well as of our dispositions. And the like I may say of other texts, which mention regeneration, which I will not now so far digress as to recite.

Having seen what Christ teacheth Nicodemus first, let us next see the success of his doctrine. Nicodemus fastening too much upon the metaphorical term of "being born again," and withal not understanding the meaning of it, nor the scope of Christ, he presently expresseth his ignorance and unbelief by this question, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" Hereupon Christ returning an explicatory answer, telling him not only the nature of the new birth, but also the mysteriousness of its causes in the effecting it, and showing a plain reason from natural agents, why the mysteriousness of this should not make it seem incredible; yet doth Nicodemus return a second answer like the first, "How can these things be?" Which words do impart not an absolute unbelief of the truth of what Christ had said, but a great ignorance of his meaning, and a not-discerning of that evidence fully which should have caused full belief; but a strong apprehension of the improbability of the thing affirmed, and thereupon a great doubting of the truth of the affirmation. And note here the aggravations of Nicodemus's fault :

First, They were the words of one that he himself confessed to be a teacher come from God, and that sealed his doctrine by such miracles as none could do, except God were with him; and doth God send any messenger with a lie, or any teacher that knoweth not what he teacheth; or will he seal untruths, or senseless absurdities, with such unquestionable miracles? Surely, a man that was once convinced that God sent the messenger, and sealed the message, should be confident that the matter of it is divine, and should never once suspect it of untruth.

Secondly, Though Christ did, with frequent asseverations, aver the truth of his doctrine, yet did Nicodemus stagger through unbelief.

Thirdly, It was the very catechism and rudiments of piety, and Christianity, which were so strange to him.

Fourthly, The term, by which Christ expresseth spiritual things, he understandeth all in a carnal sense; yea, and after that Christ had told him plainly what birth he means, not carnal, producing a fleshly creature, but of water and the Spirit, producing a spiritual creature, yet doth not Nicodemus understand him for all this?

Fifthly, Yet was this man a ruler of the Jews, even one of the great Sanhedrim, and one reputed skilful in the law; one that professed himself a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructer of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which had the form of knowledge, and of the truth in the law; one of those that boasted of God, and of the law. (Rom. ii. 17-20.) Yet he that should teach others had not learned these rudiments himself.

Sixthly, And when Christ used a familiar instance, to show him that things are not therefore incredible, because invisible, or because invisible, or because we know not the nature, cause, and end of them. We may know that it is, when we cannot know what it is, or whence, or why it is, or whither it tends, as in the blowing of the wind, is evident; yet doth not Nicodemus cease his doubting on this account, but asketh "How can these things be?" The spirituality and mysteriousness of the thing made it seem improbable to his uninformed intellect; and the seeming improbability made him doubt of the verity. Because it was past his apprehension to conceive how it should be, therefore he doubted whether it were true or not. He had not so much rational consciousness of his own ignorance, or so much confidence in a teacher sent from God, and sealing his doctrine by miracles, as to acquiesce as a learner in his teacher's credit, concerning the verity of the thing, while he was seeking to get a clearer discovery of its nature, rise, and ends.

So that here were all these sins together manifested in this answer, great ignorance, even in a ruler; unbelief, doubting of the conclusion, when he had acknowledged the premises; an unteachableness, in part, when he professed himself to come to learn; an arrogant conceit of the capaciousness of his understanding, as if Christ's words, or the plain truth, should be sooner suspected, than his shallow capacity.

From this picture we may well conclude what is the ordinary shape of man's corrupted disposition, and we may all know ourselves by knowing Nicodemus; and from hence I may raise this observation of us all:

Doct. The corrupt nature of man is more prone to question the truth of God's word, than to see and confess their own ignorance and incapacity; and ready to doubt whether the things that Christ revealeth are true, when they themselves do not know the nature, cause, and reason of them.

They will make every thing which they understand not to seem

improbable, and all such improbabilities will make it seem incredible, and the incredibility of a part makes the whole seem incredible; and thus men will be infidels, or feed their infidelity by every thing that themselves are ignorant of; and make it the chief reason why they will not believe or learn, because they do not already know and fully understand the things to be learned and believed and so God must be accused in every thing that moles and worms are ignorant of.

When the Jews acknowledged the prophets to be of God, and sometimes would profess to receive and obey any message that God should send by them, yet when they heard what it was in particular, which he sent, then, if it did not suit with their interest and carnal reason, they would not believe it, or obey it, but rather persecute the messenger, and think, that surely such a message could never come from God; so that they must like the particular matter before they would believe that it was of God and so God's word shall not be God's word, unless it please the blind and carnal reason of man.

So you may find they used the prophet Jeremiah; (Jer. xlii.;) they entreat the prophet to go for them to God, by prayer, and for advice, and bind themselves with seeming resolution to obey; saying, "The Lord be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things, for the which the Lord thy God shall send thee to us; whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God, to whom we send thee, that it may be well with us when we obey," &c. One would have thought that these men would have believed, and obeyed any thing that God should send to them, after such a vow as this; and yet, when they heard that the message was contrary to their own minds and opinions, (c. xliii. 1, 2,) it is said, that "all the proud men" gave this answer; "Thou speakest falsely, the Lord our God hath not sent thee to say this,'

A full instance you have of the like corrupt disposition in John vi. When Christ doth but tell them that he is the bread that came down from heaven, the Jews murmur; (ver. 41;) but when he insisted on it, that "He was the living bread, and that he would give his flesh for the life of the world, and that, he that eateth him should live for ever," these spiritual things they did not understand, but understood him carnally, and thereupon reject the truth, because they understood it not; so that (ver. 52) they fall a striving among themselves against

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Christ's words; saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Even like Nicodemus, "How can these things be?" They will not believe it is true, or that it can be, till they know, themselves, "How it can be :" and when Christ yet pressed home the mystery further, even some of his own disciples, when they heard this, said, This a hard saying, who can hear it?"(Ver. 60.) And though Christ proceeded to open the mystery to them, and spake that more plainly which he had spoken allegorically; yet it is said, (ver. 66,) that "from that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him;" insomuch, that he asked the twelve, whether they would go also, intimating the greatness of the number of revolters upon this slight occasion; forsooth, because he spake that which they understood not, and would have taught them, what they had not humility and patience enough to learn; and because they did not reach it at the first hearing, therefore they thought it improbable and incredible. Many more such instances we might give you from Scripture, but, alas ! it is a truth that needs no further proof; there are as many living witnesses of it as there are men on earth; the unregenerate being conquered by this corruption, and the regenerate weakened and hindered much by the remnants of it.

For the further improvement of this observation, I shall, first, open further the nature and workings of this corruption; secondly, and then show the reasons of it; and, lastly, make some application of all.

1. Sometimes the weak intellect of man is stalled at the quiddity or nature of things; and then, being arrogant as well as ignorant, it will not believe that there is such a thing, because he cannot reach to know what it is.

On this account, some question, whether man have an immortal soul, because they cannot reach to know, as they expect, what that soul is: and some will not believe there is such a thing as the Spirit of God dwelling in his people, because they know not what that Spirit is: and some think that there is no such thing as inherent, sanctifying grace, or the image of God renewed upon the souls of the regenerate; but that all talk of these spiritual, supernatural changes are mere fancies and conceits; and all because they know not what this sanctity and gracious inclination is. They think there is no such thing as communion with God, because they know not what it is; nor any such thing as a spirit of prayer, because they know not what it is,

And, indeed, if this were a wise and right reasoning, then there should be nothing in being, but what we know the formal nature of, which is as gross a conceit as most in the world. What if you know not what an angel or spirit is, doth it follow that there is none? What if you know not what is beyond the visible creatures out of sight, doth it follow that there is nothing beyond our sight? By this rule you may say that there is no God; nay, all the world must needs say so, if this were right reasoning, for no man hath a true formal knowledge of God's essence, and therefore must say there is no God, because they know not what God is ; nay, it is a great question whether such men must not deny the being of almost all God's creation; for it is but little that we know of the forms of things, in comparison of what we are ignorant of. You know not what the fire is, nor what the light is, nor what the air and wind is; for all the great pretences of the world. Men are ignorant of the formal nature of these: and will you therefore say that there is no such thing as fire, or light, or air, or wind? You know not the formal nature of the sun or moon: is there, therefore, no sun or moon? Alas! there is not a pile of grass, nor the smallest creeping thing, that you thoroughly know, and yet you know that such things there are. A beast knows not what a man is, and yet he apprehendeth that there is such a creature : and no`man thoroughly knoweth what he is himself, and yet he knoweth that he is.

And, for the soul itself, it is a most easy and obvious truth, that we have such a soul; but it is not so easy to give a definition of it. As the way to know that you have eyes in your head, and eye-sight, is not by seing those eyes or eye-sight, but by seeing other things by them: for the eye was not made to see itself, nor do we see the sight of the eye; but by that eye and sight we see other things, and thereby know that we have eyes and sight: for he that hath not eyes and eye-sight, can see nothing at all; so the intellective soul was not made directly to understand itself, and its own intellection, but to understand other things, and thereby to know that we have an intellectual soul: for he that understandeth, doth understand something, and thereby he understandeth that he doth understand, and so, that he hath an intellectual faculty: for he that hath not an intellectual soul can understand nothing at all; yet I will not presume to determine the controversy, whether the intellect do know its own and the will's elicit acts, by direct