take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh : and I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them."— "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name : which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."" Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man (ris, any one) be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."—" If any man be in Christ he is a new creature."-"You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins."-" We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works."-" Be renewed in the spirit of your minds."-" After that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousuess which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renew

ing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour."-" Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth."-" Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God.""Whosoever is born of God doth not commit (ou ou, doth not practise) sin," "for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.". "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."-" Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world."8 In these passages, "knowing God," walking in his statutes," and "keeping his judgments," are clearly consequent upon the "new heart" that is given, and "the spirit" that is put within them ; "receiving" or "believing" on Christ, "not practising sin," and "overcoming the world,' are upon being "born of God," or which is the same thing, being

66

8 Jer. xxiv. 7; xxxi. 33. Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27. John i. 13; iii. 5. 2 Cor. v. 17.

as

Eph. ii. 1, with verse 5. Eph. ii. 10; iv. 23. Titus. iii. 46. 1 John iii. 9; v. 1-4.

"born of the Spirit."

The change,

therefore, cannot consist either in a mere external reformation, though of course it follows; or ina transition from heathenism to Christianity. It must consequently refer chiefly to the understanding, and to the disposition.

First, The moral perceptions are enlightened.

Intelligence is essential to the freedom of the will, or, more correctly speaking, to free agency; since the degree of readiness with which one object is preferred to another is always in proportion to the degree in which the superior suitableness, excellency, and importance of that object appears. In maintaining, therefore, that the Spirit does enlighten the moral perceptions, no objection can be taken on the ground that, in proportion as the necessity of his operations are insisted upon, in the same proportion we lessen human accountability; because the more clearly the excellency of spiritual things are discovered, the more freely will the mind

embrace them. It is not, however, intended that we cannot discuss incidental matters, arrange historical testimonies, settle a genealogy, defend a various reading, understand the several propositions stated in the Scriptures, acquire an accurate knowledge of the doctrines therein revealed, systematically considered, because all these, and much more, obviously lie within the range of our unaided intellect. But the beauty, excellency, and importance of spiritual things, it is conceived, are never perceived till the Holy Spirit enlightens the understanding. "For the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."9

"The things of the Spirit" here are obviously those truths which had been

9 1 Cor. ii. 14. "Not that the mind of man is physically incapable of apprehending such truths, when proposed to him; nor that it requires

some special illumination of the understanding to enable him to discern the terms of the propositions laid before him in Holy Writ;—but that

66

revealed; "The natural man" therefore cannot mean one who, by dint of reason, without revelation, could not have originally discovered them, because his not receiving" them clearly shows that they had been propounded to him, and were rejected simply because "they were foolishness unto him." Nor by the phrase "natural man can be meant one who is solely under the influence of his animal nature, because the term "natural" (Yuxios, animalis) is opposed to the term "spiritual" (TVεvμATIKÒç, spiritualis) in the following verse; the former therefore includes all not comprehended under the latter. The apostle then, it would seem, means every one destitute of the Spirit. In this sense the same word is used by St. Jude, verse 19, "sensual," which he immediately defines by, "not having the

these truths are not naturally to be discerned, even by the greatest exertion of his intellectual faculties. They cannot be known until revealed by the Spirit of God: nor will they, perhaps, even then, be

fully and readily received, but by the effect of the same Spirit in subduing the pride and the corrupt affections of the human heart."-Bp. Van Mildert's Bampt. Lect. p. 179.