ty against him; and if a confident persuasion that he hath pardoned them, and designs their eternal happiness, is all that now reconciles them to him, they may remain totally depraved still, notwithstanding such reconciliation. Others speak of a mysterious spiritual light, let into the carnal mind, which changes the heart of a sinner, and makes him holy. But an apostle hath said, "The natural man receiveth hot the things of the Spirit of God,-neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." And nothing can be more irrational, or more evidently absurd, than supposing that a totally depraved sinner should see the holy nature and ways of God, with any cordial complacency. Seeing divine things as they are spiritually discerned, supposes a previous conformity to them in the spirit of one's mind. Indeed, the perfections, and laws, and works of God, may be manifested in such a light to the wickedest man in the world, as to force the feeling approbation of his conscience but this is a very different thing from that delightful perception of them which is peculiar to holy beings. This constrained approbation of conscience, can never make a creature good, who had no goodness before. The devils thus feel, as well as believe, that God is holy in all his ways and righteous in all this works; but this can only make them tremble and hate: it will never, to all eternity, excite in them any love to him, or transform them at all into his moral likeness. It is easy to conceive that whatever propensities of nature one previously has, may be brought into exercise by arguments and motives, adapted to operate upon such propensities. It is easy to conceive that a sinner's selfish fears may be awakened by the terrors of the law; and that his selfish hopes and gratitude may be highly raised by the grace of the gospel. Self-love may be wrought upon by the power of light and truth, or of delusion and falsehood, N n in a thousand different forms: but how to bring into existence a propensity of nature, or principle of action radically new, and essentially different from every thing in the native mind of man, is the great difficulty. If it be true, as an opposer of the present doctrine has once admitted, "that a principle of heavenly virtue is dead, and the root of it perished, in the heart of fallen men;" it is a plain case, I think, that it can never be brought to life, otherwise than, by being, in a proper and strict sense, created in them again. We will now attend, as was proposed. III. To objections against this doctrine. 1. If any one should object, that a work truly supernatural, is a real miracle; but to call regeneration a miracle, is not common, nor proper: To such an objector my reply would be; that by miracles are commonly meant, not all supernatural works, but such only as are designed for the proof of inspiration, or of an immediate divine mission. And in order to their being adapted to this end, it is necessary that they should be evident to the senses of men whereas regeneration is invisible; being a work in the hidden man of the heart. Hence, should one who says he has an immediate call to the gospel ministry, alledge, as an evidence of it, that many souls have been converted by his preaching, and call this working miracles; it would be impertinent it would give no conviction, except to very weak enthusiasts; since the real regeneration of his supposed converts, is a thing as invisible, as uncertain, and unknowable, as his inward heavenly call itself. For this reason it is improper to give. the name of a miracle to regeneration: not because it is a less supernatural work than raising the dead, or calling any thing that was not, into existence. But there are objections to be considered, much more serious than this. 2. I have seen it objected, that to suppose a change effected in the heart of man, otherwise than by the power of moral means, is palpably absurd; as implying an evident impossibility in the nature of things. It has been said, by a divine of advanced age, and good sense; "The moral change of the mind in regeneration, is of an essentially different kind from the mechanical change of the body, when that is raised from the dead; and must be effected by the exertion of a different kind of power. Each effect requires a power suited to its nature: and the power proper for one can never produce the other. To argue from one to the other of these effects, as the apostle has been misunderstood to do, in Eph. i. 20, is therefore idle and impertinent.The Spirit of God is possessed of these two kinds of power, and exerts the one or the other, accordingly as he wills to produce a change of the moral or physical kind, in moral beings or inanimate matter.' But to this philosophical objection, however plausible and unanswerable it may appear, I think the reply of our Saviour to the difficulty started by the Sadducees, respecting the resurrection and a future state, is neither idle nor impertinent : "Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God." The Almighty is not limited, as men are, to these two modes of operation, by moral and mechanical means. The Spirit of God is possessed of a pow er of working in a manner different from either of these; that is, supernaturally. The means by which effects are brought to pass in a natural way, must indeed be different; according to the nature of those effects, and of the subjects on which the operations are performed: but when once we admit the idea of a work properly supernatural--an effect produced not by the power of any means at all, we instantly lose sight of all distinctions in the kind of power, or manner of working, adapted to things of different natures. When God, by his omnipotent word alone, called all nature into being at first, are we to suppose that he exerted different powers, according to the natures of the things designed to be created; and that the power proper to create inanimate matter, could never create a thinking mind! Are we to conceive that angels and the souls of men were persuaded into being, by arguments and motives; and that the material world was forced out of nothing, by the power of attraction! So, in regard to quickening the dead, are we to imagine that God can give new life to a soul dead in sin, only by moral suasion; and that, if he will reanimate bodies which have slept thousands of years in the dust of the earth, he has no other way to do it than by a physical operation! The body of Christ was raised to life, I should suppose, not by any mechanical power, but supernaturally. In this manner God always works, when he quickeneth the dead, and calleth things that are not as though they were. And what absurdity can there be in supposing Him able to give a new principle of action, as well as to give existence to any thing else, in this immediate manner? Some sound and sensible divines, it must be granted, in order to guard against the notion of regeneration's being effected by moral suasion, have called it a physical work, and a physical change; but very needlessly, I apprehend, and with very evident impropriety. The change is moral: the work producing it, is neither moral nor physical; but supernatural. 3. The next objection to which we will attend, is grounded on scripture. It may be said, Admitting that God is able to change the hearts of men by his own power alone; yet we are plainly taught that the fact is otherwise; and that regeneration is actually by the power of means. The apostle Paul says to the Corinthians, "In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel." The apostle James, having said, "Every good gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights," adds, "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth." And the apostle Peter tells christians of their "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God." To this objection, the common answer is, that these texts may be understood as refering to the whole change from sin to holiness; including that part of it in which the soul is active, as well as that wherein it is passive and it is admitted on all hands, that active conversion is by the moral power of truth, But, if any should not be satisfied with this, another answer may be given, which appears to me quite sufficient and unexceptionable. We may understand the apostles in these passages to mean only, that regeneration is by the word, as other supernatural works are represented to have been wrought by men and means. That God is wont to change the hearts of men, under the dispensation of the word of truth, we readily grant: but that a new heart is given them by the power of the word, these texts, we apprehend, do not determine. Ezekiel was directed to prophesy over a valley of dry bones, and to say unto them, "O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord." And as he prophsied, And as he prophsied, "there was a noise, and a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone; and, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above." Again, he was commanded to prophesy unto the wind, and to say, "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live." And while he was prophesying, "the breath came into them, and they lived and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army." |