life. And this spiritual life unfolds or manifests itself just as any other form of life, in all the exercises appropriate to its nature.
It is a New Birth. The same doctrine on this subject is taught in other words when regeneration is declared to be a new birth. At birth the child enters upon a new state of existence. Birth is not its own act. It is born. It comes from a state of darkness, in which the objects adapted to its nature cannot act on it or awaken its activ- ities. As soon as it comes into the world all its faculties are awakened ; it sees, feels, and hears, and gradually unfolds all its faculties as a rational and moral, as well as physical being. The Scriptures teach that it is thus in regeneration. The soul enters upon a new state. It is introduced into a new world. A whole class of objects before unknown or unappreciated are revealed to it, and exercise upon it their appropriate influence. The " things of the Spirit " become the chief objects of desire and pursuit, and all the energies of the new-born soul are directed towards the spiritual, as distinguished from the seen and temporal. This representation is in accordance with the evangelical doctrine on this subject. It is not consistent with any of the false theories of regeneration, which regard regeneration as the sinner's own act ; as a mere change of purpose ; or as a gradual process of moral culture.
A New Heart.
Another mode in which this doctrine is set forth is found in those passages in which God is represented as giving his people a new heart. The heart in Scripture is that which thinks, feels, wills, and acts. It is the soul ; the self. A new heart is, there- fore, a new self, a new man. It implies a change of the whole character. It is a new nature. Out of the heart proceed all conscious, voluntary, moral exercises. A change of heart, there- fore, is a change which precedes these exercises and determines their character. A new heart is to a man what goodness is to the tree in the parable of our Lord.
In regeneration, therefore, there is a new life communicated to the soul ; the man is the subject of a new birth ; he receives a new nature or new heart, and becomes a new creature. As the change is neither in the substance nor in the mere exercises of the soul, it is in those immanent dispositions, principles, tastes, or habits which underlie all conscious exercises, and determine the character of the man and of all his acts.
86 PART HI. Ch. XV. — regeneration.
The whole Soul the Subject of this change, 6. According to the evangelical doctrine the whole soul is the subject of regeneration. It is neither the intellect to the exclu- sion of the feelings, nor the feelings to the exclusion of the intel- lect ; nor is it the will alone, either in its wider or in its more limited sense, that is the subject of the change in question. This is evident, —
(1.) Because the soul is a unit, and is so recognized in Scrip- ture. Its faculties are not so dissociated that one can be good and another bad, one saved and another lost, one active in the sphere of morals and religion and the others inactive. In ev- ery such exercise the intelligence, the feelings, the will, and the conscience, or moral consciousness, are of necessity involved.
(2.) In the description of this work all the faculties of the soul are represented as affected. The mind is illuminated, the eyes of the understanding are opened ; the heart is renewed ; the will is conquered, or, the man is made willing.
(3.) When Lazarus was restored to life, it was not one member of the body, or one faculty that received the vivifying influence. It was not the heart that was set in motion, the brain and lungs being restored by its action. It was the whole man that was made alive. And it is the whole soul that is regenerated.
(4.) This is further evident from the effects ascribed to regen- eration. These effects are not confined to any one department <>ur nature. Regeneration secures right knowledge as well as right feeling; and right feeling is not the effect of right knowl- edge nor is right knowledge the effect of right feeling. The two are the inseparable effects of a work which affects the whole
in nfdlTw.r t°-d *eaCh6S that the tree must be ™de good
of IZ , i6 ^ fh°Uld be S°°d' {t was not ™J one part of the tree which must be changed, but the whole tree. In like
~biect oSf Satn * " ^ "^ ^ "** °f itS lif *' that * tne subject of that hfe-givmg power of the Holy Ghost, by which
t becomes a new creature. The doctrine that regeneration Tis a change affecting only one of the faculties of the soul has i* W
TtheXa ^Ch0l°^ theory, and has no'authoriTy