SERMON XIII.

ROM. XII. Part of the 2d Verfe.

Be ye transformed by the Renewing of your Minds.

Defign at this Time to treat of the Doctrine of Regeneration, and to speak to fome of thofe Questions and Cafes upon this Subject, which I have often found very well-difpofed Perfons to be uneafy under, for want of a Refolution about them: For this Reafon I have now pitched upon this Text.

And here, in the Entrance of my Difcourfe, it is fit I take notice, that the being tranfformed by the Renewing of our Minds which is here spoken of, tho' it be commonly underflood to be the Whole of Regeneration, yet it is really but one Part of it, tho' indeed it be the principal Part,

For Regeneration, or the New Birth, confifts of two Parts, an outward Baptifm, which includes a Profeffion of Chrift's Religion, and an inward Sanctification or Holiness of Heart and Life. This is exprefly told us, both

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both by our Saviour and by St. Paul. By our : Saviour, in the iiid of St. John, where he tells Nicodemus, firft of all in general, That except a Man be born again, he cannot fee the Kingdom of God. And in the next Words he explains himself wherein this new New Birth doth more particularly confift; Except a Man (faith he) be born of Water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. So that to a Man's being born again, there must go both the Baptifm of Water, and the Renewing of the Spirit.

And exactly to the fame Purpose doth St. Paul exprefs himself in the iiid of Titus, ver. 5. God (faith he) according to his Mercies bath faved us, not by Works of Righteousness, which we have done, but by the Washing of Regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. The Walking of Regeneration, there, is the outward Part of it: The Renewing of the Holy Ghoft, there, is the inward.

I wifh thofe that are offended at our Church for teaching, in her Offices, that Infants are regenerated by Baptifm, would a little more have confidered of this. I am fure both Scripture and Antiquity speak in this Language.

The Truth is, this Term of Regeneration, or the New Birth, hath fuch a Refpect to Baptifm, that it cannot be well understood without taking that in.

Our Saviour, no Doubt, took this Expreffion from the Jews, as he did abundance of others; and that which they meant by it, was

nothing

nothing else but a Man's becoming a Profelyte to their Religion, and being admitted thereto by Baptifm. For Baptifm among them, as well as among us, was the Way of receiving Profelytes into the Church; tho' indeed, to one Sort of Profelytes, they made Circumcifion neceffary, as well as Baptifm. And whoever thus came over from Heathenifm to the Profeffion of the God of Ifrael, and was thus admitted into the Jewish Church, I fay, every fuch Perfon was faid to be recens natus, new born, or regenerate. Nor was this only an empty Word among them, but it had real Effects; for they accounted a Profelyte to be, to all Intents and Purposes, fo new-born, that they judged him, from henceforward a perfect Stranger to all his natural Relations, even to that Degree, that he might lawfully marry with fuch Per-. fons as, before his being a Profelyte, he could not, by reason of Confanguinity or Affinity, contract Matrimony with. (See Dr. Lightfoot,

and others.

Now we have great Reafon to believe that our Saviour used this Term in the Sense they did; and when he declares, that except a Man be born again, he cannot fee the Kingdom of God; that which he means to exprefs hereby, was the abfolute Neceffity that there is upon every one, both Jew and Gentile, to become a Profelyte, a Difciple of His; and, as fuch, to be admitted into his Church, if he meant to go to Heaven. It must be owned,

that

that our Saviour took more into his Notion of Regeneration, than the Jews did; for, amongst them, an outward Baptifm, and an outward Profeffion, was fufficient to entitle a Man to the Name of New-born: But our Saviour farther requires a Man's being born of the Spirit, as well as the being born of Water, in order to his entring into the Kingdom of Heaven; that is to fay, befides the outward Baptifm, and the outward Profeffion, there must be an inward Principle of Virtue and Holinefs wrought in the Profeffor, by the Spirit of God: But yet this doth not hinder but that both thefe Things may go together; nay, it is certain they will always go together, unless a Man himself put a Bar to it: For whoever hath the outward Regeneration of Baptifm, will also have the inward Regeneration of the Spirit, if he be not falfe to God and himself. God's Spirit doth always accompany God's Ordinances; and therefore I think it dangerous to feparate the outward Regeneration from the inward.

But it is not the outward Part of Regeneration that I am now concerned with; tho' I wifh that feveral of the Sects among us would a little more concern themselves with it: It is the inward Part of it I am now to treat of; that which the Apoftle, in my Text, very fignificantly expreffes by the being transformed by the Renewing of our Minds. Now the Inquiry here is, what the Apoftle means by this Expreffion? Why, for that you cannot

be

be at a Lofs, if you please to look at the foregoing Words, to which these are put by way of Antithefis. This Verfe, of which my Text is a Part, begins thus ; Be not conformed to this World, but be ye transformed by the Renewing of your Minds. Now, if we know what Conformity to the World is here forbidden, we may certainly know what Transformation, or Renewal of our Minds, is here required.

As for the Conformity to the World, that is here forbidden, I believe no Body thinks there is any more intended by this Prohibition, than only a finful Compliance with the Cuftoms of the World; a framing of our Lives and Manners after the impious Practices and Examples that we fee frequently represented before us; an indulging ourselves in fuch bad Courses as the Men of the World do too often give themselves Liberty in.

Taking, now, this to be the true Notion of being conformed to the World; then the being transformed by the Renewing of our Minds, which is put in Oppofition to it, muft denote our being acted with more heavenly and divine Principles, and framing our Conversation in such a Way as is fuitable to the Profeffion of Chriftianity, which we have taken upon ourselves: It muft denote fuch an holy Difpofition and Frame of Soul, as doth effectually produce a Conformity of all the outward Actions to the Laws of the Gospel, to which the Law of Sin, and the Course of the World, is oppofite.

St. Peter