the former sentiment makes God the cause of evil, the latter denies him to be the cause of good. But on this subject also St. James rectifies our views ; assur- ing us, that, as all light proceeds from the sun, so does " every good and perfect gift come down from above, even from God the Father of lights." We may indeed have great changes, as from day to night, or from summer to winter : but these arise from our- selves only ; for " with him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning ;" and, if we have less abundant communications from him at one time than another, it is owing to the change of our position with respect to him, and to our temporary departure from him. If, on the contrary, a spiritual change has taken place in any of us, so that we have been born again, it is because " he begat us with the word of truth ;" and begat us, not on account of any merit in us, but purely " of his own will," and " to the praise of the glory of his own grace."
In this assertion of the Apostle the whole subject of regeneration or conversion comes before us : and we shall be led to mark,
I. The source from whence it flows —
It is not from man —
[Man has neither power nor inclination to convert himself truly and thoroughly to God. If only we consider what is said in the Scriptures respecting the extreme weakness of man in relation to every thing that is spiritually good, — that " without Christ he can do nothing ;" that " no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost;" and that " we are not of ourselves sufficient even to think any thing that is good ;" that our sufficiency even for that is of God alone, — how can it be thought that we should be able to " put off the old man and to put on the new," and to " renew ourselves in the spirit of our minds after the image of our God in righteousness and true holiness ? " The very terms in which this change is spoken of, as a resurrection, a new birth, a new creation, clearly import, that it is beyond the power of man to effect it in himself. We need go no further than to the image used in the text itself, to shew the utter absurdity of any such idea. Nor have any others a power to effect it in us : for man can only address himself to our outward senses: he has no access whatever to our hearts ; he can therefore never accomplish in