cerning all things, to be right*: So that upon the whole, if he Might have his request, and God would grant him the thing that he longs fort, it would be this, to sin no more, and to get rid of every sentiment, desire, and affection, in any degree contrary to the purity of God's nature and law. If therefore there be any of you, that spare one accursed thing, though you should seem eager on destroying all the rest; if it be the secret language of your soul," There is but one lust, that I will indulge; there is but one temptation that I will comply with ;" I perceive your hearts are not right in the sight of God; for though you could, according to your pretended purpose, keep all the rest of the law, and yet offend in this one point alone, you would in effect be a transgressor of alls. In short, He that committeth sin, is of the devil; but He that is begotten of God, keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not¶. 6. He "that does not know what it is, to overcome this world, and to place his happiness in another," is yet in an unrege nerate state. This is another of those certain marks, which God has given us of his own children. Whatsoever is born of God, as it is very emphatically expressed in the original, overcometh the world**. It is not, you see, the extraordinary attainment of a few more eminent christians; but it is an essential branch of every good man's character: For he is Begotten again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, even to the hope of an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away++. You have reason therefore to judge very uncomfortably concerning your state, if you are strangers to this lively hope; which is a very different thing from that hope to be saved, of which some people talk in so indolent, not to say, in so profane a manner, as to shew, that it is The hope of the hypocrite, which will perish, when God takes away his soul‡‡. If you are conscious to yourselves, that you mind earthly things, your end will be destruction§§; for having your heart on earth, it is plain your only treasure is here||||: And if you govern yourselves by worldly maxims alone, and your great care be to obtain those riches and honours, which the children of the world pursue; if the importance of eternity has never appeared in HI John iii. 8. Psal. cxix. 128. +Job vi. 8. Acts viii. 21. § James ii. 10. such a light, as to make you judge every thing trifling that can come in competition with it; nay, whatever your views of eternity have been, if you are not practically carrying on a scheme for it; and if you cannot, and do not, deny your worldly interest, when it cannot be secured without hazarding your eternal hopes; it is plain you are friends of the world, in such a sense as none can be, but he must be an enemy of God*. If indeed you were dead to the world, and Your life hid with Christ in God, you would Set your affections on things above, on those things which are there, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of Godt: But the want of this temper shews, that you are carnally minded, which it is death to be; and that the redeeming love of Christ has never exerted its influence upon your souls, nor his cross had any due efficacy upon you; for if it had, The world would have been crucified to you, and you to the world§. 7. The soul" that does not long for greater improvements in the divine life," is still a stranger to the first principles of it. You know, that we are called, as christians, with an High and holy calling, and as he that is the author of this calling, is holy, so are we to be Holy in all manner of conversation¶, and to be perfect, even as our Father which is in heaven is perfect**. Here will therefore be room for improvement, not only during our continuance in the present life, but through all the ages of a glorious eternity; and it is the ardent desire of every good man, that in this sense above all others, his Path may be like the shinging light, that shineth more and more, until the perfect day++. And this is the one thing that he does, or that in which all his labours centre; being conscious to himself how far he is from having Already attained, or being already perfect, forgetting the things that are behind, he reacheth forth unto those things that are before, and presses toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus‡‡. In this view he seriously considers the circumstances of life in which providence has placed him; that he may observe the advantages, which these circumstances give him for religious improvements; and it is delightful to him to discover such advantages. Now if there be any of you, who know nothing of this temper, you are certainly in an unregenerate state: For none can be born of God, that do not love him; and none can truly love him, that do not earnestly desire, more and more to resemble *Jam. iv. 4. Gal. vi. 14. + Col. iii. 1, 2, 3. **Mat. v. 45. Phil. ii. 14. 2 Tim. i. 9. tt Prov. iv. 18. Rom. viii. 6. ¶ Pet. i. 15. 11 Phil. ii. 12—14. him. So that if your hearts can indulge such a thought as this, "I wish I knew how much religion would be just sufficient to save me, and I would go so far, and stop there;" your conscience must tell you, that you secretly hate religion, and are unwillingly dragged toward the form of it, by an unnatural and external violence, the fear of misery and ruin in neglecting it; and that you are not actuated by the free and liberal principle of a nature savingly renewed. 8. The soul" that does not know what it is, to live by faith in Christ, and in dependance on his Spirit," is still in an unregenerate state. We Are all the children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus*, if indeed we are so at all; and He that is joined to the Lord, in this sense, is one spirit with him+. But If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of hist: for as God has Predestinated us to the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ, to himself§, so of his fulness it is, that all believers do Receive, even grace for grace, or an abundance and variety of grace, by virtue of their union with him, who is The head; from whom the whole body, being fitly joined together, and strengthened by what every joint supplies, by an energy proportionable to every part, increases to the edifying of itself in love¶. These things, as you see, are not only hinted in scripture, but are copiously insisted upon, as very material points: And though I readily acknowledge, good men may apprehend and consider them very differently, and may express those apprehensions in different phrases; yet as experience makes it plain, that those souls generally flourish most, who have the most distinct conceptions of them, and the most habitual regard to them; so I think it is plain from these scriptures, that there can be no religion at all, where there is a total insensibility of them. If therefore there are any of you, that apprehend it is enthusiasm to talk of the assistances of the Spirit; nay, I will add, if there are any of you, that do not earnestly desire these assistances, and do not seek them daily from the hand of Christ, as the great covenant-head of his people; you are, I fear, strangers to some of The first principles of the oracles of God**, and are Sensual, not having the Spirit++. And though you may now and then form a hasty, and perhaps a warm resolution in religion, you will quickly, with the proud Youth, that are conceited of their own sufficiency, faint and be weary, * Gal. iii. 26. +1 Cor. vi. 17. + Rom. viii. 9. § Ephes. i. 5. ++ Jude ver. 19. and with the young men you will utterly fail; while they only that wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength, shall mount up as on eagles wings, and pressing on with an unwearied pace, according to the different degrees of vigour which the different parts of their course may require, shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint*. In short, if you do not thirst after the water of life, that is, as the Evangelist himself explains it, the Spirit, which they that Believe on Christ shall receive+, however bountiful he is, he makes no promise to impart it to you; and if you never receive it, all your other sources of comfort will soon be dried up, and the miserable condition of the creature, that asked in vain for one drop of water to cool his tormented tongue‡, will certainly be yours. Here I apprehend multitudes will miscarry, who have made a fair shew in the eyes of men; and if you are condemned by this mark, I am sure you will not be acquitted by any of the preceding. For all the branches of an holy temper have such a connection with this, and such a dependance upon it, that a man, who is destitute of this, can have only the semblance of the rest. And thus, Sirs, I have with all plainness and faithfulness, as in the sight of God, and sensible of my account to him, laid before you a variety of hints, by which I think you may safely and truly judge, whether you be, or be not, in an unregenerate state: And I shall now beg leave to conclude this discourse with one plain inference from the whole, viz. That baptism is not regeneration, in the scriptural, and most important sense of the word. To prove this as a corollary from the preceding discourse, I shall only assume this most reasonable concession, with which you may remember I at first set out; "that regeneration, and being born of God, signify the same thing." Now I have shewn you from a variety of scriptures under the former heads, that every one whom the sacred oracles represent as born of God, receiveth Christ, overcometh the world, and sinneth not. But it is too plain, that these characters do not agree to every one that is baptized; and consequently it evidently follows, that every one who is baptized is not of course born of God, or regenerate; and therefore, that baptism is not scripture regeneration. I think no mathematical demonstration plainer, and more certain than this conclusion; and therefore, whatever great and ancient names may be urged on the other side of the ques Isa. xl. 30, 31. + John vii. 39. Luke xvi. 24. tion, I shall rest the matter here, without leading you into the niceties of a controversy so easily decided. I would only farther observe, that they who most vigorously contend for the other manner of speaking, for after all it is but a dispute about a word, acknowledge expressly, that a man may be saved without what they call regeneration, and that he may perish with it. And though persons are taught to speak of their state, in consequence of baptism, in very high, and I fear, dangerous terms; yet when wise and good men come to explain those terms, it evidently appears, that many of whom they are used, are so in a state of salvation as to be daily obnoxious to damnation; so the children of God, as also to be the children of the devil; and so inheritors of the kingdom of heaven, as to be children of wrath, and on the brink of hell. Where persons of real piety apprehend themselves under a necessity of using such phrases with respect to all that are baptized, we cannot blame them for endeavouring to bring down their signification, as low as possible: But they will, I hope, excuse those, who chuse to speak, in what they apprehend to be a more scriptural, rational, and edifying language. It was a matter of conscience with me, to state the matter as you have heard. I do therefore earnestly intreat you, may dearly beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and for the sake of your own immortal souls, that you deceive not yourselves with vain words; but that where your eternal salvation is so plainly concerned, you bring the cause, the important cause, to an immediate trial: And if you are convinced, as I suppose many of you quickly may be, that you are at present dead in trespasses and sins, then let me beseech you, to reflect on what the most transient survey of the scripture may teach you, as to the danger of such a case. For though it will be my business, in the process of these discourses, more largely to represent it, when I come to speak of the necessity of the new birth, God only knows, whether your lives may be continued, till we advance so far in the subject: And where a case of this kind is in question, the delay of a week, or even of a day, may be inevitable and eternal ruin, |