so violent, (a concession by no means to be made, certainly not in every case, considering the strong light in which he views the objects of his aversion and dread,) still the least action of enmity to God is as far removed from the lowest degree of holiness, as an object which God infinitely hates, from an object which He infinitely loves,-as far as a thing which deserves everlasting shame and contempt, from a grace that will receive endless and inconceivable rewards. And the two can never approach nearer together. I have now finished one train of reasoning, and will enter on another. I prove that Regeneration is instantaneous from the established truth that mankind by nature are destitute of holiness. Regeneration is nothing more nor less than the commencement of holiness in the soul,-the increase of that principle being not Regeneration but sanctification. If the soul is wholly destitute of holiness there must be a moment when it first receives that principle, provided the principle itself is specifically different from any thing preexisting in the mind, and is not a compound gradually formed out of the natural affections. Even in that case there would be a moment when by increase, or by a perfect process of combination, it would first become entitled to the name of holiness. But not to insist on that, it is very apparent from what has been said of the nature of holiness, that however multitudinous it may be in its operations and effects, it is not a compound, but a property no less simple in its essence than universal love, and that it is as specifically different from any thing preexisting in the mind as parental affection is from humanity, or the love of science from the love of food. A property so simple and distinct from all others, may be reasoned upon with as much precision as any of the elementary substances of the chemist. Now the production of a new and simple property, like the power of attraction first communicated to a repellent body, must be instantaneous. The beginning of a thing, one would think, cannot be progressive. This idea may be further illustrated by a recurrence to some of the images under which this change is represented. It is set forth by the figure of light created in the midst of total darkness: "God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." It is called the opening of blind eyes, and the unstopping of deaf ears. It is called a resurrection from the dead: "You hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." It is called a new creation: "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature." "We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” "Put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." It is called the removal of a heart of stone and introduction of a heart of flesh. It is called a new birth.* Now * Ps. cxlvi. 8. Isai. xxix. 18. and xxxv. 5. and xlii. 16-19. and xliii. 8. Ezek. xi. 19. Luke iv. 18. John iii. 3. 2 Cor. iv. 6. and v. 17. Eph. ii. 1, 10. and iv. 24. Rev. iii. 17. 2 Pet. i. 9. all these figures import an instantaneous change. There is a moment when the first ray of light enters a region of total darkness. There is a moment when the blind man begins to see. There is a moment when the deaf man hears the first sound. There is a moment when life begins to animate a dead body. The creation of a simple substance is instantaneous. The formation of the various objects that were to compose a world, admitted of successive acts; and to this is analogous the new creation of the whole body of the elect in successive generations: but when a simple substance was to be produced, "God said, Let there be light, and there was light." The removal of a heart of stone, likewise, and substitution of a heart of flesh, must be instantaneous, or according to the figure there is a time when either there are two hearts or no heart at all. And in regard to a birth, there is a moment in every case in which it may be first said, a child is born into the world. Regeneration has sometimes been compared to the struggle of light with darkness and its gradual prevalence at the dawn of day. But what do they mean by light? If it is holiness that they mean, they assume what has been proved to be false, that there is holiness in the heart before the completion of Regeneration. Show me a man in whom holiness and sin are struggling for dominion, and I will show you one who is already born again. But if they mean any thing besides holiness, any thing * Gen. i. 3. besides the identical principle whose prevalence is to constitute the change, the change itself bears no resemblance to the progress of the dawn,-the progress of the same light that makes the day. It might more fitly be compared to the first ray that strikes the eastern horizon, or rather to the first ray that enters a region of total darkness. And be tween the last moment of total darkness and the first moment of commencing light no time can elapse. But if by light in this comparison is meant speculative knowledge, and this were even allowed to be the cause of Regeneration, still the change could not be progressive, if any thing more than ignorance, if moral depravity is to be removed. No matter by what means the change is accomplished, if it is a transition from supreme selfishness to the supreme love of God, it must be instantaneous as has been shown. It affords much support to these reasonings that the Scriptures divide the whole human race into two classes,―saints and sinners, the good and the bad, believers and unbelievers, natural men and spiritual men, those who are in Christ and those who are out, they who are still under condemnation and they who are justified, the heirs of heaven and the heirs of hell. There is not a third class. "He that is not with me is against me."* It follows that every man, at every moment of his life, belongs to one or the other of these two classes. Then he belongs to one till the moment he enters * Mat. xii. 30. the other. Were it otherwise, there would be a time in which he is neither good nor bad, neither in Christ nor out, neither condemned nor justified, neither an heir of heaven nor an heir of hell. What is he then? To whom does he belong? Whither would he go if he should die? Is there a purgatory? I might add to these reasonings that Regeneration is represented to be a great exhibition of power, as great as the resurrection of Christ: "The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places." This certainly favours the idea at least of a sudden change. Divine power is doubtless as much exerted in the gradual motion of the heavenly bodies, and in the slow process of vegetation, as it was in stopping the sun over Gibeon; but when men are summoned to witness a great exhibition of power, they naturally look for a sudden effect, as the burst of a volcano, or the sweep of a whirlwind. But if instead of one grand effort Regeneration is brought about by a lingering influence, it is no more an exhibition of power than the growth of a plant, or the alteration of any of our tastes. And if it is produced by the slow operation Eph. i, 18-20 |