nuurisliment and growth in grace. The Scriptures, therefore, in teaciiing tliat regeneration is a quickening, do thex'eby reveal to us its nature as a work not of man, or of moral suasion, or of divine efficiency operating through second causes, but of the immediate, and therefore the almighty power of God.
The Bible teaches the same truth when it declares believers to be new creatures, and says that they are created anew in Christ Jesus. Creation is the work of God, and it is an immediate work. It precludes the intervention of means. It is of necessity the work of almighty power, and therefore the Scriptures so often claim it as the peculiar prerogative of God. It is true that the Greek and Hebrew words which we translate by the English word create, are often used in the sense of to make, to fashion out of preexistent materials. They occur, also, in a secondary or fig- urative sense, and express in such cases only the idea of a great, and generally a favourable change, no matter how produced. It would not, therefore, be sufficient to establish the Augustinian doc- trine of regeneration, that it is called a creation, if in other parts of Scripture it were spoken of as a change produced by second causes, and if the means and the mode were described. In that case it would be natural to take the word in a figurative sense. But the contrary of all this is true. If the Bible taught the c;ter- nity of matter, or that the world is an emanation from God, or a mode of God's existence, we should be forced to give a figurative sense to the words, " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." But as the Scriptures tell us that God alone is eter- nal, and that all else owes its existence to his will, we are author- ized and bound to retain these words in their simple and sublime significance. Now, as regeneration is always declared to be God's work, his peculiar work, and a work of his mighty power, analo- goias to that which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead ; as it is declared to be a making alive, an opening of the eyes, and an unstopping the ears ; then, when it is also called a nevv creation, we are bound to understand that term as containing a new assertion that it is a work of almighty powei*.
Another common Scriptural representation leads to the same conclusion. Believers are the children of God, not merely as his rational creatures, but as the subjects of a new birth. They are born of God. They are born of the Spirit. They are begotten of God. 1 John v. 1-18. The essential idea in such representa- tions, is that of communication of life. We derive one form of life from our corrupt earthly parents, and another from the Spirit,
702 PART III. Cu. XIV. — VOCATION.
" Tiiat which is born of the flesh, is flesh ; and tliat which is born of the Spirit, is Spirit." (John iii. 6.) In the case of creatures, this communication of life by the parent to the offs[)riiio; is merely transmission. In the case of God, the fountain of all life, it is a real communication. He originates the life which He gives. As it is utterly incongruous to think of a creature's begetting itself, or originating its own life : and no less incongruous to regard this commencement of life or being, as brought about by secondary in- fluences, so is it utterly inconsistent with the Scriptures to regard regeneration as a man's own work, or as due to his cooperation, or as produced by the influences of truth. As well might it be assumed that ligiit, heat, and moisture could make a dead seed germinate, and bring forth fruit. All beginning of life is directly from God ; and this is wiiat the Bible most explicitly asserts to be true of re- generation. Those who become the children of God are "■ born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John i. 13.)
This argument is not invalidated by the fact that Paul says to the Corinthians, " I have begotten you through the gospel." All words are used literally and figuratively ; and no man is misled (or need be) by this change of meaning. We are accustomed to speak of one man as the spiritual father of another man, without any fear. of being misunderstood. When the historian tells us that the monk Augustine converted the Britons, or the American missionaries the Sandwich Islanders, we are in no danger of mis- taking his meaning ; any more than when it is said that Moses di- vided the Red Sea, or brought water out of the rock, or gave the people manna out of heaven. The same Paul who told the Cor- inthians that he had " begotten them through the gospel," told them in another place, " 1 have planted, Apollos watered : but God gave the increase. So then, neither is he that planteth any- thing, neither he that watereth ; but God that giveth the increase." (1 Cor. iii. 6, 7.)
In 1 Peter i. 23, it is written, "Being born again, not of corrup- tible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, whicli liveth and abideth forever." From this passage it is sometimes inferred that the new birth is a change produced not by tiie immediate agency of God, but instrumentally by the Word, and therefore by a rational process, or moral suasion. It has, however, been already remarked that regeneration is often taken in the wide sense of con- version. That is, for the whole change which takes place in the sinner when he is made a child of God. This is a comprehensive