__________________________________________________________________

           Title: A Discourse of the Efficient of Regeneration
      Creator(s): Charnock, Stephen (1628-1680)
   CCEL Subjects: All; Theology;
      LC Call no: BT130
     LC Subjects:

                  Doctrinal theology

                  God

                  Divine Attributes
     __________________________________________________________________

                  A Discourse of the Efficient of Regeneration

  by

Stephen Charnock
     __________________________________________________________________

A Discourse of the Efficient of Regeneration

  Part 1

   Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the
   will of man, but of God.--John 1:13.

   This evangelist so plainly describes the deity of Christ, and in so
   majestic a style, in the beginning of the chapter, that the accidental
   view of it in a book lying open by neglect, was instrumental for the
   conversion of Junius, that eminent light in the church, from his
   atheism.

   We shall take our rise only from ver. 9, 'That was the true light,
   which lightens every man that comes into the world.' John Baptist, who,
   ver. 6, &c., was to bear witness of this light, was a light by our
   Saviour's assertion, 'a burning and a shining light,' John v. 35, but
   not that 'true light' which was promised, Isa. xlix. 6, to be 'a light
   to the Gentiles, and the salvation of God to the ends of the earth.'
   The sun is the true light in the heavens and of the world; not but that
   other stars are lights too, but they all receive their light from the
   sun. Christ is called the true light, by nature and essence, not by
   grace and participation: 1 John v. 20, 'We know him that is true; and
   we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ,' the natural
   light and Son of God.

   1. True, as opposed to types, which were shadows of this light.

   2. True, as opposed to false. Philosophical lights, though esteemed so,
   are but darkness, and ignes fatui, in comparison of this.

   3. True original light, ratione officii, illustrating the whole world
   with his light. Whatsoever is light in heaven or earth, borrows it from
   the sun; whosoever is enlightened in the world, derives from him 'which
   lights every man that comes into the world.' Some join coming into the
   world, to lift, and read it thus, 'He is the light coming into the
   world, which lights every man.' The Greek is something ambiguous, and
   it may be referred to light, though not so commodiously. But the
   translation which we have has been followed in all ages of the church;
   and is contended for (the other is contended for? editor) only by those
   who deny the deity of our Saviour, or are somewhat affected to them
   that do.

   How does Christ light every man that comes into the world?

   1. Naturally. So Calvin; the world was made by him, and therefore that
   which is the beauty of the world, the reason of man, was made kindled
   by him. As all the light the world has had since the creation flows
   from the sun, so all the knowledge which sparkles in any man is
   communicated by Christ, even since the creation, as he is the wisdom of
   God, and as mediator, preserving those broken relics of the fall: Prov.
   xx. 27, 'The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord,' lighted and
   preserved by him. The light of nature, those common notions of fit and
   just in men's consciences, those honest and honourable principles in
   the hearts of any, those beams of wisdom in their understanding, though
   faint, and like sparkles raked up in ashes, are kept alive by his
   mediatory influence, as a necessary foundation for that, reparation
   which was intended in his first interposition.

   2. Spiritually. So not only the Socinians, but some very sound,
   understand it; not that all are actually enlightened, but,

   (1.) In regard of power and sufficiency, he has a power to enlighten
   every man; able to enlighten, not a few, but every man in the world, as
   the sun does not light every man, though it has a power to do so, and
   does actually light every man that shuts not his eyes against it.

   (2.) Actually, taking it distributive, not collective; that whosoever
   is enlightened in the world, has it communicated from Christ; as Ps.
   cxlv. 14, 'The Lord upholds all that fall, and raises up all those that
   are bowed down;' as many as are upheld and raised, are upheld and
   raised by God' He does indeed 'shine in darkness,' his light breaks out
   upon men, but they are not the better for it, because 'the darkness
   comprehends it not'; as when there is but one schoolmaster in a town,
   we usually say, he teaches all the boys in the town; not that every
   individual boy comes to school, but as many as are taught, are taught
   by him. I embrace the former, because the evangelist seems to begin
   with his person, as God; his office, as mediator; and then descends to
   his incarnation; and it is a sense which puts no force upon the words.
   And I suppose that every man is added, to beat down the proud conceits
   of the Jews, who regarded the Gentiles with contempt, as not enjoying
   the privileges conferred upon themselves; but the evangelist declares,
   that what the Gentiles had in natural light, and what they were to have
   in spiritual light, did, and was to come from him, who would disperse
   his beams in all nations, ver. 10. And therefore 'he was in the world,'
   before his coming in the flesh, in regard of his virtue and efficacy,
   by the spreading his beams over the world, enlightening men in all ages
   and places with that common light of nature; he was near to every man;
   'in him they lived, and moved, and had their being;' but the world by
   their natural wisdom knew him not, and glorified him not. 'The world
   was made by him, yet the world know him not.' Ingratitude has been the
   constant portion of the mediator, from the world; they knew him not in
   past ages, knew him not in the present age of his coming in the flesh;
   they did not acknowledge him with that affection, reverence, and
   subjection that was due to him.

   He aggravates this contempt of Christ,

   1. By the general right be had, 'he came to his own,' "Eis ta idia",
   ver. 11, meaning the world, it being put in the neuter gender. The
   whole world was his property and his goods, yet they knew not their
   owner. In this, worse than the ox or ass.

   2. By the special privileges conferred on those to whom he first came,
   and from whom he should have the most welcome reception; implied in
   these words, 'and his own,' "hoi idioi", in the masculine gender, his
   own people, that had been his treasure, to whom he had given his law,
   entrusted with the covenants and oracles of God, these 'received him
   not.' His own, some say, as being peculiarly committed to him, the
   angel of the covenant; whereas other nations were committed to angels
   to receive laws from them. His own flesh and blood, who expected a
   Messiah, to whom he was particularly sent, as being the lost sheep of
   the house of Israel. Christ is most rejected where proffers most
   kindness. Those of Tyre and Sidon, those of Sodom and Gomorrah, would
   not have used him so ill as Capernaum and Jerusalem, his own people. He
   descends to show the loss of them that rejected him, the benefit of
   those that received him: ver. 12, 'But as many as received him, to them
   gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on
   his name.'

   Where is,

   1. The subject: these that received him.

   2. The benefit: the dignity of sonship.

   3. The manner of conferring this benefit: 'gave them power.'

   4. The instrumental cause: 'believe on his name.' Though his own
   rejected him, they lost a dignity which was conferred upon those that
   received him: he lost not his pains, for he gathered sons to God out of
   all parts of the world. 'To as many as received him.' It was not now
   peculiar to the Jews, who boasted of being Abraham's seed, and to have
   the covenant entailed upon them to be the people of God. It was now
   conferred upon those who were before Lo-ammi and Lo-ruhamah, Hos. ii.
   23. It was nothing but faith on his name that gave men the privilege of
   being the sons of God, and this was communicated to Gentiles as well as
   Jews. Power: not a power, but a dignity, as the word properly
   signifies. Not a power if they would, but a will, for they were born of
   the will of God. Faith brings men into a special relation to God; which
   faith is more than an assent and giving credit to God; for to believe
   on God, to believe on his name, is a phrase peculiar to Scripture. 'To
   become the sons of God;' some understand this of sonship by adoption,
   but the following verse gives us light to understand it of a sonship by
   regeneration. St Paul uses the word adoption, but St John, both in his
   gospel and epistles, speaks more of the new birth, and sonship by it,
   than any of the other apostles; 'who were born not of blood,' or 'of
   bloods.' He removes all other causes of this, which men might imagine,
   and ascribes it wholly to God. This place is variously interpreted.
   'Not of blood.' Not by natural instinct, says one; not by an
   illustrious stock. The Jews imagined themselves holy by their carnal
   generation from Abraham in a long train of ancestors. Grace runs not in
   a blood. It is not often a flower growing upon every ability; 'not many
   wise, not many mighty.' Not hereditary by a mixture of blood. Natural
   generation makes men no more regenerate than the rich man in hell was
   regenerate by Abraham, his natural ancestor, whom he calls 'father
   Abraham.' Religious parents propagate corruption, not regeneration;
   carnal generation is by nature, not by grace; by descent from Adam, not
   by implantation in Christ. Abraham had an Ishmael, and Isaac an Esau:
   man begets only a mortal body, but grace is the fruit of an
   incorruptible seed. 'Nor of the will of the flesh.' Not by human
   election, as Eve judged of Cain that he should be the Messiah, or Isaac
   of Esau that he should be heir of the promise, as the Jews say. Not by
   a choice of those things which are necessary, profitable, or delightful
   to the flesh; not by a will affected to the flesh, or things of the
   flesh. Not by any sensual appetite, whereby men used to adopt one to
   bear up their names when they scanted posterity of their own. I would
   rather conceive it to be meant of the strength of nature, which is
   called flesh in Scripture; not by legal observances, the ceremonies of
   the law being called carnal or fleshly ordinances, Heb. ix. 10. It is
   not a fruit of nature or profession. 'Nor of the will of man.' Calvin
   takes the will of the flesh and the will of man for one and the same
   thing, the apostle using two expressions only to fix it more upon the
   mind. I rather fudge it to be meant thus: not by natural principles, or
   moral endowments, which are the flower and perfection of man as man. It
   is not arbitrary, of the will of man, or the result naturally of the
   most religious education. All the power of regenerate men in the world
   joined together cannot renew another; all the industry of man, without
   the influence of the heavens in the sun and rain, cannot produce fruit
   in the earth, no, nor the moral industry of men grace in the soul; 'but
   of God,' or the will of God; his own will: James i. 18, 'Of his own
   will begot he us,' exclusive of all other wills mentioned before. It is
   the sole efficiency of God; he has the sole hand in it; therefore we
   are said to be both begotten and born of him, 1 John v. 18. It is so
   purely God's work, that as to the principle he is the sole agent; and
   as to the manifestation of it, he is the principal agent. Not of the
   will of the flesh, that is only corruption; nor of the will of man,
   that at best is but moral nature. But whatsoever the meaning of those
   particular expressions is, the evangelist removes all pretences nature
   may make to the efficiency of this regeneration, and ascribes it wholly
   to God.

   1. There is a removal of false causes.

   2. A position of the true cause.

   (1.) The efficient, God.

   (2.) The manner, by an act of his will.

   Showing thereby,

   [1.] To necessity in him to renew us, no motive but from himself.

   [2.] No merit on our parts. Man cannot merit, say the papists, before
   grace, no child can merit his own birth, no man grace.

   Doct. 1. Man, in all his capacities, is too weak to produce the work of
   regeneration in himself.

   It is subjectively in the creature, not efficiently by the creature,
   neither ourselves nor any other creature, angels, men, ordinances.

   Doct. 2. God alone is the prime efficient cause of regeneration.

   Doct. 1. For the first. Man, in all his capacities, is too weak to
   produce the work of regeneration in himself. This is not the birth of a
   darkened wisdom and an enslaved will. We affect a kind of divinity, and
   would centre ourselves in our own strength; therefore it is good to be
   sensible of our own impotency, that God may have the glory of his own
   grace, and we the comfort of it in a higher principle and higher power
   than our own. It is not the bare proposal of grace, and the leaving the
   will to an indifferent posture, balanced between good and evil,
   undetermined to the one or the other, to incline and determine itself
   which way seems best to it. Not one will, in the whole rank of
   believers, left to themselves. The evangelist excepts not one man among
   them; for as many as received Christ, as many as believed, were the
   sons of God, who were born; which believers, every one that had this
   faith as the means, and this sonship as the privilege, were born not of
   the will of the flesh nor the will of man.

   For the proof of this in general,

   1. God challenges this work as his own, excluding the creature from any
   share as a cause: Ezek. xxxvi. 25-27, 'I will sprinkle clean water upon
   you, I will cleanse you, I will give you a new heart, I will put a new
   spirit into you, I will take away the heart of stone, 1 will give you a
   heart of flesh, I will put my Spirit into you.' Here I will no less
   than seven times. Nothing is allowed to man in the production of this
   work in the least; all that is done by him is the walking in God's
   statutes by virtue of this principle. The sanctifying principle, the
   actual sanctification, the reception of it by the creature, the removal
   of all the obstructions of it, the principle maintaining it, are not in
   the least here attributed to the will of man. God appropriates all to
   himself. He does not say he would be man's assistant, as many men do,
   who tell us only of the assistance of the gospel, as if God in the
   gospel expected the first motions of the will of man to give him a rise
   for the acting of his grace. You see here he gives not an inch to the
   creature. To ascribe the first work, in any part, to the will of man,
   is to deprive God of half his due, to make him but a partner with his
   creature. The least of it cannot be transferred to man but the right of
   God will be diminished, and the creature go shares with his Creator.
   Are we not sufficient of ourselves to do any thing? and are we
   sufficient to part stakes with God in this divine work? What partner
   was the creature with God in creation? It is the Father's traction
   alone, without the hand of free-will. 'None can come, except the
   Father, which has sent me, draw them,' John vi. 44. The mission of the
   Mediator, and the traction of the creature, are by the same hand. Our
   Saviour could not have come unless the Father had sent him, nor can man
   come to Christ unless the Father draw him. What is that which is drawn?
   The will. The will, then, is not the agent; it does not draw itself.

   2. The titles given to regeneration evidence it. It is a creation. What
   creature can give itself a being? It is a putting in a law and a new
   heart. What matter can infuse a soul into itself? It is a new birth.
   What man did ever beget himself? It is an opening the heart. What man
   can do this, who neither has the key, nor is acquainted with the wards?
   Not a man knows the heart; it is deceitful above all things, who can
   know it?

   3. The conveyance of original corruption does in part evidence it. We
   have no more interest of our wills in regeneration, than we had in
   corruption. This was first received by the will of Adam, our first
   head, thence transmitted to us without any actual consent of our wills
   in the first transmission; that is conveyed to us from the second Adam,
   without any actual consent of our wills in the first infusion. Yet
   though the wills of Adam's posterity are mere passive in the first
   conveyance of the corrupt habit from him by generation, yet afterwards
   they are active in the approbations of it, and production of the fruits
   of it. So the will is merely passive in the first conveyance of the
   grace of regeneration, though afterwards it is pleased with it, and
   brings forth fruit meet for it.

   4. Scripture represents man exceeding weak, and unable to do any thing
   spiritually good. 'So then, they that are in the flesh cannot please
   God,' Rom. viii. 8. He concludes it by his so then, as an infallible
   consequence, from what he had discoursed before. If, as being in the
   flesh, they cannot please God, therefore not in that which is the
   highest pleasure to God, a framing themselves to a likeness to him. The
   very desire and endeavour of the creature after this, is some pleasure
   to God, to see a creature struggling after holiness; but they that are
   in the flesh cannot please him. 'Can any good thing come out of
   Nazareth?' was said of our Saviour. So may we better say, Can any good
   thing come out of the flesh, the enslaved, possessed will of man? If it
   be free since it was captivated by sin, who set it free? Nothing can,
   but 'the law of the Spirit of life,' Rom. viii. 2. To be 'sinners,' and
   to be 'without strength,' is one and the same thing in the apostle's
   judgment: Rom. v. 6, 8, 'While we were yet without strength;'
   afterwards, 'while we were yet sinners;' he does not say, We are
   without great strength, but without strength, such an impotence as is
   in a dead man. Not like a man in a swoon, but a man in a grave. God
   only is almighty, and man all impotency; God only is all-sufficient,
   and man all-indigent. It is impossible we can have a strength of our
   own, since our first father was feeble, and conveyed his weakness to
   us; by the same reason that it is impossible we can have a
   righteousness of our own, since our first father sinned: Isa. xliii.
   26, 27, 'Declare, that thou may be justified. Thy first father has
   sinned.'

   5. This weakness is universal. Sin has made its sickly impressions in
   every faculty. The mind is dark, Eph. iv. 18, he cannot know, 1 Cor.
   ii. 14, there is a stoniness in the heart, he cannot bend, Zech. vii.
   12; there is enmity in the will, he cannot be subject, Rom. viii. 7. As
   to faith, he cannot believe, John xii. 89. As to the Spirit, the worker
   of faith, he cannot receive; that is, of himself, John xiv. 17;
   acknowledge Christ he cannot, 1 Cor. xii. 3. As to practice, he cannot
   bring forth fruit, John xv. 4. The unrighteousness introduced by Adam
   poured a poison into every faculty, and dispossessed it of its
   strength, as well as of its beauty: what else could be expected from
   any deadly wound but weakness as well as defilement? The understanding
   conceives only such thoughts as are pleasing to the law of sin; the
   memory is employed in preserving the dictates and decrees of it; the
   imagination full of fancies imprinted by it; the will wholly submitting
   to its authority; conscience standing with fingers in its mouth, for
   the most part not to speak against it; the whole man yielding itself
   and every member to the commands of it, and undertaking nothing but by
   its motions, Rom. vi. 19.

   6. To evince it, there is not one regenerate man but in his first
   conversion is chiefly sensible of his own insufficiency; and universal
   consent is a great argument of the truth of a proposition; it is a
   ground of the belief of a deity, it being the sentiment of all nations.
   I do not speak of disputes about it from the pride of reason, but of
   the inward experience of it in any heart. What more frequent in the
   mouths of those that have some preparations to it by conviction, than I
   cannot repent, I cannot believe, I find my heart rotten, and base, and
   unable to any thing that is good! There have been instances of those
   that would elevate the power of man, and freedom of will in spiritual
   things, who have been confuted in their reasonings, and acknowledged
   themselves so, when God has come to work savingly upon them. Indeed,
   this poverty of spirit, or sense of our own emptiness, insufficiency,
   and indigence, is the first gospel grace wrought in the soul, and
   stands in the head of all those noble qualifications in our Saviours
   sermon, as fitting men for the kingdom of God: 'Blessed are the poor in
   spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,' Mat. v. 3. And God in the
   whole progress of this work keeps believers in a sensibleness of their
   own weakness, thereby to preserve them in a continual dependence on
   him; and therefore sometimes withdraws his Spirit from them, and lets
   them fall, that they may adhere more closely to him, and less confide
   in themselves.

   2. What kind of impotency or insufficiency is there in the soul to be
   the cause of this work?

   Ans. 1. It is not a physical weakness for want of faculties.
   Understanding we have, but not a spiritual light in it to direct us;
   will we have, but no freedom to choose that which is spiritually good.
   Though since the fall we have such a free will left, which pertains to
   the essential nature of man, yet we have lost that liberty which
   belongs to the perfection of human nature, which was to exercise acts
   spiritually good and acceptable to God! Had the faculties been lost,
   Adam had not been capable of a promise or command, and consequently of
   ever sinning after. In Adam, by creation we were possessed of it. In
   Adam, by his corruption, we were stripped of it; we have not lost the
   physical but the moral nature of these faculties; not the faculties
   themselves, but the moral goodness of them. As the elementary heat is
   left in a carcass, which yet is unfit to exercise any animal action for
   want of a soul to enliven it; so, though the faculties remain after
   this spiritual death, we are unfit to exert any spiritual action for
   want of grace to quicken them. If man wanted faculties, this want would
   excuse him in his most extravagant actions: no creature is bound to
   that which is simply impossible; nay, without those faculties, he could
   not act as a rational creature, and so were utterly incapable of
   sinning. Sin has untuned the strings, but did not unstring the soul;
   the faculties were still left, but in such a disorder, that the wit and
   will of man can no more tune them, than the strings of an untuned lute
   can dispose themselves for harmony without a musician's hand.

   2. Neither is it a weakness arising from the greatness of the object
   above the faculty. As when an object is unmeet for a man, because he
   has no power in him to comply with it; as to understand the essence of
   God; this the highest creature in its own nature cannot do, because God
   dwells in inaccessible light; and it is utterly impossible for any
   thing but God to comprehend God. If man were required to become an
   angel, or to rise up and kiss the sun in the firmament; these were
   impossible things, because man wanted a faculty in his primitive nature
   for such acts: so if God had commanded Adam to fly without giving him
   wings, or to speak without giving him a tongue, he had not been guilty
   of sin in not doing it, because it was not disobedience, for
   disobedience is only in what a man has a faculty to do; but to love
   God, praise him, depend upon him, was in the power of man's original
   nature, for they were not above those faculties God endued him with,
   but very correspondent and suitable to him. The objects proposed are in
   themselves intelligible, credible, capable to be comprehended.

   3. Neither is it a weakness arising from the insufficiency of external
   revelation. The means of regeneration are clearly revealed in the
   gospel, the sound is gone into all the earth, Rom. x. 18, and the word
   of the Lord is an apprehensible object; it is 'near us, even in our
   mouths,' Rom. x. 8; 'the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening
   the eyes,' Ps. xix. 8. If the object were hid, the weakness lay not on
   the part of man, but on the insufficiency of revelation; as if any
   thing were revealed to man in an unknown tongue, there were an
   insufficiency in the means of revelation.

   But, 4, it is a moral weakness. The disability lies chiefly in the
   will, John v. 40; what is there, 'You will not come to me,' is, ver.
   44, 'How can you believe?' You cannot, because you will not. Carnal
   lusts prepossess the heart, and make their party in the will against
   the things of God; so that inward propensities to embrace sin, are as
   great as the outward temptations to allure to it, whereby the soul is
   carried down the stream with a wilful violence. In this respect he is
   called dead, though the death be not of the same nature with a natural
   death; for such a one has not the natural faculty to raise himself, but
   this is an impotency arising from a voluntary obstinacy; yet the
   iniquity of a man binds him no less powerfully under this spiritual
   captivity, than a natural death and insensibility keeps men in the
   grave; and those fetters of perversity they can no more knock off, than
   a dead man can raise himself from the grave. By reason of those bands
   they are called prisoners, Isa. xiii. 7, and cannot be delivered
   without the powerful voice of Christ commanding and enabling them to go
   forth: Isa. xlix. 9, 'That thou must say to the prisoner, Go forth.'
   The apostle lays the whole fault of men's not receiving the truth upon
   their wills: 2 Thess. ii. 10, 'They received not the love of the
   truth;' they heard it, they knew it, but they loved not that which
   courted them. It is not seated in any defect of the will, as it is a
   power of the soul; for then God, who created it, would be charged with
   it, and might as well charge beasts to become men, as men to become
   gracious. Man, as a creature, had a power to believe and love God; to
   resist temptations, avoid sin, and live according to nature; but man,
   as corrupted by a habit derived to him from his first parents, and
   increased by a custom in sin, cannot believe, cannot love God, cannot
   bring himself into a good frame; as a musician cannot play a lesson
   when he has the gout in his fingers. When the eyes are full of
   adultery, when the heart is full of evil habits, it 'cannot cease to
   sin,' it cannot be gracious, 2 Pet. ii. 14.

   Now, these habits are either innate, or contracted and increased.

   (1.) Innate. By nature we have a habit of corruption, fundamental of
   all other that grow up in us. Man made a covenant with sin, contracted
   a marriage with it; by virtue of this covenant sin had a full power
   over him. What the apostle speaks of the marriage between man and the
   law, Rom. vii. 1-4, is applicable to this case. Sin as a husband, by
   way of covenant, has a powerful dominion over the will, and binds it as
   long as sin lives; and the will has no power to free itself, unless a
   higher power make a divorce, or by the death of the husband. This is
   the cause of man's obstinacy against any return to God, the will is
   held in the cords of sin, Prov. v. 22. The habit has obtained an
   absolute sovereignty over it: Hosea v. 4, 'They will not frame their
   doings to turn unto their God.' Why? 'For the spirit of whoredoms is in
   the midst of them,' that is, in their hearts. This adulterous or
   idolatrous habit holds their wills in chains, and acts them as a man
   possessed by the devil is acted according to the pleasure of the devil.
   The devil speaks in them, moves in them, and does what he pleases by
   them. And which binds the will faster, this habit is not in a natural
   man by way of a tyranny, but a voluntary sovereignty on the part of the
   will, the will is pleased and tickled with it. As a woman (to use the
   similitude of the Holy Ghost in that place) is so overruled by her
   affections to other lovers that she cannot think of returning to her
   former husband, but her unlawful love plays all its pranks, and rises
   with that force against all arguments from honesty and credit, that it
   keeps her still in the chains of an unlawful lust, so this is not a
   habit which does oppress nature, or force it against its will, but by
   its incorporation, and becoming one with our nature, has quite altered
   it from that original rectitude and simplicity wherein God at first
   framed it. It is a law of sin, which having razed out the purity of the
   law of nature, commands in a greater measure in the stead of it. Hence
   it is as natural to man, in his lapsed state, to have perverse
   dispositions against God, as it is essential to him to be rational. And
   the chariot of that weak remaining reason left us, is overturned by our
   distempered passions; and the nobler part of man is subject to the rule
   of these, which bear down the authority both of reason and God too.
   That one sin of the angels, howsoever complicated we know not, taking
   place as a habit in them, has bound them for ever from rising to do any
   good, or disentangling themselves from it, and may perhaps be meant by
   those 'chains of darkness' wherein they are reserved and held to the
   judgment of the great day, having no will to shake them off, though
   they have light enough to see the torment appointed for them.

   (2.) New contracted and increased habits upon this foundation. Custom
   turns sin more into another nature, and completes the first natural
   disorder. An unrenewed man daily contracts a greater impotency, by
   adding strength to this habit, and putting power into the hands of sin
   to exercise its tyranny, and increasing our headstrong natures in their
   unruliness. It is as impossible of ourselves to shake off the fetters
   of custom, as to suppress the unruliness of nature: Jer. xiii. 23, 'Can
   an Ethiopian change his skin? or a leopard his spots? then may you also
   do good that are accustomed to do evil.' The prophet speaks not here of
   what they were by nature, but what they were by custom; contracting
   thereby such a habit of evil, that, like a chronic disease could not be
   cured by any ordinary means. But may he not accustom himself to do
   good? No, it is as impossible as for an Ethiopian to change his skin.
   Those habits draw a man to delight, and therefore to a necessity, of
   sinning. The pleasure of the heart, joined with the sovereignty of sin,
   are two such strong cords as cannot be untwisted or cut by the soul
   itself, no, not without an overruling grace. It was a simple wound in
   Adam, but such as all nature could not care, much less when we have
   added a world of putrefaction to it. The stronger the habit, the
   greater the impotency. If we could not raze out the stamp of mere
   nature upon our wills, how can we raze out the deeper impressions made
   by the addition of custom? If Adam, who committed but one sin, and that
   in a moment, did not seek to regain his lost integrity, how can any
   other man, who by a multitude of sinful acts has made his habit of a
   giant-like stature, completed many parts of wickedness, and scoffed at
   the rebukes of conscience?

   Let us now see wherein this weakness of our wills to renew ourselves
   does appear.

   1. In a total moral unfitness for this work. Grace being said to make
   us meet for our Master's use, it implies an utter unfitness for God's
   use of ourselves before grace. There is a passive capability, a stump
   left in nature, but no fitness for any activity in nature, no fitness
   in nature for receiving grace, before grace; there is nothing in us
   naturally which does suit or correspond with that which is good in the
   sight of God. That which is natural is found more or less in all men;
   but the gospel, which is the instrument of regeneration, finds nothing
   in the nature of man to comply with the main design of it. There is
   indeed some compliance of moral nature with the moral precepts in the
   gospel, upon which account it has been commended by some heathens; but
   nothing to answer the main intendment of it, which is faith, the top
   grace in regeneration. This has nothing to commend itself to mere
   nature, nor finds an internal principle in man that is pleased with it,
   as other graces do, as love, meekness, patience, &c. For faith strips a
   man of all his own glory, brings himself from himself to live
   dependently upon another, and makes him act for another, not for
   himself; and therefore meets not with any one principle in man to show
   it countenance: 'No good thing dwells in the flesh,' Rom. vii. 18.
   There may be some motions lighting there, as a fly upon a man's face;
   but they have no settled abode, and spring not up from nature. If the
   apostle, who was renewed, found an unfitness in himself to do that
   which was good, how great is that unfitness in a mere natural will,
   which is wholly under the power of the flesh, and has no principle in
   it correspondent to spiritual truth, to renew itself! If this
   regeneration had any foundation in nature, it would be then in most men
   that hear the gospel, because there is not a general contradiction in
   men to those things which are natural; but since there is no good thing
   dwells in any flesh, how can it be fit of itself to be raised into a
   conformity to God, which is the highest pitch of the creature's
   excellency? The Scripture represents us not as earth, which is fit to
   suck in showers from heaven; but as stones, which are only moistened in
   the superficies by the rain, but answers not the intendment of it.
   Adamants are unfit to receive impressions; and the best natural heart
   is no better, like a stone, cold and hard. The soul with its faculties
   is like a bird with its wings, but clogged with lime and clay, unfit to
   fly. A barren wilderness is absolutely unfit to make a pleasant and
   fruitful garden. There is a contractedness of the heart till God
   enlarge and open it, and that in the best nature. Acts xvi. 14, Lydia,
   it is said, worshipped God; there was religion in her, yet the Lord
   opened her heart for the gospel. Can anything be more indisposed than a
   fountain that is always bubbling up poison? So is the heart of man,
   Gen. vi. 5. The least imagination rising up in the heart is evil, and
   can be no better, since the heart itself is a mass of venom. If the
   renewed natures find so much indisposition in the progress of
   sanctification, though their sails be filled with grace, how great must
   it be where corrupt nature only sits at the stern! As when Satan came
   to tempt our Saviour he found nothing in him, no touchwood in his
   nature to take fire by a temptation, so when the Spirit comes, he finds
   no tinder in man to receive readily any spark of grace. This unfitness
   is in the best mere nature, that seems to have but a drop of
   corruption: a drop of water is as unfit to ascend as a greater
   quantity.

   2. There is not only an unfitness, but an unwillingness. A senseless
   sluggishness and drowsiness of soul, loath to be moved. No man does
   readily hold out his arms to embrace the tenders of the gospel. What
   folding of the arms! yet a little more slumber, a little more sin. Man
   is a mere darkness before his effectual calling: 'Who has called us out
   of darkness,' 1 Peter ii. 9. His understanding is darkened; the will
   cannot embrace a thing offered, unless it have powerful arguments to
   persuade it of the goodness of that thing which is offered; which
   arguments are modelled in the understanding, but that being darkened,
   has wrong notions of divine things, therefore cannot represent them to
   the will to be pursued and followed. Adam's running away from God to
   hide himself, after the loss of his original righteousness, discovers
   how unwilling man is to implore God's favour. How deplored is the
   condition of man by sin! since we find not one prayer put up by Adam,
   nor can we suppose any till the promise of recovery was made, though he
   was sensible of his nakedness, and haunted by his conscience: 'I was
   afraid, because I was naked: and I hid myself,' Gen. iii. 10. He had no
   mind, no heart, to turn suppliant unto God; he runs from God, and when
   God finds him out, instead of begging pardon by humble prayer, he
   stands upon his justification, accuses God to be the cause by giving
   him the woman, by whose persuasion he was induced to sin. What glass
   will better discover the good will of nature to God than the first
   motions after the fall!

   3. There is not only an unfitness and unwillingness, but an affection
   to something contrary to the gospel. The nature of outward objects is
   such, that they attract the sensitive appetite, corrupted by sin, to
   prefer them before that which is more excellent; the heart is
   forestalled by an inordinate love of the world, and a pleasure in
   unrighteousness: 2 Thess. ii. 12, they 'believed not the truth, but had
   pleasure in unrighteousness' ("Eudochesantes"), a singular pleasure.
   Where the heart and the devil agree so well, what liking can there be
   to God or his will? Where the amity between sin and the soul is so
   great, that sin is self, and self is sin, how can so delightful a
   friend be discarded, to receive one he thinks his enemy! This weakness
   arises from a love to something different or contrary to what is
   proposed. When a man is so tied to that object which he loves that he
   minds not that contrary object which is revealed by a fit light, as a
   man that has his eyes or his heart fixed upon a fair picture, cannot
   observe many things that occur about him; or if he does consider it, he
   is taken so much with the things he loves, that he seems to hate the
   other; that though he does count it good, yet compared with what he
   loved before, he apprehends it as evil, and judges it evil, merely by
   the error of his mind,--a practical, affected, and voluntary ignorance.
   So though a man may sometimes judge that there is a goodness in the
   gospel and the things proposed, yet his affection to other pleasures,
   which he prefers before the gospel, causes him to shake off any
   thoughts of compliance with it. Now, all natural men in the irons of
   sin are not weary but in love with their fetters, and prize their
   slavery as if it were the most glorious liberty.

   4. There is not only unfitness, and unwillingness, and a contrary
   affection to the gospel, but according to the degrees of this affection
   to other things, there is a strong aversion and enmity to the tenders
   of the gospel. This enmity is more or less in the heart of every
   unrenewed man; though in some it is more restrained and kept down by
   education, yet it will appear more or less upon the approaches of
   grace, which is contrary to nature. As a spark as well as a flame will
   burn, though one has less heat than the other, there is the same
   nature, the same seminal principles in all. The carnal mind, let it be
   never so well flourished by education, is enmity to God; and therefore
   'unable,' because unwilling, 'to be subject to the law,' Rom. viii. 7.
   By nature he is of the devil's party, and has no mind the castle of his
   heart should ever come into the hands of the right owner. It is in
   every faculty. Not one part of the soul will make a mutiny within
   against sin, or take part with God when he comes to lay siege to it;
   when he 'stretches out his hands,' he meets with a 'rebellious and
   gainsaying people,' Rom. x. 21. It can converse with anything but God,
   look with delight upon anything but that which is the only true object
   of delight. It can have no desire to have that law written in his heart
   whose characters he hates. All the expressions in the Scripture
   denoting the work of grace, import man's distaste of it; it is to deny
   self, crucify the flesh. What man has not an aversion to deny what is
   dearest to him, his self; to crucify what is incorporated with him, his
   Isaac, his flesh? The bent of a natural heart, and the design of the
   gospel, which is to lay man as low as the dust, can never agree. A
   corrupt heart, and the propositions of grace, meet together as fire and
   water, with hissing. The language of man, at the proposals of the
   gospel, is much like that of the devils, 'What have we to do with thee?
   Art thou come to destroy us?' Luke iv. 34.

   5. This aversion proceeds on to a resistance. No rebels were ever
   stouter against their prince than an unrenewed soul against the Spirit
   of God: not a moment without arms in his hand; he acts in defence of
   sin, and resistance of grace, and combats with the Spirit as his deadly
   enemy: 'You always resist the Holy Ghost; as your fathers did, so do
   you,' Acts vii. 51. The animosity runs in the whole blood of nature;
   neither the breathings of love, nor the thunderings of threatenings,
   are listened unto. All natural men are hewed out of one quarry of
   stone. The highest rock and the hardest adamant may be dissolved with
   less pains than the heart of man; they all, like a stone, resist the
   force of the hammer, and fly back upon it. All the faculties are full
   of this resistance: the mind, with stout reasoning, gives a repulse to
   grace; the imagination harbours foolish conceits of it; in the heart,
   hardness and refusing to hear; in the affections, disgust and
   displeasure with God's vans, disaffection to his interest; the heart is
   locked, and will not of itself shoot one bolt to let the King of glory
   enter. What party is like to be made for God, by bare nature thus
   possessed? Nature indeed does what it can, though it cannot do what it
   would; for though it resist the outward means and inward motions, yet
   it cannot efficaciously resist the determining grace of God, any more
   than the matter of the creation could resist the all-powerful voice of
   God commanding it to receive this or that form, or Lazarus resist the
   receiving that life Christ conveyed to him by his mighty word. God
   finds a contradiction in our wills, and we are not regenerate because
   our will has consented to the persuasions of grace; for that it does
   not do of itself; but the grace of God disarms our will of all that is
   capable to make resistance, and determines it to accept and rejoice in
   what is offered. Nature of itself is of an unyielding temper, and
   removes not one scale from the eye, nor any splinter from the stone in
   the heart; for how can we be the authors of that which we most resist
   and labour to destroy?

   6. Add to all this, the power of Satan in every natural man, whose
   interest lies in enfeebling the creature. The devil, since his first
   impression upon Adam, has had the universal possession of nature,
   unless any natural man free himself from the rank of the children of
   disobedience: Eph. ii. 2, 'The spirit that now works in the children of
   disobedience;' where the same word "enengein" is used for the acting of
   Satan, and likewise for the acting of sin, in Rom. vii. 5. as it is for
   the acting of the Spirit, Philip. ii. 13. In whom he works as a spirit
   as powerfully according to his created strength, as the Holy Ghost
   works in the children of obedience. As the Spirit fills the soul with
   gracious habits to move freely in God's ways, so Satan fills the soul
   (as much as in him lies) with sinful habits, as so many chains to keep
   it under his own dominion. He cannot indeed work immediately upon the
   will, but he uses all the skill and power that he has to keep men
   captive for the performance of his own pleasure: 2 Tim. ii. 26, 'Who
   are taken captive by him at his will,' or for his will, "Eis to ekeinou
   thelema". It is in that place a dreadful judgment which God gives some
   men up to for opposing the gospel, taking away his restraints, both
   from the devil and their own hearts, but more or less he works in every
   one that opposes the gospel, which every unrenewed man under the
   preaching of the gospel does, he is the strong man that keeps the
   palace, Luke xi. 21. Can the will of man make a surrender of it, at
   God's demand, in spite of his governor? What power have we to throw off
   these shackles he loads us with? We are as weak in his hand as birds in
   a fowler's. What will have we, since we are his willing slaves? The
   darkness of nature is never like by its own free motion to disagree
   with the prince of darkness, without an overpowering grace, able to
   contest with the lord as well as the slave; for by the fall he is
   become prince of the lower creation, and holds it in chains too strong
   for weakness to break. How great, then, is man's inability! How
   unreasonable is it to think that the will of man possessed with such
   unfitness, unwillingness, affection to other things, aversion to the
   gospel, resistance of it, and in the devil's net, can of itself do
   anything towards its recovery, from that it counts no disease; or to
   turn to that which it accounts its burden? If unspotted and sound
   nature did not preserve Adam in innocence, how can filthy and craze
   nature recover us from corruption? If it did not keep him alive when he
   was living, how can it convey life to us when we have not a spark of
   spiritual life in us? Man was planted a 'noble vine,' but turned
   himself into 'a degenerate plant;' nothing that has decayed can by its
   own strength recover itself, because it has lost that strength whereby
   it could only preserve itself.

   1. Man cannot prepare himself for grace.

   2. He cannot produce it.

   3. He cannot co-operate with God in the first work.

   4. He cannot preserve it.

   5. He cannot actuate it.

   1. Man cannot prepare himself for the new birth.

   I shall premise a few things for the better understanding of this,

   (1.) Man has a subjective capacity for grace above any other creature
   in the inferior world; and this is a kind of natural preparation which
   other creatures have not. A capacity in regard of the powers of the
   soul, though not in respect of the present disposition of them. A stone
   or a beast are not capable of habits of grace, no more than of habits
   of sin, because they want rational natures, which are the proper seats
   of both. Our Saviour did not raise trees or stones to life, though he
   had the same power to do that as he had to raise stones to be children
   to Abraham; but he raised them that had bodies prepared, in part, for a
   receptacle of a soul. As there is a more immediate subjective capacity
   in a man newly dead for the reception of life upon a new infusion of
   the soul, because he has all the members already formed, which is not
   in one whose body is mouldered into dust, and has not one member
   organised fit for the acting of a rational soul. These faculties have a
   spring of natural motion in them, therefore are capable of divine grace
   to make that motion regular; as the wheels of a clock out of order
   retain their substance and their motion if their weights be wound up,
   but a false motion unless the disorder of the spring be mended. Man has
   an understanding to know, and, when it is enlightened, to know God's
   law; a will to move and run, and, when enlarged by grace, to run the
   ways of God's commandments; so that he stands in an immediate capacity
   to receive the life of grace upon the breath and touch of God, which a
   stone does not, not the most sparkling jewel any more than the meanest
   pebble; for in this it is necessary rational faculties should be put as
   a foundation of spiritual motion. Though the soul be thus capable as a
   subject to receive the grace of God, yet it is not therefore capable,
   as an agent, to prepare itself for it or produce it; as a piece of
   marble is potentially capable of being the king's statue, but not to
   prepare itself by hewing off its superfluous parts, or to raise itself
   into such a figure. If there were not a rational nature, there were
   nothing immediately to be wrought upon. If there be not a wise agent
   and an omnipotent hand, there were nothing to work upon it.

   (2.) Besides this passive capacity, there are more immediate
   preparations. The soul, as rational, is capable to receive the truths
   of God; but as the heart is stony, it is incapable to receive the
   impressions of those truths. A stone, as it is a corporeal substance,
   is capable to receive the drops of rain in its cavities; but because of
   its hardness is incapable to suck it in, and be moistened inwardly
   thereby, unless it be softened. Wax has a capacity to receive the
   impression of the seal, but it must be made pliable by some external
   agent to that purpose. The soul must be beaten down by conviction
   before it be raised up by regeneration; there must be some
   apprehensions of the necessity of it. Yet sometimes the work of
   regeneration follows so close upon the heels of these precious
   preparations, that both must be acknowledged to be the work of one and
   the same hand. Paul on the sudden was struck down. and in a moment
   there is both an acknowledgement of the authority of Christ, and a
   submission to his will, when he said, 'Lord, what wilt thou have me to
   do?' Acts ix. 6. The preparation of the subject is necessary, but this
   preparation may be at the same time with the conveyance of the divine
   nature: as a warm seal may both prepare the hard wax, and convey the
   image to it, by one and the same touch.

   (3.) Though some things which man may do by common grace may be said in
   some sort to be preparations, yet they are not formally so, as that
   there is an absolute causal connection between such preparations and
   regeneration They are not causae dispositivae of grace, not disposing
   causes of grace. Grace is all in a way of reception by the soul, not of
   action from the soul. The highest morality in the world is not
   necessary to the first infusion of the divine nature. Mary Magdalene
   was far from the one, yet received the other. If there were anything in
   the subject that was the cause of it, the most tender and softest
   dispositions would be wrought upon, and the most intelligent men would
   soonest receive the gospel. Though we see them sometimes renewed, yet
   many times the roughest tempers are seized upon by grace; and the most
   unlikely soils for fructifying God plants his grace in, wherein there
   could be no preparations before. It is not with grace as it is with
   fire, which gives as much heat to a stone as to a piece of wood; but
   the wood is sooner heated than the stone, because it is naturally
   disposed, by the softness and porousness of its parts, to receive the
   heat. Moral nature seems to be a preparation for grace; if it be so, it
   is not a cause howsoever of grace, for then the most moral person would
   be soonest gracious, and more eminently gracious after his renewal, and
   none of the rubbish and dregs of the world would ever be made fit for
   the heavenly building. There seems to be a fitness in morality for the
   receiving special grace, because the violence and tumultuousness of sin
   is in some measure appeased, the flame and sparks of it allayed, and
   the body of death lies more quiet in them, and the principles cherished
   by them bear some testimony to the holiness of the precepts. But though
   it seems to set men at a greater nearness to the kingdom of God, yet
   with all its own strength it cannot bring the kingdom of God into the
   heart, unless the Spirit opens the lock. Yea, sometimes it sets a man
   further from the kingdom of God, as being a great enemy to the
   righteousness of the gospel, both imputed and inherent, which is the
   crown of the gospel: to imputed, as standing upon a righteousness of
   their own, end conceiving no need of any other; to inherent, as acting
   their seeming holiness neither upon gospel principles, nor for gospel
   ends, but in self-reflections and self-applauses. What may seem
   preparations to us in matters of moral life, may in the root be much
   distant and vastly asunder from grace; as a divine of our own
   illustrates it, two mountains whose tops seem near together may in the
   bottom be many miles asunder. The foundation of that which looks like a
   preparation may be laid in the very gall of bitterness; as Simon Magus
   desiring the gift of the Holy Ghost, but from the covetousness of his
   heart. Other operations upon the soul which seem to be nearer
   preparations, as convictions, do not infer grace; for the heart, as a
   field, may be ploughed by terrors, and yet not sown by any good seed.
   Planting and watering are preparations, but not the cause of fruit; the
   increase depends upon God.

   (4.) There is no meritorious connection between any preparation in the
   creature and regeneration. The Pelagian opinion was, that by a generous
   love of virtue we might deserve the grace of God, and the farther
   assistance of the Spirit, we first (say they) put our hearts into the
   hands of God, that God may incline them which way he please; and by
   thus making our wills depend on God, we merit help from God, and make
   ourselves worthy of him. Whether this be the opinion of any now, I know
   not. This is to assert, that man gives first to God, and then God to
   man in way of requital. What son can merit to be born? What desert
   before being? Nothing can be pre-existent in the son which merits
   generation by the father. The fair hand of moral nature more induce God
   to confer on man the state of grace, than the deed of conveyance of a
   manor, fairly drawn, can dispose the lord to pass it away. In what part
   of Scripture has God indulged mere nature with any promise of adding
   grace upon the improvements of natural abilities? Whatsoever
   conditional promise there is, supposes some grace superior to nature in
   the subject as the condition of it. We do not find that God has made
   himself a debtor to any preparation of the creature.

   But there is no obligation on God by anything that may look like a
   preparation in man. For,

   [1.] If man can lay any obligation on God, it must be by some act in
   all parts his own, for which he is not in the least obliged to God.
   Thinking is the lowest step in the ladder of preparation. It is the
   first act of the creature in any rational production, yet this the
   apostle does remove from man, as in every part of it his own act: 2
   Cor. iii. 5, 'Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything
   as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.' The word signifies
   reasoning. No rational act can be done without reasoning; this is not
   purely our own. We have no sufficiency of ourselves, as of ourselves,
   originally and radically of ourselves, as if we were the author of that
   sufficiency, either naturally or meritoriously. And Calvin observes
   that the word is not "autarkeia" but "hikanotes", not a self-ability,
   but an aptitude or fitness to any gracious thought. How can we oblige
   him by any act, since, in every part of it, it is from him, not from
   ourselves? For as thinking is the first requisite, so it is perpetually
   requisite to the progress of any rational act, so that every thought in
   any act, and the whole progress, wherein there must be a whole flood of
   thoughts, is from the sufficiency of God. We cannot oblige God after
   grace, much less before, for when grace is given there must be constant
   effluxes of grace from God to maintain it; and the acts of grace in us
   are but a second grace of God. How can we then oblige him by that which
   is not ours, either in the original or improvement? If when a man has
   given to another a rich gift he must also give him power to preserve
   it, and wisdom to improve it, the person cannot be said by his
   improvement of it to oblige the first donor. What has any man that he
   has not received? 1 Cor. iv. 7. The apostle excludes everything in us
   from the name of a donation to God. If there be no one thing but is
   received from God, then no preparation to grace but is received from
   him. The obligation then lies upon the receiver, not upon the donor.
   But may we not oblige God by the improvement of such a gift? The
   apostle includes everything, challenges him to name any one thing which
   was not received, which will contain improvements as well as
   preparations. If we have power to improve it, wisdom to improve it,
   hearts and opportunities to improve it, all these are by way of
   reception from God.

   [2.] If man can lay any obligation upon God, it must be by some pure,
   spotless act. This cannot be; no pure act can spring from man. God has
   taken an exact survey of the whole world in its dark and fallen state,
   and could not, among those multitudes of acts which spring from the
   will of man find one piece of beauty, one particle of the divine image,
   for he has pronounced this sentence upon them, with repetition, too, as
   his infallible judgment: 'There is none righteous no, not one: they are
   all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there
   is none that does good, no, not one,' Rom. iii. 10-12. The most refined
   nature derived from Adam was never found without fault, a pure virtue
   is a terra incognita. The productions of nature are always evil. If not
   one action be fully good in the nature of man, what meritoriousness can
   there be in any preparation of nature for the grace of God? Can the
   clearest virtue that ever was since Adam oblige God to pardon its own
   defects, that is, the defects of that very act of virtue? Much less can
   it challenge a higher degree of grace to be transmitted to it.

   [3.] If any preparation were our own, and were pure, yet being natural,
   how could it oblige God to give a supernatural grace? If there be
   anything of meritoriousness, it is only something of the same kind with
   the work in a greater degree, but there is no proportion between
   natural acts and supernatural grace. There is no one scripture, or one
   example, declaring grace to be given as a reward to mere nature, or any
   act of nature. God indeed, out of his infinite righteousness, and
   equity, and goodness, has rewarded some moral acts with some worldly
   advantages, or the withdrawing some judgments threatened, as Ahab's
   reprieve from judgment upon his humiliation, 1 Kings xxi. 27, 29; and
   the temporary pardon to Nineveh, upon their submission to the prophet's
   threatenings, Jonah iii. 8-10. But what obligation lies upon God to
   reward men doing thus with super-additions of grace? for there is no
   proportion between such a moral act and so excellent a reward. Are may
   as well say that a coal by glowing and sparkling may merit to become a
   star; or that the orderly laying the wood and sacrifice upon the altar
   might merit the descent of fire from heaven to kindle it.

   [4.] If there was any obligation on God, by any preparations of nature,
   then such acts would be always followed with renewing grace. There
   would be an obligation on God's righteousness to bestow it. And if it
   should be denied, the creature might accuse God of a failure in
   justice, because he gave not what was due. God sure would observe that
   rule of justice which he prescribes to man, not to detain the wages of
   a hireling, no, not for a night. Were grace a debt upon the works of
   nature, God were then obliged not only to pay it, but pay it speedily,
   it being exact righteousness so to do. But we see the contrary.
   Publicans and harlots are raised and beautified, while pharisees lie
   buried in the ruins of nature. These preparations are many times
   without perfection. The pangs of conviction resolve sometimes into a
   return to the old vomit, and make no progress in a state of life and
   grace. The apostle's rule will hold true in the whole compass of the
   work, Rom. vi. 11, 'If it be of works, then it is no more grace.' So
   much as is ascribed to any work or preparation by the creature, so much
   is taken from the glory of grace, and would make God not the author,
   but assistant, and that too by obligation, not by grace.

   [5.] From this it follows, that man does not prepare himself by any act
   of his will, without the grace of God. What preparation can he make,
   who is so powerfully possessed by corrupted habits, which have got so
   great an empire over him, struck their roots to the very bottom of his
   soul, entrenched themselves in the works of custom, that if he goes
   about to pull up one, his arm shakes and his heart faints? How strongly
   do these rooted habits resist the power of grace! How much more easily
   do they resist the weakness of nature in confederacy with them! What is
   said of the remnant of Jacob as a 'dew from the Lord,' as 'the showers
   upon the grass,' that it 'tarries not for man, nor waits for the sons
   of men,' Micah v. 7, may be said of the grace of God, it waits not for
   the preparations and dispositions of the creature, but prevents them.
   It is a pure gift; though we are active with it, yet we are wholly
   indisposed for it. We can no more prepare ourselves to shine as stars
   in the world, than a dunghill can to shine as a sun in heaven. What
   preparations does God wait for in the heart of an infarct when he
   sanctifies it? If 'without Christ we can do nothing,' John xv. 5, then
   no preparations without Christ; for they are something, and very
   considerable too. There is no foundation to think there should be any
   preparation in the creature, as of the creature.

   First, The first promise of redemption and regeneration intimates no
   such thing in man to either of them: Gen. iii. 15, 'I will put enmity,'
   &c. The putting enmity into man against Satan is promised by God as his
   own work. There was a friendship struck up, a confederacy made, the
   devil entertained as a counsellor; God would now break this league, he
   only puts enmity into the heart against Satan: 'It shall bruise thy
   head,' &c. The bruising the serpent's head is wholly the act of Christ.
   It, not the man or the woman, but the promised seed. As there were no
   preparations in the creature to that which Christ acted in the flesh,
   so there are no preparations in that creature for what Christ is to do
   in his Spirit. He bruised Satan in his flesh upon the cross without any
   preparations in the creature; and so he bruises Satan in the heart, by
   his Spirit, without any preparations on the creature's part. For
   anything I see, had man in the state of innocence been sensible that
   his dependency, as to any good, and motion to good, ought to be upon
   God, and he to have waited upon God for his change and confirmation, he
   might have stood; but when he would practically assert the liberty of
   his own will in a way of indifference to good and evil, he fell. And by
   the way, those that assert the freedom of their own will naturally,
   without the grace of God, either common or special, seem to me to
   justify Adam's first affected independence of God.

   Secondly, God is as much in the new creation as he was in the old. Not
   only the creation of the matter, but the preparation of it to receive
   the form, was from God; neither the matter, nor any part of it,
   prepared itself. If nothing prepared itself to be a creature, how can
   anything prepare itself to be a gracious creature, since to be a new
   creature is more than to be a creature; and every preparation to be a
   new creature is more than any preparation to be a creature? The new
   creation differs, I must confess, from the old creation; but it is such
   a difference which makes it rather harder than easier.

   First, The object of the old creation was nothing, the object of the
   new is something; but a thing that has no more active disposition to
   receive a new form, than nothing had.

   Secondly, The object of the first creation was a simple and pure
   privation; the object of the second is a contrary form, which resists
   the work of God: there was only an action of creation in the first,
   there is an action of destruction in the second, the destruction of the
   old form and the creation of a new. Is it likely that any nature would
   voluntarily prepare itself for its own destruction? God in the first
   creation found no disposition in the subject to entertain a form, here
   he finds a contrary disposition to resist the form.

   Thirdly, What preparation had any of those we read of in Scripture from
   themselves? What disposition had Paul, when he was struck down with a
   heart fuller of actual enmity than he had at his birth? Did the
   apostles expect any call from their nets, or set themselves in a
   readiness before they heard that call? A voice from Christ was attended
   with a divine touch or power upon their hearts; both the preparation
   and the motion itself took birth together. And what preparations are
   there in Scripture, but are attributed unto God? If a conviction be
   thorough and full, and consequently a preparation, it must refer to
   that Spirit which our Saviour asserts to be the principal cause of it,
   John xvi. 8, 9, 'When he is come,' that is, the Comforter, 'he will
   reprove the world of sin.' It is laid wholly upon this, as the end of
   the almighty Spirit's coming, whereby it is not likely men would be
   convinced without him. Is there any desire or prayer for it? Even this,
   if true, is from the Holy Ghost; 'no man can call Christ Lord, but by
   the Holy Ghost,' 1 Cor. xii. 3. Did any of those our Saviour cured of
   bodily infirmities, prepare themselves for that cure? Neither can any
   man prepare himself for his spiritual cure.

   Fourthly, What thing in all the records of nature ever prepared itself
   for a change? All preparations in matter for receiving any form arise
   not from the matter itself, but from some other active principle, or
   the new form in part introduced, which by degrees expels the old; as in
   water, when heat comes in the place of cold, the preparation is not
   from the water, but from the new quality introducing itself. The grace
   of God is to the soul as form is to matter. The body is formed in the
   womb, for the reception of the soul, but not by the embryo, but by the
   formative virtue of the parent, fashioning the parts of the body to
   make it a fit lodging for the soul; or, as some think, the soul itself,
   as the bee, fashions its own cell; but howsoever it is not from itself.
   The preparations of Lazarus to rise were from the voice of Christ, not
   from the stinking body of Lazarus. The nature of all is alike. That one
   lute is better prepared for an harmonious touch, is from the musician's
   skill, not any art of its own. If one man of the same nature with
   another be endued with rich morals, it is from the common grace of God
   exciting natural light, and the common notions of fit and just; as the
   reason one vine of the same kind brings forth more generous fruit than
   another, is from the stronger influence of the sun. All nature assents
   to this truth, that nothing does prepare itself for a change.

   Fifthly, If man did prepare himself for grace, it would be a
   disparagement to God, it would violate the sovereignty of God. It would
   be derogatory to the majesty of God to have his grace depend upon the
   conditions and previous preparations in the creature; it would lay the
   foundations of grace in a man's self, and impose a necessity in God to
   come in with further grace, and make his actions dependent upon the
   actings of the creature. The beginning of faith would be from us, and
   the supplement from God; the work of grace would be of him that 'wills
   and runs,' and not 'of God that shows mercy,' Rom. ix. 16. It would
   change the whole tenor of the Scripture, and make conversion not God's
   drawing of us, but our traction of God; for he that does dispose
   himself to grace, is in some sort the cause of that grace, as he that
   does dispose the subject for such a form is in a sort the cause of that
   form. If the preparations were from the will of man, man would begin
   the noblest work that ever was wrought, and God would be made no more
   than an attendant upon the creature's motion; whereas the very
   beginning in the will, as well as the perfection, is ascribed to God:
   Philip. ii. 13, 'God works in you both to will and to do of his good
   pleasure.' God's good pleasure is the original cause of this work upon
   the will, not the will's good pleasure. The work then depending on
   God's good pleasure, excludes any dependency on the will of man; it is
   therefore called a creation, to show God's independence upon anything
   as to this work.

   Sixthly, Where should this preparation begin? in what part of the soul?
   Shall it begin in the understanding? That has lost the reins whereby it
   governed the lower parts of the soul. Nothing is more discomposed in
   its acts than that faculty. It is well compared to a charioteer or
   coachman fallen from his box, and his feet entangled in the reins of
   the horses, which hurry him about. The sensitive appetite, like a wild
   horse, has got the bit between his teeth, runs about, and draws the
   understanding after it. Indeed a charioteer that has lost the
   government of his horses endeavours to remedy that violence; he cries
   out, makes all resistance, has a will to help himself; but the
   understanding is so far from resisting, that it takes pleasure in the
   disorder of the passions; it prompts the will to follow them, and this
   is properly to be a servant to sin. Shall it begin in the appetite? How
   can that incline to range itself to the order of reason? It has no
   reason itself; it submits not to the laws of reason; it has got the
   mastery of it, and has prescription for its dominion, of a long
   standing, ever since the fall. The dominion of sin is in the
   understanding, will, appetite, whence all of them are called flesh, so
   that all the motions of the soul depending upon them, the slavery must
   needs be voluntary. Therefore neither the understanding conceives, nor
   the will wills, nor the appetite desires, anything against themselves;
   how, then, should the will, which is captivated by a corrupt
   understanding and disorderly affections, recover itself, when it must
   necessarily be under the guidance of one of these jailers? Suppose the
   understanding were illuminated, are those evil habits in the will
   corrected barely by the illumination of the understanding? If they are
   corrected, why does not the will always follow the dictate of the
   understanding? But, alas! those evil habits determine the will to evil,
   as good habits determine it to good; for it is the nature of habits to
   incline the faculties to those things which are suitable to the nature
   of those habits; therefore as long as it remains under the command of
   those evil inclinations, it is impossible it should pass from evil to
   good. But that the will has evil inclinations, appears by the Scripture
   calling the whole man flesh; else corruption would not be universally
   seated in the soul, but only accidental in the will, from the darkness
   of the understanding. But certainly, as Adam in innocence had an
   habitual holy disposition in his will, so man, in his fall, has a
   corrupt inclination in his will, an habitual quality, whereby he drinks
   iniquity like water, Job xv. 16. What power of the will can take those
   cords off, which hold it prisoner, whereby it must be prepared for a
   free motion?

   To evidence this further, we shall consider,

   1. That man does not naturally, neither can, understand the new birth.

   2. He cannot desire it. Understanding and desire are necessary
   preparations to any rational change a creature can make in itself.

   1. Man cannot understand it. This is necessary to a change. Whatsoever
   is done by the will, must be done by the impulse of some other faculty.
   Sensitive appetite cannot instruct the will to this work. Sense is not
   capable of reason, much less of religion, though it be the portal to
   both. The will can never be moved to any good thing, unless the mind
   propound it as good and amiable. The act of thinking must precede the
   act of believing, for we cannot believe without thinking of what we
   believe. It is less to think than understand. If we cannot, then, do
   that which is less in the preparation, we cannot do that which is
   greater, especially when it is impossible to will without thinking; and
   thinking is a necessary means to willing. He that cannot prepare
   himself for a good thought, how can he prepare himself for a gracious
   habit? What ability have we to the act of faith, when we have no
   ability to any thought of faith? We cannot by the strength of nature
   understand it, if we consider,

   (1.) The first blot caused by sin was upon the understanding. Man was
   first deceived by the sophistical reasonings of the serpent. The first
   effect of sin was to spread a thick darkness upon Adam's understanding.
   Though the whole house, and every beam of it, fell together, yet this
   faculty was first unfastened, and brought all the rest to ruin. As soon
   as ever he ceased from glorifying God as God, a darkness was brought
   upon his foolish heart: Rom. i. 21, 'When they knew God, they glorified
   him not as God, but became vain in their imaginations, and their
   foolish heart was darkened,' where the apostle describes the state of
   man in corrupt nature after his fall. Folly first in the heart to
   desire the forbidden fruit, and then darkness came upon the
   understanding. Their "dialogismoi", their reasonings, became empty and
   contradictory; their primitive light departed, and darkness, as a
   privation, took place. What true motion can there be in the will, when
   there was so thick an obscurity in the understanding? Where there is
   but a false knowledge in the mind, there can be no true motion in the
   will. There must then be a restoration of this light, before there can
   be any preparation to a good act of the will. Adam recovered not this
   light by his own strength, no, nor by the outward declaration of the
   gospel in the promise; for no outward object proposed to the
   understanding confers any power upon the faculty. How can it then be
   recovered by our strength, since we have rather added to the scales
   than diminished them? For,

   (2.) There is a darkness transmitted from him to the understanding of
   every man by nature. The light is darkened in the heaven of the soul,
   the more spiritual part of the mind, Isa. v. 30, as the prophet speaks
   in another case. Our understandings are so closed up with the thick
   slime of sin, that we cannot see the beauty of gospel truths; 'darkness
   comprehends not the light,' John i. 5. Though the light of the sun did
   shine a thousand times brighter than it does, and strike upon the face
   and eyelids of a man with the greatest glory, yet if there be a spot
   upon the apple of his eye, if he scants a seeing faculty, he can
   apprehend nothing of it. Hence the apostle prays for the illumination
   of the understanding of the Ephesians, chap. i. 17, 18, and that they
   might have 'a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God.'
   And our Saviour tells them that they 'must be taught of God,' John vi.
   45, by an internal teaching of the Spirit, as well as by himself in an
   oral instruction. What a thick cloud was upon Nicodemus his mind, when
   he discoursed with him about regeneration, who was the ablest teacher
   to illustrate it to his fancy and understanding! It is not such a
   darkness as if he might understand the mysteries of heaven, if he would
   exert the strength of his own reason. This would be only as a man
   shutting his eyes who had a visive faculty; but it is such a darkness
   as cannot be expelled by flesh and blood, or anything arising from it:
   'Flesh and blood,' says our Saviour to Peter, 'has not revealed it unto
   thee, but my, Father which is in heaven,' Mat. xvi. 17. Flesh and blood
   includes everything in opposition to God. Our Saviour had externally
   owned himself, in the face of the Jews, to be the Messiah, the Son of
   God; but besides this, there was an inward illumination granted to
   Peter, for the apprehending and embracing so great a truth. There is
   not only a darkness upon the minds of those who have no outward
   revelation of the will of God in Christ, but upon those who are in the
   midst of the sunbeams: Deut. xxix., 'Yet the Lord has not given you an
   heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.'
   They wanted not the beams. No people in the world had the ordinances of
   God besides them; but they wanted an organ fitted to receive and use
   them, which was not in their power, but is mentioned as the gift of
   God. God promises to make his people to know his ways. What needs that,
   if they could know them without him? We have indeed the light of the
   gospel, we have also a faculty, but without an eye disposed for the
   light, Ye enjoy no benefit by it. Now who ever heard that darkness
   could prepare itself for its own expulsion? It cannot comprehend the
   light, much less prepare for the reception of it. Now who ever heard of
   one born blind, in a capacity to prepare himself for sight? We are
   blind in naturals, much more in spirituals. The most polished reasons
   among the heathens, both for knowledge in naturals and prudence in
   civil affairs, coated, and with all their wisdom knew not God.

   (3.) There is an unsuitableness and a contrariety in the mind of man to
   the gospel, which is the instrument of regeneration. There is a mighty
   distance between the spiritual object and the natural faculty. The
   understanding, though never so well furnished with natural stuff, is
   but natural, and flesh; the object is supernatural and spiritual;
   therefore the richest mere nature can no more attain to the knowledge
   of spiritual things, than the clearest sense can attain to the
   knowledge of rational. Though every man 'by nature has the things
   contained in the law,' Rom. ii. 14, 15, yet no man has by nature the
   things contained in the gospel. The gospel has not the same advantage
   in the hearts of men as the law hash, for it finds nothing of kin to
   it. Though a natural heart has some broken pieces of the law of God
   deposited in it, yet there is not the least syllable of Christ or
   regeneration written in the mind by the hand of nature. The
   understanding therefore naturally cannot prepare itself for the
   reception of the gospel, because it has not any principle in it which
   suits the doctrine of it. It seems a ridiculous thing to the wisest
   carnalist, who receives not the things of God, because, out of the
   pride of natural wisdom, he counts them foolishness, 1 Cor. ii. 14.
   Hence not many wise are renewed in their minds. Had the gospel truth
   been as agreeable to reason as the other common notions imprinted in
   man, it would have been preserved in the world longer than it was,
   since, without question, Adam did communicate to his posterity the
   notion of a redeemer, which did soon die among them, because not
   consonant to that reason they had derived by nature from Adam. It was a
   knowledge given to Adam by revelation, not imprinted in his nature by
   creation. Besides, there is a contrariety in the mind to the truth of
   the gospel. As we say of liberty, so of enmity. Though it be formally
   in the will, yet it is radically in the understanding. The mind is the
   seat of those hostile principles which act the will against God, Rom.
   viii. 7. The mind of man regards the things of God as unpleasant, and
   an intolerable yoke and hard bridle. Let light, the most excellent
   thing in the world, glare upon a man that has sore eyes, he will turn
   away from it, or shut his eyes against it; for though he understands
   the worth of it, yet it has a quality offensive to him. So is the
   gospel to those notions settled in the distempered mind. Men give not
   credit to the declarations of the gospel; 'Who has believed our
   report?' has been the voice of God's messengers in all ages, Isa. liii.
   1. No man, unless known by all never to speak truth, but is more
   believed than the God of infallible and unerring truth! What
   principles, then, are there in the understanding to prepare it for the
   reception of that which is so contrary to its ancient inmates?

   (4.) Besides this, the natural levity of the understanding does
   incapacitate it to prepare itself. It is with the understanding as with
   a line, the farther it is stretched out the weaker and more wavering it
   is. So is the understanding, being at a distance from God. How do vain
   thoughts intrude into the mind! No man can keep a door locked against
   them. We feel them rushing upon us while we endeavour to avoid them. We
   are confounded and overwhelmed by them, and drawn to things against our
   own resolutions. Man has not the command of his own heart, so much as
   to think steadily of a divine object. How can he then prepare his own
   heart, when he cannot without grace fix in any holy meditation which is
   necessary for the renewal of it, since nothing is more discomposed in
   its acts than the mind of man, which is always dancing about, like cork
   in the water, or feathers in the air? Whence should come any
   preparation to good orders but by some supernatural ballast, to
   establish it from fluctuating? This disease every man is sensible of,
   and whatsoever disease is inherent in nature cannot be cured by any
   preparations by that nature which is wholly overgrown with it.

   (5.) Hence it follows that a natural mind has no right notion of grace.
   To the right notion of a thing is required suitableness, pleasure, and
   a fixedness of the mind upon it. A natural mind wants all these. How
   can it then prepare itself for that which it has no knowledge of? And
   without knowledge it cannot commend it to the will. The apostle asserts
   a plain cannot in this business: 1 Cor. ii. 14, 'He cannot know them,
   because they are spiritually discerned.' Being destitute of the Spirit,
   they cannot discern the things of the Spirit. Sense can discern things
   sensibly, not rationally. Reason can discern things rationally, but not
   spiritually. The light whereby a natural man judges of the things of
   the gospel is a star-light or a moonlight, which gives not a distinct
   view of the object. The evil disposition must be removed from the mind,
   before the object be entertained according to its worth. As if any
   natural object have such excellent qualities in it, that if it be
   embraced it will draw the will and affections after it; yet if the mind
   be ill-disposed, and does not judge of the object according to the
   merit of it, it will refuse it. Offer a man gold who understands not
   the worth of gold, it will not allure him. Man with his eyes is
   spiritually blind, and with his ears is spiritually deaf. So God calls
   the Gentiles, which were to be brought to Christ for a restitution of
   their eyes: Isa. xliii. 8, 'Bring forth the blind people that have
   eyes, and the deaf that have ears.' Such can no more judge of the
   excellency of spiritual things than a blind man can have regular
   conceptions of colours, or a deaf man of the excellency of music. If
   'no man can call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Ghost,' 1 Cor. xii. 8; if
   no man can have a magnificent conception and speech of Christ, but by
   the Spirit giving him both that conception and utterance, he cannot
   have a notion of the formation of Christ in the heart without the gift
   and impression of the same hand. What preparations, then, can arise
   from nature, when the mind can have no conception of Christ but by the
   Spirit of God?

   Well, then, to conclude this. What preparations can there be in nature,
   since we cannot understand the things of God, when yet we have more
   clearness in our understanding to see them than we have force in our
   wills to love them and embrace them? It is in the understanding that
   the common notions, which are the grounds of knowledge, are deposited.
   There is less of ignorance in our understanding than of enmity in our
   will. The eye can see further than the arm can reach. If therefore we
   cannot think or understand, by all that help of common notions, without
   the grace of God, hove can we then prepare our wills for it, to comply
   with it, and renew that faculty which is chiefly possessed with a
   contrariety to it?

   2. As we cannot understand it, so we cannot naturally desire it. What
   is not spiritually discerned cannot spiritually be desired. Not but
   that according to those unformed conceptions which men have of it by
   common grace, there may be some weak velleities, but they are wishings
   without a will, not desires according to the value of the thing. Mercy
   first breathed on our first parents, before they breathed after that.
   The first motion came from God. So soon were they turned obstinate
   enemies against their Creator, without any thoughts of turning
   supplicants, though they had not lost the conceptions of their late
   integrity. which if they had, they had been wholly insensible, without
   any trouble of conscience. What desires can we naturally, then, have
   for it, who have far weaker conceptions of that happiness than they had
   immediately alter they lost it? We cannot desire what we do not
   apprehend. A beast cannot desire to be a man, because he has no
   conceptions of the excellency of the human nature above his own. No
   nature can ever affect that which is contrary to it. Do flesh can ever
   desire its own crucifixion. If we seek, we shall find; if we ask, we
   shall receive, but who first touches the heart to seek or to ask? If we
   cannot think a good thought of ourselves, how can we think so good a
   thought as a desire of regeneration? To say, then, we can desire the
   new creation of ourselves, without some kind of grace, is to assert
   another doctrine than what the apostle Paul asserted to those already
   regenerate. The first will, which is the necessary spring of all
   actions, is wrought by God, Philip. ii. 13. The frame of man's will and
   desire stands to another point: John viii. 44, 'The lusts of your
   father you will do.' The best renewed man 'knows not what to pray for
   as he ought,' without the instruction of the Spirit, Rom. viii. 26. We
   cannot give our hearts a lift to heaven, or breathe out an unutterable
   groan, without the help of an infinite Spirit. The root of man's
   affections groves downward, not upward. What breathings can be expected
   in a soul choked up with sin? There was no motion of the church till
   'the hand of her beloved was put in by the hole of the door,' and made
   a motion in her bowels, Cant. v. 4. The church owed no obligation to
   her free will and her own predispositions. There is not a smoke in the
   heart to heaven without a spark first from heaven; not a step till God
   enlarges the heart. Velleities are from common grace, under the
   preaching, of the word, fervent and saving desires are from special
   grace, by the hand of the Spirit. So that there are no preparations
   from nature to this, since both our apprehensions of it and desires of
   it spring not out of that stock.

   The second main thing is this, As man cannot prepare himself for it, so
   he does not produce and work it in himself. This is evident from the
   former. If he cannot make any preparation, which is the less, he cannot
   cause any actual production of it, which is the greater.

   But to evidence it more, let us spend some time in this.

   As it does not depend upon the will of man in the preparation, so
   neither in the production.

   I shall evidence it, first, by arguments drawn from the consideration
   of God.

   If this work depended upon the will of man, as the first cause in the
   production, it would deprive God,

   1. Of his sovereign independence. If man's will were the first cause of
   regeneration, God would not be the supreme independent cause in the
   noblest of his works. This work is nobler than creation in respect of
   the price paid for it. The world was made without the death of anything
   to purchase the creation of it. But the divine image is not restored
   without the death of the Son of God, every line in this new image being
   drawn with his blood. Is there anything happens in the world but by the
   conduct and efficacy of his providence? Do all the motions of the
   heavens, the productions of' creatures, the universal events of nature,
   depend upon the will, power, and wisdom of God? And shall the soul, the
   most excellent of the lover creatures, bearing the characters of God's
   wisdom and goodness upon it (the acts of the soul in the way of
   religion, being the noblest acts it can produce), be left wholly to
   itself in the production and management of these? Shall God, the
   supreme cause in everything else, be an inferior and secondary cause in
   this affair? It is 'not he that plants, nor he that waters, but God
   that gives the increase,' 1 Cor. iii. 7. God is the first cause, upon
   whom man depends in all kind of actions, much more in supernatural
   actions, chiefly in the understanding and will, upon which faculties no
   creature can have any intrinsic influence to cause them to exercise
   their vital acts. If the will of man were the first cause, God would be
   an attendant to the creature in the noblest works. God would not then
   be the first mover, but man. The will willing would then be the cause
   of God's working, not God's working the cause of the will's willing and
   choice. God's working would be consequent upon the will, and so the
   effect of the will's free motion. Man would then be the dispositiva
   causa in relation to God. It would make God the second cause, and
   represent him expecting the beck, and the preparations of man, before
   he did exert any act. It would make God to will that which man wills,
   and make God to will that which man may reject. It would follow that
   God concurs not to regeneration by way of sovereignty, but by way of
   concomitance. It would not be a victorious but a precarious grace,
   which is against the whole tenor of the Scripture, which represents God
   as holding in his hands the first links of all second causes: Rom. xi.
   36, 'For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things.' He is
   the first governor of all the wills and powers of the creatures, the
   first cause of all motions. He orders all, without being ordered by
   any. Now this is below the majesty of God, to be conducted in his
   motion by the will of the creature, to have the purposes of his
   goodness brought into act by an uncertain and slippery cause. How can
   it be conceived that God should put his hand to the more ignoble works
   of nature, and turn over the noblest work of the new creation to the
   airy will of the creature.

   To conclude; God must either be precedent in his operation to the act
   of the will, or follow it. If precedent, we have what we would, if
   subsequent, then God is a mere attendant upon the motions of the
   creature, and a servant to wait upon man. This is to advance free will
   to the throne of God and depress God to the footstool of will; this is
   to deify the creature, by placing the crown of the sovereign
   independence of God on the head of free will.

   2. It puts a blot upon the wisdom of God. If God expects the
   determination of the will of man, whether he shall act or no, then God
   is disposed by the will of man to the intention of his end. But it is
   very inconsistent with that unfathomable and unerring wisdom, to have
   the attainment of his end depend upon an agent wherein nothing is
   wrapped up but folly and madness, Eccles. ix. 3. This is to make his
   power depend upon weakness, and his gracious ends towards his creature
   hang upon the extravagancies of one distracted, which no wise man would
   be guilty of. Is God in all things else a God of power and wisdom,
   working all things in number, weight, and measure, springing up every
   motion in the lower world, by an unblameable counsel? And shall he
   leave the forming of the image of his Son, wherein his wisdom is most
   seen, to the slight irregular will of man, which has neither weight nor
   measure in itself? This would make the immutable counsel of God depend
   upon the mutability of the creature; which would be inconsistent with
   the wisdom of man, who chooses the firmest means he can for the conduct
   of his designs; for if man wills this day, then God wills, if man
   reject it the next day, then he rejects that which God wills. So God's
   will most be at uncertainty, according to the will of man. How shall
   his counsel stand upon so tottering a bottom? How shall he do all his
   pleasure if it were a mere dependent upon the pleasure of the creature,
   contrary to what he is pleased positively to assert: Isa. xlvi. 10, 'My
   counsel shall stand, I will do all my pleasure.' The apostle does couch
   these into arguments together: Eph. i. 11, 'Who works all things
   according to the counsel of is own will;' he argues (1) from the power
   of God, 'who works all things', whereby our own works, and power, are
   excluded, and God asserted to be the supreme cause of everything, in an
   efficacious and energetical manner, as the word "energein" signifies.
   (2.) From his wisdom, 'according to the counsel of his own will,'
   wisely and justly, and therefore not according to ours, wherein there
   is nothing but folly and evil. This excludes all our own wills in the
   first work. Now, to assert that this beautiful image were brought forth
   upon the stage of the heart by the will of man, as the first cause,
   would destroy God's prerogative, and represent his operations under the
   conduct of our own counsel and will, not of his own. Certainly if there
   be a secret and wise Spirit of providence, running through the whole
   world to preserve his honour in his works, as certainly there is, the
   most honourable declaration of them in the heart cannot be thought to
   be left to the conduct of wild and hare-brained nature.

   3. If the will of man were the prime cause of regeneration, it would
   deprive God of his foreknowledge and prescience; it would make that
   foreknowledge, which is certain and infallible, merely contingent. For
   if the will of man were wholly left to its own determination, the
   motions of the will were doubtful and uncertain, till the will does
   determine itself; and so God's knowledge of them would be uncertain,
   for it is clear, that from a thing wholly uncertain, there cannot arise
   a certain knowledge. Therefore, God could not be said certainly to
   foreknow the conversion of man, if the efficacy of grace depended upon
   so contingent a cause as the liberty of man's will; for then it might
   not be, as well as be; the will might not embrace it, and so the
   knowledge of God be but merely conjectural,--a knowledge unworthy of a
   deity, which must be supposed to be omniscient; a knowledge depending
   upon a peradventure, or at best, it is but a very likely it will be so.
   This would be a debasing the deity to an opinionative knowledge, which
   could not be certain, because depending upon so undetermined and
   wavering a cause. God cannot know this or that man's regeneration from
   eternity but he must see it infallibly in himself willing it, or in the
   causes of it, irresistibly producing it. But if the efficacy of grace
   depends upon the will, then God does not certainly determine the
   regeneration of man. And for God to foreknow that which he himself has
   not determined, and when nothing in the creature, nor anything in the
   circumstances, does determine it, is to make God see that (as one says)
   which neither in the creature nor in himself is to be seen.

   Obj. Some may object, How does God come to foreknow sin, for that
   depends upon the liberty of the will?

   Ans. It would be too long to inquire into this, I shall only at present
   say this, it is certain God does foresee every sin, otherwise the evil
   acts of men could not be predicted. Our Saviour could not then have
   foreknown what the scribes and priests would do to him, as he does
   foretell: Mat. xvi. 21, 'Christ began to tell them how many things he
   was to suffer of the chief priests and scribes.' And since God cannot
   fail in his predictions, but they will certainly come to pass, the
   hearts of the Jews could do no other thing, supposing the prediction,
   than what Christ does here foretell, for their wicked wills would
   certainly determine themselves that way. And God, by a concurrence of
   causes which he had linked together in his hand, orders things so, that
   meeting with the corruption in their wills, their wills determine
   themselves to such actions there foretold; yet is not God therefore the
   author of sin. For sin being no positive thing, cannot have an
   efficient, but a deficient cause; and God determines the withdrawing of
   his common grace, and the ordering of such and such circumstances, and
   so did foresee how a free creature, with that corruption in his heart,
   would determine himself in such occasions, when involved in such
   circumstances. But now in the work of regeneration, outward
   circumstances cannot cause any determination of the will, because those
   outward circumstances of grace meet with nothing in the heart full of
   corruption, to take part with them, which outward circumstances of sin
   do. Therefore since there can be no foresight of God in this case,
   depending upon the concurrence of outward circumstances, unless there
   were something in the heart which did suit them, the determination of
   the will cannot proceed from them, but from God himself, willing and
   determining the will by a positive influx of his grace. The
   determination of the will to sin comes from within, from its natural
   corruption concurring with such occasions, which, joining together,
   determine the will to it. Therefore God foresees what a free creature
   will do; but there being no principle in the will by nature to
   correspond with any gracious external circumstances, it cannot
   determine itself to grace, because it wants a principle of
   determination within itself, the corrupt habits determining it quite
   otherwise. Sin proceeds not so much from the liberty as the captivity
   of the will; and God knowing the corrupt frame, can foresee what man in
   such a frame will do upon occasion; as we may easily resolve that an
   habitual drunkard will be drunk when he has sensual objects placed
   before him.

   4. Another consideration is this: to make the will of man the efficient
   of his regeneration, is to make the truth of God a great uncertainty.

   (1.) First, In the covenant he made with Christ. If his having a seed
   depended upon the will of man, the promise of God to give him a seed
   might be null and void; for at least it must be granted possible, that
   not one man under heaven would have accepted of his terms; and then his
   coming to save had been in vain, because there was a possibility that
   not one man would have embraced the salvation offered. Since the number
   of rejecters of him is greater than the number of receivers, it is
   likely the less number, if left to their own wills, would have followed
   the greater, since the prevalence of evil examples above good ones is
   every day evident. It had not been, then, 'the pleasure of the Lord
   shall prosper in his hand,' Isa. liii. 10, 11, but the pleasure of man
   shall prosper in the hand of the will of man. The great resolve of God,
   the priesthood of Christ, the design of drawing a generation of persons
   out of the world to praise him, had hung upon a mere haphazard and a
   maybe, if it had depended only on man's will; and God should have
   waited the leisure of free will, to see whether the most glorious
   design that ever was laid should prosper, and whether he should have
   been a God of truth, or a liar to his Son. Though our Saviour had laid
   the foundation of our redemption in his own most precious blood, yet he
   must have depended on our will for the fruits of his purchase; it had
   been a great uncertainty whether he had seen one grain of fruit for all
   his expense. He might have been a king without one subject, or the
   destruction of one potent enemy he came to conquer, not one sin
   subdued, not one devil cast out of any son. This might have been; for
   though by God he was made a king, yet according to the other assertion,
   it depended on the will of man whether he should have one subject to
   own his authority; and, if so, God had been very unwise to enter into
   covenant with him, and Christ very unwise to come upon such grand
   uncertainties at the best, when it was a question whether any one
   person should have enjoyed the fruits of his death. How can it enter
   into any man's heart, that so great a contrivance as the sending of
   Christ to be the means of salvation, with such great promises to see
   the fruits of his death in a seed to serve him, should depend in the
   main fruits and effects of it on any thing undetermined by the will of
   God; that so great a weight should hang upon so thin a thread as the
   will of man?

   (2.) In the promises he makes to men. How could God promise that so
   absolutely as he does, Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 'A new heart will I give you,'
   if this work did depend upon the will of man, which might frustrate the
   truth of God in his promise? And when God knew there was no principle
   in their hearts that could rise higher than to shame and confusion, not
   to so excellent a work as regeneration, as is intimated, ver. 32, 'Not
   for your sakes do I do this: be ashamed and confounded for your own
   ways, O house of Israel,' what reason was there for God to depress them
   to confusion, if they had had power to renew themselves? If this
   promise of God depended not upon any thing in them in the first making,
   it could not depend upon any thing in them in the full performance of
   it. We must either make God a liar, or unwise, or remove any efficiency
   in the will of man as the first cause. What blasphemy would it be to
   say, that God was so unwise as to promise that which depended upon the
   power of another, whether it should be wrought or no; that God could
   not be certainly true to his word, unless freewill assisted him!

   5. It despoils God of his worship, in those two great parts of it,
   prayer and praise.

   (1.) Prayer. With what face can any solicit God for that grace, which
   he conceives to be in his own power to have when he will? It is a
   mocking of him to desire that strength of him, which he has given us
   already, inherent in our nature. If it were the work of our wills, it
   would require only the excitation of them, not any application to God.
   Who begs for what he has? Who desires an alms that has thousands in his
   purse? As prayer would be a vain thing in any man that should deny a
   providence overruling the affairs of the world, so it would be as vain
   a thing to call upon God for grace, if the whole affair of regeneration
   were left to the conduct of man's will. The end of God's making
   promises of a new hearts and a new spirit, is to be inquired after to
   do it for us, Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 37. The natural consequent, then, of
   asserting the power of our own wills, is not to call upon God, but
   direct our desires to another cause, to solicit our own wills, not God.
   It would not be, then, according to the language of the church, 'Turn
   thou us, O Lord, and we shall be turned;' 'Draw me, and I will run
   after thee,' Lam. v. 21, Cant. i. 4, but, I will turn to thee, and then
   shalt thou be turned to me; I will run after thee, and draw thee to
   myself. The royal authority, and power of God, and his glory in
   granting, is the foundation of prayer; therefore the Lord's prayer is
   concluded with this, as an argument to move God to grant what is asked,
   'Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory;' that is, thou art
   rich and powerful, and hast all sorts of blessings to bestow. With what
   face can any one go to God with these words in his mouth, when he
   ascribes the kingdom, power, and glory, in so great a work, to his own
   will? We can never pray in confidence to God for it, for all confidence
   is wrought by a consideration of the will of him we pray to, to
   accomplish what we desire, and of his power to effect it. What
   confidence, then, can we have in his will particularly to work it for
   us, if we conceive he has left it to our hands, as the proper work of
   our own wills? This was the ground of our Saviour's supplications, with
   strong cryings and tears, that 'God was able to save him,' Heb. v. 7:
   able naturally, in respect of his power, able morally, in respect of
   his truth to his promise. If God were careless in this concern, and had
   cast off all from his own hands, on the hand of free will, God might
   well say to and man, as he did to Moses, 'Why criest thou unto me?
   Speak to the children of Israel that they go forward,' Exod. xiv. 15.
   Why cry you to me? You may do it yourselves. Go forward with your own
   wills. The natural language of man to God would not be, Lord, let thy
   kingdom come, thy will be done, give me a new heart; but, I will have
   thy kingdom come, I will have thy will be done, I will procure myself a
   new heart, I will change my heart of stone into a heart of flesh.

   (2.) Praise. It does deprive God of this part of his worship also,
   praise even for his greatest blessings. If our own wills did produce
   this work, the greatest cause of glorying would be, not in God, but in
   ourselves. We have as little ground to praise God, if it be our own
   work, as we have to pray to him for it. All that can be said is, that
   we have ground to praise him for the means of regeneration; and this is
   no more ground than they have that are not regenerate under the
   enjoyment of the same means. If a man could give himself a natural
   being without God, he could be his own creator, his own foundation; so
   if he could give himself a spiritual being without the grace of God, he
   would be a god to himself; for in this case he would really do more to
   his conversion than God. If God offer grace equally to all, and the
   pliableness of one man's will to receive it above another were from
   himself, he would then owe an obligation to himself, but no more to God
   than the other that rejected it owes. The apostle, by asking the
   question, 'Who Has made thee to differ? And what hast thou that thou
   did not receive?' 1 Cor. iv. 7 (though it be meant of a difference of
   gifts, yet it is argumentum a minori), clearly implies, that what
   difference there was between them and others, was not of their own
   planting, nor grew up from the stock of nature. But if regeneration be
   wrought by a man's own will, it is not God that makes the difference,
   therefore the glory does not belong to him. He is the author of a
   general call, therefore the glory of that pertains to him, it is true;
   but yet as much from the damned that have lived under the gospel, as
   from the glorified saints in heaven, because the special entertainment
   of this call was not from the efficacy of God's grace, but the liberty
   of man's will; for, according to this assertion, the love of God would
   be equal both to the damned and saved, and would not shine with a
   fairer lustre in heaven than it does in hell. The apostle wishes the
   Philippians to 'work out their salvation with fear and trembling,' and
   encourages them by this argument, because God is the author of all that
   good which they do. If the determination of the will, then, is from
   itself, is it not a brave ground to glory in ourselves? How shall any
   man give God the glory of his salvation? If it be said, God did
   enlighten their understandings by the preaching of the gospel, this is
   an illumination common to all; and the reason some believe and others
   not, is not from the gift of God, but from themselves; how can we give
   God a peculiar praise for that wherein there is no difference between
   the best and the worst of men? But the apostle says, God gives us to
   will, that is, the operation of our will, and not only the illumination
   of the understanding; therefore, that our wills do terminate in that
   which is good, we hold of God; the apostle does not say, God has given
   us power to will, but produced the will in us, and that of his good
   pleasure. If, therefore, God work no more in one than in another, there
   is no place for God's good pleasure, because there is no difference.
   Let us see with what kind of language the praise of God would be
   clothed, according to the doctrine of free will. A renewed man may say
   thus: Lord, I give thee thanks, that thou hast conferred upon me a
   supernatural grace; but thou did also give as much grace to my
   neighbour, but I added something to that which thou did supernaturally
   give me; and though I received no more than he did receive from thee,
   yet I did more than he, since he remains in his sin, and I am
   regenerate; therefore I have no more obligation to thee and the grace,
   than he that believes not; for, Lord, thou did not make me differ from
   the other, because he had equal gifts with me; but I made myself to
   differ, because I superadded my own velle to thy divine assistance. How
   much of the glory of God would be pared off by such a half-witted
   praise as this! How low would be the acclamations of glorified saints
   in heaven! What foundation of pride in the creature, contrary to the
   intendment of the gospel, which is chiefly to humble man, if man were
   the cause of the most excellent work in himself! It would write vanity
   in a great measure upon that excellent exhortation of the apostle, 'Let
   him that glories, glory in the Lord,' 1 Cor. i. 31, since there would
   be a bottom for flesh to glory in his presence, contrary to the design
   of God in his works, ver. 29, which is, 'that no flesh should glory in
   his presence.'

   Arg. 2. The second sort of arguments is drawn from the nature and state
   of man.

   1. In creation. Man did not create himself; to be a new creature is
   more than to be a creature. As man contributed nothing to nature, so
   neither can he contribute anything to grace, any more than a passive
   capacity in respect of faculties, which yet are the gift of God to him,
   nothing of his own acquisition. The soul, though framed with all its
   faculties, is as little able to engrave the image of God upon itself,
   as the body of Adam, formed with all its parts and members, was able to
   infuse a living soul into itself; there is no reason therefore to
   attribute our creation to God, and regeneration, the glory and
   excellency of a creature, to ourselves. I know such similitudes ought
   not to be strained too high; yet when this doctrine agrees with other
   parts of Scripture, we may form an argument from this metaphor of
   creation whereby regeneration is expressed in Scripture. It is
   confessed by most, if not all, that no creature, not an angel, can be
   an instrument in the very act of creation of another thing, much less
   the chief efficient of its own creation, for creation is an act of
   omnipotence, and an incommunicable property of the Deity, not to be
   delegated to any creature. The creation of man, in a state of such
   perfection as to be endued with the image of God, was a greater work
   than simply the creation of his body or the essential faculties of his
   soul, yea, greater than the creation of the whole world, because the
   attributes of God did more lively appear in him, and particularly his
   holiness. The restoration then of this righteousness to man, after it
   is lost, is a greater work than the first creation of his body and
   soul, it being the same thing with the conferring at first his original
   rectitude upon him. If man therefore could create this in his own soul
   after it is lost, he would do a greater work than simply the creation
   of a world. Surely there is as much power and wisdom required to the
   new creating righteousness in the heart, after it is perished, as there
   was in the placing it there at first; and then it will follow that none
   can new create it but an infinite wisdom, power, and holiness. If man
   therefore can create it in itself, he must have a wisdom, power, and
   holiness equal to that of God his first creator, for what could not be
   done by any creature at the first conferring it, but it was necessary
   that it should be a work of infinite power, cannot be done by a less
   power non, because the work is every whit as great; and no less power
   is requisite to a second creation of a thing after it is perished, than
   was necessary to the first creation of it, since this power of creation
   cannot be derived to any creature. As when life is gone from a fly, and
   the body of it dried and shrivelled up, all will grant that the
   restoring life to this fly must be done by an omnipotent power. The
   case is the same with us by nature, spiritual life, upon the fall, was
   wholly fled, no good thing dwells in our flesh, Rom. vii. 18, not one
   thing spiritually good, that which is born of the flesh is flesh,
   wholly flesh in every part of it. If the making a living fly or worm is
   above the power of nature, much more the creating of so glorious a
   fabric as grace in the soul. Man might as well have implanted the
   divine image in his soul at first, as restore it after it was lost. To
   ascribe such a power to man to raise himself is a greater power than
   Adam had by creation, because to restore a man's self from death to
   life is greater than to preserve the vital principle he has already,
   and act naturally from it.

   2. In the state of innocence. Let us consider man in that, and it will
   appear he is unable to renew himself. If man did not keep himself up,
   with so great a stock of natural rectitude in paradise, how can he
   recover himself and that stock after it is lost? 'Man in his best
   estate is vanity; all Adam is all vanity.' In the estate of pure
   nature, he is vanity in respect of his mutability, much more vanity
   then in his fallen state, from the experience of which Adam rightly
   called his second son Abel, vanity, Hebel, the word used here. How soon
   did the breath of the serpent melt the impression upon him! And if he
   did not by his innocent will preserve that purity which he had
   received, how can he by his corrupt will recover that purity which he
   has lost? If Adam had had a will to preserve, he might have stood, but
   in losing his will he lost his power; if he did not maintain his will
   in his rectitude, nor (as some say) could not without the grace of God,
   how can he, by the mere force of his own will, restore that lost
   rectitude to himself? If an universal integrity stood in need of grace
   to preserve it, an universal depravation stands in need of a more
   vigorous force than that of our will to eject it. If Adam, who had no
   disorders in nature to rectify, did not stand by his own will, it is
   not likely that we, who have strong habits to conquer, can be restored
   by the strength of our own wills. What nature did not do when it was
   sound, it is not likely to do a greater thing when it is wounded. We
   cannot now have more power than Adam had in innocence; but he was not
   then endued with a power to regenerate himself if he should fall, but
   death was pronounced, both spiritual and eternal. If temptations
   corrupted him, and if he, being in a good condition, did not maintain
   himself in it, but pass from a good condition to a bad, how can we, by
   the only liberty of our will, pass into a good one? Are temptations
   less powerful now than before? Is the devil less vigilant to take all
   occasions to subvert us? Suppose our wills were not so evil as they
   are, would it not be more easy for the enemy to draw the will to
   himself, when it is unresolved between two parts, when the guide of it
   is so easy clouded, than it was to draw Adam's will to evil from that
   good to which he might readily have determined himself? Adam had the
   greatest advantages human nature, in a natural way, was capable of; he
   was created with a fullness of reason. But how long do we converse with
   sense, which fastens upon temptations, before we come to a use of
   reason! After we are come to some smatterings of reason, and a growth
   in it, as we think, what whisperings and impulses to sin do we feel!
   What an easiness to embrace incentives, a deafness to contrary
   admonitions! What languishing, velleities, and palsy desires at best,
   for that which is good; a mighty mist and darkness upon our
   understandings, irresolution in our wills? How can we with all these
   fetters be able of ourselves to put ourselves into a better state, and
   act against nature, which is impossible any creature can do but by a
   superior power!

   8. Consider man also in the state of corruption.

   (1.) If the will of man by nature were the cause of regeneration, it
   would follow that corruption were a cause of regeneration. 'The
   imagination of the heart of man is only evil, and that continually,'
   Gen. vi. 6. That which is evil, therefore, cannot be the cause of that
   which is man's greatest happiness. All actions are according to those
   innate qualities and habits which the agent has; all corrupted things
   act no otherwise than corruptly, because every act has no more in it
   than what the principle, which is the spring of the action, conveys to
   it. If the heart, then, be wicked, it cannot do anything but what is
   wicked, and a wicked act can never be the foundation of regeneration.
   If a corrupt man, as corrupt, can be the cause of regeneration, then he
   can act graciously, not only without a gracious habit, but by and from
   a corrupt habit. If the acts are corrupt, the product of them must be
   corrupt, for man, in renewing himself, must act either as corrupt or
   good. If as good, then he was renewed before he set about the renewing
   himself. The question will then be the same, How came he by that
   restoration to goodness? If as corrupt, then corruption is the spring
   of the noblest happiness of the creature. It would then follow that a
   man can perform acts of life before he lives; that vital acts may be
   exerted by dead principles; that sanctification can grow up from an
   unsanctified root; and that the will, with its old corruption, can be
   the cause of its elevation to another state, and that the old creature
   can perform a new creature's act before it be a new creature. Then a
   carnal mind, while it is carnal, may be subject to the law of God,
   which the Scriptures say it cannot be, Rom. viii. 7. Then those that
   are in the flesh may please God in an high manner, by the renewing
   themselves. This would be more strange than if we should see a
   crab-tree bring forth pomegranates; a corrupt tree would then bring
   forth good fruit, and that the highest fruit, contrary to our Saviour's
   assertion, Mat. vii. 18. It would follow that the stony heart would be
   the cause of the fleshly, and so an effect would rise from a cause
   quite contrary to it, and the complying principle in man be wrought by
   the resisting principle. It is as much as if the fire should cool, and
   the water burn, by their own innate qualities. If the will of man
   corrupted be the cause of principles of grace, then the old creature
   brings forth the new. The image of the devil is the cause of producing
   the divine nature, and hell the cause of an heavenly principle. It
   would follow that an act of one kind can be produced by an habit of a
   contrary nature, and that a man can act graciously before he be
   gracious. Before grace, no action is essentially good, because there
   wants a gracious principle, whence it must receive its denomination as
   good. One act, then, of corrupted man, or a multitude of acts, cannot
   be the cause of grace, because they all centre in that denomination of
   evil. How the acts of the will, whereof not one can be called good till
   the will has a good principle, can produce so noble a work and habit as
   grace is, is not easily intelligible. Our being engrafted into the good
   olive tree is contrary to nature, Rom. xi. 24. Nature cannot naturally
   contribute to that which is opposite to it. We are wild by nature, our
   new implantation is contrary to nature. A good nature, therefore,
   cannot be the natural effect of a wild nature.

   (2.) Since corruption, the power of man is mighty weak in naturals and
   morals, much more certainly in spirituals.

   [1.] In naturals. No natural body that lies under a grievous disease
   can repair itself by its own power without some external assistance. A
   wounded member must be beholding to oils and plants for a cure. No man
   can cast out a disease when he will. He may be sick when he will, by
   eating that which is contrary to nature; but the cure does not depend
   upon his will, but upon physic. Outward medicines must recover that
   which he lost by his own wilfulness. The will indeed is conditio sine
   qua non; there must be a will to use the means, or a man must be forced
   to use them, as we deal with madmen and children which are unwilling to
   take physic. But who ever heard of a man that could cure himself by his
   own will without the application of medicines? How can the soul then be
   restored to its vital integrity, by its own force? How can it change
   its own temper without some superior power operating upon nature? 'Man
   is like a wild ass's colt,' Job xi. 12. What wild creature ever tamed
   itself? If any say that the will of man, by the use of outward
   ordinances, can cure itself, it is answered, Those ordinances are
   operative, not in a physical but moral way, and therefore such an
   efficiency as is in plants and drugs cannot be expected from them.
   There must be an operation of our own wills to make them efficacious.
   But what shall cure the will where the disease principally lies, and
   the love of the disease is seated? Who shall remove the beloved
   inclination from the will? Can nature cast out nature, or Satan cast
   out Satan? What can make us willing? When we are made willing, the cure
   is half wrought, as, when a madman is willing to be cured of his
   infirmity, you can hardly count him any longer mad. The evil principles
   in the will will never aim at their own destruction. If this work of
   regeneration were only the curing of a man that were sick or wounded,
   it could not be done by the power of man's will, but by the application
   of some external medicine, though nature did concur with it. But it is
   not a sickness but a death, therefore cannot come under the influence
   of' the will of man in the first work. Shall a man have more power to
   cure his soul of mortal sins, than to cure his body of mortal wounds?

   [2.] In morals. Whence comes that intemperance, incontinence, luxury,
   which overflows mankind, who are carried to those things which impair
   health, even in meats and drinks, against the reluctance of reason,
   whose will is led not by reason but appetite, and choose not like men
   but beasts, under the notion of pleasant and lustful? Is not this from
   the will conducted by appetite? The temperance and continence opposite
   to this is not in Scripture counted part of the extraction of nature,
   but the gift of God: 1 Cor. vii. 7, 'But every man has his proper gift
   of God, one after this manner, another after that,' speaking of
   continence. That which is God's gift is not merely the fruit of human
   will; for in the apostle's language they seem to be opposed, viz., to
   be from God, and from ourselves; to be God's gift, and yet our own. In
   Eph. ii. 8 there is a plain antithesis, 'Not of yourselves: it is the
   gift of God.' It is the same expression of that moral virtue of
   continence as it is of the divine grace of faith; 'it is the gift of
   God.' We are nothing in morals without God, no more than a beam is when
   the sun is clouded or withdraws its light. Shall we, then, allow a
   greater power to man in spiritual things than the Scripture does in
   morals? Shall the one be the gift of God, and the greater the
   acquisition of nature? Cannot the clay form itself into a vessel of
   moral honour? Shall it, then, be able to form itself into a vessel of
   grace? If we are not intrinsically sufficient of ourselves to exercise
   a morel act, since our natures are so overgrown with corruption, we are
   less sufficient of ourselves to exercise a supernatural act without a
   divine motion. Can anything assume an higher nature than what it
   originally has? Man has assumed a lower nature than that wherein he was
   created, which no creature besides him in this lower world has. Since
   he has brutified himself, and cannot moralise himself without common
   grace, how can he advance himself into a participation of the divine
   nature without special grace? How can man, so habitually evil, ascend
   up to an higher nature?

   [3.] In this corrupt state of man, any one sin beloved will hold a man
   down from coming to God. It is impossible for a man, wedded in his
   heart to his riches, and bemired in earthly confidences, to enter into
   a renewed gospel state. 'How hard is it,' says our Saviour, 'for them
   that trust in riches, to enter into the kingdom of God!' Mark x. 24,
   25. This one corruption commanding in the heart, will hinder any
   resurrection by the power of nature, for on man's part Christ
   pronounces it impossible for such an one to enter into the kingdom of
   God, ver. 27, that is, into a gospel-state; and that upon the score of
   this single sin, which only appeared at this time in that young man.
   The like he pronounces of another sin, that of ambition: John v. 44,
   'How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another?' That one
   fancy of the Jews, of a temporal conquering Messiah, did so possess
   their brains, that it barred the door against all the power of our
   Saviour's miracles; and the bare objective proposal of him, though
   unanswerable by reason, could not remove this rooted fancy. One sin in
   the will, has more power than any imagination in the fancy. When Adam
   disfigured his nature by one sin, he had no strength to recover
   himself, though his righteousness was but very lately fled from him. We
   need not question his recovery of it, had it been in the power of his
   will to will it, and the power of his nature to regain it. If one sin,
   then, in the will, is a bar against the power of nature, what are all
   those lusts which swarm in the heart of man, and swell up this lake of
   natural venom in the soul? If one fetter stakes down a man to an
   impotency and impossibility, how great is man's weakness under all
   those fetters which every day he loads himself with! One string about a
   bird's leg will keep it from flying away, much more many.

   Arg. 3. Another sort of considerations, is from the state of man under
   the gospel.

   1. If regeneration depended on the will of man, what is the reason more
   do not receive the gospel than are seen by us to receive it? If the
   faculty of believing were given to all, then all would believe upon the
   promulgation of the gospel, because the gospel is 'the power of God to
   salvation,' Rom. i. 16. If it be the power of God in the outward
   preaching of it, then all would believe. If all do not believe, then
   some other secret power attends it, which makes it efficacious in one,
   not in another; it is 'to them that are saved' only, 'the power of
   God,' 1 Cor. i. 18; to others, though of great reason, foolishness. If
   the strength of arguments be the cause in one, what is the reason those
   arguments have not force upon another? What is that which makes the
   difference? All men have reason; and what is common reason does conduct
   all men more or less. If men could open the eyes of their mind to
   understand the excellency of gospel proposals, what is the reason that
   among those great multitudes to whom it is preached, so few in all ages
   have embraced it, though the things proposed are in themselves
   desirable, and suit so well, in respect of the blessedness promised, to
   the natural desire of man for happiness! When it was preached by the
   apostles! it was edged with miracles, attended with a remarkable
   holiness, yet they complained that few received their report. When in
   that age, and succeeding ages, men have been so far from receiving it,
   that they have scoffed at it, persecuted with all their fury the
   professors of it. It has been thus despised, not only by the meanest
   and blindest sort of people, but by men of the most elevated
   understanding among the heathen philosophers, that could pierce into
   the depths of nature; and by the Jews too, who had the Messiah promised
   to them, expected him about that time, had so many prophesies
   deciphering him, which all met with their accomplishment in his person;
   who were also amazed at the miracles he wrought in his life, and those
   which accompanied his death. Does not all this show the natural
   blindness of man, that there is need of some higher power to open his
   eyes, besides the objective proposal, that he may acknowledge the
   excellency of those things which are presented to him? Do we not find
   men ready to acknowledge reason upon other accounts, to be wrought into
   warm affections by pathetical speeches? Why are they not as ready in
   this, if it were in the power of their own understandings and wills? Do
   we not find the wills of men averse from it, though in their
   consciences they approve of the doctrines of it? What is the reason a
   man is renewed at one time, and not before, when he has heard the same
   arguments inculcated many a time? Many drops would not work it before,
   and one drop works it not in an instant. Is it from the power of reason
   in man? What reason is there, then, that he should be mastered by one
   reason now, who was not mastered by the same reason, and many more as
   strong, formerly? Whence comes that light into the mind? What is the
   reason such a man was not regenerate before, when he has in some fits
   meditated upon former arguments, and afterwards one effects it, by a
   secret insinuation, without any previous meditation, and a sudden turn
   of the will is wrought? Can this be supposed to be from the will
   principally? Rather from some divine spirit spreading itself over the
   soul, and opening the passages of it which were before shut. That
   place, Mat. xi. 21, where our Saviour speaks of the Tyrians and
   Sidonians, if the gospel had been preached to them, they would have
   repented in sackcloth and ashes, does not prove the power of man to
   renew himself, but that they would have testified some outward
   humiliation, as Ahab did at the threatening of Elijah; or rather,
   Christ exaggerates the hardness of the Jews' hearts in comparing them
   with the Tyrians in a hyperbolical manner of expression; as we do when
   we reproach a man for unmercifulness, we say, Had I entreated a Turk or
   barbarian as much, I should have bent him; not that we commend the
   humanity of the Turks, but aggravate the cruelty of those we have to do
   with. The proposal of an object is not sufficient without the
   inspiration of a will, whereby that concupiscence which masters that
   faculty may be overpowered.

   2. If regeneration were the fruit of man's will, what is the reason
   that men convinced by the preaching of the gospel, and under great
   terrors too, find themselves unable to turn to God? What is the reason
   they are not presently renewed? Would they be torn with such horrors,
   and bear about them such racks in their consciences? Would they fill
   heaven and earth with complaints, were it in their own power to make
   themselves such as God commands them to be? If this were found in the
   more ignorant sort of people, the reason then might be charged upon
   their want of knowledge; but men of great wits and insight are filled
   with those complaints when God begins to rebuke them. And such as have
   a great deal of grace, as David, when God charges sin upon him: Ps. li.
   10, 'Create in me a clean heart; renew in me a right spirit;' why
   should they solicit God for renewing grace, were it in the power of
   their own hand? Would any that fear God, as David did, mock him at such
   a rate, as to desire that of him which they are able to do without him?
   Were there a natural power in man to turn himself, why did not Judas,
   after his conscience lashed him, go to his Master's knees to desire
   pardon, rather than to the gibbet? He had long experience of the
   merciful disposition of his Master; had not grace given him to incline
   his will to such an act; yet Peter was turned after his denial of his
   Master, was there anything more by nature in him than in Judas? Or did
   Peter do that by the strength of his own will, which Judas did not do?
   No, the Scripture assures us, it was from the prevalence of Christ's
   prayer, a secret influence from Christ's look, stirring up that grace
   that was already in his heart; he might else have gone out cursing his
   Master as long as he had lived: 'No man can come to me, except the
   Father draw him,' says our Saviour; though he be convinced, there must
   be the Father's traction as well as conviction to complete the work.
   All drawing implies a resistance, or at least a heaviness and
   indisposition in the thing so drawn, to come of itself. There is much
   difference between the proposal of the object, and the cause of our
   entertaining it. The object is the final cause which puts us upon
   motion; the object moves the will as an end, but it gives no power to
   move. If a man hear of an alms to be distributed at such a place, and
   he knows he stands in need of it, and has a desire to go to receive it,
   this knowledge of the necessity of it will not give him legs to go, if
   he be lame and unable to go; and he that does go to receive the alms,
   the desire to receive the alms puts him upon motion; but the intention
   of receiving the alms was not the efficient cause of that motion. If he
   had not had strength in him from some other cause than the alms, he
   could never have gone. Our motion to God must proceed from some higher
   cause than barely the proposal of the object, and a conviction by it.

   4. Argument is drawn from the condition of the regenerate themselves.
   They are not able to rid themselves of the remainders of sin, much less
   can natural men of the body of sin. From the impotency after grace, we
   may rationally conclude a greater weakness in a natural man that has
   not one spark of grace within, to be blown up from any breathing of
   grace from without. The flesh lusts against the spirit in a regenerate
   man; how peaceably does it enjoy its dominion in a natural man, where
   there is no spirit to control it, and lust against it? Regenerate men
   'cannot do the good they would,' and they 'do the evil which they
   hate,' Rom. vii. 16, 19, though they have a law of grace in their mind,
   set up in contradiction to the law of sin in their members. How can a
   natural man then, do so good a thing as the renewal of himself, and the
   destruction of his sin, who has no will to the one nor hatred of the
   other, who has the law of sin flourishing in him, and delights to read
   the characters of it and perform the wills of the flesh! If there be
   such an inability in a renewed man, who has a relish of God and the
   goodness of the law, who has sin in part mortified, and cast out of the
   mind, to the members and suburbs, how much greater must the inability
   and resistance be when there is nothing but opposing flesh! What need
   the apostle issue out such heavy complaints: 'O wretched man that I am,
   who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' Rom. vii. 24, if he
   had power in his own hands to free himself from this oppressing sin? If
   Paul, a living tree in God's garden, having both the root and sap of
   grace, be so wretched, so weak and unable to free himself from those
   suckers, how wretched then is a dead rotten stake, which has no
   spiritual root! How can he free himself from a total spiritual death,
   when this great apostle could not free himself from a partial spiritual
   death by all that stock of grace already received? If a good man finds
   it so laborious a task to engage against the relics of nature, and
   manage an open hostility against the wounded force of his sensual
   appetite, much more is it a difficult task for a natural man to row
   against the stream of unbroken nature, when the natural resistance is
   in its hill strength, and the bent of nature standing point-blank
   against God. If a well-built and well-rigged ship, with her sails
   spread, can only lie floating upon the waves, and make no way till a
   fresh wind fills the sails, surely the rough timber that lies upon the
   ground can never fit and frame itself into a stately vessel.

   5. It is against the whole order which God has set in the world, for
   any thing to be the cause of itself, or of a higher rank of being than
   what it has by nature. No effect is nobler than its cause; grace is
   more noble than nature. A seal cannot convey and other image than what
   is stamped upon itself, and no further than its own dimensions; neither
   can nature stamp anything of grace upon the soul, because it has no
   such image engraver on it by God. Nature, though never so perfect in
   its own kind, can never produce a thing of higher perfection than
   itself; a plant can never produce a beast, nor a beast a man, nor a man
   an angel. No natural quality can be changed in any subject by itself,
   but by the introduction of some other quality superior to it. The fire
   can never freeze while it is fire; water cannot part with its coldness
   without some superior acting upon it; and can those that are naturally
   bad ever become spiritually good but by an almighty power? No nature
   can exceed its own bounds, because nothing can exceed itself in acting.
   Whatsoever a natural man does is but natural, and can never amount to
   grace, without a change of nature and addition of a divine virtue. If
   any thing could rise above its own sphere, it would be stronger than
   itself. Nothing can never make itself something; the best apostle
   counts himself no better,--2 Cor. xii. 11, 'I am nothing,'--and
   entitles grace the sole benefactor of all his spiritual good, 2 Cor.
   xv. 10. What thing ever gave itself its own shape? Every piece of art
   is brought into figure by the workman, not by itself. Conformity to
   Christ is a fruit of the election of God, not first of the choice of
   our own wills. Rom. viii. 29, 'Whom he did foreknow he also did
   predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.' The first link
   of the chain in the providential and in the gracious administration is
   in the hands of God. Hence in Scripture the gracious works in the soul
   run in the passive for the most part: 'Ye are justified, ye are
   sanctified;' not you justify or sanctify yourselves; though
   sanctification and purging and working out salvation is ascribed to
   them that have received grace and life, as acting afterwards for such
   ends, and producing such effects by the strength of grace received from
   God, and grace accompanying that first grace in its acts.

   As we have proved that man by his own strength cannot renew himself,
   let us see whether he can do it by his additional capacities.

   1. Man, by the help of instituted privileges, does not produce this
   work of regeneration in himself, without a supernatural grace attending
   them. Ordinances cannot renew a man, but the arm of God, which does
   manage them, edges them into efficacy, as the arm that wields the sword
   gives the blow. Means are the showers of heaven, but they can no more
   make the heart fruitful till some gracious principles be put in, than
   the beams of the sun, the dews of heaven, and the water pots of the
   clouds, can make a barren ground bring forth flowers, without a change
   of the nature of the soil, and new roots planted in it. All the
   spectacles in the world cannot cure a man's eyes, he must have a
   visible faculty to make use of them. Our faculty must be cured before
   we can exercise it about objects or use means proper to that faculty.
   All persuasions will not prevail with a dead man; the fairest
   discourses, the most undeniable arguments, the most moving rhetoric
   will not stir or affect him, till God take away the stone from the
   grave and raise him to life. The report of the prophets will do no good
   without the revelation of God's arm, Isa. liii. 1, because all those
   things do not work in a physical way, as drugs and plasters, which
   attain their end without any active concurrence of the patient, but in
   a moral way; the will therefore and nature must first be charged before
   those can do any good. You can never by all your teachings teach a
   sheep to provide for winter, as an ant does, because it has no such
   instinct in its nature. If any thing were like to work upon a man, the
   most stupendous miracles were most likely to produce such an effect
   upon the reasons of men; yet those supernatural demonstrations without
   a man only cannot make him believe a truth. Miracles are a
   demonstration to the eye as well as preaching to the ear; though they
   be confessed to be above the strength of nature, yet all the spectators
   of them are not believers: John xii. 37, 'But though he had done so
   many miracles before them, yet they believed not.' Many of those that
   saw our Saviour's works did not believe his doctrine; nay, they
   irrationally ascribed them to the devil, when they could find no reason
   in the nature of them to charge them upon such a score. The raising
   Lazarus from the dead was as high a miracle as ever was wrought yet,
   though many of them believed, yet others did not, but accused him to
   the pharisees, who thereupon more vigorously took counsel to put him to
   death, John xi. 45, 46, 47, 53, though they acknowledged that he did
   many miracles. They had reason as well as others; the miracles were
   undeniable, as being acted before many witnesses; the natural force of
   them upon all reasons was equal, the considerations arising from them
   unanswerable. There were evil habits in the will, not removed by grace,
   which resisted the unanswerable reason of the miracles. What made the
   difference between them and those that believed? Why did not the wills
   of the enemies follow the undeniable reason, as well as the wills of
   others? Miracles may astonish men, but cannot convert them without a
   divine touch upon the heart. 1 Kings xviii. 39, the people were
   astonished by that wonderful miracle of fire falling from heaven and
   consuming the sacrifice, and licking up the water in the trench; and
   some reverential resolutions were produced in them: they fell upon
   their faces and said, 'The Lord he is God;' they showed their zeal in
   taking Baal's prophets, and helping, or at least suffering, Elijah to
   slay them; yet those people revolted to idolatry, and continued so till
   their captivity. The easiness of faith upon the apparition and
   instruction of one risen from the dead was the opinion of one of the
   damned: Luke xvi. 80, 'If one went to them from the dead, they will
   repent;' but this opinion was contradicted by Abraham, ver. 31, who
   positively asserts, 'If they did not hear Moses and the prophets, they
   would not be persuaded though one rose from the dead.' If their wills
   were obstinate against the means God had appointed for their
   conversion, the same wills so corrupted would be as obstinate against
   the highest sort of miracles. If that, then, which is above the hand of
   nature to act, and bears the character of omnipotence upon the breasts
   of it, does not work upon men's hearts and wills of themselves, surely
   nature itself cannot turn the heart to God.

   The two great dispensations of God are law and gospel; neither of these
   can of themselves work this.

   (1.) The law. The law will instruct, not heal. It acquaints us with our
   duty, not our remedy; it irritates sin, not allays it; it exasperates
   our venom, but does not tame it; though it shows man his miserable
   condition, yet a man by it does not gain one drop of repentance. It
   tells us what we should do, but corrects not the enmity of our nature
   whereby we may do it. The apostle takes notice of the enmity of man to
   the law: Rom. v. 6, 7, 'Yet enemies', 'yet sinners.' That yet may refer
   to what he had spoken of the law in the chapter before. Though men had
   had so much time from the fall to recover themselves, and had so many
   advantages by the law and the ceremonies of it, yet all those years
   spent from the foundation of the world had produced no other effect
   than the weakening of them; as creatures that are wounded, by their
   strugglings waste their own strength. Yet sinners, till this time
   sinners, whereby the load of sin which lay upon the world was made more
   heavy by the continual addition made to those heaps. The offence did
   rather abound by the law than was diminished: Rom. v. 20, 'The law was
   given that sin might abound.' Though it made a clear discovery of the
   will of God, yet it rather aggravated sin; it added no power to perform
   that will. The motions of sin were exasperated by it, ex accidenti, and
   brought forth fruit unto death; all the means by the law for the
   repressing of sin did rather inflame it. Sin could not be overcome by
   it, because the law was 'weak through the flesh;' that is, had not so
   much power as sin had; it was like a little water put upon fire, which
   did rather enrage than quell it: Rom. vii. 8, 9, 'Sin revived' when the
   law came, it had a new life, and the apostle found himself utterly
   unable to overpower it. There were, ver. 5, 'motions of sin,'
   "pathemata", not only a power in sin, but an enraged power, which adds
   to the strength of a person, 'sin slew him: taking occasion by the
   commandment,' ver. 10, and a dead man is wholly at the disposing of his
   conquerors. The law was 'holy,' it had an impression of God's holiness
   upon it, Rom. vii. 12-14, there was also equity and convenience in it,
   it was 'just and good,' and though these were considerations enough to
   spur men on to rid themselves of this tyrant sin, yet they could not,
   they had not strength enough to do it; though it was holy, just, and
   good, yet it was not strong enough to rescue them; and the reason of
   it, the apostle lays upon the difference in the nature of both: ver.
   14, 'We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under
   sin;' there was an enmity in his nature to it, and therefore he must
   lie under the power of it till a mighty deliverer stepped in to conquer
   it. Do we find any better effect of the ceremonial law, which was the
   gospel in a mask, and which was the instrument of all the regenerations
   among the Jews? How few do we find renewed among them under that means
   which they enjoyed solely, and no other nation in the world partners
   with them in it! How frequent were their revolts, and rebellions, and
   idolatries, inconsistent with regeneration, we may read in Joshua and
   Judges. The inefficaciousness of means appears evidently in that nation
   which had greater advantages than any in the world besides; the
   covenants, sacrifices, oracles of God, warnings by prophets, yet so
   frequently overgrown with idolatry from the time of their coming out of
   Egypt to the Babylonish captivity; and ten tribes wholly cashiered for
   it.

   (2.) The gospel. Though the veil of ceremonies be taken off from it,
   and it appears open faced, yet till the veil be taken off the
   understandings of men, it will produce little fruit among them, 2 Cor.
   iii. 14. The gospel is plain, but only to him that understands, Prov.
   viii. 9, as the sun is clear, but only to him that has an eye to see
   it. The gospel itself cannot remove the blindness from the mind. The
   proposal of the object works no alteration in the faculty, without some
   acting on the faculty itself. The beams of the sun shining upon a blind
   man make no alteration in him. The Jews, to whom the gospel was
   preached by our Saviour himself, could not believe, because God blinded
   their eyes, &c., John xii. 39, 40. There must be a supernatural power,
   besides the proposal of the object, to take away this blindness and
   hardness which is the obstruction to the work of the gospel. Though the
   Son of God is come, and the gospel be preached, yet the understanding
   whereby we know is given us by him: 1 John v. 20, 'And we know that the
   Son of God is come, and has given us an understanding, that we may know
   him that is true;' the light of the gospel shines upon all, but all
   have not an eye given them to see it, and a will given them to embrace
   it. The mere doctrine of it does not regenerate any man; some have
   tasted of the heavenly gift, that is, have had some understanding of
   Christ, who is the heavenly gift, the Son given to us, Isa. ix. 6, and
   are partakers of some common illumination of the Holy Ghost, yet are
   not regenerate. Was not the gospel preached to the Jews, even by the
   mouth of our Saviour whom they crucified? And was it not preached to
   the Gentiles by the mouths of those apostles whom they persecuted? Were
   there not proposals that suited the natural desires of men for
   happiness, yet did not many that seemed to receive it, receive it not
   in the love of it? If God himself should appear to us in the likeness
   of a man, and preach to us as he did to Adam, it he did not overpower
   our hearts with an inward grace, he would do us no good at all by his
   declarations. We do not read of any work immediately upon Adam at the
   promulgation of the gospel by God himself, though it appears that
   afterwards there was, by his instructing his sons to sacrifice, and his
   expectations of a Messiah. But we certainly know that our Saviour, God
   manifested in the flesh, declared the gospel in his own person, and
   found no success but where he touched the heart inwardly by the grace
   of his Spirit. All mere outward declarations are but suasions, and mere
   suasion cannot change and cure a disease or habit in nature. You may
   exhort an Ethiopian to turn himself white, or a lame man to go; but the
   most pathetical exhortations cannot procure such an effect without a
   greater power than that of the tongue to cure nature; you may as well
   think to raise a dead man by blowing in his mouth with a pair of
   bellows. Judas had enjoyed the best means that ever were, yet went out
   of the world unrenewed; and the thief upon the cross, who never perhaps
   was in any good company in his life till he came to the cross, nor ever
   heard Christ speak before, was renewed by the grace of God in the last
   hour.

   2. Neither can a man renew himself by all his moral works, before
   faith. Our calling is not according to our works, but 'according to
   God's own purpose and grace,' 2 Tim. i. 9. Paul, before his conversion,
   was 'blameless as to the righteousness of the law,' Philip. iii. 6, yet
   this was loss; a bar rather to regeneration, than a means to further
   it. For all this legal comeliness he ranks himself, before his
   conversion, in the number of the dead: Eph. ii. 5, 'When we were dead
   in sins;' not you, but we, putting himself into the register of the
   dead. Whatsoever works a man can morally do before faith, cannot be the
   cause of spiritual life; they are not vital operations; if they were,
   they were then the effects of life, not the cause; the Scripture makes
   them the effects of grace: 'created to good works,' Eph. ii. 10. What
   is an effect cannot be the cause. The best works before grace are but a
   refined sensuality, they arise from self-love, centre in
   self-satisfaction, are therefore works of a different strain from those
   of grace, which are referred to a higher end, and to God's
   well-pleasing. In all works before grace there is no resignation of the
   soul to God in obedience; no self-denial of what stands in opposition
   to God in the heart; no clear view of the evil of sin; no sound
   humiliation under the corruption of nature; no inward purification of
   the heart, but only a diligence in an external polishing. All those
   acts cannot produce an habit of a different kind from them. Let a man
   be stilted up with the highest natural excellency; let him be taller by
   the head and shoulders than all his neighbours in morality, those no
   more confer life upon him than the setting a statue upon an high
   pinnacle, near the beams of the sun, inspires it with a principle of
   motion. The increasing the perfection of one species can never mount
   the thing so increased to the perfection of another species. If you
   could vastly increase the heat of fire, you could never make it ascend
   to the perfection of a star. If you could increase mere moral works to
   the highest pitch they are capable of, they can never make you
   gracious, because grace is another species, and the nature of them must
   be changed to make them of another kind. All the moral actions in the
   world will never make our hearts, of themselves, of another kind than
   moral. Works make not the heart good, but a good heart makes the works
   good. It is not our walking in God's statutes materially, which
   procures us a new heart, but a new heart is in order before walking in
   God's statutes, Ezek. xxxvi. 27. Our regeneration is no more wrought by
   works of our own than our justification. The rule of the apostle will
   hold good in this, as well as in the other: Rom. xi. 6, 'If it be of
   grace, it is not of works; otherwise grace is no more grace;' and faith
   is 'the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast,' Eph. ii.
   9. And the apostle, Titus iii. 5, opposes the 'renewing of the Holy
   Ghost' to 'works of righteousness.' He excludes works from being the
   cause of salvation; and would they not be the cause of salvation, if
   they were the cause of the necessary condition of salvation?

   Prop. 3. As man cannot prepare himself to this work, nor produce it, so
   he cannot co-operate with God in the first production of it. We are no
   more co-workers with God in the first regeneration, than we were joint
   purchasers with Christ in redemption. The conversion of the will to God
   is a voluntary act; but the regeneration of the will, or the planting
   new habits in the will, whereby it is enabled to turn to God, is
   without any concurrence of the will. Therefore, say some, we are active
   in primo actu, but not in primo actus; or we are active in actu
   exercito, but not in actu signato. Some say, the habit of faith is
   never created separate from an act, as the trees at the creation of the
   world were created with ripe fruit on them; but the tree, with the
   power of bearing fruit, and the fruit itself, were created at one and
   the same time by God. Yet though the habit be not separate at first
   from the act, yet there is no co-operation of the creature to the
   infusion of that habit, but there is to the act immediately flowing
   from that habit; for either that act of grace is voluntary or
   involuntary. If involuntary, it is not a gracious act; if voluntary, it
   must needs be; since the tone of the will is changed, then the creature
   concurs in that act; for the act of believing and repenting is the act
   of the creature. It is not God that repents and believes in us; but we
   repent and believe by virtue of that power which God has given us. In
   the first act, therefore, there is a concurrence of the creature;
   otherwise the creature could not be said to repent and believe, but
   something in the creature, without or against the will of the creature.
   But in the first power of believing and repenting, God is the sole
   agent. Jesus Christ is the sun that heals our natures, Mal. iv. 2; the
   rain that moistens our hearts: Ps. lxxii. 6, 'He shall come down like
   rain upon the mown grass.' What co-operation is there in the earth with
   the sun to the production of flowers, but by the softness it has
   received from the rain? It would else be parched up, and its fruits
   wither. The Holy Ghost does by his own power make us good trees; but we
   afterwards, by virtue of that power, work together with him, in
   bringing forth good fruit. Yet this is also a subordinate, not a
   co-ordinate working; rather a sub-operation than a co-operation.

   1. The state wherein man is at his first renewal excludes any
   co-working with God. The description the apostle gives of a state of
   nature excludes all co-operation of the creature in the first renewal:
   Titus iii. 3, 'For we ourselves were sometimes foolish, disobedient,
   deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and
   envy, hateful, and hating one another.' And Eph. ii. 2, 3, 'Among whom
   we all had our conversations in time past, in the lusts of our flesh,
   fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.' Every man is
   naturally taken up in the fulfilling the desires of the flesh; not only
   the Gentiles, to whom Paul writes, but himself; for he puts himself and
   the rest of the Jews in the number. In the second verse it was 'ye
   walked;' in ver. 3, it is 'we all;' and in Titus iii. 3, 'we
   ourselves.' We who had the oracles of God, that had greater privileges
   than others, were carried out with as strong an impetus naturally, till
   grace stopped the tide, and after stopping, turned it against nature.
   When the mind was thus prepossessed, and the will made the lusts of the
   flesh its work and trade, there was no likelihood of any co-operation
   with God in fulfilling his desires, till the bent of the heart was
   changed from the flesh and its principles. The heart is stone before
   grace. No stone can co-operate with any that would turn it into flesh,
   since it has no seed, causes, or principles of any fleshly nature in
   it. Since we are overwhelmed by the rubbish of our corrupted estate, we
   can no more co-operate to the removal of it, than a man buried under
   the ruins of a fallen house can contribute to the removal of that great
   weight that lies upon him. Neither would a man in that state help such
   a work, because his lusts are pleasures; he serves his lusts, which are
   pleasures as well as lusts, and therefore served with delight. There is
   naturally in man a greater resistance against the work of grace, than
   there is in the natural coldness of water against the heat of the fire,
   which yet penetrates into all parts of the water.

   2. Regeneration is a new principle. What operation can there be before
   a principle of action? All co-operation supposes some principle of
   working; as actus secundus supposes actum primum. But a man, before his
   first regeneration, is blind in his mind, perverse in his will,
   rebellious in his affections, unable to know the truth, unable to do
   good, dead in sin. If he does co-operate with God before the habit be
   settled, then we can act before we have a power to act. We can please
   God in taking his part, and joining issue with him, before we have a
   gracious principle; which is contrary to the Scripture, which tells us
   we are first begotten of God before we can keep ourselves, or exert one
   act for the bettering ourselves: 1 John v. 18, 'He that is begotten of
   God keeps himself.' The preservation of ourselves, and every act
   tending thereto, follows the infusion of the first principle. And the
   apostle Paul implies, that God works in us to will before we work:
   Philip. ii. 12, 13, 'Work out your own salvation with fear and
   trembling; for God works in you both to will and to do,' &c. The
   apostle supposes not any operation in them before, because he supposes
   not their working without God's giving them a will, the act of
   volition. The working of the creature supposes some divine work first
   upon the will. Did the dust of the ground, whereof Adam's body was
   formed, co-work with God in figuring it into a body? or does the body
   contribute any more than a passive receptivity to the infusion of the
   rational soul? Lazarus did not concur with Christ till his powerful
   voice infused life and strength into him. His rising and walking was
   from a power conveyed, wherein Christ did work; but there was no
   co-working in him in the conveyance of that power. We do not say that a
   man co-works with the sun in enlightening a room, because he opens the
   shuts which barred out the light; the opening whereof is no cause of
   the sun's shining, but a conditio sine qua non. But do we so much in
   the first renewal? It is God alone who darts his beams, and opens our
   hearts too, to admit it: Acts xvi. 14, it is said, 'the Lord opened
   Lydia's heart.' The will cannot concur in the actual infusion of a
   gracious principle, because it has no spark in itself by nature,
   suitable to that principle which is bringing it into the soul itself.
   The shining of God into the soul is compared to the chasing away that
   darkness which at the first creation was over the face of the deep: 2
   Cor. iv. 6, 'For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
   has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the
   glory of God.' What co-working was there in that darkness to remove
   itself, but a necessity upon it to obey the command of God who had the
   sovereign power over his own works? If the creature did co-work with
   God at first, it could no more be said to be dead than a man asleep may
   be said to be dead; and grace were only an awakening, not an
   enlivening.

   3. If there were any co-working of the will with God in the first
   infusion of grace, God would not be so much the author of grace as he
   is of nature in any other creature. The creature would share with him
   in the first principle of its action, which no creature in the world
   can be said to do. It would rather be a concourse of God than a
   creation; but all the terms whereby God sets forth himself in the work
   of regeneration import more than a bare concourse or a co-operation
   with the creature: ' I will take away the heart of stone; I will write
   my law in their hearts; I will put my Spirit into them,' are loftier
   expressions than are used to signify a co-working only. He appropriates
   the whole work to himself, without interesting the creature in any
   active concurrence, any more than at his creation.

   4. If the will of man did co-work with God in regeneration, it would
   then share part of the glory of God. The whole glory would not belong
   to God, which he challenges to himself in Scripture. He were then but
   an half Saviour, an half new creator. We should be in joint commission
   with him, by the power of our own wills, in the first motion. If
   creation and resurrection are acts of an almighty power, man
   co-operating with him in the very act of creation and resurrection
   would partake with God's almightyness, and in some sort be co-equal
   with him, and a joint partner with God in a work which required
   almightyness for the effecting it. Surely since the same power which
   raised Christ from the dead works first in every believer for his
   spiritual resurrection, he contributes no more to it than the body of
   Christ in the grave did to its resurrection, which was a work not of
   his humanity, but divinity. Plucking out of the power of Satan is an
   effect of the power of grace, and God's gift, 2 Tim. ii. 25, 20. God
   first 'gives repentance, that they may recover themselves out of the
   snare of the devil.' A slave, whose hands and feet are laden with
   fetters, can contribute nothing to his deliverance but a will and
   desire to be delivered; nor that, if he be in love with his fetters,
   which is the case of every one of us by nature, who are as fond to be
   in the devil's custody as he is to have us. What co-operation can there
   be in this ease? Whatsoever is an act of mercy, and an act of truth in
   God, he is to have the sole praise of; it does not in any sort belong
   to the creature. The psalmist emphatically excludes man from it: Ps.
   cxv. 1, 'Not unto us, O Lord, not to us, but unto the name give glory,
   for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake.' Not unto us, twice repeated,
   but to thy name give glory. Do believers beg of God the giving glory to
   himself, and not unto them; and will they contradict their prayers, by
   sharing the praise with God? This is expressed for deliverances. Much
   less does any praise and glory belong to the creature for the most
   excellent deliverance of all, from the power of sin, Satan, and death.

   5. How can men co-work with God in the first regeneration, when they
   must needs acknowledge that in the progress of it they are oftener
   hinderers than furtherers of it? If God did not work more strongly in
   us than the best of us do in ourselves, and breathe a willingness into
   our wills, after regeneration, we should come short of salvation for
   all the first stock. How often do the best complain of their
   disability! Is it not frequent in the mouths of Christians in all ages
   as well as of Paul: Rom. vii. 18, 'To will is present with me, but how
   to perform that which is good I find not'? How easily are our purposes
   shaken, and our strength staggers! Can we then co-operate with God,
   when we have no purpose, no strength? Let every man's experience speak
   for himself, how apt he is to check the motions of the Spirit; to let
   our Saviour stand and knock, and not open. What strugglings of the body
   of death! What indispositions in an holy course! Is there not often a
   kind of rustiness of soul, cold damps in spiritual duties? What faint
   hands in any holy work! What ebbs and floods, ups and downs in his
   heart! What feeble knees in his walk! What hung-down heads in laying
   hold of Christ in repeated acts of faith! What frequent returns of
   spiritual lethargies! And all this after habitual grace. If our
   co-operations with God after grace received, are but a remove from
   non-acting, next neighbours to no working at all, we must conclude it
   to be worse with man before grace was settled in the soul, and that
   there was no active concurrence with it in any manner of acting;
   otherwise there would be as much co-operation before the implantation
   of habitual grace as after, which is hard to be imagined, that a man
   should be no stronger with grace received than under the want of it.

   Prop. 4. Man by his own strength cannot actuate grace after it is
   received. To what purpose did the saints of old pray to quicken them,
   if they stood not in as much need of exciting grace from God as of
   renewing grace: Ps lxxx. 18, 'Quicken us, and we will call upon thy
   name;' Ps. cxix. 25, 27 and many places in that psalm. The new creature
   is little better than an infant in the best, and cannot go unless God
   bear it in his arms, as he speaks of Ephraim, Hosea xi. 1, 3. They
   cannot move unless led by the Spirit. The child has a principle of
   motion in it, but cannot go without the assistance of the nurse; nor
   the soul, without the assistance of God, actuate that principle of
   grace. Habitual grace is the instrument, not the principal agent. A
   sword, though it has an edge, cuts nothing till it be moved by some
   strong arm. The first principle of the motion of grace resides in God.
   Purification in its progress is attributed to faith as an instrument,
   but to God as a principal agent. It is said, Acts xv. 8, 9, 'God gave
   them the Holy Ghost, as he did to us, and put no difference between us
   and them, purifying their hearts by faith.' Yet the will of man concurs
   in this actuating of faith, as a subordinate cause: 1 John iii. 3, a
   man is said to 'purify himself by hope.' A well-rigged soul, with its
   habit of grace spread, as well as a ship with its sails, must wait the
   leisure of the wind before it move. Paul acknowledges his acting for
   the service of God to be not from himself principally: 1 Cor. xv. 10,
   'Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.' It was the grace
   of God used me as an instrument; the glory must not stick to my
   fingers; it was the grace of God with me, affording strength and help
   to that grace which was in me. If this concourse of God be necessary in
   all natural actions, it is much more in the spiritual frame of the soul
   to keep it up, and to keep it acting. It is not we that work to will
   and to do, but God works to will and to do. It is to be considered that
   the apostle writes to them that are in a state of grace, exhorting them
   to a progress in salvation depending upon God, who worlds the after
   will and the alter doing, as well as the first will and compliance with
   the grace of God. Do we not find renewed men not able, with all the
   grace they have, to quicken themselves sometimes in duty? What is the
   reason they lie spiritless before God, often with breathings, sighs,
   and groans for quickening, and it is far from them? They stir
   themselves up, meditate, summon up all the powerful considerations they
   can, yet find themselves empty of a spiritual vigour. Surely there is
   some principal power wanting to spirit their grace, and make them leap
   in duty; some invisible strength has withdrawn itself, which did before
   conduct and breathe upon them, and fill their souls with a divine fire.
   They find it not in the power of the hand of their own will to actuate
   and quicken the grace they have, much less is it in the power of any
   man's hand to renew himself. The work of grace is not only a traction
   at the first, but a continual traction, as conservation is a continual
   creation: 'Draw me, and we will run after thee,' Cant. i. 4. The church
   there speaks it as regenerate, desiring a continual traction from God,
   as the first ground of her race after Christ. Life she had, for she
   promises to run; yet this race she could not begin nor continue,
   without traction from God.

   Prop. 5. Man cannot by the power of his own will preserve grace in
   himself. Our Saviour's prayer to his Father, John xvii. 11, 15, to
   'keep them,' imports, that they were too weak to keep themselves:
   'Unless the Lord keep the city, in vain does the watchman wake,' Ps.
   cxxvii. 1. Unless God preserve the soul, all the watchfulness of
   habitual grace will be to little purpose. All creatures, if God hide
   his face, are troubled, Ps. civ. 29, much more the new creature, whose
   strength does more necessarily depend upon God, because of its powerful
   opposites. Were it not for the assisting grace of God, the unruly lusts
   in our hearts would soon bear down habitual grace in the best. How many
   temptations are prevented which we cannot foresee! How many corruptions
   are restrained, which the best grace cannot fully conquer! How is the
   tide and torrent of these waters beaten back, which otherwise would go
   over our heads! The poor will of Adam preserved him not against a
   temptation, when he had no indwelling corruption to betray him; nor did
   the will of the angels, who had no temptation, keep them from forsaking
   their habitation. How can any renewed man, alive with all his grace,
   merely by the strength of his own will, keep himself from sinking down
   in the lake of his old corruption? He that would ask the fallen angels
   in the midst of their torments, what was the reason of their fall,
   would receive no other answer but that their strength was unsuccessful,
   because it depended upon their own will. The knowledge of the gospel
   and evangelical impressions are never like to keep up without the Holy
   Ghost: 2 Tim. i. 14, 'That good thing which was committed unto thee,
   keep, by the Holy Ghost,' not by thine own strength. It we cannot keep
   a form of sound words, which, as it is knowledge, is more agreeable to
   the natural appetite of man, without the Holy Ghost, much less can we
   preserve grace in us, which is more stomached by corrupt nature.
   Neither are good frames like to be preserved in us without God's
   keeping: 1 Chron. xxix. 18, 'keep this in the imagination of the
   thoughts of the heart of thy people.' Our hearts will not let any good
   motion sink into them, unless God give a pondus to his own motion. If,
   then, regenerate men are unable of themselves to actuate and preserve
   grace received, much more inability is there in a natural man to gain
   that which he has not a

   spark of in his own nature, but an enmity to.

   Quest. But, do you divest man of all power, all freedom of will? Is he
   able to do nothing in order to regeneration?

   Ans. We do not divest man of all power; therefore, before we consider
   what power belongs to man, we may consider,

   (1.) Man simply in his fall. So man lost all his natural ability by his
   first sin, and was the meritorious cause of his losing supernatural
   grace, which God by a judicial act removed from him, and in this state
   man had no ability unto anything morally good. Nothing was due to Adam
   but the state of the devils, who have no affection to anything morally
   good, but always do that which is in its own nature evil, and always
   sin with evil intentions. Adam would have been thus, had the
   threatening, according to the tenor of it, been executed; there had
   been no common affections, no more light in his understanding than what
   might have served for his torment, as wicked men, after death, are
   deprived in a judicial way of that light in their minds, those
   velleities and good motions which sometime hovered in them, those
   affections which were here exercised now and then towards God. The
   sentence given against Adam is then pronounced against them, and they
   laid under the final execution of it, which was to die the death: Gen.
   ii. 17, 'Thou shalt surely die,' a death of all morality, all
   affections to anything that has the resemblance of goodness. It might
   be a prediction of what would be in course, as well as what would be
   inflicted in way of judicial recompense. None of these things can be
   looked for in Adam, or any of his posterity, as fallen; not a grain of
   life, or anything tending that way, was due to him, but only death.

   (2.) Man is to be considered as respited from the present suffering
   this sentence by the intervention of Christ; whereby he is put into
   another way of probation. So those common notions in our
   understandings, and common motions in our wills and affections, so far
   as they have anything of moral goodness, are a new gift to our natures
   by virtue of the mediation of Christ. In which sense he may be said to
   'taste death for every man,' Heb. ii. 9, and be 'a propitiation for the
   sins of the whole world.' By virtue of which promised death, some
   sparks of moral goodness are preserved in man. Thus his 'life was the
   light of men;' and he is 'The light that lightens every man that comes
   into the world,' which sets the candle of the Lord in the spirit of man
   a-burning and sparkling, John i. 9, and upholds all things by his
   mediatory as well as divine power, Heb. i. 3, which else would have
   sunk into the abyss. By virtue of this mediation, some power is given
   back to man, as a new donation, yet not so much as that he is able by
   it to regenerate himself; and whatsoever power man has, is originally
   from this cause, and grows not up from the stock of nature, but from
   common grace.

   Which common grace is either,

   [l.] More general, to all men. Whereby those divine sparks in their
   understandings, and whatsoever is morally praiseworthy in them, is kept
   up by the grace of God, which was the cause that Christ tasted death
   for every man: Heb. ii. 9, 'That he by the grace of God should taste
   death for every man;' whereby the apostle seems to intimate, that by
   this grace, and this death of Christ, any remainders of that honour and
   glory wherewith God crowned man at first are kept upon his head; as
   will appear, if you consider the eighth Psalm, whence the apostle cites
   the words which are the ground of his discourse of the death of Christ.

   [2.] More particular common grace, to men under the preaching of the
   gospel. Which grace men 'turn into wantonness' or lasciviousness, Jude
   4. Grace they had, or the gospel of grace, but the wantonness of their
   nature prevailed against the intimations of grace to them. Besides this
   common grace, there is a more special grace to the regenerate, the more
   peculiar fruit of Christ's mediation and death for them. All this, and
   whatsoever else you can conceive that has but a face of comeliness in
   man, is not the birth of fallen nature abstracted from this mediation.
   Therefore when the Gentiles are said to 'do by nature the things
   contained in the law,' it is not to be understood of nature merely as
   fallen, for that could do no such thing; but of nature in this new
   state of probation, by the interposition of Christ the mediator, whose
   powerful word upheld all things, and kept up those broken fragments of
   the two tables of law, though dark and obscure. And considering God's
   design of setting forth the gospel to the world, there was a necessity
   of those relics, both in the understanding, and affections, and desire
   for happiness, to render men capable of receiving the gospel, and those
   inexcusable that would reject it. So that by this mediation of Christ,
   the state of mankind is different since the fall from that of the evil
   angels or devils. For man has, just, a power of doing that which is in
   its own nature good; secondly, a power of doing good with a good
   intention; not indeed supremely for the glory of God, but for the good
   of his country, the good of his neighbours, the good of the world,
   which was necessary for the soldering together human societies, so that
   sometimes even in sins man has good intentions. Whereas the devil does
   always that which in its own nature is evil, and always sins with evil
   intentions. Without this mediation, every man had been as very a slave
   to sin as the devil; though he be naturally a slave to sin, yet not in
   that full measure the devil is, unless left in a judicial manner by God
   upon high provocations.

   There is then a liberty of will in man; and some power there is left in
   man. And here I shall show,

   1. What kind of liberty this is.

   2. That there is some liberty in man.

   3. How far the power of man by common grace does extend.

   Quest. First, what kind of liberty this is.

   Ans. 1. The essential liberty of the will remains. Liberty is of the
   essence of the will, and cannot be taken away without extinction of the
   nature of man; it is free from compulsion, otherwise it were a
   not-will, which liberty does not consist in a choice of good or evil.
   For even under this depravation it cannot choose evil qua malum, as
   such. It can choose nothing but what appears to it under the notion of
   good; though it many times embraces that which is materially evil, yet
   the formal consideration upon which it embraces it is as good, either
   in reality or in appearance; as the sight in every colour sees light.
   And when it is carried out to that which is really evil, and only
   apparently good, it is by force of those habits in the understanding,
   which make it give a false judgment; or, by the power of the sensitive
   appetite, which hurries it on to the object proposed, but always it
   respects in its motion everything as good, either an honest, pleasant,
   or profitable good.

   Ans. 2. Though the essential liberty of the will remains, yet the
   rectitude whereby it might have been free only to that which was really
   good is lost. Man by creation had a freedom of will to choose that
   which was really good, yet had a mutability, and could choose evil; and
   by choosing evil rather than good, sank his posterity into this
   depraved liberty which now remains. Though since the fall man is
   preserved in his natural freedom, and cannot be forced, yet he has not
   a power to will well, because that righteous principle whereby he did
   will well is departed from him; yet because the essential freedom due
   to his nature remains, whatsoever he wills he wills freely, so that
   though something the will wills may be materially good, yet it wills
   that good in an ill manner, for being overcome naturally by sin man can
   do nothing but according to that law which sin, as a master that has
   conquered him, imposes upon him: 2 Peter ii. 19, 'They themselves are
   the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same
   is he brought in bondage.' And of all men in a state of nature, though
   under common grace, the apostle pronounces, Rom. iii. 11, that 'there
   is none that seeks after God;' that is, in any thing they do, though
   never so good, they seek not God but themselves. 'There is no fear of
   God,' no respect to God 'before their eyes,' ver. 18, whence it comes
   to pass, that by reason of this dominion of sin nothing can be done
   well. Hence man is said to be dead; not that the life which does
   constitute the nature of the soul is taken away, but that which renders
   it fit for performing actions pleasing to God; for such a life does
   consist, not in the nature of the soul or will, but in that habitual
   integrity which was in man by creation. As the body when it is dead
   does not cease to be a body, but ceases to be animated, by the
   separation of the soul from it, so the soul may be truly said to be
   dead, though the power of the soul be not taken away. If the spiritual
   rectitude in that power which did constitute it spiritually living be
   departed, by the removal of this righteousness, the will is not free to
   spiritual things, though it be to natural. It is 'free among the dead,'
   as the psalmist speaks of himself; Ps. lxxxviii. 5; free to dead works,
   not to living; to this or that dead work, to any work within the verge
   of sinning, as a bird in a large cage may skip this way and that way by
   its natural spontaneous motion, but still within the cage.

   Ans. 3. Therefore, though man has lost this liberty to good, he retains
   a freedom to the commission of sin, under the necessity of sinning.
   This freedom is a power of choice and election of a thing, which
   differs from that spontaneity which is in beasts, who act by instinct,
   without any reasoning in the case, because they want a reasoning power.
   Though man be under a necessity of sinning, yet it is not a necessity
   of constraint, but a necessity of immutability, which is consistent
   with liberty, though the other be not. A creature may be unchangeably
   carried to good or evil, and yet be free in both: to good, as the
   angels and glorified saints cannot will to sin, because their wills are
   immutably determined to good. They cannot but praise and love God, yet
   they freely do both, and our Saviour did freely do that good which he
   could not but do by reason of his hypostatical union, otherwise he
   could not have merited, for all merit requires the concurrence of the
   will. To evil; the devils cannot will to do good, because their wills
   are unchangeably determined to evil, yet they sin as freely as if there
   were no immutable necessity upon them. So man cannot but naturally sin
   in all that he does yet he is not constrained to sin, but sins as
   freely and voluntarily as if there were no necessity upon his nature to
   corruption,--as freely as if God had not foreseen that he would do so.
   Man sins with as great a pleasure as if he were wholly independent upon
   the providence of God, and the more a man is delighted with sin, the
   greater freedom there is in it. Hence the Scripture lays sin upon the
   choice of man: Isa. lxvi. 3, 4, 'They have chosen their own ways, and
   their soul delights in their abominations.' They have their own ways,
   that is, ways proper to corrupt man; but they chose them and delighted
   in them. Man is voluntary under his depravation, free in his aversion
   from God, a free necessity, a delightful immutability. The will cannot
   be compelled to will that which it would not, or not to will that which
   it would. Then sin arises from a settled habit, the freer is a man in
   his sin; and though he cannot act otherwise than according to that
   habit, yet his actions are most voluntary, because he is the cause of
   that habit which he acquired by evil acts, and by succeeding acts
   testifies his approbation of it.

   2. That there is some liberty in man, some power in man. Not indeed
   such a power as the Jews thought man had naturally, of exercising
   himself about anything that God should reveal, without the infusion of
   a new power, to enable him to act that which God required by
   supernatural revelation. Some power and liberty must be allowed,

   (1.) To clear the justice of God. No just man will punish another for
   not doing that which was simply and physically impossible; and 'shall
   not the Judge of all the earth do right?' It is a good speech of
   Austin, If there were not the grace of God, how could the world be
   saved? If there were not free will, how could the world be judged? If
   man were divested of all kind of liberty, he might have some excuse for
   himself; but since the Scripture pronounces men without excuse, Rom. i.
   20, some power must be granted to clear the equity of God's justice. No
   man sins in that which he is under an inevitable constraint to do, and
   so would be unjustly punished. It does not appear that God does condemn
   any man simply for not being regenerate, but for not using the means
   appointed to such an end, for not avoiding those sins which hindered
   his regeneration, and which might have been avoided by him if he would,
   though indeed every unregenerate man will be condemned. The pouring out
   the wrath of God upon man is principally for those sins which they
   might have refrained, and had sufficient reason against: Eph. v. 6, for
   'because of these things,' that is, for those gross sins which they
   might have avoided, mentioned ver. 5, 'comes the wrath of God upon the
   children of disobedience,' "apeithias"; men that would not be
   persuaded, which obstinacy was in their will. As these are the causes
   of God's wrath, so these will be alleged as the principal reasons of
   the last sentence. And our Saviour in his last judgment does not charge
   men with their unregeneracy, but with their omissions of what they
   might have done, and that easily; and commissions which they might have
   avoided, Mat. xxv. 41-43, with their not feeding his members when they
   were hungry, &c., which were things as much in their power as anything
   in the world. And the reason Christ renders of the sentence passed upon
   men, to depart from him, was their working of iniquity: Mat. vii. 23,
   'Depart from me, you that work iniquity,' that work it voluntarily, and
   work that you might have forborne. Though unregeneracy does exclude a
   man from heaven, as a condition without which a man cannot come there,
   yet nothing of this is mentioned in the last sentence. If man had a
   firm will to turn to God, and had not then a power conferred upon him
   to turn, I know not what to say; but man has no will to turn, yea, he
   has no will to do those things which he might do. Supposing man has a
   power to avoid such and such sins, he is justly punished for not making
   use of that power. Nay, supposing he had no power to avoid them, yet if
   his will be set to that sin he is justly condemned, not for want of
   power, but for the delight his will took in it. From which delight in
   it, it may be gathered that if he had had a power to have shunned it,
   he would not have shunned it. If a man be assaulted by murderers that
   will cut his throat, if he will not use his power against them, but
   take a pleasure in having his throat cut, is not this man a
   self-murderer, both in the judgment of God and man? Let me use another
   illustration, since the end of all our preaching should be to humble
   man and clear God. If a man be cast out of an high tower, and be
   pleased with his fall, would he not be justly worthy of it, and to be
   neglected by men, not because he did not help himself in his fall, for
   that was not in his own power, but because he was mightily pleased and
   contented with his fall, and with such a pleasure, that if he had been
   able to have helped himself he would not? So though man be fallen in
   Adam, yet when he comes to discern between good and evil, he commits
   the evil with pleasure. So that supposing he had no power to avoid
   sins, yet he is worthy of punishment because he does it delightfully.
   Whence it may be concluded, if he had had power to avoid it, he would
   not, because his will is so malignant.

   (2.) Without some liberty in the will, free from necessity of
   compulsion, man would not be capable of sin, nor of moral goodness. No
   human law does impute that for a vice, or a virtue, to which a man is
   carried by constraint, without any power to avoid. Where anything is
   done without a will, it is not an human action. Beasts therefore are
   not capable of sin, because they want reason and will. If man had not
   liberty of will, he would be as a beast, which has only a spontaneous
   power of motion without reason. Sin could not be charged upon man, as
   God does all along: Ps. xcv. 10, 'It is a people that do err in their
   hearts;' and Ps. cxix. 21, 'Thou hast rebuked the proud that are
   cursed, which do err from thy commandments.' It had been no error in
   them, if they had not done it voluntarily. The erring from God's
   commandments arises from pride of heart, they had not else deserved a
   rebuke. Who would chide a clock for going wrong, which has no voluntary
   motion? Man without a liberty of will could not be the author of his
   own actions, and sin could no more be imputed to him, than the
   irregular motion of a watch can be imputed to the watch itself, but
   rather to the workman or governor of it. Without a voluntary power, man
   would be as all engine, moved only with springs, and human laws, which
   punish any crime, would be as ridiculous as Xerxes' whipping the sea,
   because it would not stop its tide. Neither were any praise due to man
   for any moral virtue, no more than praise is due to a lifeless picture
   for being so beautiful, or to the limner's pencil for making it so: the
   praise is due to the artist, not to the instrument.

   (3.) Without some liberty and power of motion in the will, all the
   reason of man, and those notions in the understanding, left by the
   virtue of Christ's mediatory interposition, would be to no purpose. The
   reason why men do err is because they do not take right ways of judging
   according to those means they have: 'Ye err,' says our Saviour, 'not
   knowing the Scripture, nor the power of God,' Mat. xxii. 29. They have
   a faculty of judgment, and means whereby to judge, which would prevent
   errors. There is therefore some suitable power in man to follow the
   judgment of reason, if he will. He would be in vain endowed with that
   power of reasoning, if there were not a power of motion in some measure
   suitable to that reason. The authority of judging in the understanding
   would be wholly insignificant; all debates about any object proposed
   would be to no end, if the will had not a liberty to follow that
   judgment. How can God make appeals to men as he does, if they had not a
   power of judging that they ought to have done otherwise, and might have
   done otherwise than they did? Though man has not a sufficient light
   left in his nature for salvation, yet he has such a light of reason in
   him to which he might be more faithful in his motions than he is,
   otherwise the apostle could not have argued from that light the
   heathens had to their conviction, as he does, Rom. i. 19-21, &c., and
   manifests their unfaithfulness to that truth which God had manifested
   to them, and manifested in them in their nature. Most sins do arise
   from the neglect of being guided by that light which is in men.

   (4.) The glory of God's wisdom in the government of the world would not
   have been so conspicuous, if some liberty had not been allowed to the
   will. It is no great matter to keep in order an inanimate thing, as a
   clock that must obey a necessity; God would have been but like a good
   clock-keeper only, as ones says. But how much does it make for the
   wisdom of God, to make the free motions of his creature, the various
   humours in the will of man, centre at last in his own glory, contrary
   to the will and design of the creature, that they have their natural
   motions, their voluntary motions, and God superintends over them, and
   moves them according to his own will regularly, according to their
   nature, without crossing them? 'The determinate counsel of God,' in the
   death of our Saviour, and the free will of Pilate and the Jews, meet in
   the same point: God acting wisely, graciously, justly; their wills
   acting freely and naturally, reduced, without injury to their nature,
   to the due point of God's will.

   Quest. 3. The third question, How far does the power of man by common
   grace extend?

   Ans. As in a body deprived of the soul there is some power of growth
   left in the hair and nails, so some power is left in the soul, though
   it be spiritually dead. As a regenerate man by special grace has a
   power of doing that which is spiritually good, so a natural man by
   common grace has a power of doing things morally good, if he will. God
   keeps the key of regenerating grace in his own hands, and unlocks what
   hearts he pleases, and brings in a vital spirit into whom he pleases;
   but there is by common grace an ability in men to do more than they do,
   but that they harbour, cherish, and increase those vicious inclinations
   in their own souls. But let it be remembered that this power is not to
   be abstracted from God's common grace, as the power of a renewed man
   after grace is not to be abstracted from special grace, nor the natural
   powers of motion to the actual motion, not to be abstracted from God's
   general providential concourse.

   (1.) Man has a power by common grace to avoid many sins: I say, a power
   by common grace; for sometime, upon the neglecting the conduct of
   natural light, God pulls up the sluice of his restraining grace, lets
   out the torrent of their natural corruption upon them, which forcibly
   hurries them to all kind of wickedness; as it is said, Rom. vii. 24,
   26, 'Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts
   of their own hearts; for this cause God gave them up to vile
   affections.' Therefore, and for this cause, that is, for going contrary
   to that natural light they had, God let the lusts of their own hearts,
   which he had restrained, have their full swing against them. In this
   case sin can no more be avoided, than a man can stop a torrent.

   Again; though a man, as he is in a state of nature, cannot but do evil,
   yet he is not necessitated to this or that kind of sin, but he may
   avoid this or that pro hic and nunc in particular, though he cannot in
   general; as a man who has the liberty of walking where he pleases in a
   prison, he may choose whether he will come into this or that walk
   within the liberty of the prison; but let him move which way he will,
   he is a prisoner still.

   Quest. If it be said, if a man has power to avoid this or that sin, why
   may he not avoid all?

   Ans. I answer, If he had power to avoid all, he would be restored to
   the state of Adam. But the reason is this, the power to avoid this or
   that particular sin arises from a particular cause, the natural
   subjection of appetite to reason, the lightness of temptation; or if
   the temptation be more vehement, the stirring up reason and pressing
   considerations against it; but the power to shun all sin depends upon
   the subordination of the faculties one to another, in the due order of
   their creation, and an universal subjection of them to God. Though a
   man, by a careful watch, may withstand a particular temptation, yet as
   long as he is alienated from God, and has corrupt habits in him, which
   are prone to sinful acts, he will one time or other, by some sudden
   temptation, be carried out according to his natural inclination, before
   he is able to premeditate, and set reason on work. And sometimes the
   motions to sin come in such troops, that he cannot stir up his force
   against all, so that while he is combating against one, another comes
   behind and surprises him. As another Romanist illustrates it, a vessel
   has three holes to leak at; a man with two hands may stop two of them,
   which he will, but the third will remain open of necessity. None will
   say that the devil can avoid all sin in general, and become holy for
   the future, because his will is determined to sin, but this or that
   individual act of sin he may; for he may choose whether he will assault
   this man or that with such a temptation, or whether at this time or
   another. As if two commands were given to the good angels, and it be
   left to their wills whether they will do that or the other, though they
   cannot but do good, because their wills are so determined, yet they
   have a liberty to choose which command they will at present follow. And
   the reason of this is this: there is no physical necessity upon a man
   to this or that sin, as there is that the fire should burn. Lusts only
   offer themselves; they have no force upon a man, but be his own will;
   they have no authority from God to compel him; then God should be the
   author of sin. Satan can give no commission to them to break open our
   hearts; and though he be a strong adversary, he cannot break them open.
   If the door be open, it is our own act. Is there any necessity upon a
   man to run into this or that infectious company, or drink brimful cups,
   till he has drowned both his reason and sentiments of morality? Has he
   not power to quell many incentives to sin? Show me that man in the
   world that, upon serious consideration, would say, it is utterly
   impossible for him to avoid this or that particular sin when he is
   tempted to it. What men do in this case, they do willing, though a
   strong temptation may be the first motive of it. It is said, Hos. v.
   11, 'Ephraim willingly walked after the commandment,' though the first
   motive to it was the command of their prince Jeroboam.

   To evidence this, let me do it by some queries, which may both satisfy
   that we divest not man of all power, and prevent the ill use men may
   make of this doctrine, to encourage sluggishness.

   1. Cannot you avoid this or that foreseen occasion of sin? Cannot he
   that knows how prone he is to overthrow his reason when the wine
   sparkles in the glass, avoid coming within the sight of it? What force
   is there upon his legs to go, or his hands to take the cup? Can we not
   starve those affections we have to this or that particular sin, by
   neglecting the means to feed them? If a man stood by with a drawn sword
   to stab you if you went into such a place, could you not forbear going
   in? What is the reason? Fear. And why might not a natural fear of God,
   heightened by consideration, be of as much force with you as the fear
   of man, unless atheism has swallowed up all sentiments of a Deity? Do
   you not rather wish for opportunities, and court a temptation? put you
   heads out of the window, with Sisera's mother; why is the chariot of
   the devil so long a coming? It is said, Prov. xxi. 10, 'The soul of the
   wicked desires evil.'

   2. Have you not a power to avoid gross sins? Is there any force upon
   men, to open, sensual sins? Have they not a power to abstain from
   fleshly lusts? Has not the will a commanding power over the members?
   What hinders it from exercising that power? The members are not forced,
   but they are 'yielded up' by consent of the will to sin, Rom. vi. 19.
   Had not Achan as much natural power to forbear taking the wedge of gold
   and the Babylonish garment, as the rest of that vast number of the
   Israelites? Not one of their hands touched any of the spoil. Had he not
   as much power as any of them to have restrained his hands, though he
   could not quench his covetousness? The law of nature tells us, we ought
   not to do that to another which we would not have done to ourselves.
   Have we not as much power to observe this as the Gentiles, who did by
   nature the things contained in the law? Why may not a man's will
   command his tongue to speak that which is true, as well as that which
   is false? Is there not power to control it from speaking blasphemy, and
   belching out cursed oaths? Cannot you command the hand to forbear
   striking another wrongfully? Has not a murderer power to keep his sword
   in his scabbard, as well as to sheath it in his neighbour's bowels? Can
   any man say, that there was one gross sin in the whole coarse of his
   life, but he had a power to avoid it if he would? Forbearance of gross
   sin consists in a naked omission and a not acting, which is far more
   easy than a positive acting, and every man has a power to suspend his
   own act.

   3. Did you never resist a temptation to a particular sin? Why may you
   not then resist it afterward if you will, since the same common grace
   attends you? If the will be disengaged one moment from a sin under a
   great temptation, why not another moment from sin, under a less
   temptation? No temptation can overpower your strength, unless the will
   freely shake hands with it: Acts v. 3, 'Why has Satan filled thy heart,
   to lie to the Holy Ghost?' His meaning is not, why Satan has done it,
   for Ananias could not render a reason of that; but why did thou suffer
   Satan to fill thy heart? If you have given a cheek to Satan before, is
   it not as easy to say again, 'Get thee behind me, Satan'?

   4. Have you not power to shun many inward sins? Man, where he has least
   power, yet he has some, viz. over his thoughts. We cannot, indeed,
   hinder the first risings and motions of them, which will steam up from
   the corrupt fumes and lake whether he will or no; but cannot we hinder
   the progress of them? Is there not a power to check the delight in them
   if we will, or divert our thoughts another way, not listen to their
   suggestions, and hold no inward converse with them? Though you cannot
   hinder their intrusion, may you not hinder their lodging? 'How long
   shall vain thoughts lodge within you?' Jer. iv. 14. Sure we have a
   power by common grace to forbear any conference with the motions of
   flesh and blood.

   5. When you do sin, had you not many assistances against it, which if
   you had hearkened to, you might have avoided it? Were there not
   previous dissuasions from that inward monitor, conscience? When sin has
   been enticing you on one hand, and conscience warning you on the other,
   have you not more willingly listened unto the pleasant reasoning of
   sin, than the wholesome admonitions of conscience? Can you not as well
   listen to what conscience as to what sin does propose? But have you not
   wilfully scorned its judgment? Have you not raged against it with a
   confidence in sin (which is the case of the foolish sinner, Prov. xiv.
   16, 'The fool rages, and is confident'), and would 'not consider any of
   the ways of God' it minded you of, Job xxxiv. 27, and gave no more
   regard to its sober dictates, or its louder pressings, than you have to
   the barking of little curs in the street? Why could you not, with those
   assistances, have avoided that particular act of sin? The fault was
   clearly in your wills. Can you not rather choose a cup of wine, than a
   cup of poison? clear streams, than muddy waters? Besides those
   assistances, you might have had more, if under the batteries of
   temptation you had sought to heaven for them. Might you not, then, have
   avoided this or that sin, when you had such assistances, and might have
   had more?

   6. Have you not avoided sin upon less accounts and considerations? The
   heathen philosopher could observe, that men may live better than they
   do. The wrestlers and champions in the Olympic games lived most
   temperately and continently during that time, to be more fit for the
   gaining the prize. May not rational considerations do as much, if
   excited in your minds, as an ambitious desire of honour and affection
   to victory did in them? Had not Saul a power to withdraw his hand from
   the unrighteous persecution of David before, as well as when he was
   sensible of David's kindness in sparing his life when he might have
   killed him? A drunkard under the disease and pain caused by his sin,
   can forbear his cups; does his disease confer any power upon him more
   than he had before? No; why could he not then have forborne his drunken
   revellings? Can men be restrained from some sins by the eye of a man,
   the presence of a child? What power do their eyes confer upon them?
   They only excite that which they had before. Cannot men forbear a
   sinful act for a sum of money if it were proffered them or in the
   presence of a king, who is said to 'scatter away evil with his eyes,'
   Prov. xx. 8, or in a visible and imminent danger? If a gibbet or a
   stake were set before men, that they should be immediately executed if
   they did not forbear such a sinful action, or if they did not go to
   hear a sermon; can any be so foolish, to think that the glister of
   gold, the penalty of the law, the sight of a gibbet, should confer a
   power upon you which you were not before possessed with? It is not then
   the want of power to avoid sin, but the want of will.

   7. Why does conscience check any man after the commission of sin, if it
   were not in his power to avoid it? All those actions which fall under
   the cognisance and check of conscience, are actions in our own power,
   and within the verge of our wills. For the pain of conscience is of
   another kind than that pain or grief which is raised by those accidents
   we could not avoid. It arises from the liberty of the will, and galls
   the soul when it considers, that that which it has done was in its
   power to be done otherwise. This is the common language of men upon the
   regrets of conscience: I might have done otherwise, I was warned by my
   friends; I slighted their warnings, I had resolutions to the contrary,
   but I stifled them. All men have laid the fault upon themselves, and
   what is universal consent has a truth in it; the consciences of all men
   would not gall them for that which they had no power to decline.
   Indeed, if men wore necessitated to sin, they could not be tormented in
   hell, for the torment there is conscience acting rationally, and
   reflecting upon them for their wilfulness in the world. If man had not
   a power to refuse sin, conscience would have no ground for any such
   reflections to rack and torment them. And it is observable, that
   natural men, somewhat awakened upon a deathbed, are not so racked by
   their consciences simply for not being regenerate, as for not avoiding
   those sins which were hindrances, and not using those means which were
   appointments of God for such an end, because those were in their power;
   but they wilfully embraced the one, and as wilfully refused the other.

   Prop. 2. Man has a power, by common grace, to do many more good actions
   (actions materially good) than he does. Evangelical works we cannot do
   without union to Christ, so himself says, 'Without me you can do
   nothing,' John xv. 5; nothing according to the order of the gospel,
   nothing spiritually, nothing acceptably, because no such fruits can
   arise, where faith, the root of such works, is wanting. Though man be
   much crippled in regard of morals, yet he is not wholly dead to them,
   as he is to spirituals. A man may 'break off his sins by (moral)
   righteousness, and his iniquity by showing mercy to the poor;' by
   taking off the yoke of oppression, and restoring of what he has rifled,
   which counsel Daniel gives to Nebuchadnezzar, chap. iv. 27. Though a
   sick man cannot do all the acts of a sound man till he be perfectly
   cured, yet he has some power of acting some things like a sound man,
   remaining with his disease. The young man in the Gospel (yet out of
   Christ) morally kept the law; so may men under the gospel keep the
   outward and material part of the precept. There are not only some
   common notions left since the tall, but also some seeds of moral
   righteousness in the nature of man. The Gentiles did not only, by
   nature, in part restored, know the things written in the law, but they
   did by nature do them, Rom. id. 14; upon this stock they bore many
   excellent fruits. What patience, chastity, contempt of the pleasures of
   the world! What affections to their country, and bowels of compassion
   to men in misery! And what devotion in the external worship of their
   gods, according to their light, were exemplary in them, though only
   under the conduct of nature! And these works, though they were not
   according to the exactness of the law, and failed also in the manner of
   them, and could not please God for want of faith, yet so far as they
   were agreeable to the law of nature, and in regard of the materiality
   of them, were not offensive to God. This moral righteousness of theirs
   was only external, and rather an image of righteousness than a true
   one. Abimelech had a natural integrity, which God acknowledges to be in
   him, and did arise from his moral nature, though he also appropriates
   to himself the restraint of Abimelech, and his concurrence with an
   approbation of that moral integrity: Gen. xx. 6, 'I know that thou did
   this in the integrity of thy heart: for I also withheld thee from
   sinning against me, therefore suffered I thee not to touch her;' "lo
   netaticha", I gave thee not up to touch her. If men did nourish a moral
   integrity, which they might do, God would concur with them to preserve
   them from many crimes. If those which were only under the guidance of
   natural light had so much power to do many moral acts by a common
   grace, is man's power less under the gospel, whereby they have an
   addition of a greater light to this natural? If man was able to do so
   much by the light of nature, there can be no inability brought upon him
   under the light of the gospel, unless men, by their sluggishness and
   obstinacy, provoke God judicially to deprive them of that power, and
   withdraw his hand from them, and so give them up to all kind of
   wickedness, as it is the dreadful case of many in these days. Man may
   keep the law of nature better than he does, and for not keeping that he
   is condemned.

   Prop. 3. Men have a power to attend upon the outward means God has
   appointed for regeneration. Though man cannot renew himself, yet he has
   a natural power to attend upon the means God has afforded. Though a man
   has not power to cure his own disease or heal his wound, yet he has
   power to advise with others, and use the best medicines for his
   recovery. There is not an outward duty a renewed man does, but a
   natural man has power externally to do it; though what is essentially
   good in all parts, cannot be done without special grace, yet what is
   externally good may be done by the assistance of common grace. Have you
   not passions, fear, love, desire, grief? Why cannot you exercise them
   about other objects than ordinarily they are employed about? Why can
   you not make hell the object of your fears, and heaven the object of
   your desire? Why might not Esau have wept for his sins, as well as for
   the loss of the blessing? Might he not have changed the object if he
   would? Why may we not exercise our inward affections more in our
   attendance on God? Is not a little excuse sufficient to put off from
   duty, a great excuse not sufficient to keep you from committing sin?
   Great business must be laid aside for sin, not the least laid aside for
   God. Every little thing is a lion in the way then. Do you not many
   times rack your minds to invent pleas for neglect of duty? Why can you
   not set them on work to consider reasons to move you to service? Have
   we not power to be more serious in the use of means than we are? We can
   be so when some affliction presses us, or conscience gnaws us. Neither
   of these furnishes us with a new power. Conscience is like the law,
   acquaints us with our duty, but gives us no strength. The charge God
   brines against Ephraim was, that he 'would not frame his doings to turn
   towards God,' Hosea v. 4; he would entertain no thoughts, not one
   action that had the least prospect towards repentance, he would use no
   means for that end, or have a look that way. If a man will not do what
   is in his power, it is a sign he will not be renewed. Can he pretend to
   a desire to live, who will not eat, and endeavour to prevent foreseen
   dangers? Or can he pretend to a desire to build, that will not use
   materials when he may?

   There are two great means: hearing the word, and prayer.

   (1.) Hearing the word. Have not men power to go to hear the word, to
   hear a sermon, as well as to see a play? Have they any shackles upon
   their feet, that they cannot carry them to a place of worship as well
   as to a place of vanity and sin? Can you not as well read the Scripture
   as a romance? Has not the will a despotic power over the members of the
   body? How came Herod to have more natural power to hear the word, and
   to hear it 'with pleasure,' Mark vi. 20, than other men have? May you
   not strive against diversions, resist carnal affection, rouse up your
   souls from their laziness, and endeavour to close with the word? How
   smilingly would God look upon such endeavours? If men do not, it is out
   of a natural sluggishness and enmity of will, not for want of power if
   they would. Men do not what they might. Certainly he does no more
   desire regeneration who neglects and despises the great instrument of
   it, than he can be said to desire his own preservation, who neglects
   medicines proper for the cure of his disease.

   (2.) Prayer. I do not mean a spiritual prayer, which is by the special
   assistance and indwelling of the Holy Ghost, but of a natural prayer by
   common instinct; such a one as the apostle puts Simon Magus upon, who
   he knew was destitute of any air of the Spirit to breathe out, as being
   'in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity,' Acts viii. 22, 23,
   yet supposes him to have a power in some manner to express his desires
   to God; or such a power that was common in heathens, upon any distress
   to run to their altars, and fill their temples with cries to their
   gods. You cannot pray in the Holy Ghost, but you may send up natural
   and rational cries to God. Did not Jonah's mariners cry every man to
   his god? Have you not as much power to cry to the true God as the
   heathens to false ones? There is the natural prayer of those mariners,
   as well as the natural integrity of Abimelech, which was not a
   new-covenant integrity. Can you not be as devout as the publican, and
   cry, with more seriousness of affection than generally men do, 'Lord,
   be merciful to me a sinner'? When men are upon a death-bed, ready to
   take their leave of the world, they can then cry. It is not their
   death-bed inspires them with power, more than they had before, but they
   have more mind, and see a greater necessity of crying to God. They have
   more power in the time of their health, by how much the habit of sin
   wanted that strength which has been acquired by a continuance of acts
   till the time of their sickness; for the fewer sins have been
   committed, the less is the power impaired. Though God has kept other
   things in his hand, yet he has given us a power of begging, we will use
   it as a means to obtain them. Can you not kneel down before God, and
   implore his assistance? Can you not acknowledge before him that it is
   impossible for you to change yourself, but that your eyes are upon his
   grace; that you cannot attain by your own strength a spiritual heart;
   that you will seek nowhere else for it but from his hand; and that you
   will not be at rest till he has put in his hand and dropped upon your
   hearts? Can you not thus cry out, Oh that I were a renewed person! as
   well as cry out, Oh that I were rich and honourable in the world! Had
   Paul a new tongue when he cried out, 'Who shall deliver me from the
   body of this death?' Was it not the same member wherein he had breathed
   out threatenings against the disciples?

   Prop. 4. Man has a power to exercise consideration. He has seminals of
   jus and aequum, and a power of judging according to them: Luke xii. 57
   'Yea, why even of yourselves judge you not what is right?' Our Saviour
   checks them for not making use of their natural power; in the searching
   their own consciences, and judging their own acts, as well as they did
   in discerning the face of the sky, and what weather would follow. There
   is a power of consideration in a rebellious heart; for God acknowledges
   it in a rebellious nation: Ezek. xii. 3, 'It may be they will consider,
   though they be a rebellious house.'

   1. Can you not reflect upon yourselves? Every man has a reflexive
   faculty; otherwise he is not a man. Reflection is the peculiar
   privilege of a rational creature, without which he is not rational. The
   Pharisees could reflect upon themselves, and say, 'Are we blind also?'
   John ix. 40. Can you not then take a survey of your past lives; cast up
   the accounts of your souls, as well as your books? Can you not view
   your particular crimes, with the aggravations attending them? Yea, you
   can, if you would. Can you not look back upon the means you have
   neglected, the love you have slighted, and the light you have shut your
   eyes against? As long as a man has reason, he may use his reason in
   these things as well as in others. Why may he not reflect upon himself
   in spiritual concerns, as well as civil affairs in the world? Cannot
   he, by comparing the face of his soul with the glass of the word,
   understand his own state, and by self-reflection come to an
   understanding of his own lost condition and weakness?

   2. Can you not consider the word? Cannot your reasons be employed about
   the objects the word offers, as well as the objects the world offers?
   Though you cannot act spiritually in the duties of religion, can you
   not act rationally in them, as men? Are you endued with a rational
   soul, to consider the proposals of worldly affairs and concerns, and
   can you not exercise the same power in considering the proposal made to
   you by the gospel? The gospel is not only spiritual, but rational. As
   long as you have a thinking faculty, can you not consider what the
   reasonable meaning of it is? Though you have not a spiritual taste, you
   have a rational understanding; why may it not be busied about one
   object as well as another? The natural repentance of the Ninevites at
   Jonah's preaching, implied the consideration of his threatening sermon.
   Why is there not a power in you to think of what is proposed to you out
   of the word, as well as you can think of what you read of a
   mathematical or philosophical book, or some history? The power is the
   same in both, the faculty the same. As the object proposed adds no
   power to the faculty, so it takes away no power the faculty already
   has. Surely man is not such a block or stone, but he may turn these
   things over and over, press them upon his own soul, which may make way
   for the sensibleness of his state, and putting the will out of its
   sinful indifference. What any natural man has done, that may all under
   the same means do, if they will. Why may not the veriest wretch among
   us humble himself at the hearing of the word, as well as wicked Ahab? 1
   Kings xxi. 27, 29, 'When Ahab heard these words, he rent his clothes.
   Seest thou how Ahab humbles himself?' He discovered an external
   humiliation, after the consideration of the threatening denounced by
   the prophet.

   3. Can you not cherish, by consideration, those motions which are put
   into you? There is not a man but the Spirit strives with, one time or
   other, Gen vi. 3. Has not man a power to approve any good counsel given
   him, if he will? Have you not had some supernatural motions lifting you
   up towards God, and pressing obligations upon you, to walk more
   circumspectly? Why might you not have cherished them, as well as
   smothered them? Why could you not have considered the tendency of them,
   as well as have considered how to divert and drown them, by engaging in
   some sensual dust? Was the power of consideration lost? No; you could
   not then have cast about in your minds, by what means you should be rid
   of them, or how you should resist them. Have you not wilfully rejected
   them, even when consideration has been revived at a sermon? And yet you
   did industriously let that good motion die for want of blowing up the
   spark, by following on the consideration which was raised upon its
   feet. When you have 'begun well, who did hinder you' from a further
   obedience? 'This persuasion comes not of him that calls you,' Gal. v.
   7, 8. There was no necessity upon you, to fortify yourselves in your
   corrupted habits against the attempts of the Spirit. Could you not as
   well have fallen down before the throne of grace, to have begged grace
   to second them, as kicked at them, and spurned them away? Was it want
   of power to do otherwise? or was it not rather your own obstinate
   wilfulness? Since I appeal to you, whether your own consciences have
   not tugged at you, and spurred you on at such seasons, why could you
   not then beg of God, that such a good motion might not have departed
   out of your coasts? Because a man cannot renew himself, therefore to
   lie down in sluggishness is not the design of this doctrine.

   4. Can you not consider those notions you have be natural light? Man
   has a conscience which minds him of moral good, and pulls him from
   evil. No man can deprive himself of these. It will check in those
   things wherein others commend us, and commend us in those things
   wherein others accuse us. May we not observe the motions of conscience
   within us? May we not consider the charge it brings against us for any
   act committed, so as to avoid the like for the future; and the
   excusations of conscience, in commending us, so as to do the like acts
   for the future? As we have a law without us, which we may consider, so
   we have a conscience within us, which witnesses to the equity of the
   law, accusing us for what we do contrary to it, and excusing us for
   what we do in observance of it, Rom. ii. 15; and this in man's corrupt
   state. Cannot man then observe the dictates of conscience? Can he not
   find out the sense of this law in his mind, though it be much blurred?
   Cannot he act like a man, in following the dictates of this rational
   principle, as well as like a beast follow the allurements of sense? No
   rational principle in man puts him upon evil, but upon moral good;
   whatsoever draws him from good, or puts him upon evil, are principles
   common to him with one brute or other, profit, pleasure, honour, all
   which are found in some beast or other. Why may not a man then consider
   the rational reports of his own conscience, as well as the brutish
   whisperings of sense? But does not man endeavour to shuffle off his
   conscience, and is mighty jolly when it keeps silence, or when he can
   stop its mouth with an excuse? Do not men wilfully choke the sentiments
   of it, and keep the truth deposited in their souls, in unrighteousness,
   Rom. i. 18; and like the scorner, 'hear not its rebukes,' Prov. xiii.
   1? Whatsoever man has by the relics of natural light, he may think of.
   He knows by nature there is a God; he knows something of his
   attributes, and of his law; may not those be his morning thoughts? Is
   he not stirred up sometimes to contemplate on them? May he not do it at
   other times, since this common grace is always with him, and leaves him
   not till he leaves valuing and embracing its divine assistances? Let it
   be remembered, that in all this which man may do, the power is to be
   ascribed to common grace through a mediator, keeping up by his
   interposition the pillars of the earth, and preserving some relics of
   natural light, and the seeds of moral righteousness in man, not in the
   least to be ascribed to bare nature; and that man's corrupt will,
   stuffed with sinful habits, is the cause he makes no use of this power.

   Quest. 2. If we have not an ability to renew ourselves, why does God
   command us to do so? And why does God make promises to men if they will
   turn? Is not this a cruelty? as if a man should command another to run
   a race, and promise to reward him if he did, and yet bind him with
   fetters that he cannot run? Both the command would be unjust and the
   promise ridiculous.

   Ans. In general. God may command, and his command does not signify a
   present ability in man.

   (1.) He may command, because we have faculties suited to the command in
   respect of their substance. For the death of a sinner was not a
   physical death, but a moral. Man lost not his faculties, but the
   rectitude of them; he lost the purity of his sight, the integrity of
   his will, but not the understanding and will itself.

   (2.) God's command does not signify a present moral ability to perform
   it. God's command, which acquaints us with our present duty, is no
   argument of a present power; for if a command signified more than the
   duty man owes, it signified more than a command in its own nature could
   signify. Gods command to us to renew ourselves implies no more an
   ability inherent in the creature to do so than Christ's voice to
   putrefying Lazarus, 'Lazarus arise, come forth,' John xi. 43, implied a
   power in Lazarus to raise himself, or his speech to the palsied
   cripple, 'Arise, take up thy bed,' implied a power in himself to do it
   himself before a supernatural conveyance of it. Do not men exhort every
   day to sobriety those that have contracted a profound habit of
   drunkenness and lust, that philosophy does acknowledge it is not
   possible for them to abstain from; yet no man accuses those that exhort
   them of impertinence, nor those that chastise them of injustice. God's
   commands are not the measures of our strength, but the rule of our
   duty, and do not teach us what we are, but what we should be.

   But to clear this more particularly:

   God may command, though man has not a present moral ability to renew
   himself. For

   [1.] First, Man once had a power to do whatsoever God would command
   him; he had a power to cleave to God. He had not else, in justice, been
   capable of any such injunction; there had been ground of a complaint
   and charge against God, if man had been created defective in any of
   those abilities necessary for his obedience to this command. The
   command is just; God would not else have imposed it, because of his
   righteousness, and every man's conscience testifies that it is highly
   just he should honour God, love God, and cleave to God. If it were
   just, then man was capable to perform this command, for man, as a
   rational creature, is capable of a law, and cannot be governed
   otherwise; and no law could be given so proper for him as to stand
   right to his Creator. Since, therefore, the law was just in itself, and
   since God did justly impose it, man was certainly created by God in a
   capacity to observe it. No question but God, who furnished other
   creatures with an ability to attain their several ends, and perform the
   orders God had set them in at the creation, was no less indulgent to
   man. He that was not deficient to the lower creatures would not be
   deficient to the noblest of his sublunary works. He would have been
   worse in his rank, without a sufficient stock, than other creatures
   were in theirs. There would not have been a physical goodness and
   perfection suitable to his station in the world, and his excellency
   above other creatures. How could God then have pronounced him good,
   among the rest of his works, if there had been in his creation a
   natural inability to answer the end of his creation? If God had created
   man in such a state that he could not do righteously, and yet commanded
   him to do righteously, and, because he did not, punish him, he would
   have been unjust; as if a man should command another to reach a thing
   too high for him, and that when his hands were tied behind him, and
   because he did not, beat him. This would have been the case had not man
   had power at first to do righteously. Had man preserved himself in that
   created state, no just command of God (and it was impossible any unjust
   command should have proceeded from infinite righteousness) would have
   been too hard and too high for him.

   [2.] God did not deprive man of this ability. Man was not stripped of
   his original righteousness by God, for man had lost it before ever God
   spake to him, or passed any sentence upon him after his fall: Gen. iii.
   10, 'I was naked.' If God had taken it away without any offence of
   Adam, he might have expostulated the case. It had been alike unjust, as
   if God had never given him power at first to observe the command he
   enjoined him. It would have been unreasonable to require that of man
   which God himself had made impossible. But God did not take away man's
   original righteousness. If God had taken it away before man's fall,
   then man was unrighteous before he fell, and God, taking it away from
   him while he was perfect, had made him, of an holy and righteous man,
   unholy and profane; as he that deprives a malefactor of his sight, for
   his demerit, makes him of seeing blind. If God took it away after he
   spake to Adam in the garden, it would then follow that Adam was
   righteous after his fall till God deprived him of it, and so was
   innocent while he was sinful, and strong while he was weak. God did not
   take it away from him before, but had told him that the loss of it
   would be the natural consequent of his eating the forbidden fruit, Gen.
   ii. 17, nor after for after we find only temporal punishments
   threatened. God indeed did judicially deny him the restoration of it,
   which, as a governor and a judge, he might justly do, resolving to
   govern him in another manner than before. So that it would be an unjust
   imputation on God to say, God cut off man's legs, and then commanded
   him to run, and come to him. What if God did foresee that man would
   fall; was God therefore the cause of his fall? God's prescience, though
   it is infallible, is not the cause of a thing, no more than our
   foreknowledge that the sun will rise to-morrow morning is a cause of
   rising of it.

   [3.] Therefore, since God did not deprive man of it, it follows that
   man lost it himself, and not barely lost it, but cast it away. He did
   voluntarily by an inordinate intention of will, cast away this original
   perfection, and fell a-hunting after his own 'inventions', Eccles. vii.
   29. He did not stick to that command God had given him, nor implore God
   s assistance of him, as by

   His natural ability he might have done. He consulted not with his
   command upon the temptation, but was very willing to cast off that
   righteousness wherewith God had endowed him, for an affected godhead.
   Man readily swallowed the bait; he did not debate the business with
   Eve, 'She gave to her husband with her, and he did eat,' Gen. iii. 6.
   So that the fault

   was wholly in himself, and his present state voluntarily contracted,
   for though the devil tempted him, yet he had no power to force him. He
   was easily overcome by him, for it was not a repeated temptation, but a
   surrender at the first parley.

   [4.] Therefore God's right of commanding, and man's obligation of
   returning and cleaving to God, remains firm. God's right still remains.
   God gave him a portion to manage, though man prodigally spent it. God
   may challenge his own. Cannot a master justly challenge that commodity
   he sent his servant with money to buy, though he spent it in
   drunkenness and gaming? God gave Adam a sufficient stock; he trifled it
   away. Must God's right suffer for his folly, and man's crime deprive
   God of his power to command? The obligation to God is natural,
   therefore indelible; the corruption of the creature cannot render this
   first obligation void. Righteousness is a debt the creature, as a
   rational creature, owes to God, and cannot refuse the payment of it
   without a crime. Who deprived him of the power of paying? Himself.
   Should this voluntary embezzlement prejudice God's right of exacting
   that which the creature cannot be excused from? A debtor, who cannot
   pay, remains under the obligation of paying. The receipt of a sum of
   money brings him into the relation of a debtor, and not his ability to
   pay what he has received. Such a doctrine would free all men who were
   unable to pay from being debtors, though the sums they owed were never
   so vast. That judge would be unjust that would excuse a prodigal
   debtor, because he could not pay when sued by his creditor. No doubt
   but the devils are bound to serve God, and love him, though by their
   revolt they have lost the will to obey him. If, because we have no
   present power, our obligation to turn to God and obey him ceased, there
   would be no sin in the world, and consequently no judgments. Who will
   say, that if a prince had such rebellious subjects that there were
   little hopes to reclaim them, he should be therefore bound not to
   command them to return to their duty and obedience? If it be reasonable
   in a prince, whose rights are limited, shall it not be reasonable in
   God to exact it, who has an unbounded right over his creature? Either
   God must keep up his law or abrogate it, or, which is all one, let it
   lie in the dust. His holiness obliges him to keep up his law; to
   abrogate it, therefore, would be against his holiness. To declare a
   willingness that his creature should not love him, should not obey him,
   would be to declare that which is unjust, because love is a just debt
   to an amiable object and the chief good, and obedience to a sovereign
   Lord. Must God change his holiness because man has changed his estate?
   The obligation of man remaining perpetual, the right of God to demand
   remains perpetual too, notwithstanding the creature's casting himself
   into an insolvent condition. If man still owes this duty to God, why
   may not God exact his right of man? Much more may God call for a right
   use of those means and gifts he has, as a benefactor, bestowed upon man
   since his fall. No man will deny this right to God upon serious
   thoughts. These new gifts and means were given him not only for
   himself, but for his Lord, to improve for his glory. God may justly
   require the right use of those moral principles and evangelical means
   for the ends for which he appointed them.

   [5.] It will appear more reasonable, because God demands no more, nay
   not so much as he required of Adam in innocence. It is but obedientia
   redintegrata, a return in part to that perfect boldness which was
   inherent in man, and to that obedience in part which was in a great
   measure due to God. As when a prince demands the return of rebels, he
   demands a restoration of that subjection which they paid him before.
   God required a perfect obedience in the first covenant, he requires not
   so much in the second, so that for want of it a creature shall be cast
   off; but a sincere obedience is required, though not in degree perfect.
   Adam had a fundamental power in him to perform that obedience which is
   required, in faith and repentance, the two great parts of regeneration.
   Faith is nothing but an embracing and accepting of Christ the mediator.
   Adam had a power of believing and accepting Christ for his head, had he
   been proposed to him in paradise, as the mediator of consistency and
   confirmation, and the vinculum of holding him for ever close to God.
   Had not Adam a power to accept him under this notion, as well as the
   good angels have accepted him for their head, and worship him as
   mediator; that is, pay him an obedience as mediator when he comes into
   the world, Heb. i. 6. Had he not a fundamental power to grieve, though
   since sin was extraneous to a state of innocence, he could not have
   exercised that grief for himself, repentance being extraneous to
   obedience, and unmeet for him in a sinless state? Suppose God had
   commanded him to grieve for the sins of the fallen angels, Adam having
   this passion in his nature, might have done it. He might have known
   what sin was in them, and might have grieved for the dishonour of God
   by them; even as our Saviour did grieve for the sins of others, Mark
   iii. 5, who knew no sin himself. And in grieving for his own sin, there
   was only a change of the object.

   [6.] It is yet more reasonable if we consider, that every natural man
   thinks he has a power to renew himself, and turn to God when he will
   practically, though not all of them notionally. What reason then has
   man to quarrel with God, and accuse him of demanding that which he
   thinks he can give to God, and will not at present, but take his own
   time to do it, when he sees it fit? This practical opinion runs in the
   reins of every natural man under the gospel, as well as in the
   heathens, which appears by the general wilful delays of men about their
   eternal concerns, by their vows and resolutions upon the blows of
   conscience of reforming their lives, and becoming new men without
   having recourse to the grace of God, or taking any notice of him in
   their resolves. This I think is a clear case. 'Yet a little more
   sleep,' says a man, that thinks he can rise time enough when he will,
   and despatch his business in a moment, Prov. vi. 10. With what face can
   man accuse God of not giving him power, when he thinks he has power
   enough himself? or be angry with God for demanding his debt, when he
   thinks himself in a solvent condition? No man will blame another for
   requiring that of his servant, which his servant boasts he has power in
   himself to do. The Israelites thought so when they said, Exod. xxiv. 3,
   'All the words which the Lord has said we will do,' without any
   applications to the grace of God to enable them. All men are like
   Israel in this; only the regenerate are most sensible of their own
   impotence, and scarce any man else.

   [7.] From all this it follows, that God is not bound to give grace to
   any; and where he does bestow it, it is an act of his sovereign
   pleasure. If God has given man power, and never took it away, but it
   was cast away by man, therefore God's right is not prejudiced, but he
   may justly demand of man what once he gave him power to do, especially
   since it is less than what man at first owed him; and when man thinks
   he has power to pay him, it will evidently follow, that God is not
   bound to give any new power. If God were bound to give a new power to
   accept of the gospel, he were then unjust not to confer it; if he be
   not bound, it is of mere grace that he bestows it. God proposes pardon
   to all upon such conditions, but he is not bound to give the condition
   to any; he commands all to renew their obedience to him, but he is not
   bound to renew any one person. He gives the command to turn, as a
   lawgiver and governor; he gives the grace to some to turn, as a
   benefactor. It is grace therefore, not debt. When God confers it, it is
   an act of his compassionate mercy; when he denies it, it is an act of
   his just sovereignty. He may, if he please, 'suffer all nations to walk
   in their own ways,' Acts xiv. 16. Yet if he please to propose the means
   of grace to any, the very knowledge of those mysteries of heaven is a
   peculiar gift, as well as the outward proposal: Matt. xiii. 11, 'To you
   it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them
   it is not given.' If we improve reason to the highest, God is not
   obliged to give us grace, no more than if a beast improved sense to the
   highest, he were bound to give him reason. Though if there could be a
   man found in any age of the world, who did improve reason to the utmost
   of his power, I would not doubt God's giving him the addition of
   supernatural grace, out of the largeness of his bounty, though still
   there is no obligation upon God, because man does no more than his
   duty.

   And that God does not give grace to all to whom the means are offered,
   and yet does command them to turn, and promise to receive them;--

   (1.) It does not entrench upon his sincerity in his proposals. His
   proposals are serious, though he knows man will not receive them
   without an over-powering grace; and though he be resolved not to give
   the assistance of his grace to every one under those means, but leave
   them to the liberty of their own wills. The gospel is to be considered
   as a command ordering men to believe, or as a promise alluring men to
   be renewed, by representing to them the happiness of such a state.
   Consider it as a command, God is serious in it, though he resolve not
   to give grace to all to whom the precept comes, for under this
   consideration of a command it is a declaration of man's duty, and a
   demonstration of God s sovereign authority. Does God's resolution of
   not giving grace weaken the obligation of man to his duty, or diminish
   God's authority, or give ground to man to charge him with insincerity?
   Consider it as a promise, does it hinder God's seriousness in it if he
   resolves not to give the condition of it to all? It is sufficient to
   show God's seriousness in it, to declare, that if men will be
   regenerate, it will be very pleasing to him; that he will make good to
   them what he has promised, that if they be renewed, he will make good
   every tittle of the promise to them; and if they will seek, and ask,
   and knock, he will not be wanting to them to assist them.

   (2.) It does not disparage his wisdom to command that to man which he
   knows man will not do without his grace, and so make promises to man
   upon the doing it. If man indeed had not a faculty naturally fitted for
   the object, it might entrench upon God's wisdom to make commands and
   promises to such a creature as it would be to command a beast to speak.
   But man has a faculty to understand and will, which makes him a man;
   and there is a disposition in the understanding and will which consists
   in an inclination determined to good or evil, which makes us not to be
   men, but good or bad men, whereby we are distinguished from one
   another, as by reason and will we are from plants and beasts. Now the
   commands and exhortations are suitable to our nature, and respect not
   our reason as good or bad, but simply as reason. These commands
   presuppose in us a faculty of understanding and will, and a
   suitableness between the command and the faculty of a reasonable
   creature. This is the reason why God has given to us his law and
   gospel, his commands, not because we are good or bad men, but because
   we are men endued with reason, which other creatures want, and
   therefore are not capable of government by a command. Our blessed Lord
   and Saviour did not exhort infants, though he blessed them, because
   they were not arrived to the use of reason, yet he exhorted the Jews,
   many of whose wills he knew were not determined to good, and whom he
   told that they would die in their sins. And though God had told them,
   Jer. xiii., that they could no more change themselves than an Ethiopian
   could his skin, yet he expostulates with them why they 'would not be
   made clean;' verse 27 'O Jerusalem, wilt thou not be made clean? when
   shall it once be?' Because, though they had an ill disposition in their
   judgment, yet their judgment remained, whereby to discern of
   exhortations if they would. To present a concert of music to a deaf man
   that cannot hear the greatest sound were absurd, because sounds are the
   object of hearing; but commands and exhortations are the object, not of
   this or that good constitution of reason, but of reason itself.

   (3.) Neither does it disagree with his justice. It is so far from being
   unjust for God to demand what men are obliged to do, though he knows
   that they will not do it, that God would be unjust to himself if he did
   not demand it, if he let men trample upon his rights without demanding
   restitution of them. If a prince sets forth edicts to rebels to return,
   and promise them pardon upon their returning, though he knows they are
   rebelliously bent, that they will not entertain a thought of coming
   again under his sceptre, but will still be in arms, and draw down his
   wrath upon them, will not all interpret this to be an act of clemency
   and goodness in the prince? Neither is God an acceptor of persons,
   because he does not give grace unto all; for may he not do with his own
   what he please without injustice? Those to whom we give alms have
   reason to thank us; those to whom we give not an alms have no reason to
   complain; we have gratified the one, but we have done no wrong to the
   other. We are all by nature criminals, deserving death; should God
   leave us in that deplorable estate wherein he found us, can we accuse
   him of injustice? Those that by grace are snatched out of the pit, have
   reason to acknowledge it an admirable favour, as indeed it is; those
   that are destitute of grace, and by their own wilful rejection left to
   sink to the bottom, cannot impute their unhappiness to him; for he left
   them not without witness; he presented them the word, exhorted them to
   hearken to him; but, instead of paying their duty, they fiercely
   rejected him, abhorred his exhortations, and gave themselves over to
   sin and vice. If a man proclaim by a crier that such that can bring
   such a mark shall receive such an alms, he sends this private mark to
   some, they come and receive an alms. Had he not power to do what he
   pleased with his own, to send his distinguishing token to whom he
   pleased? What injustice is done to the other, to whom he sends not this
   mark?

   We have shown that God may command. Let us see why God does command,
   when he knows man has no power to renew himself?

   1. The first reason is,

   To make us sensible of our impotency. The design of God is not to
   signify our power to perform it, but sensibly to affect us with our
   inability, that we may be the better prepared for a remedy; as the
   moral law was given with such terrifying marks, to make men despair in
   themselves, and the ceremonial law annexed to it, to give some glimpse
   of a Mediator in whom they might have strength. And therefore when the
   Israelites were so affected, Deut. xviii. 16-18, as to desire not to
   hear the voice of the Lord in that manner, nor to see that great fire
   any more which attended the law, that they might not die, he commends
   them for it: verse 17, 'They have well spoken that which they have
   spoken.' God is highly pleased with this sense of their own inability
   to answer the terms of the first covenant, since it makes them fly for
   help and supply to the prophet of the second covenant. The cabalists
   therefore say, that the law was given to take away the venom of the
   serpent; that is, not that we should fulfil the law, but that we might
   learn how far we were swerved from the duty we owed to God, and how
   unable to gain the happiness we had lost. A conceit of self-sufficiency
   secretly lurks in every one of us; we should think ourselves gods to
   ourselves if we saw not the picture of our own weakness in the
   spirituality of the command. Therefore, though we cannot ourselves
   perform this command of regeneration, it is necessary it should be
   directed to us, to make us abject in our eyes, and strip us of all
   confidence in the flesh, which is the first step toward a being endued
   with the Spirit; to make us hang down our proud plumes, and sink into
   that despair in ourselves, which is necessary to the superstructure of
   a saving faith. It is necessary the law should be commanded, to make
   sin appear exceeding sinful, to give us a true prospect of ourselves in
   the glass of the command: the rectitude of it shows us our crookedness;
   the holiness of it, our impurity; the justice of it, our
   unrighteousness; the goodness of it, our wickedness; and the
   spirituality of it, our carnality and fleshliness. God does not command
   us (though we have no power) to upbraid and triumph over us, but to lay
   us low, and humble us.

   2. To make us sensible of the grace of God, and urge us to have
   recourse to it. It is necessary that man should understand the
   perfection of divine righteousness, and what the condition of man was
   before the fall, that thereby he may understand the necessity of the
   remedy, and be more willing to come under God's wing than Adam has to
   keep under it; but without a sense of his own weakness man would never
   come to God. God commands us, not that he expects we should renew
   ourselves, for he knows we cannot; but that being acquainted with our
   feeble frame, we should implore his grace to turn us, and have recourse
   to him, who delights to be sought unto and depended upon by his
   creature. That this command of renewing ourselves, and returning to our
   due obedience, is given to this end, is evident by the promise of the
   gospel, which did accompany the command, both to encourage and direct
   men where to find assistance for the performance of what the first
   covenant exacts, and the second accepts. Therefore, with the commands
   of the law, there is the promise of a great prophet to teach them, an
   ordaining typical sacrifices to relieve them, and the gospel, under the
   mask of the ceremonial law, attended the fiery and impossible commands
   of the moral. God might have exacted his right without making any
   promise, it had been summum just; but God exacts not his right now, but
   with a promise; where there is jus in one, and remissio juris in the
   other. And very frequently in the Scripture, where the command is given
   to show us our duty, yet a promise is joined to it, to show that though
   obedience be our duty, yet sanctification is God's work, as Lev. xx. 8,
   'Ye shall keep my statutes and do them;' whereupon it immediately
   follows, 'I am the Lord which sanctify you.' The precept is to acquaint
   us with our duty; the promise, to acquaint us with the sight of a
   gracious ability; the precept minds us of our debt, the promise minds
   us of the means to pay it: what is required in the precept is
   encouraged in the promise. Every precept, being a part of the law, is
   to 'shut us up' to faith, and to 'bring us to Christ,' Gal. iii. 23,
   24. God makes us amends; that as he requires of us what we lost by
   another's fault, he has provided us a remedy by another's
   righteousness, which we never performed; and by his own Spirit, which
   we never purchased, if we will but seek it. If God did work it in us
   without commanding us to work it ourselves, we could not have a
   foundation to make such sensible acknowledgements of his grace and
   omnipotent kindness. It is our work as a due debt; it is God's work as
   a fruit of his grace; Isa. xxvi. 12, 'Thou hast wrought all our works
   in us.' The promise, therefore, of a new heart and a new spirit, is
   made indefinitely; none are aimed in it, nor any excluded, that will
   but seek it. And supposing they are predictions rather than promises,
   yet they run in the nature of a promise: they are to be pleaded, for
   God 'will be inquired after concerning them;' and the fulfilling of
   them to the soul is as pleadable as the fulfilling other prophecies to
   the church; the grounds of the plea are the same in both, the truth of
   God: Ezek. xxxvi. 37, 'Thus says the Lord God, I will yet for this be
   inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them;' which may
   reasonably be concluded to respect the whole antecedent promising
   discourse of God.

   3. These commands and exhortations are of use to clear the justice of
   God upon obstinate sinners. God is a judge, and judges by law; commands
   therefore are necessary, because a rational creature is only governable
   by law. If God were not a lawgiver, he could not be a judge; his
   judicial proceedings depend upon his legislative power. Men being to be
   judged by their works, must have some law as the rule of those works;
   and his law is no more than the first law in innocence, that is, to
   return to obedience and righteousness. These commands and exhortations
   are the whips and scourges of perverse consciences, whereby they are
   galled while they obey not the motions of them, and render them
   inexcusable and unworthy of mercy in despising the conditions God
   requires of them, and make the case of Sodom 'more tolerable in the day
   of judgment' than the condition of such men, Mat. xi. 24. We are apt to
   bring an unreasonable charge against God of cruelty and injustice, as
   though his punishments did not consist with righteousness. God
   therefore shows us our duty, and demands it of us, and it is confessed
   by us to be our duty; man is therefore deservedly punished, because he
   does wilfully cherish the old nature in him, the fountain of all sin;
   he has the truth, and he holds it in possession, but in
   unrighteousness, therefore the wrath of God is justly revealed from
   heaven against that unrighteousness of his, Rom. i. 18. God calls
   sinners, though he knows they will not renew themselves, as men send
   servants to demand the possession of a piece of ground, though they
   know it will not be delivered to them; but they do it that they may
   more conveniently bring their action against such a person that will
   not surrender. So upon God's command to men to be renewed, his justice
   is more apparent upon their refusal; as he sent Moses to Pharaoh,
   though he knew before that Pharaoh would not hearken to him. This
   punishment is only accidental to the gospel, it becomes the savour of
   death per per accidens, because of the unbelief of those that reject
   it; the gospel is designed for the salvation of men, not for their
   condemnation. If the corruption of man produces condemnation to
   himself, must God abstain from doing good to the world? There is not a
   man but abuses the light of the sun which shines upon him, and the
   mercies God gives him, and thereby brings wrath upon himself, and God
   knows they will do so; would we have God, therefore, to put out the
   light of the sun, and divest the earth of its fruitfulness? Shall God
   lay aside his right of commanding, and take away the preaching of the
   gospel, and so excellent a thing as the happy revelation of his
   gracious promises and exhortations, because many men by their
   wilfulness bring the just wrath of God upon them for their refusal?
   Will any man accuse our blessed Lord and Saviour, when ho comes to
   judgment, that he did them wrong to come and die for mankind, and cause
   the news and ends of his death to be published, and exhort sinners
   thereupon to believe in him? Surely men's consciences shall be full of
   convictions of their own wilfulness, and the equity of God's justice
   thereupon.

   4. The commands and exhortations are of use to bring men to God,
   according to the nature of rational creatures, and also to keep them
   with God. Man not having lost his reason, though he has lost his
   rectitude, cannot be drawn to God in a rational way but by cords proper
   to man; for he is a creature governable only by laws, and therefore
   must have laws suited to his nature; and commands and exhortations are
   so, for the weakness brought upon men to answer them is by their own
   defection. God does not bring men to him by instinct, as he brought the
   beasts to Adam, or the creatures into Noah's ark; such a conversion
   would not be reasonable, nor spiritual, nor agreeable to God, no more
   than the obedience of the beasts to Noah. God therefore draws men by
   commands, and promises, and exhortations thereupon convenient to the
   nature of man, accommodated to the rational capacity of the creature;
   for man being created after the image of God, ought to be conducted and
   governed after another manner then other creatures. The grace of God
   therefore working suitably to the nature of man, cannot be conceived by
   us in any other way than in this of commands and exhortations. And when
   men are renewed, the commands for perfect regeneration are still
   incumbent upon them (though they cannot attain it in this life), to
   stir up their hearts to an exercise of that gracious ability they have
   to walk in the ways of holiness, and to that end to a reliance on the
   grace of God. The promises are given to them to inflame them to a love
   of holiness, and to show them where their chief strength lies; this
   appears plainly to be the intent of the Spirit of God in that command
   and promise, Philip. ii. 12, 13, 'Work out your own salvation; for it
   is God that works in you to will and to do.' He writes to those already
   regenerate, Work out your salvation, use your gracious power, and be
   encouraged by the assistance God gives you. Use your own power as if
   there were no grace to help you in the performance; depend upon the
   grace of God which works in you both to will and to do, as if you had
   no power at all of any motion in yourselves.

   So that to sum up the whole of this later discourse, the impotence of
   man does not excuse him.

   1. Because the commands of the gospel are not difficult in themselves
   to be believed and obeyed. If we were commanded things that were
   impossible in their own nature, as to shoot an arrow as high as the
   sun, or leap up to the top of the highest mountain at one start, the
   very command carries its excuse with it in the impossibility of the
   thing enjoined. But the precept of regeneration and restoring to
   righteousness is easy to be comprehended, it is backed with clear and
   manifest reason, and proposed with a promise of happiness which is very
   suitable to the natural appetite of our souls. To command a thing
   simply impossible is not congruous to the wisdom, holiness, and
   righteousness of God; it would not be justice, but cruelty. No wise man
   will invite another man by any promises to do that which is simply
   impossible; no just judge will punish a man for not observing such a
   precept; no righteous and merciful person would impose such a command.
   But these commands of the gospel are not impossible in their own
   nature, but in regard of our perversity and contumacy. The command of
   righteousness was possible when first given, and impossible since by
   our own folly; impossible in our voluntary corrupted nature, and by
   reason of our voluntarily cherished corruption. The change is not in
   the nature of the law, but in the nature of the creature; and what is
   impossible to nature is possible to grace, and grace may be sought for
   the performance of them.

   2. Because we have a foundation in our natures for such commands,
   therefore man's weakness does not excuse him. It had been unjust for
   God to have commanded Adam in innocence to fly, and give him no wings;
   this had been above Adam's natural power, he could not have done it,
   though he would fain have obeyed God, because his nature was destitute
   of all force for such a command. It would be strange if God should
   invite the trees or beasts to repent, because they have no foundation
   in their nature to entertain commands and invitations to obedience and
   repentance; for trees have no sense, and beasts have no reason to
   discern the difference between good and evil. If God did command a man
   that never had eyes to contemplate the sun, man might wonder, since
   such a man never had organs for such an action. But God addresses
   himself to men that have senses open to objects, and understandings to
   know, and wills to move, affections to embrace objects. These
   understandings are open to anything but that which God does command,
   their wills can will anything but that which God does propose. The
   command is proportioned to the natural faculty, and the natural faculty
   proportioned to the excellency of the command. We have affections, as
   love and desire. In the command of loving God and loving our neighbour,
   there is only a change of the object of our affections required; the
   faculties are not weak by nature, but by the viciousness of nature,
   which is of our own introduction. It is strange, therefore, that we
   should excuse ourselves, and pretend we are not to be blamed, because
   God's command is impossible to be observed, when the defect lies not in
   the want of a natural foundation, but in our own giving up ourselves to
   the flesh and the love of it, and in a wilful refusal of applying our
   faculties to their proper objects, when we can employ those faculties
   with all vehemence about those things which have no commerce with the
   gospel.

   3. Because the means God gives are not simply insufficient in
   themselves. God does afford men beams of light, he makes clear
   discoveries, as it is, Rom. i. 19, 'He has showed it to them,
   "efanerose", 'it is manifest in them. He displays in their hearts some
   motions of his Spirit, produces some velleities. The standing of the
   world under the cries of so many hideous sins, is a daily sermon of
   God's kindness and patience in bearing up the pillars of it, and is a
   standing exhortation to repentance; as Rom. ii. 4, 'The forbearance,
   long-suffering, and goodness of God leads to repentance.' The object is
   intelligible: 'The word is near us, in our mouths, in our hearts;' it
   is apprehensible in itself, Rom. x. 6, 7. The revelation is as plain as
   the surface of the heavens, Ps. xix. 1-3, applied to the preaching of
   the gospel. Rom. x. 18. That men are not renewed, and turned to God, is
   not for want of a sufficient external revelation, but from the hardness
   of the heart; not from any insufficiency of the means, but the
   depravity and wickedness of the soul to whom those means are offered.
   The commands and means of the gospel are no more weak in themselves
   than the law was, but weak through the flesh, by reason of the inherent
   corruption man has fastened in himself, Rom. viii. 3. Would not the
   hundredth part of any revelation of some worldly object, connatural to
   man's corrupt heart, be sufficient in itself to put him upon motion to
   it, and embraces of it? The insufficiency does both not lie in the
   external means, for the gospel is an act of mercy and grace; the call
   is an act of kindness. It is clear to man that God offers; it is clear
   that God will accept, if man will embrace his counsel; and shall this
   be said to be insufficient, because man will reject it?

   4. Because this impotence in man is rather a wilfulness than a simple
   weakness, therefore man's pretended weakness does not excuse him from
   the command. It is not a weakness arising from a necessity of nature,
   but an enmity of will, whereby some other apparent good is beloved
   above God, and some creature preferred before him. There is a double
   impotence, merae infirmitatis, which is a want of power in the hand,
   when there is a readiness in the will to perform, or malignitatis,
   which is seated in the will and affections, whereby though a man has a
   power to perform, yet he cannot because he will not: he will abhor any
   return to God, and will not be whetted by his promise to any endeavour.
   A simple impotency deserves pity, for it is a rational excuse, but an
   obstinate perversity is so far from an excuse that it is an
   aggravation. The deeper the habit of obstinacy, the more inexcusable
   the person. What a ridiculous excuse would this be, to say to God, (1.)
   that I ought not to be obliged to restore myself to righteousness, and
   obey the command of the gospel, because I am of so perverse a
   disposition that I will not obey, and will not be restored; or (2.)
   that God is bound to restore to him that will to obey and renew
   himself, otherwise he is guilty of no crime. The first would be
   ridiculous, and both impious. What hinders any man from being
   regenerate under the call of the gospel, but a moral weakness, which
   consists in an imperious inclination to evil, and a rooted
   indisposition in corrupt reason and will to believe and repent? And
   here the Scripture lays it upon the hardness of the heart, Rom. ii. 5,
   and a rebellious walking after our own thoughts: Isa. lxv. 2, 'I have
   spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walk in
   a way that was not good, after their own thoughts.' We are impotent and
   cannot, because we are rebellious and will not. For since man has an
   understanding capable to weigh arguments on both sides, and see the
   advantage of the good proposed, and the disadvantage of the evil
   tempting, if he does the evil, and refuses the good, is not the fault
   clearly in his will? And when by a custom in sin we ripen the power of
   our evil habits, we contract an impossibility of doing the good
   required, and casting out the evil forbidden. This does in no sort
   excuse us, because it is an inability contracted by ourselves. God
   himself threatens punishment to the Israelites, when he confesses that
   they could not attain to innocence: Hosea viii. 5, 'My anger is kindled
   against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocence?' "lo
   yuchlu"; how long can they not? Purity or innocence. They had raised
   such an habit in them, by casting off voluntarily the thing that is
   good, ver. 3, that they could not divest themselves of it, which was so
   far from excusing them that it sharpened the anger of God against them.

   5. This weakness does not excuse from obedience to this command,
   because God denies no man strength to perform what he commands, if he
   seek it at his hands. No man can plead that he would have been
   regenerate, and turned to God, and could not, for though we have not
   power to renew ourselves, yet God is ready to confer power upon us if
   we seek it. Where did God ever deny any man sufficient strength, that
   did wait upon him in serious and humble supplications, and
   conscientiously used the means to procure it. A man cannot indeed merit
   grace, or dispose himself for it, so that it must by a natural
   necessity come into his soul, as a form does into matter upon
   dispositions to it. But if a man will do what he can do, if he will put
   no obstacle to grace, by a course of sin, would not God, out of his
   infinite bounty to his creatures, and out of that general love whereby
   he would have all men saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth,
   give him special grace? Has not our Saviour made a promise in his first
   sermon to the multitude, that God 'will give good things to them that
   ask him,' with a much more than men give good gifts to their children,
   Mat. vii. 11. They were not only his disciples that he preached that
   sermon to, but the multitude, comparing it with Mat. v. 1, and Mat.
   vii. 28. Has not God declared, that he 'delights not in the death of a
   sinner,' Ezek. xxxiii. 11, and does he not out of his infinite goodness
   condescend to beseech us to be reconciled to him? Will not the same
   infinite goodness bow itself down to form a new image in them that use
   the means to be reconciled and conformed to him, as much as they can?
   Has not our blessed Saviour already given a testimony of his affection
   to such endeavours, in loving the young man for his outward observation
   of the law, Mark x. 21, who wanted but one thing only to pass him into
   a gracious state, the refusal whereof barred him of it? And shall not
   he have a choicer affection to those that strive to observe the rules
   he has left in his gospel? Will he not be pleased with such motions in
   his creatures towards their own happiness? Will he not further that
   wherein he delights? Think not therefore to justify yourselves at the
   bar of God for your sloth, because you are too weak to renew
   yourselves. It will not help you then. The question will then be asked,
   Did you ever seriously beg it, as for your lives? Did God ever desert
   you when you would fight against sin, when you set yourselves seriously
   and dependently on him for grace? God gives us talents, but by our
   sloth we embezzle them. It is upon that score Christ lays it, Mat. xxv.
   26, 'Thou wicked and slothful servant.' God has not promised to furnish
   you with more talents, when you improve not the talents you have
   already; non-improvement of them cuts oft all pleas men may make
   against God upon the account of their impotence. As there never was a
   renewed man, but acknowledged his regeneration as a fruit of God's
   grace, so there was never any man that can say, he did use his greatest
   industry in trading with the talents God entrusted him with, and God
   refused him the supply of his special grace. If you have not a new
   heart and a heart of flesh, ask your own hearts whether ever you did
   seriously inquire of God to do it for you. God never fails them that
   diligently seek him.

   For the use of this:

   1. For information.

   (1.) See the strange misery of man by his fall. We cannot be the
   authors of strength to our own souls, since we are despoiled of that
   vital principle which constituted us spiritually living in the first
   creation. How are we sunk many degrees below other creatures, who
   always have, and still do answer the ends of their creation, when we,
   wretched we, have lost both the will and power to answer the end of
   ours? We can understand, will, move, but not as man in innocence could.
   In ourselves we are nothing, we have nothing, can bring forth nothing
   spiritually good and acceptable to God; a mere composition of enmity to
   good and propensity to evil, of weakness and wickedness, of hell and
   death; a fardel of impotence and conceitedness, perversity and
   inability, every way miserable unless infinite compassion relieve us.
   We have no more freedom than a chained galley slave till Christ redeem
   us; no more strength than a putrefied carcass till Christ raise us, an
   unlamented hardness, an unregarded obstinacy, an insensible palsy
   spread over every part, a dreadful cannot and will not triumphing in
   the whole soul. The heart turned into pleasure with its own wounds and
   chains is an amazing misery both to good men and angels, because it is
   so great, and yet unbewailed to see a man endued with a soul so rare,
   even with its crack, that the heathens thought it to be a particle of
   God; an understanding that can peer into heaven, fathom the earth by
   contemplative inquisitions, yet cannot strike up a spark of enlightened
   reason about everlasting happiness; that that reason, which understands
   a worldly interest, should be so blind, so weak, about a heavenly
   bliss! A short-sighted mind, that cannot cast a look so high as to
   spiritual things, nor rise up in one holy thought without the grace of
   God; a perverse will, that cannot commission one spiritual desire; a
   weak arm, that cannot strengthen itself to grasp and hold one spiritual
   gift; a dry wilderness, that cannot issue out a tear till God open the
   fountain of the great deep of grace to flow in upon it; a hard heart,
   that relents not under afflictions on earth, nor could under the flames
   of hell without grace! What a woeful thing is it to be miserable, and
   have no strength to be happy! to look into a law, and behold it wholly
   spiritual, and to reflect upon our souls, and behold them wholly
   carnal! Rom. vii. 14, to find a command of regeneration in the judgment
   of our own consciences, just for God to impose, good for us to receive,
   and an utter inability to square ourselves according to it!

   (2.) See the vast power of sin. It is this that has cast its infectious
   roots so deep in our souls, that it is impossible for us to pluck up
   this degenerate plant. The first defection from God was of that nature,
   that it did per se, of itself, produce an inability in us, as sickness
   does in a body, or disjointing a member does weakness in a man;
   otherwise man, after he had sinned, had been found in strength, and had
   had a power to do good, till God by punishment had taken away that
   power, and inflicted a contrary weakness, which would be very absurd to
   affirm. Adam threw off the royal robe of righteousness; and in all
   those ages which are run out since, man could not find by all the
   inquiries of nature how to put it on again without a supernatural
   strength. This sin that has taken hold of us, keeps us down, that we
   cannot lift up our heads to divine knowledge, or reach out our hands to
   perform any divine precept, it is this has emptied us of our treasure,
   stripped us of our strength, made us as poor as Job upon the dunghill,
   and as feeble as the cripple at the pool; and which is worse than this,
   has not only deprived us of our health and strength to cure ourselves,
   but of our will to be healed by another; and possessed us with such a
   frenzy that we are friends to our madness, and enemies to those that
   would deliver us from it; we are all possessed with a legion of devils,
   that makes us cry out against Christ before we be turned to him, Mark
   v. 7. It is this first poison diffusing itself in the heart of Adam has
   made us all by nature a generation of vipers, and infected our very
   tongues, that we cannot, being evil, speak that which is good, that is,
   perfectly and spiritually good, as it is Mat. xii. 34, 'O generation of
   vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things?' and poisoned our
   souls at the very root, that not one grape of grace can grow upon the
   thorn of nature. All the coin of our actions bears the impression of
   the evil treasure in our hearts, Luke vi. 43-45.

   (3.) We may from hence see the groundlessness of any conceits rising in
   us, of the power and freedom of our own wills to anything spiritually
   good. This conceit reigns in most men's hearts naturally; it is a
   legacy left to our natures by the will of Adam. The not submitting our
   wills to the will of God, in a way of humble waiting upon him, is the
   source of the misery of mankind; such imaginations will creep up in our
   hearts, that our understandings can aspire to all knowledge, our wills
   spring up in grace, as naturally as a clear fountain in pure waters.
   The cause of such conceits is the ignorance both of the depth and
   largeness of the wound original sin has made in all our faculties.
   Paul, while a pharisee, without question was of this mind, and cried up
   the liberty of the will as much as he cried down the truth of the
   Christian religion; he was 'alive without the law once,' Rom. vii. 9.
   But when he takes out the lesson of the sinfulness of natural
   concupiscence, Rom. vii. 7, the experience of his slavery, and being
   sold under sin, grew up with the notion of the extent of original
   corruption, and he found himself a mere dead man, as may be observed in
   several passages in Rom. vii. Every man is born with this conceit,
   since we find the only peculiar nation God had in the world asserting
   it in the whole body of them, in the face of God, Exod. xxiv. 8. When
   Moses told them all the words and judgments of the Lord, all the people
   answered with one voice, 'All the words which the Lord has said will we
   do;' and ver. 7, 'All that the Lord has said will we do, and be
   obedient.' Not one man among them duly sensible of natural slavery, nor
   making any application to God for grace to keep them; but as confident
   of the strength of their mutable wills as if they had as much power as
   the first man in innocence. This vain confidence has its bitter root in
   the imagination of all Israel; and that it may not appear to be a
   sudden and rash passion, they assert it again more solemnly upon second
   thoughts: ver. 7, 'All that the Lord has said will we do, and be
   obedient.'

   [1.] It is a high piece of pride. To boast of a great estate, when a
   man has not a farthing in his purse, is very ridiculous, or for a slave
   to brag of liberty, with his chains upon his hands and feet. What a
   vain self-reflection is it when we are bound naturally in our sins, as
   a slave in his shackles, with Satan's padlock upon us, till the Son
   make us free indeed! John viii. 36. It is the very moth of pride which
   ate out the beauty of Adam's garment who, whilst he would stand upon
   his own bottom, laid the scene of his own ruin; he affected to be his
   own conductor, and proved his own cut-throat; and aspiring to an
   independence on God, fell down into the dungeon of slavery to, and
   dependency upon, Satan. It is a pride like that of Adam, an invasion of
   God's property, an affecting to be that by ourselves which we can only
   be by Christ; it is an arrogance like that of the Babel builders, to
   think by this slime of nature to raise up a spiritual building as high
   as heaven. We sin over again more formally the sin of Adam, by
   affecting an equality with God.

   [2.] It is a disparagement to God. It is an unquestionable idolatry,
   and never yet practised, to set up any creature as the author of the
   temporal good of the whole world. Is it not more to set up many
   thousands of free wills as the authors of the spiritual good of the
   creature, to make every man's will an idol? Is the robbing God of the
   glory of his grace less criminal than the divesting him of the glory of
   his outward work? Or are the works of grace in the soul more
   inconsiderable than those of nature? It disparages Gods grace; it makes
   his grace subsequent, not preventing; it makes the highest spiritual
   work to be the seed of man, not the seed of God. If this conceit takes
   place in your hearts, God is like to be without much praise from his
   creature. Peter will be no more beholden to God than Judas, Paul no
   more than Simon Magus; both had the outward revelation, and so both owe
   a praise to God; but what further debt of praise did Paul owe to God,
   if his regeneration sprang forth into being by the power of his own
   will, without any further contribution from God than an objective
   proposal? It takes off the crown of glory from the head of Christ; for
   though it will be acknowledged that he bruised the head of the common
   serpent by the power of his death, yet the destruction of the works of
   the serpent in our hearts, which is our immediate happiness, was
   wrought by the seed of free will. It would be strange that the apostle
   Paul should be so over-seen, to give such praise to the grace of God
   manifested to him, if he had not been particularly beholden to that for
   the turning of his heart. By this God is beholden much to the
   creature's will, in being a great cause of keeping up the interest of
   God in the world, which had no footing, notwithstanding his revelation,
   without the compliance of man's will, untouched by any supernatural
   grace. Such a conceit of man's power seems to envy God the glory of his
   whole grace. And such a bitter root of this, I doubt, may be one secret
   cause that we are so heart-tied and tongue-tied in the praises of God
   for his grace.

   [3.] It takes away a great part of the glory of the Spirit's work in
   the world. Was his convincing the world of sin and righteousness only
   external by the objective proposals of the word, and fitting the
   apostles for the propagation of that convictive revelation? Was he to
   stand only as a spectator to behold which way the motion of free will
   would cast the balance? Is he to preserve grace in the heart? and is
   there not more need of his creating it there, than preserving it after?
   Is there more danger of the devil's quenching the flame kindled in the
   soul, than there was of its first touch upon the heart? Is he a Spirit
   of grace only to propose it, not to work it? The Spirit makes no verbal
   proposal of it, that is by man; if an inward proposal barely by
   applying it to the understanding, has not man as much power to do that,
   as to work it in his will? How can it be a well of water springing up
   to eternal life, if it works nothing efficaciously upon the heart? This
   secret pride and conceit in the heart may be a cause we make so few
   applications to the Spirit of God, taking little notice of him in our
   attempts.

   [4.] It puts a bar to all evangelical duties. It makes us cleave to
   ourselves rather than to God, and presume upon our own strength rather
   than rely upon his. The heathens (as Seneca) asserted, that it was a
   silly thing for a man to desire that of heaven which he had power to do
   without it. Why should we go to him for renewing grace, when it is in
   our own power to renew ourselves? May it not be said to us, as it was
   in another case, 'Why trouble you the master?' As long as we think we
   can spin a righteousness out of our own bowels, we will never go to
   Christ for a robe of his weaving, though never so rich. And while we
   think we can rear a stately spiritual building by our own skill, we
   shall never desire the art of another workman. Our Saviour would have
   nothing to do with his fullness, if He stood in no need of it; and what
   need had we of it, if we could despatch this great business of grace
   ourselves? This secret imagination in the heart is one cause of the
   neglect of duties, especially prayer, or of a slightness and coldness
   in it.

   [5.] This conceit endangers a man's destruction, by encouraging a delay
   of using the means necessary to this work in God's ordinary course.
   What sensualist would not delay using means for repentance, who
   conceits he can repent when he will, and that to will is in his own
   power? This makes men think they have a key to unlock heaven at their
   pleasure, and have the command of the treasuries of grace; and
   therefore are afraid to attend upon evangelical means, for fear they
   should be put upon serious reflections too soon. The common sentiments
   of men are a sad evidence of this; you shall hear many acknowledge
   their weakness in other things, but not in this; they cannot leave such
   a course of sin, they cannot pray with so much affection, yet their
   hearts are right, they can repent and believe when they will, that is
   in their own power; which makes them sluggish and careless at the calls
   of God. But what a folly this is, let Solomon witness, who sets the
   fool's cap upon such confidence; 'He that trusts in his own heart is a
   fool,' Prov. xxviii. 26; it is to trust in a weathercock that is
   mutable with every wind of temptation. To depend upon our wills, is to
   depend upon the oldest and the most certain bankrupt in the world, that
   broke as soon as it was set up, many ages since, and never recovered
   itself. Who told you, therefore, that you can melt the stone within you
   at your pleasure? that you can cast the strong man out of your wills
   without a stronger than he? But suppose the grounds were rational, and
   that you had a power to cure yourselves; the consequent is very
   irrational, for that cause to delay it; for what man in his wits would
   endure a wound or deformity many years, because he can heal or beautify
   himself at his pleasure in a moment? Take heed therefore of such
   fancies of your own power to regenerate yourselves, and upon that
   account to neglect that which you have power to do; but imitate Ephraim
   with all speed, notwithstanding your cheating imagination, and cry out,
   'Turn thou me, and I shall be turned,' Jer. xxxi. 18.

   (4.) It informs us, that regeneration is not wrought merely by moral
   suasion, or only by exhortations; then it would principally be the work
   of the will of man. Our Saviour had a will to preach to all in
   Jerusalem, but he had not a will to quicken all: John v. 21, 'the Son
   quickens whom he will;' so that it depended upon his inward operation,
   not only upon his outward exhortations. It is true there is a suasion
   in the ear by the word, but the persuasion is in the heart by grace;
   the suasion in the word may cause some rational reflections as a moral
   cause, but no spiritual motion towards God as a physical cause. Men are
   not disputed or exhorted, but created into grace; the proposal of a
   good by the understanding is not always embraced by the will, unless it
   be a good suitable and connatural to those habits in the will. Where,
   therefore, there is no suitable habit planted in the will, rational
   reflections in the mind and conscience are not like to prevail much.

   [1.] If it were only by suasion and exhortation, the most eloquent
   preaching were like to do most good. Whereas it never was God's method
   to found conversion upon the 'words of man's wisdom,' though 'enticing'
   in themselves, but upon the 'demonstration and power of the Spirit,' 1
   Cor. ii. 4. The most eloquent preaching would then most fill the gospel
   nets. And the reports of that rhetorical prophet Isaiah would have been
   soon believed, which were not so, because 'the arm of the Lord was not
   (always) revealed with them,' Isa. liii. 1. If any words, as words,
   were like to have an edge to cut deep into the soul, they must be the
   words of our Saviour; since 'never man' (even in the judgment of some
   of his enemies) 'spoke as he spake.' But though 'his lips were full of
   grace,' Ps. xiv. 2, most of his hearers' hearts were empty of it under
   his ministry; not the eloquence and pressing reasons of Christ, nor the
   wrath of God revealed from heaven, can reclaim the heart of man,
   without the power of grace. The Pharisees were prouder under Christ's
   melting bowels, and the Jews harder under God's wrathful blows, Isa. i.
   5; neither hearing nor feeling will prevail upon hardened souls.

   [2.] What bare exhortations can work upon a dead man? Can a well
   composed oration, setting out all the advantages of life and health
   raise a dead man, or cure a diseased body? You may as well exhort a
   blind man to behold the sun, and prevail as much. No man ever yet
   imagined, that the strewing a dead body with flowers would raise it to
   life; no more can the urging a man, spiritually dead, with eloquent
   motives, ever make him to open his eyes and stand upon his feet. Did
   our Saviour come out of his grave, or could he ever have done it, by
   mere suasion, without the power of God to raise him? Eph. i. 19, 20.
   The working of mighty power is a title too high for the capacity of
   mere moral exhortations. A mere suasion does not confer a strength, but
   suppose it in a man, for he is only persuaded to use the power which he
   has already.

   [3.] Does not daily experience testify the contrary? Have you never
   discoursed with some profane, loose fellow, so pressingly, that he
   seemed to be planet-struck at every reasoning, shaken out of his
   excuses for his sinful course, yet not shaken out of his sin; that you
   might as soon have persuaded the tide at full sea to retreat, or a lion
   to change his nature, as have overcome him by all your arguments. Have
   you not seen many at a stand in sin, by the force of some convincing
   reasons, return again to their vomit? Have not many tears at command in
   anything that concerns themselves, the loss of some estate, or some
   dear friend, but in the things of God, in his dishonours, as dry as the
   parched earth? That you may almost as soon extract water out of a rock,
   as repentance for sin out of their stony hearts. So that it is not the
   faint breath of man, or the rational considerations of the mind are
   able to do this work, without the mighty pleadings and powerful
   operations of that great Paraclete or Advocate, the Spirit, to alter
   the temper of the soul.

   [4.] There is no likelihood that any man in the world would be renewed,
   if it were only by moral suasion. Satan's logic would be stronger than
   God's; his arguments would more suit our imagined interest, and our
   real enmity against God; his persuasions would find more kindred in the
   principles of our minds and habits of our wills to take fire by him,
   than the suasory allurements of God, which will meet with nothing in
   our hearts but contrariety to them. The deceitfulness of sin within us,
   and the subtilty of Satan without us, both being active as well as
   persuading adversaries, would fix us in our rebellion, without a
   contrary power, as well active as exhortative, and God would do no more
   towards our restoration than Satan does towards our destruction, since
   the devil can only propose to us, not by any physical touch incline our
   wills. We are wholly inclined to him in our own natures, in love with
   the knife that cuts our throats, and too fond of our shackles ever to
   knock them off. The will is so enamoured with its corrupt habit, that
   were this work left barely to self will, and no other power employed in
   it than exhortative, not one person were every likely to come unto God.

   [5.] If it were wrought by suasion, the will would have the whole
   praise of the work. For suasion or exhortation is nothing else but the
   proposing arguments to the understanding, but the motion, according to
   those arguments, is wholly from the will, which has a power to receive
   them or refuse them. God, indeed, would be the first speaker, but not
   the first agent; God would be only the assisting cause, as all moral
   causes are, he would only assist the motion of the will, not cause it.
   The motion of the will is a physical act; if, then, the physical act be
   from the will, and God only the moral cause, the will will be the
   greater sharer in the work, fo- moral causes are in vain without a
   physical effect in those things they work morally upon: as all the
   reasoning of one man with another will be to little purpose, if there
   be not a physical motion of the will of that person to comply with the
   other's reasonings. If, therefore, the reasoning part be only from God,
   and physical motion from man, the most debauched wretch, under the
   preaching of the gospel, is as much beholden to God as the highest
   believer, who had both the same suasions and exhortations; for though
   the suasion was from God, the persuasion was from their own wills. God
   only made the revelation, and was afterwards a spectator, not an actor.

   (5.) Information. We may draw a conclusion hence whereby to judge of
   the truth of doctrines. Man cannot renew himself. Whatsoever doctrine
   does depress and humble man and advance the glory of God, is true, it
   answers the main design of the gospel, which all centres in this, that
   man is to be laid low, and God to be exalted as the chief cause. It
   pulls man from his own bottom, and transfers all the glory man would
   challenge into the hands of God; it lays man in the dust at God's
   footstool. That doctrine which crosses the main design of the gospel,
   and encourages pride in man, is not a spark from heaven: 'No flesh must
   glory in God's presence,' 1 Cor. i. 29. The doctrine of justification
   by works is thrown down by the apostle with this very argument as a
   thunderbolt: Rom. iii. 27, 'Where is boasting then? it is excluded by
   faith;' that is, by the doctrine of the gospel, boasting would be
   introduced by ascribing regeneration to nature as much as it is
   excluded by denying justification by works; the doctrine of the gospel
   would contradict itself, to usher in boasting with one hand whilst it
   thrust it out with the other. Our Saviour gave this rule long ago, that
   the glorifying God is the evidence of truth in persons: 'He that seeks
   his glory that sent him, the same is true,' John vii. 18. By the same
   reason also in things and doctrines, and indeed, Christ speaks it in
   relation to his doctrine, as appears, verse 16, 17. All truth gives God
   the pre-eminence in all gracious works; the first creation, the
   progress and top-stone, are the works of this great Bezaliel, this
   mighty artifices, both the first draught and the last line. To confound
   nature and grace together, is to join the creature in commission with
   God, and make them co-heirs in the glory which is only due to the only
   wise and almighty Creator.

   Use 2 is for exhortation. 1. To the regenerate. If this doctrine be
   true,

   1. Then ascribe nothing to flesh. (1.) Not to yourselves. No more
   praise is due to us than to gold for being melted by the fire and
   wrought by the workman into a vessel of honour; it is due to the skill
   of the artifices, not to the vessel itself. When the reparation of
   human nature was to be wrought by the gospel, when the crooked should
   be made straight, and the rough places plain, then should flesh be as
   grass, when the Spirit of the Lord should blow upon it; yea, the
   people, those that are God's peculiar ones, by reason of privileges,
   are grass, Isa. xl. 4, 6, 7, they should be nothing in themselves, that
   God might be all in all: the Spirit of God blows upon all their
   self-confidences. If God be the God of all grace, what share have our
   wills in it then? He calls, he opens the heart, he strengthens, he
   perfects; all the grace we have is his 'treasure,' 1 Peter v. 10. He
   first delivers from Egypt; preserves in the desert; conducts to a
   footing in Canaan. Grace triumphs in the whole work, from Dan to
   Beersheba, from the beginning of the work to the end. What glory can
   belong to us? We will, it is true, but God gives that will; we work,
   but God bestows and stands by that power to work; what have we then to
   do with the praise? It is 'in his light we see light,' Ps. xxxvi. 9.
   The rays whereby we have a glimpse of him are not darted from us to
   him, but from him to us. The light in the air springs not from itself,
   but from some other body enlightening it; how can any good be ascribed
   to us, where there is nothing but insufficiency and defect? It is to
   belie the Lord, to entitle a work of omnipotence to so infirm a cause,
   it is worse than the pharisee, who, in the midst of his boasts of his
   own moral righteousness, thought a tribute of praise due to God: 'Lord,
   I thank thee, that I am not as other men are,' Luke xviii. 11. Shall we
   entitle God the author of our beings, and ourselves the creators of our
   spiritual beings? Is it less to have an elevation of our faculties, and
   an animation of them by a new virtue, than to have simply the faculties
   themselves? If the creature be unable of itself to move without a
   dependence on God in way of common providence, much more unable is it
   to move without dependence on God in a way of supernatural vitality.
   The glory of the act is as little due to man as the glory of the first
   habit.

   Now, 1, review yourselves, consider what you were before regeneration,
   what after it; and then, how can you ascribe anything to yourselves?

   (1.) What you were before regeneration. Was not sin as deeply rooted in
   you as any other, which made you as incapable to raise yourselves as
   the most wicked man in the world? Were you not prisoners in chains,
   captives under locks and bolts, when grace first set up its standard
   for your recovery? How thick was the darkness of your minds? how stout
   the perversity of your wills? how impetuous the violence of your sinful
   affections? Did they not all conspire together to make as stout a
   resistance against the work of the gospel as any others? Can you then
   say, that because God saw you more inclinable to grace than another,
   that he drew you? You were created; did you bring clay enough to
   compose the least particle of flesh about you? You are new created;
   what part of the new man was formed by your direction? Did you bring
   grace enough of yourselves to form one holy thought, or send out one
   holy desire? Did your own will single you out of that multitude of
   degenerate men of better natures than yours, left still in their own
   nothingness? Was it nothing but your own will that planted you in the
   nursery of the invisible church, that made you capable of a divine
   union? Were not other men's reasons as strong as yours? the means they
   enjoyed greater? their moral disposition sweeter? What was the reason
   their wills did not bend themselves as well as yours? What is the
   reason they did not hold out their hands to catch this all-necessary
   grace? Did this noble birth cost none any pains but yourselves? Was
   this goodly fabric reared by your own wills? Look on it; methinks it is
   a piece too comely and noble for human skill.

   (2.) What are you since your regeneration? What, do you find no
   rebellion of the law in your members against the law of the mind? Are
   there not powerful allurements of the flesh? Are your thoughts always
   flying up to God, and hovering about him? Are you always nimble in your
   praise of him? or not rather lifeless many times under the breathings
   of the Spirit? Why are you thus? Did you first by your own force begin
   this noble conquest of sin? And can you not by the same power make a
   better progress? Did you breathe a life into yourselves when you had
   not a spark, and can you not blow up this spark into a greater
   liveliness? Surely then this work was not at first the birth of your
   own wills. Do you not yet find some scale and thick matter upon your
   understandings that you cannot pick off? some darkness in your minds,
   as there is some in the air after it is enlightened? Are there not
   obstructions in your wills? no shackles upon the executive power? Can
   you not remove that darkness with that great light you have? nor unlock
   those fetters by the strength of your habitual grace? Can then the
   first powerful entrance of it, the fall of the first scale from the
   understanding, be judged to be the work of your own hands? or the first
   teeming of your wills with grace to be the effect of your power? View
   yourselves well in both states, and you will find no ground whereon to
   build so much injustice towards God, and pride in yourselves, but must
   needs acknowledge that God and not yourselves have wrought all your
   works in you, Isa. xxvi. 12, not only your temporal advantages, which
   the church there means, but your spiritual, and much more spiritual
   than temporal.

   To stave off any ascribing to yourselves, consider,

   [2.] He that ascribes it to his own will has great reason to question
   whether he be regenerate or no. He may well doubt whether he
   understands or feels what it is, since those in Scripture who have been
   most experimented in it, and therefore are the most competent judges,
   have most highly magnified the grace of God, and most deeply vilified
   themselves; they have given the glory of it so entirely to God that
   they have not let a grain of it stick to their own fingers. Thus David
   often, 'Thou hast quickened me.' The apostle Paul owns his effectual
   call to be owing to the 'grace of God,' Gal. i. 15, and to an abundant
   'grace in Christ,' 1 Tim. i. 14; he was a persecutor, but his faith and
   love was from the abundance of the grace of God, and that in Christ
   too, not from any thing in nature. Peter is not behind him in the
   admiration of it: 1 Peter i. 8, 'Blessed be the God and Father of our
   Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, has begotten
   us again.' And it is that the church in the times of the gospel
   prophesied of: Ps. c. 8, 'It is he that has made us, not we ourselves;'
   made us his people, as it follows, 'We are his people, and the sheep of
   his pasture,' 'not we ourselves.' Whenever the naughtiness of their
   hearts has been ready to launch out to self-praise, they have turned
   the tide quickly to the grace of God. When Paul had owned grace as the
   cause of his spiritual being, 1 Cor. xv. 10, and began to speak of his
   labouring more abundantly than they, he flies back in haste, as one
   that had gone beyond his line, 'Yet not I, but the grace of God which
   was with me;' another, 'Yet not I;' Gal. ii. 20, 'I live, yet not I,
   but Christ lives in me.' There is no mention of any in Scripture that
   ever in this case did sacrifice to their own net.

   [3.] If a man be regenerate, such a boasting of himself is very
   dangerous. Though it may not rifle you of the new nature, yet by the
   just judgment of God, it may cloud the comfort of it. If such a man be
   renewed, this pride is but a prologue of some dark veil to be drawn
   between him and the light of God's countenance, between him and the
   sight of his own grace. A swelling up in pride presages a sinking down
   in desertion. If God be not owned by you to be the God of all grace in
   you, he will not own himself to be the God of all comfort to you. Grace
   follows humility, and some shrewd shock attends spiritual pride, it is
   such an idolatrous robbing God of his glory (whereof he is most
   jealous), and giving it to another, that he will not let it pass
   without a remark. The clouding of your grace will be the fruit of the
   smothering of his glory. For since the main intendment of the gospel is
   to humble, God will humble you if any grace be in you. If the Spirit of
   grace has breathed upon your souls to renew you, he will blow upon your
   grass to consume it, Isa. xl. 7, he will pull down those proud thoughts
   and strong holds, and cause your vain confidences to wither and come to
   nothing. Ascribe it not therefore to yourselves; be not so
   presumptuous, as, while you allow God to be the author of the being and
   motion of a little fly, to cry up your own wills as the chief cause of
   grace, a work more excellent than the material world.

   2. Ascribe nothing to instruments, either men or means. It is not of
   the will of man, not another's will. Without the efficacious working of
   the Spirit, the gospel itself is but as a dead letter, the Spirit only
   quickens it. It is not outward teaching and blowing which of itself
   will kindle these sparks; an instrument cannot act without the strength
   of an agent to manage it; the chisel forms the stone into a statue, but
   according to the skill and strength of the artifices moving it. It is
   not the breath of man, and a few words out of his mouth, can produce so
   great a work as the new creation; this might be a reason why God chose
   so weak an instrument as man to preach the gospel, to evidence that the
   great work was not from the weakness of man but the power of God.

   Exhortation 2. Let us be humbled under our own natural impotence and
   inability, and keep up this humiliation. There is danger of the
   pharisee's pride climbing up into the heart, even after regeneration.
   Renewed men have instructions to humility above other men; their sin
   may strike them low, because it is the growth of their own nature;
   their grace may keep them low, because it is no plant of their own
   setting; sin, because it is originally theirs; grace, because it is
   originally none of theirs; it is no beam of their own understanding, no
   stream from the fountain of their own will. If we think believingly and
   fruitfully of Christ at any time, we cannot but think of our own
   weakness, nothing in him but minds us of it; our weakness to obey the
   law was the cause of his coming; our weakness to satisfy God was the
   cause of his dying; our inability to repair and support ourselves was
   the cause of his fullness. His death minds us of our impotence to
   redeem ourselves, his grace minds us of our impotence to renew
   ourselves. The more we grow up in the new birth, the more deeply
   sensible shall we be of our impotence. Oh, let this text be written in
   our hearts, 'Not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man.'

   3. Resolve nothing in your own strength. The power to believe and be
   renewed is a power 'given,' not inbred, Philip. i. 29; our strength is
   deposited, not in the cracked cabinet of our own wills, but in the
   treasures of Christ. Our purposes are weak without grace to strengthen
   them, our resolutions vanishing without grace to establish them. If we
   should be left to the sails of our own faculties, without the breath of
   the Spirit to fill them, we should lie wind-bound. The will can never
   in this life be so firm but the allurements of the great tempter will
   make inroads upon us and overset us, without the special grace of God
   to establish and strengthen us. As we are not to do anything for our
   own glory, so we are not to do anything in our own strength. As we must
   not be our own end, so we must not be our own principle; the power the
   best have is but derived, the stream must know it is but a stream
   still. The actual exercise of Paul's ability grew from strength in
   another hand, 'I can do all things through Christ strengthening me,'
   Philip. in. 14; all things by him, nothing by himself. When the
   Israelites went out with God, no sons of Anak, no walls of Jericho, nor
   chariots of iron could stand before them. When they trusted in
   themselves, nothing could be resisted by them. The devil was certainly
   none of the lowest rank of angels; he had a great clearness of gifts,
   yet he falls for cleaving to his own will and strength, not to the
   grace of God. And Adam, in depending upon himself, lost himself and his
   posterity. For us to undertake the government of ourselves is like a
   ship without a pilot, to be dashed soon against a rock. To lean on our
   own wisdom and will, is to lean on broken reeds, deceitful supports;
   self-confidence is the worm of grace, conceit of a spiritual fullness
   in ourselves is the way to an emptiness of spiritual comfort. Self-will
   and self-wisdom are the great idols of the soul, and some little images
   of them are in the hearts of the best men, which they are ready
   sometimes to fall down before and worship; they would oppose
   temptations themselves, do duties themselves by the strength of
   habitual grace, without regard to the strength of God, the great
   support of it.

   4. Therefore live dependently upon God. Do you not find how apt you are
   to stagger at every temptation; how weak your wills are to good; how
   easily your purposes are broken, the thoughts of God few and
   distracted, your motions heavy in divine ways? Is there not, then, need
   of a constant looking unto God, as they did upon the brazen serpent,
   for the healing of our natures, while the wound remains imperfectly
   cured? All bodies on the earth, though they have a principle of motion
   in themselves, yet dependently upon the heavenly bodies. If the motions
   of the heavens should cease, that all motions in the earth would cease
   too is the opinion of philosophers. Without dependence on the grace of
   God and fullness of Christ, we sink into weakness and impotency, as a
   beam expires into duskiness upon the clouding of the sun. It is God
   only can be a 'dew to Israel,' Hosea xiv. 5. Think not of bringing
   forth the after-fruits of grace without his influence, no more than you
   could plant in yourselves the first root of grace without his power:
   the same breath of the Spirit must blow the fire up as well as kindle
   it. As by our own wills we should never turn to God, so without the
   continuance of efficacious grace we should quickly start from God. 'As
   you have received Christ, so walk in him,' Col. ii. 6. You received him
   by faith, walk in him by faith. This is the reason of the different
   thrivings of one Christian above another, under the same means. One
   endeavours to act upon his own bottom; the other clings to the vine.
   Christ knew the things of God by lying in the bosom of the Father; we
   come to know and do the things of God by lying in the bosom of the Son.
   All natural effects, if taken off from the influence of their own
   cause, by which they live and increase, lose their power and die. The
   soul separate from God, by non-exercise of faith, loses its strength,
   become stiff and inactive. How often do we return to our wonted
   coldness, bring forth lazy fruits, creep like snails in the ways of
   God, without the spur of quickening grace! And we want it because we do
   not seek it; for though we be armed with the whole armour of God,
   helmet, shield, breastplate, yet prayer and supplication must he added
   as a mark of' our necessary dependence: Eph. vi. 18, 'Praying always
   with all prayer and supplication.' Then will the Spirit endue us with a
   fresh vigour, confirm our languishing wills, restrain the flames of
   natural corruption, and excite the fear and faith of God in the heart.

   2. The second branch of the-exhortation, to those yet in a natural
   condition.

   1. Endeavour to be sensible of your natural impotence. Be deeply
   humbled at the feet of God, strip yourselves (as much as in you lies)
   of the conceitedness of reason and pride of will. Every man is born
   with high conceits of himself and his own power; it being a natural
   evil, should cost us the deeper humiliations. Consider yourselves by
   nature under the dominion of sin, the demerit of wrath, the curse of
   the law, the hatred of God, and a feebleness to help yourselves in this
   wretched condition. View yourselves often in the glass of the law,
   bring the spiritual word and the carnal heart together, and behold the
   beauty of the one and deformity of the other; let all the nasty corners
   of the heart come under the examination of that purity, and then let
   the carnal mind hang down at the thoughts of your inability to frame
   yourselves according to a spiritual law. The view of our natural
   condition cannot work regeneration in us, but it is some kind of
   preparation towards it. 'The law is a schoolmaster to drive to Christ,'
   Gal. iii. 24. It works not this grace, but it fires a man out of
   himself, shows him how much he differs from the holiness of God, and is
   an occasion for casting about and looking after some remedy, whereby he
   may be made like to God, and of earnest crying for the showers of
   grace. Be sensible also of your contrariety to the grace of God, our
   wilfulness against it is worse than our emptiness of it. God 'will
   teach the humble his ways,' Ps. xxv. 9. those that are sensible of
   their own insufficiency to guide themselves.

   2. Make use of the power you have. Man (as has been sheen) has some
   power by those restored relics of nature. There is no plea therefore to
   lie snorting upon a bed of sluggishness. We must not expect a divine
   assistance will fly to us from heaven while we play the sluggards.
   Though God does rouse up some on the sudden, before and previous act of
   their wills, yet we must not expect God will use the same methods to
   all. Our own power must be stirred up and exerted as much as may be. To
   be faithful in a little is the way to be made ruler over much. Though
   the top of nature cannot merit grace, yet if nature struggles to come
   to the top it may find an invisible hand helping it up step by step.
   The damnation of most men will not be for the fault of their first
   parents, but for the abuse of their own power, the perverseness of
   their wills, and neglect of what they might have done towards the
   seeking of God. Though Moses had a promise of victory over Amalek, yet
   Joshua must fight, and the Israelites stand to their arms. God saves
   not men in ways encouraging their laziness. 'The sluggard desires and
   has nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat,' Prov.
   viii. 4. The sluggard has nothing but lazy wishes, not active
   endeavours. If it be not worth the having, why do you desire it? If it
   be worth the desiring, why not worth the seeking?

   (1.) Avoid those sins you have power to avoid. Every sin, though never
   so little, does increase our weakness, as every wound does the
   distemper of the body. It makes us weigh down towards the centre of
   sin. Every grain cast into the scale makes it the more unable to rise.
   As a virtue which is risen to that height that it cannot degenerate
   into vice is most worthy of praise, so the vice that possesses the soul
   so deeply as to incapacitate it to the doing good, being contracted by
   ourselves, is the more worthy of wrath.

   (2.) Use the means appointed by God. Though we are torches which cannot
   light ourselves, yet we may bring ourselves to the word, which may both
   melt and kindle us. Though the giving rain and the increasing the
   fruits of the earth be from God, yet no man ever held ploughing, and
   sowing, and pruning unnecessary. The work of grace is the work of the
   Spirit, who is a 'wind which blows where it lists,' John iii. 8. But
   may we not wait for those gales? May we not spread our sails and watch
   for the successful breathings? How do you know but whilst you are
   waiting upon God in an humble posture, God may unlock your hearts, and
   pour in the treasures of his grace? Acts x. 44, 'While Peter yet spake
   these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.' It
   you will not harden your hearts today, God may soften your hearts
   today: Heb. iii. 16, 'Today, if you will hear his voice.' These are the
   times wherein God parleys with the soul, and inclines it to the happy
   surrender. Though the power is God's, as the water is the fountain's,
   yet he has appointed the channels of his ordinances through which to
   convey it: 'Ministers by whom you believed,' 1 Cor. iii. 5. The gospel
   begets instrumentally, God principally 1 Cor. iv. 15. God calls by the
   gospel, 2 Thess. ii. 14. As God is the governor of the world, yet it is
   by instruments and second causes, which he clasps together to bring
   about his own designs. He that does not use these means may fear that
   God will never work savingly upon him, for it is an utter refusing any
   acceptance of this grace, or anything tending to it. This is to be
   peremptory, never to do ourselves any good, or receive any from God. In
   despising the means, you despise the goodness of God. As God gave up
   the heathens to themselves, because they were 'unthankful,' Rom. i. 21,
   for that light of nature and means which they had, so if we use the
   means of the gospel with thankfulness to God, God may give himself up
   to us. But by neglect of them we take the larger strides to
   destruction, and the same dreadful sentence may be pronounced against
   us as against them in Ezek. xxiv. 13, 'Because I have purged thee,'
   that is, offered thee means whereby thou might have been purged, 'and
   thou was not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any
   more; but in thy filthiness thou shalt die.' The using the means
   afforded by God has a common illumination, and a 'taste of the heavenly
   gift' attending it, Heb. vi. 4.

   [1.] Use the means fervently, with as much ardour as you set upon
   anything of worldly concern; do it with all your might, since the
   eternal blessedness of your soul depends upon it: Eccles. ix. 10,
   'Whatsoever thy hand finds to do, do it with thy might.' Stir up your
   souls to hear and meditate, as David does to bless: Ps. ciii. 1, 2,
   'Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy
   name.' Employ all your faculties in this useful work; bring your hearts
   as near to the word as you can, screw up your affections to what you
   meditate upon, check your hearts when they begin to rove. Consider your
   own particular case in anything you hear; and let the word be as a
   delightful picture in the view of your minds continually; let every
   evangelical object excite your inbred affections.

   [2.] Use the means dependently. Objective proposals are not useless,
   because God has ordained them; though they are not always successful,
   unless God does influence them. The means do not work naturally, as a
   plaster cures a wound, or a hatchet cleaves wood; nor necessarily, as
   fire burns; for then they should produce the same effects in all, as
   fire does in combustible matter; but as God pleases to accompany them
   with his grace, and edge them with efficacy, they must be used with an
   eye to God, building with one hand, and wrestling with God with the
   other. Men speed best in ordinances as they strive in prayer. There are
   promises to plead before you come to hear: Exod. xx. 24, 'In all places
   where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and bless thee.' The
   promise was made to the whole nation of Israel, the visible church,
   therefore pleadable by every one of them; and fix it upon your hearts,
   that as the death of Christ only takes away the guilt of sin, so the
   grace of Christ only takes away the life of sin, and the death of
   nature.

   [3.] Pray earnestly. Entreat God to send his grace; beg of him to issue
   out a divine force, and a quickening power, to enlighten your minds,
   incline your wills. Lie at his feet, groan, wait till this work be
   wrought in your soul. How do you know, but while you are looking up to
   God, God may come down to you? Can a man be wounded, and not cry for
   plasters? Can he be shipwrecked and not cry out for some vessel to
   relieve him? Let such a voice frequently issue from you, 'What shall I
   do to be saved?' Is there no balm for a wounded soul, no hope for a
   distressed sinner, no city of refuge for one pursued by wrath and
   vengeance? Do you pray for daily bread? Why do you not for special
   grace? Are there no rational pleas you can urge? Is there not a
   fullness of arguments in the word? Why do you not then use those
   arguments God has put into your hands? Why do you not spread his own
   word before him? Put him in mind how his thoughts were busy about the
   work of redemption, and that the regeneration you desire of him was the
   great end of that, and a thing pleasing to him? Why do you not reason
   with God, to what purpose he sent his Spirit into the world, but to do
   this work in the hearts of men which you are now soliciting him for;
   and that you come not to beg any alms of him, but what he freely offers
   himself? You may daily read such arguments in the word, where a
   revelation is made of them; you may daily plead them: if you do not, it
   is not your cannot, but your will not. Cry out of the blind eyes you
   cannot upscale, the iron sinew you cannot bend, the false heart that
   will not go right, and the fallen nature which cannot reach so high as
   a holy thought. Surely God will not be deaf to the natural prayers of
   his rational creatures put up to him with a natural integrity, no more
   than he is to the cries of animals, to the voice of the lion seeking
   for his prey, into whose mouth he puts, by his providence, what may
   satisfy it. God gives the Spirit to them that ask him; not to the idle,
   lazy, and peevish resister of him and his grace. If you have power to
   regenerate yourselves, why do you not do it? If you have not, why do
   you not seek it? Is the way of heaven shut to you; or rather, do you
   not shut your own hearts against it? Have you sought it earnestly, and
   can you say God denies it you? No man can say so; there is a promise
   for it: James iv. 8, 'Draw near to God, and ho will draw near to you;'
   he speaks it to sinners, as it follows, 'Cleanse your hands, you
   sinners.' You can pray for other mercies, why not principally for this
   particular determination of your wills to God, above all other things?
   Lord, give me to will and to do. Never leave off praying till God has
   crowned your petitions with success; and be encouraged to seek to him,
   whose great business in the world was to destroy the works of the
   devil, whose principal work was the spiritual death of man. If you have
   such earnest desires in your souls, that you would rather have it than
   the whole world, and esteem it above all worldly wealth or honours, be
   of good comfort, some of the rubbish of nature is removed; the steams
   of such desires shall be welcome to God, and the Spirit's commission
   shall be renewed to breathe further upon your souls. Desire as vehement
   as hunger and thirst shall be satisfied, if our blessed Saviour's
   promise be true, who never deceived any, or broke his word: Mat. v. 6,
   'Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they
   shall be filled.' A fullness attends a sense of emptiness, accompanied
   with hungering desires. But I am afraid few people put up their
   petitions to God for it; that I may say, as Daniel of his nation, 'all
   this evil' of unrighteousness and sin is 'come upon us' by our depraved
   natures; 'yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we
   might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth,' Dan. ix. 13.

   [4.] Nourish every motion and desire you find in your hearts towards
   it. Have you not sometimes motions to go to the throne of grace, and
   beg renewing grace of God? Do you not find such tugs and pulls in your
   consciences? Is there not something within you spurs you on? Kick not
   against it, nor resist it, no, nor smother any spark of an honest
   desire in your hearts; be constant observers of lessons, your natural
   consciences, or whatever any other principle set you. Natural notions
   are not so blotted, but they remain legible; would men be more inward
   with themselves, than abroad with the objects of sense, which draw
   their minds from pondering that decalogue written in their souls. There
   is not the most wicked man under the gospel, but has sometimes more
   bright irradiations in his conscience than at other times, but they are
   damped by a noisome sensuality; he has some velleities and heavings,
   some strugglings against the solicitations of unrighteousness, some
   assents upon the presenting of virtue; for as grace is not always so
   powerful in a good man as to stifle temptation, so neither is
   corruption so powerful in a wicked man as always to beat back those
   motions to good which rise up in his soul, whether he will or no. As
   the law of the mind is not always so sovereign in a gracious man, but
   that it is affronted by the law of the members, so neither is the law
   of the members so absolute in a wicked man, but that it is somewhat
   checked by the law of nature in the mind. Are there not upon hearing
   the word, or reflecting upon yourselves, some wishings, some inward
   velleities which partake of reason, and the nature of that faculty
   which represents the necessity of it to you? As there is some kind of
   weak knowledge left in us since the fall, there is also something of a
   weak desire. Cannot these desires be improved and represented to God?
   Why is not the grace of God fulfilled in you? Because you persevere not
   in these desires, you quench the sparks of the Spirit, and willingly
   give admission to Satan to chase them out. Shut not your eyes then
   against any light, either without or within you, which may provoke God
   to withdraw this grace from you. How do you know but, upon using the
   means, praying earnestly, observing inward motions, God may give you an
   actual regeneration? The neglect of these is a just reason for God to
   refuse you any further gift; and may take off all things which you may
   think to bring against him in your own defence. The use of them has
   been beneficial to many, and no example can ever be brought, that God
   has condemned any that conscientiously used the means of salvation.
   Therefore I say again, if any man use the means, pray earnestly for
   this grace, observe the motions of the Spirit in him, he will not want
   a superadded grace from an infinitely good, tender, and merciful God.

   End of part 1 of A Discourse of the Efficient of Regeneration.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Discourse of the Efficient of Regeneration

  Part 2

   Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the
   will of man, but of God.--John 1:13.

   Two doctrines were raised from these words.

   1. That man, in all his capacities, is too weak to produce the work of
   regeneration in himself.

   This I have despatched, and now proceed to the

   2nd Doct. God alone is the prime efficient cause of regeneration.

   It is subjectively in the creature, efficiently from God. Ezekiel's dry
   bones met not together of their own accord, Ezek. xxxvii. 5, 6, or by
   chance, but were gathered by God, and inspired with life; and not only
   the last act of life, but the whole formation of them in every part, he
   does particularly own as the act of his own power. And doing every part
   of it by degrees, they should know, by that admirable work upon them,
   that he was God: 'I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall
   live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring flesh upon you,
   and cover you with skin; and you shall live, and you shall know that I
   am the Lord.' This work does as much discover the glory of his deity,
   and speaks him God in a more illustrious manner than the creation of
   the world. We know him to be the Lord Jehovah by his creation of the
   world; but a clearer knowledge of him in his power is added by his
   regeneration of the soul. The sinews, flesh, skin, all the preparations
   to grace, are from God, as all the preparations of that mass of clay
   for the breath of life in Adam were from the power of God, as well as
   the living soul itself. Most do understand it of the recovery of the
   Jews from the captivity of Babylon; but certainly it has a higher
   import, and respects the time of the gospel, and the renewing of life
   in the soul of all the Israel of God. (1.) Because the prophecy extends
   further than the two tribes captivated in Babylon; for, verse 11, the
   bones are said to be 'the whole house of Israel,' who despaired of ever
   seeing and good, complaining that their bones were dried: ver. 11, 'Our
   hope is lost, we are cut off for our parts.' Which could not be
   rationally the complaint of the Jews, who had a promise that, after
   seventy years' captivity, they should return, and therefore their case
   was not so desperate. (2.) Because, verse 14, he speaks of 'putting his
   Spirit into them;' meaning thereby that work he had spoken of in the
   former chapter, Ezek. xxxvi. 7, which certainly, being a covenant of
   grace, respected the times of the gospel. If it be said that it is
   meant of forming the church, it must also be meant of forming every
   member of it, since the least member of Adam was formed by God, as well
   as the whole body. Certainly, if renewed men, after some great falls,
   having still the root of habitual grace in them, cry to God, out of a
   sense of their own insufficiency, for the creating a clean heart, as
   David does, Ps. li. 10, 'Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a
   right spirit within me;' if he then, who had this root remaining, and
   had some sparks which presently were blown up upon Nathan's speech to
   him, cries out for a new creation, what need has he then of an almighty
   breath who has not any warm ashes of grace or any one string of a
   spiritual root in his soul! Whatsoever, therefore, is holy, good, and
   spiritual in us, we owe to the new-creating grace of God. All graces
   are his "charismata", his free donatives, over and above his common
   largeness to nature, a present from his infinite liberality.

   I shall show,

   I. That God is the efficient.

   II. That it is necessary he should be so.

   III. From what principles in God it flows.

   IV. How God does it.

   V. The use of it.

   I. That God is the efficient.

   (1.) In the first promise, Gen. iii. 15, 'I will put enmity,' &c. In
   which promise is included the whole work of redemption, and new
   creating man under another head, with another nature, which should not
   comply with the designs of Satan, or gratify the great enemy of God and
   mankind by unravelling the work of God, and subjecting himself to
   misery. It was necessary to our happiness that the league between Stan
   and us should be broken, that we should turn to God, hate the works of
   the devil, and join with the interest which Satan endeavoured to
   overthrow. And God promises that he would do it; he challenges it as
   his own work: 'I will put enmity;' he leaves it not to men or angels to
   begin hostility. Every one, therefore, that is at a true variance with
   Satan is 'God's workmanship, created in Christ,' by a second creation,
   as well as he was created to a natural life in Adam by the first
   creation, and 'created to good works, that he may walk in them', Eph.
   ii. 10. That is, is fashioned by God to walk in ways contrary to those
   of Satan, which is the greatest enmity we can express to the devil, who
   envied God a service from the holiness of Adam's nature. And Satan
   having made that conquest, and gained man to be his friend, it is not
   easy to conceive how any lower power could unfasten this knot, and set
   them at variance, since the devil had both wit enough to humour man and
   strength enough to keep him.

   (2.) In the times of the gospel. No less than seven times I will he
   does affix to his promise of the covenant, as has been observed before,
   Ezek. xxxvi. 25-27. What seed was left to keep up the name of God among
   the Jews was of his begetting: Rom. ix. 29, 'Except the Lord of Sabaoth
   had left us a seed,' cited out of Isa. i. 9. Their standing was not
   their act, but God's: and 1 Kings xix. 18, 'I have left me seven
   thousand, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal.' Others were left
   to themselves; these were signally wrought upon by his grace. Others
   are but instruments; God is the principal agent in all the seed of the
   church scattered in the whole earth: Hosea ii. 23, 'I will sow her to
   me in the earth,' alluding to the name Jezreel, which signifies the
   seed of God. If ever the sons of Japheth 'dwell in the tents of Shem,'
   it must be by God's 'persuasion,' Gen. ix. 27. The word rendered
   enlarge signifies to allure. The Spirit of grace is of God's effusion,
   Zech. xii. 10; it is God's pouring out a Spirit of grace on them before
   their looking up to God. (Where, by the way, observe a signal testimony
   of the deity of Christ; 'They shall look upon me whom they have
   pierced;' he that pours upon them the Spirit of grace is he whom they
   pierced, which was the Lord Jehovah, verse 8; for where in your Bibles
   Lord is written in great letters, the Hebrew word there is Jehovah; the
   highest name of God is here attributed to Christ.) And even in the last
   times he will still be the only agent in it. When God speaks of the
   Jews' dispersion, under which they are at this day, he owns this work
   upon their hearts at last to be an act of his own power and of covenant
   mercy: Deut. xxx. 6, 'The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart,' &c.,
   which some of the Jews understand of the time of the Messiah. God will
   challenge this work as his own right to the end of the world.

   2. Christ appropriates it to God, and acknowledges it to depend only
   upon his will. Had any other cause been in conjunction with God, our
   Saviour would not have deprived it of its due praise, nor with so much
   thankfulness and amazement admired the gracious pleasure of his Father
   as he did,--Mat. xi. 25, 'At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank
   thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these
   things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes:
   even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight,'--at that time,
   after he had been discoursing of the judgments upon them for their
   refusal of the gospel, worse than Sodom and Gomorrah. It was God's
   pleasure not to reveal it to them, and God's justice to punish them for
   refusal, because they wilfully refused it. The outward teaching was to
   all in the ministry of Christ, the inward revelation only to few
   according to the good pleasure of God. Christ was the outward teacher,
   but God the inward inspirer. That others are not renewed by him is not
   because he cannot, for he is Lord of heaven and earth, but because he
   will renew some and not others. Our Saviour refers it here only to the
   good pleasure of God; he had erred much in ascribing it to God, if he
   had had the assistance of any other cause. Why this part of the clay he
   had created was formed into the body of Adam and not another, had no
   other cause but his pleasure; why this part of corrupted Adam is formed
   into a temple, a divine image, and not another, can be ascribed to no
   other but the same cause. He that formed Adam in the earthly paradise,
   forms every believer in the church, the spiritual paradise, and neither
   has a co-worker nor motive without himself.

   3. The Scripture everywhere appropriates it to God. They are therefore
   called his saints, Ps. xxxiv. 9, as being sanctified by him as well as
   belonging to him, 'his people,' 'the branch of his planting', 'the work
   of his hands,' peculiarly his, as being created for his glory, 'that I
   may be glorified,' Isa. lx. 21. Their fitness by grace for glory is the
   work of his hands. The vessels of wrath are fitted for destruction, not
   by God, but by themselves, Rom. ix. 22. But the vessels of mercy are
   prepared by him, ver. 23, 'He had before prepared unto glory.' Adam
   lost himself, but whosoever of his posterity are recovered are 'wrought
   by God for glory,' 1 Cor. v. 5. It is observable that the apostle
   ascribes this in the whole frame of it to God: 1 Cor. i. 30, 'But of
   him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom,
   righteousness,' &c., because he would remove all cause of boasting in
   the creature. He did not only set forth Christ at first as a principle
   of righteousness, and redemption, and sanctification, but engrafted in
   him, whosoever is in him, for the enjoyment of those privileges, and
   made him not only in general to the world, but to us, in the particular
   application, a principle of sanctification as well as righteousness.
   Union with Christ, engrafting in him, new creation, putting into
   another state, are all purely the work of God. He has no sharer in it.
   As Christ trod the winepress alone in the work of redemption, so God
   engrafts men alone into this vine. As Christ was the sole worker of
   redemption, so is God the sole worker of regeneration. In him we are
   created, but solely by God's skill; Christ the vine, and believers the
   branches, the one planted and the other engrafted by the same
   husbandman, John xv. 1, 2; he only planted and dressed Christ for us,
   he only plants and dresses us in Christ. It is 'by his own will,' not
   any other, that 'he begot us,' James i. 18. 'Of his own will,' his own
   good pleasure was the motive, his own strength the efficient. Hence he
   is called 'the Father of spirits,' Heb. xii. 9, not so much (as some
   interpret it, and that most probably) as he is the Father of souls by
   creation, as by regeneration, which adds a greater strength to the
   apostle's argument for submission to him and patience under his
   strokes. He keeps in his own hand the keys of the heart, no less than
   the key of the womb, which was always acknowledged to be in the hands
   of God. It is with this prerogative of God that Jacob silences Rachel,
   when she so impatiently cried out for children, as if she had a
   resolution to kill herself if she had them not, with this, 'Am I in
   God's stead?' Gen. xxx. 1, 2. He only opens the womb of the soul as
   well as that of the body, impregnates it with grace, and brings forth
   the fruit of holy actions, as Philo in his allegory descants upon the
   place. The Jews perhaps meant no less in that saying in their Cabala,
   Abraham had not had Isaac if a letter of the name of God had not been
   added to his name; the power of God, a letter of his name, must go to
   regeneration. It is appropriated to none but God in Scripture: to the
   whole Trinity, without the conjunction of any creature, to the Father
   as the author, therefore called 'Our Father;' to Christ, as the
   pattern; to the Spirit, as the inspirer of that grace whereby we are
   made the sons of God. The very heathen have acknowledged this, some
   philosophers have affirmed, that the great virtue, wherein they placed
   the happiness of man, could not be had but by the favour of God, and
   all thought their heroes to be born of their gods.

   And the Scripture affirms that,

   (1.) All preparations to this work, as well as the work itself, are of
   God. The removing indispositions, and the putting in good inclinations,
   is the work of the same hand; the taking away the heart of stone, as
   well as the giving a heart of flesh. He removes the rubbish as well as
   rears the building; razes out the old stamp and imprints a new;
   destroys sin, which is called the old man, and restores the new by the
   quickening of the Spirit. The preparations of the dust of the ground to
   become a human body, had the same author as the divine soul wherewith
   he was inspired.

   (2.) All the parts of the new creature are of God. Faith, which is the
   principal part of it, is 'the faith of the operation of God,' Col. ii.
   12; not but that love and other graces are wrought by God, but in this
   grace, which is a constitutive part of the new creature, God comes in
   with a greater irradiation upon the soul, because it has not one
   fragment or point in nature to stand upon, carnal reason and mere moral
   righteousness being enemies to it, whereas all other graces are but the
   rectifying the passions, and setting them upon right objects. Yet all
   these, too, own him as the author. Our knowledge of God is a light
   growing from his knowledge of us; 'we know God' because we 'are known
   of him.' Gal. iv. 9. The elective act of our wills is but a fruit of
   his choice of us: John xv. 16, 'You have not chosen me, but I have
   chosen you;' our willing of him is a birth of his willing us, our love
   a spark kindled by his love to us. God first calls us my people, before
   any of us call him my God, Hosea ii. 23. The moon shines not upon the
   sun till it be first illuminated by it. God first shines upon us before
   we can reflect upon him; he calls us before we can speak to him in his
   own dialect; our coming is an effect of his drawing, and our power of
   coming an effect of his quickening. Every member in Adam was a fruit of
   his power, as well as the whole body; every line drawn in the new
   creature is done by his pencil as well as the whole frame.

   (3.) The acts of the new creature. God does not only give us the habit
   of faith, but the act of faith: Philip. i. 29, 'Unto you it is given in
   the behalf of Christ, not only to believe, but also to suffer for his
   sake.' By believing is meant the act of believing, as by suffering is
   meant not only the power of suffering, but actual suffering; as the
   fruits upon the trees at the first creation were created as well as the
   tree which had a power to bear. The very attention of Lydia to the
   gospel preached by Paul was wrought by God, as well as the opening of
   her heart, Acts xvi. 14. Our walking in his statutes is a fruit of his
   grace, as well as the putting in his Spirit to enable us thereunto. The
   very act of motion is made by the head and heart, if there he a failing
   of spirits there, if any obstruction that they cannot reach the
   indigent part, the motion ceases. David acknowledged God his continual
   strength in his holy pursuits, 'My soul follows hard after thee,' Ps.
   lxiii. 8. But what was the cause? 'Thy right hand upholds me.' His life
   and power issued out from the right hand of God. The graces of God's
   people stand in need of the irradiations of God, like the Urim and
   Thummim, before any counsel could be given by them.

   (4.) The continuance both of the power and acts are from God. Habitual
   grace is called the 'fear of the Lord' put into the soul; the
   continuance of it is by his constant sustentation, it is that we may
   not depart from him Jer. xxxii. 40, 'from upon him,' from leaning upon
   him, or believing in him, as the word "me'alaw" imports. If that fear
   put in did once depart from us, we should no longer cleave to God; we
   stick to him only because he ties us to himself, and cannot be
   continually with him unless he 'holds us by his right hand,' Ps.
   lxxiii. 23. The grace that is wrought, as well as the gospel which
   instrumentally wrought it, is 'kept by the Holy Ghost,' 2 Tim. i. 14;
   he begins every good work, and he performs it. He was the sole active
   cause in the creation of the faculties, and the principal cause in
   preserving them; he is the sole cause of the elevation of the
   faculties, and the preservation of them in that elevated state. As the
   virtue of the loadstone is not only the cause of the first attraction
   of the steel, but of its constant adhesion, therefore it is said: 1
   Cor. i. 21, that 'God does establish us,' not has done, to note the
   continual influence of his grace upon us. It was the dropping of the
   two olive trees that constantly fed the lamps in the candlesticks,
   Zech. iv. 2, 8. Take this new birth in all the denominations of it, it
   is altogether ascribed to God. As it is a call out of the world, God is
   the herald, 2 Tim. i. 9; as it is a creation, God is the creator Eph.
   ii. 10; as it is a resurrection, God is the quickener, Eph. ii. 5; as
   it is a new birth, God is the begetter, 1 Peter i. 3; as it is a new
   heart, God is the framer, Ezek. xxxvi. 26; as it is a law in the heart,
   God is the penman, Jer. xxxi. 33; as it is a translation out of Satan's
   kingdom, and making us denizens of the kingdom of Christ, God is the
   translator, Col. i. 13; as it is a coming to Christ, God is the drawer,
   John vi. 44; as it is a turning to God, God is the attracter.

   II. The second thing; it is necessary God should be the efficient of
   regeneration. He is, or none.

   In regard of God.

   1. As he is the first cause of all things. He is the creator of the
   lowest worm, and the highest angel; the glimmering perfections of the
   least fly, as well as the more glittering eminencies of the angelical
   nature, are distinct beams from that fountain of light and power. Shall
   not he then be the cause of the divine motions of the will, as well as
   of the natural motions of the creatures? Every perfection in a rational
   creature, or any other, supposes that perfection to be somewhere
   essentially; every impression supposes a stamp that made it, every
   stream a fountain from whence it sprang, every beam a sun, or some
   lucid body from whence it darts. Whence should this gracious work then
   be derived? Not from nature, which is contrary to it; not from Satan,
   who is destroyed by it. It must be then from God, since it must have
   some stable and perfect cause. He who was the cause of all the grace in
   the head is also the cause of all the grace in the members. The same
   sun that enlightens the heavens enlightens the earth. The grace that
   Christ had was 'the gift of God,' John iii. 34, much more must it be
   his gift to us, though we had souls as capacious as his. If the head
   derived not his grace to himself, the members cannot; for Christ being
   a creature, in regard of his humanity, must necessarily be dependent;
   for to make any creature independent upon God is to advance it above
   the degree of a creature-state, and make it God's fellow, yea, to have
   a godhead in itself, as being the first principle of its own being. To
   say any creature can move to God, without being moved by God, or live
   without his influence, is to make the creature independent on God in
   its operations; and if it be independent in its operations, it would be
   so consequently in its essence, besides, if it be not created by him,
   it may subsist without him, it stands in no need of his quickening. The
   believers in Scripture were very unadvised then to pray to God for his
   quickening and establishing grace, if he were not the enlivener and
   author of it. His power works in preservation as well as creation, John
   v. 17, and whatsoever is dependent on him in preservation is dependent
   on him in creation and the first framing. And if it does not depend
   upon him in preservation, it is not his creature, but it is a god. All
   creatures have a dependence upon something immediately superior to
   then. The moon receives her light and chief beauty from the sun, which
   else would be but a dusky body; the earth its influence from the
   heavens. In artificial things the little wheels in a watch depend upon
   the greater, that upon the string (spring?), that in its motion upon
   the hand that winds it up. The higher any creature is, the more
   immediately it depends upon God in its production; the waters brought
   forth the fish, but God himself formed man.

   2. As he is the promiser of it. The divine promise is only fulfilled by
   a divine operation, it is necessary then for the honour of his truth to
   be the performer of it. All his promises concerning this matter run in
   that strain, I will: Hosea ii. 19, 'I will betroth thee to me for ever;
   I will betroth thee to me in righteousness, in judgment, in
   loving-kindness, and in mercy: I will even betroth thee unto me in
   faithfulness; and thou shalt know the Lord.' The Lord promises by this
   of knowing him all gracious works upon the soul, regeneration, faith,
   &c., for this knowledge is an effect of the covenant which God promises
   in that great copy of it: Jer. xxxi. 34, 'They shall all know me, from
   the least of them to the greatest.' It is not a simple abstracted
   knowledge, for so the devils know God, and Christ crucified, but such a
   knowledge that implies faith and love, and a new frame of soul. It is
   necessary his power should make good what his goodness has promised. It
   was not necessary any word of promise should go out of his mouth, there
   was no engagement upon God to do it, but it is necessary this promise
   should be performed; though he were free before he promised, yet he is
   not free after he has promised, because his truth engages him to
   perform it, and perform it as his own act, as much as his mercy moved
   him to promise it as his own act. As mercy made it, so his mercy is as
   pressing for the performance, and there comes in a superadded
   obligation from that of his truth over and above his mercy, to perform
   it in the same manner he promised it, and in all the circumstances of
   it. So that, supposing (which cannot be supposed) that his mercy should
   repent of making it, he would not be true if he did not perform it;
   besides, it consists not with his truth not to perform that by himself
   which he has promised by himself, nor with his wisdom to leave that to
   an uncertain cause at the best, and, further, a cause utterly unable
   (as every creature is) to produce that which he had promised to do with
   his own hand, as the cleansing the soul, pouring clean water upon it,
   pouring out a spirit of grace, writing the law in the heart, which
   imply his own act principally in this affair, in concurrence with the
   means he has ordained to that end. The performance of God's promise is
   as infallible as the cause that made the promise. No power can perform
   that for another which he promises himself to do; for the thing itself
   may be done by another, yet not being done by the party promising to do
   it, it is not truly done, and in conformity to the promise made. If it
   were possible then to be done by any but a divine hand, it would not be
   done truly, because God promises it as his own act, and therefore the
   working it must be his own act in conformity to his truth.

   3. As he has the foreknowledge of all things. It is necessary God
   should foreknow everything future, and that shall come to pass. This is
   a perfection necessarily belonging to God; and to imagine the contrary
   is to frame an unworthy notion of God, and infinitely below the great
   creator and governor of the world. He therefore wills everything, for
   if he foreknew anything before he willed it in itself, or in its
   necessary causes, he foreknow nothing. If he did not will it, how can
   it come to pass? Therefore he did not foreknow that it would come to
   pass. If he did foreknow it, then he willed it, otherwise his
   foreknowledge depended upon an uncertain cause, and he might have
   judged that to come to pass which never might; unless the cause be
   determined by God, it is merely contingent. He willing therefore a work
   of grace in such and such persons, did foreknow that it would be
   wrought, because he did will that it should be, and his working is done
   by an act of his will: Rom. viii. 29, 'Whom he did foreknow, he did
   predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.' The
   foreknowledge of God being stable and infallible, and being in this
   case a foreknowledge of what makes highly for the glory of all his
   attributes, can have no dependence upon an uncertain and fallible
   cause, but upon a cause as stable as his foreknowledge, which is his
   will, himself. His foreknowledge of this is not a foreknowledge of it
   in any created cause, but in himself as the cause; because, as it will
   appear further, no created cause could accomplish it.

   In regard of the subject of this new birth.

   1 In regard of the subject simply considered, the heart and will of
   man, none can cork upon it but God, or have any intrinsic influence to
   cause it to exercise its vital acts. Angels, though of a very vast
   power, cannot work immediately upon the heart and will of another
   creature, to incline and change it, by an immediate touch. All that
   they can do towards any moving the will, is by presenting some external
   objects, or stirring up the inward sensitive appetite to some passion,
   as anger, desire; whereby the will is inclined to will something. But
   the stirring up those natural affections in an unregenerate man, can
   never incline his will to good; for being the affections of the flesh,
   they are to be crucified. Angels also may enlighten the understanding,
   not immediately, but by presenting similitudes of sensible things, and
   confirming them in the fancy; but to remove one ill habit from the will
   or incline it to any good, is not in their power. God gave an angel
   power to purge the prophet's lips with a coal from the altar, Isa. vi.
   6, 7, but that was done in a vision, and a symbol or sign only that his
   uncleanness was removed. A coal could have no virtue in it to purge
   spiritual pollutions from the spirit of a man. Neither can man change
   the will; men by allurements or threats may change, or rather suspend
   the action of another, as a father that threatens to disinherit his
   son; or a magistrate that threatens to punish a subject for his
   debauchery, may cause a change in the actions of such persons; but the
   heart stands still to the same sinful points, and may be vicious under
   a fair disguise. He only that made the will, can incline and 'turn it
   as the rivers of waters; the heart of the king is in the hands of the
   Lord,' Prov. xxi. 1, and so is every man's heart kept in the hands of
   him that created it, both cabinet and key. No man knows the heart, no,
   the heart itself knows not everything which is in it. God knows all the
   wards in the heart, and knows how to move it. If a man could turn the
   heart of another, it could only be in one or two points; it cannot be
   conceived how he should alter the whole frame of it, make it quite
   another thing than it was before. The spirit of man being 'the candle
   of the Lord,' Prov. xx. 27, not to give light to him, but lighted by
   him, can only when it is out be re-lighted, and, when it burns dim, be
   snuffed by the same hand. Or, suppose for the present he could do this,
   it must be with much pains and labour, many exhortations and wise
   management of him upon several occasions. But to do this by a word, in
   a trice, to put a law into the heart in a moment, and give the hidden
   man of the heart possession of the will, that a man knows not himself
   how he came to be changed, this whole work bears the mark and stamp of
   God in the forehead of it. Men may propose arguments to another, and he
   may understand them if he has a capacity, but no man can ever make
   another have a capacity who is naturally incapable; it is God only can
   make the heart capable of understanding, he only can put a new instinct
   into it, and make it of another bent; it is he that renews the spirit
   of the mind to enable it to understand what he does propose, and
   elevates the faculty to apprehend the reason of it.

   2. In regard of the subject, extremely ill qualified. Can any question
   the divinity of the work, when stones are made children to Abraham;
   when waters of repentance are drawn out of a hard rock, Aaron's dry rod
   made to bud and blossom, and bring forth fruit, Num. vii. 8, when souls
   deeply allied to the kingdom of darkness are translated into the
   kingdom of light? To see habits strengthened by custom, in a
   consumption, and hearts filled with multitudes of idols in several
   shapes, casting them out with indignation, and flourishing with new
   springing graces, it is too great a miracle to be wrought by the hand
   of any creature. Could anything but the arm of the Lord change the
   temper of the thief upon the cross, to advance further in the space of
   an hour in the kingdom of God, than all the apostles had done in the
   three years' converse with their Master; to confess him, when one of
   the most eminent of them had denied him; to be more knowing in an
   instant, than they had been in a long time; and acknowledge his
   spiritual kingdom, when they even after his resurrection, and just
   before his ascension, expected a temporal one? Acts i. 6, 'Wilt thou at
   this time restore the kingdom to Israel?' If a Socrates, or a Cato, or
   those braver lights among the heathen, were turned to God, the interest
   of God in the work might upon some seeming ground be questioned; but
   when the leviathans in sin, drunkards, extortioners, adulterers, men
   guilty of the greatest contempt of God and the light of nature, in whom
   lust had kept a peaceable possession in its empire for many years, are
   thoroughly changed, who can doubt but that such must indeed be 'washed
   and sanctified by the Spirit of our God'? 1 Cor. vi. 11. What can this
   be but the will of God, since their hearts were so delightfully filled
   with evil, that they had no room nor love for any holy thought? It is
   not conceivable that where sin has made such a rout, and cut and
   slashed all morality in pieces, things should he set in order there,
   but by a power stronger both than sin and the law, from whence sin
   derives its strength. It is no less than a divine miracle to renew an
   habituated sinner.

   (3.) In regard of the nature of this new birth. It is a change of
   nature; a nature where there was as little of spiritual good as there
   was of being in nothing before the creation. It is a change of stone
   into flesh; a heart that like a stone has a hardness and settledness of
   sinful parts, a strong resistance against any instrument, an
   incorporation of sin and lust with its nature. Where the heart and sin,
   self and sin, are cordially one and the same, none can change such a
   nature but the God of all grace, who has all grace to contest with all
   the power of old Adam. No man can change the nature of the meanest
   creature in the world; he may tame them, bring them to part with some
   of their wildness, but he cannot transform them. If no man can
   transform the lowest creature from one nature to another, much less can
   any but God transform man into another nature.

   This nature is changed in every believer; for it is impossible a man
   should stand bent to Christ, with his old nature predominant in him,
   any more than a pebble can be attracted by a loadstone, till it put on
   the nature of steel. An unrighteous nature cannot act righteously, it
   must therefore be a God, who is above nature, that can clothe the soul
   with a new nature, and incline it to God and goodness in its
   operations. Now to see a lump of vice become a model of virtue; for one
   that drank in iniquity like water, to change that sinful thirst for
   another for righteousness; to crucify his darling flesh; to be weary of
   the poison he loved for the purity he hated; to embrace the gospel
   terms, which not his passion but his nature abhorred; to change his
   hating of duty to a free-will offering of it; to make him cease from a
   loathing the obligations of the law, to a longing to come up to the
   exactness of it; to count it a burden to have the thoughts at a
   distance from God, when before it was a burden to have one serious
   thought fixed on him, speaks a supernatural grace transcendently
   attractive and powerfully operative. Heavy elements do not ascend
   against their own nature, unless they be drawn by some superior force.
   To see a soul neighed down to the earth, to be lifted up to heaven,
   must point us to a greater than created strength that caused the
   elevation. These acts are supernatural, and cannot be done by a natural
   cause; that is, against the order of working in all things, for then
   the effect, as an effect, would be more noble than its cause.

   (4.) In regard of the suddenness of it. Peter and Andrew were called
   when they thought of nothing but their nets; and Paul changed by a word
   or two, who before was not only unwilling, but rebellious. Some have
   gone into a church wolves, and returned lambs. This change comes upon
   some that never dreamt of it, and has snatched them out of the arms of
   hell; upon others who have resisted with all their might any motion
   that way, and were never greater enemies to any, than to those that
   would check their sinful pleasures with such admonitions, and yet these
   have been on the sudden surprised. What ground is there to ascribe any
   of this, but to a divine work? Many have dropped in unto a sermon with
   no intention to stay, who have felt God's hook in their souls; have
   leaped like fish out of their element for a while, and God has caught
   them in his hand. Have you never heard of some who have gone to make
   sport with a convincing sermon, or to satisfy lust with unclean
   glances, who have been made prisoners by grace before their return?
   This quickness of the soul in coming to Christ was promised to be the
   fruit of the gospel: Hosea iii. 5, 'They shall fear the Lord and his
   goodness,' when they should 'seek the Lord and David their king.' The
   word "pachad" signifies not only to fear, but to hasten; both
   significations may be joined together in the sense of the verse. They
   shall make haste to fear the Lord and his goodness; surely the power
   that performs it, is the same with the goodness which promised it. Thus
   some of the disciples have followed Christ at the first call, and moved
   readily to him, as iron to the loadstone. For a man that was at a great
   distance from God, and any affection to him, to be filled on the sudden
   with a warm love and zeal for him, when nothing of interest could
   engage him (and sometimes it has been with loss of friends, estate,
   yea, life too), is as great a discovery of a divine hand, as if a fly
   were changed into the shape and spirit of a hero; because a spiritual
   change is more admirable than a natural; and the more by how much the
   enmity, which was greater, is driven out, for a choice affection to
   rise up in its stead. The season when such a work is wrought is more
   significant of a divine force, when men have been in the heat and
   strength of the pursuit of their sinful pleasures, being then torn out
   of the embracements of lust with an outstretched arm of God.

   (5.) In regard of the excellency of the new birth. Is it reasonable to
   think that the image of God should be wrought by any other hand than
   the hand of God, or the divine nature be begotten by anything but the
   divine Spirit? Since none but man can beget a child in his own
   likeness, none but God can impart to a soul the divine nature. It is
   not a change only into the image of God with slight colours, an image
   drawn as with charcoal; but a glorious image even in the rough draught,
   which grows up into greater beauty by the addition of brighter colours.
   'Changed,' says the apostle, 2 Cor. iii. 18, 'into the same image from
   glory to glory;' glory in the first lineaments as well as glory in the
   last lines. Is it not too beautiful then, even in the first draught, to
   be wrought by any pencil but a divine? It is next to the formation of
   Christ, for it is an initial conformity to him. God is the fountain of
   all our good things. If 'every good and perfect gift comes from him,'
   James i. 17, shall not the best of beings be the author of the best of
   works? If believers are 'light in the Lord,' Eph. v. 8, they are no
   less light from him and by him who is the 'Father of lights.' It is a
   'heavenly calling,' Heb. iii. 1, therefore a heavenly birth. The new
   heart, the spiritual house wherein God dwells, as well as in the
   heavens, was not made with a less power and skill than the earth, which
   is his footstool, or the heaven, which is his throne. If none be able
   to make God a footstool, much less a throne, as Jerusalem, the church,
   is called in the times of the gospel, Jer. iii. 17. (The embroideries
   and ornaments of the material tabernacle were not made by common art,
   but by a Bezaleel inspired by the Spirit of God, Exod. xxxi. 3); can
   any but himself rear up a temple for the God of heaven to dwell in? 1
   Cor. iii. 9. Or is the spiritual house of God fit to be made by and but
   by that God that dwells in it? It was according to the image of God
   that we were first created; it is according to the image of Christ that
   we are new created, Rom. viii. 29. Who understands the image of the Son
   but the Father? Who knows the Father but the Son, and he to whom the
   Son will reveal him? The new creature, according to the copy, can only
   be wrought by him to whom the copy is only visible. It is for the
   honour of God to allow him to be the framer of all creatures in the
   rank of beings. Is it not a dishonour to him not to acknowledge him the
   framer of the new creature in the rank of spiritual beings, since the
   later is more excellent than the treasures of the earth or the stars of
   heaven, than body or soul; since the image of God consists not so much
   in the substance of the soul as in a likeness to God in a holy nature?
   Eph. iv. 24. To be a righteous regenerate man is more excellent than to
   be a man; the most glorious effect, then, must have the most glorious
   cause. One beam of this divine image is too excellent to be the
   workmanship of any but a divine hand. The very first regenerate
   thought, to the last dropping off of impurity, is from the same hand.
   The first drawing us from sin, much more the stripping us of it, is
   more admirable than the drawing us out of nothing.

   (6.) The end of regeneration manifests it to be the work of God. It is
   to display his goodness. Since this was the end of God in the first
   creation, it is much more his end in the second. What creature can
   display God's goodness for him, or give him the glory of it, without
   first receiving it? Goodness must first be communicated to us, before
   it can be displayed or reflected by us. The light that is reflected
   back upon the sun by any earthly body beams first from the sun itself.
   Both the subject and the end are put together in Isa. xliii. 20, 21,
   'The beasts of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls:
   because I give waters in the wilderness, to give drink to my people, my
   chosen. This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my
   praise.' The Gentiles shall have the gospel, who are beasts of the
   field for wildness, dragons for the poison of their nature, owls for
   their blindness and darkness. The waters of the gospel shall flow to
   them to give drink to their souls. This people have I formed for
   myself. Even beasts, dragons, owls, if formed for himself, they could
   not be formed but by himself, who only understands what is fit for his
   own praise. How can such incapable subjects be formed for such high
   ends, without a supernatural power? So in Isa. lx. 21, 'The branch of
   my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.' Planted by
   God, that God might be glorified by them. As God only is the proper
   judge of what may glorify him, so he is the sole author of what is
   fitted to glorify him. Nothing lower than the goodness of God can
   instil into us such a goodness as to be made meet to praise, serve, and
   love him; such a holiness as may fit us to be partakers of the
   inheritance of the saints in light, and enjoy him for ever. As infinite
   wisdom formed us in Adam, and moulded us with his own hand to be a
   model of his perfection, so are we no less his workmanship in Christ by
   a second creation to good works, which, as they are ordained by the
   will of God, so they are wrought in us by the skill and power of God;
   what is ordained positively by him and for him is wrought by him. The
   whole world consists but of two men and their offspring the first man,
   Adam, the second man, Christ; both they, and all in them, created by
   God. It is a forming a creature for himself for his own delight. What
   delight can God take in anything but himself, and what is like himself?
   Man in his best estate is vanity. As his being is, so are his
   operations. Vanity, and the operations flowing from thence, are no fit
   object for the delight of an infinite excellency and wisdom. What
   pleasure can he have in those things which are not wrought by his own
   finger? Who knows how to dress anything savoury and pleasant to God but
   his own grace? Can a finite thing touch an infinite being to enjoy him
   without the operation of an infinite virtue? Can God delight in
   anything principally but himself, as he is infinitely good; or in other
   things but as they come nearest to that goodness? Whatsoever has a
   resemblance to a superior being must be brought forth into that
   likeness by something superior to itself.

   Now since the ends of this work are so high as to fit us for his
   praise, his delight, and a fruition of him; since it is to bring the
   interest of God into the soul, set him up highest in the heart who
   before was trampled under our feet, enthrone him as king in the soul,
   cause us to oppose all that opposes him, cherish everything that is
   agreeable to him, this must be his work or the work of none.

   (7.) The weakness of the means manifests it to be the work of God. How
   could it be possible that such weak means, that were used at the first
   plantation of the gospel, should have that transcendent success in the
   hearts of men without a divine power? That a doctrine attended with the
   cross, resisted by devils with all their subtilty, by the flesh with
   all its lusts, the world with all its flatteries, the wise with all
   their craft, the mighty with all their power, should be imprinted upon
   the hearts of men; a doctrine preached by mean men, without any worldly
   help, without learning, eloquence, craft, or human prudence, without
   the force, favour, or friendship of men, should get place in men's
   hearts without a divine inspiration, cannot well be imagined. If it be
   said there were miracles attending it, which wrought upon the minds of
   men, it is true; but what little force they had in our Saviour's time
   the Scripture informs us, when they were ascribed to Beelzebub, the
   prince of devils. Though miracles did attend it after the ascension of
   our Saviour, yet the apostle ascribes not so much to them as the means,
   as he does to the 'foolishness of preaching, ' it was that which was
   the 'power of God,' 1 Cor. i. 18; it was that 'whereto God saved them
   that believe,' 1 Cor. i. 21. But the greatest change that ever was
   wrought at one time was at the first descent of the Spirit, by a plain
   discourse of Peter, Acts ii., extolling a crucified God before those
   that had lately taken away his life, those that had seen him die, a
   doctrine which would find no footing in their reasons, filled with
   prejudice against him, and had expectations of a temporal kingdom by
   him. Must not this change be ascribed to a higher hand, which removed
   their rooted prejudices and vain hopes, and brought so many as three
   thousand over at once? If there be 'diversities of operations, it is
   the same God that works all in all,' 1 Cor. xii. 6. He conveys this
   'treasure in earthen vessels, that the power might appear to be of God,
   and not of men,' 2 Cor. iv. 7. Such weak means as earthen vessels
   cannot work such miraculous changes. Therefore perhaps it was that the
   preaching of Christ in his humiliation had so little success attending
   it, that nothing should be ascribed to the word itself, but to the
   power of God in it. To evidence that success depended on the good
   pleasure of God, who would not make his preaching in person so
   successful as that in his Spirit, which appears by Christ's
   thanksgiving to his Father for revealing these things to babes, and not
   to the wise: 'Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight,'
   Luke x. 21. Have you never heard of changes wrought in the spirits of
   men against their worldly interest, when they have been made the scorn
   of their friends, and a reproach to their neighbours? Can the weakness
   of means write a law so deep in the heart, that neither sly allurements
   nor blustering temptations can raze out; that a law of a day's standing
   in the heart should be able to mate the powers of hell, the cavils of
   the flesh, and discouragements from the world, when there are no
   unanswerable miracles now to seal the gospel, and second the proposals
   of it with amazement in the minds of men? The weakness of the means,
   and the greatness of the difficulties, speaks it not only to be the
   finger but the arm of God, which causes the triumphs of the foolishness
   of preaching. When the proposal crosses the interest of the flesh,
   restrains the beloved pleasure, teaches a man the necessity of the
   contempt of the world, and that men should exchange their pride for
   humility, the pleasure of sin for a life of holiness; for a man not
   only to cease to love his vice, but extremely to hate it; to have
   divine flights, when before he could not have a divine thought; to put
   off earthly affections for heavenly, and all this by the foolishness of
   preaching, it is an argument of a divine power, rather than any
   inherent strength in the means themselves.

   (3.) The differences in the changes of men evidence this to be the work
   of God, and that it is from some power superior to the means which are
   used. As God puts a difference between men in regard of their
   understandings, revealing that to one man which he does not to another,
   so he puts a difference between men in regard of their wills, working
   upon some and not upon others, working upon some that have known less,
   and not working upon some that have known more, some embracing it, and
   others rejecting it. We may see,

   [1.] The difference of this change in men under the same means. One is
   struck at a sermon, when multitudes return unshaken. Why is not the
   case equal in all, if it were from the power of the word? How
   successful is Peter's discourse, closely accusing the Jews of the
   murdering of their Lord and Saviour, which is the occasion of pricking
   three thousand hearts? Yet Stephen using the same method, and close
   application of the same doctrine, Acts vii. 62, had not one convert
   upon record. While Peter's hearers were pricked in their hearts, these
   gnashed with their teeth, ver. 54. The corruption of the former was
   drawn out by the pricking of their souls, the malice of the latter
   exasperated by the cut of their hearts. What reason can be rendered of
   so different an event from one and the same means in several hands, but
   the overruling pleasure of God? The reasons were the same, set off with
   the same human power; the hearers were many of the same nation, brought
   up in the reading of the prophets, full of the expectations of a
   Messiah; they had both reasons and natural desires for happiness, as
   well as the other, yet the one are turned lambs, and the others worse
   lions than before; the bloody fury of the one is calmed, and the mad
   rage of the other is increased. The grace of God wrought powerfully in
   the one, and lighted not upon the other. Two are grinding at the same
   mill of ordinances, one is taken and another is left. Man breathes into
   the ears, and God into what heart he pleases.

   [2.] The differences in the changes of men under less means. One is
   changed by weaker means, another remains in his unregeneracy under
   means in themselves more powerful and likely; some are wrought upon by
   whispers, when others are stiff under thunders. The Ninevites by one
   single sermon from a prophet are moved to repentance; the Capernaites,
   by many admonitions from a greater than all the prophets, seconded with
   miracles, are not a jot persuaded; some remain refractory under great
   blasts, while others bend at lighter breathings. One man may be more
   acute than another, of a more apprehensive reason; yet this man remains
   obstinate, whilst another becomes pliable. Whence does this difference
   arise, but from the will of God drawing the one, and reusing the other
   to the conduct of his own will, since both will acknowledge what they
   are advised to, to be their interest, to be true in itself, necessary
   for their good, yet their affections and entertainment are not the
   same? Some of those Jews who had heard the doctrine of Christ, seen the
   purity of his life and the power of his miracles, admired his wisdom,
   yet crucified his person; they expected a Messiah, yet contemned him
   when he came; when the poor thief who, perhaps, had never seen one
   miracle, nor heard one sermon of our Saviour, believes in him,
   acknowledges him to be the Son of God, whom he saw condemned to the
   same death with himself, and dies a regenerate man under great
   disadvantages. A figure (says one) of all the elect, who shall only be
   saved by grace, and a clear testimony of an outstretched arm of grace.
   Those that our blessed Saviour admonished only as a doctor and teacher
   were unmoved, none stirred but those he wrought upon as a creator.

   [3.] Difference of the success of the same means in different places.
   How various was the success of the apostles in several parts of their
   circuits! Paul finds a great door of faith opened at Corinth, and in
   Macedonia, and his nets empty at Athens; multitudes flocking in at one
   place, and few at another. He is entertained at Corinth, stoned at
   Lystra, Acts xiv. 19, in danger of his life at Jerusalem, while the
   Galatians were so affected with the gospel, that they could have
   'pulled out their eyes' for him. The apostle was the same person in all
   places; the gospel was the same, and had a like power in itself; men
   had the same reasons, they were all fragments from the lump of Adam:
   the difference must be then from the influence of the divine Spirit,
   who rained down his grace in one place and not in another; on one
   heart, and not on another; who left darkness in Egypt, while he
   diffused light in Goshen.

   [4.] Difference in the same person. What is the reason that a man
   believes at one time under the proposal of weak arguments, and not at
   another under stronger? It is not ex parte objecti, for that was more
   visible and credible in itself, when attended by strong arguments, than
   when accompanied with weaker. Perhaps God has stricken a man's
   conscience before, and he has undone that work, shaken off those
   convictions; he has contended with his maker, and mustered up the power
   of nature against the alarms of conscience; struggled like a wild bull
   in a net, and broke it, and blunted those darts which stuck in his
   soul; he has afterwards been screwed up again, and the arrow shot so
   deep, that with all his pulling he could not draw it out. What but a
   divine hand holds it in, in spite of all the former triumphs of nature?
   How come convictions at last to be fixed upon men, which many a time
   before did but flutter about the soul, and were soon chased away? And
   God by such a method keeps up the honour of his grace in men after
   regeneration, and teaches them the constant acknowledgement of his
   power in the whole management. Do we not daily find that the same
   reasonings and considerations which quicken us at one time in the ways
   of God stir us not at another, no more than a child can a millstone;
   that we are quickened by the same word at one time, under which we were
   dull and stupid at another; and the same truth is deliciously swallowed
   by us, which seemed unsavoury at another, because God edges it with a
   secret virtue at one time more than another? Hereby God would mind us
   to own him as the author of all our grace, the second grace as well as
   the first. Upon all these considerations this can be no other than the
   work of God. Can a corrupt creature elevate himself from a state of
   being hated by God, to a state of being delighted in by him? Satan's
   work none can judge it to be; the destroyer of mankind would never be
   the restorer; the most malicious enemy to God would never contribute to
   the rearing a temple to God in the soul, who has usurped God's worship
   in all parts of the world. Good angels could never do it, they wonder
   at it; the wisdom of God in thus creating all things in Jesus Christ is
   made known to them by it, Eph. iii. 9, 10. They never ascribed it to
   themselves; if they did, they could never have been good, their
   goodness consisting in praising of God, and giving him his due. Good
   men never did it; the first planters of the gospel (whereby it is
   wrought) always gave God the praise of it, and acknowledged both their
   own action, and the success, to be the effect of the grace of God, and
   upon every occasion admired it, Acts xi. 21, 23. It was 'the hand of
   the Lord' and 'the grace of God.'

   III. The third general head, from what principles in God it flows, or
   what perfections of God are eminent in this work of regeneration. What
   is observable in the forming Christ in the womb of the virgin, is
   observable in the forming Christ in the heart of a believer: grace to
   choose her to be the holy vessel; sovereignty to pitch upon her rather
   than any other of the lineage of David; truth to his promise in forming
   him in the womb of a virgin, and one of the house of David; wisdom and
   power in the formation of him in a virgin's womb, above the power of
   nature; mercy bears the first sway as the motive of the decree, but in
   a way of sovereignty to call out some, and not others; truth to himself
   obliges, after sovereign mercy had made the resolution; wisdom steps in
   to contrive the best way to accomplish what mercy had moved, and
   sovereignty had decreed; holiness rises up as the pattern; and power
   rides out for the execution. Mercy moves, sovereignty decrees, truth
   obliges, wisdom counsels, holiness regulates, power executes.

   1. Mercy and goodness is a principal perfection of God, illustrious in
   this work. 'Born not of the will of man, but of God,' of the will of
   his mercy. Plato thought that heroes were born "ex erotos Theon", from
   the love of God; divine love brings forth an heroic Christian into the
   world; all outward mercies are streams of God's goodness, but those are
   but trifles if compared with this. There is as much of God in imparting
   the holiness of his nature as in imputing the righteousness of his
   soul. We are justified by Christ, quickened by grace, saved by grace;
   grace is the womb of every spiritual blessing. To be delivered from
   places and company wherein we have occasions and temptations to sin, is
   an act which God owns as the fruit of his mercy: 'I brought thee out of
   the land of Ur of the Chaldees,' Gen. xv. 7, an idolatrous place; it is
   a greater fruit of his goodness to be delivered from a nature which is
   the seed-plot of sin. 'He heals our backslidden nature,' because he
   'loves us freely.' It is therefore called grace, which is not only
   goodness and mercy, but goodness with a more beautiful varnish and
   ornamental dress.

   (1.) Therefore in this take notice of the peculiarity of mercy. Such a
   goodness that not one fallen angel ever had, or ever shall have a mite
   of; neither did mercy excite one good thought in God of new polishing
   any of those rebellious creatures; mercy cast no eye upon them, but
   justice left them to their malicious obstinacy. That the rivers of
   living water should refuse to run in such a channel, or flow out of
   such a belly, to run in the heart of a man more muddy! As peculiar
   grace pitched upon the very flesh of Christ, to be limited to the
   second person, so the like grace pitches upon this or that particular
   soul, to be united to the body of Christ. That singular love which
   chose Christ for the head, chose some men in him to be his members:
   'Chosen us in him,' Eph. i. 4. And the anointing which is upon the head
   is poured out by such a peculiarity of love upon the members, not only
   by an act of his power as God, but by an act of appropriated goodness,
   thy God, Heb. i. 9. God anoints his fellows with that holy gracious
   unction, as their God, not only as God; for anointing him as the head,
   under that particular consideration, he anoints also his fellows, his
   members, under the same consideration too, because he is as well their
   God, the God of the members, as well as the God of the head, for they
   are his fellows in that unction; the difference lies in the greater
   portion of grace given to the human nature of Christ. And the apostle
   Peter, 1 Peter i. 3, intimates in his thanksgiving to God, that God
   begot us as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: 'Blessed be the God
   and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,' the paternal affection he bears
   to Christ being the ground of the regeneration of his people; the
   paternal affection first pitching upon Christ, then upon others in him.
   Indeed, it is a peculiar affection. In his mercy to the world, he acts
   as a rector or governor, in that relation he proposes laws, makes
   offers of peace, urges them in his word, strives with men by his
   Spirit, enduing men with reason, and deals with them as rational
   creatures; he uses affections and mercies, which might soften their
   hearts, did they not wilfully indulge themselves in their hardness.
   This is his rectoral mercy, or his mercy as a governor, and as much as
   his relation of a governor can oblige him to. If men will not change
   their lives, is God bound as a governor to force them to it, or not
   rather to punish them for it? But in regeneration there is a choicer
   affection, whereby, besides the relation of a governor, he puts on that
   of a father, and makes an inward and thorough change in some which he
   has chosen into the relation of children. As a father, who cannot
   persuade his son lying under a mortal distemper to take that physic
   which is necessary for saving his life, will compel him to it, open his
   month, and pour it in; but as he is a governor of his servant, he will
   provide it for him, and propose it to him. To do thus is kindness to
   his servant, though he does not manifest so peculiar an affection as he
   does to his son. God governs men as he is the author of nature; he
   renews men as he is the author of grace; he is the lawgiver and
   governor; it does not follow that where he is so he should be the new
   creator too; this is a peculiar indulgence.

   (2.) As there is a peculiarity of mercy, so there is the largeness of
   his mercy and goodness in this work. It was his goodness to create us,
   but a full sea of goodness made us new creatures: 1 Peter i. 3, 'Who
   according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to 'a lively
   hope,' "kata to polu autou eleos". His own mercy, without any other
   motive; much mercy, without any parsimony, not an act of ordinary
   goodness, but the deepest bowels of kindness, an everlasting spring of
   goodness, an exuberance of goodness. The choice love he bears to them
   in election cannot be without some real act; it is a vain love that
   does not operate; one great part of affection is to imitate the party
   beloved; but since that is unworthy of God to imitate a corrupt
   creature, he performs the other act of love, which is to assimilate us
   to himself, and bring us into a state of imitation of him, endowing us
   with principles of resemblance to him. It is abundant mercy to love
   them; it is much more goodness to render them worthy of his love, and
   inspire them with those qualities, as effects of his love of
   benevolence, which may be an occasion of his love of complacency.
   Worldly mercies do many times, yea, for the most part (if you view the
   whole globe of the earth) consist with his hatred, but this is a beam
   from a clear sun. At best other benefits are but the mercies of his
   hand, this of his heart. In those he makes men like others of a higher
   rank, in this like himself.

   [1.] It is a goodness greater than that in creation. It is more an act
   of kindness to reform that which is deformed, than to form it at the
   beginning, because it is more to have a happy than a simple being. To
   repair what is decayed is a testimony of greater goodness than at first
   to raise it. Creation is terminated to the good of a mutable nature,
   regeneration is terminated to a supernatural good, and partaking of the
   divine nature. The creation was an emanation of his goodness, never
   entitled the work of his grace. Man's first uprightness was an impress
   of God; his second uprightness is far more pleasing to him, as being
   the fruit of his Son's death, wherein all his attributes are more
   highly glorified. It is a regeneration 'by the resurrection of Christ,'
   1 Peter i. 3; that being the perfection of it, includes his death,
   which is the foundation of it, as the perfection of a thing includes
   the beginning. God pronounced all the structures of the first creation
   good, but not with those magnificent titles of his delighting in it,
   forming it for himself, that it might show forth his praise, which
   expressions testify a greater efflux of his goodness in this second
   creation. Nor did Christ ever say his delight was in that, or in that
   one man Adam, but in the sons of men, of apostate Adam, as to be
   redeemed and renewed by him after their apostasy: Prov. viii. 31, 'My
   delights were with the sons of men.' What sons of men? The exhortation,
   ver. 32, intimates it, those that are his children renewed by him that
   hearken to him and keep his ways. God pronounced it good, but not his
   treasure, his portion, his inheritance, his segullah, his house, his
   diadem. All those things which he made, even the noblest heaven, as
   well as the lowest earth, he overlooks and speaks slightly of them:
   Isa. lxvi. 1, 2, 'All those things has my hand made, and all those
   things have been,' &c., to fix his eyes, "avit", upon a contrite
   spirit, a renewed nature. He speaks of them as things passed away, and
   is intent only upon the new creation; values it above heaven and earth,
   and all the ceremonial worship. What is the object of his greatest
   estimation partakes of a greater efflux of his goodness to make it so.
   And the apostle Peter aggrandises this abundant mercy in regeneration,
   from the term, 'unto a lively hope;' not such an uncertain hope as Adam
   had when he was fullest of his mutable uprightness; a living hope,
   "elpida dzosan", that grows up more and more into life, till it comes
   to an inheritance that fades not away as Adam's did. Surely there is
   more of bowels in the Spirit's brooding over a sinful soul, to bring
   forth this beautiful frame, than in brooding over the confused mass to
   bring forth a world.

   [2.] All the grace and goodness God has is employed in it. In the
   creation you cannot say, all the goodness of God was displayed, as not
   all his power nor all his wisdom: for as to his power he might have
   made millions of worlds inconceivably more beautiful and more wisely
   contrived; for though there be no defect of wisdom and power, yet
   neither of those attributes were exerted to that height that they might
   have been. So for his goodness, he might have made millions of more
   angels and men than he did create, with as (and more) illustrious
   natures; for a man may conceive something more than God has displayed
   in the creation, as to the extensiveness of his perfections at least.
   But in this God has displayed, as it may seem, the utmost of his grace,
   for no man or angel can conceive a higher grace than what God shows in
   this, of beginning in man a likeness to himself, and perfecting it
   hereafter to as high a pitch as a creature is capable of. Therefore
   called 'unsearchable riches of Christ,' Eph. hi. 7. A further good
   cannot be imagined or found out than what is there displayed. Therefore
   the apostle Peter speaks of God as effectually calling us into his
   eternal glory by Christ, under the title of ' the God of all grace,' 1
   Peter v. 10, which calling includes all preparation for glory. All
   grace does not less fit us for it, than call us to it, there is more of
   grace in fitting us for it than barely in calling us to it; and the
   call itself has more of grace in it than the giving the possession of
   that inheritance you are called unto. It is not so high a favour in a
   prince actually to set his royal bride in the throne with him, as to
   call her to and prepare her for so high a dignity. To prepare a soul
   for it by regeneration is an act of pure grace; to give it after a
   preparation for it, is an act of truth as well as grace; nothing
   obliged him to the first, his promise binds him to the latter. What if
   I should say, this renewing of us, and subduing our sins in us, is a
   greater act of grace than a bare remission! Micah vii. 18, 19, seems to
   favour it. To pardon us is an act of his delightful mercy; but to
   subdue our iniquities is an act of his most tender compassion. Mercy is
   there joined with pardon, and compassion with subduing And the latter
   expression, 'Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea,'
   may refer to both those acts of grace, against the guilt and filth of
   sin.

   [3.] The freeness of his mercy is manifest in it. It is as free as
   election: Eph. i. 3, 4, 'Who has blessed us with all spiritual
   blessings' (of which regeneration is none of the meanest), 'according
   as he has chosen us in him', "kathos exelexato". It is as free in the
   stream as it is in the fountain. Jesus Christ is as freely formed in
   us, as we were freely chosen in him, as freely, quoad nos, as to us,
   not in regard of Christ, who merited the former though not the latter.
   It is his own mercy, 1 Peter i. 3, 'his own will,' James i. 18, not
   moved by any other, as we do many things by the will of others when our
   own are not free, in which are mixed acts. It is in regard of this
   freeness called grace. Supposing God would create man, and for such an
   end as to enjoy blessedness, he could not create him otherwise than
   with a universal rectitude, because, had God created him with a temper
   contrary to his law, he had been the author of his sin. Some therefore
   call not the righteousness of Adam grace, because it was a perfection
   due to his nature upon his creation. But there was no necessity upon
   God to bestow new creating grace, after he had stripped himself of the
   righteousness of his first creation. And also supposing God will
   restore man to that end from which he fell, and refit him for that
   blessedness, he cannot fit him otherwise than by restoring him to that
   righteousness, as a means of attaining that blessedness. Yet both these
   are free, because the original foundation of both is free. God might
   choose whether he would create man when he was nothing, and choose
   whether he would restore man when he was fallen. Yet there is more
   freedom in this latter than in the former, in regard of the measures of
   the new created righteousness, and in regard of the immutability of it,
   in regard also of demerit. Adam's dust, before creation, as it could
   merit nothing, so it had an advantage above us that it could not lie
   under demerit. But we, after the fall, are in a state of damnation,
   children of wrath, so that regeneration is not a creating us from
   nothing, but recovering us from a state worse than nothing. In regard
   that man was miserable, he was capable of mercy; but as he was a
   criminal, he was an object of severity. That is free mercy to renew any
   man by grace, when he might have damned him by justice, to work him for
   glory when he had wrought himself for damnation. The apostle therefore
   excludes all works whatsoever from any meritoriousness in this case:
   Titus iii. 5, 'Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
   according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and
   renewing of the Holy Ghost.' I say, he excludes all works, because not
   one work, as good, was in being before the renewal of the soul, for so
   verse 3 plainly implies, when he concludes all men, himself too, in a
   state incapable of doing anything that was good; the honour of his
   truth indeed excites him to perfect it, but his grace only, without any
   other motive, moves him to bestow it. All the grace you have in
   regeneration sprung only from this; the righteousness you are arrayed
   with, the flames of love in your hearts, the flights of your faith,
   cost you nothing, they were all the births of love. Goodness decreed
   all when you were nothing, grace formed all when you were worse than
   nothing, your faith is 'the faith of God's elect,' Titus i. 1. New
   creatures were chosen to faith by grace, and by the same grace was
   faith formed in the womb of the soul; electing grace preceded, renewing
   grace followed, the stream cannot be merited when the spring was free.
   Regeneration is an accessory to election. No man can merit the
   principle, therefore not the accessory.

   2. As mercy and goodness, so the sovereignty of God is illustrious in
   this work. 'Of God,' in the text, is 'of the will of God.' The covenant
   runs in a royal style: 'I will put my Spirit into them; I will give a
   heart of flesh,' of my own free motion and good pleasure, like the
   patents of princes. God reserves this in his own power, to give to whom
   he pleases; Cameron says, that faith, which is a great constitutive
   part of regeneration, was not purchased meritoriously by Christ's
   death; and though Christ does give us faith as well as repentance, yet
   he does that, not as considered as a satisfier of God's justice in his
   death, but as God's commissioner in his exaltation, being empowered by
   God to give the conditions upon which they agreed together in the first
   compact about the work of mediation, unto all those that God had given
   him to satisfy for. Whether this opinion be well grounded or no, I will
   not determine; yet the making it depend solely upon election, and to be
   given as a fruit of election, that hereby we may be partakers of
   Christ, makes it more fully depend upon the sovereignty of God. God
   renews when he pleases. 'The wind blows where it lists,' John iii. 8.
   To some he affords means, to others not; he deals not with every nation
   as he dealt with Israel. In some, he works by means; to others, he
   gives only the means without any inward work; it is his pleasure that
   he works upon any one to will, his good pleasure that he gives to and
   one to do: Philip. ii. 13, 'of his good pleasure.' Some hear the word,
   others the Spirit in the word; some feel the striking of the air upon
   their ear, others the stamp of the Spirit upon their hearts. Who chose
   this rough stone to hew and polish, and let others lie in the quarry?
   Who frames this for a statue, a representation of himself, and leaves
   another upon the pavement? What does all this result from, but his
   sovereign pleasure?

   (1.) No ultimate reason can be rendered for this distinction, but God's
   sovereignty. We can render an immediate reason of some actions of God:
   why the heavens are round, because that is the most capacious figure,
   and fittest for motion; why the sun is the centre of the world, as some
   think, because it may, at a convenient distance, enlighten the stars
   above, and quicken the things below; why our hearts are in the midst of
   our bodies, because they may more commodiously afford heat to all the
   members; so also, why God loved Adam, because he saw his own image in
   him; why he sends judgments upon the world, because of sin; why he
   saves believers and condemns unbelievers, because they receive the
   grace of Christ, those reject it. We have not recourse immediately to
   God's will for a reason; the nature of the things themselves affords us
   one, obvious to us. But no reason can be rendered of other actions of
   God but his good pleasure. Why he chose Abraham above other men, and
   delivered him from Ur of the Chaldees; why Israel above other nations,
   since all other men and nations descended from Adam and Noah, and they
   were in their natures equally corrupt with others; they were not in
   themselves better than others, nor other nations worse than they; so in
   Esau and Jacob, why the elder should serve the younger, since they both
   issued from the same parents, lay in the same womb, were equally
   depraved in their nature, had original sin equally conveyed to them by
   their parents: no reason can be rendered but the will of God. So, if it
   be asked, why men are condemned, because they do not believe. Why do
   they not believe? Because they will not. God has given them means and
   faculties. If you ask, why God did not give them grace to believe and
   turn their wills, no other answer can be given but because he will not.
   It is his free will to choose some and not others. Election is put upon
   his pleasure: Eph. i. 5, 'Predestinated according to the good pleasure
   of his will;' and the making known the mystery of his will is put upon
   his pleasure: Eph. i. 9, 'Having made known unto us the mystery of his
   will according to his good pleasure.' As God regards us absolutely, it
   is rather mercy than his good pleasure. Why has he changed our wills?
   Because he loved us, and bare good will to us in his everlasting
   purpose, to which he was incited by his own mercy. But if we compare
   ourselves with others, and ask, why he renews this man and not that,
   then it is rather an act of the sovereign liberty of his will, for
   there cannot be the result of any reason from any thing else; he
   pitches his compassion where and upon whom he pleases. The apostle
   joins mercy and this sovereignty of his will together: Rom. ix. 15, 'I
   will have mercy on whom I will have mercy; and I will have compassion
   on whom I will have compassion.' He is so absolute a sovereign, that he
   will give no account of these matters but his own good pleasure. Why he
   renews any man is merely voluntary; why he saves renewed men is just;
   why he justifies those that believe is justice to Christ and mercy to
   them; but why he bestows faith on any is merely the good pleasure of
   his will. The pharisees believed not, because they were not of Christ's
   sheep, John x. 26; that is, they were not given to Christ by the
   Father, as is intimated, verse 29. And the prosperity of those which
   are given to Christ is resolved wholly into the pleasure of God: 'The
   pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand,' Isa. liii. 10. In all
   our searches into the cause of this, we must rest in his sovereign
   pleasure; our Saviour himself renders this only as a reason of his
   distinguishing mercy, wherein himself does, and therefore we must,
   acquiesce: Mat. xi. 27, 'Even so, Father, for so it pleased thee.'

   (2.) We may well do so, because he is no debtor to any man in the way
   of grace. There is nothing due to man but death; that is his wages; the
   other is a gift: Rom. vi. 23, 'To you it is given to know the mysteries
   of the kingdom of heaven, to them it is not given,' Mat. xiii. 11. Who
   shall control him in the disposal of his own goods? 'Who shall say unto
   him, What dost thou?' Grace is his own treasure; if he gives the riches
   of it to any, it is his pleasure; if he will not bestow a mite on any
   man, it is no wrong; 'if any man has given to him, it shall be
   recompensed to him again,' Rom. xi. 35. It is not unjust with God to
   deny every man grace; it is not then unjust to deny a great part of men
   this grace: 'Who has enjoined him his way?' says Job; or, 'Who can say,
   Thou hast wrought iniquity?' Job xxxvi. 23. He is not to be taught by
   man how to govern the world, neither can any man justly blame him, if
   they judge aright of his actions. Though every man is bound to
   endeavour the conversion of others, and every good man has so much
   charity that he would turn all to righteousness if he could, and though
   the love of God is infinitely greater than man's, it cannot be argued
   from thence that therefore God should renew every man. This charity in
   man is a debt he owes to his neighbour by communion of blood, upon
   which the law of charity is founded, which obliges him to endeavour the
   happiness and welfare of his neighbour; but God is free from the
   engagements of any law, but the liberty of his own will; he is under no
   government but his own; he has none superior, none equal with him, to
   enjoin him his way, and to prescribe him rules and methods. If he gives
   any favour to man, it is his pleasure; if man improves it well, God is
   not indebted to him, and obliged to give him more, no more than a
   father is bound to give his son a new stock, because he has improved
   well the first he has entrusted him with; it depends only upon his
   pleasure.

   (3.) God's proceedings in this case do wholly declare it. In the first
   gift of his people to Christ, he acted like a God greater than all in a
   way of super-eminent sovereignty: 'My Father which gave them me is
   greater than all', John x. 29. He acts as a potter with his clay; he
   softens one heart, and leaves another to its natural hardness. He
   converts Paul a persecutor, but none of the other pharisees who spurred
   him on in that fury and commissioned him to it; he snatches some from
   the embracements of lust, while he suffers others to run their race to
   hell. David, by grace, is made a man after God's own heart, and Saul
   left to be a man after his own will; some he changes in the heat of
   their pursuit of sinful pleasures, others he wounds to death by his
   judgments. The reason of the latter is deserved justice; the reason of
   the other is undeserved pleasure. He chooses the mean things of the
   world to be highest in his favour, and passes over those that the world
   esteems most excellent. 'Not many wise, not many mighty,' is his
   sovereign method. The amiable endowments esteemed by the men of the
   world have no influence upon him. He acts in this way with his own
   people; he gives sometimes to will, when he does not give presently to
   do; he distributes greater measures of grace to one than to another; he
   sometimes excites them by his grace, sometimes lets them lie as logs
   before him, that he may be owned by them to be a free agent. And
   further, it must needs be thus, because God does not work in
   regeneration as a natural agent, and put forth his strength to the
   utmost; as the sun shines, and the fire burns, ad extremum virium,
   unless a cloud interpose to hinder the one, or water quench the other,
   but as an arbitrary agent, who exerts his power according to his own
   will, and withholds it according to his pleasure. For there are two
   acts of his sovereign will: one whereby he does command men to do their
   duty, promises rewards, and threatens punishment, but the subject is to
   be disposed to do God's will of precept. Here comes in another act of
   his sovereignty, whereby he wills the disposing such and such hearts to
   the accepting of his grace, and does will not to give others that
   grace, but leave them to themselves. This we see practised by God
   almost in every day's experience.

   3. The truth of God is apparent in this work. Truth to his own purpose:
   1 Tim. i. 9, 'Who has called us with a holy calling, according to his
   own purpose and grace, which was given us in Jesus Christ before the
   world began.' Sovereignty first singles this or that man out; and truth
   to that firm and immutable counsel, and that resolve in his own mind,
   steps in to excite his holiness, wisdom, and power, to make every such
   person conformed to the image of his Son. It was not from any truth
   respecting any condition annexed to any promise he had made which he
   might find in the creature, for the apostle plainly excludes it, 'not
   according to our work'; for what motion can our work in a state of
   nature cause in God but that of anger and aversion arising from truth
   to his threatening, the condition whereof is fulfilled by us, but not
   one mite of good fruit that could as a condition challenge this great
   work at the hands of the truth of God by virtue of his promise. His
   truth to his threatening would have raised up thoughts of destroying
   men; his truth to his purpose carried on his design of effectually
   calling them. It is not an engagement of truth to his creature, but of
   truth to himself. So that if you ask why he has Peter, Paul, and
   others, since many better conditioned than they have rejected the
   gospel, the answer is, because he had so purposed in himself; and he is
   faithful, and cannot deny his own counsel, for that were to deny
   himself, and that eternal idea in his own mind: 2 Tim. ii. 13, 'He is
   faithful, and cannot deny himself,' in regard of his purpose, in regard
   of his absolute promise. Truth to his promise; his promise to his Son,
   for so Titus i. 2 is principally to be understood: 'In hope of eternal
   life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.'
   There was a donation of some made to Christ, and a donation of grace to
   Christ for them, deposited in his hands as a treasure to be dispensed
   to every one of them in their proper time. His truth comes in upon this
   double donative: a donative of grace to them in Christ, before the
   world began, which would be but as a useless rusty treasure, if not
   bestowed upon those for whom it was entrusted in his hands; a donative
   of some, according to this purpose, to Christ, whose death, and
   resurrection, and purchase, would be ineffectual, if those thus given
   were not in time engrafted in him, and renewed by him, to be made
   partakers of all that which he purchased and preserved for them. Jesus
   Christ was to have a seed by covenant, a people to be conformed to his
   image. The issue then of forming a people for his seed, is the effect
   of God's truth to Christ. And consequent to this antecedent purpose in
   himself, and promise to Christ, he gives him an order to bring in those
   that were thus designed to be his sheep, which he calls his sheep by
   right of donation, before they were renewed: my sheep, by right of gift
   from my Father, mine by right of purchase at my death, mine by right of
   possession at their effectual call, these I must bring in; not I may,
   but I must; and they shall hear my voice: John x. 16, 'Other sheep I
   have; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice;' not they
   may, but they shall be inclined to comply with my word and call. Satan
   and their own lusts shall not hinder them from coming unto me, but they
   shall be overruled by a powerful Spirit. So that there is truth to his
   purpose, truth to his promise to Christ' truth to the depositum in
   Christ's hands, truth to his word published, that he would give a new
   heart. So that whatsoever heart his work is wrought in, it is a
   manifest effect of the truth of God to himself and his Christ. The gift
   of grace, in possession, is a necessary consequent of that gift of it,
   in purpose, before the world began.

   4. The wisdom of God appears in this work. The secrets of wisdom shine
   forth in the great concerns of the soul in Christ, who is made wisdom
   principally to us in our sanctification, as well as righteousness and
   redemption. Wisdom in the imputation of righteousness, in the draught
   of sanctification, and in the perfection of it in a complete
   redemption; wisdom, like thread, runs through every part of the web.
   The new birth is the great wisdom of the creature; by this he becomes
   wise, since the Scripture entitles all fools without it. The
   inspiration of this wisdom can own no other but divine wisdom for the
   author. It is his own wisdom; for 'Who has been his counsellor?' Rom.
   xi. 34. He works all things according to the counsel of his own will,
   freely, wisely; a work of his will, a work of his understanding: Eph.
   i. 11, 12, 'Who works all things according to the counsel of his own
   will, that we should be to the praise of his glory,' that the glory of
   the Father may shine out in us. If all things are thus wrought with the
   choicest counsel, much more the rarest work of God in the world. If all
   things are wrought with counsel, because he will have a praise from
   them, much more that from whence he expects to gather the greatest crop
   of glory. The bringing us to trust in Christ is for the praise of his
   glory; a glory redounds to him, because there is nothing of our own in
   it, but all his; a farther glory redounds to him, because it is in the
   wisest manner. It is to the praise and the glory of his goodness in the
   act of his will; to the praise of the glory of his wisdom in the act of
   his counsel. There was a mystery of wisdom in the first secretion and
   singling out this or that person; a revelation of wisdom in the
   preparations to it, and formation of it. If there be much of his
   counsel in the minute passages of his providence in the lowest
   creatures, which are the subjects of that providence, much more must
   there be in the framing the soul to be a living monument of his glory.
   It is not a new moulding the outward case of the body, but the inward
   jewel wrapped up from the view of men; the spirit of the mind, which,
   being more excellent, requires more of skill for the new forming of it.

   (1.) The nature of the new birth declares it to be an effect of his
   wisdom. It is a building a divine temple, a spiritual tabernacle, for
   his own residence: 'ye are God's building,' 1 Cor. iii. 9. Strength
   will not build a house without art to contrive and proportion the
   materials; skill is the chief requisite of an architect. The highest
   pieces of art come from the most excellent idea in the creature. The
   beautiful fabric of grace is modelled by the wisest idea in God; that
   which is glorious in the erection, supposes excellent skill in the
   contrivance. Every renewed man is a 'lively stone:' 1 Pet. ii. a, 'Ye
   also as lively stones,' every one of you polished and carved by the
   wise Creator for an everlasting statue. It is he that has 'wrought us
   to the self-same thing,' 2 Cor. v. 6, "katergasamenos"; polished us and
   curiously wrought us, who were rough stones, covered with the rubbish
   of sin. As a wise builder, he lays the foundation in sound habits,
   whereon to raise a superstructure of gracious actions. The counterpart
   in the heart is no less a fruit of his wisdom than the law in the
   tables of stone; wisdom in the first framing the law, wisdom also in
   the deep imprinting of it. That which enlightens the eyes, and makes
   wise to salvation, can be entitled to no other original cause than
   divine wisdom. The soul is a rational work of God. Surely, then, that
   which is the soul of the soul, the glory of the creature, the
   preparation for happiness, more pleasing to God than the brightest
   nature, than the natural frame of the highest soul, that which is the
   pleasure and delight, must be the fruit, too, of infinite wisdom. Bare
   effects of power are not the immediate objects of God's special
   delight.

   (2.) The means of it declare it to be a fruit of his wisdom. Christ the
   exemplar has the treasures of wisdom; grace copied from it is part of
   those treasures. The gospel, the instrument, is 'the wisdom of God,' as
   well as 'the power of God,' 1 Cor. ii. 7. Divine skill framed the
   model, reared the building, no less sows the seed in the heart. What
   did partake of wisdom in the contrivance, progress, all the parts and
   methods of it, partakes of the same in the inward operations of it upon
   the soul.

   (3.) The manner of it speaks it to be so. In regard of the enemies he
   has to deal with, there must be prudence to countermine the deep and
   unsearchable plots of the powers of darkness. As there is the strength
   of sin within, the might of Satan without, as fit subjects for his
   power, so there are the stratagems of Satan, the subtleties and deceits
   of the flesh, as a fit occasion for his almighty skill against hellish
   policy. In regard also of his working upon the soul, he works upon
   those that are so contrary to his design without imposing upon their
   faculties; he moves them according to their physical nature, though
   contrary to their moral nature; he makes us do willingly what we would
   not; he so tunes the strings that they speak out willingly what
   naturally they are most unfit for. The Spirit acts wisely in the
   revealing to us the knowledge of Christ, as Eph. i. 17, 'The spirit of
   wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him,' which may note the
   manner of his acting in the revelation, which is the first work of the
   soul, as well as the effect it does produce, though I suppose the
   effect is principally meant. Some question the wisdom of God in acting
   so upon the will as not to lease it to its own indifference in this
   change. What reason is there to question his wisdom? Do not the angels
   in heaven admire God's wisdom as well as his grace, who has immutably
   fixed them to that which is good? Do they question the wisdom of God
   for so happy a confirmation of them against that indifference which
   destroyed some of their fellows by creation? But is there not an
   evident art in this work, to make the will willing that had no
   affection to this change; to fit the key so to all the wards that not
   one is disordered; to move us contrary to our corrupt reason, yet bring
   us to that pass to acknowledge we had reason to be so moved; to move
   our faculties one by another as wheels in a watch; to present spiritual
   things with such an evident light as engages our understandings to
   believe that which they would not believe before, and our wills to
   embrace that which our affections gainsay? It must therefore be a fruit
   of divine skill since it is a fruit of divine teaching, John vi. 45.

   (4.) There is a greater wisdom in it than in the creation of the world.
   The higher the work rises, the more of skill appears. It is a divine
   art to make man to live the life of plants in his growth, the life of
   beasts in his sense, the life of angels in his mind; more it is then to
   make him live the life of God in his grace. Man in his body partakes of
   earth, in his soul of heaven, in his grace of the heaven of heavens, of
   the God of heaven. The grace in the new birth is nearer the likeness of
   God than the figure of men in the first birth. God therefore does more
   observe the numbers and measures in the second creation than he did in
   the first. Man was the most excellent piece in the lower creation,
   therefore more of art in the framing of him than in the whole celestial
   and elementary world. The glorious bodies of sun, moon, and stars had
   not such marks upon them. The nearer resemblance anything has to God,
   the more of wisdom as well as power is signified in the make of it.

   (5.) The holiness of God is seen in this work. The day of God's power
   breaks not upon us in the change of our wills, without his appearance
   in 'the beauties of holiness,' Ps. cx. 3. The Spirit is called a spirit
   of holiness, not only as he is the efficient, but as he is the pattern,
   and like fire transforms into his own nature; for that which is born of
   the Spirit is spirit. The law in the tables of stone was an image; the
   law in the heart is an extract of God's holiness. Our first creation in
   a mutable state was according to his own image, Gen. i. 26. Our second
   creation is more exactly like him, in a gracious immutability. The
   holiness in Christ's human nature was an effect of the holiness of God;
   the holiness we have then in resemblance to Christ, must be a fruit of
   the same perfection. If we are renewed according to his image, it must
   be according to his holiness. To be merciful and just, is to have a
   moral image; to be holy, is to have a divine. The apostle intimates
   this in his exhortation, we must be holy in serving him, because he was
   holy in calling us: 1 Peter i. 16, 'As he which has called you is holy,
   so be ye holy,' &c. In this respect, God calls himself, not only a holy
   one, but the holy one of Israel: Isa. xliii. 15, 'I am the Lord your
   holy one, the creator of Israel, your king.' He is not only holy in
   himself, but displays his holiness in them, by an act of a new
   creation. By creator is not meant, his being the creator of them, as he
   is of all, even of wicked men and devils; but implies a peculiar
   relation to them, as distinguished from others. He is the creator of
   devils, holy in his actions towards devils, but not their holy one by
   any inward renovation, or consecrating them to himself, as he is the
   holy one of Israel. As he is a God in covenant, he is our God,
   therefore our God as he is a holy God, as well as he is a powerful God,
   communicating the one as well as the other in a covenant way, therefore
   the prophet Habakkuk joins them both together, 'O Lord my God, my holy
   one,' Hab. i. 12. His holiness is no less necessary for the felicity of
   his people, than his mercy and power. What happiness could his mercy
   move, his wisdom contrive, or his power effect, without the
   communication of his holiness? Mercy could not of itself fit a man for
   it, nor power give a man possession of it, without holiness attiring
   him with all those graces which prepare him for it. God, as sovereign,
   chose us; as merciful, pardons us; as wise, guides us; as powerful,
   protects us; as true, makes good his promises to us; but as holy,
   cleanses us from our old habits, makes us vessels of honour, filled
   with the savoury and delicious fruits of his Spirit, his pleasant
   things. The implantation of grace in the heart, is no less an effect of
   his holiness, than the preservation of it is, which our Saviour
   intimates, when in his petition for it he gives his Father rather the
   title of holy, than of any other attribute: John xvii. 11, 'Holy
   Father, keep through thy own name.'

   6. The power of God appears in this work. 'Since the world began was it
   not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind,'
   John ix. 32; neither was it ever heard that any man could open the
   understanding of one that was born dark. Everything that pertains to
   life and godliness, of which regeneration is not the meanest, is the
   work of divine power: 2 Peter i. 3, 'According as his divine power has
   given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the
   knowledge of him who has called us to glory and virtue;' glory and
   virtue, by a hendiadis, for a glorious virtue; and the apostle adds,
   that this calling was an effect of a glorious power; it is not "eis",
   but "dia", through glory and virtue; the same preposition "dia", which,
   as joined with knowledge, is translated through; as much as to say,
   through a glorious virtue or power, both "agete" and virtus, signifying
   valour and strength in their several languages. When God hardens a man,
   he only withdraws his grace. But a divine virtue is necessary for the
   cure of our hereditary disease. There is no great force required to cut
   a dead man, but to raise him requires an extraordinary power. We may as
   well deny this work to be a new creation, a resurrection, as deny it to
   be an act of divine power. There is a word that calls; there is also a
   power to work: 1 Thes. i. 5. 'Our gospel came not unto you in word
   only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost;' that is, the power of
   the Holy Ghost. There was not only grace in the word, to woo, but the
   power of the Holy Ghost in it, to overcome the heart. There is not only
   an act of an almighty Spirit, but an act of his almightyness. The hand
   of the Lord created the world, 'the heavens are the work of his
   fingers,' Ps. viii. 3; but grace is the work of 'his arms,' Isa. liii.
   1. It may be said of the first grace in the new birth, as it was of
   Reuben, Gen. xlix. 3, it is his 'might, the beginning of his strength,
   and the excellency of his power.' Though ministerial gifts were as
   excellent as Paul's, whose preaching was with demonstration and power,
   and who knew the readiest ways to men's hearts, if a man ever did, yet
   'the excellency of the power was of God;' and when he brandished his
   spiritual weapons, they were only 'mighty through God,' 2 Cor. x. 4.
   Though the declaration was his, yet the working was Christ's, Rom. xv.
   18; none of his people are willing, till the day of his power, Ps. cx.
   3.

   (1.) It is as great, yea, greater power, than that put forth in
   creation. It is as great; it is the introduction of another form, not
   in a way of any action or fashion, but in such a manner as was in the
   creation, that is, by the mighty operation of God; otherwise it could
   not be called a new creature though it might be called a new thing. You
   call not that which is made by the art or power of man, as a watch, a
   clock, a house, a new creature; for there is nothing of creation in
   them, but art and industry, setting the pieces of matter, created to
   their hands, together in such a form or figure. But this is called a
   new creature, not so much in regard of the newness of the thing, but in
   regard of the power that wrought it, and the manner of working it,
   being the same with that of creation. And being termed so, it implies
   the exerting an efficacious power; for creation is not brought by a
   cessation of action (which would be in God, if the will were only the
   cause of it) but the employment of an active virtue. God does not hold
   his hand in his bosom, but spreads it open, and applies it to an
   efficacious action. Since it is a new creation, it implies a creator,
   and a creative power, creation cannot be without both. It is a greater
   power expended in regeneration than in creation; more power morally in
   this, than physically in that. One word created the world; many words
   are combined for the new preparation of the heart. It is easier to make
   a thousand glasses, than to set together one that is dashed in pieces.
   It is easier with God to make a world (quoad nos, as to our conception,
   for all things are alike easy with God), and create thousands of men
   with his image, as bright as Adam's, than to bring that into form which
   is so miserably defaced.

   [1.] First, In regard of the subject, sin has turned man into a beast,
   and omnipotence only can turn a bestial man into angelical and divine.
   There is a less distance between the least dust and the glorious God,
   than there is between the holy God and an impure sinner; sin and grace
   are more contrary to one another, than aliquid and nihil, something and
   nothing. A straw may with less power be made a star, than a corrupted
   sinner be made a saint. In creation, God was only to put in nature,
   here he is to 'put off' one that is strong, and to bring in another
   altogether strange and new, it is hard to bring a man off from his old
   stock, and as hard to make him nakedly to trust Christ. It is more
   difficult to make a man leave his sin, than to change his opinion,
   since men are more in love with habitual wickedness than with any
   opinion whatsoever. In regard of the indisposedness of the soul. There
   is some foundation for a natural religion, there being general notions
   of God and his attributes, which would administer some conclusions that
   he was to be feared and reverenced; and according to these notions many
   cheeks of conscience, which would induce men to some moral behaviour
   towards God. But in the setting our hearts right to God, and creating
   them in a mediator, there was not the least dust in nature to build
   upon. In the creating of Adam's body, there was some pre-existent
   matter, the dust of the ground, whereof his body has by a divine power
   made and organised; but we meet with no pre-existent matter for the
   formation of the soul, which made him a rational creature; that indeed
   was the breath of God, not engendered by any concurring cause in
   nature. There is no pre-existent matter in the creature, of which this
   image is formed, though there be a pre-existent subject to receive the
   impression of it; it is not the rearing anything upon the foundation of
   nature, but introducing a nature wholly new, which speaks almightyness.
   In regard of the contradiction in the subject. The stream of man's
   natural reason, the principles, of self, whereby he is guided, run
   counter to it, there is a pride of reason which will not stoop to the
   gospel, which in man's wisdom is counted foolishness. Man is an untamed
   heifer, a wild ass that snuffs up the wind, full of hatred to the ways
   of God, guided by gigantic lusts, which make as great a resistance as a
   mountain of brass; stoutness of heart, strong prejudices against the
   law of God, fierceness of affection, drinking iniquity like water,
   universal madness, resisting the spirit, hare-brained imaginations;
   frowardness in the will, forwardness to evil, perversity against good;
   can anything, less than an almighty power, make a universal cure? It is
   more easy to make men stoop to some victorious prince, and become his
   vassals, than to bring men to a submission to God and his laws, which
   they entertain with contempt and scorn. Nothing obeyed God's word in
   the creation; though it contributed not to his design, yet it could not
   oppose him, it could not swell against him, because it has nothing. But
   every sinner is rebellious, disputes God's commands, fortifies himself
   against his entrance, gives not up himself without a contest. This
   pride is hereditary, it bore sway in the heart ever since Adam's fall,
   and has prescription of as long a standing as the world to plead for
   possession. What but infinite power can fling down this pride at the
   foot of the cross, make the heart strike its swelling sail to Christ,
   and become nothing in itself, that Christ may be all life in him, and
   all righteousness to him? It is only possible to God to make a camel,
   with this bunch on its back, pass through a needle's eye; no less than
   divine power can bring down these armies of opposite imaginations,
   which have both multitude and strength (and no man knows either their
   number or strength), and the whole frame of contradiction against the
   grace of Christ. Our Saviour intimates this creative power in that
   thanksgiving to his Father: Matt. xi. 25, 'I thank thee, O Father, Lord
   of heaven and earth,' &c. Christ, in all his addresses to his Father,
   used attributes and titles suitable to the business he insisted on. The
   revelation of divine knowledge to babes, the moulding their hearts to
   receive it, was an act of God as he is Lord of heaven and earth,
   putting forth an infinite power in the forming of it. If God were the
   author of grace in the hearts of those babes, persons better disposed,
   and nearer the kingdom of heaven, as he was Lord of heaven and earth,
   then there must be some greater power than that of the creation of the
   world put forth to conquer the wise and prudent, whose wisdom and
   prudence stands armed in the breaches of nature to beat off the
   assaults of the gospel.

   [2.] In regard of the opposition of the present possessors. The chasing
   out an armed devil, that has kept the palace in peace so long, must be
   by a power superior to his own, Luke xi. 21, 22. This great Goliath has
   his armour about him, has had long possession and dearest affections;
   the impulses of natural concupiscence take his part; he has his
   alluring baits, his pleasing proposals; the world and the flesh are
   linked with him in a league to hinder the restoration of the soul to
   Christ, and the restoration of God's image to the soul. A threefold
   cord is not easily broken. It must be a power superior to those three
   great posters in conjunction, that must bind the strong man; and
   casting him out, and spoiling his goods, are acts of power, Mat. xii.
   29. Satan is too strong to be easily cast out, and the flesh loves him
   too dearly to be easily divorced from him; he is never like to lay down
   his arms by persuasions; though all the angels in heaven should entreat
   him, he would not give up one foot of his empire. Nay, though what God
   does propose has a greater weight of goodness, pleasure, and profit in
   itself, than what those three great impostors can offer, yet, since
   reason is weak and mightily corrupted under the conduct of sense, which
   has an alliance with Satan's proposals, and first sucks them in, it is
   not like to meet with any entertainment, as being against the interest
   of the flesh; and the will being backed with two such powerful seconds,
   as Satan and the world, to assist it in its refusals. Indeed, if he
   that is in the regenerate, were not greater and more powerful than he
   that is in the world, they would not be able to resist his allurements
   and subtilties, 1 John iv. 4. The triumphs of Christ at his ascension
   declare his power in his acquisition; with a strong hand he broke the
   chain of sinners, and 'led captivity captive' before he gave gifts to
   men, Ps. lxviii. 18. He does the like in giving grace to the heart; he
   rides upon his white horse in the power of almighty grace, when he
   conquers the enmity in the soul, as well as when he overcomes the
   enemies of his church, Rev. vi. 2.

   (2.) It is a power as great as that which wrought in the resurrection
   of Christ. It is considerable how loftily the apostle sets it out: Eph.
   i. 19, 20, 'And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward
   who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he
   wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his
   own right hand in heavenly places.' Exceeding greatness of his power,
   "huperthallon", with an hyperbole, according to the working or
   efficaciousness of his mighty power, noting the infusion of faith in
   the soul by a powerful impression, 'according to the working of the
   might or strength.' One word was not enough to signify the great power
   working: it is strength with a greater edge upon it; as when a man
   would fetch a mighty blow, he stirs up all his strength, sets his teeth
   on edge to summon all his spirits to assist his arm. The power of God
   in creation of nature is never in the whole Scripture set forth so
   magnificently as his power in the creation of grace is in this place.
   The apostle picks not out any examples of God's power in his ordinary
   works, or that power in lesser miracles which exceeded the power of
   nature, to illustrate this power by. He does not say, It is that power
   whereby we work miracles or speak with tongues: no; neither is it that
   power whereby our Saviour wrought such miracles when he was in the
   world. It is a more illustrious power than the giving sight to the
   blind, speech to the dumb, hearing to the deaf, yea, or life to a
   putrefied carcass, this is an extraordinary power. But yet this
   gracious power is higher than all this, for it is as great as that
   which wrought the two greatest miracles that ever were acted in the
   creation as great as the raising Jesus Christ perfectly dead in the
   grave, and having the weight of the sin of the world upon him, and as
   great as that power which, after the raising of him, set him in his
   human nature at his right hand, above principalities and powers, above
   the whole angelical state, as much as to say, As great as all that
   power which wrought the whole scene of the redemption, from the
   foundation-stone to the top-stone. It is such an unconquerable power,
   whereby God brings about all his decrees which terminated in Christ.
   Some say this power is not exercised in the begetting faith, but in the
   faithful after faith is begun. It is very strange that a less power is
   necessary to beget, than to preserve a thing after it is brought into
   being. And the same power is requisite to raise the heart of the most
   moral man under heaven out of the grave of corrupted nature, as well as
   those that are furthest in their dispositions from God. As, had not our
   Saviour had the weight of the sins of men upon him, had he been dead
   but an hour or two, lain in the grave with a little loose or light sand
   cast upon him, it would have required infinite power to have restored
   him to life. The apostle mentions this in other places, though not so
   highly as in this: Rom. vi. 4 'That like as Christ was raised up by the
   glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life.' It
   must be understood thus. Even so we, being raised up by the glory of
   the Father, should walk in newness of life. And it may be partly the
   meaning of the apostle Peter, 1 Peter i. 3, 'Who has begotten us to a
   lively hope by, or through, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
   dead,' not only as the foundation of our hopes, but by a power
   conformable to that which raised Christ from the dead. I would only by
   the way note, that this infers a higher operation than merely an
   exhortation and suasion; for would any man say of a philosopher that
   had taught him morality, that he had displayed in him the exceeding
   greatness of his power, only upon the account of advising and
   counselling him to reform his manners, and live more soberly and
   honestly in the world? Our Saviour esteemed this one thing greater than
   all the other miracles he wrought, and declared himself to be the
   Christ more by this than by any other. When John sent to know who he
   was. he returns no other account than the list of his miracles: 'The
   blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the
   dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached,' Luke vii. 20.
   That which brings up the rear as the greatest is, 'the poor
   "euangelidzontai", are evangelised;' it is not to be taken actively of
   the preaching of the gospel, but passively, that they were wrought upon
   by the gospel, and became gospelled people, transformed into the mould
   of it, else it would bear no analogy to the other miracles; the deaf
   hear, and the dead were raised; they had not exhortations to hear and
   live, but the effects were wrought in them; so those words import not
   only the preaching of the gospel to them, but the powerful operation of
   the gospel in them. This greatest miracle in the catalogue is the only
   miracle our Saviour has left in the world since the cessation of all
   the rest.

   I have insisted the longer upon these perfections in God apparent in
   this work.

   1. To stir up every renewed person to a thankful frame towards God,
   that he should engage his choicest attributes for the good of a poor
   creature. To what purpose did the apostle so long and so highly speak
   of the power of God in raising them from a spiritual death, but that
   they should acknowledge it, and admire God for it? It cannot but raise
   high admirations and adorations of God, to consider how mercy moved for
   them, sovereignty called them out, wisdom modelled them, holiness
   cleansed them, and power framed them.

   2. To stir up deep humility. It is a plain declaration of our miserable
   estate by nature, and the difficulty of emerging out of it, impossible
   for any creature to effect. Had not God been infinitely merciful, wise,
   holy, true, and omnipotent, and put forth his power to free men from a
   slavery to sin, not a man had been able to escape out of it; and these
   two, admiration of God, and humiliation of self, are the two great acts
   of a Christian, which set all other graces on work. Mercy speaks us
   very miserable, wisdom declares us fools, holiness unclean, and power
   extremely weak.

   3. How mightily will it give a ground to the exercise of faith! He that
   is deeply sensible of this work of holiness and power in him, cannot
   but trust God upon his deed, as well as before he did upon his word. As
   you go to the promises without you, consider also the counterpart of
   the promise within you, and the efficacy of that power which wrought
   it. You have a ground of faith within you; the power extends to every
   one wherein this work is wrought: 'What is the exceeding greatness of
   his power to us-ward who believe;' this the apostle speaks to all the
   believing Ephesians.

   4. Therefore look much into yourselves by way of examination, to
   observe the actions of God's wisdom, holiness, and power within you.
   The want of this makes many gracious persons live disconsolately. Paul
   was certainly diligent in his observation, since he speaks so feelingly
   and experimentally of it. It is the way to answer Satan's objections,
   silence unbelieving thoughts, when you can trace the steps and
   operations of them in you; it would make you strive for an increase of
   this work of regeneration, that you may feel in yourselves more
   evidences of the holiness and power of God.

   5. Those that want it may well despair of attaining it by themselves
   and their own strength. Divine wisdom and power are exerted in this
   work, and men may as well think themselves able to raise a dead man,
   yea, Christ from the grave, and set him at the right hand of God, as do
   this by their own strength. If we want an eye or a hand, all the
   creation cannot furnish us with either. How can any power but that
   which is infinite give us an eye to look to Christ within the veil, and
   a hand to clasp him in heaven?

   6. It directs men where to seek it, and to seek it earnestly. At the
   hands of God, since infinite wisdom, holiness, and power, are necessary
   for the production of it. With earnestness, because it is so
   transcendent a work, has so many perfections of God shining in it, that
   creature-strength and wisdom is utterly unable to frame and raise it;
   and with hopes too, if they earnestly seek it, since God has hereby
   declared himself infinitely loving, in the combination of so many
   attributes for the effecting of it. Plead, therefore, the glory of God
   in these his attributes, and if God give you a heart to seek it, it is
   a probable argument he will give you that grace which he has given you
   a heart to desire.

   IV. Quest. How God does this?

   1. This work is secret, and therefore difficult to be described. The
   effects are as obvious to a spiritual sense, as the methods of it
   obscure to our understandings; secret as the original of winds,
   sensible as the sound and bluster of them, John iii. 8. If a dead man
   were raised, he would not know the manner how his soul returned into
   the body, how it took its former place, and made up a new union, yet he
   would know that he lives and moves. A gracious soul knows that he was
   carnal, and now spiritual, blind, and that he now sees. He finds
   strength instead of weakness, inclinations to good instead of
   opposition, sweetness in the ways of God instead of bitterness. The
   methods of grace are obscure as those of nature: Eccles. xi. 5, 'Who
   knows the way of the spirit, or how the bones grow in the womb of her
   that is with child? even so thou knows not the works of God who makes
   all.' The manner of the formation of Christ in the soul is as
   undiscernible as the formation of a child, or the manner of Christ's
   conception in the womb of the virgin, both which are fearful and
   wonderful, as it is said of the first, Ps. cxxxix. 14, 'Who can declare
   his generation 9' Isa. liii. 8; that is, the generation of Christ,
   either in his person or in his people. We cannot give a satisfactory
   account of the natural motions of our souls, how one faculty commands
   another, how the soul governs the several parts of the body, what the
   nature of the action of our mind is in contemplation and reflection,
   how our wills move the spirits in the body, whereby the members are
   acted in their motion, and the functions of life performed. Much more
   undiscernible are the supernatural methods of the Spirit of God. We
   know ourselves heirs to the corruption of the first Adam by the inbeing
   of it, the light of the grace of the second Adam discovers itself in
   the soul, but the manner of the descent of either is not easily to he
   determined. The loadstone's attracting of iron is the best
   representation of this work; the soul, like that, moves sensibly,
   cleaves strongly to God; but wherein this virtue consists, how
   communicated, both in that of nature and this of spirit, dazzles the
   eye of reason.

   2. Yet this is evident, that it is rational; that is, congruous to the
   essential nature of man. God does not deal with us as beasts, or as
   creatures destitute of sense, but as creatures of an intelligent order.
   Who is there that believes in Christ in such a manner as heavy things
   fall to the earth, or light things fly up to the air, or as beasts run
   at the beck of their sensual appetite, without rule or reason? If the
   Spirit of God wrought so upon man, this were to lay our faculties
   asleep, not to act them, but to act only upon them; this were to invert
   the natural order by creation, to raze out the foundations of virtue,
   and deny the creature the pleasure of his condition, who, according to
   such a manner of operation, could not understand his own state, no more
   than a brute can the harmony of music, or the pleasing variety of
   colours. But grace perfects our souls, possesses them with new
   principles, moves one faculty by another, like the motions of the
   wheels in a clock or watch; like the common course of providence,
   wherein he orders all affairs according to the dependence of them one
   upon another by creation, without making any inroad upon the natural
   rights of any creature, but preserving them entire, unless in some
   miraculous action. He diffuses a supernatural virtue into the soul, not
   to thwart it in that course of working he appointed it in the creation,
   but to move it agreeably to its nature as a rational being. As the sun
   conveys a celestial virtue upon the plants, drawing them forth by its
   influence according to their several natures, so the Holy Ghost
   introduces a supernatural principle into men, whereby they act as
   reasonable creatures in a higher strain. What methods our Saviour used
   in the first declaration of the gospel, he uses in the propagation of
   it in the hearts of men. The same reason that is used in writing the
   indenture is used in writing the counterpart. He might, by his
   omniscient wisdom, have found the way to the most secret corner of
   every man's heart, and by his power have set up what standard he
   pleased in every part of the castle, without proposing the gospel in
   the way of miracles and arguments; but he transacts all that affair in
   such a manner, that men might be moved in a rational way to their own
   happiness. He required a rational belief, as he gave rational
   evidences: John x. 37, 'If I do not the works of my Father, believe me
   not;' that is, the works that none but one empowered by God could do.
   God, that requires of us a reasonable service, would work upon us by a
   reasonable operation. God therefore works by way of a spiritual
   illumination of the understanding, in propounding the creature's
   happiness by arguments and reasons, and in a way of a spiritual
   impression upon the will, moving it sweetly to the embracing that
   happiness, and the means to it which he does propose; and indeed
   without this work preceding, the motion of the will could never be
   regular.

   God does this by a double work.

   1. Upon the understanding.

   2. Upon the will.

   1. Upon the understanding. The opening the eyes precedes the conversion
   from darkness to light, in God's operation as well as in the apostles'
   commission, Acts xxvi. 18. The first appearance of life, when God
   raises the soul, is in the clearness and distinctness of its knowledge
   of God, Hos. vi 2, 3. And the apostle, in his exhortation to the
   Romans, tells them the way for the transformation of their souls was by
   the renewing of their minds: 'Be ye transformed by the renewing of your
   minds,' Rom. xii. '2. The light of the sun is seen breaking out at the
   dawning at the day, before the heat of the sun be felt. As the action
   of our sense is to sensible objects, so is that of our soul to
   spiritual. Our eye first sees an object before our hearts desire it, or
   our members move to it; so there is an apprehension of the goodness of
   the thing proposed, before there be any motion of our wills to it; so
   God begins his work in our minds, and terminates it in our wills. In
   regard of this, as a state of nature is set forth under the term of
   darkness, so a state of grace is often termed light, that being the
   first work in the new creation, as it was the first word of command in
   the old, 'Let there be light,' 2 Cor. iv. 6, Col. iii. 10, and is
   therefore called a renewing 'in knowledge,' or unto knowledge or
   acknowledgement, "anakainoumenon eis epignosin". If you consider the
   Scripture, you will find most of the terms whereby this is set forth to
   us have relation to the understanding. The gospel itself is called
   knowledge, Luke i. 77, wisdom, 1 Cor. i. 30. What faculty in man is
   appointed for the apprehending of a science to gain wisdom, but the
   understanding? That whereby we receive the gospel is called 'the spirit
   of the mind,' 'the eyes of the understanding' and 'sight,' which is put
   before believing: John vi. 40, 'Every one which sees the Son, and
   believes on him.' The work of grace is called 'revelation,' Gal. i. 16,
   'illumination,' Eph. i. 18, 'translation from darkness to light,'
   'opening the heart.' The action of our minds being enlightened, is
   called 'comprehending', Eph. iii. 18, and 'knowledge,' 2 Peter i. 2.
   All respect the understanding as the original wheel which God primarily
   sets in order, from whence he does influence secondarily all the other
   faculties which depend upon its guidance, God preserving hereby the
   order which he instituted in nature. Therefore, when the understanding
   savingly apprehends the deformity of sin, the will must needs hate it;
   when it apprehends the mercy of God, and the beauty of holiness, the
   will must needs love him, and the higher the degrees of this saving
   illumination are in the mind, the stronger and firmer are the habits
   and acts of grace in the will. This illuminative act of the Spirit is
   before, prior natura, the other of inclining the will, for the
   understanding is first exercised about the word, as verum, true, before
   the will is concerned in it as good. The understanding takes in the
   light of the gospel, which, by the working of the Spirit, is reflected
   upon the will, whereby it is changed into the image of Christ, whose
   gospel it is: 2 Cor. iii. 18, 'Beholding as in a glass the glory of the
   Lord, we are changed into the same image.' The first act is of the
   mind, which is the eye of the soul; where the apostle intimates, that
   the whole progress, as well as the first change, is wrought in this
   manner.

   This is wrought,

   1. By removing the indisposition and prejudices which naturally are in
   the mind. As a wise physician which orders his medicines for the
   removing of the principal humour. Chains of darkness must be broken,
   films upon the eye must be removed, which hinder the act of vision; for
   what the eye is to the body, that the understanding is to the soul. The
   darkness of ignorance is promised in the covenant to be scattered:
   'They shall all know me, from the least to the greatest of them,' Jer.
   xxxi. 34. This being a law in the inward parts, the eye must be cleared
   to read it, as well as the heart cleansed to obey it. The object being
   spiritual, requires a spiritual disposition in the faculty for the
   reception of it. This is called in Scripture a giving eyes to see, and
   ears to hear, Deut. xxix. 4, and the revealing things not only by the
   word, but by the Spirit, 1 Cor. ii. 10, which, in regard of rectifying
   the reasons and judgments of men, is called a 'spirit of judgment,' Isa
   iv. 4, 'and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst
   thereof; by the spirit of judgment. and the spirit of burning:' a
   spirit of judgment, as it is light in the understanding, removing the
   darkness, a spirit of burning, as it is heat in the heart, thawing the
   hardness. It reduces the mind into a right order, and teaches it to
   judge between truth and falsehood, between good and evil, the want of
   which is the cause of sin; whence sins are called "agnoemata", Heb. ix.
   7, errors, as arising from error in judgment. Since the mind is hued
   with fogs, and incapable to perceive the splendour of divine truths,
   God acts upon the mind by an inward virtue, causing the word proposed
   to be mixed with an act of faith, which he begets in the soul, whereby
   it apprehends the excellency of that state presented to it in the
   gospel. As there is a manifestation of his name in the word, so there
   is an operation of his grace, an internal teaching by God, as well as
   an external by the gospel; the proposal of the word by man, the opening
   and fitting the heart by God: John vi. 45, 'Every man that has heard,
   and has learned of the Father, comes unto me'. Christ taught all by his
   ministry, the Father only some by his Spirit. Learning of God goes
   before coming to Christ, and those two acts are plainly distinguished:
   Isa. vi. 9, 10, 'Hear and not understand.' The lock of their minds was
   to be opened, as well as that of their ears; the prophet's voice could
   unlock the one, the Spirit only had the key of the other. Men may
   enlighten as moral causes, God only as the efficient cause, to root out
   the inward indisposition. The Sprit also removes the prejudices against
   Christ as undesirable, against holiness as troublesome, takes down the
   strength of corrupt reasonings, pulls down those idols in the mind and
   false notions of happiness, out-reasons men out of their inward
   thoughts of a happiness in sensual pleasures, pride of life, mammon of
   honour or wealth, which are the root of our spiritual disease, and
   first to be cured. In this there is a manifest difference between the
   working of Satan and the operation of God; he sets his battery against
   the affections, because the entry is there easiest; God breaks in upon
   the understanding, which, being the chief fort, will quickly be a means
   to reduce the lesser citadels. And when the work begins in removing the
   blindness, it is the way to a true conversion; when it begins only in
   the affections, it is a prognostic of a quick starting aside. In an
   outward exhortation, God acts suitably to our nature, since we are
   endued with understanding and will; but in acting upon us within, he
   does remedy the vice of our nature. since our reason and will are
   corrupted.

   (2.) It is wrought by bringing the mind and the object close together.
   Sight is produced in a blind man by drawing off the scales from his
   eyes, and the recourse of spirits to the eye necessary for sight;
   besides this, there must be outward light, and objects coloured by that
   light; and from the eye so disposed within, and the thing discovered
   without, arises the action of sight. So from the preparation of the
   understanding, and the application of the object, arises this action of
   spiritual vision. There is a double opening, one of the gospel, the
   other of the understanding; our Saviour did both, he 'opened the
   Scriptures,' Luke xxiv. 32, and 'opened their understandings,' ver. 45,
   that there might be a mutual entrance, that the word might dwell in
   their hearts, and their hearts have admission into the I ord. The
   Spirit shows the great things of the gospel to the soul: John xi. 14,
   "anangelei", 'He shall receive of mine, and show it unto you,' not in
   general, but bring them near to them, to make them view 'and know the
   things that are freely given to them of God,' l Cor. ii. 12, the
   benefits of the death and resurrection of Christ. He repeats them again
   and again, that there may be an evidence in the mind that they are the
   royal gifts of God. There is a knowledge, before this work of the
   Spirit, but as of things at a distance. Many know the things proposed
   in the gospel, but they know it not as a glorious gospel, nor see the
   wonders in this law, till the Spirit brings that and the faculty close
   together. As a man may discern a statue or picture at a distance, but
   till the eye and the objects meet close together, it cannot discern the
   beautiful workmanship upon them with any affection to them. Not that a
   man knew nothing, or knows new reasons of those things which he knew
   before; but there is a nearer, and therefore clearer, representation of
   them, which is demonstratio ostensiva, whereby he knows them in another
   manner than he did before. As a man may know the promises before, but
   they were not brought so near to him as to taste them; taste being an
   addition to knowledge, whereby a man knows that sensibly which before
   he only knew notionally. It is one thing to know a mechanical
   instrument, and another to know it in the operation of it, when it is
   applied to its proper use. It is like a man that has his understanding
   more cleared by seeing mathematical demonstrations, and lines drawn,
   than by all the rules of art in his head.

   (3.) By fixing the mind upon the subject so closely presented. The
   Spirit settles that light and the object so in the mind, that it can no
   more blow it out than puff out the sparklings of a diamond, or than an
   artist endued with the habit of some art can divest himself of his
   skill. Many men have some convictions of truth, but flashy and
   uncertain, and which slip from their minds. But when the Spirit opens
   the heart, it holds the object to the mind, and the mind to the object,
   starts one holy thought after another about the truth it has darted in,
   makes the mind peer about it, and take notice of every lineament of
   that truth that we eye, and those thoughts lie down, rise up, and walk
   with us. When Lydia's heart was opened, she 'attended to the things
   spoken by Paul,' Acts xvi. 14, her whole heart cleaved to them. In this
   respect the Spirit is a remembrancer, making the soul ponder and and
   over again with all intenseness of mind the goodness and truth of those
   things in the gospel which are brought unto it, that the heart is, as
   Paul was, 'bound in spirit to Jerusalem,' Acts xx. 22. The thoughts of
   that journey did so haunt him and follow him, as the shadow does the
   body, that no arguments of friends, nor fear of danger, could divert
   him; the soul is bound by them, one consideration overtaking another,
   and all at work beating upon the mind. Hence consideration is put
   before conversion: Ezek. xviii. 28, 'Because he considers and turns
   away from all his transgressions.' And it is called the 'engrafted
   word,' fastened to the soul as a graft to the stock; when the heart is
   opened by the Spirit, the word is inserted in and bound to it, and at
   last the heart becomes one with the word, and grows up with it.

   (4.) By bringing the soul to an actual reasoning and discourse upon the
   sight of the evidence. God convinces the judgment with reasons proper
   to evidence the truth and goodness of what he does propose, and that
   with pregnant and prevailing demonstrations, which give a competent
   satisfaction; therefore called the 'demonstration of the Spirit and
   power,' 1 Cor. ii. 4, that is, a spiritual and powerful demonstration.
   When the eye is opened, and the revelation made, and held close and
   fast to the soul with a divine demonstration, that this is the only
   means to elevate him to a high condition, and at last bring him to a
   blessed immortality, the understanding is moved to compare the force of
   those arguments, and consequently judges that true which before it
   counted false and foolishness, and comes by the help of this spiritual
   light to reason spiritually, and spiritually to discern the proposition
   made to it. It compares its natural state with the happy state offered
   to it, its own ignorance with that light, its own misery with that
   mercy. God will not have man, that is so far above a beast, do anything
   without reason; for this would be to do it brutishly, though the thing
   done were never so good, When men act as men, they follow the judgment
   of the best reason they can. And shall man, that was created a rational
   creature, be renewed without reason, when the very work is to advance
   him to the true state of a reasonable creature, and his reason is
   enlightened by the Spirit, that it may rightly judge of the
   demonstrative arguments it offers to him? Is there not as much reason
   for the guidance of the will in the highest concern, as for the conduct
   of it in affairs of a lower sphere? Man was first endued with reason,
   that he might rationally serve God; and his depraved reason is
   reformed, that he may rationally return to God. If, therefore, he act
   like a man in other things, he does not surely act like a brute in
   this; but the Spirit excites that reason he has enlightened to judge of
   those excellent things he does propose, and the strength of the
   arguments he backs them with, which are so clear and undeniable that
   they cannot be refused by a mind divested of those indispositions which
   drew out before a contempt of them. The change in the will being an
   election and choice, cannot be made without convincing and satisfying
   reasons which induce it to that choice, and justify the election it has
   made. That can hardly be called faith, when a man believes that which
   he does not think upon the highest reason was his duty to believe. And
   indeed what man is there that cannot allege some reason why he is
   induced to this or that act? God moves men by presenting things to the
   understanding under the notion of good, honest, profitable; and when
   the understanding is enlightened to judge of things in some measure
   under the same notion that God proposes them, a man's own reason cannot
   but upon a view of them assent unto them, and that assent is followed
   with a change, according to the degrees of that illumination, if it be
   a saving one. Upon this account that our own reason is excited to judge
   of the proposal, our faith can no more be said to be a human faith, or
   the work to proceed from our own power, than it can be said to be
   sensitive because it comes by hearing; for though faith depends upon
   hearing and reasoning, as upon natural powers, yet the light whereby
   the faculties are acted is wholly supernatural, and from the Spirit of
   God.

   (5.) Hence follows a full conviction of the soul. Both the knowledge of
   its own misery, and the amiableness of the gospel offer, whence issues
   a weariness under the one and desires for the other. By this
   enlightening, the soul sees sin in its empire, God in his wrath, Satan
   in his tyranny, and the hardness of the stone within him; he sees the
   law accusing, sin triumphing, heaven shut and hell open, God ready to
   judge him, and his soul every way deplorable. He sees also in the
   gospel how Christ has expiated sin, answered the demands of the law,
   stills the clamours of conscience, satisfied the justice of God by
   bearing his wrath; hereupon the soul closes with Christ, and is born
   again. Here are heaps of sin that cannot be numbered, on the other side
   are riches of mercy that cannot be reckoned, there is sin to damn, here
   is a Christ to save; heaven and hell, sin and Christ, damnation and
   salvation, are presented in their proper colours, and pressed upon the
   understanding; which beholds all by a clear light. And thus, by the
   illuminative virtue of the Spirit, the soul is laid at God's foot in a
   sense of its misery, and then drawn into Christ's arms by a sense of
   his grace. This is wrought by a connective persuasion, for so the word
   "elegchein" signifies, John xvi. 8, which causes both a sight of sin
   and a sense of righteousness, and produces a full assent in the
   understanding.

   2. The next faculty wrought upon is the will. The will is inclined, as
   well as the understanding enlightened, whereby spiritual things are
   approved with a spiritual affection, the same hand that darts light
   into the mind, puts heat into the will. After the act of understanding
   has preceded in a serious consideration, and thorough conviction, the
   act of the will, by virtue of the same Spirit, follows in a delightful
   motion to the object proposed to it; it is conducted by light, and
   spirited by love; the understanding hands the object to the will, as
   necessary to be embraced, and the arms of the will are opened to
   receive it, as the eyes of the mind are to behold it.

   For the understanding of this, take these propositions.

   Prop. 1. There seems to me to be an immediate supernatural work upon
   the will, as well as upon the understanding: not that the understanding
   is only enlightened, and the will follows the dictate of that without
   any further touch of the Spirit upon it; but the will, as it is the
   will, and therefore cannot be forced, there is need of a moral cause
   which may determine it according to its nature, and draw it by the
   cords of a man. When a master instructs a youth in his trade, he does
   it by arguments morally; when he holds his hand with the instrument in
   it, and directs the motion, he acts physically; so does the Spirit
   exhort us to spiritual motion, telling us inwardly which is the way,
   that we may walk in it, and take our wills by the hand, as it were, and
   lead them in the way they are to go. A nurse's tongue and exhortation
   is not enough to make a child to go, because of the weakness of its
   limbs; nor the light in the understanding sufficient to move the will,
   wherein there is an habitual weakness and contradiction. How did God
   work up the wills of the Egyptians to lend their jewels to the
   Israelites, but by some immediate touch. Their reason might have
   furnished them with many more arguments against it than it could for
   it. They knew the Israelites had been highly injured, and that very
   lately, too; that they could not but have a deep sense of their
   oppression, and intentions of revenge, as far as their power extended.
   They knew that the Israelites prepared for flight, and might more than
   conjecture that they intended never to return or send their jewels to
   them; for what need had they of so many goods barely to sacrifice in
   the wilderness? How were their wills thus banded against so many
   arguments against this action, and without any strong reasons to move
   them to consent to such a desire of the Israelites? How must this be
   but by the efficacious power of God, not forcing their wills, but
   taming their fierceness, softening them by a secret instinct, and
   exciting them to a grant of the Israelites' request? The apostle says,
   God 'gives to will.' If there were not a particular act upon the will,
   it had better been said, God gives to understand and know, and man to
   will and do. After the evidence set up in the understanding, there is a
   secret touch upon the will, opening and enlarging it to run the way
   that is proposed in an excellent and charming manner. As the poser of
   God raises every part of Christ, so the same power raises every faculty
   of the soul; it was also a physical power, since mere exhortation would
   never have effected it.

   (1.) The Scripture intimates this in the terms whereby it signifies
   this work to us, as creation, resurrection, regeneration, new birth,
   all which denote some physical operation distinct in each faculty in
   the new creation, as there was in the first; not only the law in the
   mind to direct, but the heart of flesh to comply, is God's act. The
   fleshy heart is wrought by him, as well as the knowledge of the mind
   lighted by him. In generation something is removed, another thing
   introduced; in regeneration then of the will, there is consonant to
   that an eradication of corrupt habits, and an implantation of gracious
   ones. It is called a 'giving a heart,' a 'circumcision of the heart to
   love God,' Deut. xxx. 6. Love is an act of the will, though it supposes
   a knowledge of the amiable oldest in the understanding. If faith be
   principally in the will, as I think it is, as to consent; and the words
   leaning, resting, coming rather note an act of the will than an act of
   the understanding; there is then an operation of God upon the subject,
   viz. the will, in the implanting of it.

   (2.) The will is corrupted as well as the understanding. The works of
   the flesh issue from both; if the corruption were only in the
   understanding, then that being removed, the will would be regenerated.
   As in a watch, if the fault be only in one wheel, that being mended,
   the whole frame is rectified; but if there be a flaw in all, the
   mending of one, though the principal one, which moves the rest, will
   not set every wheel right, without a particular application of art to
   restore them to their due frame. Was not original righteousness
   subjectively in the will as well as in the mind? Did not a stoutness in
   the will succeed in the place of that righteousness, as well as
   darkness in the place of light? Must not there then be a habit of
   mollifying grace bestowed upon the one as well as a habit of
   enlightening truth set up in the other; an inclination to good in the
   will, and an aversion from evil, as well as the knowledge of both? The
   corrupt proneness in the will is the cause that it is easily excited to
   evil by the persuasion of the devil and the world; and is there not
   need of an inward rectitude in the will to bias it to a free embracing
   and close adherence to the good proposed to it by God, that his grace
   may be efficacious in every part? This work is a quickening a man under
   a universal spiritual death; the will was dead, as well as the mind
   dark, which must have life instead of its deadness, as the other has
   light instead of its darkness; and if they be two distinct faculties,
   then there are two distinct acts of the Spirit, though they depend one
   upon another. There is no less power requisite to make us spiritually
   willing than to make us spiritually knowing, since the corrupt habits
   in our wills are rather stronger than the prejudices in our
   understandings; therefore there seems to be a distinct act in removing
   the resistance from the one as well as expelling the darkness from the
   other. As the Spirit takes away the wisdom that was sensual, earthly,
   and devilish, so it divests the will of that disposition whereby it was
   enamoured on that devilish wisdom of the flesh, and makes it willing to
   cut off the right hand and right eye, to deny sin, which is the very
   self, and engage in an irreconcilable quarrel against all that which
   engrossed its choicest affections..

   (3.) If the understanding has such a power, by virtue of its
   illumination, without an act also of the Spirit upon the will, and a
   particular application of the understanding to the will, and the will
   to the understanding, why did not Adam's will follow his understanding?
   His understanding was clear, without darkness; his affections first
   made the rebellion; sense was the leader, and the will the follower.
   Eve's understanding was not silent under the temptation of Satan, her
   knowledge was actuated in that speech, 'God has said, You shall not eat
   of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die,' Gen. iii. 3. She
   cites the word, her understanding must needs concur with it, unless it
   were corrupted and darkened before the fall. Where lay the resistance?
   In the affections, and the will which sided with them. Why may not the
   will, possessed with those evil habits, resist the understanding
   imperfectly restored to its primitive light, as well as Adam's will did
   where there was no scale or film upon the eye of his soul? And likely
   his affections had kept their due order, if the will had preserved its
   due dependence upon reason, and its sovereignty over the sensitive
   part. Do we not find that our wills are oftener in contradiction to the
   true sentiments of our understanding, and in conjunction with the
   affections, than in a due subordination to the one and commanding over
   the other? Is it not frequently seen that men of much light, knowledge,
   and gifts of reason, answer not the end of that illumination, and are
   without a will to turn to God? Besides, since corruption came in by the
   way of the affections, when the understanding was clear, how can
   regeneration of the will come in by the illumination of the
   understanding, without a particular operation upon the will and
   affections? If it be said, the will follows the dictate of the
   understanding, why did it not so in Adam? If we were perfectly
   restored, as Adam was in innocence, without the grace of God in our
   wills, as well as light in our understandings, we were not like to keep
   up in due order.

   (4.) God in his other creatures gives not only a light and fancy in
   nature, but endues them with such principles that incline them to their
   motion, as connatural to them. Why then, shall we not think, since the
   will is an habitual power, that when the will is moved to supernatural
   ends, it is endued with such a supernatural habit, whereby it may be
   sweetly and readily moved to the chief good as its proper object? Are
   there not corrupt habits in the will, which the Scripture calls
   'lusts,' and 'the works of the flesh,' Gal. v. 19-21, which the Spirit
   mortifies as well as those of the mind? Why not, then, gracious habits
   set up in the room of the other in this faculty as well as in the
   other?

   (5.) If there were not a physical operation and habits in the will,
   what would become of infants, who cannot in that state be renewed
   without such a kind of working? They are not capable of moral
   exhortation, we cannot conceive any other way the Spirit has to work
   upon them, but by such a physical operation, putting habits into their
   wills, whereby they are renewed and sanctified; they are capable of the
   habit, though not of the act. We never find our Saviour spending any
   exhortations upon infants, but he took them in his arms and blessed
   them, and told us that of such is the kingdom of heaven; and if the
   kingdom of heaven be of such, there is some operation upon them
   different from this method of working only upon their understanding.

   (6.) If there were not some operation of the Spirit upon our wills,
   regeneration and conversion would be more our work than God's. If the
   Spirit terminates his working only upon the understanding, and the will
   be moved by the understanding alone, without any conjunction of the
   Spirit in the work upon the will, then the Spirit does not immediately
   concur to the chiefest part of regeneration, but as it illuminates the
   mind; for the chief part of renewing grace is in the will; so it would
   be more our work than God's, if the moral only were his, and the
   physical operation only ours. It was in a less affair than this,
   wherein David blessed God for the people's willingness, offering so
   freely, acknowledging it indeed the people's act, but by God's
   overruling their wills, 1 Chron. xxix. 13, 14.

   (7.) God is all in all in glory: 1 Cor. xv. 28, 'When Christ shall have
   delivered the kingdom to his Father, God then shall be all in all,' all
   in their understandings, all in their wills; he shall be the immediate
   cause of all things, and govern and dispose all things by himself, and
   for himself; binding the souls of all the glorified by everlasting
   ligatures to himself; all in all to the glorified, all light in their
   understanding, all love and delight in their will, objectively,
   efficiently. What efficacy he has in glory, shall we deny him in grace
   in every particular faculty?

   Prop. 2. Yet this work, though immediate, is not compulsive and by
   force. It is a contradiction for the will to be moved unwillingly, any
   force upon it destroys the nature of it; if it be forced, it ceases to
   be will. It is not forced, because it is according to reason, and the
   natural motion of the creature; the understanding proposing, and the
   will moved to an embracing; the understanding going before with light,
   the will following after with love. The liberty of the will consists in
   following the guidance of reason; to have a liberty to go against it,
   is the greatest misery of the creature. That is properly constraint,
   when we are compelled to work contrary to the natural way of working;
   there is no constraint by force, but there is a kind of a constraint by
   love, because the Spirit accompanies this operation with so much
   efficacy, that instead of that sadness we should have in a thing we
   were forced unto, there is an unspeakable joy and contentment in the
   soul; it not being possible to taste so much of the love of God, to be
   delivered from so fearful a condemnation, to be brought to so glorious
   a hope, without being seized upon with much pleasure and delight. God
   changes the inclination of the will, but does not force it against its
   inclination; the will, being a rational faculty, cannot be wrought upon
   but rationally. Since the main work consists in faith and love, it is
   impossible there can be any force; no man can be forced to believe
   against his reason, or love against his will, or desire against his
   inclination. Belief is wrought by persuasion; no man can be persuaded
   by force. It cannot be conceived, that the will should will against the
   will. No man can be happy against his will, all happiness consisting in
   a suitableness of the object to the faculty; those things that in
   themselves are the greatest pleasures of the world, if they please not
   a man, cannot confer any happiness upon him. The Spirit never works
   thus, because 'where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty,' 2
   Cor. iii. 17; he destroys not the liberty, but reduces it to will more
   nobly than before. Besides, the liberty of the will does not stand in
   indifference to this or that thing, for then the will would lose its
   liberty every time it has determined itself to any one thing, because
   after the determination it would be no longer indifferent to the other.
   But the liberty of the will consists in being carried out according to
   the dictate of the practical judgment, and not by a blind instinct. God
   does not deal with us as stones and logs, or slaves, whom the whip
   makes to do that which they hate in their hearts; but conducts us in
   ways agreeable to our nature; he calls, saying, 'Seek you my face;' and
   inclines the will to answer, 'Thy face, Lord, I will seek,' Ps. xxvoo.
   8. That God who knows how to make a will with a principle of freedom,
   knows how to work upon the will, without entrenching upon, or altering
   the essential privilege he bestowed upon it; he that formed us, as a
   potter does his vessel, knows very well the handles whereby he may take
   hold of us, without making any breach in our nature.

   Prop. 3. It is free and gentle. A constraint, not by force, but love,
   which is not an extrinsic force, but intrinsic and pleasant to the
   will; he bends the creature so, that at the very instant wherein the
   will is savingly wrought upon, it delightfully consents to its own
   happiness; he draws by the cords of a man, and by a secret touch upon
   the will makes it willing to be drawn, and moves it upon its own
   hinges. It is sweet and alluring; the Spirit of grace is called 'the
   oil of gladness;' it is a delightful and ready motion which it causes
   in the will, it is a sweet efficacy, and an efficacious sweetness. At
   what time God does savingly work upon the will, to draw the soul from
   sin and the world to himself, it does with the greatest willingness,
   freedom, and delight follow after God, turn to him, close with him, and
   cleave to him, with all the heart, and with purpose never to depart
   from him: Cant. i. 4, 'Draw me, and we will run alter thee.' Drawing
   signifies the efficacious power of grace; running signifies the
   delightful motion of grace; the will is drawn, as if it would not come;
   it comes, as if it were not drawn. His grace is so sweet and so strong,
   that he neither wrongs the liberty of his creature, nor does prejudice
   his absolute power. As God moves necessary causes, necessarily;
   contingent causes, contingently; so he moves free agents freely,
   without offering violence to their natures. The Spirit glides into the
   heart by the sweet illapses of grace, and victoriously allures the
   soul: Hosea ii. 14, 'I will allure her, and speak to her heart;' not by
   crossing, but changing the inclination, by the all-conquering and
   alluring charms of love, as a man does that person whom he intends for
   his spouse; for to that he alludes, because in the latter part of the
   chapter, he speaks of the consummation of his marriage with the church:
   ver. 16, 'In that day thou shalt call me Ishi.' In what day? In the day
   that he should allure her, and speak to her heart. God puts on the
   deportment of a lover in changing the frame of the will. The Spirit is
   as one that leads the way into truth (the Spirit 'shall guide you,
   "hodegesei", into all truth,' John xvi. 13); not drags; he opens the
   heart, not by a forcible entry, but as a key that fits every ward in
   the lock. The attraction of the will is much like that of iron by the
   loadstone, which had no motion of itself till the powerful emissions of
   the loadstone's virtue reached it, and then it seems to move with a
   kind of voluntariness; there is no force used, but a delicious virtue
   emitted

   which does, as it were, both persuade and enable it to join itself to
   its beloved attracter. There is a secret virtue communicated by God,
   which, as soon as it touches the soul, puts life and delightful motion
   into it, which before lay like a log. It embraces Christ as its
   portion, and passes a decree that it will keep his words: Ps. cxix. 67,
   'Thou art my portion, O Lord. I have said that I will keep thy words.'

   Prop. 4. It is insuperably victorious. What the mouth of God speaks,
   what his will purposes, his hand does fulfil, 1 Kings viii. 24. It is
   not a faint and languishing impression, but a reviving, sprightly, and
   victorious touch. As the demonstration of the Spirit is clear and
   undeniable, so the power of the Spirit is sweet and irresistible; both
   are joined, 1 Cor. ii. 4. An inexpressible sweetness allures the soul,
   and an unconquerable power draws the soul; there are clear
   demonstrations, charming persuasions, and invincible efficacy combined
   together in the work. He leaves not the will in indifference. If God
   were the author of faith only by putting the will into an indifference,
   though it be determined by its own proper liberty, why may not he also
   be said to be the author of unbelief, if by the same liberty of this
   indifference it be determined to reject the gospel? For in the same
   manner God is author of one motion of the will as well as of the other,
   if he does no more than leave the will in an aequilibrium. This
   irresistibleness takes not away the liberty of the will. Our Saviour's
   obedience was free and voluntary, yet necessary and irresistible. He
   could not sin in regard of the hypostatical union, yet he had a greater
   aversion to sin than all the angels in heaven. Is not God freely and
   voluntarily good, yet necessarily so? He cannot be otherwise than good,
   he will not be otherwise than good. So the will is irresistibly drawn,
   and yet does freely come to its own happiness. The soul is brought over
   to God, and adheres to him, not by a necessity of compulsion, but of
   immutability. As the angels necessarily obey God, not by compulsion,
   but from an immutable love. A sinner is necessarily a servant to sin, a
   regenerate man necessarily a servant to God; both by a kind of
   necessity of nature. Our main business, then, is to see what new
   enlightenings there are in our minds by the Spirit in the gospel, what
   tastes and relishes we have of divine truths, how our wills are allured
   to a sincere and close compliance with the proposals of God in the
   gospel, what vigour is in them. This is God's method, to work first
   upon the understanding, then upon the will. That work which begins
   first in the affections, without light dawning and breaking in upon the
   mind, and growing up by consideration and inquiries into the gospel is
   to be suspected, and is not like to be durable.

   This is the Scripture method, and every regenerate person may find it
   more or less in himself.

   V. The use is,

   1. For instruction.

   (1.) If God alone be the author and efficient of the new birth, then it
   does instruct us how insufficient a good education of itself is to
   produce this work in the soul, and how unfit to be rested on, without a
   further work. I doubt many may rest upon a religious education, without
   searching and inquiring into themselves what further work of God has
   been wrought upon them. God has entrusted parents with a power of
   instructing their children, but reserves the power of renewing grace to
   himself. If parents may set the object before them, God only can give
   them a spiritual eye to discern it; if they may inform the
   understanding, a divine touch only can bend the will; if they may lay
   the wood of spiritual lessons together, yet the fire to kindle them in
   the heart, and consume the lusts, must descend from heaven. Education
   may correct, but not extirpate the malignity of nature; good
   instruction, meeting with an orderly constitution, may sow the seeds of
   moral virtue, and restrain natural corruption, but not weed that out of
   our nature, or plant the root of grace, any more than the skilful
   management of a beast can change its natural inclination, though it may
   curb it. The folly bound up in the heart of a child is too strong for
   the wisdom of man, and is wholly to be expelled by the wisdom which
   comes down from heaven, set up in the heart by Christ, who is the
   wisdom of the Father. The little stars of precepts glittering in the
   mind, cannot make the young plants sprout up with their heads towards
   heaven, without the influence of the sun. Christ, the Sun of
   righteousness, fixed in the soul by the Spirit, can do more than all
   the stars of moral instructions in the world. Timothy had as religious
   instruction from his religious mother and grandmother as any in the
   world, both being believers, 2 Tim. i. 5, yet Paul calls him his 'own
   son in the faith,' 1 Tim. i. 2, as having 'begotten him in the gospel.'
   Those instructions did not beget him, though they might facilitate the
   evangelical work which was wrought by the gospel in Paul's ministry.
   Therefore the apostle manifestly distinguishes between instructors and
   fathers: 1 Cor. in 15, 'Though you have ten thousand instructors in
   Christ, yet have you not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have
   begotten you through the gospel.' He distinguishes their instructions
   from Christ, the efficient cause, and himself through the gospel, the
   instrumental cause. Yet such instruction is not to be neglected when
   children are capable; God may set home that by the gospel, which has
   been sucked in in younger years. Men may as well turn their backs upon
   the hearing the word, because it is insufficient without the operation
   of the almighty grace. Instruction and prayer should go hand in hand
   together; but take heed of resting upon a good education.

   (2.) It instructs us that regeneration does not depend merely upon the
   word, if God alone be the efficient cause of it. It depends upon the
   inward efficacy of the Spirit. Had it depended upon the power of the
   apostles, or the outward demonstration of that word, they would have
   converted all that they had preached to, they would not have suffered
   any to have remained obstinate against the gospel: charity would have
   obliged them to the exercise of their power; and their power would have
   made their charity effectual. As God does seldom work without means, so
   means can never work without God. David had the law of God in his hand,
   but could not learn it without God's teaching; therefore he prays, Ps.
   lxxxvi. 11, 'Teach me thy way, O Lord: I will walk in thy truth.' And
   in many places of the 119th Psalm he takes notice, that all spiritual
   knowledge comes from God, though in the way of his precepts: ver. 98
   'Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies';
   and ver. 104, 'Through thy precepts I get understanding.' While we use
   the means, our eye should be upon God. Thomas had his fingers upon our
   Saviour's wounds, but his thoughts upon Christ's divinity: 'My Lord,
   and my God.' Food maintains the body, but by virtue of the soul
   animating it, and enabling it to concoct that food. The Spirit of God
   is the soul of the gospel, and of all means, to make them efficacious;
   and with this power of the Spirit the weakest means can effect more
   than the greatest means without it, which, indeed, can produce little
   or nothing. Peter's sermon, Acts ii., was but short, but improved by
   the Spirit to the conversion of three thousand souls. Means can do
   nothing of themselves to change the heart. When the disciples had two
   ordinances representing the death of Christ, i. e. the Passover and the
   Lord's supper, pride, the great enemy to regeneration, put up its head
   above water; they quarrelled 'who should be greatest,' Luke xxii. 24.

   (3.) There is no reason to confide in our own purposes and resolutions,
   or any strength of our own, if God alone be the efficient cause of
   regeneration; for it depends not upon our resolves without the grace of
   God. Satan fears not our vows; he knows, without grace they are but as
   light feathers, easily to be puffed away by him; but sparks, which,
   without his breath, the flood of corruption in our souls would
   extinguish as soon as they begin to appear. How can our resolves
   without grace renew us, when Peter's resolve, with his inherent grace,
   could not defend him? who, after his boasting, when certainly he
   sincerely meant what he said, fell so shamefully, that he stood in need
   of a new conversion. How soon do we, after a transient awakening fall
   to nodding in our spiritual sleep? If grace be not present with us to
   cure our lethargy, our purposes are as empty sails hoisted by us, the
   breath of the Spirit only fills with a full gale for motion. We can
   never 'steadfastly look into heaven, and see the glory of God,' unless
   we be 'full of the Holy Ghost,' Acts vii. 55. Stephen's eye would have
   been twinkling, had not the divine Spirit fixed it. How soon will a
   slight blast of a temptation shake a building, which has no other
   foundation but the moveable sand of our own purposes, when as slight a
   temptation shook the image of God out of Adam with all its brightness,
   who was built with God's own hand, with a power also to keep himself!
   Adam could not be without purposes of obedience when he heard the
   precept, yet with a slender temptation came tumbling to the dust, and
   fell as low as hell. A vain confidence in our own resolutions is so far
   from being a cause of this spiritual birth, that it is rather a
   hindrance, and part of the pride of nature, that must be demolished,
   and to be reckoned as one of the eldest things among these old things
   that are to pass away. Trust not, therefore, to yourselves; look up
   daily for the divine influence; lean not to your own understanding,
   though in part enlightened; confide not in your own wills, though in
   part inclined to the best things, pursue nothing in your own strength.

   (4.) It is an injury to God to associate any thing with him in this
   work, which he challenges as his own production. Would it not be a
   disparagement to deny him the sole efficiency in one of the noblest
   works of his wisdom and holiness? That he who wrought the comely fabric
   of the first creation by his power and wisdom, without a co-partner, or
   deputing any of the highest angels to bring the world into form, should
   not have the honour of a work which bears the stamp of a higher wisdom
   and power than the whole creation! That he who contrived the models of
   the little creatures in the world, should leave this to the foolish
   contrivance of any creature! Why should we imagine that the divine
   image, upon whom the highest blessedness of the creature depends,
   should be of so little value in the judgment of God's infinite wisdom,
   as to be turned over from the care of so wise a workman, to the
   capriciousness of a light and uncertain will, more blind and mutable
   than Fortune the heathen goddess? It is more (we have heard) to frame
   so excellent a piece as the new creature is, out of the rubbish of sin,
   than to frame the whole celestial and elementary world out of a rude
   mass of matter; since there is a greater gulf to be shot between
   corruption and grace than between nothing and the beautiful structure
   of heaven and earth; and, therefore, we may less disparage him, in
   denying him the title of creator of the world, than that of the creator
   of a new heart, since he has promised by his own mouth to do it with
   his own hand. The apostle cannot be charged with ignorance, but knew
   what he said in that comprehensive thanksgiving for 'all spiritual
   blessings in Christ;' if all, then one of the highest, the new
   creation, is not intended to be left out of the roll of spiritual
   blessings, associating none with God, as the principal, but Christ as
   the Mediator, conveying this grace by his Spirit, according to the
   orders of the Father: 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
   Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
   places in Christ,' Eph. i. 3.

   (5.) See from hence how excellent a thing it is to be born again, if
   God be the sole efficient of it! Whatsoever God is the author of in his
   ordinary works, is excellent in its kind, they are all the effects of
   his will; this is an effect of his gracious will. Other generations are
   by the will of man, wherein the will of God concurs with them; this is
   solely by the will of God, without any concurrence of the will of man
   in the first work, called therefore by way of excellency, 'the faith of
   the operation of God,' Col. ii. 12, not a gift conveyed by angels, but
   his Spirit. A grain of grace of God's planting is more worth than
   millions of gold of man's getting; a more worthy gift than all the gold
   of Ophir, which God gives to men by their industry, who shall never see
   his face; but this by his own Spirit in order to glory. It is a royal
   gift he reserves in his own hands, to bestow upon those that were his
   favourites in his eternal purposes; it grows not in every man's ground,
   neither is it sown in every man's field. The soul is more excellent
   than the body, not only in respect of its nature, but in respect of its
   immediate author. God is called particularly, 'The Father of spirits,'
   not of bodies, though he is so; but in the production of bodies he acts
   by the hand of nature, in the production of the soul by his own hand.
   In that work he acts by the intervention of second causes; in this,
   without. serving himself of any other efficient cause but his own will.
   If the soul, as being the only work of God, is therefore more
   excellent, then certainly a new-born soul is more excellent than
   anything in the world, in regard God is the author of it in a more
   peculiar manner, by the operation of his choicest affections.

   (6.) If God be the efficient of regeneration, then there is a necessity
   of the influence of God in all the progress of grace. It is yet
   imperfect, the same hand that planted it must also water and dress it.
   There is a tough sinew left in man's will, which makes him halt after
   he has the new name of Israel put upon him, a weakness of faith, a
   coldness of love, a faintness of zeal. What he is the creator of, is
   nursed by his providence; what he is the new creator of, is fostered by
   a succession of grace. The scripture therefore appropriates all to him:
   he is the God that calls us, the God that anoints us, the God that
   carries us, the God that establishes us, the God that keeps us, and the
   God that perfects us. He is the author of grace in its first issue, its
   fruitful sproutings, its delicious ripenings, it depends upon him in
   creation, preservation, augmentation, as well as natural things depend
   upon him in all their progressive motions, from one degree to another,
   as the author of nature. When nature was most unspotted, grace was
   necessary to preserve and fix it in that state. Adam needed the
   assistance of grace with the embellishments of nature. The same power
   that inspires us with life, inspires us with a perpetual continuation
   of it. If the tide that turns the stream of the river desert it, and
   return to its own channel, the river will return to its natural
   current. Our hearts will decline, our life languish, unless fed by that
   supernatural efficacy which did first produce it. The plants cannot
   grow merely from their own internal form, nor trees bring forth their
   pleasant fruits without the influence of rain and sun, feeding and
   hatching their innate spirits, and drawing them out to make a show of
   themselves in flowers and fruits; and when they are brought forth, they
   stand in need of the same rain to fill them, the same sun to ripen
   them.

   (7.) If God be the efficient, &c., we see whither we are to have
   recourse in all the exigencies of the new creature, to whom, but to the
   author of those beginnings of eternal life! God is all, in all parts of
   this glorious work: 'The God of all grace, who has called us into his
   eternal glory, make you perfect, strengthen, establish, settle you,'
   &c., 1 Peter v. 10. There is need of preserving, strengthening,
   increasing, quickening, and perfecting grace.

   These you need, and these must be sought, and will be had from the same
   goodness and power by which you were new born.

   [1.] Preserving grace.

   First, God only can give it. There is a necessity of it; as God rears
   it, so he only can keep it from pining away. Plants will wither if the
   rain do not descend; the flame will be extinguished if fuel be not
   added. There is as much a necessity of a constant influence to keep up
   this new nature, as there is of the sun to preserve the horizon from
   that darkness which would invade it upon the turning its face to other
   parts of the world. The perpetual duration of renewing grace is not
   essential to grace, for then Adam and the angels had stood by virtue of
   their grace, for nothing ever loses its essential property; but it is
   by an additional grace, distinct from the first grace wherein our
   regeneration does consist, as the preservation of the creatures in
   their natural beings is by an act of God, distinct from his creative
   act. The first grace God gives now is a bounty to his creatures, but it
   is further an obligation upon himself, not as it is grace, or as it is
   his own work, for Adam's grace which failed was brought by his fingers,
   inspired by his breath, but as it is a new covenant grace which alters
   the condition of it. God's finger wrote the law in the heart, and his
   breath can only blow the dust off, that would fill the engraved
   letters.

   Secondly, God will preserve it. Job would argue with God, and ask him,
   'Is it good unto thee that thou should despise the work of thine
   hands?' Job x. 3. Is it agreeable to his goodness and wisdom to slight
   and neglect the work of his own heart; not a fruit of his common
   liberality to the creation, but a choice fruit of his redeeming love?
   His common love, as he is the author of nature, preserves the old
   creation; much more his special love, as he is the author of the new
   nature, will preserve the new creation. His general goodness made the
   world, but his gracious goodness formed the soul; the one is more
   splendid than the other, therefore the effect more durable. Mercy
   compasses the godly about. Ps. xxxii. 10, like bulwarks that surround a
   city for its defence, against the assaults of spiritual enemies. A
   higher providence attends man than other creatures, because he is of a
   more noble constitution; upon the same account a higher providence must
   attend the new creature, as being far more noble than mere man. God
   embraces all creatures in his arms with a common love as creatures, he
   lays the new begotten ones in his bosom by a special love. His power
   too is to be considered. He will not want a power to preserve that
   which he did not want power to new create. The power being the same
   that raised Christ from the dead, which raised any from their natural
   condition, will have the same issue, since it never suffered Christ to
   return to the grave again, neither will it suffer any new born soul to
   return to a spiritual death. Every new creature is the Father's by
   purpose, and by actual traction; they were his before they were
   Christ's. The Father draws them to Christ; and the power of Christ will
   be as eminent to preserve them, as the power of the Father was to draw
   them. Why were the creatures brought, by that instinct God put into
   them, into Noah's ark, but to be preserved from the destroying deluge?
   Why did he take pains to write the law anew in the heart, if be would
   suffer it to be dashed out again? If he would not preserve his own
   work, why did he not let the soul lie wallowing in its old filthiness,
   and forbear the expense of those fresh colours he has new drawn his
   image with? It seems to be a greater power to take off all that load of
   sin which lay upon you, than to preserve you from having so great a
   burden again upon you. It is not reasonable to think that God should be
   at so much cost, only to restore man to Adam's mutable condition,
   whereby to incur a greater condemnation.

   [2.] Strengthening grace. This we need, as well as preserving grace. It
   is God that strengthens us in the inward man; by that strengthening
   grace the new creature can do all things, without it nothing. Through
   him we are more than conquerors over principalities and powers, Rom.
   viii. 37, 38. Strength to mount up to heaven as an eagle, to run our
   race without weariness, to walk without fainting, to combat
   difficulties without sinking fears, is only to be had by waiting upon
   the Lord, who is the fountain whence all these flow, Isa. xl. 31, and
   by his grace confers a supernatural fortitude: Isa. xl. 31, 'But they
   that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up
   with wings as eagles they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk,
   and not faint.' Look not therefore for strength in your new nature;
   look for it in God, in that Spirit which first renewed you, since that
   glorious power is imparted to strengthen you. which was at first
   employed to new-create you. This was the matter of the apostle's prayer
   for the Colossians, and this should be ours: Col. i. 9, 11,
   'Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power.' There
   is much weakness in us, a medley of lusts, an army of enemies, but the
   way is open for us to that glorious power, to endue us with a new
   vigour, which first seized upon us with an insuperable efficacy, our
   shattered and weakened sins shall not be able to resist that glorious
   power by which they could not stand the shock of when they were in
   their full strength. 'God will be a sun and a shield,' Ps. lxxxiv. 11,
   a sun to dispel our darkness, a shield to secure us from darts; a sun
   against the allurements of the world, defeating them by a charming
   light; a shield against the allurements of the world, overpowering them
   by an irresistible force; the sun that gave us life, the shield that
   secures our strength. The glorious power which we need in our progress
   lies in the same arm which wrought our deliverance, and from thence
   must be fetched. It is only by him that we have strength to tread down
   the wicked one's temptations; and those fiery darts are made as ashes
   under the soles of our feet, Mal. iv. 8.

   [3.] We need increasing grace; and that is from God. The increase
   depends upon him, as well as the first planting. When we want it, he is
   the fountain from whence we must draw it; so did the disciples, Luke
   xvii. 5, 'Increase our faith,' or add to us faith, "prosthes hemin".
   Every new spring, fresh bud, spreading blossom, is an addition by his
   influence. When we have it, we must acknowledge his sole hand in it, so
   the apostle did when he saw the growth of the Thessalonian faith, and
   the abounding of their charity: 2 Thes. i. 3, 'We are bound to thank
   (eucharistein ofeilomen) God always for you, because that your faith
   grows exceedingly.' He did it by obligation: no such tie had lain upon
   him had God left them to increase it themselves. The new fruits you
   bear is from his new purging, as the first power to bear was from his
   planting, John xv. 2. If you would thrive, it must not be by your own,
   but by the increases of God; 'God gives the increase,' both in the
   outward administration and inward operation of the gospel, 1 Cor. iii.
   7. Faith, in every assent, is conducted by that power which first
   settled it in the heart, and without it cannot commence any higher
   degree. As every spark of spiritual life is by his kindling, so every
   sparkling of that spark is by his blowing. Look for it at God's hands,
   beg of him to write that law deeper, which his fingers first engraved
   in your hearts. It is God's being 'a dew to Israel' makes him grow up
   in beauty as 'the lily and the olive tree,' in strength 'cast out his
   roots as the cedars of Lebanon,' Hosea xiv. 5-7. If you would grow up
   as calves of the stall, you must lie under the healing wings of the Sun
   of righteousness: Mal. iv. 2, 'Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun
   of righteousness arise with healing in his wings,' &c. That Sun which
   by his beams conveyed into you a spiritual life, can only by the same
   heat influence you to a taller growth. Every drop of the knowledge of
   his will till you come to be filled, every mite of wisdom and spiritual
   understanding, is to be drawn from him only, Col. i. 9, both the
   additions of knowledge and the deeper impressions and lively sproutings
   of what we know.

   [4.] Quickening grace. This also we need. As our life, so the
   liveliness and activity of grace depends upon the divine influence; a
   divine motion is necessary to elevate our souls to those actions which
   are supernatural; our grace depends upon God in actu secundo, as well
   as actu primo. As God first puts a nature into creatures (in the
   exercise as well as the being) and then quickens them by his
   providential concurrence in those acts suitable to their nature, which
   acts are therefore natural to those creatures, so by a gracious
   concurrence he does quicken the new nature in the soul to the exerting
   of gracious operations, according to that nature he has endued it with.
   As he tunes the strings by his skill to fit them for a divine harmony,
   so he enlivens them by his touch to make what music he pleases; every
   heavenly prayer, every gracious groan, every start of spiritual
   affection, is from the Spirit tuning, quickening, assisting against
   infirmities and deadness. There must be a continued drawing to make a
   continued running. 'Draw us, and we will run after thee,' Cant. i. 4.
   It was the church, the gracious church, the spouse and dove of Christ,
   yet sensible of her own inability to quicken her pace to new communion
   with Christ, without fresh communications first from him. There is a
   bias in the soul to direct it in a right motion; there must be a hand
   without to put it upon that motion; Christ must 'put his hand in at the
   hole of the door' before a lazy soul, though gracious, will stir at his
   call, Cant. v. 3; or as a child, which has a principle of motion, must
   be assisted and quickened by the nurse before it can move a step. Grace
   is more prevalent to keep us from sin than excite us to holiness, yet
   neither can be done by it without new quickenings; our motion is in him
   and by him, as well as our life, spiritually as well as naturally Acts
   xvii. 28, 'In him we live, move, and have our being;' the old stock
   must have continual supply. Without Christ we can do nothing, John xv.
   5; without him we cannot have grace in the plant, nor grace in the
   fruit. As the soul excites the spirits in the eye to an act of
   vision,--if they be not quickened by their governor, though things be
   before our eyes they see nothing,--so the Spirit of God excites, as it
   were, the spirits of grace to their particular acts, faith to apprehend
   and love to work. The goodness that made the promise guides the hand of
   the soul to fasten upon it: Ps. cxix. 49, 'Remember the word unto thy
   servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.' As God makes the
   promises, so he makes the meeting between the soul and the promise;
   every motion proceeds from God's touch upon the heart enlarging it,
   therefore our dependence must be upon God's grace: Ps. cxix. 32, 'I
   will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart.'
   I will run, not by my own strength, but by the hand of God enlarging
   and enlivening my heart. Indeed, if God did not give to act as well as
   implant the habit, he would give no more to us in the new covenant than
   he gave to Adam in the old, who had a power to do, but not the act of
   doing; his power was from God, but the act of obedience depended upon
   himself, and for want of actual obedience he fell. We see whence we
   must derive our quickenings; we want them because we expect them from
   the new nature in us, not from the author of that nature, and the
   concurrence of his grace with it, and depending upon habitual more than
   actual grace is the cause of our having many a slip. We are as dead
   lumps, notwithstanding all the grace we have, if God did not cause a
   free life to spring up in us by successive breathings.

   [5.] Perfecting grace is only from God. He is the finisher of what he
   is the author of, Heb. xii. 2, and in our spiritual warfare supplies us
   with new recruits, till the combat end in victory, and the victory in
   triumph. He will come 'as the former and the latter rain,' Hosea vi. 3:
   as the former rain to open the womb of the earth, and the latter rain
   to ripen the fruits of the earth. As he has laid the foundation of
   mount Zion, so he will perform the whole work in it; he fulfils the
   work of faith with the same power wherewith he begins it, 2 Thes. i.
   11. The power which caused the resurrection of Christ caused his
   ascension; he had his forty days upon the earth, after his
   resurrection, before he was taken up to glory. There is a continuance
   of a believer in the world after his resurrection from a spiritual
   death, but the same power which caused his spiritual resurrection will
   as surely cause his heavenly ascension. That arm that brought him out
   of Egypt will conduct him to the limits of Canaan, the flourishing
   pastures of the promised land. Grace is the first gift, glory is the
   latter; glory follows upon the heels of grace: 'He will give grace and
   glory,' Ps. lxxxiv. 11. Grace to fit for glory, and glory to reward his
   own grace; all grace till it ends in glory. God must be sought and
   depended on for this; we cannot will our perfection without grace, as
   we cannot will our regeneration without grace; God gives the will, the
   progressive as well as the initial will. Then seek only to God, depend
   upon him only, for the warmth of his goodness, to bring those chickens
   to perfection which he has gathered under his wing; his affections are
   not tired, it is a pure disinterested love mingled with no defects; his
   wisdom and power is no less able to perfect than his love is to incite
   him to it.

   Use 2. The second use is of comfort.

   Is God the author of regeneration? He that is the God of all grace is
   the God of all comfort too. Where he is the one, he will be the other.
   As he creates the soul to good works, so he creates it to heavenly
   consolations. When God acts as a God of justice toward sinners, he
   appears as a terrible God in his punishments; when he acts towards
   saints as a God of grace, he appears as a comforting God, he fills the
   one with all terrors, prepares the other for all comforts; he calls you
   by a new creation into his eternal glory, and sends therefore some
   sparkles of glory into the soul here. Are you born of God? You approach
   in excellency as near to Christ as a creature's capacity will admit.
   Christ was his natural begotten son, believers his spiritually
   regenerated children. Christ is 'the first born,' but 'among many
   brethren,' Rom. viii. 29, that Christ 'that sanctifies, and we that are
   sanctified, are all of one,' Heb. ii. 11, of one nature, say some, of
   one Father, say others; therefore 'he is not ashamed to call them
   brethren,' one nature does not so much make us brethren as one father.
   Christ was not regenerated, but generated, he stood not in need of the
   other, because the first generation failed not, neither could he, being
   God, he is the exact image of his Father's person, and so particularly
   of all his attributes, because he partakes of his essence. Believers
   are the living images of God's holiness, not partaking of all his
   attributes, but of that.

   Particularly,

   (1.) God will rejoice in his own work. If he rejoiced in the first
   planting of his image at the creation, he will no less rejoice in it at
   the restoration and with more gladness embrace the son that is returned
   from death to life by returning from his debauched coarse, than that
   son that remained with him all the while. Why does he renew the face of
   the earth by the mission of his Spirit, but that he may rejoice in his
   works? 'Thou sends forth thy Spirit, they are created: and thou renews
   the face of the earth. The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever: the
   Lord shall rejoice in his works,' Ps. civ. 30, 31. If God shall in time
   rejoice in the earth, wherein he had little joy after the creation of
   it, and soon repented of his work, he will rejoice in the noblest work,
   in the frame of his image, which, next to Christ, makes all other works
   of the lower creation pleasant to him. He 'creates Jerusalem a
   rejoicing, and her people a joy,' and he will rejoice in the new
   creation of his people, in the people he has new created, Isa lxv. 18,
   19.

   (2.) He will destroy all enemies to his own work. How will his love
   pierce into every part, and employ his poser in destroying the enemies
   of his work; whip buyers and sellers out of his spiritual temple, cast
   out all their remaining rubbish; let not his house be always a den of
   thieves, that shall rob God of his glory, and his temple of its beauty!
   That God that can raise men five thousand years ago dead as easily as
   one dead the last minute, can remove all the bands of corruption,
   though never so strong. If he has raised you from death, he will lift
   you up from all the remainders of death; the grave-clothes which yet
   remain about you, shall be in time untied, as well as the soul unloosed
   from the principal bands of death. Though there be in you a ' spirit
   that lusts to envy,' as well as a spirit that lusts to love, yet 'God
   gives more grace,' James iv. 5, a. Lusts will down, corruptions fall in
   time before his grace, darkness must hide its hated head, when that
   word breaks louder from his lips, 'Let there be light.' The promises of
   a thorough sanctification belong to you, as well as the promises of a
   perfect remission. If God be the teacher, no matter what the scholar
   is; if God be the workman, no matter what the matter is; if God be the
   guardian, no matter what the enemies are; nothing is too rugged for his
   skill, or too hard for his power.

   (3.) He will order all things for the good of his own work. 'They shall
   not labour in vain; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord,'
   Isa. lxv. 23. He did not want grace to restore them, he will not want
   comforts to support them. Their very afflictions shall be ordered to
   preserve the work of his own heart in them; and while he prunes and
   cuts, he will purge away the luxuriant corruptions, that his vine may
   be more beautiful and delicious. And if he does chasten you sharply, it
   is that you may be nearer 'partakers of his holiness,' Heb. xii. 10.

   Use 3. The third use is of exhortation.

   1. To the renewed.

   (1.) Walk humbly. Swell not big, as if your own power had procured it,
   let not pride spread its sails in your souls. Consider, you are
   creatures still, though new creatures. As God put into you whatsoever
   you have of natural existence, so he has put into you whatsoever you
   have of spiritual; you are dust still by your natural creation, though
   new formed by the Spirit. There is nothing of grace, no act of grace,
   but you receive mediately or immediately from God. You opened not your
   own eves, nor thrust back the lock of your own hearts, nor can call one
   spark of that spiritual life you have, your own creature; it moved not
   at your beck, obeyed not your orders; it is when God says, Go, that it
   goes, and, Do this and that, Settle upon this or that soul, and it does
   it. How humble should you be, since grace does nothing in any but by
   God's order, not your own. God works in us, we add nothing to God. The
   melted wax receives the stamp from the seal, but the wax adds nothing
   to the seal. 'What hast thou that thou hast not received?' 'If thou did
   receive it, why dost thou boast as if thou had not received it?' 1 Cor.
   iv. 7. Grace is God's communication to you, not yours to yourselves.
   What is received, is not your own work, but another's gift; were it
   desert, we had reason to boast; but being a gift, we have no reason to
   grow big. Lie therefore before him in your own nothingness. Renewing
   grace first lighted upon you when you were humble; and grace in its
   increase flourishes when the soul is in the same posture.

   (2 ) Ascribe all that you are, as renewed creatures, to God. Ascribe it
   wholly to him; let self rub off every filing of this gold from its own
   fingers. 'Not unto us, not unto us, O Lord, but unto thy name be the
   praise,' Ps. cxv. 1. The repetition removes the glory far from
   themselves. If praise be comely for an upright person, it is most
   comely in the greatest cause that can happen to him, Ps. xxxiii. 1.
   Account yourselves therefore nothing, and God and grace all; and let no
   shootings be heard in your souls while God is rearing up the divine
   temple, but those of Grace! Grace! Zech. iv. 7, both in the foundation
   and superstructure, till he comes to the top stone. Your breathing
   after God is but the effect of his breathing after you; the moon has no
   light of herself, but what she receives from the sun; nor any creature
   a spark of grace, but what is derived from the Father of lights. God's
   purity is as the sun, your grace as a beam from that sun, not primitive
   in your nature, but derivative from God. Were it not from grace, Saul
   had never been Paul, nor Peter a penitent, nor Mary a convert, nor
   Zacchaeus a Christian, nor had thou ever been brought to the sweetness
   of a spiritual life, or advanced to the state and comforts of another
   world. Did you will to run till mercy moved your wills and spirited the
   feet of your souls? Your will, your race, was nothing; God's grace was
   all, Rom ix. 16. Was it not his word of command, Let there be life? Was
   it not his invincible power battered down the strongholds of sin? Oh
   seriously think, O Christian, that dry and desert heart of thine could
   never have been mollified and watered by rocky nature, nor virtue ever
   bud and blossom in that barren soil, unless the soil were mended, as
   well as the plant fixed, by some powerful hand. Bless God, therefore,
   since had it not been for him, you had never been humbled, never been
   renewed, never reached so high as a holy desire, or a penitential tear,
   but lain till this day, and for ever, bemired in fallen nature.

   That you may know what reason you have to bless God with the highest
   praises, consider,

   [1.] What your obligation is, how great! What good would your creation
   have done you since your fall without a new creation by the same hand?
   It must have rendered you miserable without this, and could never have
   rendered you happy but by the intervention of this. Without this you
   might have been his sons and daughters by creation, and devils by
   corruption. The heathens were God's offspring, as they were rational
   creatures, Acts xvii. 28, and the devil's children, as they were
   corrupt creatures. You might have had the image of God in a glimmering
   reason, without his image in a divine holiness. Was it not a greater
   obligation to restore that with kinder circumstances which you had
   wilfully thrown away, when it was in no wise due to you, than it was at
   first to bestow it? There was something like debt at first; supposing
   God would create a rational creature, integrity and innocence was
   naturally due to it, in regard of the holiness and wisdom of God,
   unless he would have been the author of the creature's sinfulness; but
   since that voluntary defection, the restoration was in no sort due,
   therefore the obligation greater. If God had created a thousand worlds,
   and given you the lordship of them for some millions of years, had this
   been such a kindness as to afford you a new nature, whereby you will be
   eternally happy in a likeness to God and enjoyment of him? As the work
   of redemption, so this of regeneration, darkens the glory of the work
   of creation; since more of grace, wisdom, power, holiness, are the
   springs of it, the obligation must be far greater; the difference is as
   great as between heaven and earth. Will you not bless God for making
   you creatures, for recovery from a fit of sickness? Is the obligation
   less in delivering you from a spiritual death? Is not the reason of
   blessing God greater for the second creation than the first, since it
   is the same skill adorns you with his image in the new creation, which
   beautified man with that image at the first?

   [2.] Was there not as much unfitness in you as in the worst of men by
   nature? Not one good disposition grew upon nature, but all was the work
   of preventing grace. Could, then, the iron gates of your hearts fly
   open of themselves? Or could any else but a God break them open? Was
   not your nature carried as violently to sin as any, perhaps not into
   such brutish sins as others, yet more refined and devilish? If you did
   not launch out into the grossest sins, you owe your preservation to
   restraining grace. That Socrates was better and wiser than another, was
   from God, in the acknowledgement of a heathen, who says he was chosen
   to virtue, "Kata tou Theou cheirotonian", by the divine suffrage. Were
   your strings better? Sure they were of God's tuning. Man was not more
   unfit for a natural being before God created him, than the best man in
   the world was for a spiritual being, till God wrought him with his own
   finger. Was not the worst in the world naturally as fit for it as
   yourselves? Did any better thing dwell in your flesh than in theirs, to
   give grace entertainment? Did not grace at first make its way,
   conquering, and to conquer, and not one blow struck by you to
   facilitate the victory? Nay, were you not so far from having a grain of
   grace by nature, that there was nothing but opposition and rebellion
   against the Author of it? Did you not want everything to make you
   lovely in God's eye? Nay, did you not hate him while he had a love of
   benevolence towards you? And have you not reason to bless him then,
   that he would not disdain to look upon you, such an impure and
   rebellious creature? Perhaps our case was the same with hers, Hos. ii.
   5, who said, 'I will go after my lovers.' She decreed to follow her
   idols, and was resolved not to be reclaimed; but God resolved
   otherwise, ver. 6, 7, who would not leave her till he had made her
   change her base and unworthy resolution for better: 'She shall say, I
   will return, &c.' And was it not a happy resolution in the divine
   breast, not to suffer you to run mad and furiously to bell? What an
   irrecoverable condition had you been in if God had not spoken a
   powerful word, 'Hitherto thou art gone, but no further shalt thou go!'
   Were you not once in your blood, and pitied by no eye, when God said,
   Live? And can you not wonder at the mercy of his lips, and raise your
   notes above an ordinary strain? Read over the records of the first work
   upon thy heart, and see if anything were written there with thy own
   finger. The very sense of thy own wretchedness was God's writing on thy
   heart; thou was weighed in the balances and found wanting; lighter than
   vanity, nothing of thy own to concur with God, but folly and misery.

   [3.] If grace found thee unfit and rebellious, there could then be
   nothing of the least desert; and this should make you cast a wondering
   eye at the greatness of God's kindness. Man's voluntary defection,
   without any violence offered to him, had rendered him unworthy of any
   recovery; you did no more deserve it than the worst devil, who shall
   never have one line of it drawn upon him. Not one previous disposition,
   not one sigh or groan for it, could be discerned, much less the draught
   itself. Your true earnings were nothing but that death you lay under.
   The unloosing any band of it, or knocking off any fetter, was merely
   free grace. Is there not, then, reason to bless the Lord, when an
   undeserved power has been put forth to new create you, when a deserved
   power might have buried you for ever under your own ruins? Suppose you
   had been the most exact moralists in the world, the supernatural grace
   of the new birth could not be deserved by you, because nothing can be
   merited but by an act as excellent as the reward. No man can merit by
   any act a thing of a greater value than the act itself; but this grace
   is of another order, and far superior to any moral natural work.
   Indeed, upon covenant, if a man does such a thing, he shall have such a
   reward, the thing promised may be challenged upon the performing the
   condition, but cannot be said to be merited, because the act was
   inferior to the reward in the true value of it, but this grace could
   neither be merited nor challenged at God's hand upon a condition, since
   he had made no promise in this kind to give you a right to such a
   demand. It is one thing to be capable of it, another thing to have a
   just right. A sinner in the state of sin is capable of being changed,
   but not capable of having a right to that change. Well, then, you could
   never deserve such a mercy; and will you prize it and bless God for it?

   [4 ] Since you did not deserve it, no, nor the proposals of it,
   consider what a condition you had been in had God left you to
   yourselves, or put your wills only into an indifference. Had it been by
   a mere suasion, or a naked proposition of the truth, I suppose you are
   so sensible of the mutability of your wills, that you might well
   believe you should scarce have complied with God. Your security at best
   had been but as good as Adam's, who had his posse but not his velle.
   What furious passions and devils in your souls were set against him!
   and had you been left to your own choice, you would not have stirred
   one foot to follow his chariot. If you did 'purify your souls in
   obeying the truth,' it was 'through the Spirit,' 1 Peter i. 22; and all
   the faith you have was from the same fountain, Acts xviii. 27, 'which
   believed through grace.' Put it to yourselves: Do you think your hearts
   were not so stout, that nothing but divine grace could mollify them? Do
   you think there would have been any heat or warmth in you unless God
   had kindled the flame? Can you imagine your frozen hearts would have
   melted but by a divine breath? It was happy for you that God would put
   your wills beyond an indifference, and deal with you by the same power
   as he dealt with Christ, not leaving him or you in a doubtful state
   between life and death. How happy was it for you that God would be
   conqueror, and surmount your resistance, tame your force, scatter your
   counsels, level your mountain, and bring your fierceness under the
   yoke; that he would not wait your choice and leisure, but make the
   event certain; that he had mercy on you, because he would have mercy;
   that he would turn the stream of your hearts by the overmastering tide
   of his grace, and overpower the flesh in the chief parts of your souls,
   and secure the rational powers of mind and will for himself! How glad
   may you be of the loss of that indifference that secures your happy
   estate for ever! Who that is in favour with a prince would not
   willingly have his will fixed to please him, and dread nothing more
   than such an indifference, whereby he might hate his prince and lose
   his favour?

   [5.] Is there not reason you should bless God, when he has dealt thus
   graciously with you, and not with many others in the world, why any of
   you should be raised up to a spiritual life, when you see many others
   near you stretched out in a spiritual death; why one upon the same
   bench and not another; why one should be gathered with his arm, and
   another left to the jaws of the devouring lion, why you should have any
   choice fruit grow in any of your hearts, when thorns and briers grow in
   every hedge? That God should have afforded you means of regeneration,
   and not to most others in the world, is a ground of blessing and
   praise, much more that he should afford you the grace of regeneration,
   and not to many others under the same means. He has not dealt so with
   every nation in giving them the means, Ps. cxlvii. 19; he has not dealt
   so with every person in giving them the grace. That wind that blows
   where it lists has left other dry bones to remain dry still, passed by
   others more civil and of sweeter conversations; drawn his image in one,
   and left others to tumble down to hell in the likeness of Adam, wherein
   they were born, overlooked one that was not far from the kingdom of
   heaven, and laid hold on another that was many leagues further from
   Christ. The Spirit of God only makes this distinction: he will pour out
   his grace in Galatia and Macedonia, and not suffer it to be known in
   Bithynia: Acts xvi. 6-8, 'And they essayed to go into Bithynia, but the
   Spirit suffered them not;' cause it to rain in one city, on one person,
   and not on another; call one out of the grave, and leave others under
   the bands of death and in the dregs of human nature. You see your
   calling, and you may see how distinguishing it is, 'not many wise after
   the flesh, not many mighty,' 1 Cor. i. 26. Can you see this and not
   bless the caller, the renewer? A less favour wrought so much upon
   David's heart that he would bless God in spite of mocks and scoffs, 2
   Sam. vi. 21. Oh rich discriminating grace! Where any are peculiar
   monuments of grace, they should have peculiar notes of praise. What
   reason can others have to bless God, if such should have no hearts to
   bless him for so great a mercy? All are under God's will of precept,
   all are under his will of promise, if they perform that precept; but
   all are not under his will of purpose, to give them strength to perform
   that precept.

   [6.] It is to be considered, too, with what pains and patience God
   wrought this work in your hearts. You may best know what ado God had
   with your hearts before they were thus formed according to his will.
   Were they not as clay to the potter, which needed much tempering before
   they were fit for use? Did God find that pliableness in you that the
   devil found? Had he a cordial welcome at the first proffer? Do you not
   remember resistance enough to make you for ever ashamed that ever you
   should put the blessed God to that toil? And yet you know not the
   thousandth part of that resistance God knew was lodged in your nature.
   Do you not remember how he met you at every turn, hedged up your
   perverse way with thorns, before he could be admitted to speak a word
   to your heart, how he answered one objection after another, whereby you
   would have stifled his work? Can you remember this, and not admire the
   mercy that took such pains with so unprofitable a heart? It is called a
   resurrection, but it is more. Before the resurrection of the body, one
   part of man lives and waits for reunion though the body be crumbled
   into very dust; but there is no life in you naturally: so little in you
   to take part with God, that even that which is the glory of man, his
   mind, and reason, and wisdom, were in arms against this work, as well
   as the sensitive and brutish part, for 'the carnal mind was enmity
   against God,' Rom. viii. 7. What was your language to God at first, but
   like that of the hellish spirit in the man in Luke iv. 34: 'What have
   we to do with thee?' Yet he dealt with you as the sun with the earth,
   which scatters the mists it sends out to choke its light, and spreads
   its warm wings over the face of the world. So does God, though men
   offend him with the steams of their sins, and uncivilly command him to
   depart from them, yet he leaves them not till he has made them willing
   that he should do them good.

   [7.] The work itself requires admiration and blessing in regard of the
   excellency of it. It is more admirable than all the miracles of nature;
   the whole world can no more compare with it than a dunghill can equal
   the worth of a rock of diamonds; all blessings which make you happy
   spiritually and eternally are wrapped up in it. What can God give
   greater than his own nature? What are you capable of more than what he
   has done and will do upon that foundation? If God had only given thee
   knowledge, thou might have been a devil for all that; but the new
   nature makes you equal with angels. What man or angel could you be born
   of with so great advantage as to be born of God? There is no higher
   being to be born of. What can he do more than thus to beget you? You
   are new-born according to that image after which his only Son was
   eternally begotten; conceived by that Spirit whereby Christ was
   conceived in the womb of the blesses Virgin; raised by the same
   almighty hand whereby the great pattern of the new birth was raised
   from the dead. It is the highest elevation of human nature to be united
   to the Son of God, and to be made like to that glorious image. Greater
   gifts cannot be than these two, Christ to descend to partake of human
   nature, and the creature elevated to partake of the divine. If you will
   not loudly bless him for this, what can God do that shall deserve your
   praise, since a greater he cannot confer, more full of the spirits of
   his favour towards you?

   [8.] May there not be some circumstances in your particular new birth
   that may raise your hearts to blessing and praise? Perhaps thou were
   'born in a day,' as his promise is of a nation, Isa. lxvi. 7, 8, and
   without those racking pains which attend the new birth of many. He did
   not take thee by the throat, nor arrest thee with legal terrors, but
   breathed upon thee with a gentle wind; conceived and formed thee in a
   little space of time, that thou were within the prospect of heaven
   before thou thought thyself out of the suburbs of hell, and brought
   thee forth a man-child before thou didn't imagine thyself to be
   delivered. Was it not mercy to renew thee without worrying thee; to
   melt thee by a gentle fire of love, not break thee piece-meal by the
   hammer of wrath, that thou should scarce discern the lance from the
   balsam, and the wound from the plaster? Perhaps he arrested thee in a
   full course of sin, in some desperate career, when some plot was laid
   for a high piece of wickedness. It had been an act of his power had
   thou been brought up in some religious family, tutored in the ways of
   religion by a choicer education; but perhaps God took thee from the
   very steams of hell, when thou had not one thought of him, and he might
   have let thee alone as well as he did others of thy companions. It had
   been admirable power to turn clear water into wine, but more to turn
   stinking and putrefied water into a generous wine. Do not the visible
   characters of mercy and power in such a case call for more praise at
   thy hands? Can any other cause have a pretence to put in for a share in
   thy acknowledgements?

   [9.] You are not without many examples to move you to this
   acknowledgement. Our Saviour himself could not regard the centurion's
   faith without astonishment. He wondered at that in his humanity which
   he wrought himself by his divinity, Mat. viii. 10. And when Peter
   professes his faith in him by acknowledging him to be the Son of God,
   Christ presently owns his Father as the author of it: Mat. xvi. 17,
   'Flesh and blood has not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is
   in heaven.' Angels sang both at the first and second creation, and
   shouted for joy when the corner-stone thereof was laid, Job xxxviii. 6,
   7. When they saw its beautiful order, they then showed themselves to be
   the sons of God indeed, in glorifying their Father for his incomparable
   works. The second creation being more glorious than the first, is not
   celebrated by them with fainter shootings; if God has then hallelujahs
   for you, it is fit he should have hallelujahs from you. If angels speak
   loud, it is not fit you should speak low; it is their concern, as they
   are God's friends and servants; your concern, as you are his
   workmanship, of his own carving. The saints in all ages of the church
   have led the way in this acknowledgement. The elders, made kings and
   priests on earth, in a conquest of Satan and their own hearts, crowned
   with a blessed grace, cast down their crowns at the feet of God Rev.
   ix. 11, 'For thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they
   are and were created,' both the present new creation and the old. 'Thou
   hast loosed my bonds,' Ps. cxvi. 16. What follows? 'I will offer to
   thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving.' And God's renewing David's youth
   like the eagle's, his changing him into a new man, says Jerome, is one
   argument of David's praise, Ps. ciii. 6. Add to this, heathens have
   acknowledged it to be the work of God, one examining the reason why
   Homer calls virtuous men "dious", answers. Because goodness was not a
   work of art, but "ergon Dios". If divining and mystical knowledge be
   "theiai tini epipnoiai", by divine inspiration, shall we say of virtue
   it is "ergon technes thentes", the work of man's art? Where do you find
   any like Nebuchadnezzar, gazing upon the divine formation in his own
   heart, and proudly crying out, 'Is not this great Babylon which I have
   built?' Does such language drop from a David's mouth? No; but 'thou
   hast quickened me.' Or from Paul? No, 'by grace I am what I am.' Every
   inch, every spark, every joint of the new man is from grace.

   [10.] If you do not acknowledge it to God, and bless him for it, you
   may justly suspect you are not born of him. It is the nature of true
   grace to reflect back upon God, as it is of a sunbeam shining upon a
   wall to reflect back upon the sun. Blessing God for it, is a character
   of a renewed man. It is an evidence of the ruin of the contradiction of
   nature against God, when man can strip himself of all, and own God the
   prime fountain of what he is and has. If a man boast of his being the
   cause of a new birth in himself by any work of his own, it is a shrewd
   sign he is not renewed, because by such boasting he crosses the main
   end of the gospel, which is to stain the pride of man, and debase him
   to the dust from all grounds of glorying in himself. How jealous was
   the apostle in this case, and therefore backs his assertion again and
   again, that he might beat man's hands off from fingering anything of
   God's glory: Eph. ii. 5, 'By grace you are saved;' again, verse 8, 9,
   'and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.' Once again, 'Not
   of works.' And the reason why he is thus earnest, was perpetually to
   discountenance self-confidence, 'lest any man should boast.' The design
   of God in all gospel dispensations, is to pull away the stool whereon
   the flesh sits to glory: 1 Cor i. 29-31, 'That no flesh should glory in
   his presence.' It would seem strange that the new birth, a main gospel
   work, should be wrought without promoting a gospel end. To have a new
   birth, and such a flourishing pride, opposite to the end of it, is a
   contradiction. If the doctrine of faith does exclude boasting, as Rom.
   iii. 27, boasting is 'excluded by the law of faith,' the grace of faith
   also will exclude it; where the new birth is wrought, pride, the great
   enemy to it, will surely be captivated. We are then something in and by
   God, when we are most nothing in ourselves.

   Well, then, be much in the work of praising God, who shined into thy
   heart when it was dark, and sealed instruction to thee; who took away
   the stony heart, and introduced one of flesh in the room; who
   manifested a day of power in the night of your weakness. Can you, dare
   you, to ascribe it to yourselves? Let God then have the praise. It is
   our fault we are more in complaints of what we want, than
   acknowledgements of what we have. Oh, rob not God of his deity, pretend
   not yourselves partners with him in the least of the stock. The more
   you return the glory of his grace, the more will he return the comfort
   of it to you; the more you give him that glory he is so jealous of, the
   more he will give you that grace he is so liberal of.

   (3.) A third duty for those that are renewed. Acknowledge God in all
   the changes you see in others. Miracles must be regarded. It is greater
   for the apostles to act with new hearts than to speak with new tongues;
   greater than to stop the sun in its course, which would set all the
   world upon an astonished gaze. Shall any such miraculous work be done
   in our view, and we stand only as stupid spectators, and not render to
   God that glory which is due to him for his choicest work? As the sight
   and consideration of the material creation kept up the notion of the
   being of God as creator, so the consideration of his works upon the
   souls of men will quicken thy sentiments of God as a new creator. One
   is an argument to prove the power of his essence, the other an argument
   of the power of his grace. Noah does not bless them first for that act
   of filial duty showed to his father, but blesses God as the author of
   that modesty Shem had shown in covering his father's nakedness: Gen.
   ix. 26, 'Blessed be the God of Shem.' When a great number were turned
   to Christ, Barnabas presently cast up his eye to the grace of God, 'he
   saw the grace of God,' Acts xi. 21-23. Let every Lazarus you see raised
   from the grave raise up your faith to a higher elevation, and dress it
   in a jubilee attire. When you see a new temple reared to God, own it as
   the Lord's doing, and let it be marvellous in your eyes.

   (4.) Be content with every condition your new creator shall cast you
   into. Discontent at any of God's dispensations does ill become one whom
   God has new begotten to a glorious inheritance. What can he do more
   than he has done, and what he will do upon that foundation? All that he
   acts is to further that which he has so powerfully and mercifully
   begun. What son would repine at the losing a rattle, as long as he is
   born to a never-fading inheritance? If grace has put forth a power to
   new create you, it will not use that power otherwise than for your
   good. It may contradict your carnal desires, not your spiritual
   interest. Well may any man be content with the jewel that is left,
   though the casket be lost. All things are too light if put into the
   balance with the new birth: the dearest husband or wife, the sweetest
   children or friends, the most flourishing inheritance; study,
   therefore, contentment in the worst condition upon this ground; you
   know not how soon you may be put to practise all your skill. Do you not
   see the heavens gathering blackness over your heads? A new birth, that
   allies us to God as his children, will be of more force to settle us,
   than calamities can be to discompose us; for never was child so dear to
   an earthly, as a new created soul is to its heavenly Father.

   (5.) Walk worthy of the author of it. A verbal acknowledgement will
   signify little without a real imitation of the virtues of him 'that has
   called you out of darkness into his marvellous light,' 1 Peter ii. 9. A
   holiness is to be expressed by you, like the holiness of that God who
   has renewed you. Let no devilish or brutish carriage be yoked with a
   divine birth, indeed it cannot; the bespotting corruption of the world
   will not agree with the regeneration of the soul; the stains of the
   flesh are inconsistent with the purity of the new nature. Belial and
   Christ, God and Satan, are not joint begetters; Satan's impure
   breathings upon you should not be admitted to mix with the breath of
   God. A new nature by grace must not imitate a brutish nature by sin; a
   soul born of God must not be fashioned according to the world. If you
   differ from the world in your nature by grace, differ from the world
   also in your carriage by holiness. It is uncomely for one born of God
   to be taken with the foolish, flaunting pride of the world, more than
   the pattern God has set him; that is, to imitate beasts, not a heavenly
   Father. The world is little, nothing, vanity in the eye of God; so
   should it be in the eye of a divinely begotten soul. Use the world as
   travellers an inn, to lodge, not to dwell in, to accommodate you in
   your journey to that Father of whom you were born. Let a heaven-born
   nature be attended with heavenly flights, longing for that happy state
   wherein nothing but the divine nature shall be seen in union, as
   nothing but fire is seen in melted gold.

   (6.) Mourn for your imperfections. Give God his due, and grieve for
   your defect in paving him his own. The soul in creation comes pure out
   of God's hand, but it is poisoned by the flesh, and the impurity in the
   sensitive part of man. Though your grace be from God, yet your
   imperfections are from yourselves. The waters that run through sulphur
   and alum mines flow from the sea, but the ill taste and scent are
   communicated by the matter it mixes with in its passage. God is the
   author of your faith, but not of the weakness of your faith; the author
   of your love, but not of the coldness of your love; the author of your
   zeal, but not of the faintness of your zeal. Chide your hearts,
   therefore for your weakness, as Christ did his disciples for their
   slowness in faith. 'Rejoice with trembling,' Ps. ii. 11, rejoice in
   what you have, and mourn for chat you want and come short in. Reason
   you have, since there is too much of the power of nature remaining with
   our best grace, so that it may be said of it, as Lot of Zoar, What
   grace has enclosed is but a little one.

   Exhort. 2. To those that are not born of God. You see at whose hands
   you are to seek it. God was the first contriver of the gospel, the
   first preacher of the gospel, the sole artist in any gospel operation.
   No man can come except the Father draw him; not some men, but no man;
   every man must therefore seek to this great attracter. It is a vanity
   of human nature, that every man loves to be "autodidaktos", his own
   teacher; and no less a vanity it is, that every man loves to be
   "autogennetos", his own begetter. Men glory in the knowledge they get
   without a teacher, and no less glory in any change they can hammer out
   without a spiritual Father. As he that scorns to be taught by another
   shall surely have a fool to his tutor, so he that thinks to gain
   spiritual life by himself, shall be sure to have death for his
   quickener. No man would seek life from death, or light from darkness,
   and the best natural man is no better. The glory of the Lord must rise
   upon us, before we can rise out of our death in sin: 'Arise, and shine,
   for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee,'
   Isa. lx. 1.

   (1.) Seek it only at the hands of God. It is not to be had by outward
   rules, but divine influence; the streams of life must come from him,
   since with him only is the fountain of life: Ps. xxxvi. 9, 'I will give
   a heart of flesh;' I alone, without any other co-ordinate cause, either
   man or angel. He only has the key of the heart, as well as that of the
   womb; confide not in yourselves. Adam was a root to convey sin and
   death, but no root to convey spiritual life. Corruption comes by
   propagation from him, grace only by spiritual regeneration from God.
   Would any wise man seek for water in a desert, or for grace from
   himself, who is naturally a dry wilderness? What toad, naturally full
   of poison, ever made himself sweet and wholesome? As Christ was by the
   grace of God made partaker of our nature in his incarnation, so by the
   same grace only can we be made partakers of his nature by regeneration.
   We are naturally weeds; if ever we be flowers in God's garden, the
   transformation must be God's act alone.

   Seek it of God. But,

   [1.] In the use of means, not abating anything of thine own industry.
   Seek, while God offers it; hold your mouth under the fountain while it
   runs. Moses hewed the tables, but God wrote the law. God promised David
   and Gideon victory, but not with their hands in their pockets, but
   their arms and armies about them. Moses must fight with the arms of
   Israel, but pray to the God of battles and victory. We must with one
   hand use the directions God has given, and lift up the other in
   spiritual supplication for success upon them. Therefore let not the
   doctrine of God's being the cause of the new birth encourage your
   laziness and sloth. This sloth among men Chemnitius thought to be the
   occasion of Pelagius his error, who, seeing the laziness of Christians,
   thought to correct it by making them think highly of their own
   strength; but that was a dangerous extreme.

   [2.] Yet let your eye be solely upon God in the use of them, since all
   the means in the world cannot do it without him. Unless God pull up the
   floodgates, no water of life can stream into the soul; means can no
   more of themselves cast out death than the disciples could cast out
   some devils; but Christ was able to do what they could not. All the
   angels in heaven and men upon earth have not been able, these almost
   six thousand years, to make one fly; yet all the angels and the whole
   frame of the world were made by God in six days. Men speak to the
   sense, God to the heart; they to the understanding, and God into it;
   men argue with the will, and God persuades it. All the clamours of the
   whole nation of the Jews, yea, of all the men in the world, would not
   have made Lazarus stir out of the grave, had not our Saviour spoken the
   word, 'Lazarus, come forth.' How often do the clouds of heaven drop
   upon men, yet they still remain as a dry chip, their stony hearts
   perhaps moistened with some transient flashy affections, but not
   mollified into flesh. Pray therefore to God, before the use of any
   means, Lord, breathe life so powerfully upon me, that I may walk before
   thee, and never find myself again in a natural winding-sheet. Let thy
   voice, Lord, be heard and felt by me as the voice of thy Son was by
   Lazarus. To use means without a seeking to God for his blessing, is to
   be exercised in divine institutions with an atheistic spirit. He is an
   atheist that expects nourishment from his meat without God's
   benediction, and he no less that runs to means without lifting up his
   heart to God, thinking to get grace conveyed by the means without God's
   operation.

   (2.) Direction. Plead much with God from the glorious attributes he
   honours in this work. Lord, here is a subject for thy power to work
   upon. God made the heavens when there was nothing but a rude mass; he
   brought forth the sun, moon, and stars, with all their glory, out of
   the barren womb of nothing. Is thy heart worse than nothing, more
   contradictory to God than nothing? It is so. Assume an argument from
   hence: Lord, here is a subject for thy power above what was manifested
   in creation; there is not a more tough heart in the world than mine;
   lose not the opportunity of displaying the greatness of thy power,
   since there is scarce a heart more stout and unwieldy than mine is.
   Lord, bestow a vital principle upon me; thou did it to the lifeless
   body of Adam; thy power will be more magnified in the breathing upon a
   lifeless soul of a son and daughter of Adam. In the same manner plead
   his wisdom and holiness. Plead also the enmity thy sin has against him,
   the wrong it has done him, in spoiling the creation, changing the end
   of it, hindering thee from thy natural duty, and that it is not for the
   interest of his glory to let sin bear such a sway and dominion, and
   usurp his room in one who would fain be another man.

   (3.) Be deeply sensible of the corruption of thy nature; the want of
   this is the cause there is so little sense in men and women of the
   absolute necessity of the grace of regeneration, and a change of
   nature. Therefore labour to see yourselves in a forlorn condition by
   spiritual death. Look upon your great fall as a son of Adam, a slave of
   Satan, and possessor of a hellish nature, and at a vast distance from
   God and happiness.

   (4.) Grieve not the Spirit in any of his operations. Quench not the
   sparks of the Spirit in any previous preparations and dispositions to
   this new birth. Be pliable to his breathings, hoist up your sails to
   receive his gales; when he knocks, open thy heart as wide as may be,
   push it to the furthest point, that there may be no remora; let all the
   house be free for his triumphant entrance. Since thy strength is too
   weak for it, beg of him at such a season to break it open; set upon
   prayer at such a season, and leave not till you have prayed your
   spirits up and your resistance out. How ungrateful and foolish is it to
   grieve that Spirit, who offers to form you into a new birth, and bring
   the life and joy of heaven into your heart! This is the only means to
   recover the loss you had by the fall of Adam, and surmount all the
   misery of it. Seek to him; he that can gather the dust of your bodies,
   if blown to the further part of the world, and knit it together, can
   overcome the filthy and deadly noisomeness of your souls; he can make a
   barren wilderness to become pools of water, a lump of vanity a garden
   of pleasure, a heap of rubbish to sprout up a new-born sun. If you
   would therefore be animated with a spirit of life, you must approach
   the beams of the sun, and lie under the rich and enlivening influences
   of it.

   End of part 2 of A Discourse of the Efficient of Regeneration.
     __________________________________________________________________

                                    Indexes
     __________________________________________________________________

Index of Scripture References

   Genesis

   [1]1:26   [2]2:17   [3]2:17   [4]3:3   [5]3:6   [6]3:10   [7]3:10
   [8]3:15   [9]3:15   [10]6:3   [11]6:5   [12]6:6   [13]9:26   [14]9:27
   [15]15:7   [16]20:6   [17]30:1   [18]30:2   [19]49:3

   Exodus

   [20]14:15   [21]20:24   [22]24:3   [23]24:8   [24]31:3

   Leviticus

   [25]20:8

   Numbers

   [26]7:8

   Deuteronomy

   [27]18:16-18   [28]29   [29]29:4   [30]30:6   [31]30:6

   2 Samuel

   [32]6:21

   1 Kings

   [33]8:24   [34]18:39   [35]19:18   [36]21:27   [37]21:27   [38]21:29
   [39]21:29

   1 Chronicles

   [40]29:13   [41]29:14   [42]29:18

   Job

   [43]10:3   [44]11:12   [45]15:16   [46]34:27   [47]36:23   [48]38:6
   [49]38:7

   Psalms

   [50]2:11   [51]8:3   [52]14:2   [53]19:1-3   [54]19:8   [55]25:9
   [56]32:10   [57]33:1   [58]34:9   [59]36:9   [60]36:9   [61]51:10
   [62]51:10   [63]63:8   [64]68:18   [65]72:6   [66]73:23   [67]80:18
   [68]84:11   [69]84:11   [70]86:11   [71]88:5   [72]95:10   [73]100:8
   [74]103:1   [75]103:2   [76]103:6   [77]104:29   [78]104:30
   [79]104:31   [80]110:3   [81]110:3   [82]115:1   [83]115:1
   [84]116:16   [85]119:21   [86]119:25   [87]119:27   [88]119:32
   [89]119:49   [90]119:67   [91]127:1   [92]139:14   [93]145:14
   [94]147:19

   Proverbs

   [95]5:22   [96]6:10   [97]8:4   [98]8:9   [99]8:31   [100]13:1
   [101]14:16   [102]20:8   [103]20:27   [104]20:27   [105]21:1
   [106]21:10   [107]28:26

   Ecclesiastes

   [108]7:29   [109]9:3   [110]9:10   [111]11:5

   Song of Solomon

   [112]1:4   [113]1:4   [114]1:4   [115]1:4   [116]5:3   [117]5:4

   Isaiah

   [118]1:5   [119]1:9   [120]4:4   [121]5:30   [122]6:6   [123]6:7
   [124]6:9   [125]6:10   [126]9:6   [127]13:7   [128]26:12   [129]26:12
   [130]40:4   [131]40:6   [132]40:7   [133]40:7   [134]40:31
   [135]40:31   [136]43:8   [137]43:15   [138]43:20   [139]43:21
   [140]43:26   [141]43:27   [142]46:10   [143]49:6   [144]49:9
   [145]53:1   [146]53:1   [147]53:1   [148]53:1   [149]53:8
   [150]53:10   [151]53:10   [152]53:11   [153]60:1   [154]60:21
   [155]60:21   [156]65:2   [157]65:18   [158]65:19   [159]65:23
   [160]66:1   [161]66:2   [162]66:3   [163]66:4   [164]66:7   [165]66:8

   Jeremiah

   [166]3:17   [167]4:14   [168]13   [169]13:23   [170]31:18
   [171]31:33   [172]31:34   [173]31:34   [174]32:40

   Lamentations

   [175]5:21

   Ezekiel

   [176]12:3   [177]18:28   [178]24:13   [179]33:11   [180]36:7
   [181]36:25-27   [182]36:25-27   [183]36:26   [184]36:26   [185]36:26
   [186]36:27   [187]36:37   [188]36:37   [189]37:5   [190]37:6

   Daniel

   [191]9:13

   Hosea

   [192]2:5   [193]2:14   [194]2:19   [195]2:23   [196]2:23   [197]2:23
   [198]3:5   [199]5:4   [200]5:4   [201]5:11   [202]6:3   [203]8:5
   [204]11:1   [205]11:3   [206]14:5   [207]14:5-7

   Jonah

   [208]3:8-10

   Micah

   [209]5:7   [210]7:18   [211]7:19

   Habakkuk

   [212]1:12

   Zechariah

   [213]4:2   [214]4:7   [215]4:8   [216]7:12   [217]12:10

   Malachi

   [218]4:2   [219]4:2   [220]4:8

   Matthew

   [221]5:1   [222]5:3   [223]5:6   [224]7:11   [225]7:18   [226]7:23
   [227]7:28   [228]8:10   [229]11:21   [230]11:24   [231]11:25
   [232]11:25   [233]11:27   [234]12:29   [235]12:34   [236]13:11
   [237]13:11   [238]16:17   [239]16:17   [240]16:21   [241]22:29
   [242]25:26   [243]25:41-43

   Mark

   [244]3:5   [245]5:7   [246]6:20   [247]10:21   [248]10:24   [249]10:25

   Luke

   [250]1:77   [251]4:34   [252]4:34   [253]6:43-45   [254]7:20
   [255]10:21   [256]11:21   [257]11:21   [258]11:22   [259]12:57
   [260]16:80   [261]17:5   [262]18:11   [263]22:24   [264]24:32

   John

   [265]1:5   [266]1:9   [267]1:13   [268]1:13   [269]3:8   [270]3:8
   [271]3:8   [272]3:34   [273]5:17   [274]5:21   [275]5:35   [276]5:40
   [277]5:44   [278]6:40   [279]6:44   [280]6:44   [281]6:45   [282]6:45
   [283]6:45   [284]7:18   [285]8:36   [286]8:44   [287]9:32   [288]9:40
   [289]10:16   [290]10:26   [291]10:29   [292]10:37   [293]11:14
   [294]11:43   [295]11:45   [296]11:46   [297]11:47   [298]11:53
   [299]12:37   [300]12:39   [301]12:40   [302]12:89   [303]14:17
   [304]15:1   [305]15:2   [306]15:2   [307]15:4   [308]15:5   [309]15:5
   [310]15:5   [311]15:16   [312]16:8   [313]16:8   [314]16:9
   [315]16:13   [316]17:11   [317]17:11   [318]17:15

   Acts

   [319]1:6   [320]2   [321]2   [322]5:3   [323]7:51   [324]7:55
   [325]7:62   [326]8:22   [327]8:23   [328]9:6   [329]10:44
   [330]11:21   [331]11:21-23   [332]11:23   [333]14:16   [334]14:19
   [335]15:8   [336]15:9   [337]16:6-8   [338]16:14   [339]16:14
   [340]16:14   [341]16:14   [342]17:28   [343]17:28   [344]18:27
   [345]20:22   [346]26:18

   Romans

   [347]1:16   [348]1:18   [349]1:18   [350]1:19   [351]1:19-21
   [352]1:20   [353]1:21   [354]1:21   [355]2:4   [356]2:5   [357]2:14
   [358]2:15   [359]2:15   [360]3:10-12   [361]3:11   [362]3:27
   [363]3:27   [364]5:6   [365]5:6   [366]5:7   [367]5:8   [368]5:20
   [369]6:4   [370]6:11   [371]6:19   [372]6:19   [373]6:23   [374]7
   [375]7:1-4   [376]7:5   [377]7:7   [378]7:8   [379]7:9   [380]7:9
   [381]7:12-14   [382]7:14   [383]7:16   [384]7:18   [385]7:18
   [386]7:18   [387]7:19   [388]7:24   [389]7:24   [390]7:26   [391]8:2
   [392]8:3   [393]8:7   [394]8:7   [395]8:7   [396]8:7   [397]8:7
   [398]8:8   [399]8:26   [400]8:29   [401]8:29   [402]8:29   [403]8:29
   [404]8:37   [405]8:38   [406]9:15   [407]9:16   [408]9:16   [409]9:22
   [410]9:29   [411]10:6   [412]10:7   [413]10:8   [414]10:18
   [415]10:18   [416]10:21   [417]11:6   [418]11:24   [419]11:34
   [420]11:35   [421]11:36   [422]12   [423]15:18

   1 Corinthians

   [424]1:18   [425]1:18   [426]1:21   [427]1:21   [428]1:26   [429]1:29
   [430]1:29-31   [431]1:30   [432]1:30   [433]1:31   [434]2:4
   [435]2:4   [436]2:4   [437]2:7   [438]2:10   [439]2:14   [440]2:14
   [441]2:14   [442]3:5   [443]3:7   [444]3:7   [445]3:9   [446]3:9
   [447]4:7   [448]4:7   [449]4:7   [450]4:15   [451]5:5   [452]6:11
   [453]7:7   [454]12:3   [455]12:3   [456]12:6   [457]12:8   [458]15:10
   [459]15:10   [460]15:28

   2 Corinthians

   [461]3:5   [462]3:14   [463]3:17   [464]3:18   [465]3:18   [466]4:6
   [467]4:6   [468]4:7   [469]5:6   [470]10:4   [471]12:11   [472]15:10

   Galatians

   [473]1:15   [474]1:16   [475]2:20   [476]3:23   [477]3:24   [478]3:24
   [479]4:9   [480]5:7   [481]5:8   [482]5:19-21

   Ephesians

   [483]1:3   [484]1:3   [485]1:4   [486]1:4   [487]1:5   [488]1:9
   [489]1:11   [490]1:11   [491]1:12   [492]1:17   [493]1:18   [494]1:19
   [495]1:19   [496]1:20   [497]1:20   [498]2:2   [499]2:2   [500]2:3
   [501]2:5   [502]2:5   [503]2:5   [504]2:8   [505]2:9   [506]2:10
   [507]2:10   [508]2:10   [509]3:9   [510]3:10   [511]3:18   [512]4:18
   [513]4:24   [514]5:6   [515]5:8   [516]6:18

   Philippians

   [517]1:29   [518]1:29   [519]2:12   [520]2:12   [521]2:13   [522]2:13
   [523]2:13   [524]2:13   [525]2:13   [526]2:13   [527]3:6

   Colossians

   [528]1:9   [529]1:9   [530]1:11   [531]1:13   [532]2:6   [533]2:12
   [534]2:12   [535]3:10

   1 Thessalonians

   [536]1:5

   2 Thessalonians

   [537]1:3   [538]1:11   [539]2:10   [540]2:12   [541]2:14

   1 Timothy

   [542]1:2   [543]1:9   [544]1:14

   2 Timothy

   [545]1:5   [546]1:9   [547]1:9   [548]1:14   [549]1:14   [550]2:13
   [551]2:20   [552]2:25   [553]2:26

   Titus

   [554]1:1   [555]1:2   [556]3:3   [557]3:3   [558]3:5   [559]3:5

   Hebrews

   [560]1:3   [561]1:6   [562]1:9   [563]2:9   [564]2:9   [565]2:11
   [566]3:1   [567]3:16   [568]5:7   [569]6:4   [570]9:7   [571]9:10
   [572]12:2   [573]12:9   [574]12:10

   James

   [575]1:17   [576]1:18   [577]1:18   [578]1:18   [579]4:5   [580]4:8

   1 Peter

   [581]1:3   [582]1:3   [583]1:3   [584]1:3   [585]1:3   [586]1:3
   [587]1:8   [588]1:16   [589]1:22   [590]2   [591]2:9   [592]2:9
   [593]5:10   [594]5:10   [595]5:10

   2 Peter

   [596]1:2   [597]1:3   [598]2:19

   1 John

   [599]3:3   [600]4:4   [601]5:18   [602]5:18   [603]5:20   [604]5:20

   Jude

   [605]1:4

   Revelation

   [606]6:2   [607]9:11
     __________________________________________________________________

            This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal
               Library at Calvin College, http://www.ccel.org,
                   generated on demand from ThML source.

References

   1. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=1&scrV=26#iii-p60.2
   2. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=2&scrV=17#ii-p137.1
   3. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=2&scrV=17#ii-p186.2
   4. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=3&scrV=3#iii-p91.1
   5. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=3&scrV=6#ii-p188.1
   6. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=3&scrV=10#ii-p48.2
   7. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=3&scrV=10#ii-p186.1
   8. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=3&scrV=15#ii-p70.1
   9. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=3&scrV=15#iii-p14.1
  10. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=6&scrV=3#ii-p177.1
  11. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=6&scrV=5#ii-p47.3
  12. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=6&scrV=6#ii-p110.1
  13. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=9&scrV=26#iii-p140.1
  14. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=9&scrV=27#iii-p15.6
  15. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=15&scrV=7#iii-p44.1
  16. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=20&scrV=6#ii-p169.2
  17. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=30&scrV=1#iii-p17.10
  18. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=30&scrV=2#iii-p17.11
  19. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=49&scrV=3#iii-p61.6
  20. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Exod&scrCh=14&scrV=15#ii-p104.6
  21. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Exod&scrCh=20&scrV=24#ii-p245.1
  22. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Exod&scrCh=24&scrV=3#ii-p192.2
  23. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Exod&scrCh=24&scrV=8#ii-p214.4
  24. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Exod&scrCh=31&scrV=3#iii-p34.6
  25. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Lev&scrCh=20&scrV=8#ii-p201.1
  26. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Num&scrCh=7&scrV=8#iii-p30.1
  27. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Deut&scrCh=18&scrV=16#ii-p200.1
  28. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Deut&scrCh=29&scrV=0#ii-p83.5
  29. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Deut&scrCh=29&scrV=4#iii-p81.2
  30. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Deut&scrCh=30&scrV=6#iii-p15.8
  31. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Deut&scrCh=30&scrV=6#iii-p89.1
  32. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Sam&scrCh=6&scrV=21#iii-p133.4
  33. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Kgs&scrCh=8&scrV=24#iii-p99.1
  34. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Kgs&scrCh=18&scrV=39#ii-p121.7
  35. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Kgs&scrCh=19&scrV=18#iii-p15.4
  36. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Kgs&scrCh=21&scrV=27#ii-p67.1
  37. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Kgs&scrCh=21&scrV=27#ii-p176.1
  38. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Kgs&scrCh=21&scrV=29#ii-p67.2
  39. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Kgs&scrCh=21&scrV=29#ii-p176.2
  40. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Chr&scrCh=29&scrV=13#iii-p94.1
  41. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Chr&scrCh=29&scrV=14#iii-p94.2
  42. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Chr&scrCh=29&scrV=18#ii-p133.6
  43. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Job&scrCh=10&scrV=3#iii-p113.1
  44. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Job&scrCh=11&scrV=12#ii-p112.1
  45. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Job&scrCh=15&scrV=16#ii-p77.1
  46. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Job&scrCh=34&scrV=27#ii-p166.2
  47. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Job&scrCh=36&scrV=23#iii-p52.4
  48. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Job&scrCh=38&scrV=6#iii-p137.3
  49. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Job&scrCh=38&scrV=7#iii-p137.4
  50. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=2&scrV=11#iii-p143.1
  51. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=8&scrV=3#iii-p61.4
  52. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=14&scrV=2#ii-p221.3
  53. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=19&scrV=1#ii-p207.5
  54. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=19&scrV=8#ii-p41.3
  55. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=25&scrV=9#ii-p240.2
  56. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=32&scrV=10#iii-p113.2
  57. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=33&scrV=1#iii-p127.2
  58. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=34&scrV=9#iii-p17.1
  59. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=36&scrV=9#ii-p228.5
  60. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=36&scrV=9#iii-p145.1
  61. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=51&scrV=10#ii-p117.1
  62. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=51&scrV=10#iii-p6.4
  63. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=63&scrV=8#iii-p21.3
  64. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=68&scrV=18#iii-p64.5
  65. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=72&scrV=6#ii-p126.2
  66. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=73&scrV=23#iii-p22.2
  67. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=80&scrV=18#ii-p132.1
  68. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=84&scrV=11#iii-p114.7
  69. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=84&scrV=11#iii-p117.4
  70. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=86&scrV=11#iii-p104.1
  71. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=88&scrV=5#ii-p148.3
  72. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=95&scrV=10#ii-p152.1
  73. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=100&scrV=8#ii-p233.4
  74. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=103&scrV=1#ii-p244.2
  75. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=103&scrV=2#ii-p244.3
  76. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=103&scrV=6#iii-p137.7
  77. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=104&scrV=29#ii-p133.4
  78. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=104&scrV=30#iii-p121.1
  79. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=104&scrV=31#iii-p121.2
  80. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=110&scrV=3#iii-p60.1
  81. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=110&scrV=3#iii-p61.9
  82. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=115&scrV=1#ii-p130.3
  83. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=115&scrV=1#iii-p127.1
  84. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=116&scrV=16#iii-p137.6
  85. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=119&scrV=21#ii-p152.2
  86. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=119&scrV=25#ii-p132.2
  87. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=119&scrV=27#ii-p132.3
  88. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=119&scrV=32#iii-p116.6
  89. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=119&scrV=49#iii-p116.5
  90. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=119&scrV=67#iii-p98.1
  91. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=127&scrV=1#ii-p133.3
  92. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=139&scrV=14#iii-p74.3
  93. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=145&scrV=14#ii-p11.1
  94. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=147&scrV=19#iii-p133.1
  95. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Prov&scrCh=5&scrV=22#ii-p44.2
  96. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Prov&scrCh=6&scrV=10#ii-p192.1
  97. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Prov&scrCh=8&scrV=4#ii-p241.1
  98. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Prov&scrCh=8&scrV=9#ii-p124.2
  99. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Prov&scrCh=8&scrV=31#iii-p47.2
 100. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Prov&scrCh=13&scrV=1#ii-p178.3
 101. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Prov&scrCh=14&scrV=16#ii-p166.1
 102. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Prov&scrCh=20&scrV=8#ii-p167.1
 103. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Prov&scrCh=20&scrV=27#ii-p8.1
 104. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Prov&scrCh=20&scrV=27#iii-p29.4
 105. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Prov&scrCh=21&scrV=1#iii-p29.3
 106. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Prov&scrCh=21&scrV=10#ii-p162.1
 107. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Prov&scrCh=28&scrV=26#ii-p219.1
 108. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eccl&scrCh=7&scrV=29#ii-p187.1
 109. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eccl&scrCh=9&scrV=3#ii-p96.1
 110. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eccl&scrCh=9&scrV=10#ii-p244.1
 111. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eccl&scrCh=11&scrV=5#iii-p74.2
 112. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Song&scrCh=1&scrV=4#ii-p132.10
 113. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Song&scrCh=1&scrV=4#ii-p104.4
 114. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Song&scrCh=1&scrV=4#iii-p97.1
 115. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Song&scrCh=1&scrV=4#iii-p116.1
 116. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Song&scrCh=5&scrV=3#iii-p116.2
 117. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Song&scrCh=5&scrV=4#ii-p88.4
 118. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=1&scrV=5#ii-p221.4
 119. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=1&scrV=9#iii-p15.3
 120. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=4&scrV=4#iii-p81.4
 121. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=5&scrV=30#ii-p83.1
 122. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=6&scrV=6#iii-p29.1
 123. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=6&scrV=7#iii-p29.2
 124. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=6&scrV=9#iii-p81.7
 125. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=6&scrV=10#iii-p81.8
 126. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=9&scrV=6#ii-p124.6
 127. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=13&scrV=7#ii-p42.2
 128. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=26&scrV=12#ii-p201.4
 129. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=26&scrV=12#ii-p231.1
 130. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=40&scrV=4#ii-p228.1
 131. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=40&scrV=6#ii-p228.2
 132. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=40&scrV=7#ii-p228.3
 133. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=40&scrV=7#ii-p234.1
 134. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=40&scrV=31#iii-p114.3
 135. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=40&scrV=31#iii-p114.4
 136. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=43&scrV=8#ii-p86.2
 137. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=43&scrV=15#iii-p60.4
 138. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=43&scrV=20#iii-p35.1
 139. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=43&scrV=21#iii-p35.2
 140. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=43&scrV=26#ii-p35.5
 141. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=43&scrV=27#ii-p35.6
 142. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=46&scrV=10#ii-p96.2
 143. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=49&scrV=6#ii-p3.2
 144. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=49&scrV=9#ii-p42.3
 145. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=53&scrV=1#ii-p84.5
 146. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=53&scrV=1#ii-p121.1
 147. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=53&scrV=1#ii-p221.2
 148. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=53&scrV=1#iii-p61.5
 149. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=53&scrV=8#iii-p74.4
 150. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=53&scrV=10#ii-p101.1
 151. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=53&scrV=10#iii-p51.5
 152. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=53&scrV=11#ii-p101.2
 153. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=60&scrV=1#iii-p144.1
 154. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=60&scrV=21#iii-p17.2
 155. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=60&scrV=21#iii-p35.3
 156. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=65&scrV=2#ii-p208.2
 157. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=65&scrV=18#iii-p121.3
 158. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=65&scrV=19#iii-p121.4
 159. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=65&scrV=23#iii-p123.1
 160. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=66&scrV=1#iii-p47.3
 161. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=66&scrV=2#iii-p47.4
 162. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=66&scrV=3#ii-p149.1
 163. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=66&scrV=4#ii-p149.2
 164. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=66&scrV=7#iii-p136.1
 165. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Isa&scrCh=66&scrV=8#iii-p136.2
 166. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=3&scrV=17#iii-p34.5
 167. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=4&scrV=14#ii-p165.1
 168. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=13&scrV=0#ii-p196.1
 169. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=13&scrV=23#ii-p45.1
 170. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=18#ii-p219.2
 171. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=33#iii-p22.12
 172. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=34#iii-p26.2
 173. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=34#iii-p81.1
 174. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=32&scrV=40#iii-p22.1
 175. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Lam&scrCh=5&scrV=21#ii-p104.3
 176. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=12&scrV=3#ii-p174.2
 177. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=18&scrV=28#iii-p83.3
 178. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=24&scrV=13#ii-p243.8
 179. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=33&scrV=11#ii-p209.4
 180. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=36&scrV=7#iii-p6.3
 181. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=36&scrV=25#ii-p32.1
 182. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=36&scrV=25#iii-p15.1
 183. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=36&scrV=26#ii-p102.1
 184. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=36&scrV=26#ii-p104.1
 185. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=36&scrV=26#iii-p22.11
 186. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=36&scrV=27#ii-p125.5
 187. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=36&scrV=37#ii-p104.2
 188. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=36&scrV=37#ii-p201.5
 189. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=37&scrV=5#iii-p6.1
 190. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=37&scrV=6#iii-p6.2
 191. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=9&scrV=13#ii-p246.3
 192. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=2&scrV=5#iii-p130.1
 193. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=2&scrV=14#iii-p97.2
 194. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=2&scrV=19#iii-p26.1
 195. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=2&scrV=23#ii-p19.1
 196. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=2&scrV=23#iii-p15.5
 197. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=2&scrV=23#iii-p20.4
 198. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=3&scrV=5#iii-p33.1
 199. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=5&scrV=4#ii-p44.3
 200. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=5&scrV=4#ii-p170.1
 201. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=5&scrV=11#ii-p160.1
 202. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=6&scrV=3#iii-p117.2
 203. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=8&scrV=5#ii-p208.3
 204. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=11&scrV=1#ii-p132.4
 205. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=11&scrV=3#ii-p132.5
 206. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=14&scrV=5#ii-p238.1
 207. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=14&scrV=5#iii-p115.5
 208. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=3&scrV=8#ii-p67.3
 209. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=5&scrV=7#ii-p69.1
 210. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=7&scrV=18#iii-p48.2
 211. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=7&scrV=19#iii-p48.3
 212. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Hab&scrCh=1&scrV=12#iii-p60.5
 213. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Zech&scrCh=4&scrV=2#iii-p22.5
 214. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Zech&scrCh=4&scrV=7#iii-p127.3
 215. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Zech&scrCh=4&scrV=8#iii-p22.6
 216. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Zech&scrCh=7&scrV=12#ii-p36.3
 217. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Zech&scrCh=12&scrV=10#iii-p15.7
 218. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=4&scrV=2#ii-p126.1
 219. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=4&scrV=2#iii-p115.6
 220. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=4&scrV=8#iii-p114.8
 221. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=5&scrV=1#ii-p209.2
 222. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=5&scrV=3#ii-p37.1
 223. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=5&scrV=6#ii-p246.2
 224. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=7&scrV=11#ii-p209.1
 225. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=7&scrV=18#ii-p110.3
 226. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=7&scrV=23#ii-p151.4
 227. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=7&scrV=28#ii-p209.3
 228. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=8&scrV=10#iii-p137.1
 229. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=11&scrV=21#ii-p116.3
 230. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=11&scrV=24#ii-p202.1
 231. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=11&scrV=25#iii-p16.1
 232. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=11&scrV=25#iii-p63.1
 233. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=11&scrV=27#iii-p51.6
 234. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=12&scrV=29#iii-p64.3
 235. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=12&scrV=34#ii-p213.2
 236. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=13&scrV=11#ii-p193.2
 237. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=13&scrV=11#iii-p52.2
 238. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=16&scrV=17#ii-p83.4
 239. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=16&scrV=17#iii-p137.2
 240. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=16&scrV=21#ii-p99.1
 241. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=22&scrV=29#ii-p153.1
 242. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=25&scrV=26#ii-p209.6
 243. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=25&scrV=41#ii-p151.3
 244. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Mark&scrCh=3&scrV=5#ii-p191.2
 245. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Mark&scrCh=5&scrV=7#ii-p213.1
 246. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Mark&scrCh=6&scrV=20#ii-p172.1
 247. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Mark&scrCh=10&scrV=21#ii-p209.5
 248. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Mark&scrCh=10&scrV=24#ii-p114.1
 249. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Mark&scrCh=10&scrV=25#ii-p114.2
 250. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=1&scrV=77#iii-p79.5
 251. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=4&scrV=34#ii-p50.3
 252. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=4&scrV=34#iii-p134.2
 253. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=6&scrV=43#ii-p213.3
 254. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=7&scrV=20#iii-p65.5
 255. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=10&scrV=21#iii-p37.6
 256. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=11&scrV=21#ii-p52.5
 257. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=11&scrV=21#iii-p64.1
 258. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=11&scrV=22#iii-p64.2
 259. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=12&scrV=57#ii-p174.1
 260. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=16&scrV=80#ii-p121.8
 261. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=17&scrV=5#iii-p115.1
 262. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=18&scrV=11#ii-p228.6
 263. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=22&scrV=24#iii-p104.3
 264. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=24&scrV=32#iii-p82.1
 265. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=1&scrV=5#ii-p83.2
 266. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=1&scrV=9#ii-p138.2
 267. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=1&scrV=13#ii-p1.1
 268. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=1&scrV=13#iii-p1.1
 269. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=3&scrV=8#ii-p243.1
 270. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=3&scrV=8#iii-p50.1
 271. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=3&scrV=8#iii-p74.1
 272. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=3&scrV=34#iii-p25.1
 273. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=5&scrV=17#iii-p25.2
 274. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=5&scrV=21#ii-p220.1
 275. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=5&scrV=35#ii-p3.1
 276. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=5&scrV=40#ii-p42.1
 277. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=5&scrV=44#ii-p114.3
 278. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=6&scrV=40#iii-p79.7
 279. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=6&scrV=44#ii-p32.2
 280. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=6&scrV=44#iii-p22.14
 281. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=6&scrV=45#ii-p83.3
 282. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=6&scrV=45#iii-p58.2
 283. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=6&scrV=45#iii-p81.6
 284. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=7&scrV=18#ii-p226.3
 285. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=8&scrV=36#ii-p215.1
 286. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=8&scrV=44#ii-p88.2
 287. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=9&scrV=32#iii-p61.1
 288. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=9&scrV=40#ii-p175.1
 289. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=10&scrV=16#iii-p54.4
 290. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=10&scrV=26#iii-p51.4
 291. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=10&scrV=29#iii-p53.1
 292. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=10&scrV=37#iii-p75.1
 293. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=11&scrV=14#iii-p82.2
 294. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=11&scrV=43#ii-p182.1
 295. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=11&scrV=45#ii-p121.3
 296. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=11&scrV=46#ii-p121.4
 297. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=11&scrV=47#ii-p121.5
 298. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=11&scrV=53#ii-p121.6
 299. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=12&scrV=37#ii-p121.2
 300. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=12&scrV=39#ii-p124.3
 301. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=12&scrV=40#ii-p124.4
 302. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=12&scrV=89#ii-p36.5
 303. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=14&scrV=17#ii-p36.6
 304. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=15&scrV=1#iii-p17.6
 305. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=15&scrV=2#iii-p17.7
 306. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=15&scrV=2#iii-p115.3
 307. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=15&scrV=4#ii-p36.8
 308. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=15&scrV=5#ii-p69.2
 309. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=15&scrV=5#ii-p169.1
 310. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=15&scrV=5#iii-p116.4
 311. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=15&scrV=16#iii-p20.3
 312. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=16&scrV=8#ii-p74.1
 313. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=16&scrV=8#iii-p85.1
 314. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=16&scrV=9#ii-p74.2
 315. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=16&scrV=13#iii-p97.3
 316. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=17&scrV=11#ii-p133.1
 317. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=17&scrV=11#iii-p60.6
 318. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=17&scrV=15#ii-p133.2
 319. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=1&scrV=6#iii-p30.2
 320. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=0#iii-p104.2
 321. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=0#iii-p37.3
 322. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=5&scrV=3#ii-p164.1
 323. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=7&scrV=51#ii-p51.1
 324. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=7&scrV=55#iii-p105.1
 325. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=7&scrV=62#iii-p39.1
 326. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=8&scrV=22#ii-p173.1
 327. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=8&scrV=23#ii-p173.2
 328. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=9&scrV=6#ii-p61.1
 329. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=10&scrV=44#ii-p243.2
 330. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=11&scrV=21#iii-p42.3
 331. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=11&scrV=21#iii-p140.2
 332. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=11&scrV=23#iii-p42.4
 333. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=14&scrV=16#ii-p193.1
 334. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=14&scrV=19#iii-p41.1
 335. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=15&scrV=8#ii-p132.6
 336. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=15&scrV=9#ii-p132.7
 337. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=16&scrV=6#iii-p133.2
 338. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=16&scrV=14#ii-p47.2
 339. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=16&scrV=14#ii-p128.4
 340. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=16&scrV=14#iii-p21.2
 341. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=16&scrV=14#iii-p83.1
 342. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=17&scrV=28#iii-p116.3
 343. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=17&scrV=28#iii-p129.1
 344. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=18&scrV=27#iii-p132.2
 345. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=20&scrV=22#iii-p83.2
 346. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=26&scrV=18#iii-p79.1
 347. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=16#ii-p116.1
 348. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=18#ii-p178.2
 349. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=18#ii-p202.2
 350. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=19#ii-p207.1
 351. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=19#ii-p153.2
 352. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=20#ii-p151.1
 353. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=21#ii-p82.1
 354. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=21#ii-p243.7
 355. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=2&scrV=4#ii-p207.2
 356. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=2&scrV=5#ii-p208.1
 357. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=2&scrV=14#ii-p84.1
 358. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=2&scrV=15#ii-p84.2
 359. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=2&scrV=15#ii-p178.1
 360. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=3&scrV=10#ii-p66.1
 361. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=3&scrV=11#ii-p148.2
 362. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=3&scrV=27#ii-p226.2
 363. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=3&scrV=27#iii-p138.3
 364. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=5&scrV=6#ii-p35.3
 365. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=5&scrV=6#ii-p123.1
 366. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=5&scrV=7#ii-p123.2
 367. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=5&scrV=8#ii-p35.4
 368. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=5&scrV=20#ii-p123.3
 369. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=6&scrV=4#iii-p65.3
 370. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=6&scrV=11#ii-p68.1
 371. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=6&scrV=19#ii-p36.9
 372. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=6&scrV=19#ii-p163.1
 373. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=6&scrV=23#iii-p52.1
 374. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=7&scrV=0#ii-p214.3
 375. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=7&scrV=1#ii-p44.1
 376. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=7&scrV=5#ii-p52.2
 377. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=7&scrV=7#ii-p214.2
 378. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=7&scrV=8#ii-p123.4
 379. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=7&scrV=9#ii-p123.5
 380. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=7&scrV=9#ii-p214.1
 381. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=7&scrV=12#ii-p123.6
 382. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=7&scrV=14#ii-p212.1
 383. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=7&scrV=16#ii-p118.1
 384. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=7&scrV=18#ii-p47.1
 385. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=7&scrV=18#ii-p107.1
 386. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=7&scrV=18#ii-p131.1
 387. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=7&scrV=19#ii-p118.2
 388. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=7&scrV=24#ii-p118.3
 389. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=7&scrV=24#ii-p157.1
 390. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=7&scrV=26#ii-p157.2
 391. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=2#ii-p35.2
 392. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=3#ii-p207.7
 393. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=7#ii-p36.4
 394. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=7#ii-p50.1
 395. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=7#ii-p84.4
 396. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=7#ii-p110.2
 397. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=7#iii-p134.1
 398. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=8#ii-p35.1
 399. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=26#ii-p88.3
 400. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=29#ii-p119.3
 401. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=29#iii-p27.1
 402. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=29#iii-p34.8
 403. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=29#iii-p119.1
 404. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=37#iii-p114.1
 405. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=38#iii-p114.2
 406. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=9&scrV=15#iii-p51.3
 407. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=9&scrV=16#ii-p76.1
 408. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=9&scrV=16#iii-p127.4
 409. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=9&scrV=22#iii-p17.3
 410. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=9&scrV=29#iii-p15.2
 411. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=10&scrV=6#ii-p207.3
 412. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=10&scrV=7#ii-p207.4
 413. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=10&scrV=8#ii-p41.2
 414. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=10&scrV=18#ii-p41.1
 415. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=10&scrV=18#ii-p207.6
 416. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=10&scrV=21#ii-p50.2
 417. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=11&scrV=6#ii-p125.6
 418. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=11&scrV=24#ii-p110.4
 419. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=11&scrV=34#iii-p55.1
 420. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=11&scrV=35#iii-p52.3
 421. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=11&scrV=36#ii-p94.2
 422. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=12&scrV=0#iii-p79.2
 423. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=15&scrV=18#iii-p61.8
 424. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=1&scrV=18#ii-p116.2
 425. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=1&scrV=18#iii-p37.1
 426. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=1&scrV=21#iii-p22.4
 427. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=1&scrV=21#iii-p37.2
 428. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=1&scrV=26#iii-p133.3
 429. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=1&scrV=29#ii-p226.1
 430. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=1&scrV=29#iii-p138.2
 431. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=1&scrV=30#iii-p17.5
 432. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=1&scrV=30#iii-p79.6
 433. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=1&scrV=31#ii-p105.2
 434. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=2&scrV=4#iii-p99.2
 435. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=2&scrV=4#ii-p221.1
 436. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=2&scrV=4#iii-p84.1
 437. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=2&scrV=7#iii-p57.1
 438. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=2&scrV=10#iii-p81.3
 439. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=2&scrV=14#ii-p36.2
 440. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=2&scrV=14#ii-p84.3
 441. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=2&scrV=14#ii-p86.1
 442. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=3&scrV=5#ii-p243.4
 443. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=3&scrV=7#ii-p94.1
 444. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=3&scrV=7#iii-p115.4
 445. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=3&scrV=9#iii-p34.7
 446. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=3&scrV=9#iii-p56.1
 447. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=4&scrV=7#ii-p65.2
 448. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=4&scrV=7#ii-p105.1
 449. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=4&scrV=7#iii-p126.1
 450. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=4&scrV=15#ii-p243.5
 451. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=5&scrV=5#iii-p17.4
 452. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=6&scrV=11#iii-p30.3
 453. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=7&scrV=7#ii-p113.1
 454. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=12&scrV=3#ii-p36.7
 455. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=12&scrV=3#ii-p74.3
 456. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=12&scrV=6#iii-p37.4
 457. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=12&scrV=8#ii-p86.3
 458. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=15&scrV=10#ii-p132.9
 459. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=15&scrV=10#ii-p233.5
 460. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Cor&scrCh=15&scrV=28#iii-p95.1
 461. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Cor&scrCh=3&scrV=5#ii-p65.1
 462. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Cor&scrCh=3&scrV=14#ii-p124.1
 463. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Cor&scrCh=3&scrV=17#iii-p96.1
 464. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Cor&scrCh=3&scrV=18#iii-p34.1
 465. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Cor&scrCh=3&scrV=18#iii-p79.12
 466. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Cor&scrCh=4&scrV=6#ii-p128.5
 467. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Cor&scrCh=4&scrV=6#iii-p79.3
 468. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Cor&scrCh=4&scrV=7#iii-p37.5
 469. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Cor&scrCh=5&scrV=6#iii-p56.3
 470. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Cor&scrCh=10&scrV=4#iii-p61.7
 471. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Cor&scrCh=12&scrV=11#ii-p119.1
 472. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Cor&scrCh=15&scrV=10#ii-p119.2
 473. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gal&scrCh=1&scrV=15#ii-p233.1
 474. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gal&scrCh=1&scrV=16#iii-p79.8
 475. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gal&scrCh=2&scrV=20#ii-p233.6
 476. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gal&scrCh=3&scrV=23#ii-p201.2
 477. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gal&scrCh=3&scrV=24#ii-p201.3
 478. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gal&scrCh=3&scrV=24#ii-p240.1
 479. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gal&scrCh=4&scrV=9#iii-p20.2
 480. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gal&scrCh=5&scrV=7#ii-p177.2
 481. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gal&scrCh=5&scrV=8#ii-p177.3
 482. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Gal&scrCh=5&scrV=19#iii-p92.1
 483. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=1&scrV=3#iii-p106.1
 484. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=1&scrV=3#iii-p49.1
 485. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=1&scrV=4#iii-p45.1
 486. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=1&scrV=4#iii-p49.2
 487. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=1&scrV=5#iii-p51.1
 488. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=1&scrV=9#iii-p51.2
 489. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=1&scrV=11#ii-p96.3
 490. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=1&scrV=11#iii-p55.2
 491. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=1&scrV=12#iii-p55.3
 492. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=1&scrV=17#iii-p58.1
 493. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=1&scrV=18#iii-p79.9
 494. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=1&scrV=19#ii-p222.1
 495. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=1&scrV=19#iii-p65.1
 496. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=1&scrV=20#ii-p222.2
 497. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=1&scrV=20#iii-p65.2
 498. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=2&scrV=2#ii-p52.1
 499. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=2&scrV=2#ii-p127.2
 500. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=2&scrV=3#ii-p127.3
 501. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=2&scrV=5#ii-p125.3
 502. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=2&scrV=5#iii-p22.9
 503. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=2&scrV=5#iii-p138.1
 504. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=2&scrV=8#ii-p113.2
 505. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=2&scrV=9#ii-p125.7
 506. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=2&scrV=10#ii-p125.4
 507. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=2&scrV=10#iii-p14.2
 508. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=2&scrV=10#iii-p22.8
 509. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=3&scrV=9#iii-p42.1
 510. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=3&scrV=10#iii-p42.2
 511. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=3&scrV=18#iii-p79.10
 512. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=4&scrV=18#ii-p36.1
 513. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=4&scrV=24#iii-p34.9
 514. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=5&scrV=6#ii-p151.2
 515. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=5&scrV=8#iii-p34.3
 516. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Eph&scrCh=6&scrV=18#ii-p238.3
 517. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Phil&scrCh=1&scrV=29#ii-p237.1
 518. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Phil&scrCh=1&scrV=29#iii-p21.1
 519. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Phil&scrCh=2&scrV=12#ii-p128.2
 520. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Phil&scrCh=2&scrV=12#ii-p203.1
 521. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Phil&scrCh=2&scrV=13#ii-p76.2
 522. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Phil&scrCh=2&scrV=13#ii-p52.3
 523. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Phil&scrCh=2&scrV=13#ii-p88.1
 524. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Phil&scrCh=2&scrV=13#ii-p128.3
 525. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Phil&scrCh=2&scrV=13#ii-p203.2
 526. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Phil&scrCh=2&scrV=13#iii-p50.2
 527. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Phil&scrCh=3&scrV=6#ii-p125.2
 528. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Col&scrCh=1&scrV=9#iii-p114.5
 529. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Col&scrCh=1&scrV=9#iii-p115.7
 530. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Col&scrCh=1&scrV=11#iii-p114.6
 531. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Col&scrCh=1&scrV=13#iii-p22.13
 532. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Col&scrCh=2&scrV=6#ii-p238.2
 533. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Col&scrCh=2&scrV=12#iii-p107.1
 534. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Col&scrCh=2&scrV=12#iii-p20.1
 535. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Col&scrCh=3&scrV=10#iii-p79.4
 536. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Thess&scrCh=1&scrV=5#iii-p61.3
 537. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Thess&scrCh=1&scrV=3#iii-p115.2
 538. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Thess&scrCh=1&scrV=11#iii-p117.3
 539. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Thess&scrCh=2&scrV=10#ii-p42.4
 540. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Thess&scrCh=2&scrV=12#ii-p49.1
 541. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Thess&scrCh=2&scrV=14#ii-p243.6
 542. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Tim&scrCh=1&scrV=2#iii-p103.2
 543. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Tim&scrCh=1&scrV=9#iii-p54.1
 544. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Tim&scrCh=1&scrV=14#ii-p233.2
 545. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Tim&scrCh=1&scrV=5#iii-p103.1
 546. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Tim&scrCh=1&scrV=9#ii-p125.1
 547. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Tim&scrCh=1&scrV=9#iii-p22.7
 548. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Tim&scrCh=1&scrV=14#ii-p133.5
 549. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Tim&scrCh=1&scrV=14#iii-p22.3
 550. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Tim&scrCh=2&scrV=13#iii-p54.2
 551. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Tim&scrCh=2&scrV=20#ii-p130.2
 552. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Tim&scrCh=2&scrV=25#ii-p130.1
 553. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Tim&scrCh=2&scrV=26#ii-p52.4
 554. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Titus&scrCh=1&scrV=1#iii-p49.6
 555. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Titus&scrCh=1&scrV=2#iii-p54.3
 556. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Titus&scrCh=3&scrV=3#ii-p127.1
 557. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Titus&scrCh=3&scrV=3#ii-p127.4
 558. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Titus&scrCh=3&scrV=5#ii-p125.8
 559. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Titus&scrCh=3&scrV=5#iii-p49.5
 560. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Heb&scrCh=1&scrV=3#ii-p138.3
 561. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Heb&scrCh=1&scrV=6#ii-p191.1
 562. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Heb&scrCh=1&scrV=9#iii-p45.2
 563. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Heb&scrCh=2&scrV=9#ii-p138.1
 564. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Heb&scrCh=2&scrV=9#ii-p140.1
 565. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Heb&scrCh=2&scrV=11#iii-p119.2
 566. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Heb&scrCh=3&scrV=1#iii-p34.4
 567. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Heb&scrCh=3&scrV=16#ii-p243.3
 568. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Heb&scrCh=5&scrV=7#ii-p104.5
 569. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Heb&scrCh=6&scrV=4#ii-p243.9
 570. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Heb&scrCh=9&scrV=7#iii-p81.5
 571. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Heb&scrCh=9&scrV=10#ii-p19.2
 572. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Heb&scrCh=12&scrV=2#iii-p117.1
 573. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Heb&scrCh=12&scrV=9#iii-p17.9
 574. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Heb&scrCh=12&scrV=10#iii-p123.2
 575. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Jas&scrCh=1&scrV=17#iii-p34.2
 576. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Jas&scrCh=1&scrV=18#ii-p19.3
 577. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Jas&scrCh=1&scrV=18#iii-p17.8
 578. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Jas&scrCh=1&scrV=18#iii-p49.4
 579. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Jas&scrCh=4&scrV=5#iii-p122.1
 580. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Jas&scrCh=4&scrV=8#ii-p246.1
 581. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Pet&scrCh=1&scrV=3#iii-p22.10
 582. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Pet&scrCh=1&scrV=3#iii-p45.3
 583. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Pet&scrCh=1&scrV=3#iii-p46.1
 584. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Pet&scrCh=1&scrV=3#iii-p47.1
 585. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Pet&scrCh=1&scrV=3#iii-p49.3
 586. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Pet&scrCh=1&scrV=3#iii-p65.4
 587. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Pet&scrCh=1&scrV=8#ii-p233.3
 588. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Pet&scrCh=1&scrV=16#iii-p60.3
 589. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Pet&scrCh=1&scrV=22#iii-p132.1
 590. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Pet&scrCh=2&scrV=0#iii-p56.2
 591. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Pet&scrCh=2&scrV=9#ii-p48.1
 592. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Pet&scrCh=2&scrV=9#iii-p142.1
 593. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Pet&scrCh=5&scrV=10#iii-p109.1
 594. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Pet&scrCh=5&scrV=10#ii-p228.4
 595. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1Pet&scrCh=5&scrV=10#iii-p48.1
 596. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Pet&scrCh=1&scrV=2#iii-p79.11
 597. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Pet&scrCh=1&scrV=3#iii-p61.2
 598. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=2Pet&scrCh=2&scrV=19#ii-p148.1
 599. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1John&scrCh=3&scrV=3#ii-p132.8
 600. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1John&scrCh=4&scrV=4#iii-p64.4
 601. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1John&scrCh=5&scrV=18#ii-p19.4
 602. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1John&scrCh=5&scrV=18#ii-p128.1
 603. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1John&scrCh=5&scrV=20#ii-p3.3
 604. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=1John&scrCh=5&scrV=20#ii-p124.5
 605. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Jude&scrCh=1&scrV=4#ii-p141.1
 606. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=6&scrV=2#iii-p64.6
 607. file:///ccel/c/charnock/efficient_regeneration/cache/efficient_regeneration.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=9&scrV=11#iii-p137.5