are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for thy fhall be filled, Mat. v. 6.

Ver. 3. Bleffed be the God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, who according to his abundant mercy, bath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the refurrection of Jefus Chrift from the dead,

Ver. 4. To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, referved in heaven for you,

TT is a cold lifeless thing to speak of fpiritual things

upon mere report: But they that speak of them, as their own, as having fhare and intereft in them; and fome experience of their sweetness, their dif course of them is enlivened with firm belief, and ardent affection; they cannot mention them, but their hearts are straight taken with fuch gladness, as they are forced to vent in praises. Thus our Apoftle here, and St Paul, Eph. i. and often elsewhere, when they confidered these things wherewith they were about to comfort the godly, to whom they wrote, they were fuddenly elevated with the joy of them, and broke forth into thanksgiving; fo teaching us, by their example, what real joy there is in the confolations of the Gofpel, and what praise is due from all the faints to the God of thofe confolations. This is fuch an inheritance that the very thoughts and hopes of it are able to sweeten the greatest griefs and afflictions. What then shall the poffeffion of it be, wherein there fhall be no rupture, nor the leaft drop of any grief at all? The main fubject of these verses is, that which is the main comfort that fupports the fpirits of the godly in all conditions.

ft, Their after inheritance in ver. 4. 2dly, Their prefent title to it, and affured hope of it, ver. 3. 3dly, The immediate caufe of both affigned, viz. Jejus Chrift. 4tbly, All this derived from the free mercy of God, as the first and highest cause, and returned to his prefent glory, as the laft and highest end of it. G

VOL. I.

For

For the first, the inheritance.] But because the fourth verfe which defcribes it, is linked with the fubfequent, we will not go fo far off to return back again, but firft speak to this third verse, and in it,

Confider, 1. Their title to this inheritance, Begotten again; 2. Their affurance of it, viz. a holy or lively bope.

The title that the faints have to their rich inheritance is of the valideft and most unquestionable kind, viz. by birth. Not by their first natural birth: By it we are all born to an inheritance indeed; but we find what it is, Eph. ii. 3. Children of wrath, heirs apparent of eternal flames. It is an everlasting inheritance too, but fo much the more fearful, being of everlasting mifery, or, fo to fpeak, of immortal death, and we are made fure to it; they who remain in that condition cannot lose their right, although they gladly would escape it, they fhall be forced to enter poffeffion. But it is by a new and fupernatural birth, that men are both freed from their engagement to that woful inheritance, and invested into the rights of this other, here mentioned, as full of happiness as the former is miferable: Therefore are they faid here to be begotten again to that lively hope. God, the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, hath begotten us again. And thus are the regenerate, the children of an immortal Father, and fo entitled to an inheritance of immortality: If children, then heirs, heirs of God. This fonfhip is by adoption in Chrift, therefore it is added, joint heirs with Chrift, Rom. viii. 17. We adopted, and he the only begotten Son of God, by an eternal ineffable generation,

And yet this our adoption is not a mere extrinfical denomination, as is adoption amongst men; but accompanied with a real change in those that are adopted, a new nature, and fpirit infufed into them; by reafon of which, as they are adopted to this their inheritance in Christ, they are likewife begotten of God, and born again to it, by the fupernatural work of regeneration. They are like their heavenly Father, they

have his image renewed on their fouls, and their Father's fpirit. They have, and are acted, and led by it. This is that great mystery of the kingdom of God, that puzzled Nicodemus, it was darknefs to him at firft, till he was inftructed in that night, under the covert whereof he came to Chrift.

Nature cannot conceive of any generation or birth, but that which is within its own compafs; only they that are partakers of this spiritual birth, underftand what it means; to others it is a riddle, an unfavoury unpleasant subject.

It is fometimes afcribed to the fubordinate means, to baptifm, called therefore the laver of regeneration, Tit. iii. 5. To the word of God, Jam i. 18. It is that immortal feed, whereby we are born again, by the miniftry of this Word, and the seals of it, as, 1 Cor. iv. 15. For though you have ten thousand inftructors in Chrift, yet have ye not many fathers; for in Chrift Fefus I have begotten you through the Gospel. As alfo, Gal. iv. 19. But all thofe have their vigour and efficacy in this great work, from the Father of fpirits, who is their Father in their first creation, and infufion, and in this their regeneration, which is a new and fecond creation, 2 Cor. v. 17. If any man be in Chrift he is a

new creature.

Divines have reafon to infer from the nature of converfion thus expreffed, that man doth not bring any thing to this work himself. It is true he hath a will, as his natural faculty; but that this will embraces the offer of grace, and turns to him that offers it, is from renewing grace, that fweetly, and yet ftrongly; ftrongly, and yet fweetly, inclines it.

1. Nature cannot raise itself to this, more than a man can give natural being to himself. 2. It is not a fuperficial change, it is a new life and being. A moral man, in his changes and reformations of himfelf, is ftill the fame man. Though he reform fo far, as men, in their ordinary phrafe call him, quite another man; yet in truth, till he be born again, there is no new nature in him. The fluggard turns

сп

on his bed as the door on the hinges, fays Solomon. Thus the natural man turns from one custom and pofture to another, but never turns off: But the Chriftian, by virtue of this new birth, can say indeed, Ego non fum ego, I am not the fame man I was.

You that are Nobles, afpire to this honourable condition, add this nobleness to the other, for it far furpaffes it; make it the crown of all your honours and advantages. And you that are of mean birth, or if you have any ftain in your birth, the only way to make up and repair all, and truly to ennoble you, is this, to be the fons of a king, yea of the King of kings, and this honour have all his faints. To as many as received him, he gave this privilege to be the fons of God.

Unto a lively hope.] Now are we the fons of God, faith the Apostle, 1 John iii. 2. But it doth not yet appear what we shall be. These fons are heirs; but all this lifetime is their minority; yet even then being partakers of this new birth and fonfhip, they have right to it, and in the affurance of that right, this living hope; as an heir, when he is capable of those thoughts, hath not only right of inheritance, but may rejoice in the hope he hath of it, and please himself in thinking of it. But hope is faid to be only of an uncertain good: True, in the world's phrase it is so ; for their hope is converfant in uncertain things, or in things that may be certain, after an uncertain manner; all their worldly hopes are tottering, built upon fand, and their hopes of heaven are but blind and groundlefs conjectures; but the hope of the fons of the living God, is a living hope. That which Alexander faid when he dealt liberally about him, that he left hope to himself, the children of God may more wifely and happily fay, when they leave the hot pursuit of the world to others, and despise it, their portion is hope. The thread of Alexander's life was cut off in the midst of his victories, and fo all his hopes vanished; but their hope cannot die, nor difappoint them.

But.

But then it is faid to be lively, not only objectively, but effectively, enlivening and comforting the children of God in all diftreffes, enabling them to encounter and furmount all difficulties in the way. And then it is formally fo, it cannot fail, dies not before accomplishment. Worldly hopes often mock men, and fo cause them to be afhamed, and men take it as a great blot, and are most of all ashamed of those things that discover weakness of judgment,in them. Now worldly hopes do thus, they put the fool upon a man: When he hath judged himfelf fure, and laid fo much weight and expectation on them, then they break, and foil him; they are not living, but lying hopes, and dying hopes; they die often before us, and we live to bury them, and fee our own folly and infeli, city in trusting to them; but at the utmost, they die with us when we die, and can accompany us no further. But this hope answers expectation to the full, and much beyond it, and deceives no way, but in that happy way, of far exceeding it.

A living hope, living in death itself. The world dare fay no more for its device, but dum fpiro fpero; but the children of God can add, by virtue of this living hope, dum exfpiro fpero. It is a fearful thing when a man and all his hopes die together. Thus faith Solomon of the wicked, Prov. xi. 7. when he dieth,. then die his hopes, many of them before, but at the utmost then all of them; but the righteous bath hope in his death, Prov. xiv. 32. Death alone, that cuts the finews of all other hopes, and turns men out of all other inheritances, fulfils this hope, and ends it in fruition; as a meffenger fent to bring the children of God home to the poffeffion of their inheritance.

By the refurrection of Chrift from the dead.] This refers to both begotten again by his refurrection, and having this living hope by his refurrection; and well fuits both, it being the proper caufe of both, in this order. First then of the birth; next of the hope.

The image of God is renewed in us by our union with him, who is the exprefs image of his Father's perfon,