SERMON LXXIII. CHRIST'S RESURRECTION THE CAUSE OF OUR REGENERATION. SERM. 1 PET. i. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. THIS Epistle being written by the Apostle of the circumcision, it is directed to all that were converted from the Jewish to the Christian religion, in the Lesser Asia: who 1 Pet. 1. 2. were elect, as it is here said, " according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ;" that is, that they might obey the Gospel, and be sprinkled with the blood of Christ revealed in it, and so admitted into the new Covenant, and be made partakers of all the privileges established in it, here signified by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, upon which the Covenant was founded: as when Moses after the delivery of the Law had ordered oxen to be sacrificed, he took half of the blood and sprinkled it upon the altar, and then read the book of the Covenant to the people, which they promised to obey; after that he took the rest of Ex. 24. 8. the blood, "and sprinkled it upon the people, and said, Behold the blood of the Covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words." By the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifice upon the people, as it was a type of the blood of Christ (the only true sacrifice for the sins of the world), God signified to them that they were now in covenant with Him, and He with them; that they should accordingly perform what they had promised on their parts, and that He would perform what He had promised to them by virtue of the blood now sprinkled upon them. And so the Apostle, writing to the Hebrews who believed and were baptized into Christ, saith, "That they were come Heb. 12. 24. to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel;" where the blood of Jesus, as the "Mediator of the new Covenant," is called "the blood of sprinkling," because it was sprinkled upon them, so as to wash them from their sins, and deliver them from the wrath of God; as the child- Ex. 12. 23. ren of Israel were delivered from the plague wherewith God smote the Egyptians, by having the sides and door-posts of their houses sprinkled with the blood of the Paschal Lamb, typifying that of Christ, the true Passover. These things I take notice of here, by the way, that ye may see how it comes to pass, that instead of dipping persons baptized, or washing them all over as they used to do in hotter countries, in cold climates it hath been all along customary only to sprinkle the water upon them; for that being a sign or symbol of the blood of Christ now, as the blood of the sacrifices was of old, and the Holy Ghost having been pleased to signify the application of the blood of Christ by sprinkling it, as well as by washing with it, it was very obvious and easy to infer, that it might be represented and applied by sprinkling as well as any other way, if not in some sense better: forasmuch as this comes closer up to the phrase of sprinkling the blood of Christ, so often used in the Holy Scriptures, and which may seem to be used on purpose to prevent the great mistake which some notwithstanding have fallen into, that unless persons be dipped or washed all over with water, they are not rightly baptized: as if sprinkling the water did not represent the sprinkling of the blood of Christ as well as dipping in it. But this mistake is grounded upon another, which was worse, even that the efficacy of the Sacrament depends upon the quantity of the water, whereas it depends wholly upon the institution of Christ, and the promise He hath annexed to it, Who therefore used a word in the institution, that in the original signifies only washing in general with water more or less, and so SERM. the sprinkling or pouring it upon the person baptized as LXXIII. well as dipping him in it: and as in the other Sacrament, 10. one crumb of the bread represents the body of Christ as well as the whole loaf; and one drop of the wine His blood, as well as the whole cup, so here in our present case, one drop of water is as much as the whole ocean; and if any one part is sprinkled, the whole is washed and cleansed by the blood of Christ, as He Himself also hath taught us; for washing His Disciples' feet, and having said to Simon Peter, “If I John 13. 8- wash thee not, thou hast no part in Me," the Apostle saith, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head." Upon which Jesus said unto him, "He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit;" whereby He hath sufficiently declared, that unless we be washed by Him, we have no interest at all in Him; and that it is not necessary to wash the whole, but that if any part of us be washed, our whole man is cleansed by Him, which the said Apostle to whom those words were spoken intimates also in this place, in that he expresseth Christ's washing us from our sins in His Own blood by sprinkling it, which doth not use to be done upon the whole, but only upon some part, and yet hath the same effect as if it was upon the whole. I should not have insisted so much upon this at present, but that we seldom have such occasion to mention it as the Apostle here gives, in describing the persons he wrote to, and to whom he therefore wisheth that grace and peace may be multiplied; and then begins his Epistle with praising God for His infinite mercy to him, to them, and to all His faithful people in these words: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheri tance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in Heaven for you." In which words are several things much to be observed: 1 shall touch only upon these following: 1. That the Saints of God are begotten again by Him. 2. They are begotten to a lively hope. 3. This is done by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 4. For this they have great cause to bless God. 1. First, I say, we may here observe, that the Saints and servants of the Most High God, such as St. Peter was, are begotten again of Him; "Blessed be the God," saith he, "and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again." But how can this be? As Nicodemus said to our Lord, "How can a man John 3. 4. be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" But our Saviour resolves the doubt, saying, " Except a man be born of water and of ver. 5. the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God." The original word is of the same signification with that in my text, there it is γεννηθεὶς ἄνωθεν, here ἀναγεννήσας, and may be equally rendered either begotten or born, the one necessarily supposing or following upon the other. How this wonderful work is effected, is past our reach to apprehend; we know not how we were formed at first, much less how we are born again. Only in general we may observe, that all men that proceed naturally from the first Adam are conceived and born in sin; their nature is corrupted and depraved, so that they are prone of themselves to do evil, and unable to do any thing that is truly good. But when a man believes in Christ the second Adam, and so is made [1 Cor. 15. 45.] a member of His body, he is quickened and animated by His Spirit, which being the principle of a new life in him, he thereby becomes a new creature, another kind of creature from what he was before, and therefore is properly said to be born again, “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor John 1. 13. of the will of man, but of God;" the Spirit by which he is now actuated and influenced being God Himself, whereby it comes to pass, that such a man is quite altered from what he was, he is turned into another man, as Samuel said Saul 1 Sam. 10. 6. should be, "when the Spirit of the Lord came upon Him." And all because, as it is said of Caleb, "he hath another Num.14.24. Spirit with him." Which being the Spirit of God Himself, his whole nature is changed; for he now partakes of the 2 Pet. 1. 4. Divine Nature, and is made in his capacity like to God Himself; and so is quite another thing, another kind of creature, from what he was before. This is that which the Apostle means, where he saith, "If 2 Cor. 5. 17. any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are SERM. passed away; behold all things are become new." His old LXXIII. false imaginations, unruly passions, and inordinate desires of John 3. 6. &c. the things of this world are all passed and gone, and instead of them, he hath a new set of thoughts and affections, a new sight and sense of God, a new bias upon his mind, so that he is now as much inclined to virtue, as he was before to vice, and of a foolish, proud, sinful, and carnal creature, is become wise, and humble, and holy, and spiritual, and all by means of the new Spirit that is in him: whereby he is made a new man, which is as different from the old as that is from a beast, and more too, forasmuch as both men and beasts are acted only by something that is finite; whereas the new man, or new creature, is acted and governed by the Spirit of God Himself, which is infinite: and whereas other men are born only of the flesh, such a one is regenerate, or born again of the Spirit: and so there is the same difference between him and them, as there is between Spirit and flesh, according to that remarkable saying of our Blessed Saviour, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit." For every thing being of the same nature with that from whence it proceeds, as they who are born, as all men by nature are, of the flesh, are carnal and sensual, so they are carnal and sensual like the flesh they are born of; so they who are born again, being then born of the Holy Spirit of God, they are thereby made holy and spiritual, of the same nature with Him from whom they receive their new birth. 66 ye 6 have 2. Hence all such are called the sons of God, and are really Rom. 8. 14, so; for as the Apostle observes, “ As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father. The Spirit Itself beareth witness with our spirits, that we are the children of God:" which He may well do, seeing it is He that makes us so; for they that have received the Spirit of adoption have an undeniable title to eternal life, and it is that which all who are begotten again of God are born to, and they accordingly hope for it, not with a faint or dead, but with a quick and lively hope, which puts them upon doing all things requisite to their obtaining of it. This |