways of knowing it — (1.) By the manner of working it ; (2.) By the effects of it.
1. Sometimes it may be evident by the manner of working, because this work hath certain preparations which lead tTiereunto, and are very sensible, as terrors and agonies in the heart, by a sense of our miserable condition. Now if we consider when we felt these terrors and awaken- ings, and how we came out of them, a man may go near to trace the way of God with him, and to observe his passage from death to life. Now because regeneration, though for the most part (yet is not always) evident to sense in the way and progress of the work, yet it may be evident in the discovery and fruits of it ; and it may fall out with some as it did with the blind man in the 9th of John, who, when they asked him what Christ did to him, how he opened his eyes, answered, I can- not tell; but this one thing I know, that whereas I was born blind, I now see ; so how or when Christ was formed in me, when the immortal seed was sown in my heart, I cannot tell, but I am glad to find him here. Therefore I shall in the second place see what are the effects of this work.
2. Tiiere are such effects left upon us as are —
[1.] Answerable to baptism, which is the sign and seal of it : Titus iii. 5, ' He hath saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renew- ing of the Holy Ghost/ Then they did dvaOe/juaTi^eiv eavTov<i rw ©ew as Justin speaks, solemnly dedicate themselves to God. That is our first solemn implantation into Christ's mystical body. The spiritual life beginneth in an entering into covenant with God, or a dedication of ourselves to him ; for the first impression left upon the soul is a ten- dency towards God ; and therefore, as soon as grace entereth, we devote ourselves to his use and service : 2 Cor. viii. 5, ' But first gave them- selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God ; ' Rom. vi. 13, ' Yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.' And that is the meaning of being baptized into the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Mat. xxviii. 19. We take Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to be our God, and heartily and really profess ourselves to be his people. God the Father to be our sovereign lord and everlasting portion, God the Son to be our redeemer and saviour, and God the Holy Ghost to be our sanctifier, guide, and comforter. We take God to be our sovereign lord, to obey his will, to please him in all things, and also to be our everlasting and all-sufficient portion ; reckoning our happiness by his love and favour, and preferring it above all the delights of sense, and the pleasures, honours, and profits of the world. If this be the frame of our hearts, we are, regenerated : Ps. Ixxiii. 25, ' Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee ; ' Ps. Ixiii. 3, ' Because thy loving-kindness is better than life, my
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lips shall praise thee.' To his jiulgment we must finally stand or fall; if we take Christ for our redeemer and saviour, who only can reconcile us to Grod, and repair the ruins of the fall, and maintain God's interest in our souls : 1 Peter iii. 18, ' For Christ also hath suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God ; being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit ; ' John xiv. 6, ' I am the way, the truth, and the life : no man cometh to the Father but by me.' There- fore, continuing in well-doing, we may venture our souls in his hands, and by him come to God, depending upon his merit, righteousness, and intercession, and taking his promises for the ground of our faith and hope. And we must give up ourselves to the Spirit, to sanctify and guide us in the ways of life, and to perfect the image of God in us, and prepare us for glory. The Spirit is as necessary to keep all right between us and Christ, as Christ between us and God. This being the great necessary vital act, I would pitch the evidence here : If you have God for your God, then you are regenerated ; if Christ for your redeemer: 1 John V. 12, ' He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life ; ' if the Spirit for your guide and sanctifier. Take either of the notions, for one implieth all, though it be good to be dis- tinct in them.