JOHN 3. 3.
THe true nature of regeneration and the counterfeit thereof being already discovered, I shall onely insist upon one corollary, which may be deduced from this Doctrinal point, and so dismiss it. From what therefore hath been delivered, we may by use of Instruction gather, That such who are regenerated,1 or new born, are thereby become the sons of God. Those who by natural propagation were children of wrath, by this regeneration are children of Grace. This therefore shall be the conclusion I shall insist upon by way of inference, viz. That those who are new born, are thereby made the Sons of God. They have God for their Father, and are thereby put into a condition full of Priviledges, as well as of Duties. So that in the handling of this new state of Sonship the regenerated persons are put into, we shall speak first of the qualification of their Duties, and then of their Priviledges: But before we do so, some few particulars are to be premised. As
First, In being sons to God there are two things considerable.2
- Their right to the glorious inheritance of heaven.
- Their sanctified nature whereby they become like God, and imitate him in his holiness.
For as children of men do partake of their nature, and commonly imitate and represent their Fathers in their manners and conversation; So those that are born of God, are said to be Partakers of the Divine nature, and thereby resemble God, (according to our capacity) being holy, as he is holy. Now in the Sons of God we are to make a great difference between their right to heaven, and their holy nature and conversation.
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For the former is not grounded upon their regeneration, for that is imperfect,3 and their holiness being imperfect, doth Recipere magis and minus, doth receive more or lesse; but this is founded upon their justification, and is commonly called, Their adoption. Orthodox and learned Divines differ about the Order of Adoption; some make it a grace next to Predestination, and so before Justification; others make it not indeed the same with justification, but immediately dependent on it, and grounded thereupon: and none but Papists make this Adoption, as it doth invest us with a Title to eternal Glory, to be built on our regeneration.
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But then the other considerable property in our Sonship is, whereby we are4 made inwardly holy, and upon these principles act holily: this floweth from our Regeneration; and so because of our new birth we are made sons of God, and are begotten anew by his word, because hereby we resemble God our Father: For as on the contrary, wicked men are said to be of their Father the Divel, because they do his works; So the Godly are of God their Father, because they resemble him: He purifieth himself, even as God is pure, 1 John 3. 3. So that these two carefully distinguished, will keep us from proud presumption on the one hand, and yet be a great incentive to Godlinesse on the other hand.
Secondly, Consider that Christ is the only and true begotten of God by an eternall5 and naturall generation; we are the Sons of God by a temporall, and free gracious generation: So that it is a rule of Divines, Quod Christus naturâ, nos gratiâ, That which Christ hath by Nature, we have by Grace. Christ is the Son of God, not in that sense as the Socinians, and such blasphemous Hereticks say, Non factus filius Dei, but Natus, Not the made Son of God, but the born son of God, and therefore homo[…]usial of the same nature with God; and in this sense the Pharisees and Jews understood him when they charged him with blasphemy, Making himself, as they said, equall with God. It is true that place of the Psalmist, Thou art my son, this day I have begotten thee, Acts. 13. 33. is applyed to his resurrection, and the manifestation, or declaration of his Sonship; but those places which speak of Christs subsistency, before he was incarnated, doe evidently argue him so to be God, as that he was the same with God from all eternity: and the first Chap. of Johns Gospel makes it irrefragably true, notwithstanding all the Hereticks endeavour to elude it. Well, as Christ is thus naturally, so those that are regenerated are thus graciously, and so are said to be co-heirs with Christ: though therefore we are begotten of God, yet Christ is the first-born, and hath the preheminency in all things.