(14) I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. (15) For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. (16) Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. (17) For this cause have I sent unto you Timothy, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church. (18) Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you. (19) But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. (20) For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. (21) What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness?
So much hath been said from those words of the Apostle, concern spiritual Father s, and of the begetting souls to Christ by conversion, that I cannot wholly pass over the subject. I have indeed elsewhere, in my Poor Man's Concordance, given my humble opinion, that the term is improper; and that I conceive the Apostle himself had no such meaning as is generally supposed, in calling himself the spiritual Father of those Corinthians. And certainly it savors much of vanity, hath a great tendency to nourish spiritual pride, and is altogether foreign to Paul's account of himself to Timothy, as the chief of sinners, 1 Timothy 1:15. But, in addition to the observations I there offered, I would beg to say, that as regeneration is the sole work of God the Holy Ghost, it is not possible to reconcile it with common sense, how any act of a minister, can be considered as a co-worker, or a subordinate worker, in such an act, as re-creation. It is true, indeed, that faith is said to come by hearing; and hearing by the word of God: Romans 10:17. But hearing, implies life to hear, and when a soul, which was, before regeneration, dead in trespasses and sins, is brought into life; faith cometh by hearing, as a means of grace. But there is a mighty difference between hearing, and creating. And, as man hath no hand in the old creation; so neither in the new. The work itself is solely the Lord's. It is the peculiar and special office of God the Holy Ghost. And is rife of Heaven's wonders. And surely, none less than He, which brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, can be competent to bring from death, those who by nature, are dead in trespasses and sins, Ephesians 2:1
I shall leave the consideration of the subject to the Reader's own judgment, under the Lord. But I confess I cannot but conclude, that it must be highly unsuitable, irreverent, and blamable, to assume the name of spiritual Father, from any supposed services, in the ministry of Christ. It is the special office of God the Spirit to beget souls from the death of sin. It is his work : and it is his sole glory. And when we hear the Lord speak of his jealousy, as we do in many parts of Scripture, it ought to be well considered, how the Lord expresseth himself: I am the Lord, that is my Name: and my glory will I not give to another: neither my praise to graven images, Isaiah 42:8.