has God said, " Who, except the heart-searching God, can know it ?"
But once more ; — It is incurably evil. Whether or not, as some have thought, this is the precise import of the word, it is plain that the idea is strongly con- veyed in our translation, as it stands. Verily our case, as to any human remedies at least, is desperate. We call not any case desperate in relation to the Gospel ; because there is no sin from which the blood of Christ cannot cleanse us, nor any corruption, which the Spirit of Christ is not able to subdue. But to human means the wickedness of our hearts bids de- fiance : they can no more overcome it, than Elisha's staff in Gehazi's hand could raise the Shunamite's child to life. No resolutions of ours, no exertions, can banish it from the soul. We may on many occa- sions restrain its actings ; for even the presence of a fellow-creature will often impose a more effectual restraint than the presence of our God : but we cannot subdue it, we cannot mortify it, we cannot purge it away : it is like the leprosy in the house, that could not be in any way removed, but by pulling down the house altogether. This, it must be confessed, is a melancholy picture : but it is the very truth of God, and is known, and felt, to be so, by all who are taught of God.
Now from this view of our subject we may clearly see —
1 . The true ground of the doctrine of the new birth —
It is surprising how often the Scripture speaks respecting the being " born again," the being ". be- gotten of God," and " born of God :" which terms must of necessity import, not merely an outward change of state or profession in baptism, but an in- ward change of heart, a passing " from darkness to light," " from death to life." It is to be " born, not of water only, but of the Spirit also." When that takes place, we die to sin, and begin to live unto righteousness : we become " new creatures in Christ Jesus : old things pass away ; and all things become
tm JEREMIAH, XVII. 9. [1056.
newg." Baptism is the sign and seal of it, but not the thing itself. What the circumcision of the heart was, as compared with the circumcision of the flesh, that the new birth is, as compared with baptism : it is the real radical change, of which the external rite was a type or shadow11. Now this change is abso- lutely and indispensably necessary to the salvation of the soul : " Verily, verily I say unto you," says our Lord, " except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." But why so ? why must every child of man undergo such a change as this ? For this plain reason ; He is so radically corrupt in every faculty and power of his soul by nature, as to be absolutely incapable of enjoying heaven, even if he were there : having no love to a holy God, nor any delight in holy employments here, he would be destitute of them there ; being filthy here, he would be " filthy still" This, we apprehend, is the exact meaning of those words of our Lord, " That which is born of the flesh, is flesh ; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit." Nicodemus not understanding the nature, or the reasons, of the doctrine which our Lord had insisted on, our Lord told him, that the new birth was founded on our unfitness by nature for the kingdom of heaven ; since that which was born of the flesh, being only fleshly, was altogether incapable of spiritual enjoyments; whereas that which was born of the Spirit being spiritual, it was necessary to fit us for the exercises and employments of a spiri- tual kingdom. Let us not then deceive ourselves with vain disputations about words, but let us attend to things which admit of no doubt. Our hearts are by nature " deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked ;" and they must be changed by the operation of the Spirit of God : we must have " the heart of