free, and becomes master of himself. Why should we wander about to no purpose? To him let us turn our eyes, on him fix our thoughts, that he who is ours by the donation of the Father, and his own free gift, may be ours by a cheerful and joyous acceptance. As St. Bernard says on those words of the prophet, to us a child is born, to us a son is given: “Let us therefore make use of what is ours," "for our own advantage," So then, let him be ours by possession and uset, and let us be his for ever, never forgetting how dearly he has bought us.

LECTURE XV.

Of REGENERATION.

THE Platonists divide the world into two, the sensible and the intellectual world; they imagine the one to be the type of the other, and that sensible and spiritual things are stamped, as it were, with the same stamp or seal. These sentiments are not unlike the notions which the masters of the cabalistical doctrine among the Jews, held concerning God's sephiroth and seal, wherewith, according to them, all the worlds, and every thing in them, are stamped or sealed. And these are probably near akin to what Lord Bacon of Verulam calls, his parallela signacula, and symbolizantes schematismi. According to this hypothesis, these parables and metaphors, which are often taken from natural things to illustrate such as are Divine, will not be similitudes taken entirely at pleasure, but are often, in a great measure, founded in nature and the things themselves. Be this as it may, that great change which happens in the souls of men by a real and effectual conversion to God, is illustrated in the Holy Scriptures by several remarkable changes,

* Puer natus est nobis, filius nobis datus est: utamur, inquit, nostro in uti tatem nostram.

* Κτήσει και χρήσει.

both natural and civil, particularly by a deliverance from chains, prison, and slavery; by a transition from one kingdom to another, and from darkness to light; by a restoration from death to life; by a new creation; by a marriage; and by adoption, and regeneration. Concerning this great change, as it is represented under the last of these figures, we propose, with Divine assistance, to offer a few thoughts from those words of St. John's gospel which we have already mentioned: To as many as received him, to them gave he power (or the privilege) to become the sons of God. John i. 12. Together with these words of our Saviour, in another place of the same gospel: Except a man be born again, of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. John iii. 3.

If, indeed, we consider the nature and the original of man, it is not, without reason, that he is called the son of God, according to that passage which the Apostle, in his short, but most weighty sermon to the Athenians, quotes from the poet Aratus, and at the same time approves of, For we are all His offspring. Acts xvii. 28. Our first parent, in St. Luke's gospel, is also expressly called the son of God; Luke iii. ult., not only because he was created immediately by God, without any earthly father, but also, on account of the Divine image that was originally impressed upon the human nature.

And this glorious title, which distinguishes him from all other corporeal beings, he has in common with the angels, who are also so called in several places of the book of Job. Job i. 6, xxxviii. 7. It is indeed true, to use the words of St. Basil, that " every piece of workmanship bears some mark or character of the workman who made itt." For I should rather choose, in this case, to use the word mark, or character, than likeness. But of man alone it is said, Let us make him after our own image. And this distinction is not improperly expressed by the schoolmen, who say, as we have already ob

* Του γαρ και γένος εσμεν.

* Πᾶν τὸ ἐργαζόμενον ἔχειν τινὰ του τέκτονος τύπον.

served, that all the other works of God are stamped with the print of His foot, but only man, of all the visible creation, honoured with the image or likeness of His face. And indeed, on account of this image or resemblance it is, that he is in dignity very nearly equal to the angels, though made inferior to them. Here it is to be observed, that this inferiority is but little, Who was made, saith the apostle, a little lower than the angels. Heb. ii. 9. So that, with regard to his body, he is nearly related to the brute creatures, and only a little superior to them with regard to temperament and the beautiful elegance of his frame, but made out of the very same materials, the same moist and soft clay, taken from the bosom of their great and common mother; whereas, to use the words of the poet, "The soul is the breath of God, which takes its rise from Heaven, and is closely united to his earthly body, like a light shut up in a dark cavern*."

That Divine part of the human composition, derives its original from the Father of Spirits, in the same manner with those ministers of fire, who are not confined to corporeal vehicles; concerning whom, the oracle, having acknowledged one Supreme Divine Majesty, immediately subjoins, "And we angels are but a small part of God+."

And with regard to this principle which excels in man, which actually constitutes the man, and on account of which he most truly deserves that name, he is a noble and Divine animal. And whatever some fanciful and proud men may boast concerning their families, "if we consider our original, and that God was the author of the human kind, none of Adam's race can be called ignoble‡.”

But if, on the other hand, we regard our woful fall which was the consequence of sin, we are all degenerate; we have all

* Ψυχὴ δ' εστὶν ἄημα Θεου καὶ μίξιν ἀνετλη

Οὐρανίη χθονίοιο, φάος σπηλνγγι κάλυφθεν. Naz. de anima

* Μικρή δε Θεου μερὶς ἄγγελοι ἡμεῖς,

Si primordia nostra,

Authoremque Deum spectes,

Nullus degener extat.

Boeth, de Cous. Phil. lib. iii. met. 6.

fallen from the highest honour, into the greatest disgrace, and the deepest gulf of all sorts of misery; we have given away our liberty and greatest dignity, in exchange for the most shameful and most deplorable bondage; instead of the sons of God, we are become the slaves of Satan; and if we now want to know to what family we belong, the Apostle will tell us, that we are children of wrath, and sons of disobedience*. Eph. ii. 2, 3.

But, as the overflowing Fountain of goodness and bounty, did not choose that so noble a monument of His wisdom should be entirely ruined by this dismal fall, could any one be more proper to raise it up again, or better qualfied to restore men to the dignity of the sons of God, than His own eternal Son who is the most perfect and express image of the Father? Nor does this glorious person decline the severe service. Though he was the son of his Father's love, the heir and lord of the whole universe; though he might be called the delight of his most exalted Father, and of all blessed spirits, and now, with the greatest justice, the darling of the human kind; yet, he left his Father's bosom, and, O wonderful condescension! became the son of man, that men might anew become the sons of God. Whence he is also called The second Adam, because he recovered all that was lost by the first.

That all who sincerely receive him, might be again admitted into the embraces of the Father, and no more be called children of wrath, he himself submitted to the punishment due to our disobedience; and, by bearing it, removed our guilt, and pacified justice. He also went into the flames of Divine wrath, to deliver us from them; and by a plentiful stream of his most precious blood, quite extinguished them. He likewise took effectual care that those who were now no longer to be called children of wrath, should also cease to be children of disobedience, by pouring out upon them a plentiful effusion of his sanctifying Spirit; that their hearts being thereby purged

* Υιοι απείθειας και τέκνα οργής.

from all impure affections and the love of earthly things, they might, under the influence of the same good Spirit, cheerfully lead a life of sincere and universal obedience. Now, it cannot be doubted, that those who are so actuated and conducted by the Divine Spirit, are truly the sons of God. Whence that spirit whereby they call God their Father, and, with confidence apply to Him as such, is called, the Spirit of adoption.

Moreover, this wonderful restoration is often called, adoption, not only to distinguish it from the natural and incomparable dignity which belongs to the only begotten Son, but also, because we by no means derive this privilege from nature, but absolutely from the free donation of the Father, through the mediation of His only Son. We must not, however, conclude from this, that this privilege has nothing more in it than an honourable title, or, as they call it, an external relation. For it is not only inseparably connected with a real and internal change, but with a remarkable renovation, and, as it were, a transformation of all the faculties of the soul, nay, even of the whole man. You will accordingly find these words applied to this purpose, by the apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, ch. xii. v. 2. And, to conclude, it is with a view to convince us, that, together with the title of sons, the Spirit of God is given to believers, and they are inwardly renewed thereby, that we so often in Scripture meet with this regeneration which is the subject of our present discourse.

If we consider the lives of men, we shall be apt to imagine, that the generality of mankind who live in the world under the name of Christians, think it sufficient for them to be called by this name, and dream of nothing further. The common sort of mankind hear with pleasure and delight of remission of sins, imputed righteousness, of the dignity of the sons of God, and the eternal inheritance annexed to that dignity; but when they are told, that repentance, a new heart, and a new life, contempt of the world and the pleasures of the flesh, fasting and prayer, are absolutely necessary for a Christian, these are hard sayings, who can bear them? Though at the same time