you have the form of godliness, you have hitherto denied its power. He declares that your righteousness, which does not exceed that of the Pharisees, will never introduce you into the kingdom of God. Yes, were you a second Cornelius, a devout man, fearing God with all your house, giving much alms to the people, seeking God with fasting and continual prayer, if God hath not accepted you in the Beloved; if by faith in the name of Jesus you have not received remission of your sins; if the Holy Spirit have not descended upon you; if God, who knoweth the heart, beareth not witness to you as to him, purifying your heart by faith; your baptism has not saved you. And although you may not be far from the kingdom, you are not yet possessed of it, you are not yet regenerated. You have the fear of the Lord, but not his love. You are not yet a child of God. You still want the Spirit of adoption in order to be a Christian; for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing, but a new creation; an entire change of our soul, as well as of our life. In a word, "a new heart, a right spirit: the kingdom of God within us."

If these things be so, (and they cannot be denied without trampling under foot the truth as it is in Jesus,) suffer the word of God to penetrate into your soul. This day hear the voice of God, and harden not your heart. The things which you read regard your eternal peace. Ah! beware lest your unbelief hide them from your eyes for ever. Are you one of those saints of the world who make a fair show in the flesh; and who, far from suffering persecution for the cross of Christ, are honoured of men because you still conform to the present world? Who, content with your moral duties and exterior piety, do not come to Jesus with the repentance and importunity of the publican? Suffer this foolishness of preaching to pull off your mask. Renounce your own wisdom: tear off the vain robe of your own righteousness: and smiting your breast, come to Christ with the publicans and harlots, and groan for regeneration, without which you cannot see the kingdom of heaven. Nicodemus has set you the example. He at length "received the kingdom as a little child, and was more than conqueror through the blood of the Lamb." Tread in his blessed footsteps. And if you also be a master in Israel, follow his simplicity, and triumph like him over all your prejudices, your doubts, and the fear of those who say, they are the Israel of God, and are not; and having followed him in the regeneration, you shall soon follow him to glory.

But if you are an open sinner, if you live in the practice of injustice, intemperance, impurity, or falsehood; thirsting after gold or pleasure; despising the name of God and his word; we need not attempt to prove that you are not regenerate. Your sins have a voice, they cry as Jesus did to such gross offenders, "You are of your father the devil, for his works you do." You know it is so; your own heart condemns you. Wonder not then that we denounce your utter perdition, in the name of God, if you are not born again. Strive to open your eyes, and behold the corruption of your heart, that depraved source of your ungodly manners. Behold the destroying angel behind you, the eternal abyss opened under your feet, and the Lord Jesus ready to take vengeance on you as his enemies. O that the idea of these awful events may awaken, before their reality overwhelms you! O may the fear of the Lord be in you the

beginning of wisdom! This moment turn to your gracious God; tomorrow may be too late. "This is the day of salvation" for you. If you neglect it, the coming night may be the commencement of night eternal to your soul. And will you trifle with a danger like this? Will you do nothing to escape the sword of Divine justice? If your danger move you not, consider your interest. This would be sufficient to produce an entire change in you, if you would consider it seriously. In this world God offers you the pardon of your sins, and a happiness which can only be surpassed by that of glorified saints; and after this life a kingdoma kingdom in the heavens. And will you carelessly renounce this because you cannot obtain it without pain? Rather than be born again, do you resolve to lose a crown of eternal glory? To lose your God, your Saviour, your all? Yea, to destroy yourself? Be not deceived. If the kingdom of heaven be shut against you, the kingdom of darkness, the second death, becomes your portion. If the kingdom of God be not established within you; if the foundation be not laid in your soul in this life, by the righteousness of Christ, the peace of God, and the joy of the Holy Ghost, "the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched," shall terribly revenge your contempt for the blood of the covenant in which your sins might have been washed away, if you had implored the sacred sprinkling. Be not offended at our freedom. God knows that if we spread before you the treasures of his wrath, which he reserves for the day of wrath, it is that you may flee to those of his mercy. These are still open. His great and precious promises are still for you. By these you may be made partakers of the Divine nature in this life, and after death of the inheritance among the saints in light.

SECTION II.

The difference between the reformation of a Pharisee, and the regeneration of a Christian more particularly considered.

To the preceding exhortation permit me to add an advice which is of the last importance. Many sinners acknowledge the necessity of regeneration without being profited thereby, because they confound it with reformation of life. Reader, beware of this error. Remember, it is not sufficient to die to sin if we be not raised into newness of life. It is a little thing to say, "By the grace of God I am not what I was," if we cannot add," by the same grace I am what I never have been." It is a little thing to be able to say, "I am no swearer, drunkard, unclean person; I do not walk after the flesh;" unless we feel at the same time that we walk in the strait path of faith, hope, and Divine love.

You are no longer unjust: well; but like Zaccheus, do you give the half of your goods to feed the poor, and if you have wronged any man, do you restore four-fold? You are no longer sensual and voluptuous; but are your affections spiritual and Divine? You are no longer enslaved to passion and anger; but does the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your soul in the sweetness and patience of the Lamb of God? You are no longer filled with that pride which made you hate your superiors, despise your inferiors, and shun your equals;

but in its place, do you feel in your heart the poverty of spirit, and the humility of Jesus? Do you never indulge what one calls "a polite pride?" Do you never pique yourselves upon your gentility, or upon any worldly distinction? You are perhaps an eminent person, and you feel it is unworthy an honest man to lie or calumniate; but do you always firmly take part with the truth? Do you comfort, reprove, or exhort your brethren with the sweetness and zeal of a Christian? You no longer mock at the word of God; but do you meditate upon it day and night? And is it as sweet to your soul as honey to your palate?

You are convinced it is a great sin to "take the name of God in vain ;" but do you "rejoice with reverence" every time you pronounce or think of that sacred name? You detest impiety, you cry out against that deluge of iniquity which threatens to destroy us: but are you not either transported with bitter zeal, or lukewarm, and filled with vain confidence? You lament over many that you see at church, and at the holy table; but when you are there, do you rejoice as in the presence of the Lord? Does all that is within you cry out by happy experience, "How dreadful is this place! It is the dwelling of the mighty God!" Do you inwardly feed upon the bread of angels? Do you drink of the waters that spring up into everlasting life? Do you taste that the Lord is good?

You enter regularly into your closet, and you blame those who neglect to pray to their Father who seeth in secret; but do you there seek your God with tears until he manifests himself to you as he does not unto the world? Are you sick of love, (to use the expression of Solomon,) feeling that your Beloved is yours, and that you are his; "that his left hand is under your head," and that his "right hand embraces you?" In a word, do you find there "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost?"

You feel that the life of a Christian ought to be a constant preparation for death, and as it is contrary to good sense to take those diversions in which we would not that death should find us; you therefore leave plays, useless visits, balls, finery, romances, cards, &c, to those whom the God of this world blinds, lest they should see eternity ready to swallow them up: but do you "redeem the time," that you may "walk in all those good works which the Lord has prepared" for you? Does the "love of Christ constrain you," so that your duty becomes your delight? Do you love to visit the Lord Jesus Christ in prison, and in the abode of the widow and orphan? Do you seek the poor that are despised? Are you merciful to the utmost of your power, both to the bodies and the souls of men? And do you find more pleasure in administering to the afflicted, and "weeping with those that weep," than the children of this world experience in all their vain delights?

Your life is not irregular, thanks be to God! You do not live any longer in presumptuous sins. But do you feel the sprinkling of the blood of Christ? Do you know that you "have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of your sins?" In a word, are you "crucified with Christ," living no longer to yourself, but to God? Is "Christ your life?" Do you feel that "your life is hid with Christ in God?”

Reader, behold in these questions the difference between the reformation of a Pharisee, and the regeneration of a child of God. Some de. grees of preventing grace, and of reason and reflection, suffice for the

first;
but nothing less can effect the second than a baptism of the Holy
Ghost, and a real participation of the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Beware, if indeed you would "flee from the wrath to come, and see the
kingdom of God," beware that you rest not in the former state. If you
do," the publicans and harlots shall go into the kingdom of heaven be-
fore you," or rather you shall never enter therein. Christ himself has
solemnly declared it, Matt. v, 20, xxi, 31. Accuse us not of severity in
thus following eternal Wisdom, and in not daring to make void any
words written in the book of life. To flatter you in this respect would
be to lose our own souls, and that without remedy.

We are not ignorant that the voice of worldlings, like "the sound of
many waters," lifts itself up on all sides, and drowns that of the Saviour.
In vain we declare, that those who falsely "call him Lord, shall not
enter into his kingdom." In vain we cry to sinners to "strive to enter
in at the strait gate" of regeneration, because "many will seek to enter"
by that of reformation, "and shall not be able." Sinners, always in-
credulous and obstinate, and ever carried away by the multitude, refuse
to hear the voice of their Shepherd. Wolves in sheep's clothing betray
them. Death seizes them before they are born again, and chains of
darkness keep them bound to the judgment of the great day. Fools! to
be blinded by that which should open their eyes, viz. the multitude that
are content to live without regeneration. As if Christ had not expressly
said, "Many are called, but few chosen; that his flock is a little flock;"
and that few walk in the narrow path that leads to life.

Renounce, reader, renounce the presumptuous folly of worldlings, and if the charm be not yet broken, suffer the grace of God to break it this moment! Say not, you "are rich and need nothing." Depend not on your own works, your sincerity, your religious duties, your own righteousness. Acknowledge, on the contrary, that as you are not born again, you are yet in your sins; poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked. Feel the necessity to "buy gold tried in the fire that you may be rich; and white clothing, that the shame of your nakedness may not appear; and to anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. Cry out like the penitent publican, with a broken and contrite heart, or as Saul, praying day and night for the Spirit of God, Lord, "be merciful to me a sinner!" Lord, "who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Lord," what shall I do to be born again?" If these be the desires of your soul, attend to the conclusion of this discourse. There you shall see, that however dangerous your case may be, it is not desperate; and you shall be convinced that there is balm in Gilead. You shall confess that faith in the blood of Christ can, not only heal the wounds of a dying soul, but raise to life one that is spiritually dead.

THE CONCLUSION.

By what means a soul may be born again.

GOD takes the title of "slow to anger; abundant in goodness and truth." He swears by himself that he has "no pleasure in the death of a sinner," but that he should be converted and live; and the effects

answer to those tender declarations. His mercy has found a way to raise fallen man, (if he will yield,) and to place him again among his children, without wounding his own justice. This way is astonishing, unthought of, incomprehensible. It surpasses infinitely the conjectures of angels, and the desires of men. And it is so infallible, that all who have a due sense of their miserable fall in Adam, all those who feel that they can no more regenerate themselves than they can create a new heaven and a new earth, may come to God, and receive regeneration freely by grace, and a right to the kingdom of heaven.

Reader, you have heard of this remedy a thousand times. But, on the one hand, knowing neither your indigence nor your malady, and on the other, having your understanding darkened by your unbelief, you have neither, perhaps, considered nor apprehended as a Christian "the things which belong to your peace." May you receive them now as the Gospel of Christ, which is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth!"

Know then that the regeneration which we preach is nothing else than the two great operations of the Spirit of God upon a penitential soul. The first, called justification, or the remission of sins, is that gratuitous act of the Divine mercy, by which God pardons the sinner, who believes in Jesus, all his past sins, and "imputes his faith to him for righteousness." Because, feeling that he has no righteousness, that he can do no work that is good in the sight of God, he "submits to the righteousness of God." He receives with his heart Jesus Christ as his Saviour, his gratuitous Saviour, his sole Saviour; and he knows that he has received him, because God "fills him with peace and joy in believing," and because he receives dominion over all his sins.

This dominion over sin, which the believer receives with the remission of his past sins, is the beginning or foundation of the second part of regeneration, called in the Holy Scripture sanctification. For in the same moment that the sinner receives this faith, the faith which justifies; at the same moment that "the Spirit of God witnesses with his spirit that" his sins are pardoned, he receives the power to love much, as he feels that he has much forgiven. "The love of God" being thus “shed abroad in his heart," causes an extraordinary revolution in all the powers of his soul, and makes him feel, though perhaps in a low degree, the effects of the new birth, described in the second part of this discourse. We are far from concluding that the body of sin is destroyed by this circumcision of the heart, this first revelation of Christ in the soul of a sinner. No: "the old man is only crucified with Christ;" and although he cannot act as before, he lives still, and seeks occasion to disengage himself, and to exercise his tyranny with more rage than ever. David and St. Peter had painful experience of this: and hence we see that sanctification is not generally the work of a day nor of a year. For, although God can cut short his work in righteousness, as the penitent thief found it aforetime, and as many sinners called at the eleventh hour have found it ever since, it is nevertheless in general a progressive work, and of long duration. We, therefore, define sanctification to be that powerful work of the Holy Spirit upon the heart of a pardoned sinner, by which he receives power to go on "from faith to faith;" by which, illuminated more and more "to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus VOL. IV.

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