JOHN 3. 6.
WE have already observed the nature of Regeneration out of this famous Dialogue, as also the ignorance and mistake that the wisest have about it· the third thing observable in this History, is the ground and reason of the necessity of this new Birth, and that is contained in my Text. Nicodemus he dreamed of a carnall Birth a second time, whereas if he had been born an hundred times this way, it would not have advantaged him, yea he would have been an hundred times thereby the child of wrath: Our Saviour therefore would instruct Nicodemus by opening the fountain, and discovering the root of this necessity; as if he had said, The reason why thou art so grosly ignorant in this matter (O Nicodemus) is, because thou knowest not what corruption doth cleave to every man, how contrary this is to the Kingdome of Heaven; if thou wert rectified in this, thou wouldst quickly see the necessity of the other. Know therefore, That whatsoever is born of the flesh, is flesh, and so not capable of everlasting glory.
The words then are a Proposition containing a Reason, why there must be a Regeneration before there can be any entrance into the Kingdome of Heaven; wherein you have the subject described, That which is born of the flesh. Flesh is sometimes used in Scripture for the bodily part of a man, as corruptible, in which sense it is said, All flesh is grasse; sometime it is used for man as he is sinfull and unregenerate, In my flesh dwelleth no good thing, saith Paul. The first sense denoteth our fragility and meaneness, the second our guilt and sinfulnesse; both aggravate our misery and basenesse; and this expression is universall, That which is born of the flesh, is flesh. This extendeth to wise men, to great men, noble men, Kings and Emperors; they are flesh of flesh. Secondly, there is the predicate, Is flesh. The expression is in the abstract, to shew, how totally, deeply and universally he is fleshly. Thus the Apostle, Rom. 8. calls being in the flesh, as surrounded and compassed about with it.
So that our Saviours reason lyeth in this, Every thing expresseth the nature of that kind in which it is, That which comes of a Wolf hath a Wolvish nature, that which comes of a Sheep hath a Sheepish nature, and that which comes of a corrupt unclean kind must also be unclean: So that our Saviours expression is like that of Jobs, Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Lambs come not from Bears, nor Figs from Thorns.
The great Corruption of mans Nature is the ground of the necessity of Regeneration.1
Men never apply themselves to more than Morality and Civility, till they are perswaded that the greatest part of their vilenesse and loathsomnesse lyeth in their inward parts. We are most sinfull and deformed there where the naturall eye perceiveth nothing at all: Men never provide a plaister any further than they think the wound reacheth; now if men perceive no wound in the inward frame of their heart, they never look at any change there.
In the opening of this point, let us consider the nature of this originall defilement,2 and so the work of Regeneration answerably thereunto: for whereas in sin there are two things, the guilt of it, and the filth of it; There is a two-fold grace answering this, The grace of justification, which blots out the guilt; and the grace of Sanctification, which removeth the filth: so that sin is like leprosie, and grace regenerating makes all to come fresh and beautifull upon the soul, which before was loathsome; whereupon it is, that a man is by Regeneration really changed in the qualities of his soul: As originall sin comes in the place of originall righteousnesse, so this grace of Regeneration cometh by degrees in the place of originall sinne; so that if we seek after this work, we are not so much to look for it in our actions and conversations, though it will be seen there, as in our inward frame and disposition of heart. The Kings daughter is all glorious within, as before her conversion she was all loathsome, and noisome within.
Hereby it comes to passe, that as mens thoughts are greater or lesser about original Sin, so they are also about Regeneration.
First therefore, This native Corruption is deep and radicated in us, got into our3 very bowels; That as Toads and Serpents have venome in their natures, and the one cannot be divided from the other, so it is with us, we may as well put off the nature of a man, as put sinne out of it. This made the Father compare it to the Ivy in the wall, or in the tree, that getteth into the very heart, and cannot be removed, unlesse the Wall it self be pulled down; and that is the reason why the Scripture calls it our flesh and members, not that it is our naturall substance, but inevitably cleaving to it, and the innatenesse of it is herein seen, that although we have this work of Regeneration, yet it is not quite expelled, all this drosle is not got off. Paul complained bitterly of the reliques and remainders of it in his soul: Now the grace of Regeneration, that goeth as deep into the heart, that enters as powerfully into the soul; therefore it’s called writing of the Law in the inward parts; not upon the eyes, or hands, or feet, but in the inward parts. There is many a man4 hath Gods Law written upon his tongue onely, or upon his outward conversation, but not in his inward parts: So that as the Scripture hath notable expressions to describe how inward and rooted our filth is, we may apply such things to grace wrought in the godly, onely there is this difference, sinne makes us all over sinfull, so that there is no good at all abiding in a naturall man; but grace doth not so perfectly heal to expell all sin. As in naturall men, the imaginations of their thoughts are evill, not onely actions but thoughts, not onely thoughts but imagination of thoughts, or that very shop of the soul, whereby all apprehensions and affections are minted and framed, though not perfectly: the imaginations of the thoughts of a Regenerate man are good and spirituall: The heart of a natural man is a Den of Thieves, a Cage of unclean Birds: The heart of a Regenerate man is the temple of the Lord.