BX 9315 .C427 1864 v. 3
Charnock, Stephen, 1628-
1680.
The complete works of
CJ f-£ir-vl-ifar» P r» a vr\r\r>lr
NICHOL'S SERIES OF STANDARD DIVINES.
PURITAN PERIOD.
Wxfy (Smrnl Jrtface
BY JOHN C. MILLER, D.D.,
ummm college ; hoxoeaky caso* oe n^u i hector oe st M.axuVs, uniu-.
THE
WORKS OF STEPHEN CHARNOCE", B.B.
VOL. III.
COUNCIL OF PUBLICATION.
W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D., Professor of Theology, Congregational
Union, Edinburgh.
JAMES BEGG, D.D., Minister of Newington Free Church, Edinburgh.
THOMAS J. CRAWFORD, D.D., S.T.P., Professor of Divinity, University,
Edinburgh.
D. T. K. DRUMMOND, M.A., Minister of St Thomas's Episcopal Church,
Edinburgh.
WILLIAM H. GOOLD, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Church
History, Reformed Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh.
ANDREW THOMSON, D.D., Minister of Broughton Place United Presby-
terian Church, Edinburgh.
©erteral Got'tor.
REV. THOMAS SMITH, M.A., Edinburgh.
THE COMPLETE WORKS
STEPHEN CHARNOCK, B.D.
BY THE REV. JAMES M'COSH, LL.D.
PROFESSOR OF LOGIC AND METAPHYSICS, QTJEEn's COLLEGE, BELFAST.
VOL. III.
CONTAINING :
THE NECESSITY— THE NATUBE— THE EFFICIENT— AND
THE INSTRUMENT OF REGENERATION.
GOD THE AUTHOR OF RECONCILIATION.
THE CLEANSING VIRTUE OF CHRIST'S BLOOD.
EDINBURGH : JAMES NICHOL.
LONDON : JAMES NISBET AND CO. DUBLIN : G. HERBERT.
M.DCCC.LXV.
edinbhrgh:
printed by john greco and son,
OLD PHYSIC GARDENS.
CONTENTS.
DISCOURSES.
Page
To the Reader. . . . . . .3
The Necessity of Regeneration. . . John III. 3, 5. . 7
A Discourse of the Nature of Regeneration. 2 Cor. V. 17. . 82
A Discourse of the Efficient of Regeneration. John I. 13. . 16G
A Discourse of the Word, the Instrument of
Regeneration. . . . . James I. 18. . 307
A Discourse of God's being the Author of
Reconciliation. . . . .2 Cor. V. 18, 19. 336
A Discourse of the Cleansing Virtue of
Christ's Blood. . . 1 John I. 7. . 501
DISCOURSES.
TO THE READER.
The quick sale of this excellent author's former volume, viz., his Discourses
upon the Existence and Attributes of God, as well as that of Divine Provi-
dence, considering how heavily the works of some others on such like sub-
jects have gone off in our decrepit age, may be abundant evidence what
acceptance they have found with the judiciously pious, who converse with
books, and thereupon afford persuasive hopes that more of the genuine and
useful issue of the same father, not less like to him than those born before,
will yet be more favourably entertained. Wherefore, presuming we have
not any way impeached oar reputation by anything we wrote in the fore-
going Prefaces, if thou wilt (without any repetition of the same with respect
to these) but give us credit till thou hast took a distinct view by a due pro-
portion of the several well-made parts and features here presented to thine
eye by us, who were desired to perform this office of love to our deceased
worthy friend, we doubt not but thou wilt easily say, As those treatises
were, so these are, Judges viii. 18 ; yea (as Joseph's brethren said, Gen.
xlii. 11, 13), • All sons of one man in the land of Canaan ' above, each one
resembling the children of him that now ' rests from his labours, and his
works do follow him,' Rev. xiv. 13, being ' made a king and priest unto
God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,' Rev. i. 5, whom he served with
his spirit in the gospel, Rom. i. 9, which the choice heads of evangelical
truths, clearly opened and practically applied in this volume, may largely
attest, and so give a supersedeas to any further recommendation of ours. The
rather, when thou mayest be fully assured that a considerable part, namely,
the learned and spiritual Discourses of Regeneration, were carefully copied
out by one f of the former happy undertakers ; and though another, who
attained to the skill of perfectly reading his manuscripts, was chiefly
employed in transcribing the major part of this great work from the author's
own copy, yet the transcript hath been diligently compared with the original
by the other J of the former transcribers before we read it each of us
separately, and afterwards those passages conjunctly, in consultation to-
gether, wherein either of us conceived any little scruple might arise
concerning the author's genuine sense, we saw re-examined, being studious
to do him all the right we could, and give his own meaning in his own words
unto the world, without adventuring to interpose our own conceptions.
Yet after our utmost care, and the vigilant supervisal of the press by an in-
genious person, § who did much honour the author, we doubt not but
had he himself survived the publication of what now appears, he would have
sweetened and given grace to some lines that we presume not to alter. If,
* This Address to the Beader is prefixed to Vol. II. of the original edition of
Cliarnock's Works, from which this Volume and the succeeding one will bo re-
printed. It is Iherefore appropriately introduced here. — Ed.
t Mr Wickens. { Mr Nich. Ashton. \ Mr Taylor.
4 TO THE READER.
then, there should be found some things less clear, or any metaphor less
pleasing, there be other things of greater weight singularly well delivered
will abundantly compensate it ; yea, which will greatly inform the judgment,
affect the serious heart, and notably quicken to the main business of religion,
and possibly, as the remains of the prophet Elisha, 2 Kings xiii. 21, which
revived the man that was occasionally let down into his sepulchre, be a
means, under God's gracious influence, to enliven some spiritually dead soul,
set him upright, and enable him to run the ways of God's commandments ;
or, like the writing left behind Elijah, 2 Chron. xxi. 12, compared with
2 Kings ii. 11, and iii. 11, serve to warm some who are contributing to
the removal of the gospel from among us. However, this later, with the
former volume, will evince to those who are addicted to an over hasty
censuring men of his persuasion, without any just ground?, what his
great soul was mostly exercised about, namely, not matters of human
policy, but the great things of the kingdom of God ; not meats and drinks,
i.e. mere circumstances, but the essentials and substantial of the Christian
institution, righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, Kom xiv.
17, which we 'are confident he hath explained very consonant to the doc-
trinal articles of religion, drawn up by our first reformers, and subscribed
by the minsters of the Church of England. We know not that he doth at all
vary from them, or other of the reformed churches. Discipline he doth not
insist on. And we suppose ingenuous readers, if they find in any little
matter his sentiments different from their own, will freely give an allowance
for a fair interpretation of the authot's sense, at least in a posthumous
work, and not wiredraw any sentences a working fancy might produce, and
not review, to make them look crooked ; considering what we are put in
mind of in this book,* viz., every error in the head doth no more destroy
the truth of faith, than every miscarriage in the life, through infirmity, nulls
the being of grace ; or every spot upon the face impairs the beauty and
features of it
Some who have heartily blessed God for those good things they have
already received since this author's departure (and we have no small engage-
ment upon us to be thankful to God for good books, when there be such
swarms of bad ones), do with greedy eyes long to peruse his meditations
upon the proposed subjects ; which now appearing to their view, we are per-
suaded will easily gain their grateful acknowledgments that they are not dis-
appointed, when they here find the fruitful products of the very same spirit
of Mr Charnock, which was of no ordinary elevation.
And however, in the Discourse of Christ's Exaltation, there be some few
materials which be of the same import with some of those in that of Recon-
ciliation, yet handled with an acceptable variety, this might easily so fall
out in the course of his celebrated preaching, not designing to lay them to-
gether in one volume, without the least disparagement ; yea, now they are
printed, the bottomless pit being opened, Rev. ix. 2, by the papists' causing
smoke to arise thence to trouble the eyes of real Chistians, the inculcating
of such choice notions seems to be an angelical voice from heaven opened,
Rev. xix. 11, to direct God's chosen ones into that way of truth which others
have not known. And if, in two or three smaller tracts, the author seem
not altogether so elaborate as in his other pieces, it cannot but be granted
that they were some occasional sermons composed in great straits of time ;
yet such as kindly savour of the same spirit with the rest, unto which it
was thought fit to annex them, that there might not be any occasion to
mutter that we had kept back part of what was primarily dedicated to the
* Page 007.
TO THE READER.
use of the church ; or locked up in secret any pieces of so good an author,
whose business, whilst he lived, was to benefit others ; being happy in veri-
fying the Arabic proverb, viz., that that learned scholar is the worst of men,
who doth not profit others by his learning.
As to that discourse about The Spirit's convincing the World of Sin, the
author's own notes, upon stricter search, not being found, two skilful short-
band writers,* who constantly attended his ministry, have supplied the
defect, from what they both took from his own mouth, when they had
compared their notes ; which supply, though it should want somewhat
of the accuracy of those other parts transcribed from his own manuscripts,
yet those who are not over critical will find, for the completing of tbese
discourses upon that text, not much real detriment ; and upon the whole
matter, not any detracting from that powerful name which the title page
is adorned witb. We therefore taking the freedom to advise thee, Christian
reader, of those things, are not much concerned with the carping censures
of supercilious critics, having, we hope, conscientiously done what was
incumbent on us with all faithfulness, in emitting these writings, which
might, as Peter's, be beneficial after his decease to the public, 2 Peter i. 15,
which was not more the design of the deceased author in his ministry, than
of his yet surviving friends, and
Thy servants, for Jesus's sake,
Richard Adams.
Edward Veal.
Sept. 24. 1683.
* Mr Taylor, Mr Newberry.
THE NECESSITY OF REGENERATION
■Jesu% answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a
man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Jesus answered,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water, and of the
Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. — John III. 3, 5.
These words contain the foundation of all practical religion here, and hap-
piness hereafter. It is the principal doctrine Christ, as a prophet, came to
teach, and as a king to work in the heart. It is an answer to Nicodemus
his compliment, who came to him with some veneration of him. His de-
scription is in ver. 1 : ' There was a man of the'pharisees named Nicodemus,
a ruler of the Jews.' 1. By his profession or sect, a pharisee. 2. His name,
Nicodemus. 3. His quality, a ruler of the Jews ; "A^oov, a prince, one of
the great Sanhedrim, who had the supreme power in all affairs which con-
cerned religion, even under the Roman government. His coming to Christ
is described, ver. 2 : ' The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him,
Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God : for no man can do
these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.' Where we have
(1.) the time of his coming, by night ; (2.) the manner of coming and speak-
ing to him with reverence, Rabbi, a title of honour. He comes to Christ ;
therefore is to be commended. He comes by night ; hath some failure in
his respect to Christ, afraid publicly to own him. Nicodemus was one of
the number which believed Christ for his miracles, John ii. 23. He comes
hereupon to discourse with him about divine things. He acknowledges him
a prophet sent by God. The reason of his acknowledgment is the conside-
ration of his miracles, which manifested a divine power, both in the greatness
and multitude of them. For he knew that God would not set the seal of his
power, to one that had not his commission. Miracles are the credential
letters, to signify the divine authority of any person sent upon any new dis-
pensation by God.
Observe,
1. God doth not force any man's belief, but gives such undeniable evi-
dences of his will and mind, that not to believe is flat contradiction to him.
When he sent Moses to deliver and give a new law to the Israelites, he at-
tended him with a miraculous power, to testify it to be his will, that what
Moses delivered should be entertained. So it was with our Saviour, and in
the primitive times, at the first promulgation of the gospel in several places.
8 charnock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
But when a doctrine is settled and a church established, God forbears those
extraordinary works, as he did the raining down manna after the Israelites'
entrance into Canaan, where they might have provision in an ordinary way of
providence ; and they had miracles afterward in a more scanty measure, now
and then. We have now rational ways to introduce us to a belief of the
Christian doctrine ; and though there are no sensible miracles as before, yet
there hath been in all ages, and is still, a miracle Jiept up in the world, greater
than wrought by Christ upon the bodies of men.'' And that is the conversion
of many obstinate sinners, and subduing them on a sudden, which in Christ's
account, was the chiefest miracle he wrought when he was upon the earth :
Luke vii. 22, ' Go your way, and tell John what things you have seen and
heard : how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the
deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.' Christ
had cured many in their sight ; but he added in the end of the enumeration,
' To the poor the gospel is preached ;' Uru^oi iuayyiXifyvrai. The poor are
evangelised, brought into a gospel frame, a renewed state for the kingdom of
heaven, which is greater than the raising a man from a natural death to a
natural life.
Nicodemus comes by night. He is fond of his own honour, loath to im-
pair it by a free and open confession. He was a master in Israel. Had he
come by day, his reputation had suffered in the vulgar opinion, who might
well wonder that he, a pharisee, of a profound knowledge, should come to
receive instruction from the son of a carpenter, a man despised by his fel-
lows of the Sanhedrim. Yet he comes, though by night.
Observe,
1. It is a hard matter for us to perform a duty we are convinced of, with-
out a flaw in it. Nicodemus is convinced by the miracles of Christ's divine
authority ; but he forbears an open acknowledgment of him. He creeps to him
in the night, unwilling to be seen with him in the day. If Christ were
not a prophet, why should he be acknowledged at all ? If a prophet, why
not in the day as well as in the night ? Strange not to consult him in the
day, whom he confesseth to have his commission from God ! How weak is
the faith of the best at first ! How staggering between Christ and self.
2. Our own reputation will be apt to mix itself in our religious services.
It is his fear of the loss of this makes him choose the darkness. This
greatest piece of old Adam in us will be rising in various forms, when we
are in the most spiritual exercises. What a contest is there between reli-
gion and reputation ! He was willing to gratify the one, but not displease
the other.
3. Ambition is the great hindrance of a thorough conversion. Nicodemus
had a mind to speak to Christ, but his reputation bears too much sway in
him against a thorough giving up himself to him. He was ashamed to
be taken notice of in this little address he made : John v. 44, ' How can
ye believe, that receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour
which comes from God only ?'
4. Men may have a high esteem of Christ, yet not such an esteem as
amounts to a saving faith. Nicodemus acknowledges him a teacher, and that
sent from God ; but not the teacher, the great prophet Moses had spoken of,
Deut. xviii. 15. He confesseth him a prophet, but not the Messiah. Look
to your estimations of Christ ; see whether they be supreme, superlative, the
Saviour, the mediator, the Lord and King.
5. Convictions may be a long time before any appearance of conversion.
If we consider Nicodemus here, only as one convinced of the divine autho-
rity of Christ, and not a thorough convert at this time ; for he seems by his
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 9
questions, vers. 4 and 9, to be rather a malcontent, than a convert ; yet the
seed then sown by our Saviour's discourse sprung up at last in fruit. He
doth upon a signal occasion plead Christ's cause before a council of phari-
sees, probably the great Sanhedrim, yet but faintly: John vii. 50, 51, ' Doth
our law judge any man before it hears him, and knows what he doth ?'
Before, he would have no witness of his coming to Christ. Here he takes
his part, as he might have done any man's upon a common principle of jus-
tice and equity, that he should not be condemned before he was heard. But
there is more generous fruit afterwards, where he joins with Joseph of Arima-
thea in doing honour openly to our Saviour's crucified body : John xix. 39,
1 And there came also Nicodemus (which at the first came to Jesus by night),
and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.'
What grace he had seems to be in a long sleep, but is very vigorous upon
its awaking.
6. True grace doth one time or other discover itself most contrary to
that which was the natural crime before. In both these places, fear had
been his sin. It is now over- matched by confidence. The Holy Ghost takes
notice of it, ' which at the first came to Jesus by night.' He came by night
before, now he comes by day. He and another never named before, Joseph
of Arimathea, who being possessed with the same passion of fear, was a dis-
ciple in secret, — John xix. 38, ' Being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for
fear of the Jews,' — own him publicly at his death, when those that had been
familiar with him in his life forsook him. Christ will make timorous hares
to own his cause, when those that think themselves courageous lions turn
their backs upon him.
Paul had the most transcendent affection to the church, who before was
guilty of the smartest persecution. And Peter, after the coming of the
Spirit, was as courageous as before he was cowardly in his Master's cause.
We have seen the pharisee. Let us consider our Saviour's answer: ver. 3,
' Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a
man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.'
Some think that Nicodemus asked a question which is not expressed, but
may be gathered out of Christ's answer, and seems to be this, What was
requisite to a man's entrance into the kingdom of heaven ? Whereupon
Christ tells him, that there was a necessity of being born again. Others
think that Nicodemus asked no question, and that these words are a very
proper reply to Nicodemus.
1. Christ answers not his compliment, but useth his authority, acknow-
ledged by Nicodemus, of a teacher to inform him. Since you acknowledge
my commission from God to be a teacher, I will teach you what I have to
declare. The great design of my coming is to bring men to the kingdom of
God ; and the great means to this is a new birth, which can only fit you for
evangelical truths here, and eternal happiness hereafter. He acknowledges
Christ to be a teacher, and Christ in his reply would teach him how to
become a Christian.
2. Christ frames his answer according to the pharisee's corruption.
Nicodemus came by night, out of love to his credit, that might be impaired
by his coming in the day-time. What would the people think ? Surely
this man, and the rest of his tribe, are not so knowing as they pretend to be,
since he comes to Jesus to be taught, and out of fear of the pharisees, who
thereby might be offended.
Christ's answer therefore very well suits him. You must become a new
man, if you would have acquaintance with evangelical mysteries. Away with
your old notions, and pharisaical pride. Deny your honour, credit, and
10 charnogk's works. [John III. 3, 5.
whatsoever partakes of the name of self. A legal frame, and a pharisaical
righteousness, will not advance you to the kingdom of God. The Jews were
proud of being Abraham's children, and thought the gates of heaven could
not be shut against any of that relation.
John had touched them before for this : Mat. iii. 9, ' And think not to
say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father.' Christ doth tacitly
here do the same, and puts him in mind of another birth, and the falseness
and deceitfulness of his bottom of legal righteousness.
3. Christ frames his answer according to his weakness and ignorance.
Nicodemus acknowledged him a teacher, not the Messiah. Christ would
bring him to the knowledge of himself as the Messiah. Christ therefore by
his answer would lift up his thoughts higher, and puts him in mind of the
kingdom of God, which the Jews in their common discourse signified the
kingdom of the Messiah by, and have entitled it in ages since, the kingdom
of God, and the kingdom of heaven. So that Christ would bring him to
the knowledge of himself as the Messiah, not only as an extraordinary
prophet.
These three things evidence what relation this speech of Christ hath to
that of Nicodemus.
Observe from the relation of this to Nicodemus his speech :
1. We shall gain nothing by our applaudings and praises of Christ, with-
out a renewed nature. Nicodemus comes with much reverence, gives Christ
the title of rabbi, confesseth him to be sent of God, owns the divinity of his
miracles. Christ doth not compliment him again, takes no notice of his
civility, but falls roundly to his work, acquaints him with the necessity of
regeneration, without which he could not see the kingdom of God, for all
his fine praises of him. A glavering reverential religion is insignificant
with Christ. A new birth, a likeness to Christ in nature, a conformity to
him, is accounted by Christ an higher estimation of him, than all external
applauses given to him.
2. No natural privilege under heaven can entitle us to the kingdom of
grace or glory. It is not our carnal traduction from the best man. It is
no natural birth, with the choicest privileges, gives us a right to either of
them. Not the honour of having the law from God's own mouth, the glory
of an outward covenant, the treasure of the oracles of God, the seal of cir-
cumcision borne in the body, that can instate this Nicodemus into this feli-
city. It is a birth of a higher strain, from an higher principle, a change of
nature, and a removal from the old stock.
See how strangely Nicodemus replied upon this discourse of our Saviour.
How strangely astonished is this great ruler in Israel at the doctrine which
is absolutely necessary to an entrance into the kingdom of heaven ! ver. 4,
1 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old ? can
he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born ? ' What a
childish conception hath he of this most heavenly doctrine ! Can such
an ancient man as I return to my first principles, dig a way into my
mother's womb ? It is strange that Nicodemus, being a pharisee, and so
well versed in Scripture, should be so ignorant, or at least guilty of so much
inadvertenc} 7 , as not to think of that place, Ezek. xxxvi., and other places,
which speak of ' a new heart,' and • an heart of flesh.' He might have
considered the design of the legal purifications, which were to represent the
inward holiness which ought to be in the persons so purified. Yet he hears
him discourse, but doth not comprehend him. His carnal notion bears sway
against spiritual truths.
Observe,
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 11
1. A man may have great knowledge in the letter of the Scripture, and
yet not understand the necessary and saving doctrines in it. The doctrine
of regeneration was laid down in the whole Old Testament, though not in
that term. Let us take heed how we read the Scriptures ; not to trouble
our heads with needless and curious questions, but with the main mysteries
of religion. What could all Nicodemus his knowledge profit him, if it had
been ten thousand times more, without the knowledge of this doctrine, and
the experience of it !
2. Nothing is more an enemy to the saving knowledge of gospel mysteries
than a priding ourselves in head knowledge. Nicodemus his coming by
night was not only from fear, but pride, that he might not be thought
ignorant by the people. Humble men have the soundest knowledge : ' The
meek will he teach his way,' Ps. xxv. 9.
3. How low was the interest of God in the world at that time ! How
had ignorance and error thrust the knowledge of God out of other parts of
the world, when it languished so much in the church ! How simple must
the poor people be when the students in Scripture were no wiser ! It
is a thing to be bewailed amongst us, that wrangling knowledge hath almost
thrust out spiritual. And when Christians meet, their discourses are more
about unnecessary disputes than these saving mysteries of Christianity,
which might produce elevations of heart to heaven.
To this exception of Nicodemus Christ makes his reply ; where observe,
1. A fresh assertion of it, with an explanation : ver. 5, ' Jesus answered,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water, and of the
Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.' In the third verse,
Christ lays down the necessity of the new birth ; in ver. 5, the necessity of
the cause, ' Except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit.' In the first
speecb, he lays down the doctrine ; in this, he explains the principle and man-
ner of it, to remove his false apprehensions, wherein he might mean the
transmigration of souls, which seems to be an opinion amongst the Jews.
2. A reason to back it : ver. 6, ' That which is born of the flesh is flesh ;
and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.' That which is born of the
flesh is flesh, and can be no more by that principle, for the effect cannot be
better than the cause ; but that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, i.e. hath
a spiritual nature.
Flesh is taken for man corrupted : Gen. vi. 3, 'For he also is flesh,' de-
generate into flesh, grown a mere sensual creature by the loss of original
righteousness. For upon the parting of original righteousness, the soul of
man was as a body without life ; a spiritual carcase, as the body is without
a soul.
Flesh signifies the whole nature, as in that place, Mat. xvi. 17, ' Flesh and
blood hath not revealed it unto thee,' &c. The incarnation of the Son of
God, which is the foundation of all evangelical administrations, is above the
sphere of nature to discover. Man in his natural generation is but mere
nature, and cannot apprehend, cannot enjoy that which is only apprehensible
and enjoyable by a spiritual nature ; but man regenerated by the Spirit is
spiritual, and is advanced above mere flesh, for he is made partaker of the
divine nature. So that Christ's argument runs thus : No flesh can enter into
the kingdom of God ; but every man naturally is flesh, unless bom again of
the Spirit; therefore no man, unless born again of the Spirit, can enter into
the kingdom of God. If you could enter into your mother's womb, and be
born again, the matter would not be mended with you ; you would still be
but flesh, and rather worse than better ; therefore that is not the birth that
I mean, for the impediment would be as strong in you as before.
12 charnock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
These two verses are an answer to Nicodemus his objection. Nicodemus
understands it of a carnal birth. No, no, saith Christ, it is a spiritual birth
I intend ; one that is wholly divine and heavenly. That which you mean
brings a man into the light of the world ; that which I mean, brings a man
out of the world, into the light of grace. That forms the flesh to an earthly
life ; this forms the soul to an heavenly. That makes you the son of man ;
this the son of God.*
All the difficulty lies in ver. 5, in that expression of water, &c. Some, as
the papists, understand it of the elementary water of baptism, and from this
place exclude all children dying without baptism from salvation. Others
understand it of a metaphorical water, whereof Christ speaks, John iv. 14,
• The water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water, springing
up into everlasting life.'
Let us first see why by water cannot be meant the baptismal water.
Regeneration is the mystery and sense of that sacred ceremony. It is in-
deed signified, represented, and sealed in baptism ; how, and in what sense,
is not my present work.
1. It is strange, that when all agree that the birth here spoken of is spiri-
tual and metaphorical, that the water here should be natural.
2. None could be saved, unless baptized, if this were meant of baptism.
As if these words, John vi. 53, ' Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man,
and drink his blood, ye have no life in you,' were meant of the supper, none
could be saved unless they did partake of it. Whereas Christ lays not the
stress upon baptism, but upon faith : Mark xvi. 16, ' He that believeth, and
is baptized, shall be saved ; but he that believeth not, shall be damned.'
He doth not say, He that is not baptized shall be damned, but he lays dam-
nation wholly upon the want of faith. Many have been saved without bap-
tism, none without faith. It is true to say, He that doth not believe shall
be damned ; but it is not true to say, He that is not baptized shall be
damned. Christ saith the first, but not the second, though his discourse had
obliged him to say so, had it been true, or had he meant this speech to
Nicodemus of baptismal water. The Spirit is not tied to baptism, but he
may act out of the sacraments as well as in them. Understand this of the
bare want of baptism, not of the contempt or wilful neglect of it. If it were
meant of baptism, it was true then, that none could be saved without it.
How did the thief upon the cross enter into paradise, which Christ promised
him ? So that one may enter into heaven without baptism by water, though
not without the baptism of the Spirit.
3. Baptism was not then instituted as a standing sacrament in the Chris-
tian church. The institution of it we find not till after Christ's resurrection :
Mat. xxviii. 19, ' Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them.'
And it is not likely Christ would discourse to Nicodemus of the necessity of
an institution that was not yet expressly appointed by him, and which he
did not appoint till after his resurrection ; for he discourseth of that which
was of present necessity. And if this were meant of baptism, and of that
absolute necessity the papists would lay upon it from these words, then all
that died before the institution of baptism by our Saviour, unbaptized, could
not enter into the kingdom of heaven, though believing. Can anything be
necessary before the precept for it be given ? It could not be necessary be-
fore, as a means, because it is not a natural, but an instituted means. It
must be therefore necessary by virtue of a command ; therefore not abso-
lutely necessary before the command, and at the time Christ spoke these
words. Some say that Christ meant it, not of an absolute necessity at that
* Daille, Sermon en ce lieu.
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 13
time, butThaHt-should be so after his death.* That is to give our Saviour
the lie, for he spake it of the present time, some years before his death.
Besides, it 'wrongs the goodness of our Saviour (if he had meant it of bap-
tism), to* defer the institution of it so long after, when it was at present
necessary for Nicodemus his salvation. It wrongs his wisdom, too, to speak
of that to be at present necessary, which was not in being, nor would be till
after his death.
4. It is strange that our Saviour should speak to Nicodemus of the neces-
sity of baptism before he had informed him of the mysteries of the gospel,
whereof it is a seal. To speak of the seal before he speaks of that which is
to be sealed by it, is not congruous. For the sacraments being founded upon
the doctrine on which they depend, to begin by a sacrament the instruction
of a man, is to begin a building by the tiles and rafters, before you lay a
foundation ; and against the order expressed by our Saviour to the apostles,
which puts teaching before baptizing, and was always practised in the primi-
tive times, and is to this day in all Christian churches, to the adult and
grown up. As circumcision was, amongst the Jews, not administered to any
proselyte before his turning proselyte, and instruction in those laws he
was to observe, and then, and not till then, his children had a right to cir-
cumcision.
5. Those that understand it of the baptismal water, and so make that of
absolute necessity, do by another assertion accuse their own exposition of a
falsity ; for they say that the baptism of blood supplies the want of that of
water, and that if either infants or adult persons be hurried away to a stake
or gibbet, or killed for the Christian cause, they are certainly saved ; which
cannot be, if the baptism of water were to be understood in this place, and
so absolutely necessary. It is water that is expressed, and blood is not water.
One of these assertions must be false. A martyr dying unbaptized must be
damned, and cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven, if this place be meant
of the water of baptism.
6. It may also be observed that Christ, in the progress of his discourse,
makes no more mention of water, but of the Spirit : ' That which is born of
the Spirit is spirit ;' not born of water and the Spirit, which had been very
necessary, if water had been of an equal necessity with the Spirit to the new
birth. And since Christ mentions it positively, that he that is born of the
Spirit is spirit, will it be said, that if any be born of the Spirit, without
water, he is still but flesh ?
Water then here is to be taken mystically. Some by water understand
the whole doctrine of the gospel ; as the waters mentioned through the whole
47th of Ezekiel signify the doctrine of the gospel. To drop, in Scripture,
signifies to teach, Amos vii. 16 ; Ezek. xx. 46, ' Drop thy word toward the
south.' Others, by water, understand the grace of regeneration as the prin-
ciple, the Spirit as the cause, as Titus iii. 5, 6, • He hath saved us by the
washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.' What wash-
ing he means is expressed in the renewing of the Holy Ghost ; that is, that
renewing which is wholly spiritual, as proceeding from the Spirit of God,
whence this grace doth flow.
By water and the Spirit are signified one and the same thing, the
similitude of water shewing the cleansing and generating virtue of the
Spirit; as fire and the Spirit are put together, Mat. iii. 11, to signify the
refining quality the Spirit hath (as fire hath to separate the dross from the
good metal). Fire and the Spirit, i. e. a spirit of fire, of the force and
efficacy of fire.
* Bellarm. de Sacram. Baptism, lib. i. cap 5, 6.
14 charnock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
This water is the same which God had promised : Tsa. xliv. 3, ' I will pom-
water upon him that is thirsty ;' and Ezek. xxxvi. 25, ' Then will I sprinkle
clean water upon you;' and ver. 27, ' I will put my Spifit within you.' He
there explains water to be the Spirit : ' I will pour my Spirit uponihy seed.'
And in Ezekiel he joins water and the Spirit ; i. e. the water of my Spirit,
or my spiritual water, my gospel grace. And Isa. xli. 18, 19, God speaks
of the admirable fruitfulness of this water. This shall renew you, and make
you fructify in the kingdom of my Son, where none shall be received who is
not born of this divine principle.
Now our Saviour having to do with a pharisee, who was acquainted with
those oracles, to make him understand this truth, uses those words which
the prophets had used, and ranks them in the same order ; first water,
then the Spirit, that the latter might clear the sense and nature of the
former, to hinder Nicodemus from imagining that to be a natural water
which was spiritual and mystical. Water and the Spirit signifies the water
of the Spirit, or a spiritual water, as 1 Thes. i. 5, ' Our gospel came not
unto you in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost ;' that is, in the
power of the Holy Ghost.
The Spirit is compared to water in respect of its generative virtue. No
fruitful plant but is produced by moisture. Water contains in it the seeds
of all things. It was from water and the earth that all things in the lower
world were in the first creation produced. Water is put here as exegetical
of the effect of the Spirit ; water being the cause of generation by its moisture,
uniting the parts together.
Our Saviour in both places useth an asseveration, Verily, verily, which is
spoken,
1. To shew the infallible necessity of it, the certainty of the proposition.
2. To urge a special attention. Men press those things in discourse which
they would have retained.
It is to be believed because of its necessity ; it is to be considered because
of its excellency.
Born again. " Avudsv signifies properly from above ; but sometimes it is
taken for again.* Nicodemus understands it so by his reply, of entering
a^ain into his mother's womb, and not of a heavenly birth.
° Man was born in nature ; he must be born in grace. He was born of the
first Adam ; he must be born of the second Adam. It is expressed in
Scripture by various terms : a resurrection to life, a quickening, a new
creation, the new man, the inward man, a dying to the world. It is indeed
a putting off the old man, the principles and passions, the corrupt notions
and affections which we derive from Adam, to devote ourselves to God, to
live to Christ, to walk in newness of life.
The kingdom of God, which is sometimes taken, (1) for the kingdom of
dory, (2) it is sometimes taken for the gospel state. And the same thing
is signified by the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of heaven. What is
called by Matthew ' the kingdom of heaven,' Mat. iv. 17, is called by Mark,
relating the same story, ' the kingdom of God,' Mark i. 15. And the gospel
is called ' the gospel of the kingdom of God,' Mark i. 14. It is called the
kingdom of God ; —
1. Because it sets up the rule and government of God in the world above
the devil's. The devil had been so long the God of the world, that the
interest of God seemed to be overmatched by a multitude of unclean spirits,
and abominable idols ; and the true God was not known to be the governor
* Grotius in loc.
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 15
of it. The gospel discovers the true governor of the world, and sets up his
rule and authority.
2. It sets up the righteousness of God,* above a legal and fleshly right-
eousness, much in vogue among Jews and Gentiles ; but they were wholly
ignorant of the righteousness of God, Horn. x. 3.
3. This kingdom is framed and set up by the Son of God ; the other
kingdom, under the law, was settled by God, but by the hand of Moses, a
man. This is administered by him through his Spirit, his vicegerent. His
royalty did not so eminently appear as in the times of the gospel.
The Father appoints the gospel state in his wisdom, the Son lays the
foundation of it in his blood, the Spirit carries it on in the world by his power.
4. In respect of the service, it is high and heavenly ; a serving God in
spirit. The service under the legal administration was carnal ; the service
under the gospel administration is more spiritual, and so more suitable to
the perfections of God.
5. In the end and issue of it. It is a translating us into the kingdom of
Christ, Col. i. 13. The legal ceremonies could not fit men of themselves
for glory ; they could not make the comers thereunto perfect. But this
kingdom of grace prepares us for the kingdom of glory.
Cannot see the kingdom of God. In ver. 5, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. He cannot,
1. By reason of God's appointment.
2. In the nature of the thing itself; he hath no fitness for heaven or
heavenly mysteries.
See. Seeing is taken sometimes for enjoying ; not a bare sight, but
fruition : John hi. 36, ' He that believes not the Son shall not see life ;' that
is, shall not enjoy life. And Heb. xii. 14, ' Without holiness, no man shall
see the Lord ;' they may see him in his pronouncing the sentence, but shall
not see him in a way of glorious enjoyment of him.
To have a communion with Christ in a gospel state, to have an enjoy-
ment of Christ in eternal glory, it is necessary we be stripped of the cor-
ruption of our first nature, and be clothed with another by the Spirit of God.
Observe in the verse,
1. The infallibility of the proposition : Verily, verily.
2. The necessity of regeneration : except.
3. The extension of it in regard of the subject.
(1.) Suhjectum quod recipit : man, i.e. every man.
(2.) Subjectum in qvo recipitur : man, i.e. the whole man, every faculty.
4. The excellency of it implied : they cannot see the kingdom of God. J.f
he be born again, he shall enjoy the kingdom of God.
Doct. Regeneration of the soul is of absolute necessity to a gospel and
glorious state.
By regeneration, I mean not a relative, but a real change of the subject,
wrought in the complexion and inclinations of the soul, as in the restoring
of health there is a change made in the temper and humours of the body.
As mankind was changed in Adam from what they were by a state of
creation, so men must be changed in Christ from what they were in a state
of corruption. As that change was not only relative but real, and the
relative first introduced by the real, so must this. The relation of a child
of wrath was founded upon the sin committed. Without a real change there
can be no relative. Being in Christ, as freed from condemnation, is always
attended with a walking in the Spirit ; and walking is not before living.
For the better understanding this point, I shall lay down,
t Mat. vi. 33, the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, are put together.
16 charnock's works. [John III. 8, 5.
I. Propositions concerning the necessity of it.
II. I shall shew that it is necessary,
1. To a gospel state.
(1.) To the performance of gospel duties.
' (2.) To the enjoyment of gospel privileges.
2. To a state of glory.
I. Propositions concerning the necessity of it.
Prop. 1. There are but two states, one saving, the other damning; a
state of sin and a state of righteousness ; and all men are included in one of
them. All men are divided into two ranks. In regard of their principle,
some are in the flesh, some in the Spirit, Rom. viii. 8, 9 ; in regard of their
obedience, some walk after the flesh, some after the Spirit, Rom. viii. 1 ;
some are slaves to the flesh, others are led by the Spirit ; some live only to
self, some live to God. In regard of the exercise of their minds, their nobler
faculty, some mind the things of the flesh, others the things of the Spirit,
Rom. viii. 5 ; some swinishly wallow in sin, others place the delights of
their spirits upon better and higher objects.
The Scripture mentions no other. A state of enmity, wherein men have
their inclinations contrary to God ; a state of friendship and fellowship,
wherein men walk before God unto all well-pleasing, and would not willingly
have an inward motion swerve from his will. One is called light, the other
darkness : Eph. v. 8, ' You were sometimes darkness, but now are you light;'
one the children of wrath, the other the children of God. There is no
medium between them, every man is in one of these states. All believers,
from the bruised reed to the tallest cedar, from the smoking flax on earth
to the flaming lamp in heaven, from Thomas, that would not believe without
seeing, to Abraham, who would believe without staggering, all are in a state
of life ; and all, from the most beautiful moralist to the most venomous toad
in nature's field, from the young man in the gospel, who was not far from
the kingdom of heaven, to Judas, who was in the very bottom of hell, all are
in a state of death. Mere nature, though never so curiously garnished, can
place a man no higner ; faith, though with many infirmities, puts us in a
state of amity ; unbelief, though with many moralities, continues us in a
state of enmity. All men are either the object of God's delight or of his
abomination. The highest endowments of men remaining in corrupted
nature cannot please him. The delight of God then supposeth some
real change in the object which is the ground of that delight, for God is wise
in his delight, and could not be pleased with anything which were not fit for
his complacency. Since original nature in a man cannot displease God un-
less it be changed by some fault, because it was his own work, so our
present nature cannot please God unless it be changed by some grace,
though it be otherwise never so highly dignified. Whatsoever grows up
from the old Adam is the fruit of the flesh, whatsoever grows up by the new
Adam in us is the offspring of the Spirit ; and upon one of these two stocks
all men in the world are set. Since, therefore, one is utterly destructive,
and cannot please God (Rom viii. 8, Sb'then they that are in the flesh can-
not please God), though never so well garnished (for being utterly contrary
to him it cannot be approved by him), the other is absolutely necessary to
salvation.
Prop. 2. It is necessary upon the account of the fall of man and the
consequents of it. In Adam we died : 1 Cor. xv. 22, ' As in Adam all died ;'
therefore in Adam we sinned : Rom. v. 19, ' By one man's disobedience
many were made sinners.' Man cannot be supposed to sin in Adam unless
John III. 3, 5. J the necessity of regeneration. 17
some covenant had intervened between God and Adam,* whence there did
arise in the whole human nature a debt of having righteousness transfused
from the first parent to all his posterity. The want of this grace wherein
his posterity are conceived is a privation, and a crime which was voluntary
in the root and head. This privation of righteousness must be removed.
The institution of God stands firm, that Adam and his posterity should have
a pure righteousness. It is not for the honour of God to enjoin it so
strictly at first, and to have no regard to it afterwards. Now this privation
of righteousness, and the unrigbteousness which hath taken place in the sons
of Adam, cannot be removed without the infusion of grace ; for without this
grace he would alway want righteousness, and yet be alway under an obliga-
tion to have it ; he would be under desires of happiness, but without it
under an impossibility of attaining it.
Were there an indifferency in the soul of man, were it an abrasa tabula,
the writing of moral precepts upon it by good education would sway it to
walk in the paths of virtue, as an ill education doth cast it into the ways of
[vice]. This is not so ; for take two, let them have the same ways of educa-
tion, the same precepts instilled into them, as Esau and Jacob had by their
father, who were equally taught, yet how different were their lives ! Esau's
bad, Jacob's not without flaws. Education had not the power to root cor-
ruption out of both, no, nor out of any man in the world without a higher
principle. There is some powerful principle in the soul, which leads it into
by-paths contrary to those wholesome rules instilled into it. Hence
ariseth a necessity of some other principle to be put into the heart to over-
sway this corrupt bias. Man goes astray from the womb, as it is in Ps.
lviii. 3, ' The wicked are estranged from the womb ; tbey go astray as soon
as they be born.' There must be something to rectify him, and expel this
wandering humour.
By the fall of man there was contracted,
(1.) An unfitness to any thing tbat is good. Man is so immersed in
wrong notions of things, that he cannot judge fully of what is good : Titus
i. 16, ' To every good work reprobate.' The state of nature, or the old
man, is described, Eph. iv. 22, to be ' corrupt, according to deceitful lusts ;'
deceitful, seducing us from God, drawing us into perdition, by representing
evil under the notion of good, which evidenceth our understandings to be
unfit to judge without a new illumination; inward and spiritual lusts, which
are most deceitful, being accounted brave and generous motions ; lusts or
desires, which shew the corruption of the will by ill habits. Lust and sin is
the mere composition of corrupted nature ; the whole man is stuffed with
polluting principles and filthy appetites.
What was preternatural to man in a state of innocency became natural to
him after his depraved state. He is ' carnal, sold under sin,' Rom. vii. 14.
The spring being already out of order, cannot make the motion otherwise
than depraved, as when a clock is out of order, it is natural to that present
condition of it to give false intelligence of the hour of the day, and it cannot
do otherwise till the wheels and weights be rectified. Our end was actively
to glorify God in the service of him and obedience to him ; but since man
is fallen into this universal decay of his faculties, and made unfit to answer
this end, there is a necessity he should be made over again, and created
upon a better foundation, that some principle should be in him to oppose
this universal depravation, enlighten his understanding, mollify his heart,
and reduce his affections to their due order and object.
* Suarez, 2 Tom. ii. De Grat. lib. ii. cap. 13, num. ?, 4.
VOL. III. B
18 charnock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
(2.) Not only an unfitness, but unwillingness to that which is good.
"We have not those affections to virtue as we have to vice. Are not our
lives for the most part voluntarily ridiculous ? Had we a full use of reason,
we should judge them so. We think little of God ; and when we do think
of him, it is with reluctancy. This cannot be our original state, for surely,
God being infinitely good, never let man come out of his hands with this
actual unwillingness to acknowledge and serve him ; as the apostle saith, in
the case of the Galatians' errors, Gal. v. 8, ' This persuasion comes not of
him which calls you,' this unwillingness comes not from him that created
you. How much, therefore, do we need a restoring principle in us ! We
naturally fulfil the desires, or 6t\fifiaru * of the flesh,' Eph. ii. 3. There is
then a necessity of some other principle in us to make us fulfil the will of
God, since we were created for God, not for the flesh. We can no more be
voluntarily serviceable to God while that serpentine nature and devilish
habit remains in us, than we can suppose the devil can be willing to glorify
God, while the nature he contracted by his fall abides powerful in him. It
is as much as to say that a man can be willing against his will. Nature and
will must be changed, or we for ever remain in this state.
Man is born a wild ass' colt, Job xi. 12. No beast more wild and
brutish than man in his natural birth, and like to remain in his wild and wil-
ful nature without grace ; a new birth can only put off the wildness of the first.
(3.) Not only unfitness and unwillingness, but inability to good. A
strange force there is in a natural man, which hurries him, even against some
touches of his will, to evil.
How early do men discover an affection to vice ! How greedily do they
embrace it, notwithstanding rebukes from superiors, good exhortations from
friends, with the concurrence of the vote of conscience, giving its amen to
those dissuasions ! and yet carried against those arguments, deceived by sin,
slain by sin, sold, under it, Kom. vii. 11, 14. This is the miserable state
of every son of nature.
Do we not find that men sometime wrapt up in retirement, in considera-
tion of the excellency of virtue, are so wrought upon by their solitary medi-
tations, that they think themselves able to withstand the strongest invasion
of any temptation ! Yet'we see oftentimes that when a pleasing temptation
offers itself, though there be a conflict between reason and appetite, at length
all the considerations and dictates of reason are laid aside, the former ideas
laid asleep, and that committed which their own reason told them was base
and sordid ; so that there is something necessary, beside consideration and
resolution, to the full cure of man.
No privation can be removed but by the introduction of another form ; as
when a man is blind, that blindness, which is a privation of sight, cannot be
removed without bringing in a power of seeing again. Original sin is a
privation of original righteousness, and an introduction of corrupt principles,
which cannot be removed but by some powerful principle contrary to it.
Since the inability upon the earth, by reason of the curse, to bring forth
its fruits in such a manner as it did when man was in a state of innocency,
the nature of it must be changed to reduce it to its original fruitfulness ; so
must man, since a general defilement from Adam hath seized upon him, be
altered before he can ' bring forth fruit to God,' Rom. vii. 4. We must be
united to Christ, engrafted upon another stock, and partake of the power of
his resurrection ; without this we may bring forth fruit, but not fruit to God.
There is as utter an impossibility in a man to answer the end of his creation,
without righteousness, as for a man to act without life, or act strongly with-
out health and strength. It is a contradiction to think a man can act
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of kegeneeation. 19
righteously without righteousness, for without it he hath not the being of a
man ; that is, man in such a capacity, for those ends for which his creation
intended him.
Well, then, since there is an unfitness, unwillingness, inability in a man to
answer his end, there is a necessity of a new life, a new nature, a new
righteousness. There is a necessity for his happiness that he should be
brought back to God, live to God, be a son of God, and this cannot be with-
out regeneration ; for how can he be brought back to God without a prin-
ciple of spiritual motion ? How can he live to God that hath no spiritual
life ? How can he be fit to be a son of God who is of a brutish and dia-
bolical nature ?
Prop. 3. Hence it follows, that it is universally necessary. Necessary for
all men. Our Saviour knows none without this mark. There must be a
change in the soul : 2 Cor. v. 17, ' Therefore if any man be in Christ,, he-
is a new creature.' There must be the habitation of the Spirit : Rom.
viii. 9, ' If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.' There-
must be a crucifixion, not only of the corrupt affections of the flesh, but of
the flesh itself : Gal. v. 24, ' They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh,
with the affections and lusts.'
The old nature must be killed, with all its attendants. There is no son-
ship to God without likeness, no relation of a child of God without a child-
like nature. Let a man be of whatsoever quality in the world, never so
high, never so low, of whatsoever age, of whatsoever moral endowments,
' except a man,' every man, &c.
And simply necessary. Our Saviour doth not say he is in danger not to
see the kingdom of God, or he may come short of it ; but he shall not, he
cannot. Tbere is no possible way but this for any man, no other door to
creep in at but by that of a new birth ; salvation cannot be attained without it,
and damnation will certainly be the issue of the want of it. As there is no
other name under heaven by which we can be saved but by the name of
Jesus Christ, so there is no other way under heaven wherein we can be saved
but by the birth of the Spirit.
It is necessary, therefore, in all places, in all professions. It is not neces-
sary only in Europe, and not in Africa. Let a man be what he will, in any
place under heaven, he must have a Jesus to save him, and an Holy Ghost
to change him ; it is one and the same Spirit acts in all, and produceth the
same qualities in all. Let men's religion and professions be what they will
(men are apt to please themselves with this and that profession and opinion,
but), there is no salvation in any profession, or any kind of opinion, but by
regeneration. It is not necessary our understandings should be all of one
size, that our opinions should all meet in uniformity, but it is necessary we
should all have one spiritual nature. It is as necessary to the being of a
good man that he should be spiritual, as to the being of a man that he should
be rational, though there is a great latitude and variety in the degrees of
men in grace, as well as their reasons. Some are of little faith, some of
great faith ; some babes in Christ, some strong men. It is not necessary
all should be as strong as Abraham, but it is simply necessary all should be
new born, as Abraham ; no age, no time excludes it.
(1.) Righteousness was necessary before the fall. The new birth is but
the beginning of our restoration to that state we had before the fall. Adam
could not have been happy without being innocent. The holiness of God
could not create an impure creature. Without it God could take no plea-
sure in his work.
(2.) After the fall it was necessary, continually necessary from the first
20 charnock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
moment of the fall. This work of regeneration is included in the first
promise : Gen. iii. 15, 'I will put enmity between thee and the woman,
between thy seed and her seed.' Naturally we have a mighty friendship to
Satan, a friendship to his works, though not to his person. But if any
man had interest in that promise, he must exchange that friendship for an
enmity.
If Jesus Christ, who is principally meant by the seed of the woman, had
an enmity to Satan, then all Christ's seed must be possessed with the same
spirit. For when the seed of the woman was to break the serpent's head,
it was necessary that those that would enjoy the fruit of that conquest should
be enemies to the nature of the devil, and the works of the devil, otherwise
they could not join with that interest which overthrows him. It is unreason-
able to think the head should have an enmity, and the members an amity ;
and we cannot have an enmity to that which is the same with our nature,
without a change of disposition. It is not a verbal enmity that is here
meant. While we pretend to hate him we may do his pleasure, and Satan
is never troubled to be pretendedly hated and really obeyed. As wicked
men do the will of God's purpose, while they oppose the will of his precept,
so they do the devil's will many times while they think they cross it ; there
must be a contrary nature to Satan before there can be an enmity. That
foolish appetite, affected sensuality, indulgence to the flesh, the cause of our
first friendship with Satan, must be changed into divine desires, affection to
heavenly things, a mortification of the flesh, before a man can part with this
friendship. There must be a change in the conformity of the soul to the
nature of the devil before an enmity against him can be raised. We are
never enemies to those that encourage us in what we affect. His nature
can never be altered, by reason of the curse of God upon him ; therefore
ours must, if ever the league be broken. In Isa. lxv. 25 it is said, ' The
wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like an
ox : and dust shall be the serpent's meat.' The nature of men may
be changed by the gospel, but dust shall always be the serpent's meat.
The saving some by water in the deluge was a figure of this inward baptism,
which is the ' answer of a good conscience towards God,' 1 Peter iii. 20, 21.
As the old world was so corrupt that all must be washed away before it
could be restored, so is the little world of man. The cloud and sea through
which the Israelites passed signified this, as the apostle informs us : 1 Cor.
x. 2, ' And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and the sea.' Where-
upon some think there were some sprinklings of the water upon them, as
they stood like two walls, to favour their passage.
(3.) Necessary in the time of the law. By the moral law this renewing was
implied in the first command, of not having any other gods before him,
Exod. xx. 3. We cannot suppose that command only limited to a not
serving an outward image. Is not the setting up self, our own reasons, our
own wills, and bowing down to them, and serving them, as much a wrong
to God as the bowing down to a senseless image ? nay, worse than the
adoring of an image, since that is senseless ; but our wills corrupt, and are
no more fit to be our God than an image is fit to be a representation of him.
So that in the spiritual part of the command this must be included, to
acknowledge nothing as the rule of perfection, but God ; to set ourselves no
other patterns of conformity but God, which the apostle phraseth a being
new crpated after God, Eph. iv. 24.
If all idolatry were forbidden, then that which is inward as well as that
which is outward. If we were to have no other gods before him, then we
were to prefer nothing inwardly before him ; we were to make him our pat-
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 21
tern, and be conformed to him ; which we cannot, without another nature
than that we had by corruption.
Upon this are those scriptures founded which speak of covetousness to be
idolatry, Col. iii. 5 ; that ' if any man love the world, the love of the Father
is not in him,' 1 John ii. 15 ; he doth not love God.
Now the preferring self before God is the essential part of the corrupt
nature. Therefore all men, by the law of nature (which is the same with
the moral law), and the Jews, to whom this law was given, were bound to
have another nature than that which was derived from Adam, which essen-
tially consisted in the making ourselves our god. Self-esteem, self-depend-
ence, self-willedness, is denying affection and subjection to God.
By the ceremonial law more plainly. Their duty was not terminated in
an external observance of the types and shadows under the law, but a heart-
work God intended to signify to them in all those legal ceremonies. As
sacrifices signified a necessity of expiation of sin, so their legal washings
represented to them a necessity of regeneration.
Therefore God is said not to require the sacrifices of beasts : Ps. xl. 6,
' Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire ' (that is, sacrifices of beasts),
' burnt-offerings and sin-offerings hast thou not required ; ' viz. as the ulti-
mate object of his pleasure, but as representations of Christ, the great sacri-
fice. So neither did he command circumcision, and other legal purifications,
for anything in themselves, or anything they could work, further than upon
the body, but to signify unto them an inward work upon the heart. Hence
they are said not to be commanded by God : Jer. vii. 22, 23, ' For I
spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought
them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt- offerings or sacrifices ; but
this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice.' That is, God did
not principally require these as the things which did terminate his will and
pleasure, but an obedience to him, and walking with him, which cannot be
without an agreement of nature : ' For how can two walk together, unless
they be agreed ?' Amos iii. 3. Hence God speaks so often to them of the
circumcision of the heart, Deut. x. 16, and promises this circumcision of the
heart : Deut. xxxvi. 6, ' And the Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart,
and the heart of thy seed,' &c. And Paul expressly saith, Rom. ii. 28, 29,
that ' he was not a Jew ;' that is, a spiritual Jew, one of the spiritual seed
of Abraham, who had the ' circumcision that was outward in the flesh,' but
he that had ' that of the heart.'
So among us many confide in baptism, which signifieth nothing to men
grown up, without an inward renewal and baptism of the heart, no more
tban outward circumcision did to them.
(4.) The obligation upon us is still the same.* The covenant made with
Adam was made perpetually with him for all his posterity, therefore all his
posterity, by that covenant, were perpetually obliged to a perfect righteous-
ness. If God had made this covenant with Adam, that he should transfuse
this original righteousness to his posterity only for such a time, then indeed,
after the expiration of the term, the obligation had ceased, and none had been
bound to have it as a debt required by God. The fault of wanting it had
been removed without any infusion of grace, because the time being expired,
and so the obligation ceasing, it had not been a fault to want it ; neither
could Adam's posterity have been charged with his sin, because the want of
righteousness, after the expiration of the time fixed, had not been a sin.
But because there was no time fixed, but that it was perpetually of force as
* Suarez dc grat., torn. 2, lib. 7, cap. 23, numb. 3, 4.
22 " charnock's works. [John III. 8, 5.
to righteousness, which was the main intent of it, we still remain under the
obligation of having a righteous nature.
Now God, seeing the impossibility of answering this obligation in our own
persons, by our own strength, appoints a way whereby we may answer it in
a second head, not nulling the former covenant as to the essential part of
it, which was a righteous nature, but mitigating it, as the Chancery nulls not
the common law, but sweetens the severity of it.
This latter covenant is called ' an everlasting covenant.' Not that the
obligation of the other to righteousness is ceased, but transmitted to another
head; which head cannot possibly fail, as our former did, who hath both a
perfect righteousness in himself, and hath undertook for a perfect righteous-
ness in his people, which he is able to accomplish, and to that purpose begins
it here, and perfects it hereafter. To this purpose the Scripture speaks of
the everlastingness of the covenant: Ps. lxxxix. 28, 'My covenant shall
stand fast with him ;' that is, with Christ. And if his people sin, as he ex-
pressed it afterwards, yet ' my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from
him.' In this respect Christ is called the covenant of the people : Isa. xlii.
6, ' I will give thee for a covenant of the people.' And the end of placing
David his servant over his people, is not to give way to licentiousness and
unrighteousness, and maintain men in an hostile nature against God, but
that they might ' walk in his judgments, and observe his statutes,' Jer.
xxxvii. 24 ; and that everlasting covenant of peace he would make with them
is in order to sanctify them, Jer. xxxvii. 26, 28, compared together. When
God would make a covenant of peace with them, an everlasting covenant, it
was to set his sanctuary among them, and to let the heathen know that the
Lord did sanctify Israel. And the end of the covenant is to ' put his law
into the inward parts,' Jer. xxxi. 33.
Christ undertook to keep up the honour of God, which was violated by
the breach of that covenant, to * make reconciliation for iniquity, and to
bring in everlasting righteousness,' Dan. ix. 24. This obligation our second
head entered into for us, and in him we are complete, even as our head, and
as the ' head of all principality and power,' Col. ii. 10, who hath undertaken
for our perfect righteousness ; of our persons, by his own righteousness ; of
our nature, by inherent righteousness, as it follows, ver. 11, &c, ' In whom
you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting
off the body of the sins of the flesh,' &c. This obligation still remains
upon our head, and upon us in him, and to him we are to have recourse
for a full answering of it. And this cannot be answered without a new
birth here, which ends in a perfection hereafter. And Christ, by a plain
precept, hath made it absolutely necessary now to all under the gospel
administration.
So that no age, no time, no administration excludes it. It was as neces-
sary to Adam, the first man, as to the last that shall be born. For being
by nature spiritually dead, there must be a restoration to a spiritual life, if
ever any be happy. « God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the
living.' "What was alway necessary is absolutely necessary, and admits of
no exception ; and therefore the removal of the diabolical nature is indis-
pensable to him and to us, since we are all the posterity of Adam, and the
inheritors of his corruption. How can any, in any age, enjoy an infinite
holy God, without being changed from their impurity ?
Prop. 4. Hence it follows, that it is so necessary, that it is not conceiv-
able by any man in his right wits how God can make any man happy without
it. It is not for us, poor shallow creatures, to dispute what God can, and
what God cannot do ; what God may do by his absolute power. But yet it
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 23
seems a contradiction, and it is not intelligible by us how God can make a
man happy without regeneration.
"What semblance of reason can be given that any one who is a slave of
Satan, a cbild of wrath by nature, can be made the son and friend of God,
without an expulsion of that nature which rendered him criminal, and restor-
ing that in some degree which renders him innocent ?
Without habitual grace, sin is not taken away ; and as long as a man
remains under sin, how he can be capable of any communion with God I
understand not; for he cannot be at one and the same time under God's
greatest wrath and his highest love. How is it possible that one can have
an enjoyment of eternal life, who hath nothing in him but a relation to eternal
death ?
God made man's nature fit for his communion ; man made himself unfit by
guilt and filth. This unfitness must be removed by regeneration before this
privilege man had by creation can be restored. Not that this restored right-
eousness is the cause of our communion with God in happiness, but a neces-
sary requisite to it. No doubt but God might have restored this righteousness
without admitting man to a converse with him, if there had been no covenant
made to that purpose. That God may give grace without glory, is intelli-
gible ; but to admit a man to communion with him in glory, without grace,
is not intelligible.
(1.) It is not agreeable to God's holiness to make any an inhabitant of
heaven, and converse freely with him in away of intimate love, without such
a qualification of grace : Ps. xi. 7, ' The righteous Lord loves righteousness ;
his countenance doth behold the upright.' He must, therefore, hate iniquity,
and cannot love an unrighteous nature because of his love to righteousness ;
' his countenance beholds the upright,' he looks upon him with a smiling
eye, and therefore he cannot favourably look upon an unrighteous person,
so that this necessity is not founded only in the command of God that we
should be renewed, but in the very nature of the thing, because God, in regard
of his holiness, cannot converse with an impure creature. God must change
his nature, or the sinner's nature must be changed. There can be no friendly
communion between two of different natures without the change of one of
them into the likeness of the other. Wolves and sheep, darkness and light,
can never agree. God cannot love a sinner as a sinner, because he hates
impurity by a necessity of nature as well as a choice of will. It is as impos-
sible for him to love it as to cease to be holy.
This change cannot be then on God's part ; it must therefore be on
man's part. It must therefore be by grace, whereby the sinner may be
made fit for converse with God, since God cannot embrace a sinner in his
dearest affections without a quality in the sinner suitable to himself. All
converse is founded upon a likeness in nature and disposition ; it is by grace
only that the sinner is made capable of converse with God.
(2.) It is not agreeable to God's wisdom. Is it congruous to the wisdom
of God to let a man be his child and the child of the devil at the same time ?
Is it fit to admit him to the relation of a son of God, who retains the enmity
of his nature against God, to make any man happy with the dishonour of
his laws, since he is not subject to the law of God, neither will be : one that
cannot bear him, but abhors his honour and the apprehensions of his holiness ?
Man naturally hath risings of heart against God, looks upon him under
some dreadful notion, hath an utter aversion from him; alienation and enmity
are inseparable : Col. i. 21, 'You who were sometimes alienated, and enemies
in your minds.' It doth not consist with the wisdom of God to make any
man happy against his will ; God therefore first changeth the temper of the
24 charnock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
will by his powerful grace, thereby making him willing, and by degrees
fitting him for happiness with him.
It is not fit corruption should inherit incorruption, or impurity be admitted
to an undefiled inheritance, and therefore God brings none thither which are
not first begotten by him to a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead : 1 Peter i. 3, 4, ' Which according to his mercy hath be-
gotten us again to a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away,
reserved in heaven for you.' It cannot be honourable for the wisdom of
God to give a right to eternal life to one that continues a child of the
devil, and bestow his love upon one that resolves to give his own heart to
sin and Satan.
This which I have now discoursed is founded upon men's natural notions
in their right reason. But if we look into the Scripture it is certain there
is no other way but this : a man without a new birth can have no right to
happiness by any covenant of God, by any truth of God, by any purchase
of Christ. God never promised happiness without it ; Christ never pur-
chased it for any one without a new nature. No example is there extant of
any person God hath made happy without this alteration, nor in the strictest
inquiries can we conceive any other way possible ; therefore if there be any
one present that hath hopes to enjoy everlasting happiness without regenera-
tion, he expects that which God never yet bestowed upon any, and which,
according to our understanding, God cannot, without wrong to his holiness
and wisdom, confer upon any person. I beseech you, therefore, let none of
you build your hopes upon such vain foundations ; you must be holy, or you
shall never see God to your comfort.
Prop. 5. It is so necessary, that the coming and sufferings of our Lord
and Saviour would seem insignificant without it. That this regeneration
was a main end of his coming, is evident by his making this one of the main
doctrines he was, as a prophet and teacher, sent from God to make known
to the world, it being the first he taught Nicodemus. Jesus Christ came to
glorify God, and to glorify himself in redeeming a people. And what glory
can we conceive God hath, what glory can Christ have, if there be no
characteristical difference between his people and the world? And what
difference can there be but in a change of nature and temper, as the founda-
tion whence all other differences do result ? Sheep and goats differ in nature.
The righteousness which is given through our Mediator is the same, in
the essentials and respects it bears to God, as we had, at first. And his
threefold office of king, priest, and prophet, is in order to it : his priestly, to
reconcile and bring us to God ; his prophetical, to teach us the way ; and
his. kingly, to work in us those qualifications, and bestow that comely garb
upon us that was necessary to fit us for our former converse. Our second
Adam would not be like the first, if he failed in this great work of conveying
his righteous nature to us, as Adam was to convey his original righteousness to
his posterity. As that was to be conveyed by carnal generation, so the right-
eous nature of the second Adam is to be transmitted to us by spiritual regenera-
tion. In this respect renewed men are called his seed, and counted to him for
a generation, as Ps. xxii. 30, ' A seed shall serve him ; it shall be accounted
to the Lord (MINT) for a generation,' to Christ ; it shall be accounted as much
the generation of Christ as the rest are the generation of Adam, as if they
had proceeded out of his loins, as mankind did out of Adam's. As God
looks upon believers as righteous through the righteousness of Christ as if it
were their own, so he accounts them as if they were the generation of Jesus
Christ himself.
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 25
(1.) Christ came to save from sin. Salvation from sin was more his work
than barely salvation from hell : Mat. i. 21, ' He shall save his people from
their sins.' From sin as the cause, from hell as the consequent. If from
sin, was it only from the guilt of sin, and to leave the sinful nature un-
changed ? Was it only to take off punishment, and not to prepare for
glory ? It would have been then but the moiety of redemption, and not
honourable for so great a Saviour. Can you imagine that the death of Jesus
Christ, being necessary for the recovery of a sinner, was appointed for an
incomplete work, to remit man's sin and continue the insolency of his
nature against God ? It was not his end only to save us from wrath to
come, but to save us from the procuring-cause of that wrath ; not forcibly
and violently to save us, but in methods congruous to the honour of God's
wisdom and holiness, and therefore to purify us : Tit. ii. 14, ' To redeem us
from all iniquity,' all parts of it, ' by purifying unto himself a peculiar
people, zealous of good works,' that we might have a holy nature, whereby
we might perform holy actions, and be as zealous of good works and the
honour of God, as we had been of bad works and to bring dishonour to
him.
It was also the end of dais resurrection to • quicken us to a newness of life,'
Col. ii. 12, 13, Eph. ii. 5, 6. If any man without a new nature could set
foot into heaven, a great intendment of the death and resurrection of Christ
would be insignificant.
Christ came to take away sin, the guilt by his death, the filth by his Spirit,
given us as the purchase of that death. In taking away sin he takes away
also the sinful nature.
(2.) Christ came to destroy the works of the devil : 1 John iii. 8, ' For
this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works
of the devil.' These works are two, sin, and the misery consequent upon it.
Upon the destruction of sin necessarily follows the dissolution of the other
which was knit with it. If the sinful nature were not taken away, the devil's
works would not wholly be destroyed ; or if the sinful nature were taken
away, and a righteous nature not planted in the stead of it, he would still
have his ends against God in depriving God of the glory he ought to have
from the creature. And the creature could not give God the glory he was
designed by his creation to return, unless some nature were implanted in
him whereby he might be enabled to do it.
Would it, then, be for the honour of this great Kedeemer to come short
of his end against Satan, to let all the trophies of Satan remain, in the errors
of the understanding, perversity of the will, disorder of the affections, and
confusion of the whole soul ? Or if our Saviour had only removed these,
how had the works of the devil been destroyed if we had lain open to his
assaults, and been liable the next moment to be brought into the same con-
dition, which surely would have been, were not a righteous and divine nature
bestowed upon the creature.
(3.) Christ came to bring us to God : 1 Peter iii. 18, ' For Christ also
hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to
God.' Was it to bring us to God with all our pollutions, which were the
cause God cast us off? No ; but to bring us in such a garb as that we
might be fit to converse with him. Can we be so without a new nature and
a spiritual likeness to God ? Would that man who would bring another to
a prince to introduce him into favour, bring him into his presence in a
slovenly and sordid habit, such a garb which he knew was hateful to the
prince ? Neither will our Saviour, nor can he bring sinners in such a plight
to God, because it is more contrary to the nature of God's holiness to have
26 chaknock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
communion with such, than it is contrary to the nature of light to have com-
munion with darkness, 1 John i. 5-7. Can it be thought that Christ should
come to set human nature right with God, without a change of that principle
which caused the first revolt from God ? Besides, since the coming of
Christ was to please God, and to glorify him in all his attributes, as well as
to save us, how can God be pleased with the effects of Christ's death, if he
brought the creature to him without any change of nature, but with its for-
mer enmity and pollution ? Will you say his mercy would be glorified ?
How can that be without a wrong to his purity, and a provocation to his jus-
tice ? Suppose such a dispute were in God, would not holiness, wisdom,
justice, joined together, over- vote mercy ?
But since there can be no such dispute, how can we conceive that mercy,
an infinite perfection in God, can desire anything to the prejudice of the
honour of his holiness, justice, and wisdom ?
Well, then, if we expect happiness without a renewed nature, we would
make Christ a minister of sin as well as of righteousness, Gal. ii. 17, &c.
As there is a justification by him, so his intent was to plant a living principle
in us, whereby we might be enabled to live to him. It is in vain, then, to
think to find any benefit by the death of Christ without a new nature, any
more than from God without it.
Prop. 6. The end of the Spirit's coming manifests it to be necessary. We
are said therefore to be ' saved by the washing of regeneration, and renew-
ing of the Holy Ghost,' Titus hi*. 5, 2 Thes. ii. 13. As God by his Spirit,
moving upon the face of the waters, created the world, so God by his Spirit,
moving upon the face of the soul, new creates all the faculties of it. Can
the coming of Christ, and the coming of the Spirit, the most signal favours
of God to mankind, be intended for no other end than to convey to us the
mercy of God, with the dishonour of his holiness, to change our misery with-
out changing our nature, and putting us in a capacity both to glorify God and
enjoy him ? To what purpose doth the Spirit come, if not to renew ? What-
soever was the office of the Spirit, cannot be supposed to be exercised with-
out this foundation. Can there be any seal of the Spirit without some im-
pression made upon the soul like to the Spirit, which is the seal whereby
we are sealed ? Can he witness to us that we are the children of God, if
there be no principle in us suitable to God as a father, no child-like frame ?
Is the Spirit only to bring things to remembrance for a bare speculation,
without any operative effect ? Is he to help us in prayer ? How can that
be, without giving us first a sense of what we need, and a praying heart ?
And how can we have a praying heart till our natures, so averse from God
and his worship, be changed? He is a 'quickening Spirit,' 2 Cor. hi. 6,
1 the Spirit gives life.' How can that be while we lie rotting in our former
death ? It is a ' Spirit of holiness.' Can he dwell in a soul that hath an
unholy nature ? Though he find men so at his first coming, would he not
quickly be weary of his house if it continued so ? He comes to change our
old nature, not to encourage it. What fruits of the Spirit could appear with-
out the change of the nature of the soil ?
Prop. 7. From all this it follows that this new birth is necessary in every
part of the soul. There is not a faculty but is corrupted, and therefore not
a faculty but must be restored. Not a wheel, not a pin in all this clock of
the heart but is out of frame ; not one part wherein sin and Satan have not
left the marks of their feet: Titus i. 15, 'Their mind and conscience is
defiled.' It is clearer to a regenerate soul that it is so, since by the light of
grace he discerns a filth in every faculty. The more knowledge of God he
hath, the more he discovers his ignorance ; the more love to God, the more
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 27
he finds and is ashamed of his enmity. And though in our imperfect re-
generation here, grace and sin are in every part of the soul, as wine and
water mingled together are in every part of the vessel, yet every faculty is in
part renewed ; and grace and sin lie not so huddled together but that the
soul can distinguish them, and be able to say, this is grace, this is part of
the new Adam, and this is sin, and part of the old Adam in me.
Because there was an universal depravation by the fall, regeneration must
answer it in its exteosiveness in every faculty. Otherwise it is not the birth
of the man, but of one part only. It is but a new piece, not a new creature.
This or that faculty may be said to be new, not the soul, not the man. We
are all over bemired by the puddle of sin, and we must be all over washed
by the water of grace. A whole sanctification is the proper fruit of recon-
ciliation : 2 Thes. v. 23, ' The God of peace sanctify you wholly.' Recon-^
ciliation was of the whole man, so must regeneration. Sin hath rooted itself
in every part ; ignorance and error in our understandings ; pride, and self-
love, and enmity in our wills ; all must be unrooted by a new grace, and the
triumphs of sin spoiled by a new birth.
Prop. 8. It is so necessary, that even the dim eye of natural reason has
been apprehensive of some need of it. Aud, therefore, it is a wonder that
there should be a need of pressing it upon men under the light of the gospel.
Those doctrines that are purely intellectual and supernatural, are not so
easily apprehended by men, as having no footing in reason, whereby reason
is rendered unpliable to consent to them. But those doctrines that tend to
the reformation of man carry a greater conviction, as having some notion of
a depravation, which gives them some countenance in the minds of men,
though not in their affection. Men cannot conceive any notion of God's
greatness, majesty, and holiness, but they must also conceive something
necessary to an enjoyment of him (wherein their felicity consists), besides
those natural principles which they find in themselves. Natural reason must
needs assent to this, that there must be some other complexion of the soul
to fit us for a converse with so pure a majesty. The wiser sort of heathens
did see themselves out of frame ; the tumult and disorder in their faculties
could not but be sensible to them. They found the flights of their souls too
weak for their vast desires. They acknowledged the wings of it to be clipped,
and that they never came so out of the hands of God. That therefore there
was a necessity of some restorative above the art of man to complete the
work. And I think I have read of one of them that should say, That there
could not be a reformation unless God would take flesh. They had ' the
work of the law written in their hearts,' Rom. ii. 15. They knew such works
were to be done ; they found themselves unable to do them. Whence would
follow that there must be some other principle to enable them than what
they had by nature. To this purpose they invented their purgative^ vir-
tues ; and by those and other means hoped to arrive to an opoiojeig ra 9eu,
which they much talked of as necessary to a converse with God. As they
were sensible of their guilt, and therefore had sacrifices for the expiation of
that, so they were sensible of their filth, and had their purifications and
washings for the cleansing of that. Hence it was that they admired those
men that acted in a higher sphere of moral virtue and moderation than
others. Some of them have acknowledged the malady, but despaired of a
remedy, judging it above the power of nature to cure. Certainly that which
the wisest heathens, in the darkness of nature, without knowledge either of
law or gospel, have counted necessary ; and since it is seconded by so plain
a declaration of our Saviour, must be indisputably necessary.* Plato in
* Ficinus in Dionys. de divin. nom. cap. xii.
28 chaenock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
several places saith, That there was a certain divine principle in our minds
at first, but that it was abolished, and God would again renew and form the
soul with a kind of divinity.
How vain then are men, how inexcusably foolish, to neglect both the light
of the gospel and that of reason too ; that spend not one hour, one minute,
in a serious consideration of it and enquiry after it ; in slighting their own
reason as well as the express declaration of Jesus Christ. Oh that men
were sensible of this, which is of so great concernment to them.
II. I come to shew that regeneration is necessary.
1. It is necesary to a gospel state.
(1.) Nothing can exist in any state of being without a proper form. That
which hath not the form of a thing is not a thing of the same species. He
cannot be a man that wants a rational form of a man, a soul. And how can
any man be a Christian without that which doth essentially constitute a
Christian ? We can no more be Christians without a Christian nature, than
a man can be a man without human nature. Grace only gives being to a
Christian, and constitutes him so : 1 Cor. xv. 10, ' By the grace of God I
am what I am : and his grace which was bestowed on me was not in vain,
but I laboured more abundantly than they all.' Grace there is meant of
habitual grace, because he speaks of his labour as the fruit of it. In bodily
life brutes go beyond us, in the vigour of senses, greatness of strength,
temperance, natural affection. In reason and moral virtues many heathens
have excelled us. There is something else, then, necessary for the con-
stitution of a Christian, and that is, Christ's living in him by a new forming
of his soul by his Spirit. As the body lives by the soul, which distributes
natural, vital, and animal spirits to every part of the body, for the perform-
ance of its several functions ; so the soul lives by grace, which diffuseth its
vigour to every part, the understanding, will, and affections.
(2.) There is no suitableness to a gospel state and government without it.
In all changes of government in the world there is a change in the whole
state of affairs, in those that are the instruments of government, in the
principles of those that submit to the government. After the fall of man
God set up a new mode of government. All judgment was committed to
the Son : John v. 22, ' For the Father judges no man, but hath committed
all judgment to the Son.' Ver. 27, ' And hath given him authority to exe-
cute judgment.' The whole administration of affairs is put into his hand ;
not excluding the Father, who still gave out his orders in the government,
wherefore he saith, ver. 30, 'I can of myself do nothing; as I hear, I judge.'
There must be, therefore, some agreement between the frame of this govern-
ment and the subjects of it. As there is a new Adam, a new covenant, a
new priesthood, a new spirit ; so there must be a new heart, new compacts,
new offerings, new resolutions. New administrations and old services can
no more be pieced together than new cloth and old garments. The gospel
state of the church is called a new heaven and a new earth. Man is by the
inclinations of his corrupt nature obedient to the law of sin. There must be
a cure and change of those inclinations, to make them tend to an observance
of the orders of this new government, and an hearty observation of it, 2 Cor.
v. 17, ' Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new, and
all things are of God ' (so they were before), but now in a new manner and
frame ; and this is the reason rendered why every man in Christ must be a
new creature.
(3.) All the subjects of this government have been brought in this way,
not one excepted. Though God hath chosen some that he would bless for
ever under this evangelical government, yet notwithstanding the purpose of
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of eegeneeation. 29
God they are in as great unfitness for this state as the worst of men, till God
exerting his power fashions them to be vessels of honour to himself. It is
not God's choice of any man which puts any man into a gospel state, without
the operation of the Spirit, renewing the mind and fitting him for it. All
that were designed by God's eternal purpose were to be brought in by this
way of the new birth, as 2 Thess. ii. 13, ' God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth.' And by this they were fortified against all those workings of the
mystery of iniquity, against the government of Christ and the state of the
gospel, which would be damnable and destructive to many ; for he had spoken
of that before, upon which occasion he brings this in. ' A chosen genera-
tion, a holy nation, a peculiar people,' are joined together, 1 Peter ii. 9.
Peculiar they could not be, unless they had something of an intrinsic value
in them above others, and a peculiar fitness for special service, and to offer
spiritual sacrifices, therefore called also a royal priesthood.
(4.) The end of the particular institutions, of initiation or admission,
under the two different administrations of this government, was to signify
this — of circumcision under the law, and baptism under the gospel. Both
signified the corruption and filthiness of nature, and the necessity of the cir-
cumcision of the heart and the purification of nature. Hence baptism is
called ' the laver of regeneration,' Titus iii. 5,* many understanding it of
baptism. Not that these did confer this new nature in a physical way, or
that it was alway conferred in the administration of them, but the necessity
of having this was alway signified by them. Therefore one of the Jews,f
against the opinion of his countrymen, saith absolutely, it is a madness to
think that those ceremonies, under their administration, were appointed only
for the purification of the body without that of the soul. And Rom. ii. 29,
saith the apostle, ' He is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is
that of the heart in the spirit.' So that partaking of baptism, and being
intrusted with the oracles' of God, make a man no more a Christian than
circumcision, &c, did make a man a Jew. He is only a Christian that hath
a Christian nature. The necessity of this nature was evidenced and signified
both by the one and by the other.
In every state there are duties to be performed and privileges to be en-
joyed. So likewise in the gospel state. Without a new birth we cannot
perform the one or be capable of the other.
2. It is necessary to the performance of gospel duties.
(1.) There can be no preparation to any service without it. Man's soul
at first could make a spiritual music to God, till the flesh disordered the
strings, and no music can be made till the Spirit puts the instrument in tune
again. In Jesus Christ we are ' created to good works,' Eph. ii. 10. There-
fore no preparation can be before the new creation, no more than there was
a preparation in the matter without form and void to become a world.
What evangelical duties can be performed without an evangelical impression,
without the forming of Christ and the doctrine of Christ in the heart, not
only in the notion, but the operative and penetrating power of it ? The
heart must be first moulded, and cast into the frame of the doctrine of the
gospel, before it can obey it, as R,om. vi. 17, ' But ye have obeyed from the
heart that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you,' or, ' unto which
you were delivered.' The mould wherein a thing is cast makes it fit for
the operation for which it is intended. The ship that wants any material
* Rom. vi. 4, Baptism signifies our burial with Christ and our resurrection to walk
in newness of life.
f Maimonid. More Nevoch., part ii. chap. 33.
30 chabnock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
thing in its make cannot sail well, will not obey the directions of the pilot ;
and he that wants grace will be carried away with the breath of every sin
and temptation. All the motions and rollings naturally in ways of duty by
other principles, cannot make an aptitude to divine services, no more than
a thousand times flinging up a stone into the air can produce any natural
fitness in it for such an elevation any more than it had at first, which was
none at all. Where should we have any preparation ? It cannot be from
Adam ; he died a spiritual death by his sin, and had no natural fitness for
any spiritual service, and therefore cannot convey by nature more to his
posterity than what he had by nature ; what grace he had afterwards was
bestowed upon his person, not upon the nature which was to be transmitted
to his posterity.
(2.) Therefore we cannot act any evangelical service without a new nature.
If we have no natural preparation, we can have no natural action. The law
must be written in our hearts before it be formed into the life, Jer.
xxxi. 33, 34, ' I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their
hearts.' It is then, and then only, that we have a practical and affectionate
knowledge of God, 'And they shall know me from the least unto the greatest.'
Eestoration to a supernatural life must be before there can be supernatural
actions, a just nature before a just walk, as Hosea xiv. 9, ' The just shall
walk in them,' that is, in the ways of God. The motion of the creature is
not the cause but the effect of life. The evangelical service is not the cause
of righteousness but the effect. We cannot walk in one commandment of
God till the law be written in our inward parts, Ezek. xxxvi. 14. Those
that have not a new heart cannot walk in God's statutes. We can never
answer the terms of the covenant without a new nature. For,
[1.] No act can transcend the principle of it. There is a certainty in this
rule ; that the elevation of an inferior nature to the acts of a superior nature
cannot be without some inward participation of that superior nature. The
operation of everything follows the nature of the thing. A beast cannot act
like a man without partaking of the nature of a man, nor a man act like an
angel without partaking of the angelical nature. How then can a man act
divinely without a participation of the divine nature ? Duties of a super-
natural strain, as evangelic duties are, require a supernatural frame of spirit.
Nothing can exceed the bounds of its nature, for then it should exceed itself
in acting. Whatsoever service, therefore, doth proceed from mere nature,
cannot amount to a gospel-service, because it comes not from a gospel-prin-
ciple. We cannot believe without a habit of faith, nor love without a habit
of love ; for this only renders us able to perform such acts. Justification is
necessary to our state as well as regeneration ; but regeneration seems to be
more necessary to our duties than the former ; this principally to the per-
formance of them, the other to the acceptance of them.
[2.] The nature doth always tincture the fruit of it. Our Saviour, by his
interrogation, implies an impossibility that those that are evil should
speak good things : Mat. xii. 34, ' generation of vipers, how can you,
being evil, speak good things ? for out of the abundance of the heart the
mouth speaks.' The very hissings of a viper proceed from the malice of its
nature. As the root is, so is all the fruit. From one seed many grains
arise, yet all partake of the nature of that seed. Streams partake of the
quality of the fountain. If the seed, root, and fountain be good, so is what-
soever springs from them. There is not one righteous man by nature,
neither Jew nor Gentle, all are concluded under sin : Rom. iii. 10, ' There
is none righteous, no, not one;' none that 'understands and seeks God,' &c.
He adds not one twice ; he exempts none, not one righteous by nature, not
John III. 3, 5.] thk necessity of regeneration. 31
one righteous action by nature : ' none that doth good, no, not one.' He
applies it to all mankind. A poisonous nature can produce nothing but
poisonous fruit. Our actions smell as rank as nature itself. Whatsoever
riseth from thence, though never so spacious and well-coloured, is evil and
unprofitable. If, therefore, we would produce good fruit, we must have a
new root, seed, and spring. Our sour nature must be changed into a sweet-
ness and purity. If the vine be empty, the fruit will be so too : Hosea x. 1,
' Ephraim is an empty vine, he brings forth fruit to himself,' or, ' equal to
himself,' mttf\ Unless the tree be good, the fruit can never be generous :
Mat. vii. 17, 18, 'Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.' We
must have the Spirit before we can bring forth the fruits of the Spirit. All
good services are related to this, as effects to their cause ; so that what a
man doth by an act of reason, and natural conscience, and good education,
if his understanding and conscience remain wholly under their natural pol-
lution, the service is not good, because the soul is corrupt ; much less are
those services good which are the fruit only of humour. How the soul can
be habitually sinful, and yet the acts flowing from it be good, is not easily
conceivable ; it is against the stream of natural observation. It is true, in-
deed, that a man that is habituated to one kind of sin may do an action that
receives no tincture from that particular habit, because it doth not proceed
from it ; as a drunkard gives an alms, his giving alms hath no infection
inherent from that particular habit of drunkenness, but from the nature,
which is wholly corrupt, it hath. ' Who can bring a clean thing out of an
unclean ? not one,' Job xiv. 4. Who can bring a clean service out of a
miry heart ? Not one man in the world. We cannot, therefore, perform
any evangelical service if those foundations be considered.
Not spiritually, because we are flesh. God must be ' worshipped in spirit,'
John iv. 44 ; in a spiritual manner, with spiritual frames. The apostle
speaks of ' walking in the spirit,' Phil. iii. 3, and ' praying in the Holy
Ghost,' Jude 20. None can act spiritualty but those that are ' born of the
Spirit ; ' and no action is spiritual but what proceeds from a renewed prin-
ciple. The most glittering and refined flesh is but flesh in a higher sphere
of flesh, therefore whatsoever springs up from that principle is fleshly, upon
the former foundation, that nothing can rise higher than its nature. You
may as well expect to gather grapes of thorns as spiritual duties from carnal
hearts : Mat. vii. 16, ' Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? '
If a natural man ' cannot receive,' and ' cannot know the things of God,
because they are spiritually discerned,' 1 Cor. ii. 14, how should he perform
the duties belonging to God, since they are spiritually to be performed ? We
are naturally more averse to motions upon our wills than to the illumina-
tions of our minds. An appetite for knowledge, and a flight from God being
both the fruits of Adam's fall, who was both curious to know, as God, and
fearing to approach to God after his fall. There may be some services in
natural men which may look like spiritual, but in the principle they are not
so. Many acts are done by irrational creatures which look like rational acts.
As the order among bees, like the acts of statesmen regulating a common-
wealth ; their carrying gravel in their fangs to poise them in a storm, and
hinder them from being carried away by the violence of the wind ; yet these
are not rational acts, because they proceed not from reason, but from a
natural instinct put into them by God, the supreme governor. So that as
no action of an ape, though like the action of a man, can be said to be a
human act, so no action of an unregenerate man, though like a spiritual
action, can be called spiritual, because it proceeds not from a spiritual
principle, but from a contrary one paramount in him. And all actions have
32 charnock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
their true denomination from the principle whence they flow. They may
be fruits of morality, and fruits of conscience, but not spiritual fruits, which
God requires.
Well, then, we must be first built up ' a spiritual house,' we must be a
1 priesthood ' before we can ' offer spiritual sacrifice,' 1 Peter ii. 5. We
must have the powerful operation of the Holy Ghost in us before we can
have a tincture of the Holy Ghost upon our services. In all human acts,
we should act as rational creatures ; in all religious acts, as spiritual crea-
tures. Now, as a man cannot act rationally without reason, so neither can
we act spiritually without a divine spirit in us. We are indeed to serve
God, and worship him as men ; therefore rational acts are due to God in
worship, and we are constituted in the rank of rational beings to that pur-
pose. But since our minds are defiled, they must be purified ; since our
understandings are darkened, they must be enlightened. There must be a
grace infused, a lamp set up, a spiritual awakening, and invigorating our
reasons and wills, before we can worship God as God in a spiritual
manner.
We cannot perform any evangelical service, vitally, because we are dead.
Our services must be living services, if in any wise they be suitable to a liv-
ing God. The apostle wishes us, Rom. xii. 1, to ' present our bodies a
living sacrifice.' He doth not mean only our bodies, consisting of flesh and
bones, or a natural life ; but he names the body as being the instrument of
motion and service, or it may be synecdoche partis pro toto, a part for the
whole. Present yourselves as a sacrifice consecrated to God, and living to
him, and as living by him.
Upon the loss of original righteousness, another form or principle was
introduced, called in Scripture flesh, and a body of death. Hence by nature
we are said to be dead, Eph. ii. 1, and all our works before repentance are
dead works, Heb. vi. 1. And these works have no true beauty in them,
with whatsoever gloss they may appear to a natural eye. A dead body may
have something of the features and beauty of a living, but it is but the beauty
of a carcase, not of a man. A statue, by the stone-cutter's art, and the
painter's skill, may be made very comely, yet it is but a statue still ; where
is the life ? Such services are but the works of art, as flowers painted on
the wall with curious colours, but where is the vegetative principle ? Since
man, therefore, is spiritually dead, he cannot perform a living service. As a
natural death doth incapacitate for natural actions, so a spiritual death must
incapacitate for spiritual actions. Otherwise, in what sense can it be called
a death, if a man in a state of nature were as capable of performing spiritual
actions as one in a state of grace ? No vital act can be exercised without a
vital principle. As Adam could not stir to perform any action, though his
body was framed and perfected, till God breathed into him a living soul, so
neither can we stir spiritually till God breathe into us a living grace.
Spiritual motions can no more be without a spiritual. life than bodily motions
can be without an enlivening soul. ' The living, the living, they shall praise
thee ; ' and Ps. lxxx. 18, ' Quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.'
There can be no living praise, nor no living prayer, without a renewed heart.
If it be one effect of the blood of Christ to ' purge our consciences from dead
works, to serve the living God,' as Heb. ix. 14, then it is clear that till our
consciences are purged from dead works we cannot serve the living God ; for
what suitableness can there be between a living God and dead services ? Is
a putrefied rank carcase a fit present for a king ? or a man full of running
sores and boils over his whole body fit to serve in a prince's chamber ? Our
best services, without a new nature, though they may appear varnished and
John III. 3, 5.J the necessity of kegeneration. 33
glittering to man, yet in the sight of God they have no life, no substance, but
stinking rotten dust, because coming from a dead and rotten heart.
Well, then, we must be born again ; it is not a dead nature, nor a dead
faith, can produce living fruit for God. We may as well read without eyes,
walk without legs, act without life, as perform any service to God without a
new nature ; no, we cannot perform the least : a dead man can no more
move his finger than his whole body.
Not graciously, because we are corrupt. By the same reason that we are
to speak with grace, Col. iv. 6, and to sing with grace in our hearts to the
Lord, Col. iii. 16, we are to do every other duty with an exercise of grace
to God : and without grace, our praises are but hollowings, our prayers
but howlings, as the Scripture terms them : Hosea vii. 14, ' They have not
cried to me with their hearts, when they howled upon their beds.' How can
there be an exercise of that which is not ? The skill of the musician cannot
discover itself till the instrument be made tuneable. The heart must be strung
with grace by the Spirit, before that Spirit can touch the strings to make
harmony to God in a gospel service. Our tempers must be changed, our
hearts fitted, before we can make melody to God. The principal beauty and
glory of a duty lies in the internal workings of the heart ; and how can that
heart work graciously, that hath nothing of God and his grace in it ? It is
said, ' Folly is bound up in the heart of a child,' Prov. xxii. 15. So is cor-
ruption in the heart of a man, like poison in a bundle of stuff; it is entered
into the very composition of us. A law of sin is predominant in a natural
man, Rom. vii. 23, which doth influence all his actions. Strong habits will
interest themselves in all we go about, and all a man's services are regulated
by it, for he hath no other law in his mind to check the motions of it, and
to scent his duties, whereby they may carry a pleasing savour to God. The
gift of prophecy, the understanding of mysteries, the depth of knowledge,
the removing mountains, bestowing alms, dying for religion, are brave and
noble acts ; but without charity, love to God, without which, no other grace
can work, all these profit nothing, 1 Cor. xiii. 2, 3. There is a moral goodness
in feeding the poor, but no gracious goodness without charity. A little of
this would make those, as a diamond doth gold wherein it is set, more valu-
able. If all those profit nothing without this grace of charity, they would
profit much with it. How doth grace alter the very nature of services ?
Those acts which are sensitive in a brute, were he transformed into a man,
and endued with reason, would become rational. Those actions which are
but moral in a mere man, when changed into Christian, become evangelical ;
they would be of another nature and another value.
Well, then, look after the new birth, since it is so necessary. There
cannot be gracious practices without gracious principles. Can anything fly
to heaven without wings ? We are to walk as Christ walked ; how can we
do it without a principle of kin to that which Christ had ? We are bound
to act from a principle of righteousness ; Adam was, and his posterity are ;
and should we not look after that which is so necessary a perfection, re-
quisite for our services ? No doubt but the devil could find matter enough
for prayer, and from the excellency of his knowledge, frame some rare
strains, as some word it ; but would it be a service which came from such a
nature ? As long as we are allied to him in our nature, our services will be
of as little value. He transforms himself into an angel of light, but is still
a devil ; and many men do so in their religious acts, yet still remain un-
regenerate.
Not freely and voluntarily, because we are at enmity. A natural man's
vol. hi. c
34 chaenock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
services are forced, not free. The aversion of our natures from God is as strong
as their inclination to evil. We have no fervent desires to love God, and there-
fore no desires to do anything out of affection to him. When sensual habits
are planted in the soul, there is an enmity to God in the mind : it will not
be ' subject to the law of God,' Rom. viii., and whilst that habit sways, it
cannot. This inclination to sin, and consequently aversion to good, is incor-
porated in nature, like blackness in a negro, or spots in a leopard ; they are
accustomed to sin, and cannot do good, Jer. xiii. 23. There is no agree-
ableness between God and man's soul, whilst there is a friendship between
the heart and sin ; he affects the one, and is disgusted with the other : one
is his pleasure, the other his trouble ; he hath no will, no heart to come to
God in any service, and when he doth, he is rather dragged, than sweetly
drawn. The things of God are against the bent of a natural heart ; there is
nothing so irksome as the most spiritual service ; when men engage in them,
they row against the stream of nature itself. There must, therefore, be
something of a contrary efficacy to overpower this violent tide, a law of
grace to renew the mind and turn the motions of the will, to another
channel. Restraining grace may for a while stop the current, but not turn
and change the natural course. A carnal mind conceits the things of God
and his spiritual service to be foolishness, and therefore contemns them,
1 Cor. i. 23, 24. The eye of the mind must be opened to discern the wis-
dom of God in them, before he can affect them. The heart should be lifted
up in the evangelical ways of God. Can mere flesh be thus ? Force can
never change nature. You may hurl lead up into the air, but it will never
ascend of itself while it is lead, unless it be rarified into air or fire. Keep
up iron many years in the air by the force of a loadstone, it will retain its
tendency to fall to the earth if the obstacle be removed ; the natural gravity is
suspended, not altered. Till the nature of the will be altered, it can never
move freely to any duty ; there must be a power to will, before there is a
will to do, as Philip, ii. 13, ' It is God which works in you both to will and to
do.' A supernatural renewing grace must expel corrupt habits from the will,
and reduce it to its true object. When faith is planted, it brings love to
work by ; when the soul is renewed, there is an harmony between God and
the heart, between the mind and the word, between the will and the duty ;
when the appetite and true taste of the soul is restored in regeneration, then
spring up strong desires to apply itself to every holy service : 1 Peter ii. 2, 3,
' The sincere milk of the word ' is fervently desired, after it is spiritually
tasted.
Well, then, there must be a change in us, or in the law. The law is
spiritual, man is carnal, Rom. vii. 14. The law can have no friendship for
man, nor man no friendship for the law in this state, since their natures are
so contrary. What the law commands is disgustful to the flesh, what the
flesh desires is displeasing to the law. There must then be a change ; the
law must become carnal, or man become spiritual, before any agreement can
be between them. Where do you think this change must light ? It can
never be in the law, therefore it must be in man. The wound in our wills
must be cured ; the tide of nature, that never carries us to God, must be
turned, and altered by a stream of grace, to move us to him and his service.
Man hath been a slave to his lust by the loss of grace, and is never like to
be restored to his liberty in the service of God, till he be repossessed of that
grace, the loss of which brought him into slavery. The gospel is a ' law of
liberty,' James i. 25 ; a servile spirit doth not suit a free law, neither is it a
fit frame for an evangelical service.
Nor delightfully. We can never perform spiritual services with delight,
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 35
because we are alienated. This we are to do. Paul ' delighted in the law
of God,' Rom. vii. 22 ; and the law was the ' delights ' of David, Ps. cxix. 92 ;
his whole pleasure ran in this channel. Now, because of that aversion to
God, there is no will and freedom in his service, much less can there be a
delight. A corrupt nature can have no divine strains ; a diseased man hath
no delight in his own acts, his distemper makes his very motion unpleasant
to him. Things that are not natural can never be delightful. There is a
mighty distance between spiritual duties and a carnal heart. Things out of
their place can never be an rest. Sin is as much a natural man's element
as water to a fish or air to a bird ; if he be stopped in the ways of the flesh,
he is restless till he return. He may indeed have some delight sometimes
in a service — not as it respects God as the object, or God as the end, there
is no such friendship in a natural man's heart to him — but there is an agree-
ment between a service and some carnal end he performs it for. His delight
is not terminated in the service, but in self-love, self-interest, or some ex-
ternal reward, anchored in it by some hopes of carnal advantage, not
springing from a living love or a gracious affection to God. He hath no
knowledge of God, and therefore can have no delight in God or in his ser-
vice. It is impossible we can come before him without pleasure and delight,
if we know how amiable he is in his person, and how gracious in his nature ;
but we naturally think God a hard master, and man having no delight in
God, he can have none in those means which lead him to God, and as they
are appointed to bring God and his soul together. He hath wrong notions
of duties, looks upon them as drudgeries, not as advantages : Mai. i. 13,
' Ye said, Behold, what a weariness it is,' &c. Without a change of nature,
we cannot desire communion with God, and therefore cannot delight in the
means of it. We can no more do any service cheerfully than the saints
without it could ' receive joyfully the spoiling of their goods,' Heb. x. 34.
We can never be in a holy ecstasy without this inward principle, to make
the gospel services connatural to us. This only makes high impressions
upon the soul. It is the law within our hearts, which only makes us delight
to do his will : Ps. xl. 8, ' Thy law is within my heart,' in my bowels. He
had a natural affection to it, and then a high delight in it. It made our
Saviour delight to do his work ; and it was the inward man of the heart,
wherein the apostle's delight in the law was placed. Unless we have a
divine impression of God upon us, we cannot hear his word with any joy in
it; as our Saviour saith, John viii. 47, 'Ye therefore hear them not,' that
is, the words of God, ' because you are not of God.' Unless we have God's
light and his truth sent forth into us, we can never make God our exceeding
joy, or go to his altar with such a frame, Ps. xliii. 3, 4.
Well, then, there is a necessity of the new nature, to have a warm frame
of heart in evangelical duties. What is connatural to us is only delightful.
So much of weariness and bondage we have in any holy service, so much of
a legal frame ; so much of love and delight, so much we have of a new cove-
nant grace. A spirit of adoption and regeneration only can make us delight
to come to our father, and to cry Abba to him.
Without regene/ation we cannot perform evangelical duties sincerely,
because we are a lie, and in our best estate vanity. We must worship God
' in truth ' as well as ' spirit,' John iv. 24. God is a Spirit, and therefore
must be worshipped in spirit. God is truth, and therefore must be worshipped
in truth. Without a new nature we cannot worship God in truth. The old
nature is in itself a He, a mere falsity, something contrary to that nature
God created. It was first introduced by a lie of the devil (' ye shall be as
gods, knowing good and evil,' Gen. iii. 5), and thereupon a fancy that God
36 chaknock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
lied in his command. How can we serve God with this nature, which had
nothing but a lie for its foundation, — a lie of the devil, a lie in our fancy ?
Therefore our old nature is no better than a lie. How can we serve God
with that nature which is quite another thing to that of his framing ? Man
in his fall is a liar : Rom. iii. 4, ' Let God be true, and every man a liar,' a
covenant-breaker, that kept not his faith with God. God, in respect of truth,
and man, in respect of lying, are set in opposition by the apostle there. No
man but would slight and scorn that service from another, which he knew to
be a lying service in the very frame of it. There is no truth can be in any
service which is founded only upon an old nature, and performed by one that
is acted by the father of lies; and so is every unregenerate man, every 'child
of disobedience,' Eph. ii. 2.
Now, sincerity cannot be without a new nature,
(1.) Because there are no divine motives which should sway the soul.
Most services of natural men have such dirty springs, so unsuitable to that
raised temper men should have in dealing with God, that they produce sacri-
fices not fit to be offered to an earthly governor : Mai. i. 8, ' If you offer
the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil?' &c, 'offer it now unto thy governor,
will he be pleased with thee ?' Had they had divine motives, they had never
brought such sickly services. What was not fit for themselves, they thought
fit for God. Did but princes know what motives many had in their services,
they would with as much scorn reject them as they do ignorantly receive
them with affection. But it is otherwise with God, who knows all the springs
and wards in that lock of the heart of his own framing. Do not most ser-
vices take their rise from custom, or from an outward religious education
barely, or at best from natural conscience, which though it be all in a man,
which takes God's part, yet it is flesh, and defiled ? And what pure vapours
can be expected from a lake of Sodom? Titus i. 15, ' To them that are
defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure ; but even their mind and conscience
is defiled.' The mind, which is the repository of natural light, and the con-
science, which is the advocate of natural light, and applies it upon particular
occasion, are defiled, and that in every unbelieving person. Can the motives
which conscience takes from a dark and defiled principle, as the mind is, be
divine ? It is fear of death, wrath, and judgment which it mostly applies.
These are the motives of defilement. Fear is the natural consequence of
pollution; without sin and corruption we never had had any fear of hell.
That cannot be gracious which springs naturally from the commission of sin,
and can this be divine ? Were there no punishment feared, there should be
no duty performed. Conscience hath naturally no basis to stand upon but
this. What is the principle of his fear ? Self. It is not therefore obedience
to God, but self-preservation, sways a man. Fear is but a servile disposi-
tion, and therefore cannot make a service good. All such extrinsic motives
which arise not from a new life, are no more divine than the weights of a
clock may be said to have life because they set the wheels on running. The
same action may be done by several persons upon different principles and
motives, for which one may be rewarded, the other not ; as Mat. x. 41, 42,
' He that receives a righteous man, in the name of a righteous man, shall
receive a righteous man's reward. And whosoever shall give unto one of
these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, he shall
in no wise lose his reward.' One may receive a member of Christ out of
respect to Christ and the relation the person hath to him, another may re-
ceive the same person out of a common principle of humanity ; the action
is the same, the good redounding to the object is the same ; nay, it may be
greater in him that acts from a commiseration of him, as a man, than a cup
John III. 3, 5.J the necessity of regeneration. 37
of cold water from the other, because his ability is greater ; but the inward
respect to the object is different. One respects him as a man of the same
nature with himself in misery, the other respects him as a member of Christ
in misery ; one respects him as a man, the other as a righteous man. The
principle is different : one relieves him out of a natural compassion, common
to a heathen with him, the other out of a Christian affection to his Head.
The actions are therefore different, because of their motives : one is reward-
able, and promised to be rewarded, the other not ; one may be from grace —
I do not say it always is, unless there be a constant tenor of such motives in
our actions ; for a natural man, under the preaching of the gospel, may do
such a thing out of a present and transient respect to Christ, whom he hears
so often of, and hath some presumption to be saved by, but it is not his con-
stant frame — I say, one may be from grace, the other from nature.
Therefore from hence results a necessity of the alteration of the frame of
our souls, to furnish us with divine and heavenly motives for our actions. A
man may do a thing by nature from a good principle, a principle of common
honesty, good in its kind (brass is good in its kind, but not so good as silver),
but not evangelically good, without a renewed affection to God : John xiv.
15, ' If you love me, keep my commandments ;' keep what I command you,
out of affection to me. Where ' the imagination of the heart is evil, and
only evil, and that continually,' Gen. vi. 5, all the service a man in that state
performs riseth from this spring, and hath some infectious imagination in it,
highly abominable to God ; either wrong notions of God in it, or wrong notions
of the duty, or corrupt motives, something or other of the evil imagination
of the heart, mixes itself with it.
(2.) Without a renewed nature, as there are no divine motives, so there
can be no divine ends. We are bound to refer our natural actions, much
more our religious services, to the glory of God. The end is the moral prin-
ciple of every action. It is that which confers a goodness or badness upon
the service : Luke xi. 34, ' If the eye be evil, the whole body is full of dark-
ness ' (this is commonly understood of a man's aim). If the intention be
evil, there is nothing but darkness in the whole service. The perfection of
everything consists in answering the end for which it was framed. That
which was the first end of our framing, ought to be the end of our acting,
viz. the glory of God. But man hath taken himself off from this end, and
hath been fond of making himself his chief good and ultimate end. Men
naturally have corrupt ends in good duties. Pride is the cause of some
men's virtue. And they are spiritually vicious in avoiding crimes, because
they intrench too much upon their reputation. The pharisees made their
devotion contribute to their ambition : Mat. vi. 5, « They pray to be seen of
men,' and Mat. xxiii. 5, 'But all their works they do to be seen of men.'
Not one work wherein they had not respect to this. Their works might well
be called the works of the devil, whose main business it was to set up pride
and self. All their pretences of devotion to God, were but the adoration of
some golden image. Have not many in their more splendid actions, the
same end with brutes : the satisfaction of the sensitive part, covetousness,
pride, emulation, sense of honour, qualities perceivable in the very brutes,
as the end of some of their actions ? The acting for a sensitive end is not
suitable to a rational, much less can it be the end of a gracious creature.
Have not men sinful ends in their religious services ? in their prayers to God,
in their acknowledgments of God ? The devil could intreat our Saviour's
leave to go into the herd of swine. Was this a prayer, though directed to
Christ, when his end was to destroy and satisfy his malice in it? At best,
a man without grace is like a picture in a room which eyes all, and hath no
38 charnock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
more respect to a prince than his attendants. A natural man's respect to
God is but equal to a respect to all his other worldly concerns. Indeed it
were well if it were so. He parcels out one part for God, one part for him-
self, and one part for the world ; but God hath the least share, or at best,
no more than the rest. And truly, as a picture cannot give a greater re-
spect, to fix its eyes more upon a prince than a peasant, because it hath no
life ; so neither can a natural man pay a supreme respect to God in his ser-
vice, without a spiritual life. There is a necessity then of removing those
depraved ends, that man may answer the true end of his creation. The
principles then upon which such ends do grow, contrary to the will of God,
must be rooted out, that the soul may move purely to God in every service.
We are come short of the glory of God : Rom. iii. 23, ' All have sinned and
come short of the glory of God ;' short of aiming at it, short of his approba-
tion of our acts. Being thus come short, our ends cannot rise higher than
the frame of our soul. Grace, grace only can advance our wills to those
supernatural ends for which they were first framed. We can never aim at
the glory of God till we have an affection to him. We can never honour
him supremely, whom we do not supremely love. An affection to God can
never be had, till the nature, wherein the aversion is placed, be changed into
another frame. We are to glorify God, as God. How can we do this with-
out the knowledge of him ? How c?n we know him but by the gospel,
wherein he discovers himself? How can we have right conceptions of the
gospel, till gospel impressions be made upon us ? How can we act for the
glory of God, to whom naturally we are enemies ? There is none of us born
with a spiritual love to God. There must be an alteration of the end and aim
in us ; our actions cannot else be good, though ordered by God himself.
God employs Satan in some things, as in afflicting Job ; but is his perform-
ance good ? No, because his end is not the same with God's. He acts out
of malice what God commands out of sovereignty, and for gracious designs.
Our end without it, is not the same with the end of the action ; for moral acts
tend to God's glory, though the agent hath no such intention. So the action
may be good in itself, but not good in the actor, because he wants a due end.
Well then, those actions only can be said to be evangelical, when the great
end of God's glory, which was his end both in creation and redemption, hath
a moral influence upon every service ; when we have the same end in our re-
deemed services, as God had in his redeeming love.
Not humbly. We cannot without regeneration perform gospel duties
humbly, because of natural stoutness and hardness. Evangelical duties
must be performed with humility. Self-denial is the chief gospel lesson,
and is to run through the veins of every service. Therefore God speaks of
giving 'a heart of flesh,' in gospel times: Ezek. si. 19, 'I will take the
stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may
walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them.' Gospel duties
require a pliableness and tenderness of heart. Adam's over-valuing himself,
and swelling with designs of being like God, brought an incapacity upon him-
self of serving his creator. And man ever since, is too much aspiring and
too well opinioned of himself, to perform duties in an evangelical strain, with
that meltingness, that nothingness in himself, which the gospel requires.
Our swelling and admiring thoughts of our own natural righteousness, hinders
Christ from saving us, and ourselves from serving him. There must then be
an humble, and melting, and self-denying frame. The angels are said to
cover their faces before God, Isa. vi. 2, as having nothing to glory in of their
own. And the chief design of the gospel is to beat down all glorying in our-
selves : 1 Cor. i. 29, 31, ' That no flesh should glory in his presence ; let him
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 39
that glorieth, glory in the Lord.' And indeed it humbles us no more than
what, upon due consideration, will appear very necessary. Nature then must
be changed before this pride be rooted out. Old things must pass away,
that God may be all in all in the creature. We cannot without a new nature
make a true estimate of ourselves, and lie as vile and base in the presence of
God. A stone, with all the hammering, cannot be made soft. Beat it into
several pieces, you may sever the continuity of its parts, but not master its
hardness ; every little piece of it will retain the hardness of its nature. So
it is with a heart of stone. The nature must be changed before it be fit for
those services which require melting, humble, and admiring frames. There
is a necessity of a residing grace, like fire, to keep the soul in a meltiug
temper.
Not constantly. Without a new nature, we cannot perform gospel services
constantly, because of our natural levity. Where the nature is flesh, the
heart ' minds the things of the flesh,' Rom. viii. 5. The mind thus habitu-
ated, will not be long employed about the things of the Spirit. There is a
natural levity in man's nature. Do not many seem to begin in the Spirit
and end in the flesh ? seem to arise to heaven, and quickly fall down to
earth ? Do not our very promises vanish with the next wind of temptation,
and like sparks, expire as soon as they be born, unless grace be in the heart
to keep them alive. The Israelites are accused of not having a heart sted-
fast with God: Ps. lxxviii. 37, ' Their heart was not right with him, neither
were they stedfast in his covenant.' Are our natures better than theirs ?
Do we not all lie under the same charge ; so uncertain naturally, about divine
things, as if there were nothing but wind in our composition ? Nothing can
be kept up in motion against its nature, but by force. A top hath no in-
ward principle of motion, but is moved by some outward force. When that
is removed, the motion languisheth. Any motion that depends only upon
outward wires, expires upon the breaking of them. When external motives,
which spurred men on to this or that service, cease, the service dies of course,
because the spring of the motion falls. If fear of hell, terrors of death, some
pressing calamity, be the spring of any duty ; when these are removed, there
will be no more regard to the duty they engendered. But what is natural, is
constant, because the spring always remains. Interest changeth, conscience
is various ; and therefore the operations arising from thence, will partake of
the uncertainty of them. Stony ground may bring forth blades ; but for
want of root, they will quickly wither : Mat. xiii. 5, 20. A man may mount
high in religion, by the mixture of some religious passion, as meteors in the
air ; but by reason of the gross and earthy parts in them, will not continue
their station. There is no being without, stable, but God ; and no principle
stable within, but grace : Heb. xiii. 9, ' It is a good thing that the heart be
established with grace.' Whatsoever service is undertaken upon changeable
motives, is as changeable as the bottom upon which it stands. If credit,
slavish fear of God, worldly interest, inspire us with some seeming holy
resolutions, they will all fly away upon the first removal of those props.
There is therefore a necessity of a change of nature and disposition. Where
there is no approbation of things that are excellent, there can be no constant
operation about them. All action about an object, continues according to
the affection to it, and delight in it. We shall then be filled with the fruits
of righteousness, to the glory of God, when we have a sincere approbation
of the excellency of them: Philip i. 10, 11, first, 'approve things that are
excellent ; and then follows, ' without offence, till the day of Christ.' A
stately profession can no more hold out against the floods of temptation, than
a beautiful building can stand against the winds without a good foundation
40 charnock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
under ground. It is the Spirit of the Lord within, as well as without, can
only maintain the standard against temptation, Isa. lix. 19.
Well then, upon the whole, there is a necessity of regeneration for the
performance of gospel duties. We cannot else perform them spiritually,
because we are flesh ; nor vitally, because we are dead ; nor graciously,
because we are corrupt ; nor voluntarily, because we are enmity ; nor
delightfully, because we are alienated ; nor sincerely, because we are falsity ;
nor humbly, because of our stoutness ; nor constantly, because of our levity.
Our natures must be changed in all these respects, before we can be fit for
any gospel service.
(2.) Eegeneration is necessary for the enjoyment of gospel privileges.
[1.] For the favour of God, and his complacency with us. We are not
fit for God's delight, without it. That person who hath his love, must have
his image. If ever God could love an old nature, which he once hated,
and delight in that which he once loathed, he must divest himself of his
immutability. He never hated the person of any of his creatures, but for
unrighteousness. And upon the removal of this cloud of separation between
him and them, the beams of his love break out in their former vigour.
God's love is not straitened, nor his kindness exhausted, no more than his
hand is shortened, or his ear grown heavy, that he cannot hear : Isa. lix.
1, 2, ' But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and
your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.'
For, first, what did make the first separation, was it not sin ? God told
Adam before, what the issue would be, upon his eating the forbidden fruit :
Gen. ii. 17, • In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.'
It is not a temporal death there only meant ; for he should then have died
that day wherein he fell, the word surely importing so much. And the
punishment of a temporal death was pronounced afterwards : Gen. iii. 19,
' Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.' Thou shalt surely die ;
thy integrity and righteousness will expire that very moment, and thou shalt
die in my just displeasure. It is a spiritual death that is most properly
meant. The punishment of sin is death ; the chief part of this death is an
' alienation from the life of God,' Eph. iv. 18; that is, not to have God,
and the righteousness of God's image living in him ; but to be impure, cor-
rupt, a hater of God, and servant of sin. Now from this punishment no
man can be freed, but by a contrary regeneration, the proper effect whereof
is to love God, to know his name, to partake of his holiness, to imitate his
virtues.* Man forfeited all God's favour upon his fall, and can challenge
nothing of it.
Secondly, What then can restore man to God's favour ? Can that which
first deprived us of it ? The cause of our destruction can never be the
means of our restoration. Did the loss of Adam's integrity make him unfit
for paradise, the garden of God, from whence he was expelled, as a token
of God's disfavour ? And can the continuance of that loss be a means to
regain that love which cashiered us ? It was a spiritual death ; and is the
carcase of a soul fit for God's complacency ? There must be not only a
satisfaction to his justice for the re-instating man into his favour (this is done
by Jesus Christ) ; but a restoring of his image, this is done by the Holy
Ghost. It is as impossible the soul can be beautiful without life, and with-
out holiness, as for a body to be beautiful without a good colour and pro-
portion of parts. Take away this, beauty must cease, and deformity succeed
in the place. It is impossible, therefore, that where sin remains in its full
vigour, where there is nothing of an original integrity residing, but that the
* Cocceius; More Nevoch, p. 65.
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 41
soul must be monstrous, vile, and deformed in the eyes of God. To make
it therefore a fit object for God's favour, it is necessary it be beautified with
a holy nature, and adorned with its due proportions and vigour. The
righteousness of Israel must go forth as brightness ; he must be called by
a new name, that is, a new nature ; for what is a name without a nature ?
And then it should be Hephzibah, ' the Lord delights in thee.' Isa. lxii.
1-4, ' The righteousness thereof shall go forth as brightness, and the glory
thereof as a lamp that burns.' Righteousness is the glory of a soul, as well
as of a church : ' Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy
glory : thou shalt be called by a new name ;' a new nature wrought by the
word of God; ' which the mouth of the Lord shall name.' Then she should
be in favour with God, ' a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a
royal diadem in the hand of her God.' Righteousness is the glory of a soul,
and God's delight and complacency is the consequent of a righteous nature.
Thirdly, The elect themselves have no interest in God's favour of delight
without it. This follows upon the former ; God cannot love the very top of
mankind, his own choice, with a love of complacency, without regeneration,
without a righteous nature. There is a favour of intention and purpose
before it ; there is also an executive love in the very infusing the habits of
grace, which is a supernatural favour, because there is both a purpose and
then an actual conferring a supernatural good. God is free, and may will
to give his gifts how, and to whom he pleases. But an elect person, whilst
he continues in a state of nature, is not simply beloved, though there be a
purpose of love, because there is no gracious quality in him, which is the
object of God's special favour. It is regeneration only which is the object
of God's delight in us.
Fourthly, Hence will follow, that no privilege under heaven, without it,
can bring us into God's favour ; no, not if any man were related to Christ
according to the flesh. The apostle Paul would not think the better of
himself for a fleshly relation to Christ, for being of the same country,
descended of the Jewish nation : 2 Cor. v. 16, * Though we have known
Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if
any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.' Though it be an honour to be
of the same descent with Christ, according to the flesh, to be of the same
nation and country, yet this doth not make a man any more beloved of
God. Nothing avails in Christ, but a new creature ; and our Saviour him-
self pronounceth it so. It was the highest privilege to be the mother of
our Saviour, according to the flesh ; yet this had been nothing, without her
being born again of the Spirit : ' "Who is my mother ? and who are my
brethren ? Behold my mother and my brethren,' pointing to his disciples,
Mat. xii. 48, 49. ' My mother and my brethren are those which hear the
word of God, and do it,' Luke viii. 21. Those that hear the word, that
have the gracious effect of the word wrought in them by the Spirit, are
equal to my mother, and my brethren, and superior to any of my fleshly
relations, if they be without it. There is a necessity of regeneration upon
this account.
[2.] As there is no favour, so there is no union with God and Christ with-
out it. Man hath some kind of natural union with all things in the world ;
he hath being with all creatures, rational faculties with angels, sense with
animals, vegetation with plants ; he wants cnly that with God which would
beautify all the rest. And this can only be by partaking of the image of
God's holiness by a new birth. There must be a capability for this union
on man's part. A superior and inferior nature may be united together, but
never contrary natures. There must be some proportion between the sub-
42 chaenock's woeks. [John III. 3, 5.
jects to be united, which proportion consists in a commensuration of one
thing to another. What proportion is there between God and our souls ?
There can be none without a supernatural grace infusing a pure nature. As
we come out of the quarry of nature, rough and unpolished, we are not fit to
be cemented with the corner-stone in the heavenly building ; we must be first
smoothed and altered by grace.
First, How can things be united to one another which are already united
to their contraries ? Separation from one body must make way for union to an-
other. Naturally we are united to the devil as the head of the wicked world.
We are by nature his members. Our understandings and wills were united
with his in Adam, when Adam gave up his understanding and will to him ;
and ever since he ' works in the children of disobedience :' Eph. ii. 2, 'Who
now works in the children of disobedience,' mpyovvrog h lioTg. Working and
working in, as a united nature to him, and principle in him. It is necessary
this union should be broken before we can partake of the influence of another
head. The diabolical nature and principle, therefore, which we have got by
sin must be removed, and another nature, which is divine, put in the place
first (in order of nature), before we can be united to Christ, and enjoy the
benefits of union with him.
Secondly, How can things of a contrary nature be united together ? Can
fire and water be united, a good angel, and an impure devil ? can heaven
and hell ever meet friendly and compose one body ? We are united
to the first Adam by a likeness of nature ; how can we be united to the
second, without a likeness to him from a new principle ? We were united to
the first by a living soul ; we must be united to the other by a quickening
Spirit. We have nothing to do with the heavenly Adam, without bearing
an heavenly image, 1 Cor. xv. 48, 49. We are earthly as in the first Adam ;
we must be heavenly to be in the second, because his nature is so. If we
are his members, we must have the same nature which was communicated
to him by the Spirit of God, which is holiness. This nature must flow from
the same principle, otherwise it is not the same nature ; an old nature can-
not be joined to a new Adam. There must be one spirit in both ; as 1 Cor.
vi. 17, ' He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit ;' and if it were an union
barely of affections, as some would only make it, it is not conceivable how
it can be without a change of disposition. But since it is an union by in-
dwelling of the same Spirit in both (Rom. viii. 9, ' If any man hath not the
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his '), it is less intelligible, how it can be with-
out an assimilation of our nature to the nature of Christ. It can never be
supposed the Spirit should unite a pure head, and impure members. Such
an union would make our blessed Saviour like Nebuchadnezzar's image ; an
head of gold, arms of silver, and feet of clay. Shall we loathe to have nasty
things about us, and will the holy Jesus endure a loathesome putrefying soul
to be joined to him ?
Thirdly, How can anything be vitally united to another without life ? It
is a vital union, by virtue of which believers are called Christ (1 Cor. xi. 12,
' As all the members of that one body, being many, are one body ; so also is
Christ') ; and it is compared to the union of the members of a natural body,
Rom. xii. 4, 5. Members have not only life in their head, but in themselves,
because the soul, which is the life of the body, is not only in the head, but
in all the parts of the body, and exerciseth in every part its vital operations.
The Spirit therefore, which is the band of this union, communicates life to
every member wherein he resides, as well as in the head. What man would
endure a dead body to be joined to him, though it were the carcase of one he
never so dearly loved ? If a man were united to Christ, without regenera-
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 43
tion, Christ's body would be partly alive, partly dead, if any one member of it
had not a spiritual life. A dead body and a living head, a member of
Christ with a nature contrary to him, is an unconceivable paradox. Did
God ever design such a monstrous union for his Son ?
Upon these accounts doth result the necessity of regeneration ; without
it, no union with Christ.
(3.) There can be no justification without it. We are not justified by an
inherent righteousness ; yet we are not justified without it. We cannot be
justified by it, because it is not commensurate to the law by reason of its im-
perfection ; we cannot be justified without it, for it is not congruous to
the wisdom and holiness of God, to count a person righteous, who hath no-
thing of righteousness in him, and whose nature is as corrupt as the worst
of men. With what respect to God's honour, can it be expected that God
should pardon that man's sins, whose will is not changed, who still hath the
same habitualness in his will to commit sin. though he doth not at present
act it. It is very congruous in a moral way, that the person offending should
retract his sin, and return to his former affection. There is a distinction
between justification and regeneration, though they never are asunder.
Justification is relative; regeneration internally real. Union with Christ is
the ground of both ; Christ is the meritorious cause of both. The Father
pronounceth the one, the Spirit works the other ; it is the Father's sentence,
and the Spirit's work. The relative and the real change are both at the
same time : 1 Cor. vi. 7, ' But you are sanctified, but you are justified ;'
both go together. We are not justified before faith, because we are justified
by it, Rom. v. 1 ; arid faith is the vital principle whereby we live : Gal. ii.
20, ' The life which I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God.' It is
the root-grace, and contains the seeds of all other graces in it; it is habitu-
ally and seminally all other grace ; so that unless we be new born, no justi-
fication can be expected ; no justification can be evidenced. God never
pardons sin, but he subdues iniquity: Micah vii. 18, 19, 'Who is a God
like unto thee, that pardons iniquity ?' He will subdue our iniquities. Tbe
conquest cannot be made, while the nature, the root of the rebellion, remains.
When he turns his compassion to us, he will turn away our hearts from ini-
quity. If a man were justified before he were regenerate, then he was right-
eous before he was alive ; being • in Christ,' as free from condemnation, is
alway attended with a ' walking after the Spirit ;' and walking is not before
living, Rom. viii. 1. Pardon would be unprofitable, unless he that were
pardoned were made righteous inchoatively here, and had a right to, and
hope of, a perfect righteousness hereafter. If righteousness hereafter were
not imparted in this manner, it would be an argument a man were still under
the law, which saith, ' He that doth them shall live in them ' (which is im-
possible in a man that hath once sinned, though his sins are remitted). But
it is clear that righteousness is imparted, since there is no man in the world
whose sins are pardoned, but finds some principle in him whereby he is en-
abled to contest with sin more than before he was. Therefore do not deceive
yourselves ; there is no pardon without a righteous nature, though pardon
be not given for it.
(4.) There is no adoption without regeneration. We can no more be God's
sons, without spiritual regeneration, than we can be the sons and daughters
of men, without natural generation. Adoption is not a mere relation without
an inward form. The privilege, and the image of the sons of God, go both
together. A state of adoption is never without a separation from defilement :
2 Cor. vi. 17, 18, ' Come you out from among them, be you separate, and
will be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters.' The new
44 charnock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
name in adoption is never given till the new creature be framed. * As many as
are led by the Spirit, they are the sons of God,' Rom. viii. 14, gutoi, those very
persons ; that is the signal mark, that they are led by the Spirit; therefore first
enlivened by the Spirit. A child-like relation is never without a child-like
nature. The same method God observes in declaring the members his sons,
as he did in declaring the head his Son, which was ' according to the Spirit of
holiness, by the resurrection from the dead,' Rom. i. 4. So he declares be-
lievers to be bis sons, by giving them a spirit of holiness, and by a resur-
rection from sin, and spiritual death. The devils may as well be adopted
sons of God, as we, without a change of nature. To be the sons of the
living God, was the great promise of the gospel prophesied of: Hos. i. 10,
' Ye are the sons of the living God.' How well will it suit, a living God
and a dead son ? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Our
Saviour's argument from* the immortality of the soul will evidence not only
a resurrection, but a necessity of spiritual life. What advantage is there in
being sons of the living God, if we had no more life in us than his greatest
enemies ? Regeneration, as a physical act, gives us a likeness to God in our
nature. Adoption, as a legal act, gives us a right to an inheritance ; both
the great intendments of the gospel, both accompanying one another. No
sonship without a new nature.
(5). There is no acceptation of our services without it. We are not fit to
perform any duty without it, and God will never accept any duty from us
without it. In the 1st of Ephesians, 1. election, 2. regeneration, expressed
by being holy, 3. adoption, 4. acceptation, are linked together : ver. 4-6, ' He
hath chosen us that we should be holy, and without blame before him in
love, having predestinated us to the adoption of children ;' after follows grace
' wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.' Our acceptation is only
upon the account of Christ ; but the acceptability is upon the account of
grace. Faith makes our persons and our duties acceptable, and Christ
makes them both accepted. Acceptability ariseth from grace, as damnability
ariseth from sin. God damns none, unless they be damnable ; neither doth
God accept any in Christ, unless they be acceptable.! The papists that
plead for merit, acknowledge nothing of it before grace, but after grace, be-
cause then the services have a greater proportion to God, from the dignity of
the person, they being acts of God's children, and wrought by his Spirit.
God can love nothing but himself, and what he finds of himself in the crea-
ture. All services, without something of God's image and Spirit in them, are
nothing. As the product of a million of cyphers, though you still add to
them, signifies nothing ; but add one figure, an unit, the Spirit, grace, it will
make the product to be many millions, of high account with God. All the
significancy depends upon the figure, which, if absent, the rest would be no-
thing. All moral perfections, without a new nature, are but cyphers in God's
account: Heb. xi. 6, ' Without faith it is impossible to please God.' Grace
is only a good work : Philip, i. 6, ' He which hath begun a good work in you,
■will perform it till the da}' of Christ ;' intimating that their morality and their
natural wisdom, before their regeneration, were not good works in the sight
of God. They were good in their kind ; as a crab may be said to be a
good crab, but not a good pippin. It is not good, unless it be fruit brought
forth in Christ ; neither is it ordained as good to the day of Christ, to appear
glorious at the time of his triumph. God looks into our services, whether
the Spirit frames them, and Christ presents them ; all that we do must go
through their hands before they can reach God's heart. Acceptation can
never be without a renewed nature. The services of the flesh cannot please
* Qu. 'for'? — Ed. f Lessius de Perfect. Divin. p. 56.
John III. 3, 5. J the necessity of regeneration. 45
God : Rom. viii. 8, ' They that are in the flesh cannot please God.' Their
persons cannot, therefore their actions cannot, because they are the products
of a nature at variance with him, a nature that is not, nor cannot be sub-
ject to his law ; so that God must be displeased with his own spiritual law ;
yea, with his own holy nature, and change his judgment, and change his
nature, before he can be pleased with fleshly services, for at the best, thoy
are but refined brutishness. The image of the devil can never be grateful to
God. Services flowing from nature, may seem in the outward form of them,
to be as acceptable as the duties of a good man ; but considering what a
dunghill of filthiness the heart is, from whence they proceed, they cannot be
so. Good water is sweetest, and bad water corruptest, nearest the spring or
fountain ; the streams may lose some of their corruption in their passage.
A gracious man's duties are most pleasant to God nearest the heart ; a
natural man's services are most distasteful nearest the spring. When the
heart is a good treasure, what comes from it is regarded as a rich gift, be-
cause it comes from a valuable treasure, Luke vi. 45 ; hence it is that a less
work, coming from a pure and holy principle in a renewed man, is more ac-
ceptable to God, than a greater work (in respect of the external glorification
of him in the good of mankind), coming from an impure principle in a natural
man ; as a cup of cold water given to a disciple is more valuable than the
gift of a prince from another principle. In the one, God sees a conformity
of affection with his holiness ; in the other, only a conformity with his pro-
vidence. One intends God's glory, and the other only acts it, proposing
some other end to himself; and we use to value gifts, rather by the affec-
tion of the friend, than the quantity of the gift. Well then, consider it ;
without a new nature, all our services, though they should amount to many
millions in number, have no intrinsic value in them with God. For where
the nature is displeasing, the actions flowing from that nature can never
please him : ' He that turns away his ear from hearing the law,' that is, from
a spiritual obedience to the law, ' even his prayer is an abomination,' Prov.
xxviii. 9 ; it is formed by a noisome soul.
(6.) There is no communion with God without a renewed soul. God is
uncapable on his part, with the honour of his law and holiness, to have com-
munion with such a creature. Man is uncapable on his part, because of the
aversion rooted in his nature. What way can there be to bring God and man
together without this change of nature ? what communion can there be be-
tween a living God and a dead heart ? God loathes sin, man loves it ; God
loves holiness, man loathes it. How can these contrary affections meet to-
gether in an amicable friendship ? what communion with so much disagree-
ment in affections ? In all friendship there must be similitude of disposition.
Justification cannot bring us into communion with God without regeneration ;
it may free us from punishment, discharge our sins, but not prepare us for
a converse, wherein our chief happiness lies. There must be some agreement
before there can be a communion. Beasts and men agree not in a life of
reason, and therefore cannot converse together. God and man agree not in
a life of holiness, and therefore can have no communion together. We are
by sin alienated from the life of God, and therefore from his fellowship,
Eph. iv. 18 ; we must have his life restored to us before we can be instated
in communion with him.
[1.] God can have no pleasure in it. God took a delight in the creation,
and did rejoice in his work. Sin despoiled God of his rest. It can give God
no content, no satisfaction ; for to be in the flesh, is to be in that nature which
was derived from Adam, which brought the displeasure of God upon all man-
kind. Regeneration by the Spirit restores the creature to such a state
46 charnock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
wherein God may take pleasure in him, and strips him by degrees of that
sin which spoiled his delight in the work of his hands ; as it grows, com-
munion is enlarged. God made man at first after his own image, that he
might have communion with him. Since the loss of that, what fitness can
there be for communion, till the restoration of that which God thought fit
for his delight ? Suppose that some one work of a natural man may be good
and pleasing to God, it will not argue a communion of God with the person :
he may be pleased with the work, but not with the man ; for all the good-
ness he hath being in the act, and the act being transient, when that is past,
his goodness is as the morning dew, vanished. He cannot be the object of
God's delight, because he hath no habitual goodness in him. If a man be
abominable and filthy naturally, he cannot have a converse with God with-
out a nature suitable to God, and a nature so animated, as that God may
put some trust in it, and not be at uncertainty : Job xv. 14-16, * What is
man, that he should be clean ; he which is born of a woman, that he should
be righteous ? Behold, he puts no trust in his saints,' &c. No man is clean,
but those that delight in sin are much more abominable, that ' drink up
iniquity like water.' Now God being infinitely holy, can have no com-
munion with that which he doth abominate ; and he cannot have a fixed and
a delightful communion with that which he cannot confide in. It must be
therefore such a nature as is produced and preserved by his own Spirit.
If the heavens are not clean in his sight, we must have a nature purer and
cleaner than the heavens, before God can delightfully behold us, and pleas-
ingly converse with us.
[2. J As God can have no pleasure in it, so man is contrary to it. Man,
as he is by corruption, is at variance with God, and cannot but be at vari-
ance with him. An uncircumcised heart will not love God, or at least, will
not pay him such a proportion of love, and love of such a quality, as is due
to him ; for if the end of the circumcision of the heart be to love the Lord
with all our hearts, as Deut. xxx. 6, ' And the Lord thy God will circumcise
thy heart, to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,' then it will neces-
sarily infer, that he whose heart is not circumcised, doth not love God with
all his heart. Holiness and iniquity are so contrary, that no agreement can
be made between them. God must deny his nature before he can deny his
hatred of sin, and man must be stripped of his' nature before he can leave his
affection to sin. It is equally impossible for wickedness to love holiness, and
for purity to love pollution. There can be no fellowship with God, whilst we
walk in darkness, and he is light, 1 John i. 6, 7.
[3.] Nay, thirdly, man naturally resists all means for it. It is the Spirit
only which is the bond of union, and consequently the cause of communion.
The Spirit can only bring God and us together. Walking in the Spirit hin-
ders us from fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, which make us uncapable of
communion : Gal. v. 16, « Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the
lusts of the flesh.' But every man by nature (as well as the Jews) ' resists
the Holy Ghost,' Acts vii. 51. And while this resistance of the great medium
of it remains, this communion can never be. This resistance, therefore,
must be removed, and there must be a divine stamp and impression upon
our very nature, to make it pliable. You see more and more the necessity
of regeneration.
(7.) As there is no communion with God without it, so no communica-
tions of Christ to our souls can be relished and improved without it. All
the communications of Christ relish of that fulness of grace which was in his
person, and therefore cannot be relished by any principle but that of the
same nature. Whenever Jesus Christ comes to bless us with the great
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 47
blessings of his purchase, he turns away our hearts from iniquity, Acts
iii. 26.
[1.] Ordinances cannot be improved. The word hath no place in them,
John viii. 37. There is no footing naturally for any divine and spiritual
truth. The nature of the soil must be changed before this heavenly plant
will thrive. Plants grow not upon stones, nor this heavenly plant in a stony
heart. The vine and the weed draw the same moisture of the eartb, wbich
in the vine is transmuted, by tbe nature of the plant, into a nobler substance
than that in the weed. The new nature of a good man turns the juice of
the word into a nobler spirit in him ; and according as the nature of a good
man is enriched with grace, the more doth he concoct the word, and improve
it, to the bringing forth fruit, and fruit of a diviner nature than another.
The juice it affords to all is the same, but the nature of the creature turns
it in the concoction. Nature must be changed then, to make any profitable
improvement of the word and other institutions. A stone receives the water
upon it, not into it ; it falls off, or dries up as soon as ever it falls : but a
new heart, a heart of flesh, sucks in the dew of the word, and grows thereby
The new birth and nature makes us suck in the milk, and grow thereby
1 Peter ii. 2.
[2.] There can be no communication of comfort. The Spirit comforts by
exciting grace, and by discovering grace, not by flashes and enthusiasms.
What comfort can there be when grace, the foundation, is wanting ? Can
the Holy Ghost ever speak a lie, and give any man comfort, and tell him he
is a child of God, when he hath the nature of the devil, so contrary to him ?
This were to witness not with our spirits, but against the frame and habit of
them, which is not the Spirit's work, Rom. viii. 16. Jesus Christ will not
trifle away his comforts upon such as have no conformity to him. This were
to put a jewel in a swine's snout, a crown upon a beast's head. Those that
are not heirs by a new nature to heaven, cannot claim any title to the first-
fruits and clusters of it, the comforts of the gospel. As there is a necessity
of a likeness to Christ, to make us capable of communications from him in
a state of glory, so it is as certainly necessary to the lower degrees of it in
this world. Vessels of wrath must be changed into vessels of honour before
they are capable of being filled with spiritual comforts. Our blessed Saviour
keeps his choicest flowers and richest beams for his dressed garden, not for
the wild desert.
(8.) We cannot be in covenant without it. This should have been first,
as the foundation of all. Had not Adam had an habitual righteousness in
his nature, he had not been a fit person for God to have entered into cove-
nant with. There must therefore be a restored righteousness, that we may
come into the bond of the new covenant for eternal life. The very terms of
it are, a new heart, a heart of flesh, a new spirit, the law written in the
heart. Without this new nature, we cannot depend on him by faith, which
is the condition of the covenant. For we cannot confide in him to whom
we have an enmity, and of whom we have a jealousy. We cannot have God
to be our God unless we be his people, have the nature and disposition of
his people, turn to him, act towards him as our God ; whereas in our first
defection we made the devil our God. God requires righteousness still to
our being in covenant, but dispenseth with the strictness of the first cove-
nant, and gives our Saviour a power to that end, in committing all judgment
to the Son. As the covenant is spiritual, so there must be a spiritual life
to answer the terms of it. Without it, we cannot walk in the way wherein
we engage by covenant to walk, neither can we have any right to the pro-
mises and benefits of the covenant. Doth God promise to be our God ? It
48 charnock's works. [John III. 8, 5.
is upon the condition we be his people. Doth he promise never to leave us
nor forsake us ? It is upon condition we continue not in our original apos-
tasy. Doth he promise to be present with us ? It is more than his holiness
will endure, while we continue in our filthy nature.
2. The second general. As regeneration is necessary to a gospel state,
so it is necessary to a state of glory. It seems to be typified by the strength
and freshness of the Israelites when they entered into Canaan.* Not a
decrepit and infirm person set foot in the promised land : none of those that
came out of Egypt with an Egyptian nature, and desires for the garlick and
onions thereof, with a suffering their old bondage, but dropped their carcasses
in the wilderness ; only the two spies, who had encouraged them against the
seeming difficulties. None that retain only the old man, born in the house
of bondage, but only a new regenerate creature, shall enter into the heavenly
Canaan. Heaven is the inheritance of the sanctified, not of the filthy :
Acts xxvi. 18, ' That they may receive an inheritance among them which are
sanctified, through faith that is in me.' So our Saviour himself phraseth it
in his discourse to Paul upon his conversion by faith, the great renewing
principle. Upon Adam's expulsion from paradise, a flaming sword was set
to stop his re-entry into that place of happiness. As Adam, in his forlorn
state, could not possess it, we also, by what we have received from Adam,
cannot expect a greater privilege than our root. Had Adam retained the
righteousness of his nature, he had been fit for that place, and that place for
him ; but poor decrepit Adam could have no leave to enter. The priest
under the law could not enter into the sanctuary till he were purified, nor
the people into tbe congregation ; neither can any man have access into the
holy of holies till that be consecrated for him by the blood of Jesus, and he
sprinkled by the same blood for it, Heb. x. 19, 22. It is by the blood of
Jesus sprinkled upon our hearts that we enter into the holiest by a way
which he hath consecrated ; ' for there shall in nowise enter into it anything
that defileth, neither whatsoever works abomination or a lie,' Rev. xxi. ] 7,
as every unclean thing was prohibited entrance into the temple. Whosoever
shall enter into the rest of God, must cease from his own works of darkness
and corruption, as God did from his works of creation, Heb. iv. 10. If man
fell the sixth day, the day of his creation, the rest of God in his lower works was
disturbed by the entrance of sin upon them, as well as it had been disturbed by
the sin of the angels in heaven. God rested from his works of creation, but not
in them, but in Christ, the covenant of redemption, and restoration by him.
We must therefore cease from our own works, to enter into his rest. This
entrance we cannot have in an unbelieving, unregenerate state, because by
unbelief we approve not of that for our rest, wherein God settled his own
repose ; and by unregeneracy we oppose the great intendment of it, the
restoration of the creature to be a fit object for God's rest and complacency.
It is necessary to a state of glory.
(1.) Not that there is a natural connection between a regenerate state and
glory, that in its own nature gives a right to heaven, but a gracious connec-
tion by the will of God.f Though it be morally impossible in nature that a
man can have communion with God without a renewed state, yet when he
hath a new nature, it is not absolutely necessary that God should love him
so intensely' as to give him an eternal reward, but conditionally necessary,
upon the account of the covenant wherein God hath so promised. Though
it be absolutely unavoidable to God to love goodness (for, because he is per-
fectly good, he cannot hate it), yet it is not absolutely necessary he should
* Fuller Pisgah, book \v. chap, xxxvi. 9, p. 45.
t Suarez de grat., lib. 7, c. 1, numer. 12.
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of kegenebation. 49
instate it in so unconceivable a glory. A new nature, indeed, makes a man
capable of eternal glory, without which it is not possible for him to have it;
but it gives him not a right to it, nor instates him in it in its own nature,
but by the gracious indulgence of God. For, as I have said before, in the
general foundation of this doctrine, that God may give grace without glory,
is intelligible ; but how he can admit a man to glory without grace is uncon-
ceivable. The very having of grace is a reward in itself. It is an ennobling
of our nature, a setting us in our right station (the purity of the body is a
pleasure, though a man hath no hopes upon it to be preferred to a better
condition), which may appear to us upon the banishment of Adam from
paradise. Had there been any natural connection, he had not been dispos-
sessed, supposing him to have faith infused into him at the time of the pro-
mulgation of the promise ; or if afterwards, he would have had a re-entry,
had there been a natural connection between a new nature and a state of
glory.
(2.) Nor is there any meritorious connection between a regenerate state
and glory, because there is no exact proportion between a new nature and
eternal glory. The papists say, that before habitual grace a man cannot
merit, but after it is infused by the Spirit of God into the soul, a merit doth
result from the dignity of the person brought into a state of grace. No such
thing. Glory indeed is merited, but the merit results, not from the new
nature, but from the new head, our Lord Jesus Christ. That righteousness
whereby God is engaged to give us a crown of glory for a garland of grace,
is not a commutative justice ; as if grace were of equal value to glory, and
heaven no more than a due compensation : 2 Tim. iv. 8, ' There is laid up
for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall
give me at that day.' But it is the veracity and faithfulness of God which
is meant by righteousness there, and otherwhere in Scripture. It is a justice
due to the promise, not to the nature of the grace, and due to the covenant
made with Christ, which was, that he should have a seed to serve him ;
upon which compact our Saviour so peremptorily demands his people's being
with him in glory : John xvii. 24, ' Father, I will that they also whom thou
hast given me be with me where I am.' As much as to say, Father, I will
not remit a tittle of that article, which is part of the covenant between thee
and me ; I will have that performed to the full. And it is observable,
though he mentions their faith, and their keeping his word, in other parts
of the chapter, as arguments for God to take notice of them, and preserve
them, yet his desire of the state of glory he founds upon his will, which must
be grounded upon some antecedent agreement, whereby he had a right to
plead for it. So that it is from the faithfulness of God to his promise, and
the full merit of Christ, and thereupon his fixed resolution to have it per-
formed, not from any meritorious dignity in the new nature itself. Grace
only fits for glory, but doth not merit it.
(3.) It is necessary by a fixed determination of God. Supposing that
God could in his own nature, congruously admit of an unregenerate dead
creature to a fruition of him in heaven; yet since he hath decreed otherwise,
and appointed other methods, God is now by his own free resolution under
an immutable necessity not to admit him. As God having by a determinate
counsel ordained the death of Christ as the medium to redemption, could
not in our apprehensions afterwards appoint another way, because his counsel
had pitched, not only upon the redemption of man, as the end, but the
death of Christ as the means ; and had there been a change, it must either
be in the end or in the means. If in the end, and he would not have nun
50 charnock's works. [John III. 8, 5.
redeemed, there had been an alteration in his love and kindness ; if in the
means, it must be either a worse or a better means ; if a worse, and not so
fit to effect redemption, it had still implied a change in his kindness ; if a
better means, it would argue a defect of wisdom in his first choice, that he
did not foresee the best. By the like counsel and wisdom he hath settled
this of regeneration as the way to glory : ' Without holiness no man shall
6ee the Lord,' Heb. xii. 14. Without a fixed and permanent holiness,
which must be an holiness of nature, not only of action. Supposing any
holiness in an action, without a new nature, it is yet but a transient holiness,
and though it may make the action acceptable to God, yet it can never make
the person that did it acceptable to him.
(4.) Regeneration is necessary in a way of aptitude and fitness for this
state. A fitness in both subjects is necessary to the enjoyment of one
another. Since therefore our happiness consists in an eternal fruition of
God, and that naturally we are a mass and dunghill of putrefied corruption,
there must be such a change as to make an agreement with that God whom
to enjoy is our happiness ; for all aptitude is a certain connection of the
two terms whereby they may touch and receive each other. We cannot
enjoy God in his ordinances without an holy nature, much less in heaven.
As we are under the condemnation of the law by reason of our guilt, so we
are under an unfitness for heaven by reason of our filth. We have a remote
natural capacity for it, as we are creatures endued with rational faculties.
But we have a moral unfitness, while we want a divine impression to make
us suitable to it. Justification and adoption give us a right to the inherit-
ance, but regeneration gives us a ' meetness to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light,' Col. i. 12. We are not meet for it while we are
unholy, and while we are darkness, because it is an inheritance of saints,
and an inheritance in light. As the body cannot be made glorious without
a resurrection from a natural death, so neither can the soul, which is
immortal, be made glorious without a resurrection from a spiritual death.
Our corruptible bodies, 1 Cor. xv. 50, cannot possess an incorruptible king-
dom unless made like to the glorious body of Christ, much less our souls,
which are the chief subjects of communion with him in heaven. A depraved
soul is as much unfit for a purified heaven as a corruptible body is for an
incorruptible glory. Our Saviour ascended not into heaven to take posses-
sion of his glory till after his resurrection from death, neither can we enter
into heaven till a resurrection from sin. As Jesus Christ became like unto
us, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest for us, Heb. ii. 17,
' It behoved him to be made like unto his brethren ; ' so it behoves us to be
made like unto him, that we may be fit offerings in the hand of our high
priest, to present to God, for him to take pleasure in. The father of the
prodigal forgave him at the first meeting after his return, but before he
admitted him into the pleasure of his house he took away his garments
that smelt of draff, and put other robes upon him. God is said there-
fore ' to work us to this thing,' xungyd^ifdai, polish, that we may be fit
to be clothed upon with our heavenly house, 2 Cor. v. 5. If God be
happy in his nature, man cannot be happy in a nature contrary to him ;
for we can never expect to enjoy a felicity in such a nature, which if God
himself had, he could never be happy in himself. It is holiness in God
which fits him to fill heaven and earth with the beams of his glory, and it
is an holy nature in us, which makes us fit to receive him. As without
holiness God could not be glorious in himself : Isa. vi. 3, ' Holy, holy, is
the Lord of hosts : the whole earth is full of his glory ; ' so without holiness
in our natures we could not be glorious with God. We are no more fit for
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 51
heaven in a state of nature than a piece of putrefied flesh is fit to become a
star. In heaven there are duties to be done, and privileges to be enjoyed.
The work cannot be done, the reward cannot be received, without a new
nature. The glorifying God, and enjoying him, is the glory of heaven. How
can we do the one or receive the other without the change of our affections ?
Can God have a voluntary glory from his enemy, or can his enemy delight
in the enjoyment of him ?
[l.J Regeneration and the new nature is necessary to the duty of heaven.
Eternity cannot free us from duty. Some duties are essential to the relation
of a creature; some result only from this or that state of the creature. The
alteration in the state changeth the duty proper to that state ; but no place,
no state, can exempt a creature from those duties which are essential to him
as a creature. It is impossible to conceive any relation, without some new
debt or service. From every change in relations in the world there doth
arise some new duty which was not incumbent upon a man before. The
relation which a regenerate man hath to God here is the same which it is in
heaven, but it is manifest there in an higher degree, and a choicer fruition.
Thence therefore will arise, though not any new duty that we can conceive,
yet fresher obligations to those services which are proper for that place.
Without a change of nature it is not possible for any man (were he admitted
thither) to perform the duties of heaven. Holy work is troublesome to a
natural man here ; and the more heavenly it was in itself, the more disgust-
ful to corrupt nature. What was in a little measure holy was a drudgery
upon earth ; and what is in a greater measure holy cannot be a satisfaction
in heaven to an old frame. There are some natural motives to some duties
here, and our indigency takes part with them (as in that of prayer) ; but
those of a more elevated strain, as love, and praise, and admirations of God,
our natures are more averse to. What duty can be performed without a will ?
It is concluded by most, that the happiness of heaven consists as much, if not
more, in the frame of the will, than in that of the understanding. If the
will be not new framed, what capacity is there to perform the service requi-
site to that happy state ? We must first be made just here before we can
be made perfect above : Heb. xii. 23, ' Spirits of just men made perfect.'
Just by an imputed righteousness, holy by an inherent righteousness, before
they were transplanted to a state of perfection. Without a perfect frame
none can perform the choice duties of heaven, and without righteousness
here, we cannot be made perfect there.
Quest. What are the duties of heaven, that cannot be performed without a
new nature ?
Ans. First. Attendance on God. Some kind of service which we cannot
understand in the state here below. The angels stand before God, and wait
his commands ; there is a pleasure of God which they do : Ps. ciii. 21, ' Ye
ministers of his that do his pleasure.' There is a will of God done in heaven,
as well as upon earth. There are acts of adoration performed by them ;
they cover their faces, Isa. vi. ; they are commanded to worship the Lord
Christ, Heb. i. 6. Their holiness fits them for their attendance ; therefore
called ' the holy angels.' It is against the nature of devils to perform such
acts as those which the holiness of angels fits them for. Glorified souls
shall be as the angels of God in heaven : Mat. xxii. 30, ' But are as the
angels of God in heaven.' Equal to angels in their state, as they are angels
in heaven ; equal to angels in their work, as they are angels of God, attend-
ing on God, and ministering unto him, Dan. vii. 10 ; though what that
ministry shall be is not easily known in the extent of it. Is it usual in this
world to take up a person from under an hedge, and bring him to an imme-
52 chaknock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
diate attendance on a prince, without cleansing him, and begetting other
dispositions and behaviour in him by some choice education ? God picks
some out for an immediate attendance on him in heaven ; but he sends his
Spirit to be their tutor, to breed them up, and grace their deformed souls
with beautiful features, and their ulcerous and cancerous spirits, with a sound
complexion, that they may be meet to stand before him. When God calls
any to do him service in a particular station in the word, he gives them an-
other heart ; so he did to Saul for the kingdom, 1 Sam. x. 9. Is there not
much more necessity of it for an immediate service of God in heaven ? A
malefactor, by pardon, is in a capacity to come into the presence of a prince,
and serve him at his table ; but he is not in a fitness till his noisome gar-
ments, full of his prison vermin, be taken off. Can one that is neither par-
doned nor purified, one with the guilt of rebellion upon him, and a nature
of rebellion in him, be fit to stand before God ?
Secondly, Contemplation of God is a work in heaven. There shall be a
perfect knowledge ; therefore a delightful speculation. The angels behold
his face, Mat. xviii. 10, and that alway. The saints shall see him as he is,
1 John iii. 2. It is not a stupid sight, but a gazing upon the face of this sun,
with a refined and ravishing delight. For this work there must be,
First, A change of judgment. The eye must be restored. It is as pos-
sible for a blind eye to behold the sun, or a blear eye to stare in the face of
it, without watering, as for a blind understanding to behold God ; for it is
not a being in the place of heaven, but having a faculty disposed, which doth
elevate us to the knowledge of him. Things that are corporal cannot know
things that are spiritual. We cannot in this sensitive body view the face of
an angel, and understand his nature ; much less with a body of a total death,
see the face of God, which is above all created beings, more than any spi-
ritual creature is above sense. ' In heaven the saints shall know him, as
they are known of him,' 1 Cor. xiii. 12, perfectly, as far as the capacity of
a creature can extend. Has God any scales upon his eyes ? Doth he not
know perfectly what he knows ? So shall the glorified saints. But if a
natural man were admitted into heaven, what prospect could he have with a
blind understanding ? As men under the gospel administrations cannot see
the kingdom of God, even in the midst of it, without a new birth, so neither
*ould they see the kingdom of God in the midst of heaven itself without a
new frame ; if not see it, much less enjoy it.
Secondly, There must be a change of will. Men like not to retain God
in their knowledge, when he is represented to them in the dark, yet pleasant
glass of nature, Rom. i. 28. The apostle there speaks it of the heathens,
and the wisest of them, their philosophers, who, though pleased with the
contemplation of nature, yet were not pleased with the contemplation of God
in nature ; much less will they like him, when he discovers himself clothed
with the light of holiness as a garment. Tbat vicious eye, which is too
weak to behold with any delight the image of the sun in a glass, or a pail
of water, will be much more too weak to gaze upon it in its brightness in
the firmament. If there be no delight to know God here, what pleasure,
what fitness can there be in the same frame to contemplate him above '?
Let me ask you, Have you any pleasure in the study of God ? What is the'
reason, then, that in your retirements, when you have nothing to do, your
thoughts are no more upon him ? What is the reason that if any motion
doth offer to advise you to fix your thoughts upon him, you so soon shift it
off as a troublesome companion, and some slight jolly thought is admitted
with gladness into those embraces which the other courted ? Can such a
temper be fit for heaven, where nothing but thoughts of God run through
John III. 3, 5. J the necessity of regeneration. 53
the veins of glorified souls ? If the discovery of God's glory in the gospel
is accounted no better than folly by natural men, and therefore not received,
1 Cor. ii. 14, the manifestation of it above would meet with no better valua-
tion of it, unless the temper both of judgment and will were changed. They
are spiritually to be discerned here, and no less spiritually to be discerned
above. The weak and waterish eye must be cured by some powerful me-
dicine before it can stare upon the light of the sun, or delight itself in its
glory.
Thirdly, Love is a duty in heaven. Love is a grace that shoots the gulf
with us, and attends us not only to the suburbs, but into the very heart of
heaven, when other graces conduct us only to the gates, and then take their leave
of us, as having no business there. ' Charity never faileth,' 1 Cor. xiii. 8. And,
indeed, it is so essentially our duty in every place, that it is concluded that God
cannot free us from the obligation of it, whilst we remain his creatures ; be-
cause God being infinitely good, and therefore infinitely amiable and infi-
nitely gracious to them, it would seem unrighteous, and inconsistent with
supreme goodness, to forbid the creature an affection to that which is infi-
nitely excellent, and a gratitude to its benefactor which can be paid only in
love. Now, though we are bound to love God in the highest degree, yet
every new mercy adds a fresh obligation to return our affection to him. So
when we shall have the clearest beams of God's love darting upon us from
heaven, we shall also have higher obligations to love him, both for his excel-
lency, which shall be more visible, and his love, which shall be more sen-
sible. Now, can the heart of a natural man cling about God ? Can it forget
its father's house, and be wholly taken up with the Creator's excellency ?
Can he that loved pleasures more than God in the world, 2 Tim. iii. 4, love
God more than pleasures in heaven, without an alteration of his soul ? No.
The heart must be first circumcised by God, before we can love God with all
our heart, Deut. xxx. 6. If we will not be subject to the law of God here,
how can we be subject to the love of God, which is the law of heaven ? How
can we cleave to God without love, or relish him without delight ? No man
in a natural estate could stay in heaven, because he doth not love the per-
son whose presence only makes it heaven. How can there be a conformity
to God in affection, without a conformity to his holiness ? A choiceness of
love, with a perverseness of will ; a supremacy of delight, without a recti-
tude of heart ; a love of God, without a loathing of sin ; a fervency of love,
with a violence of lust : all these are contradictions. He that hath a hatred
of God, cannot perform the main duty of heaven ; and therefore what should
he do there ?
Fourthly, Praise is a service in heaven. If a pure angel be not sufficient
for so elevated a duty, how unfit then is a drossy soul ? What is the angels'
note, ' Holy, holy, holy, Lord God,' Isa. vi. 3, can never be a natural man's ;
for how can he possibly praise that which he hates ? What is the note of
glorified saints ? It is Hallelujah, Rev. xix. 1, ' Salvation, and glory, and
honour, and power unto the Lord our God.' And again they said, Hallelu-
jah, ver. 3. ' Hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth,' ver. 6.
Nothing but hallelujah four times, ver. 1, 3, 4, 6. How can that heart
frame an hallelujah, that is stuffed with jealousies of him ? How can he
exalt the honour of God, who was always pleased with the violations of it ?
How can he rejoice at the Lord's reigning, that would not have one lust sub-
dued by his power ? How can a natural man, as natural, ever be wound up
to a height fit for such strains, since ' out of the abundance of the heart, the
mouth speaks' ? The tongue can never be framed to praise while the heart
is evil. Our blessed Saviour must be glorified in us, before he can be glo-
54 chaenock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
rifled by us, 2 Thes. i. 10, 12. If a man in a mere natural state be unfit
for this heavenly work, how unfit are then their tongues to sound his praise,
which are always filled with reproaches of God ? And how can their ears
endure to hear it from others, which were never offended with the blasphe-
mies of him ? They could never rejoice in this heavenly concert were they
admitted. Nay, their enmity to the work would not permit their stay. The
smoke of pure incense is fitter rather to drive a swine out of the room than
to invite his continuance.
[2.] The new birth is necessary, as to the duty, so to the reward of heaven.
As the reward is exceeding glorious, the preparation thereto must be exceed-
ing gracious. The rewards of heaven are something incorporated with us,
inlaid in the very frame of our souls, and cannot be conceived enjoyable
without a change in the nature of the subject. Man was first formed before
he was brought into the garden of Eden, or pleasure : Gen. ii. 8, There he
' put the man whom he had formed.' Man must be new-formed before he
be brought into that place, which is the antitype of Eden, the place of eternal
and spiritual pleasure. A natural man can no more relish the rewards of
heaven, than a dead carcase can esteem a crown and a purple robe ; or be de-
lighted with the true pleasure of heaven, than a swine, that loves to wallow
in the mire, can be delighted with a bed of roses. A disorder in nature is a
prohibition to all happiness belonging to that nature ; a distempered body,
under the fury of a disease, can find no delight in the pleasures of the
healthful ; a wicked man, with a troubled and foaming sea of sin and lust
in his mind, Isa. lvii. 20, would find no more rest in heaven than a man
with his disjointed members upon a rack can in the beauty of a picture.
We must be spiritually-minded before we can have either life or peace, Kom.
viii. 6. Righteousness in the soul is the necessary qualification for the
peace and joy in the kingdom of God : Rom. xiv. 17, ' The kingdom of God
is not meat and drink ; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost.' While malice remains in the devil's nature, were he admitted into
heaven he would receive a torment instead of a content. A wicked man
would meet with hell in the midst of heaven as long as he carries his own
rack within him, boiling and raging lusts in his heart, which can receive no
contentment without objects suitable to them, let the place be what it will.
Heaven, indeed, is not only a place, but a nature ; and it is a contradiction
to think that any can be happy with a nature contrary to the very essence
of happiness.
The pleasure and reward of heaven is,
First, A perfect likeness to God and Christ. This is the great privilege
of heaven, which the apostle, in the midst of his ignorance of other particu-
lars, resolves upon as certain as that which results from regeneration, and
being the sons of God, and is the full preparation for the beatific vision :
1 John iii. 2, ' Now we are the sons of God ; and it doth not yet appear
what we shall be : but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like
him ; for we shall see him as he is.' He seems to intimate this, that we
can never be like him when he doth appear, unless we be now, while we
are here, the sons of God, nor ever be admitted to a sight of him. As
Christ presented himself without spot to God, when he laid the foundation
of our redemption, so he presents his people ' without blemish to God,' when
he lays the top-stone of it in our glorification, Eph. v. 27. Now as we can-
not be like to Christ in our walk here without a new birth, neither can we
without it be like to Christ in glory hereafter. It is not the place makes us
like to God, but there must be a likeness to God to make the place pleasant
to us. When once the angels had corrupted their nature, the short stay they
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 55
made in heaven did neither please them nor reform them. And when Satan
appeared before God, among the angels, Jobi. 6, neither God's presence nor
his speaking to him did anywise better him ; he came a devil, and he
went away so, without any pleasure in the place or presence, but by the
permission of God, to wreak his malice on holy Job. An uulikeness to God
is the misery of the creature. It is therefore impossible, whilst the soul
remains in that state, that it can arrive at blessedness, because it is a con-
tradiction to think a felicity can be enjoyed in a contrariety to and separation
from the fountain of it : Ps. lxxiii. 27, ' Lo, they that are far from thee
shall perish.' It is by faith, beholding the glory of the Lord in the glass of
the gospel here, that we must be 'transformed into his image,' before we
can be ' changed into his glory,' 2 Cor. iv. 18. And we cannot be like God
by holy actions only, though we had performed as many of them as all the
holy men in the world ever did as to the matter of them, abstracted from
the principle and end ; and tne reason is, because God is not only holy in
his actions, but holy in his nature ; and, therefore, we must not only have
actions materially good, but a holy nature suitable to the holiness of God,
otherwise we neither are, nor never can, be like him.
Secondly, The fruition of God is a privilege of heaven, which necessarily
follows this likeness. God is the eternal portion of glorified souls, upon
which they live. He is the strength of their hearts, Ps. lxxiii. 25, 26.
There is none but God in heaven is the chief object of their love and de-
light. The presence of God makes ' the fulness of joy,' Ps. xvi. 11. His
favour and the light of his glorious countenance constitutes heaven and hap-
piness ; not the place, but the countenance. God's frown kindles hell, and
his smile renders any place an heaven. Now an old nature cannot have a
good look from God ; for since he is infinitely holy, he must hate unholi-
ness ; infinitely true, he must hate falsity. As it is impossible a man can
love truth and falsity, righteousness and unrighteousness, as such, at one
and the same time, in an intense degree, therefore an impure nature cannot
be happy unless God be mutable. God cannot smile on the old Adam un-
less he hate himself. What satisfaction can such an one possibly have in
God's presence ? How can he savour the society of God that never loved
it ? Do we naturally love any warm mention of God ? Have we not a
stony deadness to any heavenly motion that falls upon us ? A mighty
quickness to receive sinful motions in that which we love ? Do not our
countenances fall, and our delight take wings to itself and fly away, at any
lively appearance of God ? If we have such an enmity to his law, which is
but a transcript of his holiness, much greater must our enmity be to the
original copy. Hence in Scripture men are said to ' refuse his law,' Ps.
lxxviii. 10 ; to ' forsake his law,' Ps. cxix. 53 ; to be ' far from his law,' Ps.
cxix. 1 50. Darkness doth not more naturally vanish at the appearance of the
sun, than an old nature will fly away from the glory and brightness of God.
A mass of black darkness and an immense sphere of light may as soon be
espoused together, as a friendly amity be struck up between God and an un-
renewed man. God is light without darkness, 1 John i. 5 ; man is darkness
itself, as if nothing else entered into the composition of his corrupt nature,
Eph. v. 8., If there be therefore a disagreement, contrariety, and unwill-
ingness on both sides, how can any pleasing correspondence be effected ?
If God should bring a man with his corrupt nature into local heaven, God
could not please himself in it, nor such an one delight himself in God, no
more than a swine can be pleased with the presence of an angel, or a mole
sport itself with the beauty of flowers, or a vitiated eye rejoice at the bright-
ness of light. We must really make God such an one as we shape him in
56 charnock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
our Datural fancy, and like to us, before we can take any pleasure in con-
verse with him. Our nature, therefore, must be changed before we can
please him, or be satisfied in him. His presence else will cause fear, while
our sinful state remains, an affection inconsistent with happiness.
Thirdly, The company of the saints is an adjunct of that happiness in
heaven. A sitting down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom
of heaven, Mat. viii. 11, in a festival converse, is a part of that felicity.
The coming to be with an ' innumerable company of angels, with the general
assembly, and church of the first-born,' is not the least thing in the com-
position of this happiness, Heb. xii. 22, 23. "What joy is that man capable
of which should be surrounded with company he hath the greatest disaffec-
tion to, where he could not meet with any one person without the holy
quality he hath an antipathy against ? A natural man never loved holiness,
as holiness, here. The more beautiful the image of God was in any, the
more burdensome was their company ; the more degrees any good man
wanted of perfection in righteousness, the more tolerable was a familiarity
with him. If holiness in others, in a lower degree, were disaffected by you,
how can you bear the perfection of it ? If the mixed and dark goodness in
renewed men, which was but a weak flash of the glory of heaven, were un-
welcome, how will you be able to endure the lustre of it ? Again, glorified
saints could not have the least converse with such an one ? If carnal nature
were a trouble to them here, when they had many relics of corruption, much
more must it be above, if they were admitted into that place of glory, because
the more holy any creature is, the more it hates that which is contrary to
that holiness ; the more settled we are in anything, the more we loathe that
which is opposite to it ; all the folly in their hearts here done away, and the
disagreeing principle perfected in the blessed. There must, therefore, be a
change in them, to take pleasure in you ; or a change in you, to take plea-
sure in them. They must return to the frame of old Adam, and put off the
renewed image of God, before they can delight in you ; or you must come
up to the frame of the new Adam, and be new created after the same image,
before you can delight in them. The truth is, supposing a man admitted
into the heavenly place with an old nature, he could not continue there ; for
the saints must either leave heaven, or he must. Light and darkness can-
not agree ; what makes the one happy, cannot beatify the other. Saints
shall not leave it, because it is their inheritance, it was prepared for them,
and they for it ; a natural man must, because it was never prepared for him,
nor he fitted for it.
Fourthly, Spiritual delights unconceivable are in that state, which, without
a new and heavenly nature, it is impossible to relish. • In the light of God
they see light,' and they ' drink of the rivers of God's pleasures,' and are
' satisfied with the fatness of his house,' Ps. xxxvi. 8, 9. Now, is it a fleshly
fatness ? Are the pleasures of God carnal or spiritual ? What is God's
pleasure shall be the pleasure of glorified souls. How can the sordid old
temper be fit for spiritual delights ? Flesh can never savour but the things
of the flesh ; another palate is necessary to relish the things of the spirit :
Rom. viii. 5, ' They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh,
but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit ;' ipgovoveiv signifies
to savour or relish. There must be a transformation by the renewing of the
mind, Rom. xii. 2, which is the palate of the soul, before we can know what
the will of God is, or taste what the pleasures of God are ; without it we
can no more relish the pleasures of God than we can know his will. All
satisfaction doth not result from the intrinsic excellency of the object, or the
beauty of a place, or a power in anything to afl'ect us, but from a faculty
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 57
rightly disposed to the object, and a congruity and agreement between that
and the understanding, and between that and the will. Brutes cannot be
delighted with intellectual pleasures, because they want a faculty, nor fools,
because they want a right disposition of that faculty. Purity of heart only
gives us a relish of the purity of pleasure: Tit. i. 15, 'To the pure all things
are pure ; but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving, is nothing pure.'
An ill humour on the palate tinctures the meat, and embitters that which
was sweet in itself. It must be freed from that vicious juice before it can
relish the sweetness of food. Natural men, because of the impurity of their
natures, savour not those spiritual delights which the word, and prayer, and
other holy duties afford in themselves. What fitness, then, is there in this
state for the delights of heaven, which are as much superior to those delights
in duties as the sun doth surmount a star in brightness ? The best unre-
generate man is sunk in sense, swallowed up in sense ; and what suitableness
can there be between a spiritual delight and a sensual frame ? True plea-
sures and contrary desires can never abide together. A carnal man hath no
apprehensions of spiritual delights but by the measures of animal pleasures.
And if there be no conception of them in the understanding, what motion to
them can there be in the will, or what fitness for them in the affection ?
Without a new nature, a new frame, we are no more able to understand or
enjoy the pleasures of heaven, than a bat is to take pleasure in a mathe-
matician's lines or a philosopher's books. It is not conceivable how God
can make any man happy against his will, because all pleasure consists in
the agreeableness of the will to the object. The whole scheme of heaven
must be changed to make such men happy that have not tempers suited to
its present state. The bright hangings of heaven must be taken down and
others put in their place to please a vicious nature.
Use. If regeneration be absolutely necessary to a gospel state, and the
enjoyment of eternal glory in heaven, then it informs us,
1. How much the nature of man is depraved ; for otherwise there were
no need of his being born again, and no reason could be imagined why our
blessed Saviour should so pressingly urge the necessity of it, If man's
nature were according to his original frame, it would please God, because it
was of his own creation. But we are flesh by our natural birth, and there-
fore to be happy we must be spiritual by a second birth. It is not a new
mending, a new repairing and patching, but a new birth. We are by sin as
distant from God and grace, as death from life, as nothing from being. It
is not a death in appearance, but a certain death. God foretold it to Adam :
Gen. ii. 17, ' But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt
not eat of it ; for in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die,' niO
niDJI. I suppose there is nothing here of a corporal death meant (as I have
said before), but a death of his integrity and righteous nature, upon this act
of disobedience ; and the reason is because a temporal death did not ensue
presently. And God uses to be punctual when he fixed a time to any threat-
ening, as here he did, in the day, at that very time thou shalt die. Had it
been meant of a temporal death, he had died at that instant. When God
threatened Pharaoh, to-morrow such and such a plague shall come, it was
certainly so. The destruction of Nineveh in forty days had been too, had
they not repented. When he promised any mercy or deliverance at such a
time, it was certainly performed : the very day, at the end of the time ap-
pointed, the Israelites came out of Egypt, Exod. xii. 41. And though God
threatened Hezekiah with death, and bids him set his house in order, yet he
fixed no time, Isa. xxxviii. 1. Besides, a temporal death was not necessary
to his punishment ; God might have flung both body and soul away together
58 chaenock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
into hell. Besides, a temporal death, or death of the body, was fixed after
the promise of the seed, Gen. m. 12, as a punishment superadded upon his
sin, as well as the rest, of his eating his bread in the sweat of his brows, and
the pain of women's conception and travail, which were to put him in mind
of his sin in his redeemed state ; therefore I question whether a temporal
death, or an obnoxiousness to it, were at all meant there, but a spiritual death,
the death of his righteous nature. It is a certain death, a mighty depriva-
tion, a loss of a noble frame, a beautiful rectitude. How may we cry, as
the prophet in another case : Isa. xiv. 12, ' How art thou fallen from heaven,
Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground!'
How is our beauty not only defaced, but changed into deformity ? How
dreadfully are we fallen, not only to lame ourselves, but dead ourselves, that
we cannot rise again, as a man fallen may ! We are so unconceivably changed
from what we were, that we cannot be recovered without a new make, with-
out a new birth. Oh that we had a true and sensible prospect of this ! Give
me leave to say that though the fall be the cause of all our misery, yet the
true consideration and sense of it is the first step to all our happiness. And
we cannot take so full a view of it in the extent of the nature of it, as in the
consideration of this doctrine, viz. The necessity of regeneration.
2. If regeneration be so necessary, then how much to be lamented is the
ignorance of this doctrine in the world ? And strange and sad it is that it
should be so little considered. The common talk is of serving God and re-
forming the life, but who of a thousand speaks of the necessity of a new nature '?
It is a sad case that, when a doctrine is so clear, men should be so stupid and
deludingly damn themselves ; that they should be so sottishly ignorant of this
who have Bibles in their hands and houses, yet not understand this, which is the
great purpose for which God even sent the Scripture among the sons of men. It
is a shame not to have the knowledge of this great and necessary truth. As the
apostle in another case: 1 Cor. xv. 24, ' Some have not the knowledge of God,
1 speak it to your shame.' How strange and uncouth doth this doctrine sound
in the ears of the carnal world, which wonder at it, as Xicodemus did at our
Saviour's proposal, and think all our discourses of it an heap of enthusiastic
nonsense ! It is as if we should speak parables, as if you should talk of
astronomy to the natural fool, or read diviDity in Arabic to a man who
understands only his native language. How little sensible is the world of
the necessity of this work ! They expect Christ should change their misery
into glory, without changing their hearts and fitting their spirits for it, which
will never be. They think it enough for them that Christ was conceived in
the womb of the virgin, without being formed again in their souls, as the poor
Jews at this day expect a Messiah, not to alter the frame of their souls, but
the frame of the world ; not to subdue their spirits, but to conquer the nations
to be their vassals. How should this stupidity of men be a matter of lamen-
tation to us !
3. If regeneration be so absolutely necessary, how should Christian parents
endeavour all they can to have their children regenerate ? There is no
necessity they should have great estates, and live bravely in the world ; but
there is a necessity, a great necessity, they should be new creatures, and
live spiritually. In leaving the one to your children, you leave them but
earth ; in leaving the other, you convey heaven to them. There is an
obligation upon you, their old polluted nature was derived from you by
carnal generation ; make them amends by endeavouring to derive grace to
them by spiritual instruction ; you made them children of wrath, why will
you not- endeavour to make them children of God and heirs of heaven '?
Education of itself will not produce this noble work, nor the bare hearing of
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 59
the word, or any outward means whatsoever, by their own strength ; yet the
Spirit doth often bless them, and very much, and I doubt not but a great
number that are regenerate had the first seeds sown in them by a religious
education. And I have made this observation in many. Timothy had a
religious education both by his mother and grandmother, though this did
not renew him, for Paul, by the preaching of the gospel, was the instrument
of that, he calls him ' his own son in the faith,' 1 Tim. i. 2, yet no question
his religious instructions from his parents did much facilitate this work.
Use all endeavour, therefore, to convince them of the necessity of a new
birth, be earnest with them till you see it produced, that they may not curse
you for being the instruments of their beings, but bless you for being the
instruments of their spiritual life.
4. This doctrine acquaints us with the insufficiency of everything else
without this to enable us to enter into the kingdom of God.
(1.) Great knowledge is not sufficient. Natural knowledge is not. All
the wisdom of Solomon in a man, though it may enable him to take an exact
measure of nature from the highest star to the meanest insect, doth no more
fit him for heaven than the stone in the head of a toad expels his venomous
nature. We have more relics of Adam's nature in knowledge than we have
in righteousness. To be a philosopher, physician, or statesman, is not
essential to happiness in this world, much less can it prepare a man for the
happiness of another. But grace is as essential to it as natural heat and
radical moisture are to the life of a man. Jesus Christ came not to make
us scholars in naturals, but to endue us with such a knowledge as is in order
to eternal happiness, and with such a renewing principle as might make us
capable of heaven. Knowledge and wisdom are some of the choicest flowers
in nature's garden ; but it will be a small advantage to descend to hell with
our brains full of wit and sophistry. One saving cry from a new born infant
soul is of more value than the knowledge of all philosophers. Spiritual
knowledge is not, that is, the knowledge of spiritual doctrines, the knowledge
of Scripture itself. Nicodemus had a good stock of this ; he understood
the letter of the Scripture, was well read in all the parts of the law ; he was
thought fit to be one of the great Sanhedrim. Something else was requisite
besides this ; a new birth was still wanting. What if we understood the
mind of the Spirit of God in every verse in the Bible ; were able to discourse
profoundly of the great mysteries of the gospel ; had the gift of prophecy,
and knowledge of things to come ; had the interpretation of the whole book
of the Revelation writ in our minds ; what will all this avail us ? An evan-
gelical head will be but drier fuel for eternal burning, without an evangelical
impression upon the heart and the badge of a new nature. Men may pro-
phesy in Christ's name, in his name cast devils out of bodies, and devils of
errors out of men's brains, yet not be regarded by Christ ; but he says to
them, ' I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity,' Mat.
vii. 22, 23. If they had had this mark and gospel impression, our Lord
would have known them. Christ in heaven would have owned himself
formed in the heart ; he could not have been ignorant of his own nature and
offspring.
Well then, a man may have all the learning of Christians and heathens
stored up in his head, and not the least stamp of it in his heart ; he may be
wise in knowledge, and a fool in improvement. A heap and pack of know-
ledge is not wisdom among men, without an application of that knowledge
to particular exigencies and usefulness.
(2.) Outward reformation is not sufficient. Regeneration is never without
reformation of life ; but this may be without that. We may be outward
60 chaenock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
Christians without an inward principle, though we can never be inward
Christians without an outward holiness. The new birth is properly an in-
ternal work, and shews itself externally ; as the heat of the heart and vital
parts will evidence itself in outward motions. • The king's daughter is all
glorious within ' as well as without, Ps. xlv. 13. What a vanity would it be
to boast of freedom from other diseases, if thou hast the plague upon thee ?
What a poor comfort is it to brag of thy being without gross immoralities,
whilst the plague of thy nature remains uncured ? Outward reformation only
(though of excellent use) is but a new appearance, not a new creature, a
change of life, not of the heart ; whereas this work we discourse of is a new
birth in the understanding and will ; it begins at the spirit and descends
from thence to the body, 1 Thes. v. 23 ; it is a sanctification in spirit, soul,
and then body. Can that which can be no evidence to us in self-examina-
tion, be of itself sufficient to waft us to heaven ? If you retire to take a
view of yourselves whether you belong to God, will you judge by your out-
ward actions or inward frame ? There is no characteristical difference in
any external action between a true Christian and an hypocrite. That,
therefore, which is not a sufficient evidence to us of a right to happiness,
cannot be a sufficient preparation of ourselves for it.
This reformation may proceed either,
[1.1 From force and fear. Such a reformation is from impediments, not
from inclination. The cutting a bird's wings takes not away its propensity
to fly, but its ability ; the cutting the claws of a lion, or pulling out his
teeth, changes not his lionish nature. Fear restrained Herod from putting
John to death, when his will was inclined to the act, Mat. xiv. 5. Fear
may pare the nails of sin, grace only can hinder the growth and take away
its life. This doth but only stop the streams, not choke the fountain.
Or, [2. J from sense of outward interest. It may be a rational abstinence
from those sordid pleasures which debase a man's esteem and prey upon his
reputation ; and in the mean time his inward lusts may triumph, while out-
ward appearances are stopped. Such a splendid life may consist with those
inward vermin, more contrary to the pure nature of God, and as inconsistent
with a man's happiness. The river which ran in open view, may sink and
run as fiercely through subterranean caverns. Men may cast out one gross
devil to make way for seven more spiritual ones. The interest which
restrains outward acts will not restrain inward lusts.
Well then, an outward reformation without an inward grace, can no more
rectify nature, than an abstinence from luxury can cure a disease a man hath
contracted through intemperance, without some other physic to pluck up the
root of the distemper. Outward applications of salves and ointments will
do little good in a fever, unless the spring of the disease be altered, and a
new crasis wrought in the blood. All outward acts are but ' bodily exercise,
which profit little,' 1 Tim. iv. 3. Outward reformation doth but sweeten
the conversation, but doth not purge the man. He only is a vessel unto
honour who hath purged himself from these things : 2 Tim. ii. 21, ' If a man
therefore purge himself from those, he shall be a vessel unto honour.' Out-
ward reformation only, it is a cleansing of our life, but not ourselves. Self-
nature must be purged.
(3.) Morality is not sufficient. By morality, I mean not only an outward
reformation, but some love to moral virtue, as the heathens had, raised upon
the thoughts of the excellency of it. Nicodemus was a moral man ; he had
some affection to Christ upon the consideration of his miracles ; he had never
else ventured to come to him so much as by night. He had no blot upon
his conversation, he had desires to be instructed. This was more than a
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 61
bare abstinence from sin ; yet notwithstanding, besides those moral qualifi-
cations, he must have a new birth before he can see the kingdom of God.
Men may do much good, be very useful to others in their generation, yet
be in the very bottom of unregeneracy. A healing witch, as well as a hurt-
ing one, is the devil's client, and in covenant with him.* There is not so
great a difference between the highest degree of glory in heaven and the
lowest degree of grace on earth, as there is between the lowest degree of
saving grace and the highest degree of natural excellency, because the differ-
ence between these is specifical, as between a rational and irrational crea
ture; the difference between the other is only in degree, as between an infant
and a man. It is one thing to have a love to moral virtue, another thing
to have a love to God in it ; one thing to move for self, and another thing
to move for the glory of the Creator ; one thing to be animated by reason,
and another thing to be inspired by the Holy Ghost. What can a moral
honesty profit that man who values the world's dung above the Creator's
glory ? What though he be honest and useful to his neighbours, must his
affection to God be measured by his honesty among men ? The great busi-
ness is from what principle it flows. What if he doth good to others,
whilst he doth his Creator wrong by fostering any one thing in his heart
above him ? Can his goodness to others make a compensation for his dis-
esteem of God ? The bravest man in the whole world, who hath no other
descent than from Adam, must have a new quality put into his heart before
he can be happy ; for if a new birth be necessary, all endowments below
it are to no purpose for the attainment of that state for which it is in-
tended. Whatsoever is of the old Adam in us, though it be a beautiful
flower, must wither and die : 1 Peter i. 23, 24, ' For all flesh is as grass,
and the glory of man as the flower of grass ; the grass withers, and the
flower thereof fadeth away.' The apostle sets in opposition the incor-
ruptible seed whereby they were born, and the fairer flowers in nature's
garden. The best thing which a man glories in is a flower, but withering ;
it is a glory, but the glory of the flesh ; it hath no lustre in the sight of
God ; it is not a flower to be set in heaven. It is only the word of God,
and the impressions made on us by that word, which endure for ever. As
herbs cannot grow without partaking of the natural influence and beams of
the sun, so nothing stands and flourishes but what partakes of the nature
and spirit of Christ. Nay, it is so far from being sufficient, that it is a
great hindrance of regeneration, without the overpowering grace of God,
because it is the glory of a man ; that is, that wherein a man glories. Men
are apt to rest upon their morals without reflecting upon their naturals.
They see no spots in their lives, and therefore will not believe there are any
in their hearts. They are so taken up, with the pharisee, their proud
thoughts of their being above others, that they never think how much they
have inwardly of the publican in coming short of the glory of God. Un-
regenerate morality, therefore, is not sufficient. The heart must be changed
before moral virtues can commence graces. When this is once done, what
were moral before become divine, as having a new principle to quicken them,
and a new end to direct them.
(4.) Religious professions are not sufficient. Can you, upon a serious
consideration, conclude that this only is the import of all those scriptures
which speak of being born of God, raised from a death in sin, quickened and
led by the Spirit, created in righteousness and true holiness ? Are not these
things, in the very manner of speaking them, elevated above any mere pro-
fession, which may be declared to the world without any such work, which
* Burrough's Biases' Choice, p. 711.
62 chaenock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
is the evident intendment of those scriptures ? It is not the naming the
name of Christ, but the departing from iniquity ; a departing from it in our
nature as well as in our actions, that is the badge whereby the Lord knows
who are his : 2 Tim. ii. 19, ' The Lord knows who are his : and let every
one that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.' Religious profes-
sion only is but a form, a figure, a shape of godliness : a picture made by
art, without life and power, and an enlivened faculty, and a divine principle
whence it should proceed ; it is but a name of life at best under a state of
death : Rev. iii. 1, ' Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.' Pro-
fessions without a new nature, are no more the things God requires of us,
than sacrifices under the law without a broken heart. It is not a following
our Saviour in profession, but in regeneration, which gives the apostles a
title to that promise of sitting upon his throne in glory : Mat. xix. 28, ' Ye
that have followed me in regeneration, ye shall sit upon twelve thrones,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel.' Judas had followed Christ till that
time, and after, in a profession, but not in the regeneration, not from a re-
generated principle.
(5.) Multitudes of external religious duties and privileges are not suffi-
cient. Men are very apt to place their security here. It was the great
labour of the prophet Isaiah to bring the Jews, in his time, off from them.
God doth not require attendance on ordinances as the ultimate end, but as
means to the beginning and promoting a new birth : Isa. xi. 16, 'To what
purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me ? Wash ye, make ye clean.'
The resting in these is the manifest destruction of men's souls, when thou-
sands of sacrifices to God cannot be acceptable without a new nature. We
naturally affect an easy religion; and outward acts of worship, especially under
the gospel, have no great difficulty in them. Men would rather be at
great expense of sacrificing, than crucify one beloved sin ; and cringe a thou-
sand times before the cross of Christ, than nail one corruption to it. How
easy a work were it to get to heaven, if nothing else were required but to be
a member of the Christian visible church ? Circumcision was a privilege,
but it availed nothing without a new creature, Gal. v. 6. There was another
circumcision made without hands, the work of God, that was required, Col.
ii. 11 ; a new creature, without which outward circumcision signified no-
thing. The practice of some duties may stand with an inward hatred of
them, as the abstinence from some sins may stand with an inward love to
them. Outward worship is but a carcase, when the soul is not conformed
to God, the object of worship, and doth not attain an union to, and commu-
nion with God, which is the end of worship. What are all acts of worship
without a nature suitable to the God we approach unto in them ? Judge
not, therefore, of your state by any external actions ; no outward act, but
unregenerated persons may do, yea, they may express much zeal in them.
They may have their bodies as martyrs consumed by flames, without having
their corruption consumed by grace ; a stinking breath may make as good
music to the ear in a pipe as a sound one. There is something more neces-
sary than a bare performance of duties.
(6.) Nay, more, convictions are not sufficient. Nicodemus was startled by
our Saviour's miracles, believes him to be a prophet sent by God, acknow-
ledged that God was with him, John iii. 2, yet still the necessary qualifica-
tion of a new birth was wanting. Your spirits may be torn in pieces by terror,
the heart of stone may be rent asunder, and yet no heart of flesh appear ;
the ground may be ploughed, yet not sown. Sensuality and lust may be
kept under by a spirit of bondage, when it is not cast out by a spirit of adop-
tion ; the sun may scorch you, and not enliven you ; the knowledge of the
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 63
foulness of sin, and the fierceness of wrath, is the work of the Spirit in the
law ; the new birth is the work of the Spirit in the gospel ; the stone may
be cut and hewed by the law, and yet never polished by the gospel, never
brought into covenant : Hosea vi. 5,7, 'I have hewed them by my prophets,
but they like men have transgressed the covenant.' It is not then great
knowledge, fair-coloured fruit, oil in the lamp of life, loud professions, glit-
tering services, or tearing convictions, which are this badge whereby Christ
knows his own from all the world besides ; all these will be answered, ' I
know you not.' Is it not, then, a worthy work, and high time to get that
new nature, whereby God will know thee to belong to him ? Professions
may be false, outward reformation may be but as a painted sepulchre :
knowledge only elevates the understanding ; but as our communion lies in
the acts of the will, there must be some work upon that to fit us for our
great happiness. If these things are not sufficient, then profane men can-
not expect heaven by the way of hell.
C7.se 2. If regeneration be so absolutely necessary to salvation, how miser-
able is the condition of every unregeherate man ! What a miserable case is
it, that sinners should dream on in their delusions till everlasting burnings
confute their fancies, and turn their hopes into dreadful despair. Oh, how
do most men live as if this doctrine were a mere falsity, and act as if they
would take heaven by the violence of their lusts, not by the industry of
grace ? Know you not that an unrighteous nature shall not inherit the king-
dom of God ? 1 Cor. vi. 9, ' Know you not that the unrighteous shall not
inherit the kingdom of God ? be not deceived,' &c. Is it possible you
should be ignorant of that which stares you in the face in every page in the
Bible ? If you know not this you know nothing. Be not deceived.
Nothing is no natural as heart- deceit and presumptuous confidence. The
apostle else would not have spoken of it with such an emphasis, but that he
knew how apt men are to delude themselves with hopes of mercy in a state
of sin. Self-flattery is one of the strongest branches which grows upon the
pride of nature. How vain is it to fancy to yourselves a fitness for heaven,
while there are only preparations for hell ? Whence should such imagina-
tions arise ? Not from God ; it is contrary to all his professed declarations.
Is it from yourselves ? What reason have you to believe your fancies in
spiritual things, who are so often mistaken in temporal ? Is it from the
devil ? What reason have you to believe your greatest enemy ? If this
work be wrought, he hath for ever lost you. It is he that cherishes such
notions, for he hath no pleasure to undo his kingdom, and lose his subjects.
Never did any man use so much diligence to get a new nature as the devil
doth to hinder him.
Will you seriously consider,
1. It is highly irrational to expect security and glory in an unregenerate
state. Is it for us to separate those things which God hath joined, flesh
and destruction, a new birth and a kingdom ? That which doth naturally
tend to hell can never conduct us to heaven. Can the old nature, which
frames a fit subject for eternal vengeance, ever fashion it to be a vessel of
eternal glory ? There is as great a tendency in the old nature to hell as
there is of a stone or lead to the earth. If men may be saved in their un-
regeneracy,
(1.) God must be false to himself. False he must be to his truth, false
to holiness, false to his Son, false to the whole tenor of the gospel. God
must change the covenant of grace, blot out all his threatenings in Scripture,
give the lie to all his declarations in the word, proclaim himself unwise in all
his administrations, if ever such a man be happy ; and is it not a damnable
64 charnock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
conceit, and a provoking wish, to desire that God should belie himself to
befriend us ? There mast be a new gospel before any can be saved without
a new nature. This cannot be. Must God change his law, or we our lusts ?
God hath settled and declared a decree, that none that are not born again
shall enter into the kingdom of God. His decree stands irreversible, the
change must necessarily therefore be on our side.
(2.) As far as I can understand, God must put himself out of heaven be-
fore that such a man can come thither. There can be no pleasure on either
side with unsuitableness. If God be absent from heaven, as to his glorious
presence, how can there be happiness ? He loves his own righteousness
better than to endure such men's presence, and they love their unrighteous-
ness so much as not to bear his. No man cares for coming into a place
which is possessed by one that he hates ; they can have no pleasure to be in
a heaven with God, who were delighted to be in a world without him, Eph.
ii. 12.
(3.) Jesus Christ must be a liar, and the gospel false, if ever there be a
heaven enjoyed by an old nature. He hath asserted it, that is truth itself;
and is it not a madness to imagine a possibility of coming thither in spite of
him ? You may upon better grounds hope to be crowned monarch of the
whole world to-morrow, than to enter into heaven without being born again.
Christ values his truth, though he did not his life, above our souls, and his
word will stand firm against all presumptuous confidence whatsoever.
(4.) Suppose God should reverse his gospel (which cannot be), and declare
another, 1 cannot see how the case would be mended, for what gospel can
God frame, with a salvo to his own honour, without the creatures being
righteous to enjoy the benefit of it ? Must God conform himself to the will
of our lusts ? Must he cast his holiness into the depths of the sea ? Must
he paint himself black to agree with our hue ? as the negroes picture him of
their own colour. In a word, must God cease to be God that you may cease
to be miserable ? To desire happiness without a new nature shews a con-
tempt of God, since it is to desire it on terms on which it is dishonourable
for God to give it.
Well then, this doctrine is so certainly true, that if an angel from heaven
should declare the contrary he ought not to be believed : Gal. i. 8, ' Let
him be accursed ;' that is, he would be more a devil than an angel, and it
would be an accursed doctrine. He must found his doctrine upon another
gospel, and a gospel printed in hell, but impossible to have an imprimatur from
heaven. Is it possible, then, for any man, after such an assertion of our
Saviour, to live under the hearing of the Christian doctrine, and fancy a
heavenly glory belonging to him without a heavenly nature ?
2. As it is highly irrational, so it is highly sinful to lie in an unrenewed
state. To continue in it after the declaration of God's holiness, in so emi-
nent a manner, in the death of his Son, is a high approbation of unrighteous-
ness, and a contempt of his infinite purity ; for since he hath shewn himself
a hater of sin, and the old nature of Adam in the death of the Redeemer,
more than he could any other ; the fostering the old nature in us is a valu-
ing that which God hath manifested his hatred of, and a slighting all the
expressions of bis love. It draws a greater guilt upon our persons than
Adam did by his fall upon our natures : John xv. 22, • If I had not come and
spoken to them, they had not had sin.' If 1 had not told them those things,
and preach heavenly doctrine to them, their sin had been as it were a petty
larceny, in comparison of what it is now, a treason against my Father's crown
and dignity ; ' but now they have hated me and my Father.'
3. Hence it follows that such a man's condition must be exceeding miser-
John III. 3, 5. J the necessity of regeneration. 65
able. Those that • have a part in the first resurrection,' on them it is said
' the second death shall have no power,' Rev. xx. 6 ; whether he means
the resurrection of Christ, or the spiritual resurrection of the soul. The second
death then shall have power over them that have no part in the first resur-
rection.
(1.) Such axe peculiarly miserable. Such a man had better have been any
other creature, — a toad, a serpent, a beetle, liable to be trod to death by the
next comer, — than have been a man, and live and die with a serpentine na-
ture, and without renewing grace, would be glad one day to change states
with them ; and it had been better to have been born in the darkest part of
America than in England, and better to have lived in the blindest corner in
England than in London, where he hath heard so much and so often of the
necessity of the new birth, and yet cherished an old nature. It is an aston-
ishing madness this. Better never to have been born a man than not be a
real Christian, which he cannot be without this new birth, this necessary
regeneration ; better never to have entered by the door of baptism into the
Christian society, than not have a nature answerable to the baptismal in-
tendment. There is not the meanest beggar that creeps in the street, the
most ulcerous Lazarus that lies at the door, but if renewed is infinitely hap-
pier than any one unrenewed can be with all worldly felicity.
(2.) Such are unavoidably miserable. The mercy of God can never make
you happy against his truth, the righteousness of God can never do it with-
out the necessary qualification. Is it just with God to give his worst ene-
mies the same reward of glory with his choicest friends ; to those that
never endeavoured to reform their lives according to the methods of the
gospel, as to those who have had the holy image of his Son drawn and
wrought in their hearts? In 2 Tim. iv. 8 he is said to be a ' righteous judge,'
which could not be if he gave the same rewards to both the contrary qualifi-
cations. The devil may as soon be saved, as any man without a new birth.
Though there be enough written against the salvation of devils, yet there is
more written in the book of God against the salvation of men living and dying
in an unregenerate state than against the salvation of devils. Do any expect
to see the kingdom of God without it ? Why, that form on which you sit,
that dust under your feet, far cleaner than ourselves by nature, are fitter to
be brought into that place of glory. The holiness of God can better endure
them than an unrenewed man. He pronounced their kind good at the crea-
tion, but never was an unrenewed nature pronounced good by God. You
can no more shun an eternal misery without it, than you can a temporal
death with it ; you can no more fly from hell than from yourselves. Our
blessed Saviour, the redeemer of the world, will know none for admission
into happiness without his badge upon them : Mat. vii. 23, ' I never knew
you :' you had nothing in you worthy my knowledge and affection. Where
is the evangelical impression upon your soul ? will be the only question then
asked.
Well, then, I wish every unregenerate man would put the question to his
soul, Can I dwell with everlasting burnings ? Can I, with a cheerful secu-
rity, meet the wrath of God in its march against me ? Is eternal darkness
a delightful state ? Is an eternal separation from the blessed God to be
desired ? Is a present sensual life to be preferred before a joyful eternity?
Is there any one Scripture in the whole book of God can give me comfort in
this state ? What, then, dost thou, my soul, spend thy thoughts about,
since there is nothing to procure thy felicity, but this new birth ?
Use 3. Is of comfort. Is it so, that without regeneration there is no sal-
6b' charnock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
vation ? Then how great is the comfort of that person, who hath attained
this necessary thing ! What a foundation is here for the composition of
new songs for spiritual exultings ! What a diffusion may there be of pleasure
through the whole soul ! That little regenerating principle within you is
more necessary than the wisdom of Solomon, the power of Nebuchadnezzar,
the glory of Ahasuerus, the reaching heads of the most knowing men in the
world, and shall make you happy, when others in their unrenewed wisdom
and unsanctified wealth shall descend to destruction.
1. The least true grace hath comfort from hence. ' Except a man be
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God ;' therefore if he be born
again, he shall see it. Our Saviour doth not say, except a man hath been
born so long, arrived to such a stature, but simply born again ; it lies upon
the essence, not upon the degree. A child that cries the first minute it is
born, is in a state of life, as well as the man in the prime of his strength ;
a child hath the nature of a man, though attended with some strong disease
and great infirmities ; though every true Christian hath not the same growth,
yet he hath the same birth, the same renewing Spirit. ' If a man be in Christ,
he is a new creature ;' the apostle doth not say, he is a strong creature, or
a tall creature. St John reckons three different states of Christians, 1 John
ii. 13, 14, children, young men, and fathers, and all in a state of the know-
ledge of God.
2. Here is comfort in the ignorance of the time of the new birth. ' Except a
man be born again,' not except he know the time of his being born again; the
want of the knowledge of the time hath troubled some, but it is no matter for
the time, if we find the essential properties ; our happiness is secured by the
essence, not by the circumstance. It is the glory of those that were born in
Sion, that they 'were born there,' Ps. lxxxvii. 5, though the time of their
birth were not exactly known by them. Many may tell the first prepara-
tions to it, the first strong conviction, the first time they found their hearts
affected ; this is more easy than to tell the very time when spiritual life was
infused, any more than to tell the punctual time when the child was quick-
ened in the womb ; this is no more known, than that particular minute when
this or that addition was made to our stature and growth, though the growth
itself be discernible.
3. Such ai-e new born to the enjoyment of God in glory. If none shall
see God without it, then those shall certainly see God who have it ; it is for
the undefiled inheritance that God did first beget you : 1 Peter i. 3, ' He
hath begotten us to a lively hope, to an inheritance undefiled, incorruptible,
that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.' Had not God intended
you for an everlasting converse with himself, he would not have taken such
pains, but have let you lie in your blood, and run down the stream of nature
into the ocean of a miserable eternity with the common mass of the world.
What comfort will this be, when you see the old house of your bodies full of
gaps, ready to fall, that your reborn souls are ready to take possession of
their eternal inheritance ! Paul was one of the highest rank in Christianity,
both in grace and office, yet the ' crown of righteousness ' was not only laid
up for him, and to be given to him, but to ' all that love the appearing ' of
Christ, 2 Tim. iv. 8, that is, to all those that, from the principles of the new
nature, aspire to that perfection, which shall be at the appearance of Christ.
There is as certain a tendency, by the ordination of God, of a renewed soul
to heaven, as of flame into the air. Grace and glory are in nature the same
thing as a seed and a plant.
4. It is comfort upon this account, If new-born to heaven, then to all
things which may further your passage thither and assist you in it. To God,
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 67
as your God and king to protect you, as your Father to cherish you ; to the
promises as your promises, as assurauces and deeds for heaven ; to a sanc-
tification of all states for a furtherance of you in your travel to and fitness
for this kingdom ; to a sight of God in his ordinances, and in his provi-
dences ; he will not deny a beam here in his institutions to those for whom
he reserves his full face hereafter ; to a fellowship with God in duties of
worship, as a foretaste of a perpetual communion with him ; to an improve-
ment of all graces ; to the perfectest dress at last of all beautiful grace,
which may completely fit you for an everlasting sight of God in heaven.
Use. 4. If without the new birth there is no entering into heaven,
then it stands upon you to clear up your evidences for the new birtb.
If the existence of it be necessary for our felicity, the knowledge of it is
necessary for our comfort. This is the great distinguishing evangelical sign ;
without an inward principle of life, we have not reached the intendment of
the gospel : John vi. 63, ' The words of Christ are spirit and life.' John
x. 10, ' I am come that you might have life.' He hath no interest in the
gospel that hath not this in his heart. Every man in Christ must be a new
creature.
To encourage you in this work, consider,
1. It is by this you must know your justification. Justification is our
blessedness : Horn. iv. 8, ' Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not
impute sin.' And this is the way to know our blessedness : forgiveness of
sin precedes the inheritance, and both this and that are received only by the
sanctified through faith in Christ : Acts xxvi. 18, ' That they may receive
forgiveness of sin, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith
which is in me.' The alteration of our frame is notius, more discernible to
us, than that of our relative states ; the new dispositions discover what rela-
tion we stand in to God. This is a certain truth, he that doth not find the
draught of God's image in him, hath no reason to conclude he hath any
saving interest in the propitiatory sacrifice of the Redeemer. As the blood
and water were not separated in the effusion upon the cross, neither are
they in their application to the soul ; water to renew us, and blood to justify
us. The ' washing of regeneration ' evidenceth our being justified by grace,
Titus iii. 5-7 ; the apostle infers the one from the other.
2. Therefore, by the knowledge of this only you can gain comfort. The
great desire is, Oh that I were assured ! Let it be your great business to
clear up the new birth. It is the office of the Spirit not only to comfort but
renew, and to comfort by renewing. The hope of eternal life is founded
upon the renewing of the Holy Ghost, as well as on justification by grace,
Titus i. 5-7 ; the Spirit as a comforter is to guide into all truth, John xvi.
13, into that truth which is sanctifying, John xvii. 17. The property of
the Spirit is to guide us into sanctifying truth, and sanctify us by that truth ;
the Spirit doth witness w T ith our spirits that we are the children of God ; its
witness is by something within us, not without us. There must be
something in our hearts as a foundation of this testimony ; what witness
can there be in an old nature? Look after, therefore, those essential pro-
perties of the new nature. Christ preached duty and comfort together ; his
first sermon, Mat. v., is made up of both. The clear evidence of a new life
seated in the centre of the soul, will be a surer testimony of our right to, and
fitness for glory, than if an angel from heaven should assure us in the name
of God, that we are some of his heirs ; the testimony of an angel is but that
of a creature, lower then the verbal testimony of the Son of God. The evi-
dences of the beginnings of glory, by the operations of grace and a Godlike
nature, are more uncontrollable than the highest assurances all the angels
68 charnock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
in heaven can give us. Clear up this, therefore. There are many coun-
terfeits ; men may take morality, outward reformation, heaps of religious
duties, to be this work, but tbese are all insufficient, and men without good
examination may cheat themselves, and take copper for gold, and tin for
silver. There is a natural or moral integrity, and an evangelical integrity;
the natural integrity God owns in Abimelech : Gen. xx. 6, ' Yea, I know
that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart.' He was king of the place
where Abraham thought there was no fear of God, ver. 12. And it is likely
there was not. God puts none of them upon prayer for themselves, but
Abraham upon praying for them.
Then ask yourselves these two or three questions.
1. How stand your hearts to God and sin ? Is there a bias in the will,
which doth naturally carry it to God ? What light is there in your minds ?
what flexibleness and tenderness in the will and conscience ? what sprightli-
ness in your affections to the things of God ? what readiness to meet him in
his motions to you ? what closing with Christ ? Are there strong cries,
struggling, wrestling, Jacob-like prayers ? A new-born babe not to cry ; a
child not to call to his father, and follow him, and press to him : it is incon-
sistent with such a nature, since it is the first fruit of the ' spirit of adop-
tion ' received by us, to cause us to cry, Abba, Father, Rom. viii. 15.
How stand your hearts to sin ? Are there deep humiliations for it, utter
detestation of it ? Are your affections dead to the flesh and the world, and
alive and quick to the things of God ? Rom. viii. 10, ' The body is dead
because of sin, and the spirit is life because of righteousness.' What hum-
bling of inward pride, what striving against inward sins, what loathing of
inward corruptions ?
2. What delight have yon in spiritual duties ? Do your souls spring up
in a service ? Are your hearts in heaven before the words are out of your
mouth ? What is agreeable to nature is not burdensome. Spiritual services
are as pleasant to a new nature, as sin is to an old, as sweet wines and
delicious food is to a gluttonous disposition : Ps. cxix. 103, ' How sweet are
thy words unto my taste ! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth ! ' Honey,
one of the staple excellencies of Canaan, which is described to be a land
flowing with milk and honey. Doth your delight in the law of God spring
up from the inner man ? There is a delight in doing some things of the law
(the Gentiles did by nature the things contained in the law, Rom. ii. 14), by
a moral nature, not a new nature ; if by nature, they had then a delight in
them, and it was as all delight is, inward in the soul and heart, no doubt
but many of them had pleasure in their morality. That is not the meaning
of the apostle ; but he doth distinguish his delights from theirs by the object
of it, and by the subject or spring of it. It was the law of God, as it was the
law of God, that he did delight in ; and it was not only an inward delight,
but a delight arising from an inner nature, a man distinct from that man
composed of soul and body ; it did arise from a spirit possessed with nobler
principles and higher ends.
Well, then, is it your meat and drink to do his will ? Has the glory of
God been dearer to you than the dearest worldly concerns you have ? Are
your converses with him very delightful to you ? Do the thoughts of God,
and delights in him, frequently return upon you ? What bears the most
grateful relish in your souls ? holy thoughts and duties, or sinful and foolish
vanities ?
3. How do you live ? Have you another life 'by the faith of the Son of
God ? ' Gal. ii. 20 ; another faith beside the common faith, not resting in
assent, but ' working by love,' Gal. v. 6. Do you live to yourselves ? That
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 69
is proper to a state of nature. Or do you live to God ? 2 Cor. v. 13. That
is proper to a state of grace : Gal. ii. 19, ' I am dead to the law, that I might
live unto God.' Is there a closing with Christ, not only as your Saviour, but
as the principle and end of your lives ? Is there a living the life of God, the
life of Christ ? Can Christ be formed in the heart, and there be nothing of
the qualities of Christ, nothing of the spirit of Christ ? Is Christ formed in
the heart, a hard, low, dead, cold, dark, lifeless Christ ? This frame is a
quite contrary thing to Christ. If we are born of the will of God, we are
born to answer the will of God. Is it the will of God that we should be
loose in our hearts, and vain in our lives ? That is the will of the flesh,
not the will of God. According as our hearts are, so is our birth ; sin or
grace must have dominion in the soul ; they cannot live amicably together ;
a man cannot be a sinner and a saint with the same will, cannot equally love
holiness and iniquity. We may as well say that a man may be in heaven
and hell at the same time ; not but that a renewed man may in a sudden fit
do a thing against his nature, as Moses, one of a mild disposition, was trans-
ported with a strain of passion against his nature. If sin reigns in the
heart, though it doth not in outward acts ; if we yield ourselves servants, to
obey it in the lusts thereof, though not in the outward fruit of those lusts,
this new-creature principle was never settled in the heart: Rom. vi. 12, ' Let
not sin reign therefore in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the
lusts thereof : neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteous-
ness unto sin.' He makes a manifest difference between the inward lust
obeyed, and the outward commission of it in the members, and places the
reign of sin in one as well as the other ; and, ver. 16, concludes them in a
state of nature or a state of grace, according as they yield themselves ser-
vants to this or that. A regenerate practical atheist is just as true as to say
a regenerate devil.
(1.) Be diligent observers, therefore, of what solid alterations you find in
your spirits ; what motions, starts, principles, ends you can perceive there ;
and if you find you have this excellent and necessary new birth, admire God's
grace in you, that he should pass by so many thousands in the world and
renew you ; that he should leave many soaking in their sins, and swimming
to destruction in their old nature, and bestow this heavenly plant upon your
souls. And prize it too. Aquinas hath an excellent saying, The good ot'
one grace is greater than the good of all nature ; which words Cajetan com-
mends as fit to be writ upon our minds, and constantly reviewed by us, to
raise our admirations of God and his grace.
I speak now but little of these things, because the next discourse will lead
me to speak more of them.
(2.) Seek it. If it be necessary to be had, it is necessary to be sought.
We are all at this present before God in an old or new nature ; and if we die
in the nature we have received from old Adam, without another from the
new, it is as certain that every one of us shall be excluded out of the king-
dom of God, as it is certain we live and breathe in the places where we stand
or sit. We are born of the earth, we must be born from heaven ; we must
have a spiritual as well as an animal life. Oh that every man and woman
had the same thoughts of the necessity of it as they have who are past hope
in hell of ever attaining it ! Riches are not necessary, honours are not ne-
cessary ; this is of absolute necessity. Were you like Solomon in all his
glory, you could not have the privilege of entering into God's kingdom with-
out a new nature ; but a new nature without the glory of Solomon, nay,
without a rag to your backs, will admit you. If those that are already
renewed must be every day putting off the old and putting on the new
70 CHARNOCK S WORKS. [JOHN III. 3, 5.
man,* Eph. iv. 22, 24, how much more need have you who have not dropped
one scale, or sweat out one spirit of the old man, nor have a grain of the new
man in you ? As original corruption stood up in the place of original
righteousness, so a gracious regenerate frame must rise up in the place of
original corruption, for God will never befriend corrupt nature so much as
to give a happiness to that which he hates. Men do not choose weeds but
flowers to plant in their delightful gardens. God indeed doth choose weeds,
but they are turned into the nature of flowers hefore he transplants them to
glory. We must have a wedding garment to fit us for his feast, and oil in
our vessels to prepare us for his nuptials.
Seek it, for,
(1.) It is an indispensable duty. God hath resolved that only ' the pure
in heart shall see God,' Mat. v. 8. It is a duty incumbent on us to love
God. Since we are bound to love God, we are bound to love whatsoever
hath any relation to him. Therefore we must love ourselves, not with a
sordid, carnal love, but as we are the image of God. Hence we are bound
to do what we can to brighten and clear this image, and restore' it to its
primitive perfection in our souls. We are answerable to God for the pre-
senting this image of God in the same state wherein it was when he conferred
it upon Adam, and upon us in his loins. Since the Kedeemer hath under-
taken to restore it, it is our duty to seek to this Redeemer for the restoration
of it, for he came ' that we might have life,' John x. 16 ; a vital principle
in us to fit us for eternal life, and to ' have it more abundantly,' in a more
glorious and fixed manner than Adam had.
(2.) Seek it, for something of this nature, or equivalent to it, seems ne-
cessary to all rational and intellectual creatures. The first nature of man
was sown in mutability, and there was a necessity of something equivalent
to this regeneration to fix and establish his nature ; as the confirmation of
angels under the head Christ is in some sort a regeneration of them, for it
is an alteration of their state, from mutable to immutable, not by nature, for
so God only is immutable, but by grace : Eph. i. 10, • He hath gathered to-
gether in one all things in Christ.' There is need now of it to change our
nature, and afterwards to fix us in it. Most think that Adam, had he stood
some time, had been confirmed in the state of innocency, and advanced to a
more excellent state than that of paradise, which would have been an altera-
tion of his state. If, then, an alteration of state was necessary for the fixing
bis happiness, an alteration of state is much more necessary for us for
regaining the happiness we fell from.
(3.) Seek it, because in not seeking it you act against your own reason and
natural experience. You have by the light of nature, improved by the light
of the gospel, so much knowledge as to perceive that you are not as God
first made you. You cannot but acknowledge it impossible that so filthy
and disorderly a piece can come out of his hands ; that there is something
wanting to you. And are those relics of nature left only to shew us our
indigence, and not also to spur us on to seek a remedy ? Melancthon saith,
I have seen many epicures who, being in some grief for their sins, have
argued, How can I expect to be received by God, when I find not a new light
and new virtues infused into me ? When you are stilled after the rage of
carnal affections or glut of pleasures, and you do in silence turn in upon
yourselves, and make inquiry after your future state, if your conscience do
not lie and flatter, will they not tell you to your faces that you are men of
death, prepared against the day of slaughter ? Besides, will not every man
confess in his most raised retirements that he cannot find any real satisfac-
* Eurgess.
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 71
tion in things below ? And are there not sometimes some natural aspirings
to something above these ? Do not all men one time or other inquire, Ps.
iv. 6, ' Who will shew us any good ?' Have you ever a more delightful
pleasure than when you find yourselves inflamed with some desires for it ?
But, alas ! do you not feel yourselves in a depraved state, and that these
motions are but weak flutterings, and that the soul is quickly wearied in
them ? Is not this an evidence that there must be a more vigorous nature
infused both to attain and enjoy them ? Is it not then an acting against
your own sentiments not to seek it ? Do you not offer violence to that little
reason in you to cut the wings of such motions ? Let me add this too, you
act in a way contrary to the nature of every thing, not to seek that state
which was designed for the perfection of human nature. Is it not natural
for everything to endeavour its recovery to its primitive purity, and struggle
under that which is preternatural to it ? A fountain will not rest till it hath
wrought out the filth which hath been cast into it ; so neither should man
be quiet till he recover himself from the dominion of sin in his nature, and
his pollution by it. Are you contented with a nasty, impure, and diseased
body ? are you not restless till it be cleansed and cured ? and is it no trouble
to you to have your souls in a dirty and foul condition ? Do you not hereby
act against your own nature in other things ?
(4.) Not to seek it is to despise the general mercy of God, and the general
kindness of the Mediator to human nature. There are in man desires for
and inclinations to happiness, and some knowledge that this happiness lies
in God. These desires were left in man by the mercy of God upon the
interposition of the Mediator ; therefore some call them not relics of nature,
but restored principles, as a foundation to work upon ; for upon the fall man
did forfeit all, and sin despoiled himself of all tie jure, but by the mediation
of Christ, those were left (Col. i. 17, ' By him all things consist'), other-
wise there had been no stock to work upon. These are left as founda-
tions upon which God grafts this grace of regeneration,* as they that spin
do not spin out the whole thread, but leave some end, that they may add
to it another thread ; so God, having a purpose to do good on man in
renewing him, did not suffer the stock of nature to be wholly rooted out,
but left that as a root to graft upon, to make him the better capable of
happiness. Had not man had a natural desire to happiness, there were no
ground to work upon him to induce him to such a thing ; therefore in not
seeking it you reproach God for leaving this stump in you, and seem to be
so well pleased with corrupt nature as if you would not have any remainder
of the former. It is a striving against the relic of original nature left in us.
(5.) Seek it, for it is as necessary as justification. You should therefore
seek it with as high an esteem of it as you have of pardon ; none but would
desire pardon of sin. You must be as desirous of the regeneration of your
nature ; they are equally necessary. Those who will not have an inherent
righteousness can never expect an imputed righteousness from Christ ; he
never came to that end. Two things happened to us by the fall : another
state and another nature; the regaining of the former must be equally sought
with the latter, a being in another covenant by justification (for naturally we
are in the covenant with Adam), and a being beautified with another image,
because naturally we are deformed by the image of Adam. As long as we
are only in a state of descent from, and union with, the first Adam, we are
under the strictness of his covenant and the deformity of his image ; when
we are united to the second Adam, and spiritually descend from him, we
are in his covenant of grace, and are adorned with his image. Both, there-
* Stoughton's Righteous Man's Pica, ser. i. p. 30.
72 charnock's works. [John III. 8, 5.
fore, must be looked after as equally necessary: Rom. v. 21, 'That as
sin hath reigned unto death, so might grace reign through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.' Let us, then, look after this
reign of grace ; let not that be the last which should be first in our thoughts.
Since our natural descent from Adam, we are born God's enemies : we must
be spiritually new-born before our enmity can expire.
(6.) The advantages that accrue by regeneration are high. When we are
renewed, we part with impurity for purity, with dross for gold, with corrup-
tion for holiness, with flesh for spirit, with nature for grace, with sin for
God, and the enjoyment of him for ever. Our present nature is a nature of
death and bondage ; a new nature is like the new law, a law of life and
liberty, James i. 25. It will put our souls in order, and set the Israelite
free from the Egyptian taskmaster ; it will quell the rage of sin, and diffuse
a serenity in our souls. Grace and peace are not unfitly joined together by
the apostle, in respect of peace in ourselves, wbich cannot be without habitual
grace, as well as peace with God, which cannot be without his favour. It
will enable us to perform spiritual services. As all natural actions flow
from a natural form in the creature, so all spiritual actions flow from a
spiritual nature in the soul, and without it a carnal heart can no more do
any spiritual work than a rock can perform the work of a balsam-tree. It
is but highly reasonable and just we should endeavour to regain that state
wherein we were created, as the best for us, since the estate wherein God
created us was certainly the best. It is unconceivably better to be a righteous
man than to be a man.
(7.) Seek it ; you will never repent your labour, because it is necessary.
Necessity makes us contend with the greatest difficulties ; men will do more
at a pinch than they can do at other times, when no necessity is upon them.
Never did any repent of it, never any will ; it hath been a comfort upon a
deathbed to all that had it : it never was any man's sorrow. The universal
consent of all who have found it wrought should quicken our desires and
endeavours for it. Ask a renewed man whether ever it troubled him that he
was regenerate ? whether he would be without that state rather than undergo
the same pains again ? "Would not his answer be, No, not for all the world ?
When the blessed apostle Paul considered his late regeneration, he expresseth
it with some regret, 1 Cor. xv. 8, ' as one born out of due time.' It implies
a sorrow that he was not born sooner ; and Austin cries out, Sero te amavi,
Domine, I have loved thee too late, Lord. So doth every renewed man
repent that he was not regenerate sooner. A regenerate man come under
the yoke of Christ finds such a pleasure in it, such a suitableness, such an
advantage to his interest, that he would not be free from those delightful
engagements, and the sweetness of that yoke, for all the delights and commo-
dities of the world.
Exhortation 3. Seek it presently ; let not a minute pass without some
ejaculation to God for the new birth ; and when you come home, fall upon
your knees, and rise not till you find a change of resolutions and disposi-
tions. If you did well understand the necessity of it, you would not be
one hour without begging it. You have heard the necessity of it now,
are you sure you shall ever hear the doctrine preached on again ? Are
you sure you may not be past the hope as well as the happiness of the
new birth before many days be run, if the present opportunity be neglected ?
When God commanded Abraham to circumcise himself and his family, it
is said he did it that very day wherein God commanded him, Gen.
xvii. 23. Why should you not imitate Abraham in the ready and speedy
circumcision of the heart ? Though God doth wait long, it cannot be
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 73
thought he should alway be courting dead souls. It must be now ; there
is no hope of such a change after death : ' The redemption of their soul
ceaseth for ever,' Ps. xlix. 8; no more under the offers of a redeeming
Saviour, no more under the motions of a renewing Spirit. Christ breaks the
nations like a potter's vessel, Ps. ii. 9. A vessel before it be burned may be
macerated in water, and formed anew ; but when it hath been burned in the
furnace, it cannot be changed. Well, if thou wilt be new born this day, God
will bless the memory of this day, for he will gain a son ; Jesus Christ will
by his blood put this day in red letters in his calendar, for he will gain a
brother ; the Spirit will rejoice, for he will gain a temple ; angels will
rejoice, for they will gain a fellow-servant ; you will gain a fitness for an
everlasting inheritance. Let me, therefore, press young men and women to
this necessary and important concern ; I know not when I may have so fit
an opportunity or subject for it. It is not said, except an old man be bora
again, but except a man ; therefore be not careless, as if you were not con-
cerned in it, nor put it off to a longer day from the probability of the length
of your life in a course of nature. Consider,
1. An early regeneration makes for God's honour.
(1.) In preventing much sin. How ripe are young ones, yea, even chil-
dren when they are scarce green in age, as though iniquity had been
their tutor in the womb ! Youthful blood is the devil's tinder. Job knew
it ; therefore when his sons feasted he sacrificed, chap. i. 5. He was
jealous of their inbred corruption, from the sense of the sins of his own
youth, which we find him complaining of, Job xiii. 26 ; therefore he feared
his children, having the same temptations, might fall into the same trans-
gressions. Now, by an early regeneration, many diseases of the soul are
prevented, as well as the great crack of nature cured, as the distempers of the
body are prevented by altering the habit of it in the spring. Though by a
late regeneration, that of an old man, the soul is fitted for heaven, yet it will
be grievous to him to think that his former dishonouring of God in his
natural state was not prevented. It is otherwise with the early regenerate ;
they cannot complain, as Paul did, Oh, how have I persecuted the church
of God ! how have I breathed out threatenings against Christ and his people !
how have I wallowed in all kind of sin ! They have indeed as much reason
to complain of the stock of the old nature within them, but not of so many
bitter fruits of the flesh as others. How doth the devil hang the wing when
he is deprived of an active servant ! As nothing makes heaven so glad, so
nothing makes hell so sad, as to be frustrated of the full crop of sin it
expected from such an instrument.
(2.) In doing much service for God. Young men are usually of active
spirits and vigorous affections, whereas age doth freeze all youthful warmth.
Such, like Peter, can • gird themselves, and go whither they please,' John
xxi. 18, and travel about for God ; but age damps the spirits. We are not
so fit for service when the vigour of our youth is spent. And would you be
saved, and God have no more glory from you ? Now what parts, or strength,
or mettle, a young man hath, grace will bias, put into a right channel, and
direct to an useful end. The early regenerate will be eminent in piety ; for
in a course of nature, they have a longer time to grow in. Their faith and
love, by a larger exercise, will be the stronger ; and the stronger the grace,
the more glory will be brought to God, Rom. iv. 20. Abraham, it is said,
was • strong in faith, giving glory to God.' He that rises betimes in the,
morning, will do more work than he that lies in bed till noon, or loiters till
the sun declines.
(3.) In manifesting the power of the grace of God. An early regenera-
74 chaexock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
tion is the great ornament of the gospel. It evidenceth the dignity and
strength of habitual grace, in quenching youthful heats and powerful tempta-
tions, in making such to deny themselves, and prefer God's precepts before
their own pleasures. It magnifies grace, when the devil is beat upon his
own dunghill, where he had so great an interest, by reason of the corrup-
tions such are subject to. What an elogy is it to the beauty and power of
grace, to see a young flourishing plant in God's garden ! It shews the
power of his grace upon such to salvation, that they are strong in the power
of the might of God, to wrestle against principalities and powers, as well as
against flesh and blood. It manifests the power of God's grace in the work
of faith, and that there is a spirit of power residing in them.
2. As an early regeneration makes for God's honour, so it makes for
your own interest.
(1.) Your new birth will be the gentler. The work of conscience will be
more kindly, without the horrors they have, who have lain many years soak-
ing in the old nature. More of hell must be flashed in an old sinner's face, to
awaken him from his dead sleep. Paul, who had sinned some years with an
high hand, was struck to the earth. Christ, as it were, took him by the throat,
and shook him : Acts ix. 6, « He trembling, and astonished, said,' &c. There
will be more amazing aggravations of sin to rack the conscience, and conse-
quently more anguish. Putrefied wounds require more lancing ; and there-
fore are more painful in the cure than those which are but newly made. The
more we are alienated from the life of God, the harder it will be to return
to live that life again. The further a man is gone out of his road, the
longer he must travel to come in again ; and the more pains he must take
in running or riding, than he that wandered but a little from it.
(2.) Your new birth will be the gratefuller to God. God loves the first
fruits. He would not have the gleanings, but the first crop of everything
under the law, which was laid upon the altar as God's portion. The kind-
ness of the youth is most respected by God. He cherished Israel because
they were ' the first fruits of his increase,' Jer. ii. 2, 3. 'I remember the
kindness of thy youth, the love of thy espousals, when thou wentest after me
in the wilderness,' under many discouragements. God writes down the
time of the new birth, and it runs in his mind a long time after. ' Epenetus,
the first fruits of Achaia,' is saluted by Paul, just after the salutation of the
whole church, with the title of ivell-beloved : Rom. xvi. 5, ' Greet the church that
is in their house ; salute my well-beloved Epenetus, who is the [first] fruits of
Achaia unto Christ.' And surely more beloved by the Lord than by the ser-
vant. God bath most affection for such as come in at the first sound of the
gospel. Daniel was a young man, yet the holiest man of his age ; and God
hath so great an affection to him that he joins him with Noah, that famous
preacher of righteousness, and Job, that mirror of patience, — Ezek. xiv. 14,
' Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should but
deliver their own souls by their righteousness,' — as those that had the greatest
power with him, to keep off judgments from the place where they were.
(3.) Comfort will be the greater by an early new birth. What a long time
will such an one have to enjoy the comforts of the Spirit! whereas those that
are renewed later, have fewer comforts, because their grieving the Spirit hath
been the longer. You will be always ready, and fit for the kingdom of God,
let God call when he will. Your foretastes of heaven greater, and much
acquaintance with the life of it, before you arrive at the place of full enjoy-
ment. John, the youngest disciple, lay in Christ's bosom; he had afterwards
the most spiritual illuminations, and the discoveries of the state of the church
in after days revealed to him. When our sluggishness makes God wait for
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of eegeneeation. 75
our return, his justice will make us wait long for his comforts. The earlier
your new birth, the sweeter will be your death, as being more stored with
experiences of God's grace, and goodness, and trutb, wherewith to answer all
the devil's affrighting charges in your departing hence. No doubt can arise,
but there will be a treasure of experience whence to draw an answer. The
longer acquaintance you have with God, and the longer likeness to him in
your natures, the more joyful will be your passage to him, and the more con-
fidence against the fear of death.
(4.) The earlier your new birth, the sincerer and stronger will be your grace.
To row against the strong stream and tide of nature, temptations of a youth-
ful age, the inconstancy and lightness of your humour, and the inconsiderate-
ness of your temper, are arguments of sincerity. To seek God, when a man
hath fair and frequent invitations to sin, is not so liable to suspicion, as
when a man can live no longer. The latter proceeds rather from a fear of
wrath than love to their Creator, or affection to his glory. Grace will be
the stronger, the more full of juice. He that is new-born betimes, when he
is young, will grow to a greater stature and a mighty strength in his age ; for it
is not with grace as it is with our bodies, the older the weaker ; but as the
outward man decays, the inward man grows, and is renewed day by day,
2 Cor. iv. 16. A young plant in the house of God will be fat and flourish-
ing, and full of fruit in old age, Ps. xcii. 13, 14. The weakness of the body
in such is the youthfulness of grace.
(5.) The earlier the new birth, the weightier will be your glory in the king-
dom of God. God rewards according to our works : Rev. ii. 23, ' I will give
to every one of you according to your works.' Not only to the wicked, the
children of the woman Jezebel, according to their works, but to them whose
charity, service, faith, patience, he knew, ver. 19. The longer you are with-
out a new life, a vital principle, the fewer will your works be, and the shorter
your wages. Though God in regeneration works as a sovereign, and hath
mercy on whom he will have mercy, yet, in rewarding, he acts as a righteous
judge, according to the rules of justice: 2 Tim. iv. 8, ' The crown which the
Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me ;' and so doth proportion the glory to
every man's service. Young ones regenerate, that bear head against the
temptations of their violent nature, shall have crowns set with more jewels.
They shall not only have an entrance, but ' an abundant entrance into the ever-
lasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,' 2 Peter i. 11. They
shall enter into the port with a full gale. The more violent storms they
bear up against, the brighter will be their glory. For if he that endures
temptation, but one temptation, shall have a crown, by proportion, he that
endures many shall have a greater : James i. 12, * Blessed is the man that
.endures temptation; for when he is tried, he shall have a crown of life.' How
comfortable will it be to feel the weight of your crown and the richness of
your robes, according to your years of service. If there be any sorrow in
heaven, it is because they were not sooner new-born, that they might more
have glorified God on earth, who bestows so much honour upon them in
heaven. If any of you were sure to be regenerate after you had spent so
many years after the course of the world and fulfilling the lusts of the flesh,
yet how great would your loss be, both of the comforts of the Spirit in this
life, and of degrees of glory in the other !
3. Deferring the seeking after this new birth till more years grow upon you
is a mighty folly. It is a matter of the highest concern, the greatest neces-
sity, in comparison of which all other things are but toys and superfluities.
Is it not folly to prefer superfluous things before necessary ? Is it not a mad-
ness for a man to be mending the mud-wall about his garden, and neglect
76 chaknock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
to quench the fire which hath got hold of his house ? You are poisoned in
your nature, you have plague-spots upon your hearts. Would it not be ridi-
culous for a man that hath drunk poison, and spilt some upon his clothes,
to be more careful to have tbe stains fetched out of his garments than the
poison out of his stomach ? You are careful about the concerns of the body
and flesh, oh be not such fools as to let the poison within get the greater head,
and the plague continue in the heart.
Folly it is,
(1.) Because of the uncertainty of life. You are not lords and keepers of
your own times, they are in God's hands: Ps. xxxi. 15, ' My times are in
thy hands.' What if he should fling that time out of his hand to-morrow,
what would your condition be ? Those that are in a dead state now, as they
ai*e here, if judgment find them so, are irrecoverable. Because thou art a
child of wrath, if he take thee thus away with his stroke, as Job speaks,
chap, xxxvi. 18, then a ' great ransom cannot deliver thee.' Hell followed
death close at the back, Rev. vi. 8. Shall sin reign in a body ? That is
base. But in a mortal body, a body that may drop into the grave every
hour ? That is folly in the highest degree. It is the apostle's exhortation :
Rom. vi. 12, ' Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies.' Many a
candle hath been put out before half burnt ; how often hath a clear sun in
the morning been overcast before noon ! Were none of you the last week at
the funeral of some strong and vigorous person ? Perhaps there is no more
time left you than just what will serve for to seek this new birth. God seizeth
upon some suddenly, that they have not time so much as to cry out what
aileth them : Job xxxvi. 13, 14, ' They cry not when he bindeth them. They
die in youth, and their life is among the unclean.' It is better to be new-born
many years too soon (if it can be supposed to be too soon), than to defer it
one minute too late. He that defers the new birth to-day, may not have a
morrow to be new born in. And to be surprised by death before you are
new born, better for you you had never been born at all.
(2.) It is folly, because if you neglect the present time, though you may
live, yet your return to God by a new birth may be very uncertain. There
is such a thing as a day of grace, shorter than the days of a man's life : Luke
xix. 42, ' The things of their peace' were then ' hid from their eyes,' though
their destruction was deferred forty years. There is such a resolve in heaven
sometimes, that ' the Spirit shall strive no longer ' with this or that man :
Gen. vi. 3, ' My Spirit shall not always strive with man,' or ' in man,' with
this or that man ; ' for that he also is flesh.' It is a threatening to those
in the church, in opposition to the profane world, ver. 2. The church began
then to be corrupted. My Spirit shall not strive with them ; though they
make a profession of me, and attend upon me in worship, yet they are flesh,
degenerated into mere flesh, and flesh they shall be. And sometimes it is
confirmed by a solemn oath. Rev. x. 5, 6, The angel swears in a most
solemn manner, ' By him that lives for ever, who created heaven and earth,'
&c, ' that there should be time no longer ;' that is, no time of repentance, as
appears if you refer it to Rev. ix. 20, 21. It is not therefore without great
reason that the apostle doth double both the notes of attention, behold, and
the time too, now, now, when he exhorts them not to receive the grace of
God in vain ; that is, sit under the gospel administration to no purpose,
without having a gospel impression and signature upon their hearts :
' Behold, noiv is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day of salvation,'
2 Cor. vi. 2.
4. As it is a folly to neglect it, so if it be not presently sought, and endea-
voured for, the more difficult it will be every day to attain it.
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 77
(1.) In regard of the increase of moral indisposition and unfitness. It is
true indeed there is in every man a moral indisposition to a spiritual reno-
vation, but the indisposition is greater when the habits of sin are more than
ordinarily strengthened. The more the soul is frozen, the harder it will be
to melt. A body dead some few hours is a subject more capable of having
life breathed into it than when it is putrefied and partly mouldered to dust.
A young tree may more easily be taken up and transplanted than a strong old
oak, which hath spread its roots deep into the earth. The more rooted the
habit of sin, the harder the alteration of the soul. Every sin in an unre-
generate man is an adding a new stone to the former heap upon the grave
to hinder his resurrection. It is a fetter and bond — Acts viii. 23, ' bond of
iniquity' — and the more new chains are put upon thee, the more unable wilt
thou be to stir. The habits of sin will become more connatural to the soul,
and fortify themselves with new recruits.
(2.) In regard of the industry of the devil. If you remain in a state of
nature till you are old, that devil which blinds you now will have increased
your blindness- by that time ; he will bestir himself in your age, that he may
not lose that which he hath possessed so long. It is a shame for Satan, as
well as for a man, deficere in ultimo actu. He that struck the first fatal blow
to us, and occasioned this degenerate nature, will not want watchfulness and
care to strengthen it in you. He will be diligent to keep up his own work ;
the longer his possession, the more difficult his departure. Judas was a devil
in our Saviour's judgment all his time — John vi. 70, ' One of you is a devil,'
— but when he had withstood the force of our Saviour's discourses, and
nourished his covetousness against his Master's frequent conviction, the devil
1 entered into his heart,' John xiii. 27. Perhaps there had been before some
strugglings of natural conscience in Judas, as there may be in some of you ;
but when he had, against the sight of our Saviour's miracles, the hearing of
his sermons, the checks of his own conscience, continued in a natural state,
Satan enters into him in a more peculiar manner, in a way of more special
efficacy ; and, by an uncontrollable power, breaks the bridle of conscience,
which had held him in so long, and runs furiously with him to what wicked-
ness he pleased. Satan reigned in him before ; but as the regenerate, being
by degrees filled with spiritual gifts, and having additions of grace, are said
to be ' filled with the Spirit,' so natural men, as they increase in sin by degrees,
are said to have a new entrance of Satan into them, because there is an in-
crease of his efficacy in them, and power over them, binding them in stronger
chains and fetters of iron.
(3.) In regard of spiritual judgments, which will make it impossible. Such
judgments upon men that sit under the gospel, and admit not the influence
of it, are more frequent than is usually imagined, though they are not so
visible. Open sins God punishes many times by visible judgments, but
wilful unregeneracy by spiritual. Though a man may sit under the same
means of grace which God doth bless to regenerate others, they may be an
accidental means to harden him : ' The miry places shall not he healed, but
be given to salt,' as it is Ezek. xlvii. 47, when others shall grow like trees
on both sides the river, and bear a never-fading leaf. If once your neglects
and provocations put God to his oath, and make him swear, as he once did,
that you shall not enter into his rest, Heb. iii. 11, his oath will be irrever-
sible, he will blow up heaven and earth before he will break it. And that
it may not be evaded that this was an oath against the Israelites, it is inti-
mated by the apostle that even in the times of the gospel this oath is of
force, ver. 12. He from thence exhorts them at that time to take heed of
• an evil heart of unbelief.' What need of this exhortation to them, if this
78 charnock's works. [John III. 3, 5.
oath did only concern the Israelites murmuring in the wilderness, and were
not valid against unbelievers and unregenerate men in the time of the gospel ?
It is a terrible place that in Isa. vi. 9, ' Make the heart of this people fat,
and make their ears heavy, and shut tbeir eyes, lest they see with their eyes,
and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed ;' which dreadful
place is no less than six times quoted in the New Testament, as though it
belonged only to them that sit under evangelical light with a wilful unrege-
neracy. Certainly as the mercies of the gospel are most spiritual, so the
judgments inflicted upon the neglecters of it are the most spiritual judgments.
Then a man is made the centre of divine fury, and his heart sealed up from
any seizure by sanctifying grace: Ezek. xxiv. 13, 'Because I have purged
thee,' that is, offered thee purging grace, ' and thou wast not purged, thou
shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury
to rest upon thee.' "When God passes such a secret sentence, if all the men
in the world, and all the angels in heaven, should, with their most affectionate
strains of reason, attempt the persuading of you, they were not able to
open an heart which God hath judicially locked up and sealed. It is observed
by some, that the work of the gospel, for conversion, is usually done in those
places where it comes, in the space of seven years, as to those who have sat
under it so long ; and they ground it upon Dan. ix. 27, ' And he shall con-
firm the covenant with many for one week,' that is, one week of years. And
that our Saviour preached three years and an half among the Jews, and the
apostles three years and an half or thereabouts before the Jews were dis-
covenanted. I will not affirm it positively, but offer it as worthy considera-
tion to those that have sat under the gospel more than seven years without
any renewing work on their souls.
Well then, let me beseech you, resolve upon this work presently. We are
not to bid a poor man ' go away, and come again to-morrow,' Prov. iii. 27, 28 ;
and shall we bid the Spirit, knocking at our hearts in the gospel, go away,
and come again another time ? Our blessed Saviour did not defer his death
for us till he was old, and shall not we live to him till we are old ? As his
death is an argument used by the apostle, to move us to live to him, 2 Cor.
v. 14, 15, so the time of his death should be an argument to us to live to
him betimes. How many hath this foolish to-morrow deceived ! and many
have perished to-day before the dawning of to-morrow. Defer it not there-
fore a night longer ; reflect upon yourselves, and say, Have I lived so long,
pleased with my old nature ? Lord, what had become of me without
thy wonderful patience ? Let your motion be as the lightning, as the pro-
phet Ezekiel speaks of the motion of four beasts, chap. i. 14. God may make
up the match between himself and you before midnight : there was less time
in God's working upon the jailer.
Quest. What shall we do to get this new birth ?
Ans. 1. Begin with prayer ; seek it from that Saviour that first made so
plain a declaration of it. 'A man cannot receive anything, unless it be given
him from heaven,' John iii. 27. Then from heaven beg it ; let God hear of
you as soon as ever you come home. God usually lets in renewing grace
at the same gate at which honest prayer goes out.* Prayer is a compli-
ance with God's grace ; he never refuseth it to them that heartily desire
it. Go therefore to God, give him no rest ; if you do so, it may not be long
before you will hear that joyful word drop from his gracious lips : ' My grace
will be sufficient for you,' sufficient to renew you, sufficient to cure you.
Let the fervency of your prayers be proportioned according to the necessity
of the thing, and the greatness of your misery without it. Plead, therefore,
* Jackson, vol. iii. chap, xxviii. p, 496, 497.
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 79
with God for it ; Lord, is it not better to make me thy friend than to let me
continue thy enemy ? Is it not more thy glory to raise a soul from sin than
a Lazarus from the grave ? Thy power and mercy are more illustrious in
turning a dry stock into a fruitful and flourishing tree. Overcome, therefore,
my base nature by thy merciful power ; change me from a venomous to a
dove-like nature. Oh how fain would I glorify tbee, by answering the end
of my creation ! Glorify thyself by new-creating my heart, that I may glorify
thee in a newness of life. I cannot get a new heart by my own strength ; but
it is a work not too hard for thy power, and suitable to thy promise. Plead
the promise : Ezek. xi. 19, ' I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and
I will give them an heart of flesh ;' and Ezek. xxxvi. 26, ' A new heart will
I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you ;' but he ' will be inquired
of, to do it for them,' ver. 37. Breathe and aspire after it ; beg for it as
earnestly as you would in extreme hunger for food for the satisfaction of your
natural appetite ; God will not deny it for such as breathe after it, Mat. v. 6,
Hunger and thirst after righteousness, and you shall be filled ; beg the opera-
tion of the Spirit. Our Saviour provided the plaster, but left the Spirit to
apply it ; he provided the colours, his blood, to draw his image, but none but
the Spirit can lay them on. Ask therefore the Spirit of the Father in the
name of Christ ; the Father sends him into the world, and sends him into
the heart, but in the name of Christ. It is called a holy Spirit, because
without it there can be no holy nature.
2. Be deeply sensible of the corruption of nature. The more we are
sensible of our inherent depravation, the more we shall breathe after a real
change. Can he ever imagine the necessity of a cure, who understands not
the greatness of his disease ? Be fully convinced, as Paul was, that in you,
that is, ' in your flesh, dwells no good thing,' Piom. vii. 18. I know ; I am
experimentally sensible of it. Did we but truly see the defilement of our nature,
and the monstrous alteration of it from that of our creation, as we can the
deformity of some monster in the world, we should loathe ourselves, we should
fly, if we could, from our own nature, and send forth nothing but groans for
a deliverance from the body of death, and have no rest till w r e were stripped
of so abominable a frame. Let us, therefore, turn in upon ourselves, take
a view of our condition, see if there be any suitableness between our depraved
natures, and the glory of another world. There is not, unless we conceit
heaven a place filled only with carnal pleasures. But reason will tell us
the contrary, and a carnal soul can never, in that state, be fit for a spiritual
glory.
3. View often the perfection of the law of God. This will make us sen-
sible of the contrariety of our nature to God's holiness, and consequently make
us look about^for a remedy. See whether your nature answers the exact-
ness of the law ; for although you were alive without the law, yet, when the
commandment and your hearts come to look upon one another, you will see
sin in its life and power, and all the conceits of your own excellency will die :
Rom. vii. 9, ' For I was alive without the law once, but when the command-
ment came, sin revived, and I died.' Paul thought himself a righteous per-
son, till he came to measure himself by the exact and spiritual image of the
law. He had been instructed in the literal knowledge of the law, for he was
brought up a Pharisee ; his head and the law were acquainted, and then he
thought himself a living person ; but when his heart and the law came to be
acquainted, then he found himself dead, and his high opinion of himself fell
to the ground. Consider, then, how the law requires a perfect righteousness,
an inward principle. All duties it commands are not only to be done
materially, but formally ; for they are so commanded in such a manner, from
80 chaknock's works. [John III. 8, 5.
such a principle, to such an end. Then reflect, have I such a righteous-
ness ? can 1 answer the law ? do I come up to the measures of it in any one
action ? Surely I do not. Then consider further, Doth not this law stand ?
will God lay it in the dust ? has he thrown it out of doors ? Surely it is
holy, just, and good, and therefore a standing rule. I must have a principle
suitable to that which Jesus Christ came not to destroy, but establish. How
shall I do it with this corrupt nature, wherein I do not one action that doth
sincerely respect it, as the law of God, that is, accompanied with a delight in
it ? Certainly this temper, so contrary to the law, must be changed. I
must have an inner man to delight in this law, a principle that must in
some measure, though imperfectly, suit it. This orderly consideration
would put you upon the seeking out for such a righteousness as may in part
answer it.
4. Observe the motions of the Spirit. There is an assisting work of the
Spirit, and an informing work. There is not a man but hath, or once had,
the strivings of this Spirit with him. There are the knockings of Christ by
his Spirit at the door ; there are calls, ' Zaccheus, come down ; this day is
salvation come to thy house.' Did you never hear a voice from heaven, say-
ing, ' Come to me that you may have life ' ? Did you never hear a groan from
heaven, ' When shall it once be ? ' Did you never see a tear trickling down
the cheek of Christ, as when he wept over Jerusalem ? Did you never hear
a sigh of a grieved Spirit waiting upon you ? Can you see, and hear, and
hear again, yet no compliance, when that is of absolute necessity you are
exhorted to ? Smother not these motions ; answer them with suitable
affections. If Christ looks upon you, as he did upon Peter, think of what
you are, and weep, Mark xiv. 72. If the Spirit calls, answer presently, ' Th) r
face, Lord, will I seek.' The neglect of the time of the Spirit's breathing is
the cause of a continuance in unregeneracy. Repel not those sweet motions
that strike upon your hearts.
5. Attend diligently upon all means of grace. They are the pipes through
which the Spirit breathes, the lungs of the Spirit, the instruments whereby
our natures are altered : ' Faith comes by hearing.' It is by the hearing of
faith that the Spirit is ministered : Gal. iii. 5, ' He therefore that ministers
to you the Spirit, doth he it by the works of the law, or the hearing of faith ?'
None can expect it who will not use the means to have it, no more than men
can expect to live without eating and drinking. Would we be warm ? we
must approach to the fire. Would we be clean ? we must wash in the water.
Would we be renewed ? we must attend upon the breathings of the Spirit in
the institutions of God. This we may do, though we cannot renew ourselves ;
we may read the word as well as a piece of news ; we may hear the word,
and attend to it, as well as to any worldly concern ; we may meditate upon
it, and consider it, as well as a story. This we have power to do, and it is
by the word that this great work is done. By a powerful word Christ called
Lazarus out of the grave, and by his word spoken by his Spirit, his great
deputy he sent after him, he calls us out of our state of death. Beg of the
Spirit to breathe upon you before you come to attend upon his institutions.
We profit little by the word, and our old nature attends us, because we take
no notice of the Spirit of God, who is appointed the principal officer in this
business. It is he that is to guide us into truth, John xvi. 13. Though
men may speak truth to us, yet the Spirit can only guide the truth into our
hearts, and guide us into the heart, and bowels, and inwards of truth, to taste
the marrow of it.
6. I might add, Study the gospel. Look upon Jesus Christ in that glass ;
this transforms us into his image ; as the beholding the light of the sun in a
John III. 3, 5.] the necessity of regeneration. 81
glass, paints an image of that light in our faces ; so doth the beholding Christ
in the gospel : 2 Cor. iii. 18, ' But ye all, with open face, beholding as in a
glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image.' The gospel
is the cause of our first change, and of our growth in it, ' from glory to glory,'
but by the Spirit of God in the gospel, ' as by the Spirit of the Lord.' Study
the promises of the gospel, and the end of the blood of Christ, which was to
purge our conscience from dead works. It is by believing the promises of
pardon in the blood of Christ that ' the conscience is purged from dead works,'
Heb. ix. 14.
A DISCOURSE OF THE NATURE OF
REGENERATION.
Therefore if any man he in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed
away; behold, all things are become new. — 2 Cor. V. 17.
The apostle in those words, ver. 13, ' For whether we be besides ourselves,
it is to God ; or whether we be sober, it is for your cause,' defends his
speaking so much of his integrity ; though some men would count him out
of his wits for it, yet he regards not their judgment ; for if he were in an
ecstasy, or ' beside himself,' his purpose was to serve God and his church,
and therefore he did not regard the opinion of men, whether he were ac-
counted mad or sober, so he might perform the end of his apostleship. The
sense therefore of it, as Calvin renders it, is this : Let men take it as they
will, that I speak so much of my integrity, I do it not upon my own ac-
count, but have respect to God and the church in speaking of it, for I
am as ready to be silent as to speak, when my silence may glorify God
and advantage the church as much as my speech ; ' for the love of Christ
constrains me,' ver. 14, for whom I am bound to live ; and so he passes on
to inculcate the duty of every man that hath an interest in the death of
Christ. The love of Christ constrains us actively ; the love wherewith Christ
hath loved us is a powerful attractive to make us live to him. It is the
highest equity and justice that we should live to him who died for us.
Whence observe,
The true consideration and sense of the love of Christ in his death, hath a
pleasing force, and is a delightful bond and ooligation upon us to devote our-
selves wholly to his service and glory. There is a moral constraint upon
the soul to this end : ' if one died for all, then were all dead,' then all were
obnoxious to eternal death. Others * dislike this interpretation, and under-
stand it not of the death to God brought in by the first Adam, but a death
to sin and the flesh, procured by the second Adam, which death is spoken of
Rom. vi. 2, ' How shall we, being dead to sin,' &c, and called ' a suffering
in the flesh, and a ceasing from sin,' 1 Peter iv. 1. If one died for all, then
all for whom he died are dead, jure et obligatione, dead to themselves, that
they might not be under their own power, but the power of him that died
fur them, and rose again. Since, therefore, we are dead to sin, we should
* Vorstiut-', Calvin.
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 83
take no care to maintain the life of it. And this seems, by the following
verse, to be the true meaning of it : ver. 15, ' And that he died for all, that
they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him
which died for them, and rose again.' He hath redeemed us by the price of
his blood, that he might have us in his own power, as his own property, so
that we are no longer our own masters, and have no longer right to our-
selves.* They ought to die to themselves, that they may live to Christ ; it
being fit they should live not to their own wills, or own honour, but to the
glory and will of their Redeemer. It was to this end that Christ died, that
he might have a seed to serve him, and live to him. It is ingratitude and
injustice to deny him our service, since thereby we endeavour to frustrate
the design of his coming, and the end of his death. Observe,
1. Self is the chief end of every natural man. ' That they which live,
should not henceforth live unto themselves.' Implying that all men living,
who are not under the actual benefit and efficacy of our Saviour's death,
do live to themselves. The greatest distinction between a regenerate and
a natural man is this, self is the end of one, and Christ the end of the
other. The life of a natural man, and all the dependencies of it, is to gra-
tify corrupt self, with the greatest detriment to his natural and moral self,
the happiness and good of his soul ; but the life of a new creature, with all
the dependencies of it, is for the glory of God and the Redeemer. This
self-dependence, and a desire of independency on God, which was the great
sin of Adam, whereby he would make himself his own chief end, hath run
in the veins of all his posterity, and is the bitter root upon which all the
fruits of gall and wormwood grow.
2. The end of our Saviour's dying and rising again was to change the
corrupt end of the creature. The end of redemption, and consequently the
end of the Redeemer, must be contrary to the end of corruption and the end
of the first Adam. As Adam dispossessed God of his dominion to set up
self, so doth Christ pull down self to advance God to his right of being our
chief end. It is called, therefore, a redemption of us to God : Rev. v. 9,
• For thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood ;' redeemed
us from a slavery under sordid lusts, to God as our end.
3. Therefore we must be taken off from ourselves, as our end, and be fixed
upon another, even upon Christ, else we answer not the end of Christ's
death and resurrection : ' He bore our sins in his own body on the tree,
that we being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness,' 1 Peter ii. 24.
And if the ends of our Saviour's death and resurrection be not accomplished
upon us, the fruits of it shall not be enjoyed by us. The whole work of
regeneration, and conversion, and sanctifica*ion, and the efficacy of the death
of Christ in the soul, consists in these two things : a taking us off from self,
and pitching us upon God and Christ as our end. The terminus a quo is
self, the terminus ad quern is Christ. We are 'redeemed by the precious
blood of Christ from our vain conversation received by tradition from our
fathers,' 1 Peter i. 18, even from our first father Adam. This is properly to
set up no other gods before him, and to abhor the grossest idolatry.
4. It is highly equitable, that if Christ died for us, and was raised for us
as our happiness, we should live to his glory, and make him our end in all
our actions, and the whole course of our lives. The apostle uses this con-
sideration as an argument, and as a copy and exemplar. As Christ died not
for himself, nor rose again for himself, but he died for God's glory and our
redemption, to vindicate God's righteousness, and justify us in his sight, and
rose again to make it appear that he had done our business in redeeming us,
* Calvin.
84 charnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
and went to heaven to manage our cause for us, so we are to live to keep up
the honour of God's righteousness and holiness, and to justify Christ in our
professions of him, and conformity to him in the design of his death and
resurrection. It is a high disesteem of ourselves not to live to Christ, which
is both a more rightful and a more satisfying object of our affections, who
returns our living to him with a happiness to ourselves. By his dying he
purchased a dominion over us ; by his resurrection his dominion over us
was confirmed, and thereby our obligation of love and service increased. He
died as our surety to satisfy our debts, and rose as our Saviour to justify
our persons; so the apostle, Rom. iv. 25, ' He was delivered for our offences,
and rose again for our justification.' Therefore, as he rose to justify us,
we must rise to glorify him. And indeed it is a great sign of a spiritual
growth when we grow in our ends and aims for God.
5. The resurrection of Christ, as well as his death, was for us. He rose
again, it must be understood, for them for whom he died ; he died as a public
person, bearing our sins, and rose again as a public person, and head of the
believing world, acquitted from our sins : Heb. ix. 24, ' He is entered into
heaven, to appear in the presence of God for us.' And in a conformity to
these two public acts of Christ doth our regeneration and communion with
Christ consist ; in a mortification of the body of sin in conformity to his
death ; in newness of life, by quickening grace, in conformity to his resur-
rection, Col. ii. 12.
The apostle proceeds on, and makes his inference in the 16th verse,
' Henceforth know we no man after the flesh ; yea, though we have known
Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.' To know
is used in Scripture for love and delight, both on God's part, — Ps. i. G,
' The Lord knows the way of the righteous,' that is, loves and delights in
the way of the righteous, — and on man's part: Hosea iv. 1, ' No knowledge
of God in the land,' that is, no love of God. Not to know men after the
flesh then, is either not to judge of men according to the endowments, though
never so glittering, which arise only from fleshy principles ; to esteem no
man according to his greatness, his knowledge, and worth, in the account of
the world ; or, not to love men for our secular interest ; or, not to regard
men according to those fleshly privileges of circumcision and carnal cere-
monies. Not ourselves, which is included in no man ; not to esteem of our-
selves by our knowledge, wealth, credit, honour, or any other excellency
which falls under the praise of men, but by inward grace, living to God,
fruitfulness to him, which falls under the praise of God. Men esteem not
their fields for the gay wild flowers in them, but for the corn and fruit ; ' yea,
though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we
him no more.' We do not glory in him because he was of kin to us, and
our countryman according to the flesh ; we look upon him no more only
as a miraculous man, but we have more noble thoughts of him ; we know
him as the great Redeemer of the world ; we consider him in those excel-
lent things he hath done, those excellent graces which he hath communicated,
those excellent offices he doth exercise ; we know him after a spiritual
manner, as the author of all grace, appointed by God for such ends, accepted
by God upon such works, glorified by God for such purposes; we regard him
as transacting our great affairs in heaven, where he is entered as a fore-
runner for us, Heb. vi. 20, and as such we serve and honour him ; we de-
sire not his company in the flesh, but in the spirit, in his heavenly appear-
ance and glory. Observe,
1. Natural men have no delight in anything but secular concerns ; love
nothing, but for their own advantage ; admire not any true spiritual worth;
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 85
they know and love men ; yea, what love they pretend to Christ is only a
fleshly love, a love from education, a customary love.
2. An evidence of being taken off from ourselves and living to Christ, is
our valuation either of ourselves or others, according to holiness. Though
a civil respect be due to men according to their station in the world, — such a
respect the writer of this epistle gave to Agrippa ; — yet our inward valuations
of men ought to be upon the account of the image of God in them. God,
who loves righteousness, knows no man after the flesh, but as he finds the
image of his own righteousness in him ; and as a new creature is framed
after the image of God, so his affections and valuations of men or things are
according to God's affections to them, or esteem of them.
3. Our professions of Christ, serving him and loving him barely for our-
selves and for fleshly ends, doth not consist with regeneration. Such a love
is a love to ourselves, not to Christ, a making him only subservient to us, not
ourselves subservient to Christ.
4. We should eye Christ, and arise to the knowledge of him, as he is
advanced and exalted by God. Look upon him as our head, delight to come
under his wing, and have our whole dependence on him, know him in his
righteousness to justify us, know him not only as a Saviour risen, but in
the power of his resurrection in our souls, and the fellowship of his suffer-
ings, and to be made conformable to his death ; such a knowledge the apostle
aims at, Philip, iii. 8-10 ; the other knowledge is a knowledge of him in
the head, this a knowledge of him in the heart ; the other is a knowledge of
him after the flesh, this a knowledge of him after the spirit, in the draught
of Christ in our hearts by the Spirit, an inward conception of him in the
womb of our hearts.
The text is another inference made from that position, ver. 15. If there
be such an obligation upon us to live to Christ, because he hath died and
rose again for us ; then certainly whosoever hath an interest in the death
and resurrection of Christ, as to the fruits of it, must be a new creature, a
changed person ; old things have passed away, all things are become new
in him. Whosoever is in the kingdom of Christ, engrafted into him, under
the participation of his death and resurrection, is a new creature ; all other
excellencies are defective, though they may be useful to the world ; it is a
4 new creation ' only makes a man excellent and worthy of the kingdom.
' Old things are passed away,' old affections, old dispositions of Adam ;
those things, the ag^aTa, things that are very near of as old a standing as
the world. Adam would be his own rule and ruler ; he would be the rule
of good and evil to himself; he would be his own end. These things must
pass away ; we must come to a fiduciary reliance upon God, under the new
head of his appointment, and make him our highest good, our chief end, our
exact rule; and therefore what is called the 'new creature,' Gal. vi. 15, is
called ' faith working by love,' Gal. v. 6. Adam's great failures were un-
belief and self-love ; he would not believe God's precept and threatening ;
he would not depend upon God. To this is opposed faith, which is a grace
that empties us of ourselves, and fixes us in our dependence on another.
He would also advance himself, and be his own rule and end, to know as
God ; to this is opposed love, which is an acting for God and his glory.
And these two are the essential parts of the new creature. Some of late
would understand, by the new creature, only a conversion from idolatry to the
profession of Christianity. But there must be a greater import in the words
than so. The apostle makes it a qualification necessary both to Jew and
Gentile, that neither the circumcision of the one did avail without it, nor the
uncircumcision of the other prejudice them that possess it. Besides, men
80 ohaknock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
may turn from one profession to another without living to God, and direct-
ing all their actions to the glory of Christ. Some translate it, ' Let him be
a new creature ;' others, ' He is a new oreature.' One notes his state, the
other his obligation. ' Old things are passed away.' It is a reason ren-
dered ; there is a change in the whole frame of things. If you understand
it of the old economy, the old legal state, then it is an argument shewing the
necessity of the new creature. Old things are withered ; there is a new
frame in the church, in the kingdom, therefore there ought to be so in the
subjects of it ; for the prophets use to speak of the state of the gospel under
the names of a ' new heaven and new earth,' Isa. lxv. 17. As old rites in
the church are removed, so the old principles and the old frames of Adam
should pass away. The old rubbish must be thrown out when the house is
new built. And they are passed away in a regenerate man, jure, obligatione,
potestate, though not wholly in actu. ' All things are become new,' but not
of ourselves, but by the grace of God, ver. 18, ' and all things are of God.'
It is likely the apostle expresseth himself thus, to pull down the swelling
thoughts of the Corinthians which they had of themselves. They were proud
of their gifts, wherein, by the apostle's own confession, they came behind no
church in the world, 1 Cor. i. 7 ; and he discourseth to them much of the
excellency of charity above knowledge, and adviseth them to ' covet the best
gifts,' 2 Cor. xiii. He depresseth their confidence in knowledge without
grace, which doth but puff up, not edify to eternal life. He wisheth them,
therefore, to look more to the new creature in them, to try themselves
whether they be in Christ or no, by the change they found in their hearts.
• If any man be in Christ,' that is, be a member of Christ, engrafted into
him.
In the words observe,
1. The character of a true Christian by his state, a new creature.
2. The necessity of this new creation, if any man; if he be not a new
creature, he is not in Christ ; he hath nothing at present to do with him, he
is no true member of his body.
3. The universality, any man ; not a man can be in Christ by any other
way, without this new creation pass upon him.
4. The advantage of it : if he be a new creature, he is certainly in
Christ, it is an infallible token that the Redeemer did die and rise again
for him.
5. The nature of it.
(1.) Removal of the old form : old things are passed (may.
(2.) Introduction of a new : all things are become new, as without in the
church, so within in the soul.
6. The note of attention : behold, more particularly set to this passage, of
all things becoming new, to remove the deceit that men are liable to. Old
things in some measure may pass away, but look to that, whether new
things come in the place contrary to those old, whether there be new affec-
tions, new dispositions ; old things may pass away, when old sins are left,
and no new frames be set up in the stead of them. The doctrine I shall in-
sist upon is this :
^ Boot. Every man in Christ hath a real and mighty change wrought in
him, and becomes a new creature.
I pitch upon these words to shew the nature of regeneration, the neces-
sity of which I have already discoursed of.
It is difficult to describe exactly the nature of regeneration.
1. Because of the disputes about the nature of it; whether it be quality,
or a spiritual substance ; whether, if a quality, it be a habit or a power, or
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 87
whether it be the Holy. Ghost personally.* Many controversies the wits of
men have obscured it with. The Scripture discovers it to us under the
terms of the new creature, a new heart, a law put into us, the image of
God, a divine nature ; these, though Scripture terms, are difficult to explain.
2. It is difficult, because it is visible, not in itself, but in its effects. We
know seed doth propagate itself, and produce its like, but the generative part
in the seed lies covered with husks and skin, so that it is hard to tell in what
atom or point the generative particle doth lie. We know we have a soul,
yet it is hard to tell what the soul is, and in what part it doth principally
reside. We know there are angels, yet what mortal can give a description
of that glorious nature ? It is much like the wind, as our Saviour describes
it : John iii. 8, ' The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the
sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it comes, nor whither it goes : so is
every one that is born of the Spirit.' The wind, we feel it, we see the effects
of it, yet cannot tell how it ariseth, where it doth repose itself, and how it
is allayed ; and all the notions of philosophy about it will not satisfy a
curious inquirer. So likewise it is in this business of regeneration ; the
effects of it are known, there are certain characters whereby to discern it ;
but to give a description of the nature of it is not so easy.
3. It is difficult, because of the natural ignorance which is still in the
minds of the best. A man cannot understand all iniquity, for there is a
• mystery of iniquity ;' neither can he fully understand this work, for there
is a ' mystery of godliness,' 1 Tim. iii. 16 ; not only in the whole scheme of
it without, but in the whole frame of it in the heart. It is called the • hid-
den man of the heart,' 1 Peter iii. 4 ; hidden from the world, hidden from
reason, hidden from the sight sometimes of them that have it ; a man can
hardly sometimes see it in his own heart, by reason of the steams of cor-
ruption ; as a beautiful picture is not visible in a cloud of smoke. The
blindness the god of this world hath wrapt us in, that we might not
know God, or the things of God, is not wholly taken off. And even what we
know of the truths of God, suffers an eclipse by our carnal conceptions of
them ; for all the notions we frame of them have a tincture of sense and fancy.
4. It is hard for those to conceive it who have no experience of it. If we
speak of the motions of natural corruption, as wrath, passion, distrust of
God, and enormous sins, men can easily understand this, because we have
all sad experiments of an inward corruption ; but the methods and motions
of the Spirit of God in this work are not comprehended, but by those who
have felt the power of it. The motions of sin are more sensible, the motions
of the Spirit more secret and inward, and men want as much the experience
of the one, as they have too much of the other. Hence it is that many car-
nal men love to have the nature of sin ripped up and discovered ; partly,
perhaps, for this reason among others, that they can better understand that
by the daily evidence of it in their own practices ; whereas other things, out
of the reach of their experience, are out of the grasp of their understanding ;
and therefore seem to them paradoxes and incredible things : the spiritual
man is not judged or discerned by any but them that are spiritual, 1 Cor.
ii. 15. It is certainly true, that as a painter can better decipher a stormy
and cloudy air than the serenity of a clear day, and the spectator conceive
it with more pleasure : so it is more easy to represent the agitations and
affections of natural corruption, than the inward frame of a soul wrought by
the Spirit of God.f I shall therefore describe it consonantly to the Scrip-
ture thus : Regeneration is a mighty and powerful change, wrought in the
* Baxt. "Rest, part i. chap. iii. pp. 3, 6, 7.
t Moulin. Serm. Decad. 1 Serm. vii. p. 180, 181.
88 charnock's works. [2 Cok. V. 17.
soul by the efficacious working of the Holy Spirit, wherein a vital principle,
a new habit, the law of God, and a divine nature, are put into, and framed
in the heart, enabling it to act holily and pleasingly to God, and to grow up
therein to eternal glory. This is included in the term of a new creature in
the text. There is a change, a creation, that which was not is brought into
a state of being. If a new creature, and in Christ, then surely not a dead
but a living creature, havirjg a principle of life ; and if a living creature, then
possessed of some power to act, and habits to make those actions easy ; and
if a power to act, and a habit to facilitate that act, then a law in their nature
as the rule of their acting ; every creature hath so. In this respect the
heavens are said to have ordinances : ' knowest thou the ordinances of
heaven ?' Job xxxviii. 33 ; and they seem to act in the way of a covenant,
Jer. xxxiii. 25, according to such articles as God hath pitched upon. And,
lastly, as in all creatures thus endued, there is a likeness to some other
things in the rank of beings ; so in this new creature there is a likeness to
God, whence it is called ' the image of God in holiness and righteousness,'
and a ' divine nature.' So that you see the divers expressions whereby the
Scripture declares this work of regeneration are included in this term of the
new creature, or the new creation, as the word is, xaivn xricig. It is a certain
spiritual and supernatural principle, or permanent form, per modum actus
primi, infused by God, whereby it is made partaker of the divine nature, and
enabled to act for God.
Let us therefore see,
1. How it is differenced from other states of a Christian.
2. What it is not.
3. What it is.
1. First, How it is differenced from the other states of a Christian.
(1.) It differs from conversion. Regeneration is a spiritual change, con-
version is a spiritual motion. In regeneration there is a power conferred ;
conversion is the exercise of this power. In regeneration there is given us
a principle to turn ; conversion is our actual turning ; that is the principle
whereby we are brought out of a state of nature into a state of grace ; and
conversion the actual fixing^ on God, as the terminus ad quern. One give8
posse agere, the other actu agere.
[1.] Conversion is related to regeneration, as the effect to the cause. Life
precedes motion, and is the cause of motion. In the covenant, the new
heart, the new spirit, and God's putting his Spirit into them, is distinguished
from their walking in his statutes, Ezek. xxxvi. 27, from the first step we
take in the way of God, and is set down as the cause of our motion : • I
will cause you to walk in my statutes.' In renewing us, God gives us a
power ; in converting us, he excites that power. Men are naturally dead,
and have a stone upon them ; regeneration is a rolling away the stone from
the heart, and a raising to newness of life ; and then conversion is as natural
to a regenerate man as motion is to a living body. A principle of activity
will produce action.
[2. J In regeneration, man is wholly passive ; in conversion, he is active :
as a child in its first formation in the womb, contributes nothing to the first
infusion of life ; but after it hath life, it is active, and its motions natural.
The first reviving of us is wholly the act of God, without any concurrence of
the creature ; but after we are revived, we do actively and voluntarily live
in his sight : Hosea vi. 2, ' He will revive us, he will raise us up, and then
we shall live in his sight ;' then we shall walk before him, then shall we
• follow on to know the Lord.' Regeneration is the motion of God in the
creature ; conversion is the motion of the creature to God, by virtue of that
COE. Y. 17.] THE NATURE OF REGENERATION. 89
first principle ; from this principle all the acts of believing, repenting, mor-
tifying, quickening, do spring. In all these a man is active ; in the other
merely passive ; all these are the acts of the will, by the assisting grace of
God, after the infasion of the first grace. Conversion is a giving ourselves
to the Lord, 2 Cor. viii. 5 ; giving our own selves to the Lord is a volun-
tary act, but the power whereby we are enabled thus to give ourselves, is
wholly and purely, in every part of it, from the Lord himself. A renewed
man is said to be led by the Spirit, Rom. viii. 14,* not dragged, not forced ;
the putting a bias and aptitude in the will, is the work of the Spirit quicken-
ing it ; but the moving the will to God by the strength of this bias, is volun-
tary, and the act of the creature. The Spirit leads, as a father doth a child
by the hand ; the father gave him that principle of life, and conducts him
and hands him in his motion ; but the child hath a principle of motion in
himself, and a will to move. The day of regeneration is solely the day of
God's power, wherein he makes men willing to turn to him, Ps. ex. 3 ; so
that, though in actual conversion the creature be active, it is not from the
power of man, though it be from a power in man, not growing up from the
impotent root in nature, but settled there by the Spirit of God.
(2.) It differs from justification. They agree in the term to which, that
is God : by justification we are reconciled to God ; by regeneration we are
assimilated, made like to God. They alway go together. As our Saviour's
resurrection, which was the justification of him from that guilt whicb he
had taken upon himself, and a public pronouncing him to be his righteous
servant, is called a new begetting him : Acts xiii. 33, ' God hath raised up
Jesus again, as it is also written in the second Psalm : Thou art my Son, this
day have I begotten thee ;' because it was a manifestation of him to be
the Son of God, who before, being covered with our infirmities, did not ap-
pear so to the world : so our justification from guilt, and new begetting us,
and manifesting us to the angels to be the sons of God, are at one and the
same time, and both are by grace ; ' by grace you are justified,' Piom. v. 1,
the quickening and raising us together with Christ is by grace, Eph. ii. 5, 6.
The blessing of Abraham, which is the application of redemption from the
curse of the law, and the receiving the promise of the Spirit by faith, are
both together, Gal. iii. 14.
But [1.] it differs from justification in the nature of the change.
Justification is a relative change, whereby a man is brought from a state
of guilt to a state of righteousness ; from a state of slavery to a state of
liberty ; from the obligation of the covenant of works to the privilege of the
covenant of grace ; from being a child of wrath to be an heir of promise.
Regeneration is a physical change, and real, as when a dead man is raised
from death to life; it is a filling the soul with another nature, Eph. ii. 1,
' And jou hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.' The
translators have inserted those words, ' hath he quickened,' because those
words are put in the 5th verse ; but methinks the words refer better to the
23d verse of the first chapter, speaking of Christ, ' who fills all in all,' and
fills you too with a spiritual life ; or he passes from the power of God in
raising Christ, to his power in raising us. It is a change of nature, and of
that nature whereby we are children of wrath, not only by the first sin, but
by a conversation according to the course of the world. And this quickening
respects the change of that nature which was prone to a worldly conversation,
and a fulfilling the desires of the flesh. The first is a change of a man's
condition, this a change in a man's disposition. "When a man is made a
* That place may be reduced to conversion, though the proper meaning is not of
conversion.
90 chaenock's wobks. [2 Cob. V. 17.
magistrate there is a change in his relation ; when a servant or slave is made
a freeman there is an alteration of his condition ; but neither the one's magi-
stracy nor the other's liberty, fills their hearts with new principles, or plants
a new frame in their nature. Relation and nature are two distinct things.
In creation there is a relation of a creature to God, which results from the
mere being of the creature ; but there is also the nature of the creature in
such a rank of being, which is added over and above to its mere being. The
apostle in the verses following the text, speaks of reconciliation, or non-im-
putation of our trespasses, as distinct from that change wrought in us in the
new creation. In justification we are freed from the guilt of sin, and so
have a title to life ; in regeneration we are freed from the filth of sin, and
have the purity of God's image in part restored to us.*
[2.J They differ in the cause, and other ways. Justification is the imme-
diate fruttof the blood of Christ: ' Being justified by his blood,' Rom. v. 9.
Regeneration is by the immediate operation of the" Spirit, therefore called
' the sanctification of the Spirit;' the matter of that is without us, the right-
eousness of Christ ; the matter of the other within us, a gracious habit.
The form of the one is imputing, the form of the other is infusing or putting
into us ; they differ in the end, one is from condemnation to absolution, the
other from pollution to communion. In the immediate effect, one gives us a
right, the other a fitness. In their qualities, the righteousness of one is per-
fect in our head, and imputed to us. The righteousness by regeneration is
actively in us, and aspires to perfection.
(3.) It differs from adoption. Adoption follows upon justification as a
dignity flowing from union to Christ, and doth suppose reconciliation.
Adoption gives us the privilege of sons, regeneration the nature of sons.
Adoption relates us to God as a father, regeneration engraves upon us the
lineaments of a father. That makes us relatively his sons by conferring a
power, John i. 12. This makes us formally his sons by conveying a prin-
ciple, 1 Peter i. 23. By that we are instated in the divine affection ; by this
we are partakers of the divine nature. Adoption doth not constitute us the
children of God by an intrinsic form, but by an extrinsic acceptation ; but
this gives us an intrinsic right ; or adoption gives us a title, and the Spirit
gives us an earnest ; grace is the pledge of glory. Redemption being applied
m justification, makes way for adoption. Adoption makes way for regenera-
tion, and is the foundation of it : Gal. iv. 5, 6, ' God sent forth his Son to
redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of
sons. And because you are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son
into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.' Because you are thus adopted, God
will make you like his Son, by sending forth the Spirit of his Son, to intimate
the likeness it shall produce in the hearts of men to Christ, that you may
cry, Abba, Father, behave yourselves like sons, and have recourse to God
with a childlike nature. The relation to Christ as brethren is founded upon
this new creature : Heb. ii. 11, 'For both he that sanctifies and they who
are sanctified, are all of one ;' they are all of one nature, not the divine na-
ture which Christ had by eternal generation, but that divine nature Christ had
by the Spirit's unction. And being of one nature, he is not ashamed, though
glorious in heaven, to call them brethren ; and being Christ's brethren by a
divine nature, thence result also the relation of the sons of God.
(4.) It differs from sanctification. Habitual sanctification, indeed, is the
same thing with this new creature, as habitual rectitude was the spiritual life
of Adam ; but actual sanctification, and the gradual progress of it, grows
from this principle as from a root. Faith purifies the heart, Acts xv. 9,
* Ames.
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 91
1 purifying their hearts by faith,' and is the cause of this gradual sanctifica-
tion ; but faith is part of this new creature, and that which is a part cannot
be the cause of the whole, for then it would be the cause of itself. We are
not regenerated by faith, though we are sanctified by faitb ; but we are new
created by the Spirit of God, infusing faith into us. Faith produceth the
acts of grace, but not the habit of grace, because it is of itself a part of this
habit ; for all graces are but one in the habit or new creature ; charity, and
likewise every other grace is but the bubbling up of a pure heart and good
conscience, 1 Tim. i. 5. Eegeneration seems to be the life of this gradual
sanctification, the health and liveliness of the soul.
2. The second thing proposed is, what it is not.
(1.) It is not a removal or taking away of the old substance or faculties of
the soul. Some thought that the substance of Adam's soul was corrupted
when he sinned, therefore suppose the substance of his soul to be altered
when he is renewed. Sin took not away the essence, but the rectitude ; the
new creation therefore gives not a new faculty, but a new quality. The cure
of the leprosy is not a destroying of the fabric of the body, but the disease ;
yet in regard of the greatness of man's corruption, the soul is so much
changed by these new habits, that it is as it were a new soul, a new under-
standing, a new will. It is not the destroying the metal, but the old stamp
upon it, to imprint a new. Human nature is preserved, but the corruption
in it expelled. The substance of gold is not destroyed in the fire, though
the metal and the flame mix together, and fire seems to be incorporated with
every part of it ; but it is made more pliable to what shape the artist will
cast it into, but remains gold still. It is not the breaking the candlestick,
but setting up a new light in it ; not a destroying the will, but putting a new
bias into it. It is a new stringing the instrument to make a new harmony.
It is an humbling the loftiness, and bowing down the haughtiness of the
spirit, to exalt the Lord alone in the soul, Isa. ii. 11, speaking of the times
of the gospel. The essential nature of man, his reason and understanding,
are not taken away, but rectified. As a carver takes not away the knobs and
grain in the wood, but planes and smooths it, and carves the image of a man
upon it, the substance of the wood remains still ; so God pares away the
rugged pieces in man's understanding and will, and engraves his own image
upon it ; but the change is so great that the soul seems to be of another
species and kind, because it is acted by that grace, which is another species
from that principle which acted it before. New creation is called a
resurrection. Our Saviour in his resurrection had the same body,^ but
endued with a new quality. As in Christ's transfiguration, Mat. xvii. 2,
neither his deity nor humanity were altered, both natures remained the same.
But there was a metamorphosis (fizrsftogipdjdri). and a glorious brightness con-
ferred by the deity upon the humanity which it did not partake of before.
So though the essence of the soul and faculties remain the same, yet another
kind of light is darted in, and other qualities implanted. It was the same
Paul when he complied with the body of death, and when he complained of
it, but he had not the same disposition. As Adam in a state of corruption
had the same faculties for substance which he had in the state of innocency ;
but the power, virtue, and form in those faculties, whereby he was acceptable
to God, and in a capacity to please him, was wholly abolished. We lose not
our substantial form, as Moses his rod did, when it was turned into a serpent;
or the water at Cana was turned into wine.* Our nature is ennobled, not
destroyed ; enriched, not ruined ; reformed, not annihilated.
(2.) It is not a change of the essential acts of the soul, as acts. The pas-
* Daille, Sermons.
92 charnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
sions and affections are the same, as to the substance and nature of the acts,
but the difference lies in the object. And acts, though for substance the
same, yet are specifically distinguished by the diversity of objects about which
they are conversant. Whatsoever is a commendable quality in nature, and
left in man by the interposition of the mediator, is not taken away ; but the
principle, end, and objects of those acts, arising from those restored qualities,
are altered. The acts of a renewed man, and the acts of a natural man, are
the same in the nature of acts, as when a man loves God and fears God, or
loves man or fears man ; it is the same act of love, and the same act of fear ;
there are the same motions of the soul, the same substantial acts simply
considered ; the soul stands in the same posture in the one as in the other,
but the difference lies in the objects ; the object of the one is supernatural,
the object of the other natural.* As when a man walks to the east or west,
it is the same motion in body and joints, the same manner of going ; yet
they are contrary motions, because the terms to which they tend are con-
trary one to the other : or, as when we bless God and bless man, it is with
one and the same tongue that we do both, yet these are acts specifically
different, in regard of the difference of their objects. The nature of the affec-
tions still remain, though not the corruption of them, and the objects to
which they are directed are different. If a man be given to thoughtfulness,
grace removes not this temper, but turns his meditations to God. The soli-
tariness of his temper is not altered, but something new offered him as the
object of his meditation. If a man be hot and earnest in his temper, grace
takes not away his heat, but turns it into zeal to serve the interest of God.
Paul was a man of active disposition ; this natural activity of his disposition
and temper was not dammed up by grace, but reduced to a right channel, and
pitched upon a right object ; as he laboured more than any in persecuting,
so afterwards he ' laboured more than any' in edifying, 1 Cor. xv. 9, 10.
His labour was the same, and proceeded from the same temper, but another
principle in that temper, and directed to another term. As it is the same
horse, and the same mettle in the beast, which carries a man to his proper
stage that carried him before in a wrong way, but it is turned in respect of
the term. David's poetical fancy is not abolished by this new principle in
him, but employed in descanting upon the praises of God, which otherwise
might have been lavished out in vanity, and foolish love-songs, and descrip-
tions of new mistresses. So that the substance and nature of the affections
and acts of a man remain ; but anger is turned into zeal by virtue of a new
principle, grief into repentance, fear into the fear of God, carnal love into
the love of the creator, by another principle which doth bias those acts.
(8.) It is not an excitation, or awakening of some gracious principle which
lay hid before in nature, under the oppression of ill habits, as corn lay hid
under the chaff, but was corn still. Not a beating up something that lay
sculking in nature, not an awakening as of a man from sleep ; but a resur-
rection as of a man from death ; a new creation, as of a man from nothing.
It is not a stirring up old principles and new kindling of them ; as a candle
put out lately may be blown in again by the fire remaining in the snuff, and
burn upon the old stock ; or as the life which retired into the more secret
parts of the body in those creatures that seem dead in winter, which is ex-
cited and called out to the extreme parts by the spring sun. Indeed, there
are some sparks of moral virtues in nature, which want blowing up by a good
education ; the foundation of these is in nature, the exciting of them from
instruction, the perfection of them from use and exercise. But there is not
in man the seed of one grace, but the seeds of all sin : Rom. vii. 18, ' I know
* J. Goodwin.
2 Cor. V. 17. J the nature of regeneration. 93
that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing.' Some good thing
may be in me, bnt it ariseth not from my flesh ; it is not from any seed sown
by nature, but it is another principle put into me, which doth seminally con-
tain in it all grace ; it is a putting a new seed into the soil, and exciting it to
grow, ' an incorruptible seed,' 1 Peter i. 23. Therefore the Scripture doth not
represent men in a trance, or sleep, but dead ; and so it is not only an awaken-
ing, but a quickening, a resurrection, Eph. ii. 5; Col. ii. 12; Eph. i. 19, 20.
We are just in this work as our Saviour was when the devil came against
him : John xiv. 30, ' The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in
me.' He had nothing to work upon in Christ ; but he rakes in the ashes
of our nature, and finds sparks enough to blow upon ; but the Spirit finds
nothing in us but a stump, some confused desires for happiness ; he brings all
the fire from heaven, wherewith our hearts are kindled. This work, there-
fore, is not an awakening of good habits which lay before oppressed, but a
taking off those ill habits which were so far from oppressing nature that they
were connatural to it, and by incorporation with it, had quite altered it from
that original rectitude and simplicity wherein God at first created it.
(4.) Nor is it an addition to nature. Christ was not an addition to Adam,
but a new head by himself, called Adam, in regard of the agreement with him
in the notion of an head and common person : so neither is the new crea-
ture, or Christ formed in the soul, an addition to nature. Grace grows not
upon the old stock. It is not a piece of cloth sewed to an old garment, but
the one is cast aside, the other wholly taken on ; not one garment put upon
another : but a taking off one, and a putting on another, Col. iii. 9, 10,
' putting off the old man, putting on the new man.' It is a taking away
what was before, ' old things are passed away,' and bestowing something that
had no footing before. It is not a new varnish, nor do old things remain
under a new paint, nor new plaster laid upon old ; a new creature, not a
wended creature. It is called light, which is not a quality added to dark-
ness, but a quality that expels it ; it is a taking away the stony heart and
putting an heart of flesh in the room, Ezek. xxxvi. 26. The old nature re-
mains, not in its strength with this addition, but is crucified, and taken away
in part with its attendants : Gal. v. 24, ' They that are Christ's have crucified
the flesh, with the affections and lusts.' As in the cure of a man, health is
not added to the disease ; or in resurrection, life added to death ; but the
disease is expelled, death removed, and another form and habit set in the
place. Add what you will without introducing another form, it will be of
no more efficacy, than flowers and perfumes strewed upon a dead carcase,
can restore it to life, and remove the rottenness. Nothing is the terminus a
quo, in creation ; it supposeth nothing before as a subject capable ; nothing
in a natural man is a subject morally capable to have grace, without the ex-
pulsion of the old corrupt nature. It is called a new creature, a new man ;
not an improved creature, or a new-dressed man.
(5.) It is not external baptism. Many men take their baptism for regene-
ration. The ancients usually give it this term. One calls our Saviour's
baptism his regeneration.* This confers not grace, but engageth to it : out-
ward water cannot convey inward life. How can water, a material thing,
work upon the soul in a physical manner ? Neither can it be proved that
ever the Spirit of God is tied by any promise, to apply himself to the soul
in a gracious operation, when water is applied to the body. If it were so
that all that were baptized were regenerate, then all that were baptized would
1/ saved, or else the doctrine of perseverance falls to the ground. Baptism
is a means of conveying this grace, when the Spirit is pleased to operate with
* Clem. Alex. Peclagog. lib. iii. cap. vi. p. 68.
94 chaenock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
it. But it doth not work as a physical cause upon the soul, as a purge doth
upon the humours of the body ; for it is the sacrament of regeneration, as
the Lord's Supper is of nourishment. As a man cannot be said to be nourished
without faith, so he cannot be said to be a new creature without faith. Put
the most delicious meat into the mouth of a dead man, you do not nourish
him, because he wants a principle of life to concoct and digest it. Faith
only is the principle of spiritual life, and the principle which draws nourish-
ment from the means of God's appointment. Some indeed say that regene-
ration is conferred in baptism upon the elect, and exerts itself afterwards in
conversion. But how so active a principle as a spiritual life should lie dead,
and asleep so long, even many years which intervene between baptism and
conversion, is not easily conceivable.
3. Let us see what it is positively.
(1.) It is a change ; and, as to the kind of it is,
[1.] A real change, real from nature to grace, as well as by grace. The
term of creation is real ; the form introduced in the new creature is as real
as the form introduced by creation into any being. Scripture terms manifest
it so. A 'divine nature,' the ' image of God,' a ' law put into the heart,'
they are not nominal and notional ; it is a reality the soul partakes of ; it
gives a real denomination, ' a new man,' ' a new heart,' ' a new spirit,' ' a new
creature,'*' something of a real existence ; it is called a resurrection : Jobn
v. 25, ' The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice
of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.' If Christ had said only
that the hour shall come, it had been meant of the last resurrection ; but
saying that it was already come, it must be meant of a resurrection in this
life. There is as real a resurrection of the soul by the trumpet of the gospel,
accompanied with the vigorous efficacy of the Holy Ghost, as there shall be
of bodies by the voice of the Son of God at the sound of the trumpet of the
archangel. All real operations suppose some real form whence they flow,
as vision supposeth a power whereby a man sees, and also a nature wherein
that power is rooted. The operations of a new creature are real, and there-
fore suppose a real power to act, and a real habit as the spring of them. It
is such a being that enables them to produce real spiritual actions, for the
1 spirit of power ' is conveyed to them, 2 Tim. i. 7, whereby as when they
were out of Christ they were able to do nothing, so now being in him they
are able to do all things, Philip, iv. 13.
[2.] It is a common change to all the children of God. ' If any man be
in Christ, he is a new creature ;' every man in Christ is so. It is peculiar
to them, and common to all of them. The new creation gives being to all
Christians. It is a new being settled in them, a new impress and signature
set upon them, whereby they are distinguished from all men barely con-
sidered in their naturals. As all of the same species have the same nature,
as all men have the nature of men, all lions the nature of lions, so all
saints agree in one nature. The life of God is communicated to all whose
names are written in the book of life. All believers, those in Africa, as
well as those in Europe, those in heaven as well as those on earth, have the
same essential nature and change. As they are all of one family, all acted
by one spirit, the heart of one answers to the heart of another, as face
to face in a glass. What is a spirit of adoption in them below is a spirit of
glory in them above ; what in the renewed man below is a spirit crying,
Abba Father, that is in them above, a spirit rejoicing in Abba Father. The
impress and change is essentially the same, though not the same in degree.
[3. J It is a change quite contrary to the former frame. What more con-
* Moulin.
2 Cob. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 95
trary to light than darkness ? Such a change it is, Eph. v. 8 ; instead of a
black darkness there is a bright light. As contrary as flesh and spirit, John
iii. 6, • that which is born of the flesh is flesh ; that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit.' Where both are put in the abstract, one is the composition
of flesh, the other of spirit : as contrary as east to west, as the seed of the
woman to the seed of the serpent, as the spirit of the world and the Spirit
of God. The frame of the heart before the new creation, and the frame of
the heart after, bear as great a distance from one another as heaven from
earth. As God and sin are the most contrary to one another, so an affec-
tion to God and an affection to sin are the most contrary affections. It is
quite another bent of heart, as if a man turn from north to south. It is a
position quite contrary to what it was. The heart touched by grace stands
full to God, as before to sin ; it is stripped of its perverse inclinations to
sin, clothed with holy affections to God. He abhors what before he loved
and loves what before he abhorred. He was alienated from the life of God,
but now alienated from the life of his lusts ; nothing would before serve
him but God's departure from htm ; nothing will now please him but God's
rays upon him. He was before tired with God's service, now tired with his
own sin. Before, crucifying the motions of the Spirit, now crucifying the
affections and lusts. That which was before his life and happiness is°now
his death and misery ; he disaffects his foolish pastimes and sinful pleasures
as much as a man doth the follies of his childhood, and is as cheerful in
loathing them as before he was jolly in committing them. It is a transla-
tion from one kingdom to another: Col. i. 13, a translation 'from the power
of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son.' Mereartitfe, a word taken from
the transplanting of colonies : they are in a contrary soil and climate ; they
have other works, other laws, other privileges, other natures. As Christ's
resurrection was a state quite contrary to the former, at the time of his death
he was in a state of guilt by reason of our sin ; at his resurrection he is
freed from it. He was before made under the law ; he is then freed from
the curse of it. He was before in a state of death, after his resurrection in
a state of life, and lives for ever. God pulls out the heart of stone, that
inflexibleness to him and his service, and plants a heart of flesh in the room,
a pliableness to him and his will, Ezek. xxxvi. 26. It is as great a change
as when a wolf is made a lamb ; that wolfish nature is lost, and the lamb-
like nature introduced. By corruption man was carnal and brutish ; by the
new creation he is spiritual and divine. By corruption he hath the ima^e
of the devil ; by this he is restored to the image of God. By that he had
the seeds of all villanies ; by this the roots of all graces. That made us fly
from God ; this makes us return to him. That made us enemies to his
authority ; this subjects us to his government. That made us contemn his
law ; .this makes us prize and obey it :* " Instead of the thorn there shall
come up the fir-tree ; instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle-tree,'
and God will preserve it from being cut off, Isa. lv. 13, speaking of the time
of redemption.
[4. J It is a universal change of the whole man. It is a new creature,
not only a new power or new faculty. This, as well as creation, extends
to every part ; understanding, will, conscience, affections, all were corrupted
by sin, all are renewed by grace. Grace sets up its ensigns in all parts
of the soul, surveys every corner, and triumphs over every lurking enemy ;
it is as large in renewing as sin was in defacing. The whole soul shall
be glorified in heaven ; therefore the whole soul shall be beautified by
grace. The beauty of the church is described in every part, Cant. 1-4, &c.
* Sabunde, tit. 275, p. 585.
9G charnook's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
First, This new creation bears resemblance to creation and generation.
God in creation creates all parts of the creature entire. When nature
forms a child in the womb, it doth not only fashion one part, leaving the
other imperfect, but labours about all, to form an entire man. The Spirit
is busy about every part in the formation of the new creature. Generation
gives the whole shape to the child, unless it be monstrous. God doth not
produce monsters in grace ; there is the whole shape of the new man. You
mistake much if you rest in a reformation of one part only ; God will say,
Such a work was none of my creation. He doth not do things by halves.
Secondly, It bears proportion to corruption. As sin expelled the whole
frame of original righteousness, so regenerating grace expels the whole frame
of original corruption. It was not only the head or only the heart, only the
understanding or only the will, that was overcast with the blackness of sin,
but every part of man did lose its original rectitude. Not a faculty could
boast itself like the Pharisee, and say, It was not like this or that publican;
the waves of sin had gone over the heads of every one of them. Sin, like
leaven, had infected the whole mass ; grace overspreads every faculty to
drive out the contagion. Grace is compared to light, and light is more or
less in every part of the air above the horizon, for the expulsion of darkness
when the sun ariseth. The Spirit is compared to fire, and therefore
pierceth every part with its warmth, as heat diffuseth itself from the fire to
every part of water. The natural man is denominated from corruption,
not an old understanding or an old will, but the 'old man,' Eph. iv. 22.
So a regenerate man is not called a new understanding, or a new will, but
' a new man,' ver. 24.
Thirdly, The proper seat of grace is the substance of the soul, and there-
fore it influences every faculty. It is the form whence the perfection both
of understanding and will do flow ; it is not therefore placed in either of
them, but in the essence of the soul.* It is by this the union is made
between God and the soul ; but the union is not of one particular faculty,
but of the whole soul. ' He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit ;' it is
not one particular faculty that is perfected by grace, but the substance of
the soul. Besides, that is the seat of grace which is the seat of the Spirit,
but this or that particular faculty is not the seat of the Holy Ghost, but the
soul itself, whence the Spirit rules every particular faculty by assisting
grace, like a monarch in the metropolis sending orders to all parts of his
dominions. The Spirit is said to dwell in a man, Gal. iv. 4, Rom. viii. 9 ;
in the whole man, as the soul doth in the body, in forming every part of it ;
if it dwelt only in one faculty there could be no spiritual motion of the
other. The principles in the will would contradict those in the understand-
ing ; the will would act blindly if there were no spiritual light in the under-
standing to guide it. The light of the understanding would be useless if
there were no inclination in the will to follow it, and grace in both those
faculties would signify little if there remained an opposing perversity in the
affections. The Spirit, therefore, is in the whole soul, like fire in the whole
piece of iron, quickening, warming, mollifying, making flexible, and con-
suming what is contrary, like Aaron's ointment, poured upon the heart, and
thence runs down to the skirts of the soul.
Fourthly, Therefore there is a gracious harmony in the whole man. As
in generation two forms cannot remain in the same subject ; for in the
same instant wherein the new form is introduced the old is cast out ; so at
the first moment of infusing grace, the body of death hath its deadly wound
in every facult} 7 , understanding, will, conscience, affection. The rectitude
* Suarez de Gra, 1. vi. c 12 ; Num. x. 13, 14.
2 COE. V. 17.] THE NATUBE OF EEGENEBATIOX. 97
reaches every part; and all the powers of the soul, by a strong combination,
by one common principle of grace acting them, conspire together to be sub-
ject to the law of God, and advance in the ways of holiness : Pa. cxix. 10, it
is with ' the whole heart ' that God is sought. In the understanding there
is light instead of darkness, whereby it yields to the wisdom of God, and
searches into the will of God: the spirit of the mind is renewed, Eph. iv. 23.
In the will there is softness instead of hardness, humility instead of pride,
whereby it yields to the will of God, and closes with the law of God. In the
heart and conscience there is purity instead of filth (whereby it is purged
from dead works, Heb. ix. 14, settled against the approbation of sin), and a
resolution to be void of offence, Acts xxiv. 16. In the affections there is
love instead of enmity, delight instead of weariness, whereby they yield to
the pleasure of God, have flights into the bosom of God : • Oh how love I
thy law ! it is my delight day and night.' The memory is a repository for
the precepts and promises of God as the choicest treasure. It is a likeness
to Christ ; the whole human nature of Christ was holy, every faculty of his
soul, every member of his body, his nature holy, his heart holy. If we are
not formed, Christ is not formed in us ; look therefore whether your refor-
mation you rest in be in the whole, and in every part of the soul.
Fifthly, It is principally an inward change. It is as inward as the soul
itself. Not only a cleansing the outside of the cup and platter, a painting
over the sepulchre, but a casting out the dead bones and putrefied flesh ;
of a nature different from a pharisaical and hypocritical change, Mat.
xxiii.' 25-27. It is a clean heart David desires, not only clean hands, Ps.
li. 10. If it were not not so, there could be no outward rectified change.
The spring and wheels of the clock must be mended before the hand of the
dial will stand right. It may stand right two hours in the day, when the
time of the day comes to it, but not from any motion or rectitude in itself.
So a man may seem by one or two actions to be a changed man, but the
inward spring being amiss, it is but a deceit. Sometimes there may be a
change, not in the heart, but in the things which the heart was set upon,
when they are not what they were. As a man whose heart was set upon
uncleanness, change of beauty may change his affection ; the change is not
in the man, but in the object. But this change I speak of is a change in
the mind, when there is none in the object ; as the affection of a child to
his trifles changeth with the growth of his reason, though the things his heart
was set upon remain in the same condition as before.
First, It is a change of principle.
Secondly, A change of end.
First, A change of principle. The principle of a natural man in his
religious actions is artificial ; he is wound up to such a peg, like the spring
of an engine, by some outward respects which please him ; but as the
motion of the engine ceaseth, when the spring is down, so a natural man's
motion holds no longer than the delight those motions gave him, which first
engaged him in it. But the principle in a good man is spirit, an internal
principle, and the first motion of this principle is towards God, to act from
God, and to act for God. He fetches his fire from heaven to kindle his
service ; an heat and fervency of spirit precedes his serving the Lord, Rom.
xii. 11. There may be a serving God from an outward heat, conveying a
vigour and activity to a man, but the new creature serves God from inward
and heated affections. Examine therefore by what principles do I hear, and
pray, and live, and walk ? For all acts are good or evil, as they savour of a
good or bad root, or principle in the heart. The two principles of the new
VOL. III. G
98 chaenock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
creature are faith and love. "What is called the new creatnre, Gal. vi. 15,
is called ' faith working by love,' Gal. v. 6.
Faith. This is the first discovery of all spiritual life within us, and
therefore the immediate principle of all spiritual motion. A splendid action
without faith is but moral, whereas one of a less glittering is spiritual with
it. The new creature being begotten by the seed of the word, and having
thereby an evangelical frame, hath therefore that which is the prime evange-
lical grace, upon which all other graces grow ; and consequently all the acts
of the new creature spring from this principle immediately, viz., faith in the
precept, as a rule ; faith in the promise, as an encouragement ; faith in the
Mediator, as a ground of acceptation. Therefore if we have not faith in the
precept, though we may do a service not point-blank against the precept, yet
it is not a service according to a divine rule; if we have not faith in the pro-
mise, we do it not upon divine motives ; if we act not faith in the Redeemer,
we despise the way of God's ordaining the presentation of our service to
him. All those that you find, Heb. xi., acting from faith, had sometimes a
faith in the power of God, sometimes in the faithfulness of God ; but they
had not only a faith in the particular promise or precept, but it was ultimately
resolved into the promise of the Messiah to come : ver. 14, ' Those all died
in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,'
&e. The performance of particular promises they had received, but not the
performance of this grand promise ; but that their faith respected. They, as
new creatures, did all in observance of God promising the Mediator ; and
we are to do all in observance of God sending the Mediator, being persuaded
of the agreeableness of our services to him, upon the account of the com-
mand, and of the acceptation of our services by him upon the account of the
Mediator. This put a difference between Paul's prayer, after the infusion of
grace into him, and before ; so that our Saviour sets a particular emphasis
upon it : Acts ix. 11, ' Behold he prays.' Paul, no doubt, had prayed
many times before his believing, but nothing of that kind was put upon the
file as a prayer ; before, they were prayers of a self-righteous pharisee, but
these of an evangelical convert ; these were prayers springing from a flexi-
bleness to Christ, a faith in him; from a Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
Love. There are many principles of action, hope of heaven, fear of hell,
reputation, interest, force of natural conscience ; some of those are inward,
some outward, which are the bellows that blow up a man to some fervency
in action ; but the true fire, that contributes an heavenly frame to a service,
is the love of God. The desire of the heart is carried out to God; his heart
draws near to God, because his sole delight is in God, and his whole desire
for him : Ps. lxxiii. 25, ' Whom have I in heaven but thee ? ' Then, ver. 28,
' But it is good for me to draw near to God.' This choice affection in the
new creature spirits his services, makes his soul spring up with a wonderful
liveliness. The new creation is the restoration of the soul to God from its
apostasy ; a casting down those rebellious principles which contended with
him, and reducing his affections to the right centre ; and when all the lines
meet here in one centre, in God, all the returns to him flow from this affec-
tion. It is but one thing settled in the soul as the object of its earnest
desire ; and that should be the spring of all its inquiries and actions, the
beholding the beauty of the Lord, Ps. xxvii. 4. Things may be done out of
a common affection ; as when a man will raise a child fallen into the dirt,
out of a common tenderness ; but a father would raise him with more
natural affection, which is a sphere above that common compassion. Every
affection therefore is not the renewed principle, but a choice affection to
God. This is a mighty ingredient in this change, and doth difference the
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 99
new creature from all others. One acts out of affection to God, the other
out of affection to itself. Men may be offended with sin, because it disturbs
their ease, health, estate, &c. He may pray, and hear, merely out of a
respect to natural conscience ; but how can these be the acts of the new
creature, when there is no respect to God in all this ? But a new creature
would quench the fire of corrupt self-love, to burn only with a spiritual and
divine flame ; he depresseth the one to exalt the other, and would be dis-
engaged from the burdensome chains of self-love, that he might be moved
only by the spiritual charms of the other purer affection ; it is a death to
him to have any steams of self-love rise up to smoke and black a service.
Secondly, A change of end as well as principle, The glory of God is the
end of the new creature, self the end of the old man. Before this new
creation, a man's end was to please self; now his end is to please Gou.
A man that delights in knowledge, to pleasure his understanding, and for
self-improvement, when he becomes a new creature, though his desire for
knowledge is not removed, yet his end is changed, and he thirsts after know-
ledge, not merely to please his inquisitive disposition, but to admire and
praise God, and direct himself in ways agreeable to him. As the end of
the sensualist is to taste the sweetness in pleasure, so the end of a renewed
man is to know more of God, to taste a sweetness in him, and in every
religious duty. This is the distinguishing character of the new creature.
This design for the glory of God was not to be found among any of the
heathens, who were so great admirers of virtue. Most of them intended only
an acquiring a reputation among their countrymen ; and though some of them
might esteem virtue for its native dignity, yet this was to esteem it by the
moiety of it, when they referred it not to the honour of God , from whence it
flowed to the world. Man was not created for himself, and to be his own end ;
he therefore that doth chiefly aim at his own satisfaction in anything, is not a
new creature : he hath his old deformed end into which he sunk by the fall.
But grace carries a man higher, and reduceth all to God, and to his well-
pleasing. Col. i. 9, 10, the apostle desires they may be ' filled with the
knowledge of the will' of God, that they may « walk worthy of the Lord, unto
all well-pleasing.' The very first motion of this new principle is towards
God, to act for God ; as the first appearance of a living seed in the ground
is towards heaven ; thither it casts its look, from whence its life came. What
the new creature receives, is from God : 1 Thes. ii. 13, ' They received it
as the word of God,' and therefore what he doth is for God.
{First.) The principal intent of God in the new creation is for himself:
Hosea ii. 23, ' I will sow her to me,' speaking of the church in the time of
the gospel ; not to sin, not to the world, not for herself, but I will sow her to
me. Husbandmen sow the ground for themselves, for their own use, to reap
the harvest, and the corn grows up to the husbandman that sowed it. What
the seed doth naturally, the new creature doth intentionally, grow up for
God. Since the new creature is a divine infusion, it must needs carry the
soul to please God, and aim at his glory. God would never put a principle
into the creature, to drive it from himself, and conduct it to his own dis-
honour ; this consists not with God's righteousness, this would be a deceit
of the creature. It is impossible, but that which is from God in so peculiar
a manner, and with gracious intentions to restore the creature to his happi-
ness, must tend to the advancement of God. Where there are no aims at
the divine glory, there is no divine nature, nothing in the soul that can
claim kindred with God. Regeneration is a forming the soul for God's self,
and to shew forth his praise, Tsa. xliii. 21, hence they are said to be ' a
peculiar people,' in respect of their end, as well as their state. Certainly
100 chabnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
that man, who makes not God his pattern and his end, that doth not advance
the praise and glory of God, was never new formed by him. What comes
from God, must naturally tend to him. Is it possible that the living image
of God should disgrace the original ? that a divine impression should be
unconcerned in the divine author ?
(Secondly.) The new creation is an evangelical impression, and therefore
corresponds in its intention with the gospel. This is the instrument whereby
the new creature was wrought ; and this was appointed and published for the
glory of God : • Glory to God in the highest,' Luke ii. 14. It is to promote
holiness in the creature, which is the only way whereby we can honour God.
This is the prime lesson the grace or gospel of God teaches, to live godly,
Titus ii. 12, to live to God. What, therefore, is produced by the efficacy
of such an instrument, cannot but aim at the glory of God, which was
intended in it ; otherwise the gospel would work an effect contrary to itself,
which no instrument doth produce when managed by a wise agent ; and
contrary to the end of the agent too, viz., the Spirit of God, whose end is to
glorify Christ : John xvi. 14, ' He shall glorify me.' The frame and acts of
a renewed man are like the grain or seed of the word sown in the heart.
Nothing the gospel designs more than the laying self low, even as low as
dust and death. The first lesson is self-denial. It is in self that the
strength and heart of the body of sin and lust lies ; and it is the principal
end of the gospel to bring the creature to sacrifice self-love to righteousness,
self-interest, self-contentment, wholly to God, and his law, and his love,
that God may be all in all in the creature. Before the heart was touched with
the gospel, it had not the least impulse to bring forth the virtues and excel-
lencies of God into the world ; but when it is changed, it is filled to the brim
with zealous desires to have his name exalted upon a high throne among men.
(Thirdly.) A new creation is the bringing forth the soul in a likeness to
God. The end, therefore, of the new creature, is the glory of God. As
God is the cause, so he is the pattern of the new creature, according to
which he doth frame the soul ; it is ' after God created in righteousness,'
&c, Eph. iv. 24. There can be no likeness to God where the creature dis-
sents from him in the chief end. Without such an agreement, there can be
nothing but variance between God and the creature. All the commotions
and quarrels upon earth are founded upon the difference of ends. God aims
at his own glory, so doth the new creature, otherwise it were impossible he
should walk with God, or follow him as a dear child. It consists also in
likeness to Christ : his resurrection is the pattern and cause of our regene-
ration : ' Ye are risen with Christ,' Col. iii. 1. What, to contrary ends ?
Did Christ rise only to live to himself? No; but to live to God, as the great
end for which he was appointed Mediator. Did he design to glorify God on
earth, and doth he live to dishonour God in heaven ? No ; he lives to the
same end there for which he lived and died here. Our spiritual resurrec-
tion, is not only a restoring us to a spiritual life, but to the ends of this life ;
a living to God and Christ, and to the ends of his mediation. Surely the
new creature cannot be so brutish, as not to mind the honour of that nature
to which it is so near allied, the glory of that God unto whom it hath the
honour to bear a resemblance. A new creature hath a mighty sprightliness,
and a height of spirit in some measure, when anything in his hands con-
cerns God, more than when it concerns himself ; for his will being framed
according to the will of God, is filled with an ambition for the promoting the
excellency of his name.
(Fourthly.) The end of the new creation is to advance the soul. It can
never be advanced by an end lower than itself, or equal to itself. Any
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 101
interest lower than God would be a degrading of it, a disparagement to its
state, and too sordid for the soul to drive at ; for it is the excellency or
sordidness of the end which doth elevate or debase a man's spirit, and his
actions also : the one enlargeth, the other shrivels up the soul in its opera-
tion. All things below God are unworthy of the boundless nature of the
soul of man, much more unworthy of a soul rectified by a new creation. -
The soul is only perfected in a tendency to this end, and disgraced and lost
in the mud and dirt of lower aims. That grace that is most durable, and
doth most ennoble the spirit of a man, hath this property, that it ' seeks
not her own,' nor ' vaunts itself,' 1 Cor. xiii. 4, 5.
(Fifthly.) It is impossible the soul can have this new creation without a
change of end. It is not conceivable how anything can return to that,
which it doth not eye as its end. The soul, as deriving its original from
God, hath an obligation in all its motions to return to him as its chief end.
The new creature hath an higher obligation by grace. Doth that, therefore,
deserve the name of the new creature, that is so far from answering a gracious
tie, that it doth not so much as answer a natural one ? That is yet below
the sphere of inanimate creatures, who all run back to their fountain, and
one way or other declare the glory of God. He is no new creature, there-
fore, who is devotedly fawning upon himself, caressing himself ; he is one
that is yet bemired in his old nature, and hath not yet partaken of the fruit
of Christ's purchase, redeeming and renewing grace. Those that are under
the efficacious influence of it, and are the temple of the Holy Spirit, ' do
glorify God in their body and spirit ' too, inwardly as well as outwardly,
because they are God's, 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20. The understanding and will are
both elevated by grace. The more intelligent any creature is, the more
noble is his end, or ought to be, and the more he doth intend his end. The
aim of a man is higher than that of a child ; the aims of men in this or that
station, are still more noble than the ends of men in a lower rank. Since
the new creation, therefore, endues man with the most excellent nature he
is capable of, it must fix a man upon the most excellent end, which is God
and his glory; it were not else a new creature, or worthy of such a title.
(Sixthly.) This change of end doth only fit the soul for its proper service.
From this end doth arise a quickness and an heartiness in every service.
When God and his glory is not our end, our hearts flag, and we feel our
spirits tired at our entrance into any service for him. When the apostle had
made the glory of God his end in testifying the gospel of the grace of God,
then his life was not counted dear to him, that he might finish his course
with joy, Acts xx. 24. Where this end sits uppermost in the heart, all allure-
ments to the contrary are mightily despised. What a scornful eye doth the
apostle cast upon all other things ! and sets no higher value upon them than
he would upon dross and dung, when they were not conducing to his main
end, which was the knowledge of Christ, Philip, iii. 8, 10.
Well, then, this is one of the most essential properties of the new creature,
and that which is the clearest discovery of this state. A new creature is as
earnest in secret for the glory of God, and as industrious for God, as if the
eyes of all the world were upon him ; the bent of his heart alway stands this
way ; he glorifies God in his spirit as well as body, 1 Cor. vi. 20. When
men will be zealous in things that concern God before men, and negligent in
their spirits and inward part of the soul, then the glory of God was not their
end, but themselves. For what is a man's end, sets an edge upon his spirit
in private as well as public. But a new creature is of another frame. When
he finds that he hath missed of his full aim, and hath not had that single
respect as he ought, he is unsatisfied and troubled that God hath been no more
102 charnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
glorified by him. But he that is not renewed is well pleased if any concerns
of self have been advanced, though God be not glorified ; and his soul is at
rest in that act, as it hath lived to himself, and brought in something to in-
crease the treasure of his self-ends.
Thirdly, As it is an inward change in respect of principle and end, so,
thirdly, it is a change of thoughts. Being new, he is new in the choicest
faculty. As when he was after the flesh he minded the things of the flesh,
so now being after the spirit he minds the things of the spirit, Rom. viii. 5.
As a child hath not the thoughts of a man, so neither hath a natural man
the thoughts of a new creature. A principle is placed in his understanding
which doth emit other beams different from that smoky light which was iu
it before. Though a new creature cannot hinder the first motions, yet he
endeavours to suppress their proceeding any further, and excites others in
his heart to make head against them ; and would, as far as he could, hinder
the rising of any w T ave, the least bubbling against right reason and the interest
of God. When David had an inclination in his heart to God's statutes, the
immediate effect of it is to ' hate vain thoughts :' Ps. cxix. 112, 113, 'I have
inclined my heart to perform thy statutes ;' and it follows, ' I hate vain
thoughts.' The vanity of his heart was a burden to him, and he loathed all
the inward excrescences, any buds from that bitter stump he still bore within
him. A new creature is as careful against wickedness in the head or heart,
as in the life. He would be purer in the sight of God than in the view of
men. He knows none but God can see the workings of his heart or the
thoughts of his head, yet he is as careful that they should not rise up as
that they should not break out. The soul is so changed that it is no longer
a stranger and ill-wilier to the motions of the Spirit ; k will welcome them
upon their entrance, conduct them into the innermost room, converse fami-
liarly with them, and delight in their company ; it invites their stay, pursues
them when they seem to depart, holds them fast, and will not let them go,
as the church doth to Christ. He turns much in upon himself, sets his eye
upon his own heart, keeps that with all diligence, to observe what issues of
a spiritual life are there ; as it is directed in Prov. iv. 23, '[Keep thy heart
with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.' If he perceives any
weeds to spring up there, or mushrooms (as they will in a night), he cuts
them up and throws them out. The understanding is more quick and sen-
sible to discern them in the first risings, to receive good ones or check bad
ones, than it was before ; the new creature is sensible of any touch contrary
to its interest. A corrupt mind draws to it the vilest things, and unpropor-
tionable to the true nature of the soul, as a corrupt stomach doth unwhole-
some food, till by a new creation it be set higher, and by a sanctified reason
becomes more choice about its objects ; and then, like David, the heart is
filled as with marrow and fatness, when he meditates on God in the night
watches, Ps. lxiii. 5, 6. The thoughts of God are an inward spring of
pleasure to him, more than the thoughts of sin can be to a deformed and
depraved soul.
Fourthly, Change of comforts follows upon this. Since there is a change
of nature, there is a change of his complacenc}'. The former nature is his
trouble, therefore all his delights which arise from it are its discontents and
burden. Every nature hath a peculiar pleasure belonging to it : the nature
of a dove will not acquiesce in that which pleases a swine, nor the new nature
in that which pleases the old. The comforts of manhood are of another make
than those of a child, and the comforts of a prince more elevated than those
of a peasant, because he hath another spirit. That Spirit who is appointed
to renew him is appointed an officer to comfort him ; as therefore he gives
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 103
him new principles, so he gives him new consolations. He is, as a com-
forter, to glorify Christ, to receive of his, and shew it unto the new creature.
They are Christ's own words — ' He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of
mine, and shall shew it unto you ' — heing described before under the title of
a Comfoi-ter, John xvi. 14. He shall receive of mine ; grace from me, suit-
able to the grace in me, wherewith to beautify ; and comforts from me, suit-
able to those comforts in me, wherewith to refresh you. As they are brought
to live the hie of God in holiness, so they are brought to live the life of God
in joy and comfort. Righteousness, peace, joy are the trinity which make
up the kingdom of God in the heart : Rom. xiv. 17, ' The kingdom of God
is not meat and drink ; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost.' As the grace of God is their life, so the joy of the Lord is their
strength ; strangers to God intermeddle not with it, and have no share in
it. There is a joy put into the heart together with this new creature : • Thou
hast put gladness into my heart,' Ps. iv. 7 — a gladness not founded upon any
worldly consideration as the joy of men, not a joy of their own putting in ;
but the new creature's joy is a joy of God's putting in. Other men's com-
forts are in the creature, the new creature's comforts in the Creator. Others
cannot joy if worldly things be removed, because the foundation of their joy
is without them ; but these, by the loss of worldly things, have their comforts
rather increased than impaired, because the foundation of their joy is within
them. The comforts of a natural man are sucked from the dry breasts of
creatures ; the comforts of a new creature are derived from the full fountain
of life, which makes their very sufferings gloriously comfortable to them,
1 Peter iv. 13, 14. Ihe prodigal by his change of mind had a change of
refreshment : robes for rags, and a fatted calf for husks. It is as much his
comfort to loathe himself as derived from Adam, and to love the self im-
planted by God, as it was before the contrary. He can never look upon the
new creature in him but with delightful views, and a pleasure mingles itself
with every cast of his eye upon it. For certainly from making God our end,
and doing all things for his glory, flows the highest delight ; since God is
the only happiness of that soul that is in conjunction with him as his main
end, he must needs have a share in the happiness of God as well as his
nature. Felicity and consolation follow it, as the shadow doth the body ;
and every act of the new creature towards God is edged with comfort in the
very acting.
Fifthly, As it is an inward change, so it is also an outward change. I call
it outward in regard of objects, in regard of operations ; though it is princi-
pally inward in regard of the prime seat of it, in regard of the form, which
causeth the outward. The power of seeing is in the soul, though the vision
itself be in the eye. The change our Saviour made in those he cured was
in the organ, when he made the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and the lame
to walk, which did necessarily infer a change of objects and a change of
actions. So a man by this new creation sees the things of God, hears the
voice of God, walks in the ways of God. All outward changes argue not an
inward, but an inward is alway attended with an outward.
First, In regard to objects. The world and sin was before the object of
his inquiries and endeavours. Now he seeks the face of God ; his soul fol-
lows hard after him. The world and God are so contrary, that the love of
the one is enmity to the other. From multitudes of objects which distracted
him, he is come to unity, which quiets and settles him : Ps. xxvii. 4, ' One
thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after ; that I may dwell in
the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of tbe
Lord, and to inquire in his temple.' It is no lower an object than this, that
104 charnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
the soul is coversant about, about God himself, to embrace him ; about what
hath most of God in it, to value and cherish it ; about the word of God, to
direct him in his ways, and to do his work. The understanding is conver-
sant about the things of God, in the apprehension of them ; the will in the
election, the affections in complacency in them. Spiritual objects are set up
by every faculty, as the delightful things which it heartily embraceth. Be-
fore, a man had no affection to God, you might as well have persuaded a
swine to love the music of a lute, as a natural man supremely to love God.
All his desires were set upon the dross of the world, the customs, coarse
corruptions, pleasures of the world ; but a truly regenerate man can as little
make the world his chief object of desire and affection, as a man used to
choice viands can feed upon chaff and husks. The intendment of the gospel
is to set forth God in Christ as an amiable object, as infinitely glorious. It
declaims against the world, to draw men from the affectionate considerations
of it. The renewed work then doth consist in fixing upon God in Christ, as
the main object of desire and affection. When the heart, therefore, complies
with the gospel, there must be a compliance with the chief subject of the
gospel, and in such a manner as may answer the intendment of the gospel.
"While Paul was in his natural and pharisaical state, Christ and his truth was
accounted as dung, trampled upon as dross, fit to be thrown out of the con-
verse of mankind ; but when his heart is changed, there is a change in the
object of his valuation : Christ is then his treasure, his all, and other things
but dross in comparison of him, Philip, iii. 8.
Secondly, In regard of operations. ' Old things are passed away,' old
actions as well as old affections. Operations are never constantly against
nature, operari sequilur esse. The heart and the actions do not alway con-
tradict one another. ' According to the abundance of the heart, the mouth
speaks,' Mat. xii. 24. According to the spring of grace in the heart will the
hand of the life stand. It will vent itself more or less, according to the
quantity of it. It is an inward baptism with fire, which will quickly break
out and shew itself in the members : Mat. vii. 20, « By their fruits you shall
know them.' New apprehensions infer new operations. An alteration of
judgment cannot be without an alteration of acting. As he hath 'received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so he walks in him,' Col. ii. 6. The very intend-
ment of God in the new creation was this : Eph. ii. 10, ' Created in Christ to
good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them.'
If there be not then new works, there is no new creation, for the chief inten-
tion and aim of God cannot be frustrated. Christ formed in a man is not a
sleepy and inactive being : actions will scent of him. Fruits bear the image
of the root whence they spring, and upon which they flourish. A new root
cannot bring forth old fruits. If the nature of a crab-tree be changed into
that of a vine, it will bear no longer crabs but grapes. Where holiness is
implanted in the nature, holiness will be imprinted in the life. A man that
bath reason superior to sense doth use his sense rationally ; a renewed man
that hath grace superior to reason useth his reason graciously. The opera-
tions were rational when bare reason held the sceptre, but they are spiritual
when grace ascends the throne ; for it cannot be that that person who is
acted by the Spirit, ' lives in the Spirit, walks in the Spirit ' (Gal. v. 18, 25),
should do anything without a spiritual tincture, in that wherein he is acted
by it. For it is impossible but every action must be dyed of the same colour
with the principle whence it flows, and by which it is directed. Actions of
sensitive nature are by reason of grace ordered by a new rule, directed to a
new end. He ate and drank to the flesh before, now to God, 1 Cor. x. 31.
He degraded his soul to invent ways to pamper his body. Now he puts his
2 Cob. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 105
body in its due posture to serve the soul, and both to exalt God. Yea, his
religious duties are changed, not as to the matter, but the manner. He
knew, them before, as he did Christ, after the flesh ; he now knows them and
performs them after the Spirit. There is zeal instead of coldness, liveliness
instead of deadness, brokenness instead of presumption, a spirit of liberty
instead of the whip of conscience, confidence in God instead of confidence in
duty, melting pleading of promises instead of a pharisaical pleading of works.
In a word, grace instead of nature, spirit instead of flesh. Paul, of a phari-
saical boaster, becomes a Christian suppliant ; ' behold he prays.' This
change is outward as well as inward. In a man of an exact morality it is
chiefly inward ; he walks in his old outward ways with a new heart. In a
loose man renewed it is apparently outward ; he hath left both his old ways
and his old nature ; but a man only outwardly reformed, without any inward
change, walks in new ways with an old spirit. ' He that lacks these things,'
saith the apostle, after an enumeration of several graces, ' hath forgotten that
he was purged from his old sins ;' for indeed he never was.
Thus have I considered this new creation in the nature of a change.
2. Let us consider it in the nature of a vital principle. This new crea-
tion is a translation from death to life : 1 John iii. 14, ' We know that we
have passed from death to life.' And we have not a spiritual life till we are
in Christ. « He that hath not the Son hath not life,' 1 John v. 12. When
our Saviour called Lazarus out of the grave, he gave him a principle of life
and motion. The same he doth when he calls men from a spiritual death in
sin. Whatsoever we had from the first Adam is mortal, whatsoever we have
from the second Adam is vital ; the one communicates a spiritual life, as the
other propagated a spiritual death. The new creature is a vital powerful
principle, naturally moving the soul to the service and obedience of God, and
doth animate the faculties in their several motions, as the soul doth quicken
the members of the body. It is called the hidden man, the inward man,
implying that it hath life and motion. As the life of the body is from the
soul, as the effect from the cause, so the life of the soul is from grace. Christ
is the meritorious cause of this life in his person, the efficient cause of it by
his Spirit ; but grace is the formal cause of this life, as God is the cause of
our bodily life efficiently, and the soul the cause of it formally. It is not,
then, a gilding, but a quickening ; not a carving, but an enlivening. What-
soever doth proceed from an external cause is not life or a living motion, A
piece of wood may be carved in the shape of a man, but remains wood still
in such a form and figure. But a Christian hath a spiritual life breathed
into him, as Adam had a natural. When Adam's body was formed of the
earth, it was no more than earth, till a heavenly spark was breathed into him
by God, to set him upon his feet, and enable that piece of earth to move. It
is distinguished therefore from hypocrisy, which is but the shadow of Chris-
tianity. This is a living principle ; that a form, this a power ; that a piece
of art, this a nature. A picture may have the lineaments of a man, but not
the life, understanding, and affections of a man.
3. Let us consider it as a habit, and then see what light the consideration
of it, as a vital principle and a habit, give us into the nature of this new
creation. By habit we must not understand, as we do in common speech,
a clothing, as when we say, Such a one was in such a habit ; but by habit
we mean an inward frame, enabling a man to act readily and easily, as when
an artificer hath the habit of a trade. Since this new creation is not a de-
struction of the substance of the soul,* but that there is the same physical
being and the same faculties in all men, and nothing is changed in its sub-
* Blanc. Thes.
106 chaknock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
stance as far as respects the nature of man, it is necessary, therefore, that
this new creation consist in gracious qualities and habits, which beautify and
dispose the soul to act righteously and holily. Corruption of nature is the
poison, the sickness, and deformity of our nature ; grace is the beauty, health,
ornament of it, and that which gives it worth and value. When a debauched
man is become virtuous, we say he is another man, a new man, though he
hath the same soul and body which he had before, but he hath quitted those
evil habits wherewith he was possessed. It is impossible to conceive a new
creature without new habits. Nothing can be changed from a state of cor-
ruption to a state of purity without them. The making darkness to become
light, in the very nature of it, implies the introducing a new quality, Eph.
v. 8. This is meant by the seed : 1 John hi. 9, ' His seed remains in him.'
As seed makes the earth capable to bring forth good fruit, which had a
nature before to bring forth, not corn, but weeds, till the grain was put into
it ; and it is expressed by ' a fountain of living water springing up into eternal
life,' John iv. 14 (irr\yri).
(1.) There is such a habit. God doth provide as much for those that he
loves, in order to a supernatural good, as for those creatures that he loves
in order to a natural good ; but God hath put into all creatures such forms
«nd qualities, whereby they may be inclined of themselves to motions agree-
able to their nature, in an easy and natural way.* Much more doth God
infuse into those that he moves to the obtaining a supernatural good, some
spiritual qualities, whereby they may be moved rationally, sweetly, and readily
to attain that good ; he puts into the soul a spirit of love, a spirit of grace,
whereby, as their understandings are possessed with a knowledge of the
excellency of his ways, so their wills are so seasoned by the power and sweet-
ness of this habit, that they cannot, because they will not, act contrary there-
unto. And this habit of grace hath the same spiritual force in a gracious
way, as those principles in other creatures in a natural way. As the habit
of sin is called flesh in regard of its nature, and death in regard of its con-
sequent, so the habit of grace is called the new creature and spirit, Gal.
v. 17, in regard of its term and consequent, life. This habitual grace is the
principle of all supernatural acts, as the soul concurs as an immanent prin-
ciple to all works by this or that faculty. As Christ had a body prepared
him to do the work of a mediator, so the soul hath a habit prepared it to do
the work of a new creature. To this purpose, there is a habit of truth or
sincerity in the will, and a ' hidden wisdom' in the understanding, Ps. li. 6.
As the corrupt nature is a habit of sin, so the new nature is a habit of grace ;
God doth not only call us to believe, love, and obey, but brings in the grace
of faith, and love, and obedience, bound up together, and plants it in the
soil of the heart, to grow up there unto eternal life ; he gives a willingness
and readiness to believe, love, and obey.
(2.) This habit is necessary. The acts of a Christian are supernatural,
which cannot be done without a supernatural principle ; we can no more do
a gracious action without it, than the apostles could do the works of their
office unless endued with power from above, which our Saviour bids them
tarry at Jerusalem for, Luke xxiv. 49. If there were not a gracious habit
in the soul, no act could be gracious ; or supposing it could, it could not be
natural, it would be only a force. New creation is not from the Spirit com-
pelling, but inclining ; not like the throwing a stone contrary to its nature,
but changing the nature, and planting other habits, whereby the actions be-
come natural. As sin was habitual in a man by nature, so grace must be
habitual in a new creature, otherwise a man is not brought into a contrary
* Aquin. 2aj. Q. 110. Art. 2.
2 Cob. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 107
state (though the acts should be contrary) if there be not a contrary habit ;
for it is necessary the soul should be inclined in the same manner towards
God as before it "was towards sin ; but the inclination to sin was habitual.
(3.) This habit is but one. For it is an entire rectitude in all the facul-
ties, and an universal principle of working righteously. As the corrupt
nature is called the ' old Adam', and a < body of death', the gracious nature
is called the ' new man,' Col. iii. 9, 10. As a man is but one man, a body one
body, though consisting of divers members, and several parts, all formed by
one spirit, and making up but one habit, so that as all sins are parts of that
body of death, so all graces are but strings of this one root. As from tbat
primogeneal light, kindled at the first creation by God, were framed _the stars
and lights of heaven, which have their several appearances and motions, and
are distinct from one another, though all arising from the womb of that first
light, so all particular graces, though they have their stated seasons of
action, and are distinct in themselves, yet all flow from, and are contained
in, this habit as in a root. They are so many grapes growing upon one stalk,
clusters proceeding from one root of the new nature. It is from the par-
ticipation of the divine nature that all those graces arise, the exercise of
which the apostle exhorts them to, 2 Peter i. 4, &c ; and indeed it being a
divine nature, must needs include all the perfections due to it. As the divine
essence of God is one, yet contains all perfections eminently ; and if there
were a deficiency of any, it could not be the divine essence ; so the grace
infused into the heart contains in it virtually all the perfections wherein it
may agree with the nature of God's holiness, otherwise it were not a divine
nature, if there were any defect in the nature of the habit, I say, in the
nature of the habit.* And it cannot be otherwise ; for though the Spirit
may give one gift to one man, another gift to another, 1 Cor. xii. 8, 9, yet
when he would make a new creature, there must be a nature or habit con-
taining all graces. It could not else be a divine nature ; for if the Spirit doth
purpose to make a new creature, he cannot but give all grace, which belongs
to the essence and constitution of that new creature, otherwise he would either
wilfully or weakly cross his intention.
(4.) This habit receives various denominations, either,
[1.] From the subject. It is subjectively in the essence of the soul, but
as it shews itself in the understanding, it is called the knowledge of God ;
as it is the will, it is a choice of God ; as it is in the affections, it is a motion
to God. As the body of death is in the understanding, ignorance ; in the
will, enmity ; in the conscience, deadness ; in the affections, disorder and
frowardness. As diseases receive several names, as they are centred in
several parts, yet are but the dyscrasy or distemper of the humours.
[2.] From the object it is diversified. As it closes with Christ dying, it
is faith ; as it rejoiceth in Christ living, it is love ; as it lies at the feet of
Christ, it is humility ; as it observes the will of Christ, it is obedience ; as
it submits to Christ's afflicting, it is patience ; as it regards Christ offended,
it is grief; yet all arising from one habit, and animated by faith, so that it
is the love of faith, the joy of faith, the humility of faith, the patience of
faith, they all spring from one habit, seated in one soul, conversant about
one object, God in Christ: such a unity there is in all these diversifications.
As the holy oil wherewith the vessels of the tabernacle were anointed was
but one ointment, though composed of many ingredients, Exod. xxx. 25, 26 ;
as all the perfections of creatures are eminently in one God, all the evil dis-
positions of the creatures seminally in man by nature : so all the beauties of
grace are eminently included in this habit.
* F. Goodwin.
108 charnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
Hence we may take a prospect of the nature of the new creature. It being
thus a vital principle, and a habit, therefore the motion to God, and for God,
must be,
1. Ready in respect of disposition. He stands ready and disposed to
every good work upon God's call. As the habit of sin disposeth the soul to
every evil work, so the habit of grace prepares it for every good work, and
makes it meet for its master's use : 2 Tim. ii. 21, ' If a man therefore purge
himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet
for bis Master's use, and prepared unto every good work.' It is just as it
was with Isaiah, chap. vi. 5, at the first sight of the vision he complains,
1 Woe is me, a man of unclean lips,' taken up with self- reflection, no offers to
act for God ; but when a live coal was taken from the altar and laid upon his
mouth, there is a ready answer to God's question, ver. 7, 8, ■ Whom shall I
send ? Here am I, send me.' No demurs ; it was a live coal from the altar
had quickened him into a new frame for God. David doth not say he had
performed the statutes of God, but he had ' inclined his heart' to perform
them, Ps. cxix.
That I may not grate upon any troubled spirit, consider,
(1.) This readiness is seminally in every renewed person, yet it does not
always actually appear. As the old nature contains in it seminally all sins,
yet every man is more prone to one than another, according to education,
temper of body, or a set of temptations ; so the heart of a renewed man hath
an habitual disposition to the exercise of all grace, because it hath the
seeds of all graces in it, yet it doth not act all alike for want of vigorous
occasions. As the attributes of God, though in the highest perfection, yet
in their exercise in the world, sometimes one appears more triumphant than
another, sometimes more of patience, sometimes mercy, sometimes justice,
sometimes wisdom, one is more eminently apparent than another ; so the
divine nature hath seminally in this habit all grace, and an agreeableness to
every duty enjoined, a principle to send forth the fruits of all when an object
is offered, and the grace excited by the Spirit of God ; yet sometimes one is
more visible than another, according to the call it hath to stand forth and
shew itself. This habitual disposition may be when there is not a present
actual fitness for some service of a higher strain, by reason of some parti-
cular commission of sin, which hath sullied the soul ; as a vessel of honour
in respect of its formation may be fit for use, but in respect of some foulness
contracted may not be immediately fit for some noble service, till a new
scouring had passed upon it. A grown Christian, who hath his senses exercised
in the ways of God, doth not alway actually exercise this habit, yet he is ready
upon the least motion actually to do it ; as a new creature having a change
of end doth habitually mind the glory of God, yet he doth not in every action
actually think of it, or will it as his end ; but he is ready to bring this
habitual aim into exercise upon the least motion, and reaches out his arm to
embrace and stand right to that point. David had an habitual repentance
in him while he lay asleep in his sin, and by virtue of this habit, he doth
without any resistance comply with the first touch God gave him by Nathan.
His repentance flowed, and never ceased till it had done its perfect work. It
was a sign of a heart of flesh ; a heart of stone could not have been so
flexible. Job was eminent for patience, but being a new creature, he had a
disposition to all the rest, and had acted them with as high a strain, had he
had the same occasions.
(2.) This readiness to every service doth not actually appear in persons
newly regenerate. I think the lowest degree of this habit in one newly re-
generate, is a purpose of heart to cleave unto the Lord : Acts xi. 23, ' When
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 109
he came, and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and exhorted them,
that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.' Certainly
when there is such a fixed and constant purpose, it is a token of the grace
of God ; yet to this purpose there may not alway be connexed an actual
readiness to every service. For at the first beginning of the new creature
there is a strong resistance ; it is in a strange soil, the armies of hell are in
array against it, it is like a Daniel in a lion's den, or a Lot in Sodom, only
God restrains the force of these enemies. As it is in a child derived from
Adam, there is a principle in the natural corruption to exert all kind of
wickedness ; yet it doth not presently rise to the utmost of its force, till
ripened by time and other intervening causes. So though the new creature
hath in it a readiness virtually to the most raised action, to be as believing
and laborious as Paul, as zealous as Elijah, as patient as Job, yet it mounts
not presently to this state ; a time must be allowed for growth. There is an
infancy in grace, as well as in manhood. And as a child, though his soul
be of the same nature with that of a man, yet he cannot exercise those acts
of understanding and reason, because of the predominancy of sense, and the
indisposition of the organs ; so neither can a young Christian : he may have
a disposition equal to the best Christians, but not an equal strength ; the
reluctancy of the corrupt habits is more vigorous, not being much mortified ;
he wants also that additional strength gained by exercise. There may be a
greater resistance to one grace more than to another, from the strength of
some corruption particularly opposite to that grace ; yet ' to will is present
with him,' though he 'cannot perform that which is good,' Rom. vii. 18.
The posture of the soul to God was as natural to him as the posture of the
heart was before to sin ; as a young boy first come to school may have as
strong a purpose to get learning as a man that hath taken all his degrees in
the university. The first graces which appear in a renewed soul are re-
pentance and faith ; because regeneration being a rooting up from the old
stock and setting up a new, as it relates to the old stock, it doth necessarily
produce repentance upon the sight of his misery, and for being upon the old
stock so long ; and faith, as a necessary grace for closing with the Redeemer
upon a sight of him, and for ingrafting him upon a new stock ; and then
love, admiration, and thankfulness, walk the stage, from a reflection upon
the greatness of the misery escaped, and the great deliverance attained.
Sprouts from a root grow up, some faster, some slower, yet all arising from
the same root. So some graces appear at the very first setting this habit in
the soul, other graces lie hid till new occasions draw them out. This dis-
position, inclination, will, readiness, purpose, is the first language of a habit.
2. A second thing wherein you have a prospect of the new creature is
this ; as it is ready in respect of disposition, so it is in activity of motion.
Since it is a life infused by infinite activity, since it is a habit bearing the
impression of God, and maintained by a union with him, it is impossible it
can be sleepy and dull in a constant way. All life hath motion proper to
the principle of it : rational life is attended with rational actions ; sensitive
life, with acts proper to sense. It is as impossible then that a spiritual life
should be without acts consonant to it, as that the sun should appear in the
firmament without darting forth its beams. All life is accompanied with
natural heat, which is the band of it, whereby the body is enabled to a vigor-
ous motion. The new creature is not a marble statue or a transparent piece
of crystal, which hath purity, but not life. It is a living spirit, and there-
fore active ; a pure spirit, and therefore purely active, according to the de-
gree of it. It is the same habit in part renewed, which Adam had by crea-
tion, which was not a sluggish and unwieldy principle ; it must therefore
110 charnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
have an activity, it could not else be a proper principle to contest with the
contrary principle, which is active like the sea, casting out mire and dirt.
Since the old Adam conveyed such a vigorous principle of corruption, the
new Adam is not wanting to endue the principle of his conveyance with a
suitable activity. Grace abounds in its vigour, as well as sin hath abounded
in its kind, Rom. v. 20. Upon Christ's call, Matthew left his receipt of
custom ; the other apostles their nets ; motion presently follows an enliven-
ing call of God. It is first a habit, then an act ; first a ' spirit of grace and
supplication,' then a ' looking upon him whom they havepierced,' by an act of
their understanding, and a 'mourning' by an act of the will, Zech. xii. 10, 11.
First a ' sanctification of the spirit,' then a 'belief of the truth,' to the ob-
taining of glory, 2 Thes. ii. 13. When anything ceaseth to act, there is
either an oppression, or a death of nature.
(1.) This principle of the new creature is naturally active. All vital
motions are natural ; sometimes in men there are natural actions without
any actual exercise of reason, as when the spirits flow out to any part for
the defence of it upon the motion of any passion, as blood starts to the face
upon shame, &c, which all the reason of a man cannot hinder. It is as
natural to this new habit to produce new actions, as for anything to engender
according to its own likeness and species, as for a living tree to spring out
in leaves and fruits. A renewed man, whose seed is within himself, brings
forth fruit after its kind, as well as the herbs and the trees, Gen. i. 12. All
living creatures move agreeably to their natures, with a spontaneity and free-
dom of nature. The bramble doth not more naturally bring forth thorns,
than a habit of sin doth steam out sinful actions ; nor a fountain more freely
bubble up its water, than a habit of grace springs up in holy actions. For
shall the workmanship of God be more unapt to the proper end of it, than
the workmanship of the devil, since good works are the end of God's new
creating us, that we should walk in them ? Walking is a natural motion :
Eph. ii. 10, ' We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works.'
A well dressed vine doth not more naturally bring forth grapes, than a soul
rooted in Christ doth the fruits of the spirit ; neither doth the sun more
naturally enlighten the world with its beams, than the new creature shoots
forth its desires and affections to God ; for it is impossible but this habit
should tend to him, since it is planted by him. The new creature's services
are his meat and drink, not his work ; it is as natural to him to do it, as
for a creature to desire and take its proper food ; you need not hire a child
to suck, by the promises of fine things, it will naturally, without imitation,
take the breast. The new creature having a righteous and just nature,
cannot but do righteous things ; nothing can act against its nature, while
nature is orderly, and not disturbed by some disease or frenzy. As God,
whose image a regenerate man bears, cannot but do good, because his nature
is goodness : Rom. vi. 2, ' How can you that are dead to sin, live any longer
therein ?' He can no more naturally do it than a dead man can walk. Not
but that there are some mistakes sometimes, which proceed not from nature,
but from some obstructing humour. Nature doth not err in its right course
unless hindered by some adversary ; the errors renewed men are subject to pro-
ceed not from the regenerate principle in them, but from that remainder of cor-
ruption which by degrees is weakened by the other, and at last wholly put off.
(2.) It is voluntarily active. There is a kind of natural necessity of
motion, from life and habit, yet also a voluntary choice; it is a power which
constrains and inclines the will : Ps. ex. 3. The apostle tells us there was
a ' necessity laid upon him to preach the gospel,' 1 Cor. ix. 16, yet it was
not a compulsion, but a voluntary act, after his will was changed. The new
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. Ill
creature is not constrained from without, but flows freely, is not forced ; the
chief work is upon the will, the proper effect of any work upon the will is
voluntariness. The Spirit works to make it willing; its motion then is not by
compulsion : there is a sweet necessity of the new nature, and a gracious choice
of will, which meet together and kiss each other ; a natural, not a coactive
necessity. How freely doth the soul, winged with grace, move to and for
God, as a bird in the air ! With what a free and ready spirit doth the new
creature go to prayer, reading, and hearing ! How freely doth it breathe in
the air of heaven ! Not spurred by outward interest, or dragged by the
threatenings of the law, nor chid to it by the clamours of conscience ; but
gently moved to it, and upheld by it, by a soft, and dove-like, and ' free
spirit,' Ps. li. 12. How great is the difference between the flowing of a
fountain and the dropping of a sponge ; one is free, the other squeezed :
between a statue drawn upon wheels, and a living motion ; one moves, the
other is moved. Our Saviour, by washing us from our sins in his own blood,
• hath made us kings and priests unto God,' Rev. i. 6. First kings, put-
ting into the new creature a royal and magnanimous frame, as he did into
Saul when he advanced him to the kingdom ; and then priests, to offer sacri-
fices to God with this royal and generous spirit. So that it is as trouble-
some to a soul, having this royal spirit, to omit things proper to this frame,
as it is for a legalist to do them. Therefore where there are frequent omis-
sions of duty, or a constant dulness in it, it shews the want of this kingly
frame, and consequently that we are not washed from our sins in the blood of
Christ. There is both such a nature and such a choice, that as the apostle
saith, 2 Cor. xiii. 8, ' We can do nothing against the truth, but for the
truth.' So the new creature cannot but do the things which are holy, just,
and good, so far as he is regenerate, were there no rule without to guide
him, because he hath a habit of holiness with him, a will set to the right
point. His former state made him have an aversion from holy services ;
this makes all spiritual duties connatural to him. So that it is as irksome
for him to live without God in the world, as before it was to live with him ;
he can as soon strip himself of his own soul, as act, from a renewed prin-
ciple, contrary to God and righteousness.
(3.) It is fervently active. The nobler the being of anything is, the greater
degree of activity it is attended with ; the more spiritual the quality, the more
vigorous the effect. Both the spirituality of the principle, excellency of the
object, and affection to the end, conspire together to increase this activity.
The principle is spiritually vital ; the operation therefore is vigorous : the
object is God as amiable ; the warmer therefore the zeal ; the acts are,
loving God, trusting in God, depending on God, promoting his kingdom in
the heart, acts delightful in themselves, delightful in their issue, the motion
in them more quick ; the end is the glory of God, the happiness of the
creature ; the higher the end, the more elevated the soul. There is an
innate principle in everything to preserve its happiness ; it is as natural as
life itself. Inanimate creatures are endued with this nature. The flame
aspires to heaven, and waves on this and that side greedily, to catch what may
supply a fuel ; much more will other creatues act vehemently for that which
preserves their being: the toad to its plantain, the swallow to its celandine,
the babe to the breast, and the Christian to the word. There is in the new
creature an impetus and force settled in the soul to do good. It is a baptism
of fire following that with water. The Spirit is first as water, washing us
f om our filth; then as fire, quickening us with grace : Mat. iii. 11, * I baptize
you with water, he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.'
In this respect it is likened to creatures of the greatest activity, fire, wind,
112 charnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
a spring of living water ; what more active in the rank of corporeal beings
than fire and wind, either above or in the bowels of the earth ? Witness the
many stately buildings speedily consumed by the one or overthrown by the other.
The new principle in the creature fills every part, dissolves the hard, melts
the lumpish leaden heart, and makes it moveable in the ways of God with a
glowing heat. But above this there is a higher denomination ; the new
creature is called spirit : John hi. 6, ' That which is born of the Spirit is
spirit ; ' that is, a spiritual creature. The activity of a spirit doth uncon-
ceivably surmount that of a body ; what vast strides can a spirit take in a
moment, from heaven to earth ! The habit of sin in respect of its vehemency
to evil is called a spirit, ' a spirit of whoredom,' Hosea iv. 12 ; as well as
the habit of grace, in respect of its vehemency to good, ' a spirit of love,'
2 Tim. i. 7. How active is the new creature in its motion to God ! It can
fly in a thought from earth to heaven, enter the bosom of God, clasp about
him, hold him fast, even till almightiness bids him let him alone. Where
there are rivers of living water in the belly, they will flow, John vii. 38 ;
-where there is a divine habit, the soul will have a paraoxysm of divine heat
for the glory [of] God, Acts xvii. 16. Paul's spirit was stirred in him upon
the sight of the Athenians' idolatry. If created to good works, then not to
a dull and sluggish motion in them ; this was not the intendment of the
Creator, and therefore not the disposition of the creature.
(4.) It is unboundedly active. This new creature's desires are as large as
his nature, he cannot be bound up in the narrow and contracted motions of
his former disposition. The natural activity of the soul overflows, like a
swelled river, ah natural bounds, since it is possessed by a spiritual habit.
A man without a habit in an art, doth but bungle at his work, is quickly
tired, desponds of attaining what he would ; but he that hath a habit, sup-
pose of mathematical knowledge, finds one proposition following upon
another, one deduction rising up from another, that he hath a largeness, he
knows not where to end ; so the new creature finds one affection coming
upon the neck of another many times in transports and out-goings to God,
which knows no limits. It is unboundedly active ; —
[1.] In affections to God. The new creature would be as unlimited in
its affections to God, as God is in his affection to him. It will not fix lower
than the object it hath pitched upon in heaven ; all its operations tend
thither ; nothing below can give them a cessation, though they may suffer an
interruption ; it flies up, and is pulled back ; it mounts again and again,
follows hard on after the Lord. His affections are larger than his ability.
' Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and there is none in earth that I desire
besides thee,' Ps. lxxiii. 25. He seems to scorn everything else in compari-
son of God, though it were an angel, like a man that makes haste to some
mark, turns the impediments on this side and that side. The new creature
puts by the temptations of the flesh and the world, to make its way into the
bosom of God, the centre of its rest, and the boundless limit of its soul.
The sun, so many thousand miles distant from us, sends its rays as far as
the lowest valley of the earth ; and the new creature, the dartings of his
soul to the highest heavens. ' Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
liberty,' 2 Cor. iii. 16, 17, the veil is taken away, it ' beholds, as in a glass,
the glory of the Lord ; ' like an eagle, mounts up as near as it can to the
sun, peers upon it till its eyes be dazzled with its brightness ; he is never
glutted with the views of him ; his desires for him are never bounded but
bv him ; one breathing after another, that he may fill God, as it were, with
his affections, as he is filled by him with his Spirit. In his obedience, too,
he would have his ' heart enlarged,' that he may ' run,' not creep, in the
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 113
ways of God's commandments, Ps. cxix. 32 ; it is his grief that he cannot
keep pace with God's commandments ; it is his joy that God flies upon the
wings of the wind to him, and his sorrow that he cannot fly upon the wings
of the wind to God. He groans under his dulness, and his pleasure consists
much in a liberty in God's service.
[2.] In disaffection to sin. He hates that body of death which hinders
the accomplishment of the desires of his soul, and regards it at no other
rate than his fetter, disease, and torture. He is discomposed when he meets
with any check in his religious course ; it is a violence to his new nature,
and he cannot bear it without regret. His anger and impatience rises with
as much force against any obstacle to a free converse with God, as it did
before against any impediment in the way of his lust. Nature is restless
till it hath got the conquest of the disease and corrupt humours of the body.
Neither can a new creature be at quiet, till all that is against the interest of
the new nature be purged out ; and to that purpose he daily knocks at
heaven gates for new strength and recruits of power against sin in the
spiritual conflict. It is a trouble to him that he hath not as full a sense of
his own corruptions as he would, and therefore he goes frequently to God
to beg new discoveries of sin, that he may fetch his enemy out of his holds
and skulks, and beat it to death ; for by this habit the understanding is more
quick in discerning the first rising of any sinful motion, and sensible of the
least touch contrary to the new interest of it.
(5.) The new nature is powerfully active. There is not only an unbounded
affection, but there is a power inherent in this habit to enable the soul to
act ; all habits add strength to the faculty. It is therefore called ' might in
the inner man,' Eph. iii. 16 ; and a ' spirit of power,' 2 Tim. i. 7. It is
put as a stock into the heart, to maintain the acts of holiness ; as there is
a stock of sap in the root to produce branches and fruit. A power of acting
is alway united with a form, and rooted in it. In regard the new nature is
implanted by a higher cause than any moral habits, even by the Spirit of
God, it must be able to do more than any moral nature can ; and being
more excellent than moral nature, must produce more excellent operations,
otherwise it were not of a more excellent kind, if it had not a more excellent
power. Jesus Christ was appointed to be a quickening Spirit, to convey a
powerful life, to enable us to live to God. ' The kingdom of God ' in the
heart, as well as that in the world, ' is not in word, but in power,' 2 Cor.
iv. 20. Move steel as often as you will, you can never make it of itself move
towards the north ; but by the impression made on it by the loadstone, there
is a power derived to turn and stand that way of its own accord. By nature
we are 'without strength,' Rom. v. 6, because without life, Eph. ii. 1. But
in the renewing there is strength conveyed together with life ; an ability to walk
in God's statutes, conveyed with the new heart ; out of weakness the soul is
made strong ; and the grace within, in concurrence with the supplies of the
Spirit, is sufficient for it. It is not only an outward strength, as is from a
staff in a sick man's hand, but an inward might. But besides this inherent
strength there is an adherent ability ; for Christ, who is his life, Col. iii. 4,
is also his strength : Philip, iv. 13, ' I can do all things through Christ
which strengthens me.' So that whatsoever active power is wanting in itself
can be supplied by the head. And therefore the new creature hath a kind
of almighty power of activity, by the communication of another, which is called
a greatness of power, and a mighty power which works towards them, or, ug
jyi&e, in them that believe, Eph. i. 19. This power doth reside in the
heart, and this adherent power is ready for it, but neither of them is alway
VOL. III. H
114 chaknock's woeks. [2 Cor. V. 17.
perceptible, but upon some emergency, as a sound man hath a greater power
to act tban be puts fortb upon all occasions.
(6.) It is easily active. Since tbat motion to God, and for God, is con-
natural and voluntary, and a power and ability also in tbe new creature, it
must follow tbat tbe motion is very easy. Habits are to strengthen tbe
faculty, and facilitate tbe acting of it. Bubbling is no pain to a fountain ;
rivers of water flow out of tbe belly easily, because naturally. Tbe motion
of tbis babit is as easy as tbe motion of tbe lungs, or tbe pulse of tbe
artery ; tbougb constant, yet not troublesome or painful in itself, but by
reason of some imparted humour settled in them. This stock of grace is
called the unction : 1 John ii. 20, ' But you have an unction from the Holy
One ; ' the inward oiling the soul, as oil communicates agility to tbe body.
This unction some understand of habitual grace conveyed from the Holy One
by the Spirit. As this unction upon our Saviour was the cause of his activity
for God in doing good,- — Acts x. 38, ' God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with
the Holy Ghost and with power ; who went about doing good,'— so it being
the same in the new creature, will have the like effect upon him. Super-
natural motions are as easy, by the strength of a supernatural habit, as natural
motions are by the strength of natural habits. A bird doth with as much
ease fly upward as a beast walks upon the ground, and the seed doth with as
much ease spring up, and put its ear out of the ground, as a bitter root doth
its unwholesome fruits and flowers. So when the soul is filled with this new
habit, the walks in the ways of God are as easy by virtue of it as a course of
sin and folly was before. Tbe yoke of itself is easy, Mat. xi. 30, and the
motion under a light yoke cannot be grievous. The very yoke is not a
shackle and burden, but a privilege. There is indeed some reluctancy some-
times, which ariseth not from the will as renewed, but from some evil habits
resident in tbe soul, not yet fully conquered by renewing grace. You know
bow tbe apostle Paul doth distinguish between tbe posture of his will, and
the interruptions by that sin which dwelt in him, Bom. vii. 18-20.
(7.) It is pleasantly active. 'Udv fih to -/.ccra <pii6iv, saith the philosopher.
As all actions which flow from life are pleasant, so those which flow from a
divine life in the soul. It is a joy to a just man to do judgment, Prov.
xxi. 15. That is, the entire inclination of the soul stands right to such
actions; and as much a joy to him to do judgment, when enabled thereunto
by a gracious babit, as it is to a sinful man under tbe bonds of iniquity to
commit it. His soul leaps as much at an opportunity of pleasing God, as
John Baptist did in his mother's womb at tbe appearance of Christ, as
much as his heart sprang up before at the proposal of a sinful object. Never
did tbe sun naturally rejoice so much ' like a strong man to run its race' in
the heavens, Ps. xix. 5, as the new man doth spiritually rejoice to run his race
to heaven. It is a mighty pleasure to have our spiritual enemies under our
feet, to be estranged from them. It is the purest delight to comply with
God, and be embosomed in him. He is swallowed up in these choicer
pleasures, as a man that bath had his full draughts of learning is in bis
studies, whence his diseases cannot draw him, though in his childish time
he counted them his task and burden.* The delights of an heart seasoned
with habitual grace are more ravishing than all the pleasures of sense,
because they arise from an habit planted in the soul by that Spirit which is
a Spirit of joy as well as of grace. The fatness of God's house, the sacrifices
presented by him, are his delight, and he drinks of a river of pleasure in his
very acts of worship : Ps. xxxvi. 8, ' They shall be abundantly satisfied with
tbe fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of tbe rivers of
* Jacks, vol. iii. chap. 27, p. 474 ; &c.
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 115
thy pleasures.' ' In keeping thy commandments there is great reward,'
Ps. xix. He finds much sweetness in the very acts of worship. Ah, how
can the motions of the habits of sin, under the quarrels of conscience, yield
as much delight as the habits of grace under the breathings of the Spirit !
The very marks of Christ in his body are his delight and triumph. He
takes pleasure in distresses for Christ's sake : 2 Cor. xii. 10, saith the apostle,
' I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses for Christ's sake.' The motions of his soul to Christ are his
life and joy. He chides his soul that her flights to Christ are not so strong
as Christ's flights to him. He would have a delight in doing the will of
God's precept, as Christ had in doing the will of the mediatory command.
He rejoices in his breathings after God, though he wants him, and is glad
his soul can have any flights towards him though he cannot find him. The
tabernacles of God are amiable, when his ' heart and his flesh cries out for
the liviug God: ' Ps. lxxxiv. 1,2,' How amiable are thy tabernacles, Lord!
my soul longs, yea, even faints for the courts of the Lord.' And when, by
reason of some distemper, he cannot move so readily, some disease fetters
him, some corruption hath cast a clog upon him, yet he delights in the
thoughts of what he had, as a man in the former converses with his friend,
though now at a distance, and cheers up his soul with the thoughts that he
will again return: Ps. xlii. 5, 11, 'Why art thou cast down, my soul?
hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him.' He grieves because he at
present cannot do what he would, and hopes for another frame, and rejoices
in the faith that he shall repossess it : 'He will turn again,' &c, Micah
vii. 19. A natural man without an habit of grace may move in some ways
outwardly good, but with some reluctance, and without any pleasure in the
goodness of the thing enjoined, or the goodness of that God who enjoins it.
He may have a sudden inclination to do a good action, but he is nut pleased
with that inclination itself. Ahab's humiliation was good in itself, no doubt,
but Ahab was pleased with it, but not as it was a humiliation, or had a like-
ness to a gracious action, or a tendency to the pleasing God, but as it was
a means of removing the judgment threatened, so that his pleasure was only
in the issue of it ; but a gracious soul is pleased with the habit itself, for he
considers it as the perfection of his nature, regards it as an ancient inmate,
though separated from his nature by Adam's degeneracy, as friends long absent
rejoice in one another. When this rectitude is in part restored, and under-
stood to be of kin to it by creation, but lost and now returned, there must
needs be an high complacency in the soul, and a joyful compliance with it.
And the stronger and more vigorous this inward rectitude is in habit, the
more pleasure a man hath in the exercise of it. As God, who is infinitely
righteous in all his ways and in all his works, has an infinite pleasure in the
exercise of this righteousness, and an infinite loathing of what is contrary to
it, because it is his infinite nature, so the stronger the habit in a man, the
more contentment there is in the exercise of it, because his nature is more
elevated. And what is natural is delightful ; and the more natural, the more
delightful. Mercy is natural to God, therefore he delights in it; and because
infinitely natural, therefore he doth infinitely delight in it.
Well 'then, since all the motions of nature are pleasant, the new nature is
not inferior in the pleasure of acting to any other nature whatsoever. It
being the perfectest nature, must beget the most delightful operations.
What a pleasure is it to draw near to God, to melt before him, to pour out a
prayer to him, and dissolve itself into love and affection in any address to him !
(8.) It is a permanent activity. There is a spring of perpetual motion.
The fountain doth constantly bubble. The sun doth constantly move,
116 charnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
because naturally. Whatsoever is natural is constant in its posture ; * fire
perpetually burns, and water perpetually cools. What is the essential property
of a thing doth competere semper. A man is alway rational, and ready to act
reason ; if there be any indisposition, it is not in the soul, but in the organ
or ill habit of the body, which doth obstruct the motions of the soul, and is
an unfit instrument for it to act by. This habit is not a passion, but a prin-
ciple ; not a motion, but a spring of uniform motion ; it is wrought in the
nature, and like the heart is continually beating. The principle is per-
manent, it is an abiding anointing, 1 John ii. 27, it is settled by God, given
to us in Christ, backed and assured by the earnest of the Spirit in the heart,
where this habit is seated. All is expressed, 1 Cor. i. 21, 22, ' Now he
which establisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God, who
hath also (that is, beside this) sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit
in our hearts.' It is a life and habit more fixed than that in Adam : his
life depended upon the rectitude of his soul, but this depends principally
upon the power of the Spirit, and the everlasting life of Christ. It is a water
which quencheth all thirst, and never leaves springing till it mount up to
eternal life, John iv. 14 ; it is perpetually active and springing, till it be
swallowed up in glory, as rivers in the sea. Others may move by some
wires, and have some strains of a natural religion, by some sudden impulses
which touch the strings and faculties of the soul ; but the wires break, the
touch ceaseth, and the motion with it, it hath no living spring. Nay, some-
times those motions in natural men under the gospel may be more quick,
and warm, and violent for a time than the natural motion of this habit ; as
the motion of a stone out of a sling is quicker than that of life, but faints by
degrees, because it is from a force impressed, not implanted and inherent in
the nature. They are just like water heated by the fire, which hath a fit of
warmth, and may heat other things ; but though you should heat it a thou-
sand times, the quality, not being natural, will vanish, and the water return
to its former coldness. But the new heart being in the new creature, causeth
him to walk in the statutes of God, not by fits and starts, but with an uni-
form and harmonical motion, Ezek. xxxvi. 27, 'Ye shall keep my judgments
and do them ; ' you shall treasure them in your minds and act them in your
lives. Not but that there are in the new creature some faintings ; it is
sometimes more vigorous, sometimes more weak in its motion ; it hath its
sicknesses ; it meets with wounds, but none of them to death. Every one
that is born of the Spirit is like the wind, John iii. 8, it moves and blusters,
and when you think it is passed away, it returns, resumes its force, and you
feel as stiff a motion as you did before. A man is never weary of that
which is habitual to him. There may be a weariness in duty and service,
but not a weariness of it, so as to throw it off; but after he hath refreshed
and recruited himself, his habit will put him upon a delightful return to it.
Where the ways of God are in the heart habitually, such shall go from strength
to strength, till they appear in Sion, though there may be some rests and
intermissions by the way: Ps. lxxxiv. 5, 6, ' In whose heart are the ways of
them ; ' some read, ' the high way of God in their hearts,' more consonant
to the Hebrew.
(9.) It is an orderly motion and activity. Natural motions are orderly.
As affirmative precepts bind semper, but not ad semper, so this habit enables
the soul semper, but not ad semper ; I mean, not to this or that service at
all times. Natural things have their stated times, places, and measures.
As trees bring forth fruit in their season, so doth the new creature bring
* The philosopher saith of an habit, olx. ibxlwrov, obx ibu.ira.p,o\ov—Aristot. Categ.,
cap. 5.
2 COE. V. 17.] THE NATUEE OF EEGENEEATION. 117
forth fruit ' in his season,' Ps. i. 3, in a season proper for that fruit. It is
alway producing some fruit or other, according to the particular seasons,
sometimes love, sometimes humility, sometimes patience. This habit is
ready at hand, whence he draws out fruits new and old.* As God doth all
things in weight, and number, and measure, so doth this habit of his own
implanting. As God gives every creature meat in due season, so the new
creature renders God his fruit in due season. As a wicked man is always
acting sin, sometimes one, sometimes another, according to the seasons of
them, so doth this habit in the new creature act grace, sometimes one,
sometimes another.
From all these things put together there follows,
1. A predominancy of grace in the new creature. As a state of nature
consists in the prevalency of the corrupt habit which leavens the whole
man, so the state of grace in a predominancy of the gracious habit, which
spreads itself over the whole soul, striving with the powerful opposite, which
in part resides there still. It is a habit put in to mate and destroy that habit
of sin which was there before ; the soul by it is made alive from the dead :
Rom. vi. 13, ' Yield yourselves to God, as those that are alive from the dead.'
Life triumphs over death, grace over nature, whereby the members become
instruments of righteousness unto God, instead of being instruments of un-
righteousness unto sin. It is put in to guide reason and will, and therefore
is invested with the sovereign power. As sense was first in man, but that
veiled when reason stepped into the throne, as being a more excellent prin-
ciple than sense, so must reason descend and give place to grace when that
comes in, as being a more excellent principle than reason. It is reason it
should have the sovereignty, for it doth but regain its own right, and take
possession, which by the law of creation it ought to have kept till violently
ejected by man. He that hath this habit hath a spirit of might as well as
of the fear of the Lord ; the same spirit which was in Christ, which is a
' spirit of might,' Isa. xi. 2. ' They that are Christ's have crucified the
flesh, with the affections and lusts,' Gal. v. 24 : have, not shall. As soon
as ever they are Christ's, which they are by this principle, a deadly wound
is given to siu ; such a one scorns to have anything more to do with idols,
Hosea xiv. 8. He overcomes the world : 1 John v. 4, ' Whatsoever is born
of God overcomes the world.' He can do all things : enter the lists with
the strongest Goliath, repel the sharpest temptations, through Christ which
strengthens him, Philip, iv. 13, so that grace is predominant.
2. There follows from hence a difficulty to sin. No creature can easily
act against a rooted habit ; how hard is it to make a beast do that which is
different from and contrary to his nature ! To act contrary to nature is
burdensome and intolerable. What creature would willingly change its
element? Will a bird sink of its own accord into the water, or a fish
delight to leap upon the land, whose only element is the water ? ^ What
creature would court the destruction of its iife ? What man would willingly
deform and gash his own body ? Men never do so by nature, but when
frenzy hath dispossessed them of their reason. Sin must dispossess a Chris-
tian of his grace before it can be easy for him to run into ways destructive
to his nature and blessedness. That principle which is in all natures must
be more eminently in the highest nature, and proportionably in every nature
that is of nearest approach to it. Righteousness and holiness is the very
constitution of the new creature : Eph. iv. 24, ' That new man, which after
God is created in righteousness and true holiness.' It is as impossible for the
new creature to sin by the influence of habit, as for fire to moisten by the
* Dr Goodwin, Vanity of Thoughts, p. 14.
118 charnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
quality of heat, or water to burn by the quality of cold. It is as impossible
for that habit to bring forth the fruits of sin, as for the sun to be the cause
of darkness, or a sweet fig-tree to bring forth sour fruit. Yet as there is
darkness in the air, though the sun be up, by the interposition of thick clouds,
so is there darkness in the new creature from the habit of sin in the soul,
which is not only a lodger, but an unwelcome inhabitant : Rom. vii. 20,
' Sin that dwells in me' still, and acts according to its nature, though much
over-powered and weakened by degrees by that habit of grace. Therefore
it is a hard thing for him to sin : 1 John hi. 9, ' He cannot sin.' It is as
hard for him to contradict the new nature as before to cross the old : ' I
cannot do this wickedness,' saith Joseph ; it is against the frame and dispo-
sition of my soul.
(1.) It must be difficult to sin against 'purpose of heart,' which is the
lowest step of the new nature, Acts xi. 23, though it be not hard to sin
against a flashy resolve.
(2.) It is hard for a man to sin who hath cordially chosen God for his
portion, which every new nature doth, with a fixed resolution to keep his
word : Ps. cxix. 57, ' Thou art my portion, Lord : I have said that I would
keep thy word.' When it is carried out with a free motion to God, it cannot
easily be diverted from that charming object ; he cannot but value any diver-
sion at no better a rate than that of punishment.
(3.) It is difficult for him to contradict the new habit, wherewith he is so
highly pleased, and which he is assured hath nothing but happiness in the
womb of it.
(4.) It must be difficult for him to act that which, by virtue of this habit,
he is daily in the mortification of.
(5.) It is difficult for the habit of sin in him to do the same acts after it
hath received a deadly wound, as for a wounded man to do that which he
could when he was sound.
(6.) This nature cannot be in a man without an universal enmity to sin,
though it may without an universal victory ; this belongs to the perfection
of it, but enmity to the very constitution of it: Gen. hi. 15, 'I will put
enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.' He
can at the best but half sin, and scarce that ; he could not commit sin very
freely before, because of the reluctancy of natural conscience ; he can less
freely do it now, since there is a habit of grace in him, which doth more
powerfully fly in the face of sin when it appears ; therefore there can be but
a partial will to it or delight in it. The new man in the heart can never do
it ; the old man remaining cannot fully do it, because of the contradiction it
receives from the new habit. If he doth at any time sin, this new nature
can no more be pleased with it than the nature of a man is with the poison
which he hath wilfully taken, which will contest with it, and endeavour to
expel it, whether a man will or no. So that if a new creature be catched at
a disadvantage, and be bemired by the remaining habit of sin in the heart,
his spirit is wounded, his soul bleeds, his conscience upbraids him, he is
displeased with himself and with his sin, runs to God, seareheth into him-
self, calls heaven and earth to his assistance, sharpens his spiritual weapons,
and by virtue of this habit in him is dissatisfied, and in little ease, till he
hath overcome this rebellion of lust, dispossessed it, removed the guilt, and
cast out the filth.
4. As we have considered this work as a change, a vital principle, a habit,
so we will consider it as a law put into the heart. Every creature hath a law
belonging to its nature, so hath the new creature. Man hath a law of reason,
beasts a law of sense and instinct, plants a law of vegetation, inanimate
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 119
creatures a law of motion. A new creature bath a law put into his heart :
Jer. xxxi. 23, ' I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their
hearts,' cited by the apostle, Heb. viii. 10. It is called the ' law of the
mind,' Kom. vii. 23, it beginning first in the illumination of that faculty.
As sin begun first in a false judgment made of the precept of God, ' You shall
be as gods, knowing good and evil.'
Now, as to this law put into the heart, you may know what is meant by
it in some popositions.
(1.) This law of the mind, or law written in the heart, is not wholly the
same with the law of nature. Some* indeed tell us that it is nothing but
the law of right reason. But certainly they are mistaken, — it is a law of
grace. The law of nature was the law of a covenant of works, this law of
the mind is the law of the covenant of grace. The law of nature is in all
men, this law of grace only in some ; the law of nature was in Paul before
his conversion, this law of the mind was in him upon his conversion. The
law of nature consists not of faith in a mediator, but faith is a main part of
the law of grace. The law of nature acquaints not a man with the know-
ledge of all sins, not with unbelief; this law of grace doth, for the conviction
of this is a work of the Spirit : John xvi. 8, 9, ' Of sin, because they believe
not in me.' The law of nature is the general work of the mediator in all
men, ' who enlightens every man that comes into the world,' John. i. 9.
This is the peculiar work of the Mediator, by his Spirit, in the hearts of
those that believe ; the law of nature doth not oppose sin as sin, this law of
grace doth ; the law of nature is no part of sanctification, for this is in men
that are born of the flesh, are flesh still ; but the law of the mind is a part of
sanctification, and wars against the law of the members ; there is indeed a
war and a contest from the law of nature against some gross sins, but not
against the law of sin in the members. As sin wars against the law of the
mind, as a law of direction, so the law of the mind, or the law of grace, wars
against sin, as it is a law which pretends to guide and order the ways of a man.
(2.) Yet it is the restoring of that law which was the law of nature origin-
ally. It is a renewing in the heart that law which was writ in the heart of
Adam : Eph. iv. 24, ' That new man, which after God is created in right-
eousness and true holiness ;' or after God was created -/.riGOhra, alluding to
that righteousness wherein Adam was created, lost by him, and restored by
Christ. This righteousness which Adam had was the righteousness of the
law : holiness towards God, which includes the duties of the first table ;
righteousness, including the duties of the second table ; and truth being
added (as it may be referred both to holiness and righteousness), shews the
sincerity of it in the manner and the end of being holy to God and right-
eous to man. This was the law written in the heart originally, which was
defaced by the fall ; and whatsoever relics there were of this law in man,
were only upon the account of the mediation of Christ ; it is this law which
is new engraven in the soul by regeneration. God doth not say, I will write
another law in their hearts, but ' my law,' Jer. xxxi. 33, — that which was
my standing law, my law to Adam, and to your fathers. The law written
in the heart is not substantially distinct from that in the nature of Adam.
Man by his fall did blot this law, lost his righteousness, had an enmity in
his heart to it, and to the very relics of it. He is not natun.lly subject to
the law, nor can be, as it is the law of God, because of his enmity to God,
Rom. viii. 7 ; the law of sin had taken place instead of it. Regeneration is
a taking down the law of sin, and fixing the law of God in its due place and
posture.
* Taylor's Excmp., preface, p. 39.
120 chaknock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
(3.) This law is written in the heart wholly. The whole law, every
command which hath the print of God upon it, is written there. As God
writ his whole law in tables of stone, so he writes the whole law in the
1 fleshly tables of the heart,' 2 Cor. hi. 3. It is true holiness and righteous-
ness ; true, as to its essential and integral parts. God doth not write one
part of the law upon the heart, and leave out another ; it is not a moiety
of it, the impression of one command, and the defect of another. If it were
not the whole law, something belonging to the essence of a new creature would
be wanting. It would not be a new creature, because it would be a monster,
wanting something necessarily requisite to the constitution of it, and would
not be a new creature according to the original copy. Where there is an
agreeableness in one nature to another, it is to the whole nature, the nature
of the soul to the nature of the law.
(4.) This law written in the heart doth not make the outward law useless,
for that is still a rule. This inward law written in the heart is a conformity
to the outward rule, and therefore is not a rule itself. The law in the heart
is imprinted by the external word in the hand of the Spirit ; and therefore
to tiy the truth of the law within, we must have recourse to the law written.
If a man hath any notions of any human law, he must consult the law
written, to know whether his notions of it be right, and whether his actions
be according to the letter and reason of the law or no. As the law of sin
within a man is not the rule of judging of sin, but the law of God, so
neither is the law of grace within the rule of judging good, but the word of
God. The law within, though it be commensurate to the law in its essential
parts, yet it is imperfect as yet ; but a rule ought to be perfect, Ps. xix. 7,
and so the written law is. It is this law written in the word that we are to
take heed to, for the cleansing of our ways : Ps. cxix. 9, ' Thy word have
I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.' When this writing
of the law in the heart was promised, ver. 11, there was also an inward
teaching promised : Jer. xxxi. 32, ' And they shall teach no more every
man his neighbour, saying, Know the Lord ;' which is spoken in regard of
the abundance of the knowledge which should be in the time of gospel light,
above what was in the twilight of Jewish ceremonies ; so that the weak-
est Christian under the gospel knows more of God and his attributes in
Christ, than the greatest Jewish doctor did before the coming of Christ.
This was not so understood by Christ, as if teaching others were utterly use-
less ; for then why should he institute apostles, pastors, teachers, &c, and
promise to be with them to the end of the world, if this promise of inward
teaching made outward teaching useless ? In like manner, neither doth the
writing the law in the heart make the outward written law useless, but rather
it doth establish and advance it, and the esteem of it. The outward law is
the rule, as the model of a house is the rule by which a carpenter is to make
a building, and to which he is to conform that idea he hath in his mind of
it ; but that idea or figure of it which he hath in his mind, is to be suited to
that rule which is prescribed to him in the outward pattern ; and therefore
that pattern is to be consulted with. The law of God is of eternal duration;
and as it is a law of holiness and love of God, doth oblige every reason-
able creature, in what condition soever he be, whether of nature, grace, or
glory.
Quest. Wherein doth this writing of the law in the heart consist ?
Avs. (1.) In an inward knowledge of the law, and approbation of it in the
understanding. The knowledge of righteousness and the being of the law in
the heart, are put together as the proper character of the people of God :
Isa. li. 5, ' Hearken to me, ye that, know righteousness, the people in whose
2 Cob. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 121
heart is my law.' Lest they should think a knowledge were enough, he adds,
' In whose heart is my law ;' not in the head, but in the heart. There is
in a renewed understanding, a principle teaching how to make use of the
law. It is like the inward skill of a pilot, who guides the ship by the
compass and rudder. The outward law is the compass by which we must
steer ; the inward law is the practical knowledge of this ; an inward skill to
make application of it to particular occasions. The word of God being a
seed, doth, as every seed, produce a being like itself, and like that plant
whose seed it is ; from the seed of corn ariseth a grain of the same nature.
This seed being sown first in the understanding, is there cherished, and
grows up in principles and thoughts agreeable to itself, whereby the mind
becomes the epistle of Christ, 2 Cor. iii. 3, and an ark to preserve the tables
of the law ; whence David speaks of his soul keeping God's testimonies,
Ps. cxix. 167, and not forgetting them, ver. 16. The new creature by its
new light sees an amiableness in the law, a holiness in the precepts, and
a filthiness in himself thereby.
(2.) It consists in an inward conformity of the heart to the law. The
soul hath a likeness to the word and doctrine of the gospel within it ; it is
delivered into that mould : Eom. vi. 17, ' You have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine, into which you were delivered.' He considers the
gospel as a mould, and the Romans as a metal poured into it, and putting
on the form of it. As melted metal poured into a mould loses its former
form, and puts on a new shape, the same figure with the mould into which
it is poured ; the soul, which before was a servant of sin, and had the
image of the law of sin, being melted by the Spirit, is cast into the figure
and form of the law. As when a seal hath made its impression upon wax,
the stamp in the one answers exactly to the stamp on the other, put the seal
on again, and they both will meet as close as if they were one body, the
wax will fill every cavity in the seal ; but put this seal to any impression
made by another seal, there will be an inequality, the stamp on the seal
and that on the wax will not close. The law of sin and the law of God,
being contrary impressions, cannot close together ; but the law of grace in
the heart and the law of God close, they being but one and the same
stamp. So that when any command of God appears, a new creature finds
something within it of kin to it ; as a natural man finds something ready
to close with sin upon the appearance of it. The heart answers to the
law as a lock to a key, ward for ward ; sometimes it may not answer but re-
sist, as a lock doth, because of some rust or some filth got up into it ; but
then it needs not a new making but a new cleansing, to answer exactly to
the key of the law. So that as the ' Gentiles, having not the law, are a
law to themselves,' Eom. ii. 14, having it writ upon their minds in those
notions common to mankind, so the new creature, if he had not the written
law, would be a law to himself. So natural is this conformity, that were
there no law without, the renewed soul would naturally be carried out in the
ways of holiness. ' The law,' saith the apostle, ' is not made for a right-
eous man,' 1 Tim. i. 9 ; it is not chiefly intended for the righteous, but for the
unrighteous, who would not stir one step in any good action without it, and
will hardly stir with it. There would be no need of any written law in a
commonwealth, if all men had an exact justice and righteousness in their
own minds, and did jointly conspire to the good of the community. But
when disturbers of the peace and common welfare start up, there is need
then of public laws to restrain them. But there is no need of a public enact-
ing of a law for them that are good, because what the law enjoins they do
by their own judgment and inclination. So that what a new creature dot
122 charnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
in observance of the law, is from natural freedom, choice, and judgment,
and not by the force of any threatenings annexed to it.
(3.) It consists in a strong propension to the obedience of it. As there
was a strong impetus in the old nature, inclining it to sin, so there is a strong
impulse in the new nature, biassing it to observe the commands of the
law. In this respect it is chiefly called a law written in the heart, in re-
gard of the efficacious virtue of this new nature, sweetly constraining and
directly conducting to the performance of it. The law without us com-
mands us, the law within constrains us. That enjoins a thing to be done,
this inclines us to the doing of it.* The first law is written in the
Scripture or in the conscience, whereby we judge those commands to be kept ;
the other consists in the propension of love, or faith working by love. As
the impulse of concupiscence is called ' the law of sin,' Rom. vii. 25, so the
impulse of grace is called the law in the heart ; not as a thing distinct from
the law without, but only a counterpart of it, an indenture answering to the
other. They are but two parts united between themselves, and compose one
perfect law ; one as the direction, the other as the practice. That lavs the
injunction, this embraceth it ; and as naturally from the disposition of the
new nature as he did embrace the law of sin from the disposition of the
old. It is a powerful operative law of the Spirit of life, which ' sets us free
from the law of sin and death,' Rom. viii. 2 ; not a dead letter, but an active
principle, quickening the heart to close with the law, and delivering it from
that which was the great hindrance to it. As the devil doth act in men's
hearts, Eph. ii. 2, not personally, but by a principle in the heart, the law of
sin, so doth the Spirit of life by the law of grace ; for being writ by a liv-
ing Spirit, it is a living law. This is the chief intent of the whole new
creation, to cause us to walk in God's statutes, Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27. Ps.
xxxvii. 31, ' The law of God is in his heart, none of his steps shall slide.'
The soul being thus evangelised and spiritualised, may be said to do by
nature the things contained in the gospel, as the Gentiles are said to do by
nature the things contained in the law, Rom. ii. 14, because there was a law
of nature engraven in them.
(4.) It consists in a mighty affection to the law. What is in the word a
law of precept, is in the heart a law of love ; what is in the one a law of
command, is in the other a law of liberty. ' Love is the fulfilling of the
law,' Gal. v. 14. The law of love in the heart, is the fulfilling the law of
God in the Spirit. It may well be said to be written in the heart, when a
man cloth love it. As we say, a beloved thing is in our hearts, not physi-
cally, but morally, as Calais was said to be in Queen Mary's heart. They
might have looked long enough before they could have found there the map
of the town ; but grief for the loss of it killed her. It is a love that is inex-
pressible. David delights to mention it in two verses together : Ps. cxix.
47, 48, ' I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved - :
my hands will I lift up to thy commandments, which I have loved ;' and
often in that psalm resumes the assertion. Before the new creation, there
was no affection to the law : it was not only a dead letter, but a devilish let-
ter in the esteem of a man : he wished it razed out of the world, and another
more pleasing to the flesh enacted. He would be a law to himself; but
when this is written within him, he is so pleased with the inscription, that
he would not for all the world be without that law, and the love of it :
whereas what obedience he paid to it before, was out of fear, now out of
affection ; not only because of the authority of the lawgiver, but of the purity
of the law itself. He would maintain it with all his might against the power
* Suarez de legib. lib. x. chap. iii. p. 4.
2 Cor. Y. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 123
of sin within, and the powers of darkness without him. He loves to view
this law ; regards every lineament of it, and dwells upon every feature with
delightful ravishments. If his eye be off, or his foot go away, how doth he
dissolve in tears, mourn and groan, till his former affection hath recovered
breath, and stands upon its feet ! If he finds not his heart answering the
law, he longs after the precepts, as the prophet saith : Ps. cxix. 40, ' I have
longed after thy precepts, quicken me in thy righteousness.' He longs to
join hands again with the holiness of them. As his heart is inclined to obey
it, so it is wounded upon any neglect of it, and never at ease, till he be re-
duced to his former delight in it. He hath no mind ever to part with it,
because of its intrinsic goodness, as well as conveniency for him. It is his
pleasure, not his confinement ; his ornament, not his fetter ; he hates every
thing that is contrary to it. How doth Paul grieve and groan under ' the
body of death,' when he considered what opposition ' the law in his mem-
bers made against the law of his mind' ? Rom. vii. 23, 24. The law in
his members ' brought him into captivity to the law of sin.' Then, ' Oh
wretched man that I am !' though he knew he was in part delivered from it.
How doth he long for a perfect redemption from his shackles, which hin-
dered him from following the law of his delight ! And he that never mur-
mured at his sufferings, but could glory in persecutions and death for Christ,
seems to be impatient till he could hear the last expiring groan of this
enemy : all which was the effect of his ' delight in the law of God after the
inward man,' ver. 22. And that this writing the law doth principally con-
sist in this affection, those two expressions, ' putting the law into the inward
parts,' and ' writing it in the heart,' intimate. The nature of man being
enmity against the law of God, the writing it argues, not a change of
the law, but a change of the frame of the heart to the law, that should
be so fashioned, that the law should reign there, and all his affections sub-
scribe to it. As the writing the law in the heart of Christ was nothing else
but the agreeableness of the mediatory law to him, and his delight in it, Ps.
xl. 8, so it is with a new creature.
(5.) It consists in an actual ability to obey. Writing the law in the heart
implies a putting a power and strength into the soul, enabling it to run the
ways of God's commandments, as well as to incline the heart and affections
to them ; the promise is made to the latter times : not but that the ancient
patriarchs were regenerate, but not by the law, not by any covenant of
works : this ability did not reside in the law, but was transferred to them
from the gospel. In this respect it is called ' a letter,' 2 Cor. iii. 6, because
it did only instruct the eye or ear, when read or heard : this teaches the
heart ; that a killing letter, this a quickening Spirit ; that exacted the ob-
servance of its precepts, but writ nothing in the heart to answer it, but con-
demned upon neglect; this commands the observance of the law, and gives
an ability evangelically to perform it. That was a ministration of condem-
nation, this of righteousness, 2 Cor. iii. 9 ; that could do no other but con-
demn, because it gave no intrinsic power to oberve it. It is through Jesus
Christ that we are enabled, by virtue of this inward writing, to serve with
our minds the law of God, though in our flesh we be captivated by the law
of sin. As an unregenerate man is dragged to any good, but willingly obe-
dient to the motions of sin, so a regenerate man is sometimes under the
rape of sin, but is willingly obedient to the motions of grace. So that the
Jaw is written in the heart, in respect of the assent of the understanding,
consent of the will, pleasure of the affections : in the understanding, by the
clearness of the light of faith ; in the will, by the heat of the fire of love.
In the understanding there is a judicious approbation of it ; in the will, a
124 charnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
motion to it, closing with it, and an affection to keep it ; and, according to
its ability, an endeavour to keep pace with it.
5. The fifth thing. As there is a vital principle, an habit, a law written
in the heart, so there is a likeness to God in the new creature. Every
creature hath a likeness to something or other in the rank of beings : the
new creature is framed according to the most exact pattern, even God him-
self. In this the form of regeneration doth consist. The new creature is
begotten ; begotten, then, in the likeness of the begetter, which is God. As
sin is tbe impression of Satan's image, which was drawn over all by the fall,
so renewing grace is tbe impression of the image of God ; for it is a quite
contrary thing to corruption. This likeness to God was man's original hap-
piness in creation, and is his restored happiness in redemption : Col. ii. 10,
' renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.' His
misery consisted in losing it ; our felicity, therefore, doth consist in recover-
ing it. Hence it is called a ' divine nature,' 2 Peter i. 4. Every thing
receives its denomination from the better part. A man is denominated
rational, though he hath both a sensitive principle common with beasts, and
a vegetative, or growing principle, common with plants ; so a new creature
is denominated divine, because grace, a divine principle, is superior in the
soul. Every perfection in the creature is supposed to be essentially some-
where. Every impression supposeth a seal that stamped it ; every stream
a fountain from whence it sprang ; every beam a sun from whence it is shot.
Grace being the highest perfection of the creature, must be somewhere
essentially. Where can that be but in God ? His womb and power is
the womb that bare it, and the breasts which gave it suck. It must then
have a resemblance to him, as a child to the father, the copy to the ori-
ginal. We are said to be ' born of God,' 1 John iii. 9. Now to be born
of any thing is to receive a form like that, which the generating person
hath. But,
(1.) It is not a likeness to God in essence : it is no participation of the
essence of God. It is a nature, not the essence ; a likeness in an inward
disposition, not in the infinite substance, which is communicated by gene-
ration only to the Son, and by procession to the Holy Ghost. The divine
essence is incommunicable to any creature. Infiniteness cannot be repre-
sented, much less communicated. Man is no more renewed according
to God's image, than he was at first created according to it, Gen. i. 27 ;
which was not a communication of the divine essence, but of a righteous-
ness resembling the righteousness of God, according to the capacity of
Adam's nature ; which image of God in Adam is by the apostle restrained
to that of ' righteousness and true holiness,' Eph. iv. 24. The likeness in
a state of glory is founded upon a sight of God as he is, 1 John iii. 2 ;
which may more properly be meant of the seeing of Christ as he is in glory ;
for the apostle goes on in the discourse without naming of Christ ; but
without question means him, ver. 5, when he saith, that ' he was manifested
to take away our sins.' We shall be like him, as we shall see him ; there-
fore not in essence. His essence is concluded by most to be invisible, even
in glory. How can finite creatures behold an infinite being ? He must be
God that knows God's essence. We shall understand him in his bowels, as
a father; in his wise acts, as a governor; in his judicial acts, as a justifier; in
his merciful acts, as a reconciler. We shall see him in all his relations to us.
Such a vision we shall have, whatsoever it is, which shall transform us into
as high a likeness to him as a finite creature is capable of. There can be
no participation of the substantial perfections of God, which are incommu-
nicable ; for then it would not be a participation but an identity, oneness,
2 CoR. V. 17. J THE NATURE OF REGENERATION. 125
or equality. God put in one letter, and the chiefest of his name, Jehovah,
H, which is twice repeated in it, into the names of Abraham and Sarai,
reckoned Nehem. ix. 7, as one of his favours to Abraham, but not the whole
name, that is incommunicable ; and Jacob's name is changed to that of
Israel, putting in ?N, a communicable name of God.
(2.) Yet it is a real participation. It is not a picture, but a nature : it
is divine. God doth not busy himself about apparitions. It is a likeness,
not only in actions, but in nature. God communicates to the creature a singu-
lar participation of the divine vision and divine love ; why may he not also give
some excellent participation of his nature ?* There is a nature ; for there
is something whereby we are constituted the children of God. A bare affec-
tion to God doth not seem to do this. Love constitutes a man a friend, not
a son and heir by generation. The apostle argues, ' If children, then heirs,'
Rom. viii. 17. He could not argue in a natural way, if friends, then heirs.
And the Scripture speaks of believers being the children of God, by a spi-
ritual generation as well as by adoption. So that grace, which doth consti-
tute one a child of God, is another form whereby a divine nature is commu-
nicated. Generation is the production of one living thing by another, in
the likeness of its nature, not only in the likeness of love ; so is regenera-
tion. Were not a real likeness attainable, why should those exhortations be,
of being '.holy as God is holy, pure as he is pure' ? 1 Pet. i. 15, 1 John
iii. 3. The new creature receives the image of God ; not as a glass receives
the image of a man, which is only an appearance, no real existence ; and
though it be like the person, yet hath no communion with its nature ; but as
wax receives the image of the seal, which though it receives nothing of the
substance, yet receives exactly the stamp, and answers it in every part. So
the Scriptures represents it: Eph. i. 13, 'You were sealed with that holy
Spirit of promise.' Something of God's perfections are in the new creature
by way of quality, which are in God by way of essence. In a word, it
is as real a likeness to God as the creature is capable of, laid in the first
draughts of it in regeneration, and completed in the highest measures in
glory.
(3.) It is the whole image of God which is drawn in the new creature.
It is ' the image of God,' Col. iii. 10, not a part : a foot or a finger is but
the image of those parts, not of a man. The members in a child answer to
those in a parent, that is but a chip from the body of his father,, though not
in so great a proportion. The image of a man hath not only the face, or
eyes, but the other members. Though a Christian may have one or two
parts of this image more beautiful than the rest, as a man may have a spark-
ling eye that hath not a proportionable lip, yet he hath all the members of a
man. The painter's skill appears in some lineaments more than in others.
So the Spirit's wisdom appears in making some eminent in one grace, some
in another, acording to his good pleasure ; yet the whole image of God is
imprinted there ; it would be else not a likeness, but a monstrous birth in
defect. ' The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth,'
Eph. v. 9 ; and therefore the immediate effect of the Spirit in the soul is
the engraving all goodness, righteousness, and truth in the essential parts of
it. As God's nature is holy, his perfections holy, his actions holy, so holi-
ness beautifies the nature, spirits the actions, and is writ upon all the endow-
ments of a renewed man. There is an impression of the wisdom of God in
the understanding, and of the holiness of God in the will.
(4.) It is more peculiarly a likeness to Christ, wherein we partake of his
nature : ' He that doth righteousness is righteous, as Christ is righteous,'
* Suarcz dc gra. lib. vi. cap xii. numb. 3, 10.
126 charnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
1 John iii. 7. There is a real likeness to Christ in righteousness, though
not an equal perfection. The new nature is a draught of Christ, something
of Christ put into the soul, such a likeness to Christ, that it seems to be (as
it were) another Christ, as the image of the sun seems to be another sun in a
pail of water, therefore called a ' forming of Christ in us,' Gal. iv. 19. Not
by any communication of his substance, either of the divine or human nature,
but by conveying such affections into us, which bear a likeness to the affec-
tions of Christ. Hence we are exhorted to have ' the same mind which
Christ had,' Philip, ii. 5, and to ' arm ourselves with the same mind,' 1 Peter
iv. 1, which supposeth such a mind put into the new creature which he is
to excite, and put into actual exercise. And the apostle speaks of a con-
formity to Christ in his death and resurrection, Philip, iii. 10. And God
did ' predestinate' all his own ' to be comformed to the image of his Son,'
Rom. viii. 29, e-jfi/Moo^o-og, of the same form and shape. Jesus Christ con-
formed himself to us, by assuming the human nature ; and God conforms
us to Christ, by bestowing upon us a divine. Hence we are said to be the
seed of Christ, Isa. liii. 10 ; not a carnal seed as the Jews say, and therefore
deny Christ to be the Messiah, because he left no posterity. Whereas seed
is spiritually understood, as in the first promise, the seed of the serpent or
the devil. Devils do not beget, but metaphorically, as they instil their
cursed principles into men ; so Christ sows his principles in us, whereby we
become his seed. Hence also renewed men are called « his fellows,' Heb. i. 9.
If fellows with him in the covenant, and fellows with him in glory, fellows
also with him in his disposition of loving righteousness, and hating iniquity.
This disposition was the inward motive of his death, and the foundation of
his advancement. Without this disposition we cannot be conformable to him
in his death, and consequently not his fellows in his advancement. The new
creature is a likeness to Christ, therefore called the new man ; as the natural
man is like to Adam, therefore called the old man. The new man and old
man are titles of Christ and Adam, and transferred upon others by a figure,
metonymia causa pro effectu. These are the heads and roots of the two dis-
tinct bodies of men in the world. All are in the old Adam by nature, and so
partake of the old man ; all believers are in the new Adam by faith, and
so partake of the nature of the new man. As we did partake of Adam's
nature by our natural birth, so we partake of the nature of Christ by our
spiritual : by the one we have the ' image of the earthly,' by the other the
new creature hath the ' image of the heavenly,' 1 Cor. xv. 48, 49 ; the one
derives sin, the other righteousness ; they both imprint their image accord-
ing to the quality of their extraction. Christ is full of purity, righteous-
ness, charity, patience, humility, truth, and in a word, all the parts of holi-
ness ; then the form and image of Christ in the new creature can be no
other than a lively representation of those divine qualities, a soul glitter-
ing with goodness, humility, &c, which the apostle comprehends in two
words, ' righteousness and true holiness.' Therefore, if there be not a like-
ness to Christ in the frame and qualities of our souls, we are not bom of
him. No man will say an ox, or a sheep, or a dog descends from Adam,
because they have not the likeness, shape, and qualities of Adam ; neither
can any man without such a likeness to Christ in faith, humility, patience,
love, obedience, and minding the glory of God, number himself in the spiri-
tual seed of Christ. He retains the nature poisoned by the serpent, creep-
ing upon the earth, feeding upon the dust, not the nature formed by the
eternal Spirit.
(5.) It is a likeness to the Spirit, which is the immediate cause of it.
Therefore the new creature is called spirit in the abstract, as a natural man
2 COE. V. 17.] THE NATURE OF REGENERATION. 127
is called flesh in the abstract: John iii. 6, ' That which is torn of the flesh,
is flesh ; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.' As that which is
born of the flesh is like to flesh in its nature, so that which is born of the
Spirit is like to the Spirit in its nature, as light in the air, being the natural
effect flowing from the sun, is like to that light which is in the sun ; its
relishes, delights, breathings, are according to its spiritual original ; its mo-
tions, purposes, dispositions, are like those of the Holy Ghost, of whom it
is born. The principles and impressions in the nature must be agreeable to
those the Spirit hath. The Spirit is a Spirit of holiness, grace, love and zeal
to the glory of God ; his office is to exalt and glorify Christ. If we are re-
newed, then we shall have the same draught in our hearts, the same design ;
the fleshly principle will be changed into spiritual. They will be habitual
too, as the frame of the Holy Spirit is. A natural man may do sdme acts that
look like spiritual by fits and starts, but there is no settled principle ; where-
as the spirit in a new creature is a spirit of meekness, and curbs the pas-
sions ; a spirit of humility, and overthrows pride ; a spirit of zeal, and fires
the heart ; a spirit of power, and arms the soul against sin ; a holy spirit,
and theiefore cleanseth it; an heavenly spirit, and therefore elevates it.
Quest. Wherein doth this likeness to God chiefly consist ?
Ans. 1. In a likeness of affections. God is no bodily shape ; we cannot
be like him in our bodies, but in our souls, as they are spirits ; but if there
be a dissimilitude of affection and disposition, the unlikeness to God is
greater than a likeness to him in point of the natural being. There is no
draught of this image in us, unless we have a conformity of affections to
God ; it is then chiefly evidenced by a delighting in him, by faith and love,
wherein we bear a resemblance to him in his affection to himself, by delight-
ing in his image in others, wherein we imitate his affection to his creatures.
He that loves not that image of God which is visible, cannot love the invi-
sible original, 1 John iv. 12, 20, and so, having no likeness to God in his
affection, can have no likeness to God in his nature. And the apostle posi-
tively affirms, that ' he that loves, is born of God,' 1 John iv. 7. The new
creature extends its arms to every thing wdrich hath a resemblance of that
whose image it bears. The divine nature is chiefly seen in the objects of
the affections, when they are set upon the same objects, and in a like manner
as God's and Christ's are. When we grieve most for sin, for this grieves
the Spirit, when we desire most an inward holiness, this God most longs
for : ' Oh that there were such an heart in them !' When we hate sin as
God hates it, because of the inward filthiness ; when we love grace as God
loves it, because of its native beauty ; when we can love God and Christ
above all the world, and other things in order to him and his glory ; when
we can trust Christ with all our concerns, and God doth trust him with his
glory : then, and not till then, there is an image of God in us, which God
values above all the world. When the soul is thus touched and quickened
by grace, she can no more strip herself of the object and manner of her affec-
tions, than she can of the affections themselves. And when she doth reach
out herself to all that is good, and hath a complacency in it, it is her happi-
ness, because it is the great likeness to the spring of happiness. When we
have the like affections with God, we have in our measure a like happiness
and blessedness with God.
2. In a likeness of actions. Men by sin are ' alienated from the life of
God,' Eph. iv. 17 ; by restoring grace then they are brought to have com-
munion with God in his life, to live as God lives. By nature men live the
life of beasts and devils ; by grace they come to live the life of Christ. If
he lives then the life of God, he must be comformable in his actions to the
128 charnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
acts of God. No nature is stripped of affections and actions proper to it ;
it would be else a picture without breath, a body without motion, a lifeless
colour. The divine image is not a painted statue, but an active being.
The nearer any thing approacheth in its nature to the fountain of life, the
more of liveliness and activity it must needs partake of. The communi-
cable perfections of God are enstamped upon the soul as a pattern to, imi-
tate, and as a principle to quicken. A new creature acts like God ;* as
melted and inflamed gold will act after the nature of fire, by the assistance
of that quality communicated by the fire to it, so doth the soul by that
divine quality it partakes of. It is as impossible that this image of God can
produce anything but divine acts, as that the image of the sun in a burning
glass should produce a darkness and coldness in the air. There will be the
manifestation of the life of Christ in the motions of our soul, as the apostle
speaks in case of sufferings for him there will be in our bodies, 2 Cor. iv. 10.
Natural men are called the devil's children, because they resemble him in
nature and works, egging on to sin, and delighting themselves in their own
and others' iniquities, John viii. 44 ; so renewed men are God's children,
because they live the life of God, and abound in the works of God, 1 Cor.
xv. 58. As there is the same nature and the same spirit which Christ had,
there will be a following of him in his works ; all creatures of the same
species have the same instinct, the same nature, the same acts that the first
creature of that kind had originally in its creation. Grace being a new ex-
cellency advancing the soul to a higher state, endues it with a more noble
kind of operation. Nothing is lifted up to a more perfect state of being, but
in order to a more perfect manner of acting ; if a beast should be elevated
to the nature of man, would you then expect from him the actions of a beast
still ? And can any have the implantation of the divine nature, who hath
only the actions of a man which bear no resemblance to God ?
3. This likeness to God consists principally in a likeness to him in holiness.
It is only ' he that doth righteousness is born of him :' 1 John ii. 29, ' If
you know that he is righteous, you know that every one that doth righteous-
ness is born of him.' It is by this the children of God are manifest from
the children of the devil, 1 John iii. 10 in doing righteousness. If we are
unlike to God in this, we are like him in nothing ; God hath not a pretence
of holiness, but a real purity. He that hath not ' escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust,' is no ' partaker of the divine nature ;' the
apostle puts that as a necessary qualification, 2 Peter i. 4. If by afflictions
good men are partakers of God's holiness, much more by regeneration:
Heb. xii. 10, ' He chastened us for our profit, that we might be partakers of
his holiness.' If God aim in his corrections at the bringing his people to
partake with him in holiness, as a father doth at the reformation of his
child, that he may be a follower of his virtues, much more doth God aim
at it in regeneration, when a spirit of holiness is infused into the soul. The
new creation is a drawing this excellency of God in the soul ; if any attri-
bute lift up his head above another, it is this ; in this we chiefly are to imi-
tate him ; this is the greatest evidence of the divine nature. By sin we
1 come short of that which is the glory of God, Rom. iii. 23 ; by the renew-
in <» of the soul we attain the glory of God ; that is, attain a state of holiness,
and at last a perfection of it, a communion with him in holiness here, and a
full enjoyment of it hereafter. Whatsoever our fancies, our hopes, our pre-
sumptions are, if this be not drawn in our soul, if we have not an internal
holiness, we are not new creatures, and therefore not in Christ.
Use 1. It serves for information. If regeneration be such an inward change,
* Intellectus reformatus in Deum agit tanquam Deus, say the Platonists.
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 129
a vital principle, a law put into the heart, the image of God and Christ in
the soul ; then,
1. How few in the world are truly new creatures! Is the law transcribed
in many men's lives ? nay, can we all read it copied in our own hearts ? Can-
not many see the image of the devil sooner than the image of God in their
own souls ? Is not the law of sin writ in text letters, and with many flourishes,
when the law of God is writ in characters hardly legible, and crowded into
a narrow room ? How many are changed from childhood to youth, from
youth to manhood, from manhood to age, and the old nature still remain-
ing in its full strength, and the body of death more vigorous than twenty
or thirty years ago ! Changed years, and unchanged hearts, are a very sad
spectacle.
(1.) Profane men are numerous. None will offer to rank these in the
number of new creatures. Such nasty souls are no branches of Christ, nor
habitations for him ; we read of the devil in swine, but never of our Saviour
in swinish souls. Are such regenerate ? Can brambles be ever accounted
vines, or thistles fig-trees ? These rather look like hellish than divine crea-
tures ; diabolical, not God-like natures. A devotedness to the sins of the
flesh is inconsistent with the circumcision made by Christ: Col. ii. 11,
' Putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ ;'
that is, the body of sins which exert themselves in the flesh or natural body ;
whereas such have the body of sin, with an activity in every member of it.*
Is the image of Christ in such men ? Is not he meek as a lamb ? Are not
they fierce as lions ? Is not he holy, and they defiled with intemperance ?
Did not he labour for nothing but the glory of his Father, and the salvation
of souls ; and they mind nothing but the dishonour of God, and the destruc-
tion of themselves and others ? Did not he do good to his enemies, and they
scarcely spare their friends ? Alas, with this contrariety, how can they pre-
tend the image of Christ, when they have nothing but what looks like the
image of his enemy the devil ? Is not the gospel counted as great a foolish-
ness by such, as at the first times of its publishing ? Are not the great mys-
teries of God, and the contrivances of eternity, entertained with coldness,
and sometimes with scoffs, and the word, the great instrument of this change,
unregarded ? Are such new creatures, that contemn the very means to attain
it ? Surely they are so far from being near the kingdom of God, that they
are in the very suburbs of hell. Is a hugging base lusts against the light of
nature, a contempt of God's law and authority, the nature of Christ ? Were
any such spots upon our Saviour's garment ? Is this to be like him who was
holy, harmless, separate from sin and sinners ?
(2.) Among professors, is there much evidence of a new creation ? When
men shall say, All that the Lord speaks to us we will do, has not God as
great occasion to say as he did of old, Deut. v. 24, « Oh that there were such
a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep my commandments !'
We may find a change of language in some, a change of outward actions in
others, but how few are there among many who stand up before God
with the breath of life ! Here and there a man or woman, wherein God
may see the image of his own nature. How few are they with whom
Christ can shake hands, and justly call them his fellows ! Christ may be
in the mouth, and the devil formed in the heart ; the name of Christ may
be upon them, and the nature of Christ not in them. They may be born
of the will of man in a religious education, but not born of the will of
God in a spiritual regeneration. Is it not a graceless Christianity in many
* Daille.
30 oharnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
men, a faith without holiness, a Christianity without Christ ? Regenera-
tion is never without faith, love, and righteousness. They depend upon
grace, as the property upon the form. Wherever the new creation is, these
are, for they are the qualities created ; wherever they are not, there is no-
thing of a new creature, let the pretences be never so splendid. There
may be a nearness to the kingdom of God by profession, when there is no
right to it for want of regeneration. Instead of humility, according to our
Saviour's pattern, doth not ' pride compass men as a chain,' Ps. lxxiii. 6,
counting that their ornament, which is the strength of their old nature.
Instead of patience, roaring passions ; instead of meekness, boiling anger ;
instead of love, a glowing hatred. How few then are renewed ! But few
shall be saved, and therefore few regenerate. How little is the report of a
likeness to God believed by the incredulous world ! How few are the
strivings of any towards heaven ! Most lie quiet without any such motions,
like the dust on the ground, unless some stormy affliction raise them a
little towards heaven, whence they quickly fall back to their old place.
2. It informs us that a dogmatical change, or change of opinion, is not
this new creature. It is not, if any man change his opinion from Gentilism
to Christianity he is a new creature, but ' if any man be in Christ,' by a vital
participation from union with him. As men generally place saving faith in
dogmatical assents, so they place the new creation in a change of opinion,
as well from truth to error as from error to truth, though there be no spiri-
tual knowledge of God, nor internal cordial closing with the gospel, nor
practice of it. Such a change may endue the head with a knowledge which
never gently slides down to the affections. It may indeed have some in-
fluence upon the life, as this or that principle comes nearest to, or is divine
truth, and is settled as an opinion in the soul ; yet this great change may
not be wrought. That is but a change in the head, this in the heart ; that
of opinion, this of affection ; that perfects the understanding, this both the
understanding and will, and the whole soul. There is a natural desire of
knowledge, but a natural aversion from grace ; whence this change becomes
easy, the new-creature change difficult. A hot contriving head may have a
cold and sapless heart. A head informed by the knowledge of truth may be
without a heart enlivened by the Spirit of truth. A head changed in opinion
only will descend into the bottomless pit, when the least grain of renewing
grace shall not receive so much as a singe from those flames. A change
from error to truth, without a heart framed to the truth, doth but more
settle a man upon his lees, and makes him not only more regardless, but
opposite to a true change to God. It stores up wrath for him, and his very
judgment will be a witness for the condemnation of his practice. The know-
ledge of God will not justify, but condemn a practical denial of him ; but for
all that, they are abominable, Titus i. 16. This new-creature change is not
from one doctrine to another, barely considered as doctrine, but a change to
the gospel in the main intendment of it, as it is 'a doctrine according to
godliness,' 1 Tim. vi. 3, as it may affect, purify, and direct the soul in its
motion. And by the way observe this : whenever you are solicited to a
change of opinion, consider the truth of it by this rule, whether it have a
tendency to encourage and promote internal godliness, since this doctrine of
regeneration was the first gospel lesson taught, to which all succeeding
truths refer as to their end and centre. The apostle tells us what the
issue of all such doctrines are that refer not to this, ' pride, doating about
questions, envy, strife, railings, and evil surmisings,' verse 4. A heap
of notions may consist with a body of death in its full strength, but a
spirit of grace cannot ; a notionalist may speak great things, but a new
2 Cob. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 131
creature acts them. Great speculations only are but leaves without fruit,
like cedars, that by their shadows may give a refreshment, but have no
fruit to fill the soul hungering after righteousness.
3. Morality is not this new-creature change ; that is, moral honesty,
freedom from gross vices, &c. I have before spoken something about it,
shewing it insufficient, when I handled the necessity of regeneration ; we
cannot speak too much against it, it being a soft pillow, from whence many
slide insensibly into destruction. How many, upon this account, think
themselves new creatures, who are yet deeply under the image of Satan ;
and though they have blown off some dust from the law of nature, yet never
had a syllable of the law of grace writ in their hearts ! Nay, the image of
the devil may be more deeply engraven in a soul whose life is free from an
outward taint. Profane men express more of the beast ; a civil and moral
conversation may have more of the devil and serpent within, in spiritualised
wickedness.
(1.) Yet morality is to be valued. It is a comely thing among men, a
beauty to human societies, satisfaction to natural conscience, security to
the body, example to others : men are to be applauded for it, and encouraged
in it. It is a fruit of Christ's mediation, left for the preservation of human
societies, without which the world would be a mere Bedlam and shambles.
The works of kindness, justice, mercy, love, pity, &c, are useful and com-
mendable. It is a thing which our Saviour loved, yet not with such a love
as eternally to reward it. He looked upon the young man with some affec-
tion, Mark x. 21, but scarce upon the Pharisees without anger and disdain.
(2.) Yet we must not set the crown belonging to grace upon the head of
it, and place it in a throne equal to that of the new creation. It is too
amiable for men to be beaten off from it, yet with just reason we may per-
suade them to arise to a higher elevation. It is a curious paint, a delightful
picture, an useful artifice, but not a vital principle. A glow-worm is a lovely
light, yet it is not a star. We press not men to throw off morality, but to
advance it, to exchange it for Christ, that their moral virtues may commence
Christian graces. It is an elevation near the kingdom of God, not a trans-
lation into the kingdom of God ; it is nature improved, not nature renewed;
it is a well-coloured picture without a principle of life ; an outward resem-
blance, not an inward power, 2 Tim. iii. 5 ; a form of godliness ; as a change
that is made upon cloth in the draught of a picture, but no change in it by
the conveyance of life. For,
[l.J It removes not the body of death. It is a cutting away the outward
luxuriances, not the inward root. It removes the stench and putrefaction, not
the death ; an embalmed carcase is as much dead as a putrefied one, though
not so loathsome. It removes not that wherein the strength of sin lies,
though it doth somewhat of the stench of sin. It may check those degene-
rate lusts inconsistent with the peace of natural conscience, but not heal the
corrupt nature. It may be a change from scandalous to spiritual sins; from
vanity in the outward life, to vanity in the mind ; from debauched practices,
to a vainglorious and envious spirit : Eph. iv. 17, 18, 'Henceforth walk not
as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their minds ; having the understand-
ing darkened, being alienated from the life of God.' By the Gentiles, from
whom the apostle would have the Ephesians differenced, he means not the
lower sort, but the whole rank, ver. 21, there was a ' truth in Jesus ' which
they had been ' taught ; ' he makes no distinction between the looser rabble,
and the professors of wisdom, whom he calls fools, Rom. i. 22, the followers
of the divine (as they called them) philosophers, were alienated from the life of
God, and walked in the vanity of their minds. The new man he exhorts
132 chabnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
them to put on was another kind of thing than what the greatest moralists
among the heathen were acquainted with. It was at best human, not divine ;
an old nature purified, not a new implanted ; or as the apostle phraseth it,
a walking in the vanity of their mind, in the darkness of their understand-
ings, though not in a vanity of gross actions. It can never remove that
body of death, which was introduced into the world while this outward
morality stood. What immorality against the light of nature do you find in
Adam ? He did break a positive command in eating the forbidden fruit ;
you find nothing of drunkenness, lying, swearing ; his great sin was inward
pride and unbelief, nothing of those sins, the freedom from which you boast of,
and rest on. Some would make Adam guilty of the breach of every com-
mand in the moral law ; virtually I confess they may ; expressly I do not
see how they can ; and also virtually the highest mere moralist is guilty of
the breach of the whole ; yet all his morality, after the breach of this one com-
mand, could not preserve him in paradise, nor all the morality without a new
nature restore you to it. You may have Adam's morality with Adam's cor-
ruption ; a freedom from gross vices, with a heap of spiritual sins in your
hearts, as Adam had, but not a true righteousness without the new Adam,
the quickening Spirit.
[2.J Therefore the highest morality without a new creation is but flesh ;
all men out of Christ agree in a fleshly nature. It is the highest thing in
the rank of flesh, but it is not yet mounted to spirit. Water heated to the
highest pitch is but water still ; and morality in the greatest elevation of it
is but refined flesh ; an old nature in an higher form. A profane man
reduced to a philosophical morality is putrefied flesh reduced to some sweet-
ness, endued with a fresh colour, but wanting life as much as before ; it is
an old nature new mended. But a new creature is Christ formed in the
soul. Moral virtue colours the skin, renewing grace enlivens the heart;
that changeth the outward actions, this the inward affections ; that paints
the man, this quickens him ; that is a change indeed in the flesh, not of the
flesh into spirit ; it is a new action, not a new creation. There is a dif-
ference indeed among men in this respect, as there is of cleanly lambs from
a filthy swine, or a ravenous wolf; yet both are in the rank of beasts. There
seems to be a difference in the wickedness and malice of devils. Our
Saviour tells us of a kind that are ' not cast out but by fasting and prayer,'
Mat. xvii. 21, intimating that there are other kinds of them, not altogether
80 bad or so strong, yet all agreeing in one common diabolical nature ; as
there is a difference in gracious men, one shining like a star, another of a
lesser light, yet all agree in the nature of light, and light in the Lord. So
though there be a difference among men, in point of moral virtue, yet all
agree in the nature of flesh : ' That which is born of the flesh is flesh,' John
iii. 6. Let it be what it will, a Nicodemus as well as Judas, it is flesh, a
more refined sensuality, an animal life.
[3.] It must needs be differenced from the new creature, because its birth
is different. Moral virtue is gained by human industry, natural strength,
frequent exercises ; it is made up of habits, engendered by frequent acts.
But regeneration is an habit infused, which grows not upon the stock of
nature, nor is it brought forth by the strength of nature ; for man being
flesh, cannot prepare himself to it. That may be the fruit of education,
example, philosophy ; this is of the Spirit ; that is a fruit of God's common
grace, this of his special grace ; that grows upon the stock of self-love, not
from the root of faith, and a divine affection ; that is like a wild flower in
the field, brought forth by the strength of nature ; this like a flower in the
garden, transplanted from heaven, derived from Christ, set and watered by
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 133
the Spirit. And therefore the other being but the work of nature, cannot
bear the characters of that excellency, which the affections planted by the
Spirit do. That is the product of reason, this of the Spirit ; that is the
awakening of natural light, this the breaking out of spiritual light and love
upon it ; that is the excitation of an old principle, this the infusion of a
new ; that a rising from sleep by the jog of conscience, this a rising from
death by the breath of the Spirit, working a deep contrition, and makingall new.
[4.] It differs from the new creature, in regard of the contractedness of
the one, and the extensiveness of the other. That is in part a purifying of
the flesh, this a purging both of flesh and spirit, 2 Cor. vii. 1 ; that binds
the hands, this clears the heart ; that purgeth the body, this every part of
the soul ; that, at the best, is but oil in the lamp of life, this oil both^ in
lamp and vessel ; that is a change of outward postures, modes, and fashion
of walking, this of nature, heart, and spirit ; that seems to be a dislike of
some sins, this of all. If anything in moral honesty be given to God, it is
but a certain part, the greatest and best is kept back from him. That may
be a casting away some iniquity, but not making a new heart, when both are
commanded together : Ezek. xviii. 31, ' Cast away from you all your trans-
gressions, and make you a new heart and a new spirit.' That is a casting
away the loathsome works of the flesh, this a new root to bring forth the
fruits of the Spirit.
[5.] It diners from the new creature in the immediate principle of it, and
its tendency. That is a cleansing the outward flesh in the fear of man, out
of reverence to superiors (as it is said of Jehoash, he did that which was
right, while he was under the awful instructions of Jehoiada, 2 Kings xii. 2).
This is a ' perfecting holiness in the fear of God,' 2 Cor. vii. 1. That is an
outward reformation from the hearing of the word, some acts materially
performed from the newness of the thing, John v. 35, this from a judicious
and hearty approbation of the law and will of God ; that ariseth from a
natural love to reason, justice, equity, this consists of love to God ; that
avoids some sins, because they are loathsome, this because they are sinful ;
that tends not to God for himself, but for something extraneous to him ; it
is an acting for self, not for the praise of God. The actions of unregenerate
morality, as well as loathsome profaneness, are to gratify the flesh in some
part of it ; they all meet in that point, as the clearest brooks, as well as the
the most rapid and muddy streams, run to feed the sea.
Well, then, deceive not yourselves ; conclude not yourselves new creatures
by your moral honesty ; it will not follow, that because you have some
virtues you have therefore true grace, but it will follow that if you are
new creatures, and have faith and love, you have all graces in the root;
and they will appear in time, though they may lie hid a while in that
seminal principle ; the greater virtues contain the less, but the less do not
infer the greater.
4. It will certainly follow from hence, that restraints are not this new
creature. Restraining grace and renewing grace are two different things ;
the one is a withholding : Gen. xx. 6, ' I withheld thee from sinning against
me ;' the other an enlivening with a free spirit against it. Restraint may be
from a chastisement, attended also with something of natural conscience.
Abimelech had some natural integrity in his conscience not to meddle with
another man's wife, which God acknowledges : ' I know that thou didst this
in the integrity of thy heart ; for I also withheld thee.' Yet without this
restraint by a punishment, this natural integrity might have been baffled by
the temptation. Restraints may spring from the law in the hand of the
magistrate, when it doth not spring from the law of God in the heart. Men
134 chabnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
may love that which they do not act, at least they may love it in others,
though not in themselves, for some extrinsic considerations, and wish they
had as fair a way to commit it as others have ; they may hate what they
practise. Do all that hear the word, love the word, hide it in their hearts,
and let it sink down into the bottom of their souls ? Do all that abstain
from sin, loathe what they abstain from ? The restraints of many being
barely outward restraints, are no more arguments of regeneration, than God's
withholding the devils by the chain of his powerful providence is a sign of
the new creation of them. The damned are hindered from committing many
of those sins which were their pleasure upon the earth ; it is not a change of
their disposition, but of their condition. Neither punishments in hell, nor
punishments upon the earth, alter the nature ; though after lying a thousand
years in hell, they should have leave to dwell upon the earth again, they would
have the same inclinations without an inward change. Do we not see it daily
in men's afflictions, though the sense of the smart nips a little those inclina-
tions, yet when that sense is extinguished, those inclinations bud forth afresh?
The bare pruning a tree makes it bear more fruit of the same kind as long as
the root remains, rather than diminisheth it: Isa. i. 5, 'Why should you be
stricken any more? you will revolt more and more : the whole head is sick,
and the whole heart is faint.' While the head is sick and the heart faint,
though there may be a weakness to act some sins under the stroke, yet after-
wards the revoltings are more violent many times than they were before.
The best that restraints work of themselves, is but a cautiousness to sin
more warily. The act may be repressed, while the habit remains.
5. A serious fit of melancholy, or a sudden start of affections, is not
this work of the new creature. It is an habit, a law writ in the heart ; not
a transient pang, or a sudden affection ; not a skipping of fancy, or a quick
sparkling of passion ; but a new nature, a divine frame, spreading itself over
every faculty ; knowing God in our understandings, complying with hitn by
our wills, aspiring to him by a settled and perpetual flame of our affections,
rising heavenward, like the fire upon the altar, conforming ourselves to him
in the whole man, a denial of whole self for God. It is not a working of the
imagination, or a melancholy vapour, which may quickly be removed, or a
flash of joy and love ; but a serious humility, a constant grief under the
remainder of corruption yet unextirpated ; a perpetual recourse to God, and
delight in him through Jesus Christ. Are your affections raised sometimes
to God ? and are they not oftentimes raised higher to objects extrinsecal to
God ? Such affections may arise rather from the constitution of the body
than alteration of the soul. They are but a taste of the heavenly gift and
the good word of God, Heb. vi. 4, 5 ; a taste, and no more, and is! but a
transient work. The object about which our affections are stirred may be
divine, yet the operation but merely natural. May not sometimes affections
be stirred much at the hearing the sufferings of our Saviour pathetically
expressed, yet only out of a natural compassion, from an agreeable impres-
sion upon the fancy ? The story of Joseph in the pit, and Christ upon the
cross, may be heard with the same workings of passion. And may not the same
be done at a well-humoured play, or at the hearing a report of the lament-
able death of a Turk or heathen, pathetically expressed ? These are but the
workings of natural spirits. Some affections are as moveable as quicksilver,
upon the least touch ; they sweat like marble in moist weather, but resemble
it also in hardness. You do not find the affections to be the chief seat of
the law ; this would be as to write letters upon melted wax or running
water, but the tenor of the covenant runs upon the mind : • I will put my
law into their minds,' Heb. viii. 8, 10. And when Gud works upon the mind,
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 135
the affections will attend the dictates of that, and the motions of the will.
But a work upon the affections only, is like water in a sponge, easily sucked
up, and upon the least compression squeezed out. These may be where
there is no root of grace ; they suddenly rise, and suddenly vanish. When
unrooted notions are received only into the fancy, without any illumination
of the understanding, or determination of the will, the affections to them will
be as volatile as the fancy which entertained them. Those in Mat. xiii.
20, 21, that received the word with a sudden joy, were as suddenly offended
for want of a root : 'anon with joy receives it, by and by he is offended.'
The word translated anon, and by and by, sudug, is the same, a lightning of
affection, and a sudden vanishing ; therefore this is not the new creature,
sudden affections, or a melancholy fit. The law of God seated in the heart,
mind, and will, though a constant course of affection is a very good character
to judge of the new creature.
6. It informs us of the excellency of the new creature. How excellent is
this new creature ? It is a change, a divine nature, a likeness to God, an
excellency above that of the greatest moralist under heaven. The apostle
calls it a change from ' glory to glory,' 2 Cor. hi. 18, implying that the first
change wrought upon the soul is glorious, and a new creature excellent in
its first make, more glorious in its progress, unconceivably glorious when
God shall put his last hand to the completing of it. Regeneration is more
excellent than creation. It is more noble to be formed a son of God by
grace, than made a man by nature ; nature deforms, grace beautifies. By
nature we are the sons of Adam, by the new nature the members of Christ.
As grace excels nature, and Christ surmounts Adam, so much more excellent
is the state of a Christian, a real Christian, above that of a man. Can there
be a greater excellency than to have a divine beauty, a formation of Christ,
a proportion of all graces, suited to the imitable perfections of God ? Man
is an higher creature than others, because he hath an higher principle. A
life of reason is more noble than that of sense. To live by sense, is to play
the part and live the life of brutes ; to live by reason, is to live the life of a
man : but he that lives by the Spirit, lives the life of God, answers the end
of his creation, useth his reason, understanding, will, affection for God, by
whom they were first bestowed ; acts more nobly, lives more pleasantly,
than the greatest angel could do without such a principle. A new creature
doth exceed a rational creature, considered only as rational, more than a
rational doth a brute. The apostle makes a manifest distinction between
the natural or the -^v^r/ibg, the rational and the spiritual man, 1 Cor. ii.
14, 15. A man with the richest endowments, is no more to be compared
in excellency with a regenerate man, than the top of a craggy mountain is
with a well-dressed garden. That must needs be excellent, the forming of
which is the end of all God's ordinances in the world, the end of the Spirit's
being among the sons of men, the end of keeping up mankind, the end of
his patience in forbearing his punishment upon contempt of the gospel.
The end of his preserving the world, is to form Christ in the heart ; and
when the last new creature is formed, God hath no more to do in the world :
when all that are given to him shall come to believe, Christ shall then ' come,
to be admired in them,' 2 Thes. i. 10. He doth not come, therefore, till all
his chosen ones are brought in to believe in him, for then he would not be
admired by all those that are saints in his purpose. This, therefore, must
needs be excellent. One new creature is more excellent than the whole un-
renewed world with their choicest ornaments. It was never pronounced of
them, that they were • partakers of the divine nature.'
7. How much therefore should new creatures be esteemed and valued ?
136 charnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
Is anything, next to God, more worthy our esteem than that which bears his
image ? Is anything, next to a crucified Christ, glorified in heaven, more
worthy our valuation, than Christ formed in the heart of a believer ? What
esteem have men had for those who have had tempers like to some heroes,
some generous and useful men in the world ? How much more respect
should be given to them that bear the characters of God upon them, and
have communion with God, and Christ, and the Spirit, in their nature ! If
the dead image of God in a natural man ought to be respected, much more
the living image of God in a renewed man. If a picture is to have respect,
much more the life. To slight them, therefore, redounds to the slighting
that infinite perfection, whose image it is. They are his living images, sent
into the world to represent him. He then that disesteems them for that
work, disesteems him that wrought and engraved them, by the same rule
that he that despised the disciples despised Christ, and the Father that sent
him, Luke x. 16 : 1 Thes. iv. 8, ' He therefore that despiseth you, despiseth
not man but God, who hath also given us his Holy Spirit.' Yet no better
must be expected here ; for the contracted spirit of the world can love no
other birth but its own, no other similitude but what draws near unto it :
4 If you were of the world, the world would love his own ; but because you
are not of the world, therefore the world hates you,' John xv. 19. The copy
can expect no better usage than the original. The nearer any approach in
likeness to Christ, the more they will be exposed to contempt and scorn in
the world.
8. If the new creature be such a thing as you have heard, then the sin of
a regenerate man hath a greater aggravation than the sins of any in the world.
If you slip into sin, the sins of the whole unregenerate world have not so
great a blackness. It is true a new creature may, and doth sin ; for though
a new man is created in him with all his members, and essential and integral
parts, yet the body of death doth remain still with all its members, and a
seed-plot still, though not in the same strength and fruitfulness as before.
For the apostle Paul doth not complain of a member of death, or a piece of
sin, but the whole ' body of it,' and ' the law of sin in his members,'
Rom. vii. It seems it did reside there still ; and so it doth in all the re-
newed, though but faint and feeble, an old man indeed, growing older every
day, losing its teeth and strength, less able to bite, less able to assault. Yet
sometimes a new creature may fall into sin, but not without great aggrava-
tion. For other men sin against natural, you against spiritual principles ;
others sin against an habit of common notion, you against an habit of divine
grace. A natural man sins against the light of God in his conscience, a
renewed man against the life of God in his heart.* Others sin against a
Christ crucified and risen from the grave ; he sins against a Christ new-
formed and risen in his heart. Others sin against the law of God in the
word, he against the law written in his mind and word too. Such cast dirt
upon the Spirit's work, cross the end of so noble a piece, bring a thief into
the Spirit's temple, and grieve the Holy Spirit, who instructed him better.
Whenever you sin, it must cost you more grief, because your sins are more
grievous ; and you must grieve the more for them, because the Spirit is
grieved by them. Grief for sin is a standing grace in the new creature, and
part of a likeness to the Spirit of God, whatsoever some men dream to the
contrary.
Use 2. Is of comfort. There is ground of joy unspeakable and full of
glory that results from this. Are you of this new creation that I have been
discoursing of ? Then take your portion of comfort. The jewel of comfort
* Gurnal, part ii. p. 218, 219.
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 137
belongs only to the cabinet of grace. It is fit you should have the comforts
of heaven in your hearts, who have a fitness for heaven in your nature.
The day of the new birth was a happy day, to be brought from under the
rule of sin and death in it, to the rule of the Spirit of God and life in it ;
from bearing fruit to death, to bringing forth fruit to God and everlasting
life. If sin be a torment to the womb that bare it, no joy can reside in an
unregenerate spirit ; if sin be the soul's rack in its own nature, grace must
be its pleasure ; for it carries as much contentment and satisfaction in its
bowels, as sin doth disquietness and sorrow.
1. You have, by the new creation, a relation to the blessed Trinity. Such
are the sons of God, the seed of Christ, the temple of the Spirit ; what a
connection is there between you and the three persons ! God in Christ, and
Christ in you, that you may be ' made perfect in one,' John xvii. 23. God
in Christ reconciling the world, you in Christ reconciled to God ; God in
Christ as a father in a son, you in Christ as members in the body ; Christ
in you as a head in the body, the Spirit in you as an informing and enliven-
ing principle. It makes you related to the Father as his friends, by the
ceasing of your enmity ; to the Son as his propriety, for then you are his ; to
the Spirit as the tutor of you and inhabitant in you ; all implied, Rom.
viii. 8-10. By your former birth you were children of wrath ; by this, chil-
dren of God : by that, partakers of the serpentine nature of the destroyer ;
by this, partakers of the divine nature of your Creator and Redeemer : by
nature you descended from the loins of Adam, and thereby were related to
all the corruption of the world ; by the new birth you are descended from
the Son of God, and ' counted to the Lord for a generation,' Ps. xxii. 30,
and thereby related to all the perfection of heaven ; as really descended from
Christ by a spiritual, as from Adam by a natural generation. What an over-
flowing comfort is this ! To be a king's son is a higher privilege than merely
to be his subject ; subjects have protection, sons affection ; subjects partake
of the kindness of the prince, sons of his nature. As a son, he hath a right
to the inheritance of the father ; as a subject, not. Men are subjects by cove-
nant, though born of others, sons by generation. By being a new creature,
the regenerate man acquires a more noble relation, than by being a crea-
ture. That relation that he lost by a prodigal corruption, is restored to him
in a more excellent way by his spiritual regeneration.
2. If you be new creatures, you are the delight of God. It is impossible
but God should have the tenderest respect to his own likeness ; he must
needs take a pleasure in a resemblance to his own nature, in a habit of his
Spirit's infusing. Can God despise the work of his own hand ? Can he
then despise the work of his heart, a likeness to himself, to his Son, to his
Spirit ? His delight is strengthened by a threefold cord, ' he delights not in
the strength of a horse, nor takes pleasure in the legs of a man,' but ' in
them that fear him, in them that hope in his mercy,' Ps. cxlvii. 10, 11. You
are the first fruits of his creatures, peculiarly dedicated to him as his portion
by the new birth : James i. 18, ' Of his own will begat he us, with the word
of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures,' taken out
of the mass of the world for a holy offering to himself ; the more refined
part of bis creation, not barely creatures, but first fruits peculiarly belonging
to him, upon whom he looks with a delightful eye, and under another relation.
God cannot but love himself, and therefore that which approacheth most near
to himself; for nothing in the creature is a fit object for God's love, but his
own living image in him. As he loves himself in himself, so he loves him-
self in his creature. To deny his truth, is to deny himself; to deny his
love to his image, would be to deny his love to himself. He can as soon
138 chaknock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
hate his Christ glorified at his hand, as hate Christ formed in the soul. If
sin makes men the objects of his hatred, as being contrary to his nature,
grace then makes them the objects of his love, as being agreeable to his
nature. He cannot but delight in his own birth, and delight in the seals of
his own Spirit. You could not but displease him by being in the flesh ;
4 those that are in the flesh cannot please God,' Rom. viii. 8 ; you then
please him by being in the Spirit. Shall the pleasure of the Father of spirits,
in his own image, be of a lower degree than that of a natural father in his son,
which bears the lineaments of his body ? He hath no pleasure in anything
in the world, if not in you. Sin soon deformed all after he had pronounced
them good, and stopped the joy God had in his works ; it is by your redemption
by his Son, and regeneration by his Spirit, that the joy in his works is re-
stored to him ; if he should not delight in you, what hath he in the world to
please himself with ? Your services please him ; a new spirit, a new beauty is
added to all your addresses. A new creature prays not as before, hears not
as before, he refers all to God ; there is a brokenness instead of pride, every
sacrifice is washed in contrition, a zeal of spirit, a heavenly warmth, a sweet
and delightful savour ascends up to him. It is you only that with grace
' serve him acceptably,' Heb. xii. 28, with such a godly fear and frame
wherein he takes a pleasure.
Well then, the new creature is the delight of God, though the scoff of
men ; the pleasure of him that commands the world, though reproached by
them that shall fill hell with their souls.
3. How great a foundation then is laid in this for your happiness ! New
creatures, divine nature, a relation to God, the delight of heaven : ' If any
man be in Christ, he is a new creature ; old things are passed away, behold,
all things are become new.' New for them, as well as in them. Distance
and dissimilitude from God is the foundation of all misery ; a likeness then
to him is the basis of all blessedness. Divine happiness is connatural to the
divine nature, and due to it, as it were jure intrinseco ; as new creatures you
are heirs, as sanctified creatures you are made meet for the inheritance ; you
have a hereditary right, and an aptitudinary right. Can any comfort be
greater, than to have right to an inheritance, and a fitness to enjoy it ? • Now
are we the sons of God,' 1 John iii. 2, we have this real relation ; not only
named so, but are so, which is a certain foundation of a happiness which doth
not yet fully appear to us. But such a knowledge we have, that when the
original of this new nature shall appear, our imperfect likeness shall arise to
a full perfection, ' we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is ; '
upon the account of this relation we know there will be an exact likeness be-
tween him and us. I suppose it is properly meant of a likeness to Christ,
we shall see him as he is ; for the apostle, verse 5, refers it to Christ, with-
out altering the person he had spoke of before ; so that it is not meant of a
seeing the essence of God, but the sight of Christ. Where lust reigns, the
natural consequence is storms and dissatisfaction ; he that hath the image of
the devil, hath a model of hell ; the new creature having the image of God,
hath a model of heaven. A drop of grace is a drop of glory ; so much as
there is of the new creation, so much of heaven is put into the soul. It is
' a lively hope ' of heaven here, and a full enjoyment of heaven hereafter,
that the soul is • begotten unto,' 1 Peter i. 3, 4. The greater the progress
in this state, the more lively are the hopes of it, and the nearer approaches
of heaven to the soul ; such a foundation of happiness, with the hopes and
foresight of it, cannot but be attended with unconceivable pleasure.
4. How highly comfortable is it to view yourselves, and consider the
draught of this image, and the progress of the new creation in your souls ?
2 Cob. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 139
How comfortable is the work of self-examination to such a soul ! With
what pleasure may you look upon your present estate, and be filled with
ravishments at every view ? When you look back upon your former con-
dition, and think of your state of death, the noisomeness of your hearts to
God, the stiffness of your souls against him, when you consider how spiritual
death reigned over every part ; and now see your nature changed, your souls
upon a lively and quick motion to God, jour relishes of the sweetness of
spiritual pleasures to be greater than those of sensual ; how comfortable is
it to behold those diffusions of God in your souls, and to feel them full of
love to him, and full of love from him ! How comfortable to view the
original, and copy from it, and to see how near the one doth resemble the
other ; to cast yuur eye upon the state of wrath you were in by your first
birth, and upon the state of grace you are in by the latter ; to consider your
former drudgery under sin, and your present freedom in the service of right-
eousness ! It would make you perform those commands so often repeated,
of rejoicing in the Lord alway, and shouting for joy, since mercy doth so
compass you about, Ps. xxxii. 11, Philip, iv. 4. As upon the awakenings of
conscience, and the exercise of its reflective office, there must needs arise an
anguish and torment in an unrenewed soul, so upon the reflections of the
same faculty in a new creature, there must spring a sparkling delight. As
God by the reviews of himself and contemplation of his own excellency hath
an infinite joy, so the new creature by the views of itself hath a joy in its
measure proportionable to that of God himself. As it is in itself the image
of God, so it is a lower fruition of him. I enjoy my friend somewhat in
his picture when the original is absent ; and this joy is greater when a beam
from heaven doth shine upon this image, and both illustrate and discover
the beauty of it, which in the darkness of ignorance and mistakes cannot be
seen. But take heed that in these reviews you impair not your comfort by
any proud and God-neglecting reflections, but with humble and debasing
thoughts of yourselves, and thankful admirations of the grace of God, and
praises of him for so excellent a draught in your hearts. It is wonderful to
perceive how by such a carriage the comforts of heaven flow in upon the
sou 1 , when thus humbly and thankfully it opens itself before God in this
review. And let this add to your comfort, that if the reviews of so imperfect
an image in you, and the dark sight of God, whose image it is, be so delight-
ful, how much more pleasant will it be when your souls shall be elevated to
the highest perfection and the most satisfying fruition !
5. And how great a comfort it is to consider that this imperfect image,
which is the foundation of happiness, will in time be perfect, and as fully
resemble him whose image it is as j the creature is capable of ! There is a
day of perfect and glorious regeneration coming, wherein you will appear in
■all your royalty as heirs of God. The divine nature shall glitter without any
filth of sin to sully it ; holiness shall hold the sceptre without any lust to
shake it. There is a day wherein Christ shall make all things new in the
church, and in the soul ; he sits upon his throne and saith it : Rev. xxi. 5,
• Behold, I make all things new.' It will be so new and admirable, that when
you look back upon that mean draught of it while you were in the world, you
would think you never had a grain of the divine nature before in you. As the
vision of God will be perfect, so will your likeness to him, 1 John iii. 2; as
it will be a vision without any clouds, so it will be a likeness without any
dissimilitude, according to the creature's capacity. The vision of Christ here
transforms us into a likeness to him in his death and resurrection, the vision
hereafter transforms us into a likeness to him in glory ; the close look of the
soul upon God shall divest it of all carnal conceptions; the understanding
140 charnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
shall perfectly behold the original, the will closely embrace it, the affections
centre in it without distraction ; the whole soul shall be changed from a less
degree of glory to an unconceiveable perfection in it, changed ' from glory to
glory,' 2 Cor. iii. 18, when the well of living water springing up in thee to
eternal life shall spring into it. This fire-baptism will not leave till it hath
fully consumed your dross, and refined your souls. That Spirit that begun
the work will fill the heart with the knowledge and love of God, as his pro-
mise is to fill the earth, Isa. xi. 9. He will not leave despoiling you of the
oldness of the flesh till there be not a mite left, and clothing you with a new-
ness of the spirit till there be not a grain of the soul free from this new en-
livening. As he began, so he will finish, in abolishing that which remains
of vanity, and in filling this holy temple with the glory of the Lord. There
is certainly as much power in the second Adam to perfect, as well as to begin
this new creation, as there was in the first to convey his soul and defiled
image to his posterity. The honour of Christ and the good of the new
creature are concerned in it ; the honour of Christ in point of power and
affection, the good of the new creature in point of happiness ; his honour
would suffer if he did not perfect what he had begun. As Moses pleads with
God for the perfecting the Israelites' deliverance in bringing them into
Canaan, that the nations might not say, God was not able to deliver them,
Num. xiv. 16. In point of affection he loves his Father, therefore the image
of his Father ; he loves himself, therefore the picture of himself ; he loves
his Spirit which glorifies him, therefore will perfect the draught he hath made.
It will, then, in time be perfect, not a lineament of God but will be illustri-
ously drawn ; there shall be no more complaints of a body of death, nor any
snarlings of sin and lust.
Upon these considerations you may apply the comfort this new creation
affords you,
(1.) Against troubles in the world. Old things are passed away, even the
old events and issues of your afflictions, they are no longer used merely to
trouble you or punish you, but to perfect this new creation, to engrave more
deeply or exercise this divine image. All things are but fellow-labourers to
throw out the rubbish, and blow up this divine spark : Horn. viii. 28, they
' all work together for good, to them who are called according to his purpose.'
As regenerating grace gives us a relation to God, so it should expel fear : Isa.
xliii. 1, ' Fear not : for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by name ;
thou art mine.' What reason is there to fear when he hath called you by
name, in a special manner, not in a general way ? What reason to fear when
thou hast the badge of God upon thee, who hath new created thee ? The
grace wherein you stand, or the state of grace, should make you not only to
' rejoice in the hope of the glory of God,' but to ' glory in tribulations also,'
as well as the apostle, Rom. v. 2, 3, because it ' works patience,' &c. It
dresseth up the new creature, and draws the several parts of the gracious
habit into exercise. Though it seem strange, yet the ' glorying in tribulation '
is as proper an effect of this new creation as ' rejoicing in hope of the glory
of God.' Grace, being the foundation of your glory in heaven, cannot but
be the foundation of glorying in everything else which heightens it, and
pusheth it nearer to its centre. Let not affliction, crosses, reproaches, molest
your new nature ; be new creatures as to your respects to them as well as
relation to God. Our Saviour's sonship, and the meat the world knew not
of, supported him under greater injuries than we can ever be subject to. f
What clouds of trouble should ever sadden that heart which hath the living
image of God in his soul ? This alone should turn the wormwood of afflic-
tion into honey, and bitterness into sweetness.
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. Ml
(2.) You may apply the comfort of your new creation against temptations.
Will not the power of God be employed in the defence of that which is his
only image in the world, since he knows that Satan is most active against it,
because it is his image ? And upon the same account will not God be active
for it ? Surely that Spirit which begat it broods upon its own birth, and
watches for the defence of it against its mighty adversaries. Satan watches
to cast dirt upon the divine nature ; the Spirit watches to hinder it, and if
cast on, to wipe it oif, and restore it to its beauty. Can it enter into the
heart of an infinite affection nakedly to expose his own work, his affectionate
new creature, made up of faith in him and love to him, that which maintains
his honour in the world, designs all for his glory, values his honour above
his own credit, yea, his life ; opposeth everything that opposeth him, hates
everything that is loathsome to him, would endure any misery rather than
displease him ; I say, shall a God of infinite tenderness expose this creature
to the violences and furies of hell without any defence ? What should we
make of God, by entertaining such thoughts of him, but a hard master, a
cruel tyrant, one that would make his own work the sport of devils, to stand
by carelessly and see his image trampled upon, and leave the best subjects
he hath in the world to the mercy of his mortal enemy ? Let not such a
thought enter into any new creature, nor let us believe that the love in the
heart of the new Creator is less than the power in his hand. It was the
sonship and resurrection of our Saviour secured him against the counsels of
enemies : Ps. ii. 2 and 7 compared, ' Thou art my Son, this day have I
begotten thee.' So our communion with him in his resurrection secures
us against the malicious designs of Satan. Thou art my son, this day have
I regenerated thee, is the voice of God to a new creature ; and by this rela-
tion his happiness is secured under the greatest assaults, if he keep up faith,
which will fetch vigour from the Head. The devil by his whole legions of
temptations cannot more prevail against the seed of God, than Haman could
against Mordecai, because he was of the seed of the Jews, as his wife pru-
dently advised him, Esther vi. 13.
(3.) This comfort of the new creation is applicable against fears of falling
away. Were grace like a moral habit, acquired by moral acts, it might sink
under a force, it might be lost ; but it is a divine work, a new creation in
Christ, not anything gained by moral philosophy, and a road of virtuous
actions. Men may seem to begin in the Spirit and end in the flesh ; but
doth the Spirit begin this regeneration work, to suffer it to end in the flesh ?
When the apostle speaks of men's works, he fears the consequence ; 1 ut
when he speaks of God's working in a man, he is confident of a good issue,
Philip, i. 6. God never begins but he resolves to perform and finish. As
it is impossible for one united to Adam in a natural way not to partake of
his sinful life, so it is impossible for one united to Christ in a gracious way
not to partake of his spiritual life. And as every man is really in the loins
of Adam, so every believer is, in a sort, spiritually in the loins of Christ, and
is as truly denominated his seed ; and as no man can be cut off from the stock
of Adam but by the grace of God, so no man can be taken off from the stock
of Christ, when once implanted, but by the retraction of that grace, against
which there is sufficient security in the covenant of grace, and several pro-
mises in Scripture, like stars in the heavens, set to give light to this truth.
The new creature under the gospel shall grow in beauty as the lily, in strength
like a cedar ; his beauty shall be as fresh as that of the rose or lily, his root
as firm as that of a cedar ; and this from God, who will be as the dew unto
it : Hosea xiv. 5, ' I will be as the dew to Israel : he shall grow up as the
lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.' As dew quickens the plant, s
142 charnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
will God enliven Israel ; what withering can there be under such an influ-
ence ? If you have been made new creatures in Christ, you are made stable
creatures, his charge is as great to preserve you as it was to renew you.
Besides, the divine nature is so delightful a thing, that he that once is a pos-
sessor, hath no mind to be a loser of it. He that hath once put off the old
man, and put on the new, will have little heart to make another exchange,
and divest himself of his beautiful robe, to be clothed again with the old
tattered rags which he hath flung upon the dunghill. The new creation is
a • fellowship with Christ in his resurrection,' Philip, iii. 10, and therefore
in the consequents of it. As Christ did not rise to die again, so the soul is
not made new to become old again. Christ formed in the soul is like Christ
incarnate in the world : the divine nature may be obscured, it may and will
have its humiliations ; it cannot indeed die, but though it seem to die, it will
have its resurrection, and afterwards its ascension into glory.
(4.) It is comfort against weakness of grace, and strength of corruptions.
The whole frame of the new creature is wrought at once : the soul is infused
at once, but not as Adam was, created in his full stature, and perfect strength,
and exercise of all his faculties. But as Adam's posterity were generated,
first infants, then men, others may be more honourable creatures, but the
weakest grace is a new creature ; others may be more noble members, but
every new creature is a member of the body ; others may have more grace,
but not a better title ; the weakest is a heaven-born heir, and hath the same
title by the purchase of the Redeemer, the reality of the new creation, and
the spirit of adoption. I do not mean by the weakest grace a superficial
desire, or a velleity not to sin, and yet a daily running into it ; but a grace
mating and mastering corruption, though residing with it ; a grace that is
daily eating into the bowels of lust, and growing up to a sharper animosity
and strength against what is contrary to it ; for the least degree of grace is
prevalent against sin, and is not overpowered by it, though it be mightily
opposed. The essence of grace is the same in every new creature, though
the degrees be different : it is one thing to have the nature of fire, another
thing to have the strength of it ; a spark is essentially fire, and will burn,
though not so much as a flame. If the frame be new, though the draughts
be not so clear, nor the lineaments drawn with such lively colours, yet there
is a representation ; the first draught of a picture bears a likeness to the
person, but it will be more lively after the second or third sitting, when the
limner hath laid on his fresher colours.
[1.] If your complaints of the weakness of grace and strength of corrup-
tion be sincere, it is a comfortable sign you will hold out. Hasty pretenders
and proud boasters are not durable. The seed sown in the stony ground
• presently sprung up,' Mat. xiii. 5 ; grew faster, as if it would outstrip the
common harvest, but as soon withered ; whereas that which was sown in the
good ground sprung up leisurely to perfection, and endured the storm.
[2.] You cannot reasonably think you should presently be rid of your cor-
ruptions. Some spice of a cured disease will remain in the soul as well as
the body, and a certain spiritual weakness after the raising of the new crea-
ture. The law in the mind doth not presently raze out the law of sin in the
members. There is a diabolical nature as well as divine. The Platonist
could say, The virtuous man who doth something, uirgmigtrov, is both a god
and a demon.* Christ formed in the heart doth not presently dispossess the
serpentine nature, but master it. A man restored to health from a sharp
disease may do the actions of a sound man, yet not in that manner and
soundness, for all his motions are infected with the relics of that disease
* Plotin. Enead. I. lib. ii. cap. 6.
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 143
which lately mastered his hody. Original corrupt ion is not as a cistern
(then it may be emptied), but a spring ; pump out all you can at one duty, it
will rise again, you will see it, before the next service.* It is true that ' he
that is born of God commits not sin,' he sins not with such a frame as he
did before ; but it is as true that ' If we say we have no sin, we deceive our-
selves, and there is no truth' of grace 'in us,' 1 John i. 8. There will be
a running issue, that you may frequently touch the hem of Christ's garment
for a cure. The soul of the best is never like to be ' without spot or wrinkle '
till it be glorious, Eph. v. 26.
[3.] All God's communications of grace are gradual. Doth the mustard
seed spring up in an instant to the tallness of a tree ? Grace is sown in an
instant, but e;rows not up so suddenly. Christ formed in the heart is like
Christ in the flesh ; first in his cradle, before he be upon his legs. The
new creation is not a sudden leap from corruption to perfect purity ; the day
dawns in the heart, but the light takes a time to expel the darkness : Prov.
iv. 18, ' The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and
more unto the perfect day.' The first appearance at the dawning is an
earnest that the victory will be complete at last. God did not make a full
discovery of Christ to Adam, his revelations of him grew brighter with every
age ; the nearer his coming, the clearer was the foresight of him. The
divine nature hath its time of discovery in the creature, as it had in Christ
the original ; there were forty days between his resurrection and ascension,
wherein he was but in the first degree of his exaltation. Christ risen in the
heart will take some time before he ascends and carries up the soul to spiri-
tual heights with him.
[4.] Consider well how it is with thy will. It is not the having of lusts,
but the fulfilling of them, wherein our danger lies : Rom. xiii. 14, ' We have
then put on the Lord Jesus Christ, when we make no provision for the flesh,
to fulfil it in the lusts thereof,' but endeavour to walk holily. The author
of the Epistle to the Hebrews could pretend to little more than will : chap,
xiii. 18, ' willing to live honestly,' xaXoug, comely, beautifully. And herein
Paul • exercised' himself, Acts xxiv. 16. He manifested this will by compli-
ance with all seasonable occasions to that purpose. Is there grace in thy
whole soul ? Is there an enlightened judgment to see the foulness of sin
and the loveliness of Christ ? Is there a renewed will to incline to God and
to close with the Redeemer ? Is there a rectified affection, consisting of love,
desire, delight, though yet but weak in all the faculties ? Are there dissatis-
factions in you upon internal reviews ? Have you not strong bewailings and
laments for the strength of sin and weakness of grace, and breathings after a
more vigorous and active grace ? Let not then your complaints of the body
of death stifle your praises of God for what he hath wrought in Christ in order
to your full deliverance. They did not so in Paul, Rom. vii. 24, 25 ; let
them not do so in you. Take comfort in what God hath wrought, bless him
for it, and solicit him to confirm that which he hath wrought in you, Ps.
lxviii. 24. He that provides food for the ravens that cry, will not stop his
ears at the voice of his own image.
(5.) It is comfort against the fear of death. If you were born only of the
old Adam, you were spiritually dead, and you must eternally die ; it were
unavoidable, if not changed ; but if born of an incorruptible seed, the disso-
lution of your body shall be the consummation of your glory. Death strikes
the outward man, and the new creature elevates the soul. The new nature
will as naturally ascend to heaven, when it is unclothed of flesh, and hath
left all the relics of corruption behind it, as the pure flame aspires into the
* Kogcrs on Pet. p. 181.
144 charnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
air, and seems to long to embody itself with the sun, the first fountain of
light. How joyfully will the original and copy meet : Philip, i. 23, ' to de-
part from hence,' is ' to be with Christ.' The truth of grace in the creature,
and the infinite righteousness in the Creator, kiss each other. How affec-
tionately will God entertain that image of himself ! How delightfully will
Christ view himself in the soul, and the soul view itself in the heart of
Christ ! The soul shall see Christ in glory, and Christ shall behold the
soul in perfection, where there will be nothing but life and love, love and
life for ever. Is death then to be feared, that brings the new creature to
this happiness ?
Use 3. Is for examination. Of all things, this deserves the strictest in-
quiry, in regard of its absolute necessity, and in regard of its superlative
excellency.
1. It is possible to know it, and not very difficult to know it. You may
know the acts of your own heart. Can you not view your own thoughts ?
Can you desire, or love, or hate, or grieve, but you must know that you
do so ? Can you not tell what is the object of your inclinations, what
your affections run most greedily after ? No man can be such a stranger to
his own soul, if he look into it. Can you not tell whether you are the same
men as before ; whether you love what before you hated, and hate that which
before you loved ? A soul may know whether it loves God supremely or no,
so as to appeal to God for the truth of it, as Peter to our Saviour : John
xxi. 17, ' Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.' It is in this reflexive power
that a man excels a brute.
2. You must inquire into the effects and operations of it. Where there
is this spiritual change, there is life ; where there is a spiritual life, there
will be spiritual operations. You must inquire, then, what sense and motion
you have, that is superior to a life of nature. This new creation is not
only the taking down the old frame, but setting up a new. The old crea-
ture frame will grow more inactive, the new creature form more sprightly.
Regeneration is never without some effect ; if we have not the proper-
ties, we have not the nature. If the air be dark and pitchy, that a man
cannot see his way, it is a sign the sun is not up to enlighten that hemi-
sphere. A thick darkness cannot remain with the sun's rising, The works
of darkness, with their power, cannot remain with a new creature state. The
old rubbish cannot wholly remain with a new building. Look well, there-
fore, whether old principles, aims, customs, company, affections, are passed
away, and whether new affections, principles, ends, be settled in the room.
Be sure to distinguish well between the form and the power, between a paint
and life, and regard well your inward acts. The acts of the new creature
are principally in the proper seats of it, the mind, the heart, the will, the
conscience, the affections. Outward acts are no sign at all ; no man can
perfectly judge of another by them, nor any man judge of himself. As the
strength of sin, so the strength of grace, the new creature, lies in the heart.
Those waters which are bitter, are bitterest, and those which are sweet, are
sweetest, at the fountain; they lose somewhat of their qualities in the streams,
by the mixture of other things with them.
3. In general observe, what contrariety there is to what you were before,
and the very point wherein this contrariety doth consist. It is a spiritual
habit, a divine nature, the law of God in the heart. It must principally be
discerned in its motion to God, in its respect to God, whose law, nature,
habit it is, directly contrary to the sinful habit, the law of sin in the heart,
the old serpentine nature which moved to sin. Let us see in general how it
was with Paul, who speaks so much of the new creature. He was quite
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 145
another man after his being in Christ than he was before. He was before an
admirer of his own righteousness, a contemner of grace, a persecutor of
Christ and his members. After the new creation, his pharisaical plumes
fall, his own righteousness is as dross, he lays it down at the feet of Christ ;
grace is highly admired by him, and his whole labour is spent in glorifying
Christ, and edifying his church. He abhors that which before he delighted
in : he did before his own will, and the will of his sect ; now, • Lord, what
■wilt thou have me to do ?' He is now an admirer, where he was a despiser ;
his industry, passions, heart, are for Christ, as before they were against him.
The doctrine of the cross is no longer folly, but wisdom : he glories as much
in being persecuted for Christ, as in being a persecutor of him and his people.
His ravaging wolfish nature is gone, and a lamb-like nature in the place of
it ; he hath as much sweetness toward the people of Christ, as he had sour-
ness against them. Of an executioner, he becomes a martyr ; and would not
only lose his life, but be an Anathema, to do them good whom before he
hated. Christ was his life, Christ was his joy, Christ was his all, and no-
thing but Christ dear to him. A quite contrary strain. And this is a new
creature ; and therefore examine yourselves. Is there faith instead of unbe-
lief, the knowledge of God instead of ignorance, a constant glowing affection
to him instead of enmity, or a coldness of love, the love of the Creator
instead of that of the creature ? This is to have the image of God instead
of that of the devil.
But, in particular,
1. What fervent longings have you after a likeness to God ? The first
draught of this image begets strong desires for a farther perfection. The
sighs and groans for a likeness to God are the first lineaments of God in
the soul, and arise from some degree of affection to him, and delight in him.
The breathings of the soul are • for the living God,' as David, Ps. xlii. 2 ;
Ps. lxxxiv. 2, for God, as a principle of life and spirit in him. This hunger-
ing and thirsting after righteousness is a sign of righteousness already in the
soul, and an earnest of a further fulness, Mat. v. None can fervently and
unweariedly long for a divine nature but such as have had some taste of it.
The divine nature in the soul will be returning to that nature whence it
derives its essential purity. The principle coming from God will be aspiring
to that nature which it is a part of, as rivers to the sea, and swell if they be
hindered. He must needs long after a full draught, and can no more satisfy
himself with imperfect lineaments, than a sick man can with an imperfect
cure. It is to this end he breathes after heaven, because it is a state of per-
fection, not from any carnal notion of it. He knows he is not already per-
fect, and therefore presses forward with eager desire and endeavour, ' if by
any means he may attain the resurrection from the dead,' Philip, iii. 11-13,
&c. He doth not only desire a freedom from sin, but to be as pure and ele-
vated in affection to God as an angel. God is not only free from unright-
eousness, but full of righteousness ; and therefore those desires of a divine
nature are not limited to, and centred in, a negative holiness. He would set
himself no other pattern but God. It is an excellent speech of a heathen,*
exhorting not only to live the life of a good man, which civil virtue and the
vogue of men approved of, but to look above that to the choicest desire of a
divine life ; for, saith he, our endeavours should be for a likeness to God,
not to good men. To endeavour to be like to man, is to make one image
like another ; but a new creature aims at the highest exemplar ; it aspires
after no lower a pattern than God himself, his will, his rule, his glory, his
* Plotin. ^Enead. i. lib. ii. cap. 7. n?e; yao rourovi : i, e. 6s«v,-, oh <r°lt uvfyuiTCv; aya.-
iou; V 'cii^'otuati,
VOL. III. K
146 chaknock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
pleasure. Do the breathings of your spirits rise as much for it, as the steams
of your lusts did before against it ?
2. Put this question to yourselves, What inward authority hath God over
your hearts ? Is the government of God set up in your souls ? Can you
with joy say, The Lord reigns, and none but he shall reign over me ? The
new creature coming under another government, hath frames suitable to it,
and delightfully owns that supreme authority, and pleases himself more in a
subjection to God, than the wicked can in their slavery to sin. Do you ' yield
yourselves to God, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto
God' ? Are the motions of your souls guided by him ? You are then ' alive
from the dead;' it is the apostle's assertion, Eom. vi. 4. Sin doth reside ;
but which reigns, God or lust ? An usurpation may be on sin's part, when
no voluntary subjection on ours. Is it an absolute, or only a partial resigna-
tion of yourselves to him ? Do you give him a moiety, or do you give him
the whole ? Has he the sole sovereignty ? or would you give him an asso-
ciate ? Are any evil ways hated, out of a respect to his word, to his autho-
rity, wisdom, goodness, or a respect to yourselves ? Ps. cxix. 128, ' I esteem
thy precepts concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way.'
Ver. 133, ' Order my steps in thy word, and let not any iniquity have domi-
nion over me.' Are God's dictates readily obeyed ? Doth a free submission
to his authority govern and act thee in his ways ? Do you count his yoke
easy, and his burden light ? Do you glory in the chain of grace, and count
the service of sin as iron fetters ? Is the will of God above your own wills ?
Do you defy the one to observe the other ? Is God's will sacred with you,
when it thwarts your own, or only when it suits your interest ? It is not
then the authority of God which prevails with you, but the authority of some
extraneous thing which hath the chief moving force. If so, there is no sign
of the new creature in such a frame.
3. How are your affections to God ? It is a new creature we are speaking
of, and that is inward chiefly. Sin may be left in the practice, and not
hated : goodness may be practised, when it is not affected. "Where, then,
is the new creature ? It is not only a change of professions. Simon Magus
had changed that before his baptism, but not his heart, either before or after,
Acts viii. 21. The strength of sin lies in the understanding, will, and affec-
tions, and it is there that the strength of grace must appear, and set up its
banners. Are your affections and lusts of your flesh crucified ? They must
be so, if you are Christ's new creatures, Gal. v. 24. The strong stirring of
natural conscience may weaken a present resolution to an act of sin, but not
an affection to it, and to the habit of sin. It may restrain from outward
exercises, not from inward dispositions. Natural conscience informs of the
evil, but doth not confer upon us a disaffection to that evil. What are the
inclinations of your affections ? Are they pitched upon God ? What are
they for duration ? Are they constantly in motion to him ? Is it your plea-
sure to think of him, to live to him ? Are the remainders of unlikeness to
him your grief, your yet imperfect image your delight, not because it is im-
perfect, but because it is his image ? Every sigh, or a slight affection, is
not a new creature. It is a deep engravement, a constant inclination, con-
trary to what it was before, as white to black. Do your affections corres-
pond with the affections of God ? Do you hate everything that he hates ?
Or is there any one lust thou wouldst caress and hide among the stuff?
Such a frame is not the new-creature frame. God loves not one sin, neither
must we, if we be like him. Is the love to God and Christ more settled
than love to father or mother, which is an inbred affection, born with our
natures ? Mat. x. 37. It must be so supreme. What desires have you to
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 147
magnify his name ? Do you love him so intensely, as to part with your
lives to glorify and enjoy him ? If you be new creatures, God and his glory
will be dearer to you than friends, credit, life. He said not amiss, that no
man is a true Christian who is not an habitual martyr ; that is, that hath
not a disposition to lay down his life for the honour of God. And that
apostle who hath spoke so much of the new creature had such a raised
affection, Acts xx. 24, he would ' not count his life dear, so he might finish
his course with joy ;' which was • to testify the gospel of the grace of God.'
He could lay down his head more willingly upon a block than upon a pillow,
if he might finish his course to his Master's honour, and publish his grace.
Where there is no concern for the honour of God, there is little sign of a
likeness to him ; for this is an essential part of true Christianity. If we
have a new nature, we cannot but love that nature, wherever we find it.
And where we find it in a greater degree, and infinitely perfect, as in God,
we cannot but love it there above all ; else we offer violence to the divine
nature ; and in not loving it in God, we love it not in ourselves. It is im-
possible there can be this divine nature without spiritual affections, and that
the image of God can be in us without having an intense love to him whose
image it is. If anything, then, lie nearer the heart of any man than God,
the image of God is not in him. Therefore look into your hearts. How
doth your hatred break out against sin ? How is your sorrow poured out
for sin ?
4. How stand your souls to inward and spiritual duties ? How vile are
you in your own eyes because of sin ? What grief is there even for your
least imperfections ? Are you every day defacing your pride, and strength-
ening your humility ? Pride is the great fort of the old man, humility the
great security of the new. How are you in prayer ? Are you constant, are
you fervent, have you daily converses with God ? I mean secret prayer and
meditation : there are the most intimate converses with God. I appeal to
you that neglect those duties ; can you pretend to this new creation ? Do
you think that the image of God in the heart would not often move to its
original ? Can a likeness to God consist with an estrangedness from him ?
Can any man live the life of God that doth not care for the presence of God,
either speaking to him, or thinking of him ? Can that law in the heart,
which is put in that we may not depart from him, consist with this which
is the prime departure, never to seek him, or to seek him coldly ? All
the affections of the new creature bend to him, and centre in him. Can
this be without a drawing near to him ? The ' spirit of grace ' is fol-
lowed with a ' spirit of supplication :' Zech. xii. 10, ' the spirit of grace
and of supplication.' The Spirit is not a dumb spirit in the new crea-
ture. The first work in the heart is to cry, ' Abba, Father' : Gal. iv. 6,
' God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba,
Father.' The first impression made by the Spirit is upon the eye of the
soul to look to God, and the voice of the soul to cry to him. It is the
first work of a regenerate man as regenerate. It is the argument our
Saviour uses to Ananias, to have confidence that Paul was not the same
man as before: Acts ix. 11, 'Behold, he prays.' Our old nature being
made up of aversion from God, the proper language of that is, ' Depart from
us.' The new nature being made up of an inclination to God, the proper
language of that is, ' It is good for me to draw near to God ;' for upon this
renewing grace God is the proper centre of the soul, and the same prin-
ciple which moves other things to the centre will move the soul to God.
It is made the effect of a pure heart : 2 Tim. ii. 22, ' Peace with them that
call on the Lord out of a pure heart,' and the characteristical note of a
148 chaenock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
saint : 1 Cor. i. 2, < Saints, with all that in every place call upon the name
of Jesus Christ our Lord.'
5. What valuations and relishes have you of the word and institutions
of Christ ? As the life is, so is the food ; a spiritual appetite for spiritual
food is a comfortable sign of a renewed nature. In every nature there is
an aversion to what is destructive, an inclination to what is preservative.
Every creature doth as much desire its proper food, as it abhors that poison
that would blast it. The new nature hath a new taste, his palate is em-
bittered to his former pleasure, and refined and prepared for his new de-
light : he relisheth what before he loathed, esteems that sweetest that before
was unpleasantest. The law in the heart, being an impression of the word,
will answer it with a choice affection. The first cleansing of the heart, and
the progressive sanctification of it, is wrought by the word : Eph. v. 26,
' That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the
word.' The image of God in the heart cannot but value the image of God
in his law ; since the soul is brought to a love of God, it will love his ope-
rations, and all the methods of them, and therefore his word. A rectified
judgment will have a rectified affection ; there will be a spiritual palate,
whereby it proves and ' approves what is the good, acceptable, and perfect
will of God,' Rom. xii. 2. What is pleasing to God is good and pleasing to
him. And the same apostle sets it as a sign of a perfect man, or a sincere
new creature, to esteem that the wisdom of God which the world counts
foolishness : 1 Cor. ii. 6, ' We speak wisdom among them that are perfect.'
The Spirit of truth in the new creature will fill it with a strong affection to
those truths in the word. Truth in the heart, and truth in the word, being
so near of kin, cannot be strangers or unwelcome to one another. What
sympathy, then, is there between the word and your hearts? What exer-
cise of grace in it ? What improvement of grace by it ? Do you desire it
to satisfy your curiosity, or to further your growth ? 1 Pet. ii. 2, ' As new-
born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.'
Are you like the plants, both cleansed and quickened by the showers, and
discovering themselves in a fresh verdure ? How do you dilate your souls
for it ? How do you work it upon your hearts ? Do you desire it should
be stamped upon you ? Do you long for a more perfect intimacy with it ?
Do you prize it above the satisfactions of wealth and the pleasures of sense?
Is it 'more excellent than gold,' Ps. xix. 10, 'and sweeter than honey?'
Ps. cxix. 103. Do you spiritually concoct it, and turn spiritual meat into a
spiritual juice, as the stomach doth meat into chyle, and other parts of the
body into blood ? Life can only do this. Do you love to have it dwell
richly in you, and bring down the highest imaginations to the foot of it ?
Do you cut the throat of your dearest Isaacs when the word commands you?
Is it a pleasure to you to see the face of God in his ordinances ? Is your
pleasure raised most by the spirituality of truth ? The more spiritual any
truth is, the more satisfactory it is to a spiritual taste. Do your hearts burn
within you at the warm breath of Christ ? Are they not only warmed, but
raised into a flame, and that lasting ? Not like the straw, which doth blaze
and vanish.
6. What holiness is there in your hearts and lives ? God cannot be
otherwise than holy, therefore holiness is the perpetual concomitant of the
divine nature ; and so the apostle makes it to consist in ' escaping the pol-
lutions that are in the world through lust,' 2 Pet. i. 4. There is a principle
which springs up in holy motions and thoughts. It is in the soul the image
of God is stamped, and it is there that the new creature doth chiefly exercise
and preserve it. Holiness must be the proper effect of that which is planted
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 149
by the Spirit of holiness. He that pretends to a likeness to God without it,
fathers an irregularity upon him, and makes him a monstrous begetter. It
is not born of the will of the flesh, to follow sensual pleasures, nor of the will
of man, to follow only rational delights ; but of the will of God, and therefore
follows that will it was born of, John i. 1 3. ' Let thy kingdom come, thy
will be done,' is the natural language of the new creature, and glad he is to
have the Spirit point him to those ways that are most conformable to the
divine will, for it is not a strained holiness, but natural, such a one as ariseth
from the 'fear of God in the heart,' Jer. xsxii. 40, and a care to please God
in his walk : 2 Cor. vii. 11, ' Yea, what care V It is holy as God is holy,
in some measure, and therefore like him whose infinite purity cannot endure
pollution. And it can no more divest itself of its inclinations to righteous-
ness than the soul can strip itself of its natural activity. There is a certain
connection between a ' heart of flesh ' and ' walking in God's statutes,' Ezek.
xxxvi. 26, 27. To what purpose doth God give it ? either for his own work
or for the devil's ? There is no need of it for the latter ; the heart of stone
would have done his work effectually : therefore for the service of the former,
and that constantly, for the new creature is ' created to good works,' not to
do them by fits and turns, but ' to walk in them,' Eph. ii. 10 ; and he is
described by tbe apostle to be one that ' walks after the Spirit,' Rom. viii. 1,
the ordinary course of his heart is spiritual. How is it with you, then ? Is
holiness your proper element ? Is it a death to you when any thing con-
trary to it buds up in your hearts ? Is there a purity of heart joined with a
zeal for goodness, Titus ii. 14 ? They go hand in hand, as being both the
ends of our Saviour's death, and both the works of the Spirit. Is there an
angry detestation of the loathsomeness of sin, and a kindly affection to the
purity of grace ? It will be thus if the new creation be wrought, for as in
original sin there was the root of all evil, therefore all holiness may be op-
posed, and all sin practised ; so in the habit of grace there is the root of all
grace, therefore all sin will be loathed, and every part of holiness will be
loved. But on the contrary, if your old lusts be rather improved than im-
paired ; if you are more charmed by swinish pleasures, and enamoured of
them ; if the enmity in your hearts or the loathsomeness in your lives re-
main, is there anything of a new creature in you ? Judge for yourselves.
Do you make as rich a provision for the flesh as before ? Is your heart and
life set upon it with as much affection ? Are you joyful when employed in
its drudgery ? Is this to be a new creature ? Can there be such darkness,
if the sun of grace were risen upon you ? Such fruits evidence the standing
of the old root. He tbat hath the black mark of the devil in his life hath
no reason to think he hath the spiritual badge of Christ in his heart ; and if
he do, he doth deceive himself.
7. How is your disposition against those things which are contrary to a
divine nature ? No creature hath a greater antipathy to that which is con-
trary to its nature, than a regenerate man hath against that which is contrary
to the divine. It is as impossible there can be a friendly neighbourood be-
tween the new man and the old, as between the ark and Dagon, between heat
and cold, which are always quarrelling, yea, between Christ and Belial, 2
Cor. v. 16.
(1.) Against the motions of sin. An irreconcileable war is commenced be-
tween grace and corruption. At the first inlet flesh is in arms to hinder ;
the spirit in arms to maintain its standing, Gal. v. 17. The contest is in
the whole man ; grace being seated in the heart, sends out its commands, and
despatches forces to every part to meet with its enemy,* as motion begin-
* Jackson, vol. iii., 4to, p. 495
150 charnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
ning at the centre diffuseth itself through the whole sphere, shaking every
part to the circumference. Light will oppose darkness in every part of the
air ; they cannot shake hands together ; the increase of one is the decrease
of the other. Sensibility is a sign of life ; a dead man complains not of
wounds and cutting ; you may take out his bowels, cut limb from limb ; but
a living man will complain of the least prick of a pin or a pinch. Natural
men cannot complain of that which they do not feel. There is a mighty
friendship between a dead carcase and rottenness, nothing is noisome to it.
Loads of sin may lie upon him, like mountains upon a dead body, and no
complaint : ' The motions of sin work in his members ' without resistance,
and ' bring forth their fruit unto death,' Rom. vii. 5. But the new creature
counts the least sin that hath stolen in upon him his torture, like the stone
in the bladder, a worm in the root, and can find no rest till he routs the be-
ginnings of the disease. If there be no antipathy then to that which is con-
trary to the life and being of a Christian, it is a sure sign that there is
nothing of a divine life ; for as a renewed man ' esteems all the precepts of
God to be right,' and ' hates every false way,' Ps. cxix. 128, so he must
abhor every motion which would divert him from what he values, and entice
him to what he hates. How are your understandings sensible of the first
risings contrary to the interest of the new creature ? Are they more ready
to dissent from them ; your wills more ready to check them than before ?
What counterworkings against the flesh, with its affections and lusts ? Are
you ready with weapons in your hand to stay the first stirrings of corruption ?
Are you ready to pluck those buds, and fling them away with disdain ? Doth
both your courage and strength increase ? Can you more readily be in arms
against the rising of a lust than formerly you were, and cannot without
horror bear the approaches of them ? Doth a little dust of sin got into your
eye set you a- weeping before God ?
(2.) How stand you affected to spiritual sins ? Here you should lay the
great stress in your examination of the new creation, for your lives may be
the lives of saints, while your hearts are the hearts of devils ; we may have
no spots of the flesh upon our garments, and a world of them upon our
souls ; spiritual sins may revel where the more fleshly and sensual iniquities
are excluded. There is a war in the heart of the new creature against spiri-
tual wickedness : Eph. vi. 12, ' For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wicked-
ness in high places ;' or wickedness spiritualised in the high places, Uebg ra
irviv/jjarixa rr t g irov7joiag h roTg sftovpavioig, the choicest faculties of the soul.
Satan doth most excite those sins in the heart, and natural conscience makes
no resistance against them. It is only an enlightened conscience that un-
derstands and abhors this darkness, and loathes those steams which others
cherish. Do you wrestle against these which partake most of the devil's
nature ? Do you dandle them in your minds, or do you groan at the ap-
pearance of them ? Do you fly from them as you would do from a visible
apparition of the devil ? These are most contrary to the divine nature and
life of God. And a renewed man can no more avoid contesting with them
than the nature of a living creature can with poison. But if you can with-
out any reluctancy play the wantons with these in your hearts ; if you think
pride, vain-glory, ambition, speculative wickedness, &c, no evils ; if your
hearts never start at the appearance of them ; if you entertain them as wel-
come guests, though you be never so free from the filthiness of the flesh, you
have yet the strength of Satan's image in you, nothing of a Christian formed.
A natural man may quarrel with some sins, not with all ; renewed men with
all, because all are enemies to God, and to the life of grace in the heart. He
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 151
is always with arms in his hand to extirpate sin, and drive the Canaanite
from his forts as well as the open field.
(3.) Are you in the like manner affected against temptations and occasions
of sin ? The state of regeneration makes the soul more subject to the
assaults of temptations than before, from the envy of Satan, who stomachs
the happiness of the new creature. Do your souls start at the appearance
of a temptation ? Do you regard any enticement to a departure from God
as your torment ? Do you discountenance it at the first approach, and give
it no civiller entertainment, than ' Get you behind me, Satan' ? Christ in
the flesh did so, and Christ formed in the heart will do no less ; if he happen
to come near the way of evil men, he will observe the wise man's counsel,
Prov. iv. 14, 15, he will ' avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass
away.' His spirit will rise against anything that would intrude upon him,
which looks unfriendly towards God. The nobleness of the new nature will
make him disdain a sordid temptation, and inspire him with a holy gene-
rosity ; and the stronger the nature, the more vigorously will it oppose that
which would deform it. And if any temptation break in upon it at any
time, and master it, how restless is it to be delivered from it, applies
itself with all its force to heaven, complains against it, engageth God's power
on its side, makes up the gap where sin hath broken in, and fortifies the
place to prevent a future assault! In short, a natural man nourishes inward
lusts, meets motions to sin half way, smiles upon an approaching tempta-
tion. A new creature starts at the first appearance for the most part, frowns
upon Satanical suggestions, turns aways his eyes from beholding vanity. One
makes provision to maintain them, the other to destroy them ; one submits
to the tempter, the other arms himself against him.
8. Put this question to yourselves, What delight do you find in God and
his ways ? This indeed is an evident sign of the new nature ; by this men
may judge of themselves, if they will not deceive and flatter themselves in
their search. This is the greatest evidence of sincerity in all the ways of
God. For the law cannot be in any man's heart, unless he delight to do
the will of God : Ps. xl. 8, ' Thy law is within my heart, I delight to do
thy will, my God.' He will be carried out with a spiritual joy and triumph
to the acting what is spiritually good, with a mighty pleasure, as great as
the body takes in eating when it is hungry, or drinking when it is thirsty.
It was thus with our Saviour in the flesh, it is thus with Christ formed in
the heart, it is his meat and drink to do the will of God ; not so much in
the new creature as it was in Christ, because in that there is a remaining
principle of resistance, in Christ none. It is then he can ' delight himself
in the Lord,' Isa. lviii. 14, and count him his ' exceeding joy,' Ps. xliii. 4.
As it is an argument that Seneca gives of the divine original of the soul, that
it is most pleased with divine speculations, it is no less an argument of the
new creation, when it is delighted, not only with the speculative, but with the
practical contemplation of God, when the soul that triumphed before in the
pleasures of sin can burn with an ardent love to God, and solace itself in
communion with him ; and unless holy services be our delightful element,
we have not a likeness to that God, who is not only righteous, but delights
in ' righteousness, loving-kindness, and judgment,' Jer. ix. 24. Every being
owes so much respect to its own welfare, as not to act sluggishly and drowsily
in its main concern ; for the same love which excites it to perform those
things which are essential to its preservation will oblige it to act with the
highest complacency ; and the more conducing they are to the well-being of
the creature, the more powerful is the joy which spreads itself through the
whole essence of the creature ; therefore holy services being as intrinsecal to
152 charnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
a holy principle as the most inward operations of any creature can be to
its nature, will be done with a vigorous frame, and an edged intenseness of
spirit. Without this, in some degree, nothing requisite to the operations of a
new creature can be performed ; without it we have no aversion to that
which is contrary to the law, nor an inclination to what is conformable to
it. It is a consent of the will to the whole law, Rom. vii. 16, a delight of
the affections in it ; a consent to it in respect of the goodness ; a delight in
it (ver. 22), in respect of the authority enjoining it, as it is the law of God ;
not principally as it is in some parts conformable to human reason, but as it
is the divine will, whereby both the sovereignty, holiness, and righteousness
of God is owned by the whole inward man ; the understanding, will, and affec-
tions, conspiring together with a strong delight in God and his law. Hence
you find David so often expressing his delight in it, Ps. cxix. 14, 35, 47, 70,
77, &c. And indeed so much of weariness as we have in any service, so
much of an old nature and a legal frame ; so much as we have of love and
delight, so much we have of a new creature, and new covenant grace. A
natural man cannot have any of this choice joy in any spiritual service,
be?ause it is against his nature ; no more than a fish can delight to be upon
the land out of its proper element ; but a new creature hath little delight in
anything, but as it regards God, and tends to him; other men's delights are
terminated in the flesh, but the elevations of a renewed soul are highly
spiritual. How then is it with you ? Are the duties of religion, communion
wioh God in them, your delightful element ? Is a flight of your love to
him, the acting for his glory, as pleasant as flattery to a proud nature, or
gain to a covetous disposition ? Have you little satisfaction in what you
do, but still breathe and strive after a higher frame, and cannot rest, till
with your choice embraces of your souls you clasp about God himself?
happy man ! None but a divine nature could fill thee with such pleas-
ing transports.
Use 4. Is of exhortation.
1. To those who are new creatures, that have some comfortable evidence
in their souls, that there is the image of God renewed in them.
(1.) How should you admire and glorify God ? Is it possible that so
noble a work can be unattended with a spirit of gratitude ? How should
you be filled with a sense of divine goodness, and formed to set forth his
praise ? Surely this of thankfulness is not one of the least good works
you are created unto. Before, when you were alienated from the life of God,
you were estranged from his love and his praise, you would never glorify
him whom you did not affect ; but since a heavenly nature is introduced, a
heavenly work should become the very life of your souls; tongues and hearts
should be set on fire by grace.
[1.] Has not God made you differ from the whole mass of the corrupted
world ? There is as great a difference between a new and an old creature
as between the clearest day and the darkest night; as between Christ,
who is glorified in heaven, the head of his own flock, and the devil,
who is damned in hell, the head of the unbelieving world ; so they are
opposed by the apostle, 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15. Might you not have run down
the stream with others, lived only a natural life with others, and at last died
an eternal death, and descended, with all your intellectual and moral endow-
ments, to the place only due to corrupt nature ? But God, the God that is
blessed for ever, hath breathed into you a breath of life, caused you to stand
up before him with a resemblance of his nature, set you apart for himself,
wrought you for glory, and made you live another life, a life by the faith of
the Son of God. And is it not reason you should differ from all the world
2 Cor. V. 17.J the nature of regeneration. 153
in your praises of him, who hath made you differ so vastly in your state and
condition ?
[2.] Hath not God in this bestowed upon you a higher perfection than all
natural perfection in the world ? The lowest degree of sense is more excellent
than the highest inanimate perfection ; therefore a fly, in regard of life, is
more excellent than a diamond, or the sun itself. The lowest degree of
reason is above the highest degree of sense, and the lowest degree of renew-
ing grace transcends the highest degree of reason, because this in the highest
degree is but human and natural, that in the lowest degree spiritual and
divine. Therefore you owe more to God for your regeneration than all
creatures of the world do for their natural existence. He hath done more
for you, in communicating to you his own nature, than if he had made you
viceroys over men and angels, and put the whole created world under your
feet, without investing you with this new creation.
[3. J And this God hath done for you, when you were in the common
lump, and had no more worth in yourselves to move him to it than the rest
of the world. No other motive on your part but misery. All the world
had the same ; for it lay in the like condition. All that you had, all that
you were, was proper to move him to a contempt of you, and a loathing you
for ever. It was the invention of his own overflowing love, not any per-
suasion of your worth. What were you, and what was your father's house,
that he should thus translate you from the drudgery of sin to the liberty of
grace, from a spiritual death to a divine life ? Had God called you out of
the womb of nothing, unshaped as the great chaos, and asked you what
degree of creatures* you were willing to be raised unto, would you have pre-
sumed to desire God to make you like himself ? Yet God in regeneration
raised you to a state you durst not ask, above a rational creature, even to a
divine, when he had no motive to anything, but to turn you, with Nebuchad-
nezzar, to graze among the beasts, and partake with devils in the eternal
misery of that image you had contracted.
[4.] It is therefore a wonderful and miraculous change. If the framing
the body of man be so 'wonderful' a work, Ps. cxxxix. 14, and a curious
piece of embroidery, how much more admirable is this new formation of the
soul into the likeness of God. If we should see a silly fly or a poisonous
spider, a clod of earth, or a glow-worm, transformed into a glittering star,
it would not be so great a miracle ; it would be a change from one natural
image to another. But this is a change from hell to heaven, from being a
limb of the devil to become a member of Christ, from a worse than Egyptian
darkness into a marvellous light. That is but a change of one innocent
nature into another ; this a change of a nature hateful to God into a nature
delightful to him, a corrupt creature into an holy one, a change of something
worse than a bare creature into something like the great Creator and Re-
deemer. This is your change, therefore the highest obligation in the world
lies upon you, to praise and glorify God. It is in the day of your regenera-
tion that God hath rolled away the reproach of your corruption and death, as
he said of the Israelites when tbey were circumcised in Canaan, Joshua v. 9.
To quicken you to praise,
First, Often reflect upon your former state. Cast your eyes back upon
what you were, that you may be thankful for what you are. Ah, what was
I once ? An hater of God, and hated by him ; one bearing the image of
Satan, and delighting in it ; a noisome heap of lusts, estranged from God,
sold under sin, dead to goodness, an enemy to the law. What a condition
was I in then ! Good Lord, how astonishing was thy mercy, how wonder-
ful thy love, how great was thy power, to draw me out of tbis state !
154 charnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
Secondly, Review what you are. What am I now ? Here is a new light
in my understanding, new inclinations in my will ; I can now look upon
God with pleasure and run his ways with delight. Christ is my only joy,
and Christ is my only gain. My old nature is wearing away, my new nature
is rising higher and clearer ; now am I freed by the blood of Christ from my
guilt, and by the Spirit of Christ from my filth. What shall I render to the
Lord for these inestimable benefits towards me ? blessed God ! dear
Redeemer ! infinite condescending Spirit, to work these things for me, in
me ; to clear such a nasty soul, imprint such a heavenly image, conform me
to so excellent a pattern, and by grace to fit me for a glorious eternity !
Let then the love of the author, the excellency of the work, the misery of
your former state, the happiness of your new, be joined together in your
considerations to enhance your praise ; and since you live the life of God,
be sure to live the life of thankfulness.
(2.) As it is your duty to admire and glorify God for making you new
creatures, so it is your duty and advantage too to preserve in its vigour this
new nature in you. When Adam's life was infused, he was to preserve it
by feeding upon the fruits of paradise, Gen. ii. 29. And you must preserve
your spiritual lives by the fruits of divine institutions placed in the church.
The inner man is to be strengthened ; Paul prays to this purpose for the
Ephesians, Eph. iii. 16, ' that he would grant you to be strengthened with
might by his Spirit in the inner man,' which is not, as some understand it,
a strengthening of reason, mind, and understanding, The Scripture by
heart understands the mind, will, and judgment, but the apostle joins this
inner man so with the heart (ver. 17, ' That Christ may dwell in your hearts
by faith'), that he doth manifestly put a difference between this inner man.
and the heart, making one the seat, the other the root in it. The apostle
wishes them not a strength of the soul, but a strength of the new man and
image of Christ in the soul. The devil is a mighty enemy to it ; he hath
lost a servant ; he will leave no stone unturned to recover him ; his servant
will be his judge ; he will therefore endeavour to overthrow him. Go to
God, therefore, for new supplies in the case of Satan's assaults ; desire him
to put a vigour into your grace, water the seeds, and blow up the divine
spark. Our Saviour desired assisting and strengthening grace for Peter,
when he foresaw the devil's preparations to worry him, Luke xxii. 31, 32.
So should we for ourselves, and Christ will not be backward to second us in
it ; yea, he will prevent us, and send in an auxiliary force over and above
the standing habit which makes up the new creature. We need the gales of
heaven to blow us forward, the concourse of God to his gracious creature, as
well as his common concourse to his natural. Is it not the highest reason
to engage all in the defence, and strengthening that which is the delight of
God, the happiness of the soul, and the envy of the devil ? What is worth
our care, if this be thought worthy of our neglect ? Sloth in preserving and
strengthening argues a lesser value of a thing. Would you lose beauty for
deformity, health for sickness ? Would you lose the pleasures of heaven for
the anguish of hell ? Preserve this image then from being defaced, and look
that Satan draw no more black lines in your hearts. ' Skin for skin, and all
a man hath will he give for his life ;' eat his own flesh to preserve his life as
long as he can. Oh then, if I may so say, soul for soul, and all that you
have, you should give and employ for maintaining this spiritual life, which is
as much above a natural life as the sun above a dunghill. Blow it up every
day, dress the lamps as the priests in the temple. It is for want of this
strengthening it, that we have so little liveliness in duty. It is for want of
this excitation that we walk so often in darkness. What have we else to do
2 Cor. Y. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 155
but this ? Preservation and strengthening of life is the chief design of men
in the world. Is not a divine life of more worth ? Let not then the cares
of our bodies surpass those for our souls, and our fondness to natural life ex-
ceed our affection to spiritual life. We know but in part, we see but as in a
glass darkly. The inclinations of our hearts to righteousness are not in their
full strength.
(3.) Grow up to a taller stature. There must be a daily putting off the
old man, and a putting on the new, a renewing the inward man day by day,
2 Cor. iv. 16. And though at the first regeneration there is the forming all
the essential parts of grace, yet afterwards there is a daily augmentation
(the Galatians were both knowing God, and known of him, Gal. iv. 9, yet of
these did the apostle travail, till Christ was formed again, ver. 19), till the
design of Christ be fully complied with, and the soul grown up to the
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, by the participation of his
nature. As providence is a continued creation, so growth is a continued
regeneration. As a man grows in reason by new improvements, so ought a
Christian in grace, by new additions. Things are not ripened at once.
The spirits in raw and immature bodies are depressed by gross and earthy
mixtures with them, till they are encouraged by the sun and showers, and
thereby able to digest the crude parts, and arrive at perfection.
[1.] This must be : Job xvii. 9, ' The righteous shall hold on his way,
and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.' The new
nature can no more stand at a stay, than a living tree can, till it come up to
the measures of its nature. It is the nature of seed to propagate itself, and
spread its virtue into branches and fruit. It will be aspiring to that perfec-
tion which nature hath allotted to it. If you do not grow, it is a sign there
is no life in you. It is but a common gift, or a common grace, at best; the
counterfeit, not the reality of the new creature. Living natures do thrive ;
pieces of art stand at a stay. He is no member of Christ, but as a wooden
leg or arm; not knit by any vital band, but some extrinsic ligaments; not fed
with the increases of God, because he doth not grow. To content ourselves
with a low degree of grace, makes us unworthy of the benefit of regeneration,
and below those that pretend to a likeness to God.
[2. J It must be uniform. As it is one habit which is infused, so it
equally thrives in all the parts of it. An unequal growth is the effect of a
disease, not of nature. As nature causes a proportion of parts in the make,
so likewise a proportion of parts in the growth. It is not a growth in faith,
and a decay in love ; or a growth in love, and a decay in faith. To pretend
to the one without the other, is to have an head without an heart, a life
without blood or spirits. A natural man may grow in some moral orna-
ments, as a dead man in hair and nails ; but a spiritual vitality shew r s itself
in an equal increase of all the members in the new creature. And it is best
discerned by the thriving of those graces which are most contrary to your
natural disposition, which cannot so well be discerned in those which have
some foundations in moral natures ; as humility hath a mild disposition,
which by the addition of grace, advanceth to an eminent humility. But a
new creature thrives in those graces which were most contrary to his corrupt
nature, now over-mastered. The second draught of a picture defaceth not
one line or two of the former, but the whole frame, to make it more near
the original. And thus a new creature ought to grow as the vine, and revive
as the corn, in all the branches and fruits proper to its nature, Hosea xiv. 7.
[3.] By this we please God and pleasure ourselves. The more illustrious
any work is, the more glory redounds to the artist. If the beginnings of tie
new creation be so amiable as to make heaven itself in love with it, how in-
156 chaenock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
finitely will God be pleased to see it grow to maturity among the whirlwinds
and storms of temptations ; every increase, adding new colours and lustre to
this beauty, will renew the jubilee in heaven. Thus will God pronounce it
good at first, and very good the nearer it comes to perfection, as he did in
tbe creation of the world. By this growth you will have a greater capacity
for heaven ; for if the first new creation capacitates a man for glory, the
higher it springs, the more beautiful the divine nature grows, the nearer it
is to glory and the fitter to be planted in an eternal paradise, the more a
right to heaven will appear to yourselves.
(4.) A foux-th exhortation. Behave yourselves in your ordinary walk, as
new creatures of another rank from the world. It is the inference the
apostle makes from the new state wherein the Ephesians were, ' For you
were sometimes darkness, but now light in the Lord : walk as children of the
light,' Eph. v. 8. You must bring forth fruits meet for regeneration, meet
for him by whom you are renewed, as the ground doth herbs, meet for him
by whom it is dressed, Heb. vi. 7.
[1.] Adorn the gospel, whereby the divine impression is made upon you.
The apostle argues against lying, and by the same reason against all sin,
from this head, Col. iii. 9, 10. The gospel adorns the soul by its impres-
sion ; the soul should adorn the gospel by its conversation : Titus ii. 10,
' Adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.' Let the writing of
the law in the heart appear on the other side of the life, and the divine light
in your hearts shine in your outward man, as a candle through a lantern, that
God may be glorified, Mat. v. 16. Let not lust and sin, extraneous to the
new creature, bear any rule in any action ; let no unworthy action reproach
your profession. Do nothing unbecoming one who is like him that rules the
world, unbecoming that word and gospel which God hath magnified above
all his name. Defile not your garments ; we can never walk with God but
in white, Rev. iii. 4, in the whiteness of purity, not in the blackness of sio.
Do not any works of Satan with the nature of God upon you. Indeed, we
may be ashamed, that when there is so much of the image of Christ in the
gospel, there should be so little of the image of Christ in our lives. Walk
as those that are enrolled among the spirits of just men made perfect, as
those who have the honour to be of the assembly of the first-born ; live to
God, not to yourselves. The more wicked the generation is you live in,
the more it is your duty to shine, as the lights of heaven in the darkness of
the earth, Philip, ii. 15, and the more it will be your commendation, as it
was the praise of Job, that he was upright in the land of Uz, among the
race of profane Esau, not among the offspring of praying Jacob : Job i. 1,
' That man was perfect, and feared God.'
[2.] Live above affections to a drossy world, if you would honour your new
nature. An earthly spirit cannot be the effect of a heavenly birth. Let not the
rattles of your childhood be your present pleasure, or the bewitching world have
any influence upon you. The world is no fit boundary for the soul in its natu-
ral capacity, much less in its spiritual ; it is too empty for an immortal soul,
much more for a divine nature. Let not anything on this side God be your
oarling, but your footstool, to mount you nearer heaven. Value them only
as they enable you to do the higher duties of religion without distracting
cares, and are subservient to the honouring God in the world. As the new
creature was not redeemed with a vile price, so it is not endued with so sor-
did a nature, as to be much in love with these things. The conquest of
this is one of the first fruits of the new birth. 1 John v. 4, ' "Whatsoever is
born of God, overcomes the world ;' there is a mighty antipathy between the
world, and anything that is the offspring of God. There cannot be so much
2 CoR. V. 17. J THE NATURE OF REGENERATION. 157
ignorance of the things of another world, as to prize so vile a piece, as a
house with walls and furniture, infected with a sinful leprosy. Let the in-
ward contempt of the blandishments of it grow up in you ; distract not
yourselves with cares for it, but trust in God's promise, and leave things to
the conduct of his wise providence. It is inconsistent with a new nature
to lie at the bottom of this great sea, sucking up weeds and sand, and never
peep its head above water, towards heaven.
[3.] Be much in the thoughts and views of the divine original of your
nature. Shall the new nature seldom look up to that place whence it de-
scended, or cast its eye upon that beautiful hand that framed it ? Surely
the new creature cannot be so unnatural. Employ your souls in exercises
of an unbounded love to God, a settled delight in him, a high esteem of
the righteousness of his nature, and an habitual walking with him ; let the
esteem of him, and vilifying yourselves, be your daily employment. The
looking upon him will transform you more into his image ; by this spiritual con-
verse you will partake of a new brightness, and clearer lineaments. Every
view will leave a greater perfection upon his image in you, by a reflection of
a glory, 2 Cor. iii. 18. By this your hearts will be more suitable to those
regions of blessedness to which the divine image is hastening. It will make
you sweat out some corruption every day, and advance you some steps to-
ward the state of bliss.
[4.J Fix your aims on a state of perfection. You are to walk, not to
stand still. Never rest till all that righteousness which of right belongs to
that divine nature in you, be conferred upon you ; breathe after a more
close conjunction with the original. Keep up in a due sprjghtliness your
detestations of sin, which you had when you were first enlivened ; with what
a holy indignation you flung away your lusts, with a Get you hence, and,
What have I to do any more with idols ? Set an edge upon this hatred every
day, sharpen your indignation more and more. Preserve in your'souls those
affections which did rise up in you, when the irresistible charms of divine
love did first allure you, when you first cast your eyes upon this new likeness
and image of God ; quicken them daily, and ' press forward towards the mark
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ.'
[5. J Let your affection be carried to everything which partakes of the same
image. There is in all creatures a kindness to those of their own nature ;
the most ravenous do not prey upon their own species ; all men, descending
from Adam, having the same nature, have some kindness to those of their
own kind ; and all descending from Christ have the same nature, the same
affections and instincts. It is in love and holiness wherein God doth de-
cipher himself in the soul ; he would not be drawn in any other attributes
in the heart of man ; and thus in the Scripture he publisheth himself in
the abstract as holiness and love, delighting to be imitated by his creature
in those two perfections, ' God is love, and he that dwells in God dwells in
love,' 1 John iv. 16. Love is, therefore, the nature of the new creature,
and love to the same objects whereon God's love is pitched, first himself,
then his image in his creature. So the love of God and that of a new
creature go hand in hand together ; first, the affections of the new nature
stream out to God as the prime and original beauty, then to all new crea-
tures, as they partake more or less of this divine image. This universal
charity to God, grace, and good men, is the inseparable property of the new
creature, the highest perfection of it, and the beginning of a state of glory.
Love all those that partake of this divine nature.
[6.] Endeavour to propagate your new nature to others. It is the pro-
perty of goodness to be diffusive of itself ; and God, the highest goodness,
158 chabnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
is the most communicative. The divine nature should imitate him in this.
No nature but delights to propagate itself. The new nature ought not to be
sluggish in it; since the great change lies in the end, since the glory of God
is set up as its main intendment, it will oblige it to propagate holiness and
righteousness, whereby God is most glorified ; for thereby the number is
increased to represent him on earth and praise him in heaven. No sooner
was Paul renewed, but he endeavours to bring all the world into the same
frame. The apostate angels, being revolted from God, labour to sink all the
world into the same disposition. Fire communicates by a touch its own
nature to all matter that comes near it, and turns the hardest metals into its
own likeness. So ought that holy fire in a new creature to labour to convert
everything into its own flames. This is a peculiar mark set upon the evan-
gelical times, and the special fruit of a gospel impression : Isa. ii. 3, ' Many
people shall say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to
the house of the God of Jacob.' It should be your endeavour that all about
you may be the better for you. Strive to affect your children and servants
with a sense of the corruption of nature derived from Adam, and the neces-
sity of being implanted in the new head of the world, and partaking of an-
other nature from him. Thus to be a fellow- worker with God is the most
absolute work of grace, as to beget in its own likeness is the most perfect
work of nature.
And to persuade you to walk and act as new creatures, consider,
First, The excellency of your birth. It is a birth of heaven, a resemblance
to God ; do nothing below it or unworthy of it. Is it fit for you to lie among
the pots and smut yourselves ? The consideration of the relation you bear
to God should inspire you with heroic resolutions for his glory. You are
the only persons that keep up God's honour in the world, and his final anger
from it. Whenever you are tempted, reflect upon yourselves, as Nehemiah :
' Should such a man as I ' do this ? Neh. vi. 11. Or as Joseph to his mis-
tress, ' Behold, my master hath committed all that he hath to my hand ;'
behold, God hath put his divine nature in my heart, and ' shall I do this
wickedness ?' Consider in every action what that God you call Father by
regenerating grace, that Christ who is the great exemplar and copy of the
image in you, would do in such cases and circumstances. How unworthy is
it for a living man to do dead works ! As your life springs from the highest
principle, let it be employed for the highest ends. Was ever any prince
ashamed of his honour ? And shall any new creature be ashamed of the
particular badge of heaven upon it ; of that righteousness which is the true
nobility of his nature ? Holiness is the beauty of an intellectual and rational
creature ; it must then be your highest honour to live conformably to the
dignity of your nature.
Secondly, It was the intendment of God you should walk in a nobler man-
ner than the rest of the world. Did God infuse into Adam a soul of a higher
nature than that of beasts, to enable him to live only the life of beasts ? God
intended by the infusion of this new principle, that you should live above
the sphere of humanity and the rate of man. How doth the apostle chide
the Christians because they did not advance above the life of mere man ;
and therefore gives them a title chiefly belonging to the unregenerate world :
1 Cor. iii. 3, ' Are you not carnal, and walk as men ? ' Our Saviour expects
a more worthy carriage from his children than what barely nature can teach
them. He would have them as God, and imitators of him, Mat. v. 44-47,
and do something peculiar to this new state, which cannot be done by any
unregenerate man in the world. Your holiness is not to be of the common
level with the morality of the world, but such as may set forth the ' praise of
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 159
God,' 1 Peter ii. 9 ; they are a ' chosen generation,' therefore should have
choice conversations ; a ' royal priesthood,' therefore princes' deportments ;
a ' holy nation and peculiar people,' therefore should have holy and peculiar
behaviours. They should thus be public evangelists, to set forth s^ayyii'/.riTs,
the graciousness and righteousness of God. There is also the highest obli-
gation, because he hath ' called them out of darkness into his marvellous
light.' God intended that their conversations should be such as should
amaze the world into a love of holiness, and admiration of that light which
gives them such excellent directions, and that nature which enables them to
so exact a walk. God's temples were not intended to be made dunghills.
Thirdly, Not to walk as new creatures is a dishonour to God. You that
do not walk answerable to your high calling do more highly dishonour him
than all other persons. You are quite contrary to his image, and represent
God to the world as they would have him, not what he is in his own nature ;
for by a careless walk the world will judge God to be like you, or you very
unlike to God. Is God holy, and you impure ; God merciful, and you re-
vengeful ; God a God of peace, and you fomenters of malice and contention ?
To pretend to his image with such qualities is to disparage his nature, and
rather degrade God to a likeness to the flesh than to mount up to a true
resemblance of him : Ps. 1. 21, ' Thou thoughtest I was altogether such a
one as thyself.' It is a disgrace to a noble father to have a swinish, clown-
ish, ill-bred person pretend to be his son. But how much is the contrary a
glory to Christ, as delicious fruit and choice flowers credit the beams of the
sun ! What a mighty pleasure is it to God to behold a suitable walk of his
new creatures ! He loves them, and ' his countenance doth behold the up-
right,' Ps. xi. 7. How much must he, who is holiness itself, take compla-
cency in the holiness of it. If he loves it while in a low degree, no question
but he loves it more in a higher exaltation. How does the Holy Ghost
repeat Enoch's walking with God twice in Gen. v. 22, 24, to witness his
pleasure in it ?
Fourthly, Not to walk suitable to your new creation is a mighty disadvan-
tage to yourselves. Though a new creature doth not totally lose his grace
if a temptation deflower his purity, yet his grace suffers an impair, and per-
haps he may never recover the same degree of grace and comfort he had
before. It is a question whether David ever had his sails filled with such
strong gales of the Spirit after his fall as he had before. The marks of a
disease will hang about us after the disease is cured, and the same stock of
health may never be restored again. If you do let your hearts run out at
any time to any sinful pleasure, though it may not raze out the image, yet
it will make you more unfit for those views of God which can only maintain
it. When you come before him, after such a departure, how will your hearts
recoil upon you ? With what pleasure can you look upon him whom you
have so abused in his image in your souls,- and in his image in his law '?
Besides, every unworthy walk detracts somewhat from the weight of that
crown you might otherwise expect to be reserved in heaven for you, and
makes it of a greater alloy. But if you keep close to the law in the word,
and the law in your hearts, what communications will you have from God ?
What inward touches and feelings of him ? How hastily will he run to meet
you half way, and kiss you with the kisses of his mouth ? ' Thou meetest
him that rejoices and worketh righteousness,' Isa. lxiv. 5. How intimately
will he wind himself into the secret corners of your hearts, as John xiv. 23,
' and make his abode with you ;' and like fire in every part of iron, fill every
part of the new man with a glowing and divine heat ?
Fifthly, Such an exact walk will mightily stop the current of sin. It may
160 charnock's works. , [2 Cor. V. 17.
justly be feared, the sins of many have taken too much heart from the unsuit-
able carriages of professors. But a walk according to the rule of the new
creation might inflame others to godliness, at least stifle some corrupt
motions, suspend some inclinations to sin, and for a time bind up the devil
in them. This is the greatest charity to the world ; by other benefits we
advantage particular persons, by a holy example all that behold us. It
strikes an awful reverence into the hearts of men, as being a ray of God ;
what the gospel enjoins are things comely, and of good report, many of them
lovely and illustrious, even in a carnal eye ; therefore such expressions of a
gospel impression would engender admirations of it, cast a lustre upon the
truth of God ; men will look upon such works with reverence,* and ' glorify
God in the day of their visitation ' or conversion, as Calvin understands it.
To be a holy people is to be ' sought out,' they are both joined, Isa. Ixii. 12.
Many by seeing the holiness of the church in gospel times shall be induced
to give up their names to the Lord ; it will tend more to the regeneration of
others than a thousand sermons ; it will raise the reputation of Christianity,
and cause them to believe it to be of a divine extract ; it would stir men up to a
holy emulation to be like them. And beholding the law of God transcribed
in the life, it would convincingly answer the cavils of the world, and demon-
strate the commands they count grievous to be in themselves practicable.
But whither is this gospel ornament we have been speaking of fled ? Where
is it to be found? How few walk as new creatures, • as becomes the gospel,'
however they profess it, and pretend a zeal for it !
Exhortation 2. To those who lie still buried in the ruins of the old Adam,
who carry the image of beasts in their lives, or of devils in their hearts, or
both, such I would advise earnestly to seek this new creature state. Let
not your hearts be besotted to a neglect of it, and stupefied into endless tor-
ments, which will, as surely as you live, be the dreadful issue, if this be not
attained. To be so long under the gospel, and retain the obstinacy of an old
nature to God, is a high aggravation. Talk not of sparing the old man ; it
is your enemy, wound it to death, use the utmost severity towards it ; put it
off, leave not a rag, if possible, behind ; send it away, as Abraham did
Hagar, and without so much as a bottle of water, to despoil it of any hopes
of return. But, alas, how do you cherish and hug this enemy ! How do
you value it, as if it were a part of yourselves ; as if you could not live
without poison, or be happy without misery ! How do you bid the new
man stand far from you, as if it were a real torment to be in the arms of
Christ, and the new creation your disease, not your felicity ! Though yon
were the most unblameable in your lives, free from any pretence of an accu-
sation there, what were you without this change, but devils in the garb of
angels of light, poison in fair cabinets, and the natures of serpents in the
bodies of men ? "What is become of your souls ? Are they so immersed in
flesh, that nothing of spirit can make impressions upon them ? Have men
quite forsworn the attaining any other excellency than what mere nature
bestowed upon them ? What deformity do you find in God, that you slight
his image, which should be imprinted on you? What frightful thoughts have
you of the Spirit that solicits you ? How come your souls so senseless of
their real happiness ? Oh what a happy thing were it, if this day Christ
were formed in all our hearts; that though we are nasty dunghills, worse than
the stable wherein our Saviour was born in the flesh, we might become the
sanctuary of our Lord and his Spirit ; it is then the angels would renew their
song at the birth of Christ in the heart as well as that in the world, * Glory to
God in the highest,' peace and eternal goodwill to such a soul. If you have
* As the word lvo*Ttvtravres, signifies, 1 Peter ii. 12.
2 Cor. Y. 17.J the natube of regeneration. 161
any stragglings in your hearts, any convictions upon your consciences, and
make not a further progress, these will be so far from being your advantage,
that they will add an emphasis to your damnation.
Let me use some motives to press you.
(1.) Shall not the loathsomeness and misery of your present state startle
you ? It is a nature that makes you ' the children of wrath,' Eph. ii. 3.
Were your old natures acceptable to God, what need any change ? But
the requiring this change demonstrates the old nature to be abhorred by
God. This nature is the devil's filth, the serpent's poison, a deformed
leprosy ; it is the pain, anguish, torment, rack of every man that dies in it ;
it smells rank of hell. Is not another nature then desirable ? When you
commit some grievous sin, to which you are not accustomed, are you not
dejected ? Do you not think worse of yourselves for it ? And are you not
pleased when you can escape it ? If the reformation of one sin be a desir-
able thing, how much more the reformation of the whole nature ! For if a
drop of that filth bubbling up in the life be so loathsome, what loathsome-
ness is there in the heart, where the fountain springs ! What gall of bitter-
ness must be in the root, when a little of the fruit is so bitter to your taste!*
Corruption is the dishonour of your natures, the poison of your souls, the
cause of all your unhappiness. It is this that banished you from paradise,
ravishing away your pleasures, subjected you to vanity, the wrath of God, the
hatred of angels, and. tyranny of devils ; it is this that hath deformed your
souls. Despoil yourselves of this cursed old man, give yourselves no rest till
you have conquered it ; never say, it is incorporated in your entrails and
marrow. Where the question is about your everlasting happiness, let no
excuse prevail.
(2.) Shall not the excellency of another state allure you ? It is the
excellency of any piece of art to come nearest its original ; that star is most
glorious that doth most partake of the sun's light and power. The very light
of nature tells us the state wherein we are is not our perfection ; something
the soul flutters at beyond this, though it naturally understands not what it
is. Is it not, then, the happiness of the soul to be reduced to its true
centre, to be reinstated in an unspotted nature, to return to a due respect to
those ends for which it was made, to have the understanding conversant
about the loveliest object, the will inclined to the most amiable goodness,
and the affections twining about it, and growing up with it? Can it be any-
thing else but the highest excellency, to live the life of God ; to have the
image of God wrought upon you, and your souls conformed to his holiness ?
Can that be an imperfection, which makes you like an infinite righteousness?
It was the highest perfection of man to be made according to the image of
God, wherein God, as in a glass, might see a resemblance of himself. Is it
not then a desirable thing to have it drawn again with more lively and last-
ing colours, after sin and Satan have so basely defaced it? All other things
are not the perfection of man's nature ; for whatsoever else there is, is
possessed by beasts or devils; the pleasures of sense, by beasts; the endow-
ments of knowledge, by devils ; but the divine nature by neither. This
therefore, which neither devils can be blessed with, nor beasts capable of, is
only the perfection of the soul, more excellent than the soul itself, since
that which perfects is more excellent than that which is perfected by it.
Original corruption destroys your health, sullies your purity, enslaves your
liberty. Regeneration restores your health, expels your filthiness, and knocks
off your fetters. Let the excellency of this better state prevail with you.
* Daille, Sur. Colos. p. 247.
VOL. III. L
162 charnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
(8.) Will the honour of the thing allure you ? Where shall you meet
with so honourable a relation ? It is more honour to be a new creature in
rags than a carnal prince in purple, though the greatest in the world, for
you will then be settled heirs of all the promises. Is it not, then, more
glorious to partake of the nature of that God, who crea'ed and commands the
world, than by the force of the old nature to be slaves to sordid lusts, which
are both a drudgery and a disease ? As a spirit is more excellent than the
body, so a spiritual being and frame is more honourable than a fleshly.*
There is a greater relation between God and a new creature than between
natural fathers and sons. The sons of men have but a little particle of the
vile matter and flesh of their fathers, but a renewed man hath the whole
divine Spirit in him; and by virtue of this, all things will, one time or other,
rise up and call you blessed ; you will be more allied to Jesus Christ, by
the inward formation of him in your hearts, than the blessed virgin by the
conception of Christ in her womb, Luke xi. 27. She was more happy by
partaking of Christ in her heart, than by conferring a flesh on Christ from
her body. What an honourable thing is it to be moulded into the divine
likeness ! Can you be more glorious, unless you were gods ?
(4.) Will pleasure charm you ? View it here. Pleasure must neces-
sarily follow this new state, as light the sun ; there is no state without a
pleasure pertaining to it. Pleasures of sense belong to a life of sense ;
intellectual pleasures to a life of reason ; divine pleasures to a divine
nature. ' All the ways of wisdom are ways of pleasantness,' Prov. iii. 17.
An infinite perfection is attended with an infinite happiness ; the more
lineaments, then, you have of the divine perfection, the more tastes you will
have of the divine happiness. God hath an infinite pleasure in his own
perfections ; it is his felicity to enjoy himself, to view himself. Pleasure
then must naturally result from this image drawn in the soul ; and as
naturally, I conceive, according to the degrees of it, as the pleasure God
hath in his own- holiness and love. The pleasure of heaven is the perfection
of holiness ; therefore there is a pleasure also attending the draught of it
here ; an imperfect pleasure from the imperfect form of it, as a perfect plea-
sure from the completing of it in glory. What want can there be of plea-
sure, if you come into this state ? Will you not be conversant about the
highest object, and that with your choicest faculties ? Can this be without
some communications of the pleasure of God, as well as his nature V You
will find a pleasure in the very stragglings to get into this state, much more
in it.
(5.) Do you profess yourselves enemies to the devil ? Why then will you
gratify him by continuing in an old nature ? He keeps a jubilee when he
can draw men into great sins, and bind them under them ; his main indus-
try is to make men like himself, and continue them in that likeness. The
whole world, that are not of God, lie wrapped up in the devil's image : 1 John
v. 19, ' The whole world lies in wickedness, or ' in the wicked one,' 'E» rw
vrovripQ ; more consonant to the former verses. Satan and natural men lie
nugging together, though the latter dream not of it. His intent in assault-
ing man in paradise was to destroy the righteousness of his nature ; his
design now is to hinder the restoration of it, by keeping men off from the
means, making them have false thoughts of the unpleasantness of it, as
though it were a state injurious to man's tranquillity, by suppressing con-
victions, which are the first portals to the courts of blessedness. Oh, gratify
not the devil ; fly from his image, that you may fly from his misery.
(6.) Why will you cross your own sentiments, when sober reason in you
* Nerimberg. de adorat. lib. i. cap. 12, p. 71.
2 Cob. V. 17.] the natuee of regeneration. 163
may have leave to speak ? What do you think was the end for which you
came into the world ? Was it to serve the devil or God ? Whose image
is it most rational for you to bear ? Are there not innate desires in man to
be as God ? Adam desired it unlawfully ; the same spirit runs through the
veins of his posterity. God has shewn you a way in his word whereby you
may lawfully desire it, and successfully accomplish it. Do not all creatures,
one way or other, instruct you in it ? Do they not all run back to their
fountain ; rivers into the sea, that they may have a new formation in it ;
beams retracted to the sun ; and why not the soul to God ? Do they not
all declare the glory of God ? And shall man stand alone ? And what way
is there for him to declare God's glory, but by the reformation of his nature '?
You once had this desirable nature in your first head, and lost it ; you may
have the re-possession in the second head, and for ever preserve it. You
cannot deny your obligation to have it, therefore you cannot deny your duty
to seek it. You know your souls received their original from him ; you
likewise know that there is an obligation to return to him. As the spirit
naturally returns to God who gave it, so it cannot be happy in that return,
unless it first morally return to God, to be formed like him.
(7.) Nothing else can advantage you if you want this new-creature state.
You can no more enjoy happiness by Christ without it, than Adam did in
paradise, in the presence of God, with the nakedness of his nature. His
being in paradise, the richer part of the whole lower creation, could neither
heal him nor content him, after the loss of the purity of his nature. In that
happy place his conscience racked him. There he fled from his Creator,
which in his innocent nature he never attempted to do ; and all the plea-
sures of that place could not restore him to God's favour or his own peace,
without the promise of a seed, and by that seed the restoration in part of
his former image.
(8.) Lastly, take this for your encouragement, it is attainable by the
meanest person, Col. iii. 11. In the new creation ' there is neither Greek
nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor
free ; but Christ is all and in all ; ' that is, there is no distinction of any.
The eloquence of the Greek, or the rudeness of the barbarian ; the uncir-
cumcision of the Gentile, or the circumcision of the Jew ; the baseness of
the slave, or the liberty of the freeman, doth neither advantage nor disad-
vantage them in this work of the new creation ; and he names Scythians, as
being the rudest and most unpolished among all the known Gentiles.* No
natural endowments advantage us ; no worldly indigencies hinder us. The
soul of the meanest is as capable of the new creation as the soul of the
highest. There is nothing required to the putting on the new man, which
is not attainable by the one as well as the other ; yea, sooner by those of
the meanest endowments, as wanting that fuel for their pride, which is the
chief hindrance to a gospel impression. God values nothing but his own
image ; neither is he any more taken with the glittering parts and wisdom
of men than our Saviour with the glory of the temple, which his ignorant
disciples did so much admire.
Quest. But what means must be used to obtain this excellent privilege ?
Am. It is indeed the work of God, yet means may be used.f He that
observes precepts of morality shall gain moral habits ; and by practising
acts of temperance become temperate. So he that follows the rules given
in the word for attaining the new creation, shall have it produced in him ;
and the more assuredly, because it is not produced by him but by God,
• Daille, Sur. Coloss., p. 238, &c. f Jackson, vol. iv. chap. 21, p. 399.
164 charnock's works. [2 Cor. V. 17.
who is more able to create new hearts in us than the unregenerate man is
to work a moral reformation.
For means :
1. Be deeply sensible of original corruption. View yourselves in the
glass of Adam ; reflect upon the fall, and the dreadful consequences of it ;
take an exact account of the enmity of thy nature, as the word represents
it. We must acquaint ourselves with our sin and misery, and have self-
emptying thoughts, before we can seek after a new creature. Man is
apt to think his nature good enough ; and this makes him the more miser-
able and wretched, and causes him to think there needs no change,
Eev. iii. 17.
2. Be deeply humbled before God. Lay yourselves low before him, and
abhor yourselves in dust and ashes. Complain of your corrupt nature ;
melt before God, dissolve into tears. When you are weary and heavy laden,
sensible of it by contrition, Christ will give rest by regeneration. The
heart must be melted before it be made new. Pride must be humbled ; we
must be vile in our own eyes, as well as vile in our own nature. ' The
Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken heart,' Psalm xxxiv. 18.
3. Often meditate of the excellency of this state, as it is represented in the
word. Men hear and forget ; they leave behind them what they have heard ';
they hide it not in their hearts ; therefore doth not the word profit them.
Think often of the honour of being a new creature, as well as the necessity
of being a new creature ; if you have any thoughts arising of resting upon
your knowledge, or morality, or good meaning, say to your soul, as the
apostle in another case, my soul, ' covet earnestly the best gifts, yet
shew I unto thee a more excellent way.' If any imagination arise which
flatters you with hopes of being in Christ without an inward change, regard
it as an angel from the bottomless pit, sent from the great impostor to seduce
you from your happiness.
4. Fixedly resolve not to be at rest till you procure it at the hands of
God. Perhaps you may have had some resolutions before, and some diver-
sion hath chilled those purposes ; waver not with uncertain velleities be-
tween inclination and aversion. Content not yourselves with sluggish
wishes, and yawning desires, but put heart and hand to the work. Set
vigorously to it, and those sons of Anak, those seeming terrifying difficul-
ties, will fly before you. Where doth the Scripture tell you, that God will
neglect his laborious creature, and stand by without assisting him in his
serious endeavours ? No, no ; God will not be wanting in his power, nor
the Spirit in his operations, if we firmly purpose and strongly pursue.
' God is near to all that call upon him in truth,' Psalm cxlv. 18 ; that is,
to all that call upon him with a true purpose and desire for his mercy : he
is near by his merciful presence, not by his essential presence only. Fool
not away your vows in vain mirth, nor drown your resolutions in sensual
pleasures. Say as David in another case, ' I have sworn, and will per-
form it,' that I will in good earnest endeavour that I may become a new
creature, Psalm cxix. 106.
5. Pray. Regeneration is against the inclinations of old nature ; inter-
mit not therefore to call earnestly for help from heaven ; it is best attained
upon the knee. God is the foundation of all vitality ; the life of grace is no
less the eftect of his breath than the soul of Adam. Go to Christ, in whom,
as in a steward, is treasured up a fulness of grace, to dispense to him that
seeks it. Beg earnestly of the Spirit, who is the officer appointed, the
great limner to draw this image in us. Why can you not go to Christ as
well as the leper, and lie sobbing before him, • Lord, if thou wilt, thou
2 Cor. V. 17.] the nature of regeneration. 165
canst make me clean,' thou canst change my nature ? Do it constantly, do
it fervently, and take notice with what inspirations you will be filled. But
do you solicit him for this mercy at all ? Has God one breath from thee
in a whole week to this purpose ? Have you, since you heard it, pressed
from the necessity of it, made your case known to God ? Has there been
one groan, one sigh for it ? What a stupid creature is man ! Time will not
always last ; God will be solicited for it, and it is fit he should. An old
nature is like an old devil, it cannot be cast out without fasting and prayer.
The great changes of the soul are chiefly wrought in prayer and the word :
our very looking up to God and upon God in humble prayer makes a
gradual transformation in our souls : we never are in the mount with him,
but our souls (as Moses his face) look quite of another hue and colour. By
frequent converse with friends, we grow more into an imitation of the excel-
lent qualities we perceive in them. Converse with God in frequent prayer
and meditation, and you will grow more and more into a holy likeness to
him.
6. Attend diligently upon the word. To pray to God to renew you, and
slight the word which he hath appointed as an instrument to effect it, is to
dishonour God ; for while you pray to him to be a father to beget you, you
contemn him as a governor, by neglecting the means he hath appointed for
such ends. As the devil formed himself in the soul by man's listening to
and sucking in his temptation, so Christ forms himself in the soul, by our
sucking in the milk of the word, as the disposition of the nurse is by the
milk conveyed to the infant. It is wrought by the gospel, 1 Cor. iv. 15,
1 for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.' Not by the
word of God at large, which consists of law as well as gospel. So the
regenerations of old were wrought, not by the law, but by that of gospel
mixed in that administration. By this means you may get a spiritual
knowledge, and discard that ignorance which is the foundation of an aliena-
tion from the life of God, Eph. iv. 18, ' alienated from the life of God
through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their
hearts.' Study the promises, and plead them before the Lord, for ' by
these you are made partakers of the divine nature,' 2 Peter i. 4. Besist not
any divine impressions, by a sluggishness and a listlessness. Be not in
love with your spiritual death, nor cherish the bondage to sin in your will,
when God makes motions to enliven and enlarge you. Welcome the breath-
ings of the Spirit. Open your souls, as some flowers do for the sun ;
drink in the drops of heaven, as the earth doth the rain ; and when the
Spirit quickens you by its influences, quicken the Spirit by your earnest
supplications, Cant. iv. 16 ; make much of him, persuade his stay. Breathe,
blessed Spirit, upon this wilderness. Never leave till it be changed into
a fruitful garden, both pleasant to, and fruitful for, my blessed Creator and
gracious Redeemer.
A DISCOURSE OF THE EFFICIENT OF
REGENERATION.
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God. — John I. 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
lighteneth 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 asser-
tion, '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 sal-
vation 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 ignesfatui, 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 ; who-
soever is enlightened in the world, derives from him ' which lighteth every
man that comes into the world.' Some join coming into the world, to light,
and read it thus, ' He is the light coming into the world, which lighteth
every man.' The Greek is something ambiguous, and it may be referred to
light, though not so commodiously. But the translation which we have
hath been followed in all ages of the church ; and is contended* for only by
those who deny the deity of our Saviour, or are somewhat affected to them
that do.
How doth Christ light every man that comes into the world ?
1. Naturally. So Calvin; the world was made by him, and therefore that
* Qu. ' the other is contended for ' ? — Ed.
John I. 13.] the efficient of begeneration. 167
which is the beauty of the world, the reason of man, was made and kindled
by him. As all the light the world hath 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 na-
ture, those common notions of Jit 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, under-
stand it ; not that all are actually enlightened, but,
(1.) In regard of power and sufficiency, he hath a power to enlighten
every man ; able to enlighten, not a few, but every man in the world ; as the
sun doth not light every man, though it hath a power to do so, and doth
actually light every man that shuts not his eyes against it.
(2.) Actually, taking it distributive, not collective ; that whosoever is en-
lightened in the world, hath it commmunicated 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 doth 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 ell 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 en-
joying 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 com-
ing 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 knew
him not.' Ingratitude hath 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 affec-
tion, reverence, and subjection that was due to him.
He aggravates this contempt of Christ,
1. By the general right he had, ' he came to his own,' 'Eig ra, V5/a, 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,' 6i 'ibioi, 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; where-
168 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
as 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 he 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 shew the loss of them that rejected him,
the benefit of those that received him : ver. 12*, ' But as many as received
him, to tbem gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that
believe on his name.'
Where is,
1. The subject : those 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 re-
jected 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 en-
tailed 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.
1 Not of blood.' Not by natural instinct, saith 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 Abra-
ham, his natural ancestor, whom he calls ' father Abraham.' Religious
parents propagate corruption, not regeneration ; carnal generation is by na-
ture, 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, pro-
fitable, or delightful to the flesh ;f 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 wanted 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
* Mercer in Hos. ii. 1. t Cajetan.
J Amyraldus Fine Thes. Salmur. Spirit. Adopt., Thes. vi.
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 169
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 judge 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 begat he us,' exclusive of all other wills mentioned
before. It is the sole efficiency of God ; he hath the sole hand in it; there-
fore 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.
Shewing thereby,
[1.] No 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 owq
impotency, that God may have the glory of his own grace, and we the com-
fort 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 challengeth this work as his own, excluding the creature from any
share as a cause : Ezek. xxxvi. 25-27, ' J will sprinkle clean water upon
you, 1 will cleanse you, I mil give you a new heart, / will put a new spirit
into you, / will take away the heart of stone, 1 will give you a heart of flesh,
/ will put my Spirit into you.' Here I will no less than seven times. No-
thing is allowed to man in the production of this work in the least ; all that
170 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
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 doth not say he would be man's assistant, as many men
do, who tell us only of the assistances 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 hath sent me, draw them,' John vi. 44. The mission of the
Mediator, and the traction of the creature, are by the same hand. Our Sa-
viour 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 doth 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 hath 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 doth 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 transmit-
ted 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 gene-
ration, jet afterwards they are active in the approbations of it, and produc-
tion 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 ' sin-
ners,' and to be ' without strength,' is one and the same thing in the apos-
tle's judgment : Rom. v. 6, 8, ' While we were yet without strength ;' after-
wards, ' while we were yet sinners ;' he doth 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
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 171
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 im-
possible we can have a righteousness of our own, since our first father
sinned : Isa. xliii. 26, 27, ' Declare, that thou mayest be justified. Thy first
father hath sinned.'
5. This weakness is universal. Sin hath 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. 39. 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 mem-
ber 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 rot-
ten, 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 acknow-
ledged themselves so, when God hath come to work savingly upon them. In-
deed, 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 Saviour's 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. Understand-
ing 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.f
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
* Senault, Corrupt, p. 8. f Ames Medul. lib. i. cap. xii. sect. 44.
172 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
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 carcase, which yet is unfit to exercise any animal action for
want of a soul to enliven it ; so, though the faculties remain after this spi-
ritual 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 im-
possible ; nay, without those faculties, he could not act as a rational crea-
ture, and so were utterly incapable of sinning. Sin hath untuned the strings,
but did not unstring the soul ; the faculties were still left, but in such a dis-
order, 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 hath 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 in-
accessible light ; and it is utterly impossible for any thing but God to com-
prehend 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 com-
manded 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 hath 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 reve-
lation. 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 un-
known 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 T 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 tempta-
tions to allure to it, whereby the soul is carried down the stream with a wil-
ful 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 hath 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. xlii. 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 Thes.
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 173
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 de-
fect 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
hath 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,
hath a powerful dominion over the will, and binds it as long as sin lives ;
and the will hath 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 obsti-
nacy against any return to God, the will is held in the cords of sin, Prov.
v. 22. The habit hath 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 doth 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 simi-
litude 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 riseth 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 doth 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 pas-
sions ; 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, hath
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.
* White, Instit. torn. i. lib. i. sect. xv. pp. 1 16, 111.
174 chaknock's wobks. [John I. 13.
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 impos-
sible of ourselves to shake off the fetters of custom, as to suppress the un-
ruliness 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 Ethio-
pian 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 sove-
reignty 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 cure, 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 mul-
titude of sinful acts hath 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 doth
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 our-
selves 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 doth suit or corres-
pond 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 hath been commended
by some heathens ; but nothing to answer the main intendment of it, which
is faith, the top grace in regeneration. This hath 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 there-
fore meets not with any one principle in man to shew 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
hath 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
John E 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 175
answers not the intendment of it. Adamants are unfit to receive impres-
sions ; 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
slime 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 alway 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 slug-
gishness and drowsiness of soul, loath to be moved. No man doth 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 hath 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 under-
standing, but that being darkened, hath 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 wa3
made, though he was sensible of his nakedness, and haunted by his con-
science : ' 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, accuseth 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 Thes. ii. 12, they
' believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness ' ('E-jdoKyiaavng),
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 ariseth
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 con-
trary object which is revealed by a fit light, as a man that hath his eyes or
* Testard. de Grat. thes. cli.
176 chabnock's works. [John I. 13.
his heart fixed upon a fair picture, cannot observe many things that occur
about him ; or if he doth consider it, he is taken so much with the things he
loves, tbat he seems to hate the other; that though he doth 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 hath 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 there-
fore ' unable,' because unwilling, ' to be subject to the law,' Rom. viii. 7.
By nature he is of the devil's party, and hath 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 writ 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 hath 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 ye,' 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 ada-
mant 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 displea-
sure with God's ways, 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
* Stoughton, Preacher's Dignity, p. 72.
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 177
like to be made for God, by bare nature tbus possessed ? Nature indeed
doth wbat 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 re-
generate because our will hath consented to the persuasions of grace ; for
that it doth 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,
hath 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
svipys/v 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 hath to keep men captive for the per-
formance of his own pleasure : 2 Tim. ii. 26, ' Who are taken captive by him
at his will,' or for his will, 'Eig to sxiivou 3s/.j],aa. It is in that place a dread-
ful judgment which God gives some men up to for opposing the gospel, tak-
ing away his restraints, both from the devil and their own hearts ; but more
or less he works in every one that opposeth the gospel, which every unrenewed
man under the preaching of the gospel doth ; 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, aver-
sion to the gospel, resistance of it, and in the devil's net, can of itself do any-
thing 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 pre-
serve Adam in innocency, how can filthy and crazy 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 hath decayed can by its own strength recover itself, because it
hath lost that strength whereby it could only preserve itself.
1. Man cannot prepare himself for grace.
2. He cannot produce it.
178 chaknock's works. [John I. 13.
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 hath a subjective capacity for grace above any other creature in
the inferior world ; and this is a kind of natural preparation which other crea-
tures 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 hath all the members already formed,
which is not in one whose body is mouldered into dust, and hath 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 hath an under-
standing 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 doth 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 prepara-
tions. 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
hath 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
acknowledgment 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.
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneeation. 179
(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 re-
generation. They are not causa, dispositive 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 tenderest 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 rub-
bish and dregs of the world would ever be made fit for the heavenly build-
ing. 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 near-
ness 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, and 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,f that by a generous
love of virtue we might deserve the graee 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
* Mr Burgess. t Vossi. Hist. Pelag. lib. 3, par. 2, Thcs. 12, page 349.
180 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
of moral nature can no 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 hath God indulged mere nature
with any promise of adding grace upon the improvements of natural abilities ?
Whatsoever conditional promise there is, supposeth some grace superior to
nature in the subject as the condition of it. We do not find that God hath
made himself a debtor to any preparation of the creature.
But there is no obligation on God by anything that may look like a pre-
paration 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 doth 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 with-
out reasoning ; this is not purely our own. We have no sufficiency of our-
selves, 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 avrapxua but rxavorjjs, 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 improve-
ment ? If when a man hath 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 hath any man
that he hath 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, challengeth 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 hath
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 hath pro-
nounced this sentence upon them, with repetition, too, as his infallible judg-
ment : ' There is none righteous, no, not one : they are all gone out of the
way, they are together become unprofitable ; there is none that doeth 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 pro-
ductions 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
* Scrivener's Course of Divinity, Part i., Book i., c. 15, page 52.
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 181
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 super-
natural 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, hath rewarded
some moral acts with some worldly advantages, or the withdrawing some
judgments threatened, as Ahab's reprieve from judgment upon his humilia-
tion, 1 Kings xsi. 27, 29 ; and the temporary pardon to Nineveh, upon their
submission to the prophet's threatenings, Jonah iii. 8-10. But what obli-
gation lies upon God to reward men doing thus with superadditions of grace ?
for there is no proportion between such a moral act and so excellent a reward.
We may as well say that a coal by glowing and sparkling may merit' to be-
come 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 doth 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 em-
pire 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 re-
sist 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 ' tarneth
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 crea-
ture, 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 doth God wait for in the heart of an infant when he sanctifies
it? If ' without Christ we can do nothing,' John xv. 5, then no prepara-
tions without Christ; for they are something, and very considerable too.
182 chaenock's woeks. [John I. 13.
There is no foundation to think there should be any preparation in the crea-
ture, 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 bruiseth
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 innocency 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 indifl'erency 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
independency 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 crea-
tion ; 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 hath 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 de-
struction 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 sub-
ject 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 attri-
buted 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 Com-
forter, ' 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,
* Daiile.
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 183
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 an-
other, is from the stronger influence of the sun. All nature assents to this
truth, that nothing doth 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 pre-
vious 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 be-
ginning 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 shews
mercy,' Eom. 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 doth dispose himself to grace, is in some sort the cause of that
grace, as he that doth 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 plea-
sure.' 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 plea-
sure, excludes any dependency on the will of man ; it is therefore called a
creation, to shew God's independence upon anything as to this work.
Sir/hhj, Where should this preparation begin ? in what part of the soul?
Shall it begin in the understanding ?* That hath lost the reins whereby it
governed the lower parts of the soul. Nothing is more discomposed in its
nets 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.f The sensitive appetite, like a wild horse, hath got the bit
between his teeth, runs about, and draws the understanding after it. In-
deed a charioteer that hath lost the government of his horses endeavours to
* Amiraut. de predest. chap. 5, p. 48.
t Chainier, Panstiat. torn. iii. lib. 4, cap. i. Thcs. 12.
184 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
remedy that violence ; he cries out, makes all resistance, hath 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 hath no reason itself,
it submits not to the laws of reason ; it hath got the mastery of it, and hath
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 them-
selves ; how, then, should the will, which is captivated by a corrupt under-
standing and disorderly affections, recover itself, when it must necessarily
be under the guidance of one of these jailors ? 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 doth not the
will alway 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 suit-
able 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 hath 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 under-
standing. But certainly, as Adam in innocency had an habitual holy dis-
position in his will, so man, in his fall, hath 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 doth not naturally, neither can, understand the new birth.
2. He cannot desire it. Understanding and desire are necessary pre-
parations to any rational change a creature can make in itself.
1. Man cannot understand it. This is necessary to a change. What-
soever 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 any
act of faith, when we have no ability to any thought of faith ? We can-
not 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,
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 185
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 diaXoyiffpol, their reasonings, became empty
and contradictory ; tbeir primitive light departed, and darkness, as a priva-
tion, took place. What true motion can there be in the will, wben 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 prepara-
tion 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
tbe faculty. How can it then be recovered by our strength, since we have
rather added to the scales than diminished them ? For,
(2.) Tbere is a darkness transmitted from him to the understanding of
every man by nature. The light is darkened in the heaven of tbe 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 tbe
bght,' Jobn i. 5. Though the light of the sun did shine a thousand times
brighter than it dotb, 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 wants 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,' saith our
Saviour to Peter, ' hath 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
sire in the midst of the sunbeams : Deut. xxix., ' Yet the Lord hath 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 or-
dinances 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, we 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. 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
186 chaknock's works. [John I. 13.
knowledge in naturals and prudence in civil affairs, doated, 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 under-
standing, 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 hath the things contained in the law,' Rom. ii. 14, 15, yet
no man hath by nature the things contained in the gospel. The gospel hath
not the same advantage in the hearts of men as the law hath, for it finds
nothing of kin to it. Though a natural heart hath some broken pieces of
the law of God deposited in it, yet there is not the least syllable of Christ or
regeneration writ in the mind by the hand of nature. The understanding
therefore naturally cannot prepare itself for the reception of the gospel, be-
cause it hath 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 im-
printed 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. Be-
sides, 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 prin-
ciples which act the will against God, Rom. viii. 7. The mind of man re-
gards 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 hath sore eyes, he will turn away from it, or shut his eyes against it ;
tor though he understands the worth of it, yet it hath 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 hath believed
our report ?' hath 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 doth 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 under-
standing, 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 hath 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 order, but by some super-
John I. 13. "I the efficient of regeneration. 187
natural ballast, to establish it from fluctuating ? Tbis 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 hath no right notion of grace.
To the right notion of a thing is required suitableness, pleasure, and a fixed-
ness of the mind upon it. A natural mind wants all these. How can it
then prepare itself for that which it hath 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 where-
by a natural man judges of the things of the gospel is a star-light or a moon-
light, 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 alter it ; yet if the
mind be ill-disposed, and doth 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. 3 ; 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 under-
stand, by all that help of common notions, without the grace of God, how
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 ac-
cording 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 Crea-
tor, without any thoughts of turning suppliants, 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 natur-
ally, then, have for it, who have far weaker conceptions of that happiness
than they had immediately after they lost it ? We cannot desire what we
do not apprehend. A beast cannot desire to be a man, because he hath no
188 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
conceptions of the excellency of the human nature above his own. No nature
can ever affect that which is contrary to it. No flesh can ever desire its own
crucifixion. If we seek, we shall find ; if we ask, we shall receive ; but who
first toucheth 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 re-
generation? 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
grows 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 enlargeth 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 apprehen-
sions 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
doth 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 doth 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 pro-
duction, it would deprive God,
1. Of his sovereign independency. 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 lower crea-
tures, 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),
he 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
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 189
the will of man were the first cause, God would be an attendant to the crea-
ture 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 work-
ing the cause of the will's willing and choice. God's working would be con-
sequent 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 concomitancy. 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 gover-
nor 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 ser-
vant 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 independency of God on the head of
free will.
2. It puts a blot upon the wisdom of God. If God expects the deter-
mination 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 mad-
ness, 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 mea-
sure, springing up every motion in the lower world, by an unblameable coun-
sel ? 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 hath neither
weight nor measure in itself ? This would make the immutable counsel of
' God depend upou the mutability of the creature ; which would be incon-
sistent with the wisdom of man, who chooseth 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 must 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 doth couch these two arguments
together: Eph. i. 11, 'Who works all things according to the counsel of
his 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,
190 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
as the word hioyih siguifies. (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 declara-
tion 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 de-
prive God of his foreknowledge and prescience ; it would make that fore-
knowledge, 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 doth 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 depend-
ing 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 indetermined 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, irre-
sistibly producing it.* But if the efficacy of grace depends upon the will,
then God doth not certainly determine the regeneration of man. And for
God to foreknow that which he himself hath not determined, and when
nothing in the creature, nor anything in the circumstances, doth determine
it, is to make God see that (as one saith) which neither in the creature nor
in himself is to be seen.
Obj. Some may object, How doth God come to foreknow sin, for that de-
pends 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 doth 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 doth 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 doth here foretell, for their wicked
wills would certainly determine themselves that way. And God, by a con-
currence 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 defi-
cient 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
* Ball of the Covenant, p. 341, 342.
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 191
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 oc-
casions, 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 occa-
sion ; as we may easily resolve that an habitual drunkard will be drunk
when he hath 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 preva-
lency 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
hap-hazard and a may-be, 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 foun-
dation 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 un-
certainty 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 soul. 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 un-
wise to come upon such grand uncertainties at the best, when it was a ques-
tion 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 ?
192 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
(2.) In the promises he makes to men. How could God promise that so
absolutely as he doth, 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 sa excel-
lent 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, 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
free-will 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 hath given us already, inhe-
rent 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
hath ? Who desires an alms that hath thousands in his purse ? As prayer
would be a vain thing in any man that should deny a providence over-
ruling 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 heart, and a new
spirit, is to be inquired after to do it for us, Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 37. The na-
tural 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, 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 founda-
tion 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 hath 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 any man, as he did to Moses,
' Why criest thou unto me 1 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
John I. 13. J the efficient of regeneration. 193
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 doth 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 hath made thee to differ ? And what hast thou that
thou didst 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 lte wrought by a man's
own will, it is not God that makes the difference, therefore the glory doth
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 doth in hell. The apostle wisheth the
Philippians to ' work out their salvation with fear and trembling ;' and en-
courageth 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 saith, 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 doth not say,
God hath 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 an-
other, there is no place for God's good pleasure, because there is no differ-
ence. Let us see with what kind of language the praise of God would be
clothed, according to the doctrine of free will.f A renewed man may say
thus : Lord, I give thee thanks, that thou hast conferred upon me a super-
natural grace ; but thou didst also give as much grace to my neighbour ; but
I added something to that which thou didst supernaturally give me ; and
* Amiraut. Scrm. in Phil, ii pp. 12, 13.
t Banncz, in 2da 2dae Qu. 10, p. 248.
VOL. ill. N
194 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
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 thy grace, than he that believes not ; for,
Lord, thou didst not make me diner from the other, because he had equal
gifts with me ; but I made myself to differ, because I superadded my own
wile 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 accla-
mations 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 where-
by 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 crea-
tion of another thing, much less the chief efficient of its own creation ; for
creation is an act of omnipotency, 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 attri-
butes 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 there-
fore 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 fol-
low 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 now, 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 crea-
tion 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
John I. 13. J the efficient of regeneration. 195
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
hath already, and act naturally from it.
2. In the state of innocency. 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 hath 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 innocency ;
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 him-
self 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 ? f 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 irresolved 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
wa^, was capable of; he was created with a fulness of reason. But how
long do we converse with sense, which fastens upon temptations, before we
come to a use of reason ! i 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, irreso-
lution 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 impos-
sible any creature can do but by a superior power !
* Ps. xxxix. 5. Heb., All Adam is all vanity, ^2, settled or standing.
f Amiraut. Serm. de Epi. Evangel, p. 211.
196 charnqck's works. [John I. 18.
3. 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. 5. That which
is evil, therefore, cannot be the cause of that which is man's greatest happi-
ness. All actions are according to those innate qualities and habits which
the agent hath ; all corrupted things act no otherwise than corruptedly, be-
cause every act hath 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 founda-
tion 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 cor-
rupt 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 denomina-
tion of evil. How the acts of the will, whereof not one can be called good
till the will hath 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 implanta-
tion 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
* rolhill of the Decrees, p. 373, 374.
John I. 13.] the efficient of eegeneration. 197
out a disease when he will. He may be sick when he will, by eating that
which is contrary to nature ; but the cure doth 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 won; 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 ex-
pected 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 reluctancy of reason, whose
will is led not by reason but appetite, and choose not like men but beasts,
under the notion of pleasant and gustful ? Is not this from the will con-
ducted 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 hath 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 lan-
guage 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 doth in
morals ? Shall the one be the gift of God, and the greater the acquisi-
tion 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
intrinsecally sufficient of ourselves to exercise a moral act, since our natures
are so overgrown with corruption, we are less sufficient of ourselves to exer-
cise a supernatural act without a divine motion. Can anything assume an
higher nature than what it originally hath ? Man hathi assumed a lower
nature than that wherein he was created, which no creature besides him
* Ducat, dc Imagin. Dei, lib. ii. cap. iii- p. 26.
198 chaknock's works. [John I. 13.
in this lower world hath. Since he hath 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,' saith our Saviour, ' for them that trust in
riches, to enter into the kingdom of God !' Mark x. 24, 25. This one cor-
ruption 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 pronounceth 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 pos-
sess 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, hath 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
impotenqy 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 doth 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 com-
plained that few received their report. Even 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 hath 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
John I. 13. J the efficient of eegeneeation. 199
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 pro-
phecies decipering him, wbich 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. Doth not all this shew 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
hath heard the same arguments inculcated many a time ? Many drops
would not work it before, and one drop works it now 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 hath 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, doth not prove the power of man to renew himself, but that they
would have testified some outward humiliation, as Ahab did at the threaten-
ing 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 en-
treated a Turk or barbarian as much, I should have bended 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
* Amiraut. Ser. de Evang., Ser. 6, p. 286.
200 charnock's works. JJohn I. 18.
experience of the merciful disposition of his Master ; he had not grace given
nun 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 prevalency 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,' saith 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 hath 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 doth go to receive the alms, the
desire to receive the alms puts him upon motion ; but the intention of re-
ceiving 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 hath 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 peace-
ably doth it enjoy its dominion in a natural man, where there is no spirit to
control it, and lust against it ? Eegenerate men ' cannot do the good they
would,' and they 'do the evil which they hate,' Rom. vii. 15, 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 hath no will to
the one nor hatred of the other, who hath the law of sin flourishing in him,
and delights to read the characters of it and perform the wills of the flesh 1
If there be such an inability in a renewed man, who hath a relish of God
and the goodness of the law, who hath sin in part mortified, and cast out of
the mind, to the members and suburbs, how much greater must the in-
ability and resistance be where there is nothing but opposing flesh ! What
need the apostle issue out such heavy complaints : ' 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 hath 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 en-
gage 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 full strength, and the bent of nature standing
John I. 13.1 the efficient of regeneeation.
201
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 any 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 hath no such image engraven on
it by God. Nature, though never so perfect in its own kind, can never pro-
duce 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 can-
not 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 doth 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 jp 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 eftecls
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, doth 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 doth manage
them, edgeth 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 bar-
ren 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 visive 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 revela-
* Gurnal, part i. p. 21.
202 chaknock's works. [John I. 13.
tion 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 changed before those can do any good. You can never
by all your teachings teach a sheep to provide for winter, as an ant doth,
because it hath 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 demonstra-
tions 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 reso-
lutions were produced in them : they fell upon their faces and said, ' The
Lord he is God ;' they shewed 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. 30, ' 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 omnipotency upon the breasts of it, doth 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 doth not tame it ; though it shews man his miserable condition,
yet a man by it doth 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,
* Judicat et damnat peccatum in uatura hominis, non tollit. — Melanclon.
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 203
• 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 cere-
monies 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 accidentia and
brought forth fruit unto death ; all the means by the law forthe 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,' •ra^/./.ara, 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 nis conquerors. The law was ' holy,' it had an impres-
sion of God's holiness upon it, Rom. vii. 12-14, there was also equity and
conveniency in it, it was 'just and good,' and though these were considera-
tions 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 appeareth 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 hath 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
204 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
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,
1 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an under-
standing, 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 doth 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 pro-
posals 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, if 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 imme-
diately 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
Ethiop 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 ' blame-
less 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
* Cocceius, de Fcederc, c. 15, p. 472, 473.
John I. 18.] the efficient of regeneration. 205
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, inspireth 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, opposeth 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 con-
currence of the will. Therefore, say some, we are active in prima acta, 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 hath
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 some-
thing 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, Mai. iv. 2 ; the rain that moistens
our hearts : Ps. Ixxii. 6, ' He shall come down like rain upon the mown
grass.' What co-operation is there in the earth with the sun to the produc-
tion of flowers, but by the softness it hath received from the rain ? It would
else be parched up, and its fruits wither. The Holy Ghost doth by his own
power make us good trees ; but we afterwards, by virtue of that power, work
together with him, in bringing forth good fiuit.* Yet this is also a subordi-
nate, not a co-ordinate working; rather a sub-operation than a co-operation.
* Pemble, p. 31.
206 chaenock's works. [John I. 13.
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 pre-
possessed, 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 hath 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 plea-
sures 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 supposeth some principle of work-
ing ; as actus secundus supposeth actum prirnum. 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 w r e 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 supposeth not any opera-
tion in them before, because he supposeth not their working without God's
giving them a will, the act of volition. The working of the creature sup-
poseth 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 doth 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 walk-
ing 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
John I. 13.] the efficient of eegeneration. 207
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
hath no spark in itself by nature, suitable to that principle which is bringing
it into the soul itself. Tbe 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, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God.' What co-working was there in that dark-
ness 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 ; a*nd 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 prin-
ciple 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 challengeth 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 resur-
rection are acts of an almighty power, man co-operating with him in the
very act of creation and resurrection would partake with God's almightiness,
and in some sort be co-equal with him, and a joint partner with God in a
work which required almightiness 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, 26. 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 case ? Whatsoever is an act of mercy, and an act of
truth in God, he is to have the sole praise of; it doth not in any sort belong
to the creature. The psalmist emphatically excludes man from it : Ps.
cxv. 1, ' Not unto us, Lord, not to us, but unto thy 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 him-
self, and not unto them ; and will they contradict their prayers, by sharing
the praise with God ? This is expressed for deliverances. Much less doth
any praise and glory belong to the creature for the most excellent deliverance
of all, from the power of sin, Satan, and death.
208 charnock's works. [John I, 13.
6. 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 regenera-
tion, 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 : Eom. vii. 18, ' To will is pre-
sent 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 strag-
glings 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 neigh-
bours 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 ima-
gined, 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 hath a principle of motion in it, but cannot go without the assist-
ance 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 hath an edge, cuts nothing till it be moved by some strong
arm. The first principle of the motion of grace resides in God. Purifica-
tion 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 works the after will and the after doing, as well
John I. 13.] the efficient of regenebation. 209
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 considera-
tions 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 hath 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 con-
tinual 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 promiseth 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 him-
self. 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 doth the watchman wake,' Ps. cxxvii. 1. Unless God pre-
serve 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 doth more necessarily depend upon God, be-
cause 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. If 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 w r e preserve grace in us, which is more stomached
by coiTupt nature. Neither are good frames like to be preserved in us with-
out 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, re-
generate 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 hath 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 ?
* Senault, Christian Man, p. 203.
vol. in. o
210 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
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 al-
way do that which is in its own nature evil, and always sin with evil inten-
tions. 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 hath 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 re-
compence. 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 regene-
rate himself; and whatsoever power man hath, is originally from this cause,
and grows not up from the stock of nature, but from common grace.
Which common grace is either,
[1.] More general, to all men. Whereby those divine sparks in their under-
standings, and whatsoever is morally praiseworthy in them, is kept up by
the grace of God, which was the eause 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 gos-
pel. 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
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 211
can conceive that hath 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 consider-
ing God's design of setting forth the gospel to the world, there was a neces-
sity of those relics, both in the understanding, and affections, and desire for
happiness, to render men capable of receiving the gospel, and those inexcus-
able 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 hath, first, 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 neigh-
bours, the good of the world, which was necessary for the soldering together
human societies, so that sometimes even in sins man hath good intentions.
Whereas the devil doth always that which in its own nature is evil, and al-
ways 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 these is left in
man. And here I shall shew,
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 doth 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
doth 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 embraceth that
which is materially evil, yet the formal consideration upon which it embraceth
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 alway it respects in its mo-
tion 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 hath not a power to will well, because that righteous prin-
ciple whereby he did will well is departed from him ;f yet because the essen-
tial 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
* Dr Jackson, vol. ii. fol. p. 3091.
t Ames Medul. lib. i. cap. 13, thes. 10.
212 chaknock's works. [John I. 13.
nothing but according to that law which sin, as a master that hath conquered
him, imposeth 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 pronounceth, 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. Heuce man is said to be dead ;
not that the life which doth 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 doth 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 doth
not cease to be a body, but ceaseth 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 right-
eousness, 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 hath lost this liberty to good, he retains a
freedom to the commission of sin, under the necessity of sinning. This free-
dom is a power of choice and election of a thing, which differs from that spon-
taneity 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 neces-
sity of sinning, yet it is not a necessity of constraint, but a necessity of im- .
mutability, which as 'Consistent with liberty, though the other be not. A
creature may he lUncbangeably 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 unchange-
ably 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 doth,
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
were 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. When sin ariseth 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 approba-
tion of it.
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 213
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 Scrip-
ture pronounceth 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 doth not appear that God doth 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,' anndiag ; 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 doth 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, w T ith their not feeding his members when they were hungry, &c,
which were things as much in their pow T er 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 for-
borne. Though unregeneracy doth exclude a man from heaven, as a condi-
tion without which a man cannot come there, yet nothing of this is mentioned
in the last sentence. It' 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
hath no will to turn, yea, he hath no will to do those things which he might
do. Supposing man hath 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
* Smith, Select Discourse, p. 290, &c.
214 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
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 doth 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
doth impute that for a vice, or a virtue, to which a man is carried by con-
straint, 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, be-
cause they want reason and will. If man had not liberty of will, he would
be as a beast, which hath only a spontaneous power of motion without reason.
Sin could not be charged upon man, as God doth 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 ariseth from pride of heart, they had not else deserved
a rebuke. Who would chide a clock for going wrong, which hath no volun-
tary 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 work-
man or governor of it. Without a voluntary power, man would be as an
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 lor 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,' saith 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 judg-
ing 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 doth, 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 hath not a sufficient light
left in his nature for salvation, yet he hath 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 con-
viction, as he doth, Eom. 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-
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 215
keeper only, as one* saith. But how much doth 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 mo-
tions, 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, gra-
ciously, 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 doth the power of man by common
grace extend ?
Am. 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 hath a power of
doing that which is spiritually good, so a natural man by common grace
hath 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 hath 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.' Wherefore, and for this
came, 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 hie and nunc in particular, though he cannot in general ; as a
man who hath 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 hath power to avoid this or that sin, why
may he not avoid all ?
Am. I answer, If he had power to avoid all, he would be restored to the
state of Adam. But the reason is this,f the power to avoid this or that par-
ticular sin ariseth from a particular cause, the natural subjection of appetite
to reason, the lightness of temptation ; or if the temptation be more vehe-
ment, 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 parti -
* Ingelo. Bentivol. part 2, p. 99.
f Fitzherbert, Policy and Religion, part 2, chap, xvi., sect. 13.
216 chaenock's works. [John I. 13.
cular temptation, yet as long as he is alienated from God, and hath 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
anrl surpriseth him. As another Romanist illustrates it,* a vessel hath 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 by 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 hath drowned both
his reason and sentiments of morality ? Hath he not power to quell many
incentives to sin ? Shew me that man in the world that, upon serious con-
sideration, 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 considera-
tion, be of as much force with you as the fear of man, unless atheism hath
swallowed up all sentiments of a Deity ? Do you not rather wish for oppor-
tunities, and court a temptation ? put your 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
* Soto, Council of Trent, book 2, p. 197.
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 217
Achan as much natural power to forbear taking the wedge of gold and tbe
Babylonish garment, as tbe rest of that vast number of the Israelites ? Not
one of their bands toncbed any of the ^poil. Had he not as much power as
any of them to have restrained his bands, though he could not quench bis
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 tbe things contained
in the law ? Why may not a man's will command bis tongue to speak that
which is true, as well as that which is false ? Is there not power to con-
trol 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 bis 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 course of his life, but be 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 hath 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 hath Satan filled thy heart, to lie to tbe Holy
Ghost ?' His meaning is not, why Satan bath done it, for Ananias could
not render a reason of that ; but why didst thou suffer Satan to fill thy
heart ? If you have given a check 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 hath
least power, yet he hath 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 hath 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 doth 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 foolrageth, and is con-
fident '), 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 temp-
tation you had sought to heaven for them. Might you not, then, have
218 chabnock's works. [John I. 13,
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 tbey
do.* The wrestlers and champions in the Olympic games lived most temper-
ately 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 ; doth 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 tbey 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 doth 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 ariseth from the liberty of the will, and galls the soul when it
considers, that that which it hath done was in its power to be done other-
wise. 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 hath 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 were 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 ap-
pointments 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 hath a power, by common grace, to do many, more good
actions (actions materially good) than he doth. Evangelical works we can-
not do without union to Christ ; so himself saith, ' 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
* Fitzherbert of Folicy and Religion, part ii. chap. xxx. sect. 32.
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 219
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 shewing
mercy to the poor ;' by taking off the yoke of oppression, and restoring of
what he hath 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 hath 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 fall, 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. ii. 14 ; upon
this stock they bore many excellent fruits. What patience, chastity, con-
tempt 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 man-
ner 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. Abi-
melech 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 didst this in the integrity
of thy heart : for I also withheld thee from sinning against me, therefore
suffered I thee not to touch her ;' yr\T\i *& I gave thee not up to touch her.
If men did nourish a moral integrity, which they might do, God would con-
cur 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, where-
by 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 wicked-
ness, as it is the dreadful case of many in these days. Man may keep the
law of nature better than he doth, and for not keeping that he is con-
demned.*
Prop. 3. Men have a power to attend upon the outward means God hath
appointed for regeneration. Though man cannot renew himself, yet he hath
a natural power to attend upon the means God hath afforded. Though a
man hath not power to cure his own disease or heal his wound, yet he hath
power to advise with others, and use the best medicines for his recovery.
There is not an outward duty a renewed man doth, but a natural man hath
power externally to do it ; though what is essentially good in all parts, can-
not 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, de-
sire, grief? "Why cannot you exercise them about other objects than ordi-
narily 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
* Preston, vol. iii. p. 39.
220 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
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 com-
mitting 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 brings 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 ro-
mance ? Hath 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 sluggish-
ness and enmity of will, not for want of power if they would. Men do not
what they might. Certainly he doth no more desire regeneration who neglects
and despiseth 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 com-
mon 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 supposeth 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 pub-
lican, 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 hath been acquired by a continuance of acts till the time
of their sickness ; for the fewer sins have been committed, the less is the
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 221
power impaired. Though God hath kept other things in his hand, yet he
hath given us a power of begging, if 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 bv 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 hath 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 hath a power to exercise consideration. He hath seminals
of jus and aquu/n, 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 dis-
cerning 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 hath 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
bath 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 con-
sider 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 think-
ing 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
hath. 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 indiffer-
222 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
ence. What any natural man hath 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 humbleth 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. Hath 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 lust ?
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 con-
sideration hath 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, there-
fore to lie down in sluggishness is not the design of this doctrine.
4. Can you not consider those notions you have by natural light ? Man
hath 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 com-
mending 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 witnesseth to the equity of the law, accusing us for what we do con-
trary 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 doth 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
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 223
truth deposited in their sonls, in unrighteousness, Rom. i. 18 ; and like the
scomer, « hear not its rebukes,' Prov. xiii. 1 ? Whatsoever man hath 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 doth God
command us to do so ? And why doth 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 doth 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 under-
standing and will itself.
(2.) God's command doth not signify a present moral ability to perform
it. God's command, which acquaints us with our present duty, is no argu-
ment 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.
God's 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 pro-
found habit of drunkenness and lust, that philosophy doth acknowledge it is
not possible for them to abstain from ; yet no man accuseth those that exhort
them of impertinence, nor those that chastise them of unjustice. God's
commands are not the measures of our strength, but the rule of our dutv,
and do not teach us what we are, but what we should be.
But to clear this more particularly :
God may command, though man hath 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 abili-
ties 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 can-
not be governed otherwise ; and no law could be given so proper for him as
224 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
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. J 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. J 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 com-
* Trigland de Grat. p. 275.
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 225
mand upon the temptation, but was very willing to cast off that righteous-
ness 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 re-
turning 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 gam-
ing ? 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 com-
mand ? The obligation to God is natural, therefore indelible ; the corrup-
tion 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 pay-
ing ? 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 hath 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 hath 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 obligeth 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 hath changed his estate ? The obligation of man re-
maining perpetual, the right of God to demand remains perpetual too, not-
withstanding 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 hath,
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 innoccncy. It is but obedientiu
VOL. III. p
226 chaenock's works. [John I. 13.
redintegrata, a return in part to that perfect holiness 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 restora-
tion 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 bat 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 innocency, he could not
have exercised that grief for himself, repentance being extraneous to obedi-
ence, 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 hath a power to renew himself, and turn to God when he will ;
practically, though not all of them notionally. What reason then hath 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 veins 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 be-
coming 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,' saith 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 hath 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 re-
quiring that of his servant, which his servant boasts he hath power in him-
self to do. The Israelites thought so when they said, Exod. xxiv. 3, ' All
the words which the Lord hath 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 doth bestow it, it is an act of his sovereign pleasure. If God
hath 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 hath power to pay him, it will
evidently follow, that God is not bound to give any new power. If God
John I. 13.J the efficient of regeneration. 227
were bound to give a new power to accept of the gospel, he were then un-
just not to confer it ; if he be not bound, it is of mere grace that he bestows
it. God proposeth 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 gi-ace 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 : Mat. 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 doth no more than his duty.
And that God doth not give grace to all to whom the means are offered,
and yet doth command them to turn, and promise to receive them ; —
(1.) It doth not entrench upon his sincerity in his proposals. His pro-
posals 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. Doth 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 in-
sincerity ? Consider it as a promise, doth it hinder God's seriousness in
it if he resolves not to give the condition of it to all ? It is sufficient to
shew 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
hath 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 doth 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.
13ut man hath a faculty to understand and will, which makes him amanjf
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
* Aniiraut. Sor. sur Phil. ii. 13, p. 79. t Ibid. p. 383.
228 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
simply as reason. These commands presuppose in us a faculty of under-
standing and will, and a suitableness between the command and the faculty
of a reasonable creature. This is the reason why God hath 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,
' Jerusalem, wilt thou not be made clean ? when shall it once be ? ' Be-
cause, though they had an ill disposition in their judgment, yet their judg-
ment remained, whereby to discern of exhortations if they would. To pre-
sent 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 doth it disagree with his justice. It is so far from being un-
just 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 restitu-
tion 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 accepter of persons, because he doth 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, de-
serving 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, eannot 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 shewn that God may command. Let us see why God doth
command, when he knows man hath 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
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 229
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,
1 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 our-
selves 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 shews 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 doth 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 was 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 de-
pended 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 encou-
rage and direct men where to find assistance for the performance of what
the first covenant exacts, and the second accepts. Therefore, with the com-
mands 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 jus; but God exacts not his right now, but with a pro-
mise ; where there is jus in one, and remissio juris in the other. And very
frequently in the Scripture, where the command is given to shew us our
duty, yet a promise is joined to it, to shew 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 pro-
mise, 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
* Morntc do Keligio. Christian, cap. xxxi. pp. S60, 361.
230 chaenock's works. [John I. 13.
required in the precept is encouraged in the promise. Every precept, heing
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 hath provided us a remedy by another's righteous-
ness, 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 com-
manding us to work it ourselves, we could not have a foundation to make
such sensible acknowledgments 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 saith 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 con-
cluded 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; com-
mands 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 innocency, 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 w T ith right-
eousness. God therefore shews 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 doth wilfully cherish the old nature in him, the fountain of all
sin ; he hath the truth, and he holds it in possession, but in unrighteous-
ness, therefore the wrath of God is justly revealed from heaven against that
unrighteousness of his, Bona, i. 18. God calls sinners, though he knows
they will not renew themselves, as men send servants to demand the posses-
sion 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 accidens, because of the unbelief of those that reject it ;f
the gospel is designed for the salvation of men, not for their condemnation.
If the corruption of man produceth condemnation to himself, must God
abstain from doing good to the world ? There is not a man but abuseth
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
* Cartwright, Harrao. in John vi. 43. | Amiraut. Ser. sur Philip, ii. p. 90, &c.
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 231
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 he
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 hath 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 weak-
ness brought upon men to answer them is by their own defection. God
doth 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 reason-
able, 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 than 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 holi-
ness, and to shew 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
doth 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 impos-
sible 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
* Goulart de Providence, pp. 172-174.
232 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
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 impos-
sible to nature is possible to grace, and grace may be sought for the per-
formance of them.
2. Because we have a foundation in our natures for such commands,
therefore man's weakness doth not excuse him. It had been unjust for
God to have commanded Adam in innocency 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 addresseth 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 doth command, their wills can will anything but that which God
doth 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 doth afford men beams of light ; he makes clear discoveries, as it is,
Bom. i. 19, ' He hath shewed it to them, itpaniguts, ' it is manifest in them.'
He displays in their hearts some motions of his Spirit, produceth some vel-
leities. 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 Bom. ii. 4, ' The for-
bearance, 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, Bom. 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,
Bom. 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 pravity 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 hath fastened in
John I. 13.J the efficient of regeneration. 233
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 doth
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 doth 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,
mercB infirmitatis, which is a want of power in the hand, when there is a
readiness in the will to perform ;* or malignitatis, wbich is seated in the will
and affections, whereby though a man hath 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 tbat 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 right-
eousness, 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. f 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 hath an understand-
ing capable to weigh arguments on both sides, and see the advantage of the
good proposed, and the disadvantage of the evil tempting, if he doth 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 impossi-
bility of doing the good required, and casting out the evil forbidden. This
doth in no sort excuse us, because it is an inability contracted by ourselves.f
God himself threatens punishment to the Israelites, when he confesseth
that they could not attain to innocence : J Hosea viii. 5, ' My anger is kindled
against them : how long will it be ere they attain to innocence ? ' V?^ fcO ;
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 doth 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
* Trigland de grat. p. 303. t Ibid.
% Quando vitium consuetudine et progressu corroboratum velut naturalitcr inolevit,
voluntatc sumpsit exordium. — Aug. Civ. Dti. lib. 12, cap. 3.
234 chaknock's works. [John I. 13.
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 doth into matter upon dis-
positions 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 ? Hath not our Saviour made a promise in his first sermon to the
multitude, that God • will give good tbings 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 multi-
tude, comparing it with Mat. v. 1, and Mat. vii. 28. Hath not God declared,
that he ' delights not in the death of a sinner,' Ezek. xxxiii. 11, and doth 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 testi-
mony 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 hath 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
tight against sin, when you set yourselves seriously and dependency 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 hath not promised to furnish you with more talents, when
you improve not the talents you have already ; non-improvement of them
cuts off all pleas men may make against God upon the account of their im-
potence. As there never was a renewed man, but acknowledged his regene-
ration 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 intrusted
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 alway 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 innocency 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, per-
versity and inability, every way miserable unless infinite compassion relieve
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 235
us. We have no more freedom than a chained galley slave till Christ
redeem us ; no more strength than a putrefied carcase till Christ raise us ;
an nnlamented 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 under-
standing that can peer into heaven, fathom the earth by contemplative
inquisitions, yet cannot strike up a spark of enlightened reason about ever-
lasting 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 com-
mission 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 woful 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 hath 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 doth in a body, or
disjointing a member doth 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 hath taken held 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, hath 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 diffus-
ing 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,
1 generation of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things?' and
poisoned our souls at the very root, tbat 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
u.s, of the power and freedom of our own wills to anything spiritually good.
* Triglaud, de Grat. p. 308.
236 chaknock's works. [John I. 13.
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 under-
standings can aspire to all knowledge, our wills spring up in grace, as natu-
rally 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 hath
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 con-
cupiscence, 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. 3. 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 hath said will we do;' and ver. 7, 'All that the Lord
hath 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
hath 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 hath said will we do, and
be obedient.'
[1.] It is a high piece of pride. To boast of a great estate, when a man
hath 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. 30.
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 independency on God, fell down into the dungeon of
slavery to, and dependency upon, Satan. It is a pride like that of Adam's,
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 disparageth God's
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
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 237
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 acknow-
ledged 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 be-
holden 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.
[3.1 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 pro-
pagation 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 creatine it
there, than preserving it after ? Is there more danger of the devil's quench-
ing 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 appli-
cations 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 reby
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 re-
new 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 fulness, if we 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 cold-
ness 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 com-
mand 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
832 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
hear many acknowledge their weakness in other things, but not in this ; they
cannot leave such a coarse 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
tamptation. 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 out-
ward 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 em-
braced 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 preach-
ing 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 be-
lieved, which were not so, because ' the arm of the Lord was not (alway)
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) ' spake as he
spake.' But though 'his lips were full of grace,' Ps. xlv. 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. J 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
John I. 13.] the efficient of eegenekation. 239
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 doth not
confer a strength, but suppose it in a man, for he is only persuaded to use
the power which he hath already.
> [3.] Doth 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 per-
suaded the tide at full sea to retreat, or a lion to change his nature, as
have overcom e 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 them-
selves, 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 w T orld 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 prin-
ciples 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
doth 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 em-
ployed 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 argu-
ments, is wholly from the will, which hath 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 ; for 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 pur-
pose, 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
* Parken'a Thes ; Ames, contra Gre vine.
210 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
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
ofthe truth of doctrines. Man cannot renew himself. Whatsoever doctrine
doth 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 doc-
trine which crosses the main design of the gospel, and encourageth 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 usber 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, vers. 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 artificer, 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 artificer,
not to the vessel itself. When the reparation of human nature was to be
wrought by the gospel, w T hen 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 enlighten-
ing 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
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 241
omnipotency 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 ot
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 our-
selves 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 un-
able 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
wickedest 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 nothing-
ness ? 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 piec*e too
comely and noble for human skill.
(2.) What are you since your regeneration ? What, do you find no rebel-
lion of the law in your members against the law of the mind ? Are there
not powerful allurements of the flesh ? Are your thoughts alway flying up
to God, and hovering about him ? Are you alway 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 con-
quest 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 en-
lightened ? 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
VOL. III. Q
242 chaknock's works. [John I. 13.
teeming of your wills with grace to be the effect of your own 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 hath great reason to question
whether he be regenerate or no. He may well doubt whether he under-
stands or feels what it is, since those in Scripture who have been most ex-
perimented 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. Tbus David often, ' Thou hast quick-
ened 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 abun-
dance 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. 3,
' Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to
his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again.' And it is that the church in
the times of the gospel prophesied of: Ps. c. 3, ' It is he that hath 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 naughti-
ness of their hearts hath 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 bad
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 tbeir own net.
[3.J 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 tbe 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 presageth 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
hath 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
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 243
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 artificer 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 weak-
ness 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 fulness. His death minds us of our impotence to redeem our-
selves, 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 writ 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 depo-
sited, 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 reso-
lutions 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, iv. 14 ; all things by him, nothing by himself. When the Israel-
ites 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 govern-
ment 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
fulness in ourselves is the way to an emptiness of spiriiual 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,
244 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
do duties themselves by the strength of habitual grace, without regard to
the strength of God, the great support of it.
4. Therefore live dependency 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 depen-
dency 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 philo-
sophers. Without dependence on the grace of God and fulness 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 dif-
ferent 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, bj' 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 1o 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
be added as a mark of our necessary dependence : Eph. vi. 18, ' Praying
alway 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 con-
dition.
1. Endeavour to be sensible of your natural impotence. Be deeply hum-
bled 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 con-
dition 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, shews him how much
he differs from the holiness of God, and is an occasion for casting about and
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 2-45
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 bumble his ways,' Ps. xxv. 9, those that are sen-
sible of their own insufficiency to guide themselves.
2. Make use of the power you have. Man (as hath been shewn) hath
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 doth rouse up some on the sudden, before any previous act of their
wills, yet we must not expect God will use the same methods to all. Our
own power must be stiri-ed up and exerted as much as may be. To be faith-
ful 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 slug-
gard desires and hath nothing ; but the soul of the diligent shall be made
fat,' Prov. xiii. 4. The sluggard hath 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, doth increase our weakness, as every wound doth 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 sow-
ing, 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 suc-
cessful 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.' If you will not harden
your hearts to-day, God may soften your hearts to-day : Heb. iii. 15, ' To-
day, 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 hath appointed the channels of
his ordinances through which to convey it : ' Ministers by whom you be-
lieved,' 1 Cor. iii. 5. The gospel begets instrumentally, God principally,
1 Cor. iv. 15. God calls by the gospel, 2 Thes. 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 doth 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
246 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
God. Iii 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 mightest have been purged, ' and thou wast 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 hath a common illumina-
tion, 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 findeth to do, do it with thy might.' Stir up your souls to hear and
meditate, as David doth to bless : Ps. ciii. 1, 2, ' Bless the Lord, 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 dependent!]) . Objective proposals are not useless,
because God hath ordained them ; though they are not always successful,
unless God doth 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 doth 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, build-
ing 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 pow T er, 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 fulness of arguments in the word ? Why do
you not then use those arguments God hath 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
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 247
the world, but to do this work in the hearts of men which you are now soli-
citing 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 unscale, 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 he 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 hath
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 prin-
cipal 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 satis-
fied, 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 fulness attends a sense of empti-
ness, 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 con-
sciences ? 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 what-
ever 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 deca-
logue writ in their souls. There is not the wickedest man under the gospel,
but hath sometimes more bright irradiations in his conscience than at other
times, but they are damped by a noisome sensuality; he hath 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
248 chaenock's wokks. [John I. 13.
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 memhers 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 regenera-
tion ? 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 hath been beneficial to many,
and no example can ever be brought, that God hath 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.
A DISCOURSE OF THE EFFICIENT OF
REGENERATION.
PART II.
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God. — John I. 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
2d 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 doth 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 doth 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 Je-
hovah 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 hath 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 cap-
tivated in Babylon ; for, verse 11, the bones are said to be ' the whole house
of Israel,' who despaired of ever seeing any 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
250 chap.nock's works. [John I. 18.
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 doth, Ps. li. 10, ' Create in me a
clean heart, 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
hath he then of an almighty breath who hath 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 p^ae/V/xara, his free donatives, over and above his common
largesses to nature, a present from his infinite liberality.
I shall shew,
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 doth it.
V. The use of it.
I. That God is the efficient.
1. God doth always appropriate this work to himself.
(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 un-
ravelling the work of God, and subjecting himself to misery. It was neces-
sary to our happiness that the league between Satan 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 challengeth it as his own work : ' I will put enmity ;'
he leaves it not to men or angels to begin this hostility. Every one, there-
fore, 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 con-
trary 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 doth
affix to his promise of the covenant, as hath 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 :
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 251
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 Japhet/ 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 tes-
timony 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 attiibuted 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,
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 hath a co-worker nor motive without himself.
3. The Scripture everywhere appropriates it to God. They are there-
fore 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
plorified,' Isa. Ix. 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 who-
soever 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 boast-
ing in the creature. He did not only set forth Christ at first as a principle
252 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
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 prin-
ciple of sanctification as well as righteousness. Union with Christ, en-
grafting in him, new creation, putting into another state, are all purely the
work of God. He hath no sharer in it. As Christ trod the wine-press
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 dresseth us in Christ. It is * by his own will,'
not any other, that ' he begat 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
alway acknowledged to be in the hands of God. It is with this prerogative
of God that Jacob silenceth 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 build-
ing ; razeth 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 hath 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
* Nisi nomini Abraham, litera He addita fuisset, Abraham non generasset.
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 253
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 Cod, 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 doth 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 crea-
tion 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 there-
unto. The very act of motion is made by the head and heart ; if there be
a failing of spirits there, if any obstruction that they cannot reach the indi-
gent part, the motion ceaseth. 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 vJJO 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 load-
stone is not only the cause of the first attraction of the steel, but of its con-
stant adhesion, therefore it is said : 1 Cor. i. 21, that ' God doth establish
us,' not hath 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, 3. Take this new birth in all the denomina-
tions 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
254 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
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 re-
generation. 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, supposeth
that perfection to be somewhere essentially ; every impression supposeth 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 crea-
ture-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 inde-
pendent 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 doth 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 them.
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,! 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 promise th 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
* Sicut quid se habet in operando, sic et in essendo. f Qu. ' spring ' ? — Ed.
John I. 13. J the efficient of regeneration. 255
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 hath 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 hath promised, because his truth engageth 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 per-
formance ; 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 per-
form that by himself which he hath 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 hath
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 hath 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 fore-
knew anything before he willed it in itself, or in its necessary causes, he
foreknew nothing. If he did not will it, how can it come to pass ? There-
fore 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 h
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 fore-
knowledge, 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 ; be-
cause, 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 work 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 any other creature, to incline and
256 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
change it, by an immediate touch. All that they can do towards any mov-
ing 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 in-
clined 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 under-
standing, 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 allure-
ments 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 hath 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 doth 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 ;f to confess him, when one of
the most eminent of them had denied him ; to be more knowing in an instant,
* 3-s7ov Ig-ri nufclv ru; if<ux*s. — Athanas. t Moulin.
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 257
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 seem-
ing ground be questioned ; but when the leviathans in sin, drunkards, ex-
tortioners, adulterers, men guilty of the greatest contempt of God and tbe
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 hath made such a rout,
and cut and slashed all morality in pieces, things should be 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 habi-
tuated 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 hath 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 hath all grace to
contest with all the power of old Adam. No man can change the nature of
xhe 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 super-
natural 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 weighed 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
258 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
into a church wolves, and returned lamhs. This change comes upon some
that never dreamt of it, and hath 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 sin-
ful 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 hath catched 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 bave 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 "1HD 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 fol-
lowed Christ at the first call, and moved readily to him, as iron to the load-
stone. 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 hath been with loss
of friends, estate, }"ea, 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,' saith 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 for-
mation 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 T 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
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 259
dwell in ? 1 Cor. iii. 9. Or is the spiritual house of God fit to be made by
any 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 regene-
rate 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 fight 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
shew 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 glori-
fied 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
260 chabnock's works. [John I. 13.
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
hath a resemblance to a superior being must be brought forth into that like-
ness 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 opposeth
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 plan-
tation 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 ima-
gined. 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
doth to the 'foolishness of preaching; ' it was that which was the 'power of
God,' 1 Cor. i. 18; it was that 'whereby 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's, 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 tem-
poral 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
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 261
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 diffi-
culties, 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, teacheth 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 doth not to another, so he puts a differ-
ence 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,
[l.J 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. 52, had not one convert upon record. While Peter's hearers were
pricked in their hearts, these gnashed with their teeth, ver. 54. The corrup-
tion 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 over-ruling 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 admoni-
tions 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 doth this difference arise, but from the will of God draw-
ing the one, and leaving the other to the conduct of his own will, since both
262 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
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 (saith 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 be-
lieves 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 hath stricken a man's conscience before, and he
hath undone that work, shaken off those convictions ; he hath 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 hath 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 f 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 acknowledgment
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 edgeth 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
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 263
soul, who hath 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 occa-
sion 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 obligeth, 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 riseth up as
the pattern ; and power rides out for the execution. Mercy moves, so-
vereignty decrees, truth obligeth, 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 l£ s'gwro; diu>v, 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 Son. 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 occa-
sions 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 orna-
mental 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 united 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 mem-
bers, not only by an act of his power as God, but by an act of appropriated
264 charnock's works. [John I. 13.
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 begat us as tbe 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 proposeth
laws, makes offers of peace, urgeth thtm in his word, strives with men by
his Spirit, enduing men with reason, and deals with them as rational
creatures ; he uses afflictions 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 gover-
nor, he puts on that of a father, and makes an inward and thorough change in
some which he hath 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 mouth,
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 doth not manifest so peculiar an affection as he doth 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 doth 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 hath begotten us again to a lively hope,' xara rbwokv
cbrou eXiog. His own mercy, without any other motive ; muah mercy,
without any parsimony ; not an act of ordinary goodness, but the deepest
bowels of kindness, an everlasting spring of goodness, an exuberancy of
goodness. The choice love he bears to them in election cannot be without
some real act ; it is a vain love that doth 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, endow-
ing 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) con-
sist 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.
[l.J 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
John I. 13.] the efficient of regeneration. 265
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 attri-
butes are more highlv 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 shew 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 seijullah, 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,
1 All those things hath my hand made, and all those things have been,' &c,
to fix his eyes, E'ON, 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 good-
ness to make it so. And the apostle Peter aggrandiseth 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, Wttiba. ^Sffav, that grows up more and more into life, till it comes to
an inheritance that fades not away as Adam