In time God may let loose upon you the most dreadful sicknesses and afflictions, and you have no God to stand by you, no grace to comfort you under them. And in eternity what have you to expect but an eternal despair? and for whom is "the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone" appointed, if not for the unregenerate? And who shall have "the smoke of their torments ascending for ever and ever," if not those who never strove to enter in at the strait gate of the new birth, but remained willing servants of the prince of this world, and their unruly passions, for ever and ever? O measure, if you can, the length and breadth, the depth and height of the meaning of that word, " for ever and ever;" and though all that Jesus says of that fire prepared for the devil and his angels, of that "fire which never shall be quenched," that "worm which never dieth," and that "outer darkness where there will be weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth:" though all these expressions should mean no more than an eternal fever, or an eternal confinement in a dark dungeon, will you draw this upon you for the momentary pleasure of walking according to the sight of your eye, and the desire of your heart? And will not you repent of this your unhappy choice even in this life? Ah! when death shall appear to you, and tell you that he has a message from the Lord, a warrant from the King of heaven to take from you all your worldly comforts, all the carnal pleasures and delights for which, Esaulike, you sell your birthright, and the blessing of your heavenly Father; all your nearest and dearest relations; all your wealth and honour, all your schemes of building and planting, buying and selling; and all the hopes of enjoying any longer those conveniences and superfluities, for getting of which you forget that your main business here is to be born again of the Spirit of God;-when death shall thus hurry you away from your earthly paradise; when it shall rouse your drowsy conscience, and lay before you the black catalogue of all your sins, your lies, your scoffings at virtue and religion, your goods ill-gotten and ill-spent; your profanation of the Lord's day; your speculative wantonness or actual filthiness; your vanity, pride, covetousness, sensuality; with the many years spent with so much eagerness in the devil's service; what will then your views and feelings be! And how will you lament your sin and folly, in disregarding the day of your merciful visitation! O! consider this, ere it be for ever too late.

SERMON VI.-Necessity of regeneration.

"Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God," John iii, 3.*

THE Corruption that has overspread the Christian world as a flood, and the lukewarmness of those who distinguish themselves by some degree of seriousness, make it next to impossible to preach many of the most

Although the subject of this discourse is nearly the same with that of the preceding sermon, the reader will perceive they are two entirely different sermons. The latter is supposed to have been preached soon after Mr. Fletcher's entrance into the ministry.

important doctrines of Christianity without giving offence to some. We love to lie down as if our spiritual race was run, even before we set out in earnest. And if any one attempts to show us plainly our danger in so doing, we look upon him in general as a troublesome person who endeavours to make us uneasy without necessity. This is one of the reasons why those who are appointed to show unto others the way of salvation dare hardly mention what Christ said of the narrowness of the way that leads to life, and the few that walk therein.

We fear to be thought uncharitable, or suspected of preaching new doctrines and this fear makes us soften, if not conceal, those parts of the Gospel which Christ and his apostles insisted upon in the plainest

manner.

:

Nevertheless, as we are commanded to declare the whole counsel of God, without respect of persons or fear of men, I shall now discourse on one of those points of doctrine which worldly Christians seldom make the subject of their meditations; I mean the doctrine of our regeneration or new birth in Christ Jesus. And to do it in order, I shall consider,

First, On what occasion and to whom our blessed Lord spoke the words of the text, "Except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." In the

Second place I shall show the absolute necessity of a new birth to enter into life eternal; and

Thirdly, I shall conclude by pointing out the way to that regeneration, without which no man can see the kingdom of heaven. And may the Lord, who has promised to be with his servants to the end of the world, manifest his presence among us, and apply by his Spirit to all our hearts the important doctrine of the text which he taught himself in the days of his flesh.

And first, I am to consider on what occasion and to whom our blessed Lord spoke of regeneration.

1. Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, and no doubt one of the best of them, having heard of the miracles of Jesus, concluded that he was no mere man, but a teacher sent from God; therefore he came by night to ask him some questions concerning the kingdom of God, which every sin cere Jew expected at that time. Our Lord, knowing that he (as well as the rest of the nation) entertained wrong notions of his kingdom, which is wholly spiritual, began by assuring him that no one unconverted could see that kingdom, much less enter into it: "Verily, verily I say unto thee, that except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

2. As if he had said, "Be not mistaken, Nicodemus, my kingdom is not such as thou thinkest, nor can all men enter therein, since thou art yet unprepared for it thyself. Neither thy honesty, nor sobriety, nor all thy zeal for the religion of thy fathers, with thy great profession of all the external duties of it, can fit thee for the presence of God. If thou restest there, know that thy soul will remain in as thick darkness as that which surrounds a child yet unborn. For though thou enjoyest an animal life, as other creatures on earth, yet hast thou lost in Adam a spiritual life; the life of angels in thy soul; and thou must receive it again by a new and spiritual birth; or else thou shalt be as little capable of seeing and enjoying God as a child unborn is to see and enjoy the light of the sun.

3. Though this doctrine of the new birth surprises every natural man, and seems foolishness to him, our blessed Lord did not first deliver it: Moses had said two thousand years before him, "The Lord your God shall circumcise," or so change "your heart, that you shall be enabled to love him with all your soul. The Lord will take away your heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh." David had prayed, "Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me." Ezekiel had cried aloud to all the people of God, "Cast away from you all your transgressions, and make yourselves new hearts and new spirits, for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" As if he had said, “In vain do you boast of being the house of Israel, and God's chosen people; unless you get new hearts and new spirits, you shall surely die."

4. These and many more passages of the Old Testament should make us think that no sincere Jew could be a stranger to the doctrine of the new birth. But as there are now many serious people who have a great form of religion, and notwithstanding know nothing of regeneration experimentally, supposing themselves to be of those just men who need no repentance, and consequently no spiritual change; so it was in the days of our Lord; and Nicodemus, with all his profession of religion, zeal, morality, and desire of being instructed, was one of the number.

5. Accordingly, struck with amazement at the saying of our Lord, and mistaking quite the meaning of his words, "How can a man be born (cried he) when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Our Lord told him, if a man could enter into his mother's womb and be born again, that would not help him, for he would still be sinful flesh, and of the same corrupted nature as that from which he was born. But to enter into his kingdom, which is spiritual, he must be born of water and of the Holy Ghost, he must have a spiritual birth, be begotten of incorruptible seed, and become an adopted son of God.

6. Then, to prevent all doubts of the absolute necessity of submitting to this doctrine, as if it were not enough to have affirmed it necessary twice, and to have enforced it by the solemn word "indeed, indeed;" lest any one, like Nicodemus, should question the truth of it, because he never experienced it, our Saviour added, for the third time, (turning himself, no doubt, to all that were present,) "Ye must be born again." As if he had said, "What I say to Nicodemus I say unto all, Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.""

7. Here the Jewish ruler, not daring to object any more to the truth of our Lord's doctrine, only expressed his wonder at hearing it. Our Lord, who (if we are sincere before him) always removes rather than punishes our stupidity in the things of God, would not discourage him; but with an admirable patience endeavoured to make him understand the impossibility of explaining by what operation of God's grace a man is born again.

8. How short, and yet how powerful was his argument!. "When the wind bloweth," saith he, "thou canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." As if he had said, "How can one describe the wind to him who has not felt or heard it? or how account whence it cometh? Yet we know and feel

there is such a thing as wind. So one that is born again, into whose soul the Lord has breathed the breath of spiritual life, knows that the Holy Ghost has dispelled the darkness of his soul, and made him pass from death unto life: he feels in his heart the happy change; he experiences that he is a child of God, because God has given him of his Spirit, and refreshes him with the spiritual breezes of his consolation. Though he is conscious of all this, yet he cannot reveal or describe it to another; nor can he make one whose eyes the Lord has not yet opened, see the kingdom, and taste the happiness to which he is restored, because it is what no man knows but he that receiveth it: here every one must experience for himself."

9. This plain answer should have satisfied Nicodemus; but unbelief made him cry out again, "How can these things be?" Then did our Lord silence him. 66 What, (said he,) art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things? If I have told you of earthly things," of the wind which is earthly, and you are not able to comprehend or account for its blowing, how can you pretend to understand spiritual and heavenly things, which are past finding out? Thus did our Lord reprove the ignorance and incredulity of that master in Israel, who had not learned himself what he should have taught others long before: and at the same time gave him and us to understand that this mystery of the new birth is not to be defined or described, but felt, experienced, and enjoyed in the heart; and that every one who believes the word of God to be true, instead of inquiring, "How can this be?" must immediately beg of God to make him feel in his heart the want of a new birth; and then he will receive power to seek it with tears, prayer, and repentance, till he find it for himself. This was the case of Nicodemus: for notwithstanding the unwillingness he showed at first to believe the doctrine of regeneration true, he was convinced by the words of our Lord and we hear that he proved at last a bold confessor of Christ and his doctrine. Would to God we were as ready to imitate him in his faith as worldly Christians are ready to imitate his crying out, "How can it be?"

10. Having thus explained how and to whom our Saviour preached regeneration, I proceed now to show the absolute necessity of a new birth. And in order to this it seems that, in addressing Christians, it should be sufficient to say, that Christ has solemnly declared it necessary; for beside what he said to Nicodemus, he told his disciples that "unless they were converted, and became as little children, they could not enter into the kingdom of heaven," which was enforced after his death by the apostles, when they said, "Put on the new man, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness-and be ye renewed in the spirit of your minds; for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." And to add the last degree of evidence to these Scripture proofs, I could bring in the testimony of our Church, which declares in her catechism, "A death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness necessary to salvation," and is so far from supposing (as some would have it) that we are all born again in baptism, that she directs us in her collects to pray that God by "his Holy Spirit would create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we may obtain perfect remission of our sins." Whence it appears clearly, that she exhorts every baptized person to seek this renewal of the

heart, and that no one can be a faithful member of Christ and the Church of England, who does not receive the doctrine of regeneration.

11. But I know that all these proofs will not convince a man as long as he does not see why we must be born again; therefore I beg leave to lay before such a one the reason why God insists so much upon our regeneration in all parts of the Bible.

But,

Whether we think of it or not, brethren, it is certain that man once enjoyed in Adam a life of happiness and holiness, loving God with all his soul, in every thing giving thanks, and rejoicing evermore. alas! his disobedience soon destroyed that life; for according to the sentence which God had pronounced, "In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," he died spiritually; he died to happiness, to holiness, and God; and from that spiritual death he hastened to bodily death, and, if not prevented by regeneration, to death eternal, "the destruction of body and soul in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone." Now Adam, having thus destroyed himself, (being made the devil's slave, and covered all over with his leprosy,) swelled with pride, inflamed with lust, and filled with enmity to God, and unbelief of his sacred word: Adam, I say, being in that wretched state, could not beget children in a better nature than he had himself. "Can a clean thing come out of an unclean? And can the streams be wholesome when the fountain is poisoned?"

12. What, then, is the plain consequence? The whole lump of mankind is leavened with the leaven of spiritual as well as bodily death. Hear the word of the Lord: "All flesh has corrupted its way upon earth." "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." "I was born in sin," says David, "and in iniquity did my mother couceive me." St. Paul, with all the believers at Ephesus, owned that before they were born again, they were children of wrath even as others." Do we want more striking proofs? Let us only look into our lives, and we shall see too many reasons to believe, according to the word of God, that we are spiritually dead in sin and unbelief; for not to mention the injustice, drunkenness, uncleanness, avarice, malice, revenge, envy, lying, evil speaking, Sabbath breaking, swearing, cursing, profaneness, and all those overflowings of ungodliness which appear more or less in the conversation of too many of us; let us only examine our hearts, even now that we are in the presence of God. Are not they, in general, like so many stones, void of all spiritual feeling? Is there not in our necks an iron sinew that hinders us from stooping to God and worshipping him in spirit and in truth? And has not our stubbornness, and unbelief of the word of God, caused some of us to murmur already at the severity of our Lord's doctrine; while others, perhaps, flatter themselves still with hopes of salvation without experiencing the new birth. This alone is a plain proof that we have not recovered from Adam's fall, since, after his example, we believe Satan when he saith, "Ye shall not surely die," rather than Christ, who declares in the text that if we are not born again, we cannot enter into his kingdom. O! if our hearts should rise in that manner against our Lord's doctrine, let us consider what one of the prophets told Saul in such a case: "Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft before God, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry; because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord hath also rejected thee."