for such purposes. There are multitudes to whom the mention of such a thing is matter of laughter. What, to have the Spirit! for men to talk of having the Spirit!-And there are a great many more, we have reason to suppose, who do as little concern themselves, whether they ever are the subjects of such operations of this Spirit, as if they were yet to learn, or had never heard, whether there were any Holy Ghost; as is said concerning some, Acts xix. 2.

It is therefore my design, and purpose from sundry texts of Scripture, which may successively suit our purpose, to assert unto you the office of the Holy Ghost, in reference to the refining the spirit of men, and restoring the life of God among them; to shew that such a work is attributed to it; to let you see the necessity of so great an undertaker for this work; and his, abundant sufficiency for it; to shew you by whose procurement, and for whose sake, and in whose name, it is employed and set on work; and in what way, and through what dispensation it is communicated, and by what methods and steps and degrees, it carries on this work upon the spirits of the elect of God, till having brought them to sow to the Spirit, they do at length of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

The scripture which I have now read doth plainly hold forth so much in general, as that it doth belong to the Holy Ghost, and is attributed and ascribed to it, to produce spirit, and bring forth such a thing as spirit in them who appertain to God, and are in purpose, and shall be actually, taken into communion and participation with him. For if we refer this verse to the foregoing verses of the chapter, we find our Saviour designedly insists upon this argument of regeneration; and doth not only discover to us, that there is such a thing, but gives some account wherein it doth consist, or what kind of work it is; and represents the indispensable necessity of it to any man's entrance into the kingdom of God; that is, his coming into it, or seeing, and having any part in it. And so the truth which we shall recommend to you as both answering the text and our present purpose, is, that there is a work to be done upon whomsoever shall be taken into the kingdom of God, by his own blessed Spirit, whereby they are to be created, or begotten, spirit of that Spirit. We have three things before us which require our consideration, in order to the more distinct and clear notion of it.

I. The effect to be wrought, or produced; which is here called by the name of the spirit.

II. The author or productive cause of this great effect, it is called with an emphasis, the Spirit.

III. The way or manner of production: and that is said to

be by begetting, or being born: for so it is indifferently rendered.

I. We are to consider the product or the effect wrought, and that is defined by the name spirit; what is born or begotten of the Spirit, is spirit. It is needful to give some account here what we are not to understand by it, and then what we are.

1. It is very manifest we are not to understand by it the natural spirit of a man; for our Saviour is not speaking here of bringing men into the world, but bringing them into the church: He is not speaking of such a sort of begetting whereby men are produced, but christians. Nor is it a distinct substance from that, or another substance diverse from the spirit of a man; for then a regenerate person, and an unregenerate; the same person in his unregenerate, and in his regenerate state, would substantially differ from himself; and that you nay easily apprehend how absurd it would be. But,

2. As to the reason of the name and the more general import of it; by spirit we are to understand something spiritual, and which is of a spiritual nature; the abstract being put for the concrete, which is a very ordinary elegance in the Scripture; as well as it is many times in a contrary sense: You were darkness, but now ye are light in the Lord, Eph. 5. 8. The name is no more intended to hold forth to us, spirit, considered under a merely natural notion, without any adjunct, than, flesh, is intended to signify without any adjunct, and only in a merely natural sense. The thing which in general is intended to be held forth to us by this name, is, that frame of holiness, which is inwrought in souls by the Spirit of God in regeneration; and which because it is a spiritual production, most agreeable to its productive' cause, is therefore called here by the name of spirit. It is something which is many times in Scripture held forth to us by such other names as these; sometimes it is called simply by the name of light; "Now are ye light in the Lord;" as if this product were nothing else but a beam of vigorous vital light, darted down from heaven into the hearts of men. Sometimes it is called by the name of life; that is used, it is true, as an expression of a larger extent, than for the internal work of the Spirit, but it comprehends that too; "Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life.” John v. 45. Many times it is so used as that the circumstances of the place do determine it more limitedly, to that peculiar sense. It is sometimes expressed by the seed of God, an incorruptible seed which is put into the souls of men. 1 Pet. 1. 23.1 John. 3. 8. 9. 10. Sometimes it is called the new creature. In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature, Gal. 6. 15.

:

If any man is in Christ he is a new creature. It is very usual to speak of the effect, and the operation too, by which that effect is wrought, the former under the name of creature: the latter under the name of creation as here it is spoken of as a thing begotten; and the causative action, under the name of begetting. It is sometimes called the new man; the image of God; and God's workmanship. These different forms of expression, and if there are any more which are not in my thoughts, which are parallel to these, are only intended to signify one and the same thing; and what is here signified by the name of spirit.

But to give you somewhat a more particular account of this thing, this being, this creature, which is here signified by the name of spirit. Of this we have said it is not a distinct substance from the spirit of a man, and yet we must know concerning it in the

(1.) Place, that it is a distinct thing; or something, though not of another substance, which is yet superadded to the spirit of a man; and which the spirit of a man, considered according to its mere naturals, is destitute of; and which therefore lies without the whole sphere and compass of mere nature, or any of the improvements thereof. It is spoken of in the Scripture as a thing put on Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Col. 4. 10. There is something put off, and laid away; the old man, with his deeds. This shews it to be an adjunct, or a thing superadded to us; which is not only out of the compass of our natures, but is no more to be conceived as comprehended in that state, than a man's clothes which he puts on, are comprehended in the notion of his body. And in that it is called a new thing, as the new creature and the new man; it shews it to be an additional thing.

(2.) Though it is diverse and distinct from the spirit of a man; yet it is a most intimately inherent thing, and is most closely united, wherever it comes to obtain and take place. It is a spirit which gets into a man's spirit, a spirit put into spirit. That you may be renewed in the spirit of your minds, Eph. 4. 23. Create in me a clean heart, renew a tight spirit within me, Ps. li. 10. It is the divine Spirit which is the formal renovating principle by which we are renewed; and our former natural spirit is the subject of it. And it is a thing which most inwardly seats and centers itself in a man's soul, and takes possession of his inmost soul, which is called the spirit of the mind; and which we must conceive to be to the soul, as the heart is to the body, so very inward and middle a part, and upon the account of which analogy it is that the name of heart is so often transferred thither to signify the inward part, or the

VOL. V.

There it is that the Spirit

very innermost of the inner man. doth most intimately inhere and reside. It is not a thing which lies in the surface of a man; or consists in outward forms, or empty shews, or fruitless talk; but it is something which is got into a man's heart, and hath insinuated and conveyed itself there.

It is

(3.) It is alterative of its subject, or of that nature to which it is adjoined. It is so in it, as to make a very great alteration within, and to work a change where it comes. As leaven, to which this very thing is compared by our Lord which he here calls spirit, hath in it that fermentative virtue, by which it strangely alters the lump into which it is put, and whereto it is adjoined. incredible according to the accounts the chymists give, how very little and minute a portion shall quite alter and transform the mass into which it is put, so as to make it quite another thing. Such a thing is this begotten spirit, it is alterative of its subject; and when it gets within a man, it makes him quite another thing from what he was. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; or which is all one, there is a new creature in him. Sometimes the whole man is spoken of as the subject of this production, and we are said to be new creatures, and the new creation is spoken of as being in us. It only carries this signification with it, that when a man is said to be begotten or regenerated, it is only said to be so secundum quid, or in this peculiar respect; as having such a thing of new production now put into him. It is such a great change which is made, as that all things which were old, are said to be done away, and all that remains to be made new, 2 Cor. v. 17. This is nothing else but the same Spirit which is got into the heart of a man, and makes its subject new; that is, to become a new heart and a right spirit, where it comes to obtain. It is not so with every thing which is put into another, or whereof another thing is contained; you may put water into a bason, and it alters it nothing; but this is such a thing which alters that which it is put into, and makes it quite another thing; like putting some spirits into that water which changes the colour and quality of it.

(4.) It is universally diffused in its subject, as it is in its nature alterative of it. It is a thing universally diffused through the whole subject wherein it comes; whence it is that the operation also is universal, and it makes a thorough change. They are very comprehensive expressions which the apostle uses concerning holiness or sanctification, (1 Thes. v. 23.) where he prays on the behalf of the Thessalonians; That God would sanctify them wholly, or throughout, that is in their whole spirit, soul and body: he distinguishes these; probably

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SER. 1.) IN REFERENCE TO PARTICULAR PERSONS. meaning by the former, the soul, as rational; by the second, the soul as sensitive; and by the third, the corporeal body. It is plain this same created, begotten spirit, being designed to repair what was impaired by sin, must take place and spread itself as far as sin had done. That had vitiated and depraved the whole man, and is therefore called, a man; the old man; as having extended itself to all the powers, and faculties, and This spirit it is a man in a man. all the parts of a man: therefore is to be a man in a man too, and must spread into all the same powers and parts, which the former had done, and make a new man. Though it is true indeed, that the intelligent soul of man can only be formally the subject of this change, yet sin is by a sort of participation in the sensitive soul, and in the external senses and parts of the body; and so must grace or holiness too. It is strange rhetoric the apostle uses in that collection of passages which we find in Rom. 3. from 10. onward, out of certain places of the old testament. The apostle designs to represent not only how universally sin had spread itself among all men; but how it had spread itself as if they were so very full through the whole of every man : of sin, and so under the possession and power of it, that they belched it out of their throats, and through their lips; acted it with their hands; and made haste to it with their feet: Their throat is an open sepulchre, with their tongues they have used deceit, the poison of asps is under their lips, their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their ways. They do nothing but work mischief wherever they come. Why, according to this same spreading, and diffusion of sin, which is here called flesh; so must be that of the spirit too, enthroning itself in the very inwards of the soul, and having its residence there; whilst thence it diffuses its energy and vital influence, through all the parts and powers of the man; and leavens the whole lump. Both sin and holiness are represented to us upon the account of their diffusive nature, by a metaphor of the same kind; by the apostle, 1 Cor. v. 6. and by our Saviour, Mat. 13.33.

(5.) He must understand it to be a most excellent thing; of a very high and great excellence, which is here called spirit. It is a most pure essence, and noble production, agreeable to How vain a thing is all this material its productive cause. world, if you abstract and sever spirit from it? What a sluggish dull lump were all this mass of earth, and all the matter of the world, without spirit? If you could imagine such a distinct thing as a spirit of nature, and we know there are operations which some call by that name, which in Scripture are simply ascribed to this same Spirit who is here spoken of under