[But can we conceive that, when a ruler of the Jews came to our Lord, acknowledging him to be a teacher sent from God, and desiring to be instructed in those things which he was come to reveal, our Lord would tell him that wicked men could not be saved without reforming their lives ? Did Nicodemus need such information as that ? Or, if this was all that our Lord meant, would this teacher in Israel have been so astonished at it ? And would not our Lord have instantly rectified his misapprehension, and shewn him that there was no cause for astonishment? Can we imagine that our Lord would have confirmed the mistake, by representing this doc- trine as an incomprehensible mystery, which man can no more fathom, than he can ascertain the hidden causes, or mark the exact boundaries, of the wind ? Yea, would he have left this man so bewildered, saying, How can these things be ! if he had meant no more than, that a wicked man must reform his life ? Nor is it less evident that regeneration does not consist in a partial change even of the inward man. To what purpose should we boast of having experienced the illumination of Balaam0, the humiliation of Ahabd, the confession of Judas e, the faith of Simon Magus f, the confidence of the unbelieving Jewsg, the attention of Ezekiel's auditors11, the reformation of Herod', or (what perhaps includes all these together) the promising appearance of the stony-ground hearers k, if, like them, we rest in any partial change ? Surely, if our righteous- ness exceed not theirs, we cannot hope that we shall be happier than they in our final doom.]
In opposition to all such erroneous notions, the Scripture itself defines regeneration to be " a new creation, wherein old things pass away, and all things become new1."
[The author of this work is the Holy Spirit, who by a supernatural agency renews our inward man, and makes us partakers of a divine nature m. Our faculties indeed remain the same as they were before ; but there is a new direction given to them all. Our understanding is enlightened, so that we behold ourselves, and Christ, and the world, yea, every thing else too, in a very different light from what we ever did before" Our will is changed, so that instead of fol- lowing, or even desiring to follow, our own way, we surren- der up ourselves altogether to God's government, saying most unfeignedly, Not my will, but thine be done0 Our
c Numb. xxiv. 4. d 1 Kings xxi. 29. e Matt, xxvii. 4.
f Acts viii. 13,21,23. e John viii. 41, 42. h Ezek. xxxiii. 31.
J Mark vi. 20, 27. k Matt. xiii. 20, 21. ' 2 Cor. v. 17.
m 2 Pet. i. 4. n Acts ii. 37 — 47. ° Actsix. (J.