The new birthThe nevv birth

CHAP. IX. Containing an exhortation to seek regeneration.

CHAP. IX. Containing an exhortation to seeke regeneration.

AND now (brethren) in the next place,¹ if there be amongst you any, whose soul the Lord may have awakened to feel their unregeneracy; to them let us further ad a word of exhortation. It were (in truth) a poor comfort to know ones wound, if there were not a plaster delivered withal to heal those wounds. But we come to entreat you to be made the children of God, and to be begotten again: and withal, we come to assure you, that you may be such, if you do not reject the present offer of grace. I pray you therefore let these words sink into your minds, and be you willing & desirous to be the children of our heavenly Father. I hope (brethren) the request will not seem to you unreasonable, nor the motion light, and not worth hearkening to; when the God of heaven sues unto you, ⟨p. 102⟩that be his enemies, to be changed and become his adopted sons. Sure I am, that if a Gentleman should, with the same good meaning, make the same offer to a poor miserable beggar, either he would greedily accept the motion, or else all that knew him, would esteem him mad. How much worse then mad art thou then, which wilt reject the Lords own motion, offering to become thy Father, and entreating thee to be willing to be made his child by adoption? you may (perhaps) say unto me, that you do already wish and desire so to be with all your hearts, but that all the difficulty lies in being made such as you desire to be. And I answer, that if you do indeed and in truth long and desire to be regenerate, with a settled and firm desire, and stable and confirmed wishing of your hearts, that then the greatest impediment is removed, and the greatest difficulty overcome, and your regeneration is now in a fair forwardness, yea verily, it is already begun; and do you but cherish these motions, and it shall be perfected. You may (perhaps) make another objection, and say, that it is not in your power to regenerate your selves; and therefore it is an idle attempt of me, to persuade you to become such as you cannot make your selves to be: for the Spirit of God must regenerate, and who can command that to come upon him? To which I answer, that indeed a man cannot possibly regenerate himself, this is Gods act, not his, he is a mere patient in it. But yet I say moreover, that the doctrine of the Gospel is the ministration of the Spirit;