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He cannot carry on, nay, he cannot fo much as begin one fingle step of this wonderful procefs toward the fubfequent crop; the mortification of the feed, the refurrection of the blade, and gradual increase, till it come to perfect maturity. Is it, therefore, reasonable that he fhould fay, I for my part can do nothing. It is, firft and laft, an effect of divine power and energy. And God can as easily raise a crop without fowing as with it, in a fingle inftant, and in any place, as in a long time, by the mutual influence of foil and feafon; I will therefore fpare myself the hardship of toil and labor, and wait with patience, till I fee what he will be pleased to fend. Would this be madness? Would it be univerfally reputed fo? And would it not be equal madness to turn the grace of God into licentioufness? Believe it, the warning is equally reasonable and equally neceffary, in fpiritual as in temporal things: "Be "not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man foweth, that shall he also reap: for he that foweth to the "flesh, fhall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that "foweth to the Spirit, fhall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."*

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* Gal. vi. 7. 8.

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In which is shewn wherein this change doth properly and - directly consist, and what are its principal evidences and fruits.

SECT. I.

Wherein the change in regeneration doth properly and directly consist.

HAVE hitherto, by general remarks, endeavored to caution the reader against taking up with erroneous and defective views of the nature of religion. We now proceed a ftep farther: and I would willingly point out, in as diftinct a manner as I am able, what is the change which is wrought in all, without exception, who are the real children of God, by whatever means it is brought about; what it is in the temper and difpofition, in the life and practice, which conftitutes the difference between one who "is," and one who is "not born again." The different steps by which this change may be effected in the fovereign providence of God, and the different degrees of perfection at which it may arrive, I purposely omit liere, and referve as the fubject of a diftinct head of difcourfe.

That we may enter on the fubject with the greater perfpicuity and fimplicity, it will be proper to begin with obferving, that the defign and purpofe of this change is to repair the lofs which man faftained by the fall. Man, at his first creation, was made after the image of God in knowledge, righteousness, and holinefs, and enjoyed uninterrupted fellow fhip and communion with him. He was not only fubfervient to the divine glory, by a natural and neceffary fubjection to the divine dominion, which all creatures are, have been, and ever will be, but by choice and inclination, his duty and delight being invariably the fame. By the fall he became not only obnoxious to the divine difpleafure, by a fingle act of tranfgreffion, but difobedient to the divine will in his habitual and prevailing inclination. This is the character given not of one man

only, but of the human race. "And God faw that the "wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only "evil continually."*

He became, at the fame time, not only unworthy of, but wholly difinclined to communion with God, and habitually prefers the creature before the Creator, who is "God bleffed for evermore." In regeneration, therefore, the finner must be restored to the image of God, which, in a created nature, is but another expreffion for obedience to his will. He must also be reftored to the exercise of love to him, and find his happiness and comfort in him. His habitual temper, his prevailing difpofition, or that which hath the afcendancy, must be the fame that was perfect and without mixture, before the fall, and shall be made equally, or perhaps more perfect in heaven after death.

As the change must be entire and univerfal, correfponding to the corruption of the whole man, it is not unusual to fay, it may be fully comprehended in the three following things, giving a new direction to the understanding, the will, and the affections. And no doubt, with respect to every one of thefe, there is a remarkable and fenfible change. But as the understanding is a natural faculty, which becomes good or evil, juft as it is applied or employed, it would be fcarce poffible to illuftrate the change in it without introducing, at the fame time, a view of the disposition and tendency of the heart and affections. As, therefore, the change is properly of a moral or spiritual nature, it seems to me properly and directly to confist in thefe two things, 1. That our fupreme and chief end be to ferve and glorify God, and that every other aim be fubordinate to this. 2. That the foul reft in God as its chief happiness, and habitually prefer his favor to every other enjoyment. These two particulars I fhall now endeavor to illuftrate a little, in the order in which I have named them.

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1. Our fupreme and chief end must be to ferve and glorify God, and every other aim must be fubordinate to this. All things were originally made, and are daily preferved for, nay, they fhall certainly in the iffue tend to the glory of God; that is, the exercise and illuftration of divine perfection. With this great end of creation the inclination and will of every intelligent creature ought to coincide. It is, according to fcripture and reafon, the firft duty of man to "give unto the Lord the glory due "unto his name." This, I know, the world that lieth in wickedness can neither understand nor approve. "The "natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of

God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he "know them, because they are spiritually difcerned."* The truth is, we ought not to be furprized to find it so, for in this the fin of man originally confifted, and in this the nature of all fin, as fuch, doth ftill confift, viz. withdrawing the allegiance due to God, and refufing fubjection to his will. The language of every unrenewed heart, and the language of every finner's practice is, " Our lips are "our own, who is lord over us?" But he that is renewed and born again, hath feen his own entire dependance upon God, hath feen his Maker's right of dominion, and the obligation upon all his creatures to be, in every respect, fubfervient to his glory, and without referve fubmiffive to his will. He hath feen this to be moft "fit" and "rea"fonable," because of the abfolute perfection and infinite excellence of the divine nature. He is convinced that all preferring of our will to that of God, is a criminal ufurpation by the creature of the unalienable rights of the great Creator and fovereign proprietor of all.

Regeneration, then, is communicating this new principle, and giving it fuch force as it may obtain and preferve the afcendancy, and habitually govern the will. Every one may eafily fee the different operation and effects of this principle and its oppofite, by the different carriage and behavior of men in the world. The unrenewed man feeks his own happiness immediately and ul

* 1 Cor. ii. 14.

timately it is to please nimfelf that he conftantly aims. This is the caufe, the uniform caufe of his preferring one action to another. This determines his choice of employment, enjoyments, companions. His religious actions are not chofen, but fubmitted to, through fear of worse. He confiders religion as a restraint, and the divine law as hard and fevere. So that a fhort and fummary defcription may be given of man in his natural ftate. That he hath forgotten his fubjection, that God is dethroned, and felf-honored, loved, and ferved in his room.

This account will appear to be juft, from every view given us in fcripture of our fiate and character, before or after converfion. It appears very clearly, from the first condition required by our Savior of his difciples, viz. felfdenial. "Then faid Jefus to his difciples, If any man "will come after me, let him deny himfelf, and take up "his crofs, and follow me."* All thofe who are brought back to a sense of their duty and obligation as creatures, are ready to fay, not with their tongues only, but with their hearts, "Thou art worthy to receive glory and honor, "and power, for thou has created all things, and for thy

pleasure they are and were created." It ought to be attended to what is the import of this, when fpoken from conviction. They not only confider God as being most great, and therefore to be feared, but as infinitely holy, as abfolutely perfect, and therefore to be loved and ferved. They efteem all his commands concerning all things to be right. Their own remaining corruption is known, felt, and confeffed to be wrong. This law in their members, warring against the law of God in their minds, is often deeply lamented, and, by the grace of God, ftrenuoufly and habitually refifted.

Perhaps the attentive reader may have observed, that I have still kept out of view our own great intereft in the fervice of God. The reafon is, there is certainly, in every renewed heart, a fenfe of duty, independant of interest. Were this not the cafe, even fuppofing a defire of reward, or fear of punishment, fhould difpofe to obedience, it

* Matt. xvi. 24. + Rev. iv. 11.

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