' " Urat lumen verum quce iUuminat omncm hominem vcnkntcm in hunc mundiim; idco dictum est, quia uullus liomiuum illumiuatur, nisi illo lumine veritatis quod Deus est, ne quisquara putaret ab co se illumiuari a quo alicjuid audit ut discat ; nou dico si qucn- quam magnum hominem, sed ncc si angelum ei coutingat habere doctotem. Adhibetur enim sermo veritatis extrinsecus vocis ministerio coi'poralis ; verumtamcn negiie qui plan- tat est aliquid, ncque qui rigat, sed qui incrementum dat Deus. Audit quippc homo dicen- tem vel hominem A'el angelum, sed ut sentiat et cognoscat verum esse quod dicitur, illo lumine iutus mens ejus aspergitur quod tcternum manct, quod ctiam in tenebris lucct." — August, dc Pcccat. Merit, et Remiss, lib. i. cap. 25.
CHAP, v.] OF KEGENERATION. 833
plainly plead tliem to be, and will not content themselves with an ascription unto them of that notional, doctrinal knowledge which none deny them to be capable of, I desire to know to what purpose are they said to be "renewed by the Holy Ghost?'' to what purpose are all those gracious actings of God in them before recounted ? He that shall consider what, on the one hand, the Scripture teacheth us concerning the blindness, darkness, impotency of our minds, with respect unto spiritual things, when proposed unto us, as in the state of nature ; and, on the other, what it affirms concerning the work of the Holy Ghost in their renovation and change, in giving them new power, new ability, a new, active understanding, — will not be much moved with the groundless, confident, unproved dictates of some concerning the power of reason in itself to apprehend and discern religious things, so far as we are required in a way of duty. This is all one as if they should sa}^, that if the suu shine clear and bright, every blind man is able to see.
God herein is said to communicate a light unto our minds, and that so as that we shall see by it, or j)erceive by it, the things proposed unto us in the gospel usefully and savingly : 2 Cor. iv. 6, " God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Did God no otherwise work on the minds of men but by an external, objective iwoposal of truth unto them, to what purpose doth the apostle mention the almighty act of creating power which he put forth and exercised in the first production of natural light out of darkness? What allusion is there between that work and the doctrinal proposal of truth to the minds of men? It is, therefore, a confidence not to be contended with, if any will deny that the act of God in the spiritual illumination of our minds be of the same nature, as to efficacy and efficiency, with that whereby he created light at the beginning of all things. And because the effect produced in us is called " light,'' the act itself is described by "shin- ing:" " God hath shined in our hearts," — that is, our minds. So he conve3's light unto them by an act of omnipotent efficiency. And as that which is so wrought in our minds is called "light," so the apostle, leaving his metaphor, plainly declares what he intends thereby, — namely, the actual " knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ;" that is, as God is revealed in Christ by the gospel, as he declares, verse 4. Having, therefore, first, compared the mind of man by nature, with respect unto a power of discerning spiritual things, to the state of all things under darkness before the creation of light; and, secondly, the powerful working of God in illumination unto the act of his omnipotency in the production or creation of light natural, — he ascribes our ability to know, and our actual know-
384! THE NATURE, CAUSES, AND MEANS [BOOK III.
ledge of God in Christ, unto bis real efficiency and operation. And these things in part direct us towards an apprehension of that work of the Holy Sjoirit upon the minds of men in their conversion unto God whereby their depravation is cured, and without which it will not so be. By this means, and no otherwise, do we who were " dark- ness" become " light in the Lord," or come to know God in Christ savingly, looking into and discerning spiritual things with a proper intuitive sight, whereby all the other faculties of our souls are guided and influenced unto the obedience of faith.
(2.) It is principally with respect unto the luill and its deprava- tion by nature that we are said to be dead in sin. And herein is seated that peculiar obstinacy, whence it is that no unregenerate person doth or can answer his own convictions, or walk up unto his light in obedience. For the will may be considered two ways : — first, As a rational, vital faculty of our souls; secondly, As a free principle,^ freedom being of its essence or nature. This, therefore, in our conversion to God, is renewed by the Holy Ghost, and that by an effectual implantation in it of a principle of spiritual life and holiness in the room of that original righteousness which it lost by the fall. That he doth so is proved by all the testimonies before insisted on: — First, This is its renovation as it is a rational, vital faculty ; and of this vivification see before. Secondly, As it is a free principle, it is determined unto its acts in this case by the powerful operation of the Holy Ghost, without the least impeachment of its liberty or freedom ; as hath been declared. And that this is so might be fully evinced, as by others so by the ensuing arguments; for if the Holy Ghost do not work immediately and effectually upon the will, producing and creating in it a principle of faith and obedience, infallibly determining it in its free acts, then is all the glory of our conversion to be ascribed unto ourselves, and we make ourselves therein, by the obediential actings of our OAvn free will, to differ from others who do not so comply with the grace of God ; which is denied by the apostle, 1 Cor. iv, 7. Neither can any purpose of God con- cerning the conversion of , any one soul be certain and determinate, seeing after he hath done all that is to be done, or can be done to- wards it, the will, remaining undetermined, may not be converted, contrary to those testimonies of our Saviour, Matt. xi. 25, 26; John vi. 37; Rom. viii. 29. Neither can there be an original infallibi- lity in the promises of God made to Jesus Christ concerning the multitudes that should believe in him, seeing it is possible no one may so do, if it depend on the undetermined liberty of their wills whether they will or no. And then, also, must salvation of necessity