13. Where this new birth is, there is a new nature, a new principle; Peter calls it the hidden man of the heart, the divine nature. Paul calls it the inward man; the new creature, it is compared to a root, to a fountain, to a foundation, and for want of this foundation, we see now in these sad times so much inconstancy, and unsettledness in some professors themselves, many have gotten new and strange notions, but they have not new natures, new principles of grace; if grace were but rooted in their hearts, though the winds did blow, and storms arise, they would continue firm and stable, as being founded upon a Rock. Never tell me of profession, show, outward action, outward conversation, outward duties of Religion; all this may be, and yet no new creature; you have some brutes that can act many things like men, but because they have not an humane nature, they are still brutish; so many things may be done in a way of holiness, which yet come not from this inward principle of renovation, and therefore it is but copper, and not gold; mistake not O my soul in this, which is thy best and surest evidence: though I call the new birth a new creature, my meaning is not as if a new faculty were infused into him that is new born; a man when he is regenerate, hath no more faculties in his soul than he had before his regeneration; only in the work of regeneration, those abilities which the man had before, are now improved, and made spiritual; and so they work now spiritually, which before wrought naturally. As in the resurrection from the dead, our bodies shall have no more, ⟨p. 149⟩nor other parts and members than they had before, only those parts and members which now are natural, shall then by the power of God be made spiritual,2 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body; there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body; so the same faculties, and the same abilities which before regeneration were but natural, are now spiritual, and work spiritually, they are all brought under the government of the Spirit of Christ; a lively resemblance of this change in the faculties of the soul, we may discern in those natural and sensitive faculties, which we have common with beasts; as to live, to move, to desire, to feel, the beasts having no higher principle than sense, use them sensually;
13. Where this new birth is, there is a new nature, a new principle; Peter calls it the hidden man of the heart, the divine nature. Paul calls it the inward man; the new creature, it is compared to a root, to a fountain, to a foundation, and for want of this foundation, we see now in these sad times so much inconstancy, and unsetledness in some professors themselves, many have gotten new and strange notions, but they have not new natures, new principles of grace; if grace were but rooted in their hearts, though the winds did blow, and storms arise, they would continue firm and stable, as being founded upon a Rock. Never tell me of profession, shew, outward action, outward conversation, outward duties of Religion; all this may be, and yet no new creature; you have some bruits that can act many things like men, but because they have not an humane nature, they are still brutish; so many things may be done in a way of holiness, which yet come not from this inward principle of renovation, and therefore it is but copper, and not gold; mistake not O my soul in this, which is thy best and surest evidence: though I call the new birth a new creature, my meaning is not as if a new faculty were infused into him that is new born; a man when he is regenerate, hath no more faculties in his soul than he had before his regeneration; only in the work of regeneration, those ablities which the man had before, are now improved, and made spiritual; and so they work now spiritually, which before wrought naturally. As in the resurrection from the dead, our bodies shall have no more, ⟨p. 149⟩nor other parts and members than they had before, only those parts and members which now are natural, shall then by the power of God be made spiritual,2 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body; there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body; so the same faculties, and the same abilities which before regeneration were but natural, are now spiritual, and work spiritually, they are all brought under the government of the Spirit of Christ; a lively resemblance of this change in the faculties of the soul, we may discern in those natural and sensitive faculties, which we have common with beasts; as to live, to move, to desire, to feel, the beasts having no higher principle than sense, use them sensually;
- 11 Pet. 3.4. 2 Pet. 1.4. Rom. 7.22. 2 Cor. 5.17.
- 21 Cor. 15.44.
