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all their performances, and they are apt to call in question the reality of joy in God, and communion with him, because they are altogether ftrangers to it themselves. But all the real children of God defire a sense of his love, as well as grieve or fear under a sense of his displeasure. The light of his reconciled countenance gives them more joy and gladness than the greatest affluence of corn or of wine; and under the feverest chastisement, instead of Aly. ing from his prefence, they fay with Job, "O that I knew "where I might find him, that I might come even to his "feat; I would order my cause before him, and fill my "mouth with arguments."* Nothing, indeed, can be more proper than calling the one a filial, and the other a flavifh fear for great is the difference between a child fearing the displeasure of a parent whom he fincerely loves, and a flave dreading the refentment of an enraged tyrant, whose service he abhors.

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SECT. IV.

From this metaphor, EXCEPT A MAN BE BORN AGAIN HE CANNOT SEE THE KINGDOM OF GOD, and other parallel expressions in the holy scriptures, we may learn that the change here intended is SUPERNATURAL.

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HEN I fay it is a fupernatural change, I mean that it is what man cannot by his own power ef fect without fuperior or divine aid. As we are by nature in a state of enmity and oppofition to God, fo this is what we cannot "of ourselves" remove or overcome. The exercife of our own rational powers, the perfuafion of others, the application of all moral motives of every kind, will be ineffectual, without the special operation of the Spirit and grace of God. Thus the apoftle John defcribes those who believe in the name of Chrift: "Which were born not of "blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, "but of God." And thus the apostle Paul expreffes himfelf: "Not by works of righteousness which we have

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"done but according to his mercy he faved us, by the "washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy "Ghoft."* There is no part of the fcripture doctrine which the natural man hears with greater averfion, or opposes with greater violence. It gives fo humbling a view of our own character and state, and ftands fo directly op posed to pride and felf-fufficiency, that it cannot be truly acceptable to any, till they are brought to a faving acquaintance with its power and efficacy. However it hath been, this "foolishness of preaching," or rather, this commonly esteemed foolish part of preaching, that God hath most remarkably bleffed for the falvation of fouls; I will therefore endeavor to fhew, in as plain and fatisfying a manner as I am able, that this is the doctrine of the holy fcripture; and then to vindicate it from the chief objections that are usually raised against it.

How many passages of Scripture are there, that speak in the strongest terms, not only of our miserable but helpless state before converfion. Thus the apostle to the Ephefians, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trefpaffes and fins." And again, "But God, who is "rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

even when we were dead in fins, hath quickened us to"gether with Chrift (by grace ye are faved.") In his epistle to the Coloffians, he repeats the fame thing; "And you, being dead in your fins and the uncircumcifion of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, ha"ving forgiven you all your trefpaffes." The reader muft know, that in many other paffages the fame truth is to be found, couched under the fame or like metaphors: fuch as "blindness, darkness, hardness of heart." The force of the expreffion is feldom fufficiently attended to. Suffer me then to put the question, Do you give credit to the holy fcriptures? Do you form your opinions without partiality or prejudice from them? Then you must receive it as truth that man, in his natural ftate, can do nothing of himself to his own recovery, without the concurrence of fuperior aid. If there is any meaning or propriety in

Titus iii. 5. † Eph. ii. 1. Eph. ii. 4, 5. | Col. ii. 13.

fcripture language, we muft yield to this. What more could be faid, than that we are "dead" in fin?

What more incapable of action, than one who is entirely deprived of life?

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But left there fhould be any remaining exception, the thing is afferted in plain and explicit terms, without any metaphor, by the apoftle John, from our Saviour's own mouth: "No man can come unto me, except the Father "which hath fent me, draw him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And แ they shall be all taught of God; every man, therefore, "that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, cometh "unto me."* I fhall mention only one paffage more, in which, under the fimilitude of a wretched outcast infant, the prophet Ezekiel reprefents the natural state of Jerusalem. "And as for thy nativity, in the day thou waft born, "thy navel was not cut, neither waft thou washed in wa

ter to fupple thee; thou waft not falted at all, nor fwad"dled at all. None eye pitied thee, to do any of these "unto thee, to have compaffion upon thee; but thou waft "caft out in the open field, to the loathing of thy person, "in the day that thou waft born. And when I paffed by "thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I faid "unto thee, when thou waft in thy blood, Live; yea, I "faid unto thee, when thou waft in thy blood, Live."t Here all the circumftances are collected, that could fignify at once a miserable and weak, wretched and helpless condition, or that could ferve to make our deliverance at once a fignal inftance both of grace and power.

This leads me to obferve, that the fame truth will receive further light from thofe paffages of fcripture, in which the real agent in this great change is pointed out, and which celebrate the efficacy of his power. As in the text it is afferted, that, "except a man be born again, he can. "not enter into the kingdom of God:" So in other paffages, true believers are faid to be "born of God-born "from above-born of the Spirit." The power of God exerted in the renovation of the finner, is described in

* John vi. 44, 45. † Ezek. xvi. 4, 5, 6.

language taken from the first formation of the world. "For "we are his workmanship, created in Chrift Jefus unto "good works, which God hath before ordained that we "fhould walk in them."* And, "If any man be in "Chrift, he is a new creature; old things are paft away, "behold all things are become new." See the prophecies of the Old Teftament, refpecting the plentiful effufion of the holy Spirit in the times of the gofpel: they contain a clear defcription of divine fupernatural influence. Thus the prophet Ifaiah, "For I will pour water upon "him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. I "will pour my Spirit upon thy feed, and my bleffing up"on thine offspring; and they shall spring up as among "the grafs, and as willows by the water-courfes." To the fame purpose the prophet Ezekiel: "Then will I fprinkle clean water upon you, and ye fhall be clean "from all your filthinefs, and from all your idols will I "cleanse you. A new heart alfo will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away "the ftony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an "heart of flesh; and I will put my fpirit within you, and "caufe you to walk in my ftatutes; and ye fhall keep my

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judgments, and do them" Let it not feem tedious to any that I have collected fo many paffages of fcripture on this fubject. It is no light thing; and indeed it is no common thing, to believe it from the heart. But let us now affirm it, on divine teftimony, that regeneration is the work of the Holy Ghoft.

But

I would not build this truth upon any other evidence. When we stand in God's room, bear his message, and fpeak in his name, nothing fhould be affirmed, which cannot be supported by a "Thus faith the Lord." having done fo, I think I may warrantably observe how much the visible state of the world correfponds with the fcripture declarations on this fubject. I hope this will be neither unfuitable nor unprofitable, confidering what an inward averfion men have to receive and apply them. If. xliv. 3, 4.

⚫ Eph. ii. 10.

† 2 Cor. v. 17.
Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26, 27.

Do we not daily fee many inftances of perfons, of first rate understandings and great natural abilities, who yet continue blind to their duty to God, and the falvation of their fouls? As they are born, fo they continue to fhow themselves through their whole lives, "wife to do evil, "but to do good they have no knowledge." What proofs do they often give of the power and influence of habits of wickedness over them? How frequently does it happen, that their attachment to fin in general, or to fome particular fin, is fuch, as to bear down before it all regard to their own intereft, temporal and eternal? While at the fame time persons of unfpeakably inferior talents, enlightened by the Spirit and fanctified by the grace of God, fhall ftand firm against the most dangerous temptations, and efcape the pollution that is in the world through luft. This our bleffed Lord adores as a part or proof of the fovereignty and unfearchable wisdom of his heavenly Father. "In that hour Jefus rejoiced in fpirit, and faid, I thank "thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou "haft hid these things from the wife and prudent, and "haft revealed them unto babes: even fo, Father, for fo "it feemed good in thy fight."*

Is it not plain, that fuperior advantages of inftruction, though very valuable, are far from being always effectual ? Sometimes thofe who live long under the falutary inftruction and edifying example of pious parents and mafters, continue, notwithstanding, in an infenfible state. Sometimes we fee perfons fit long under the most enlightening and awakening miniftry, with hearts as hard as the nether millitone. The cafe of the ordinary hearers of the gospel is indeed often affecting, and leads to ferious meditation on the depths of the divine counfels. Suffer me to bespeak the readers of this clafs in the following terms. Are not many of you a wonder to yourselves, as well as to one another? Is not your danger often pointed out to you in the clearest manner? Is not your character drawn and diftinguished by the most undeniable marks ? Are not your duty and intereft fet before you in fuch a

* Luke x. 21.

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