That Man's Nature is corrupted.

FIRST, I am to confirm the doctrine of the corruption of nature: to hold the glass to your eyes, wherein you may see your sinful nature: which, tho' God takes particular notice of it, many do quite overlook. And here we shall consult, 1. God's word. 2. Men's experience and observation

I. For scripture-proof, let us consider,

First, How the scripture takes particular notice of fallen Adam's communicating his image to his posterity, Gen, v. 3. Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth. Compare with this, ver 1. of that chapter, In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made be him. Behold here, how the image after which man was made, and the image after which he is begotten, are opposed. Man was made in the likeness of God: that is, a holy and righteous God made a holy and righteous creature: but fallen Adam begat a son, not in the likeness of God, but in his own likeness; that is, corrupt sinful Adam begat a corrupt sinful son. For as the image of God bore righteousness and immortality in it, as was cleared before, so this image of fallen Adam bore corruption and death in it, 1 Cor. xv. 49 50. compare ver. 22. Moses, in that fifth chapter of Genesis, being to give us the first bill of mortality, that ever was in the world, ushers it in with this, that dying Adam begat mortals. Having sinned, he became mortal, according to the threat­ning; and so he begat a son, in his own likeness, sinful, and therefore mortal: thus sin and death passed on all. Doubtless, he begat both Cain and Abel in his own likeness, as well as Seth. But it is not recorded of Abel; because he left no issue behind him, and his falling the first sacrifice to death in the world, was a sufficient document of it: nor of Cain, to whom it might have been thought peculiar, be­cause of his monstrous wickedness; and besides, all his posterity was drowned in the flood: but it is recorded of Seth, because he was the father of the holy seed; and from him all mankind, since the flood, has descended, and fallen Adam's own likeness with them.

[Page 36] Secondly, It appears from that scripture text, Job xiv. 4. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Our first parents were unclean, how then can we be clean? How could our immediate parents be clean? Or, how shall our children be so? The unclean­ness here aimed at is a sinful uncleanness; for it is such as makes man's days full of trouble: and it is natural, being derived from un­clean parents: Man is born of a woman, ver. 1. And how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Job xxxv. 4. An omnipotent God whose power is not here challenged, could bring a clean thing out of an unclean; and did so, in the case of the Man CHRIST; but no other can. Every person that is born according to the course of nature, is born unclean. If the root be corrupt, so must the branches be. Neither is the matter mended, tho' the parents be sanctified ones: for they are but holy in part, and that by grace, not by nature; and they beget their children as men, not as holy men. Wherefore, as the circumcised parent begets an uncircumcised child, and after the purest grain is sown, we reap corn with the chaff; so the holiest parents beget unholy children, and cannot communicate their grace to them, as they do their nature; which many godly parents find true, in their sad experience.

Thirdly, Consider the confession of the Psalmist David, Psal. li. 6. Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Here he ascends from his actual sin, to the fountain of it, namely, corrupt nature. He was a man according to God's own heart; but from the beginning it was not so with him. He was begotten in lawful marriage; but when the lump was shapen in the womb, it was a sinful lump. Hence the corruption of nature is called the old man; being as old as ourselves, older than grace, even in those that are sanctified from the womb.

Fourthly, Hear our Lord's determination of the point, John iii. 5. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh. Behold the universal cor­ruption of mankind, all are flesh. Not that all are frail, tho' that is a sad truth too; yea, and our natural frailty is an evidence of our natural corruption; but that is not the sense of this text: but here is the meaning of it, all are corrupt and sinful, and that naturally: hence our Lord argues here, that because they are flesh, therefore they must be born again, or else they cannot enter into the kingdom of God, ver. 3, 5. And as the corruption of our nature evidenceth the absolute necessity of regeneration; so the absolute necessity of regeneration plainly proves the corruption of our nature: for why should a man need a second birth, if his nature were not quite marred in the first birth? Infants must be born again, for that is an except (John iii. 3) which admits of no conception. And therefore, they were circumcised under the Old Testament, as having the body of the sins of the flesh, (which is conveyed to them by natural generation) to put off, Col. ii. 11. And now by the appointment of Jesus Christ, they are to be baptized; which says they are unclean, and that there [Page 37] is no salvation for them, but by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, Tit. iii. 5.

Fifthly ▪ Man certainly is sunk very low now, in comparison of what he once was: God made him but a little lower than the angels: but now we find him likened to the beasts that perish. He hearkened to a brute, and is now become like one of them. Like Nebuchadnezzar, his portion (in his natural state) is with the beasts, minding only earthly things, Philip. iii. 19. Nay, brutes, in some sort, have the advantage of the natural man, who is sunk a degree below them. He is more witless, in what concerns him most, than the stork, or the turtle, or the crane, or the swallow, in what is for their interest, Jer. viii. 7. He is more stupid than the ox or ass. Isa. i. 3. I find him sent to school, to learn of the ant or [...]not, which having no guide, or leader to go before her; no overseer or officer to compel or stir her up to work; no ruler, but may do as she lists, being under the do­minion of none; yet provideth her meat in the summer and harvest, Prov. vi 6, 7, 8 while the natural man has all these, and yet ex­poseth himself to eternal starving. Nay, more than all this, the scripture holds out the natural man, not only as wanting the good qualities of those creatures; but as a compound of the evil qualities of the worst of the creatures, in which do concenter the fierceness of the lion, the craft of the fox, the unteachableness of the wild ass, the filthiness of the dog and swine, the poison of the asp, and such like. Truth itself calls them serpents, a generation of vipers; yea more, even children of the devil, Mat. iii. 7. John viii. 44. Surely then, man's nature is miserably corrupted.

Lastly, We are by nature children of wrath, Eph. ii. 3. We are worthy of, and liable to the wrath of God; and this by nature: and therefore, doubtless, we are by nature sinful creatures. We are condemned before we have done good or evil; under the curse, ere we know what it is. But will a lion roar in the forest while he hath no prey? Amos iii. 4. that is, Will a holy and just God roar in his wrath against man, if he be not, by his sin, made a prey for wrath? No, he will not, he cannot. Let us conclude, then, that according to the word of God man's nature is a corrupt nature.

II. If we consult experience, and observe the case of the world in these things that are obvious to any person that will not shut his eye, against clear light; we will quickly perceive such fruits, as discover this root of bitterness: I shall propose a few things, that may serve to convince us in this point.

First, Who sees not a flood of miseries overflowing the world? and whether can a man go, where he shall not dip his foot, if he go not over head and ears is it? Every one at home and abroad, in city and country, in palaces, [...] cottages, is groaning under some one thing [...] other, ungrateful [...] him. Some are oppressed with poverty, some chastned with sick [...];s and pain, some are lamenting their losses; none wants a cross of [...] sort or another. No man's condition is [Page 38] so soft, but there is some thorn of uneasiness in it. And at length death the wages of sin, comes after these its harbingers, and sweeps all away. Now, what but sin has opened the sluice? There is not a complaint nor sigh heard in the world, nor a tear that falls from our eye, but it is an evidence that man is fallen as a star from heaven; for God distributeth sorrow in his anger, Job xxi. 17 This is a plain proof of the corruption of nature: forasmuch as those that have not yet actually sinned, have their share of these sorrows; yea, and draw their first breath in the world weeping, as if they knew this world, at first sight, to be a Dochim, the place of weepers. There are graves of the smallest, as well as of the largest size, in the church-yard; and there are never wanting some in the world, who like Rachel, are weeping for their children, because they are not, Mat. ii. 18.

Secondly, Observe how early this corruption of nature begins to appear in young ones: Solomon observes, that even a child is known by his doings, Prov. xx. 11. It may soon be discerned, what way the bias of the heart lies. Do not the children of sallen Adam, before they can go alone, follow their father's footsteps? What a vast deal of little pride, ambition, curiosity, vanity, wilfulness, and averseness to good appears in them: And when they creep out of infancy, there is a necessity of using the rod of correction to drive away the foolishness that's bound in their heart, Prov. xxii 15. Which shews, that if grace prevail not, the child will be as Ishmael, a wild ass man, as the word is, Gen. xvi. 13

Thirdly, Take a view of the manifold gross out-breakings of sin, in the world. The wickedness of man is yet great in the earth. Behold the bitter fruits of the corruption of our nature, Hos. iv. 2. By swearing and lying, and killing and stealing, and commiting adultery, they break out, (like the breaking forth of water) and blood toucheth blood. The world is filled with filthiness, and all manner of lewdness, wickedness, and profanity. Whence is this deluge of sin on the earth, but from the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep, the heart of man; out of which proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts. covetousness, wickedness, &c. Mark vii, 21, 22. Ye will, it may be, thank God with a whole heart, that ye are not like these other men: and indeed ye have better reason for it than, I fear, ye are aware of; for, as in water, face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man, Prov. xxvii. 19. As looking into clear water, ye see your own face; so looking into your heart, ye may see other men's there: and looking into other men's, in them ye may see your own. So that the most vile and profane wretches that are in the world should serve you for a looking glass; in which you ought to discern the corruption of your own nature: and if you do so, ye would, with a heart truly touched, thank God, and not yourselves, indeed, that ye are not as other men, in your lives; seeing the corruption of nature is the same in you, as in them.

[Page 39] Fourthly, Cast your eye upon these terrible convulsions the world is thrown into by the lust of men: Lions make not a prey of lions, nor wolves of wolves: but men are turned wolves to one another, biting and devouring one another. Upon how slight occasions will men sheath their swords in one another's bowels! The world is a wilder­ness, where the clearest fire men can carry about with them, will not fright away the wild beasts that inhabit it, (and that because they are men, and not brutes) but one way or other they will be wounded. Since Cain shed the blood of Abel, the earth has been turned into a slaughter-house; and the chace has been continued since Nimrod began his hunting; on the earth, as in the sea, the greater still devouring the lesser. When we see the world in such a ferment, every one stabbing another with words or swords, we may conclude there is an evil spirit among them. These violent heats among Adam's sons, speak the whole body to be distempered, the whole head to be sick, and the whole heart faint. They surely proceed from an inward cause, James vi. 1. Lusts that war in our members.

Fifthly, Consider the necessity of human laws, fenced with terrors and severities; to which we may apply what the apostle says, 1 Tim. i. 9. That the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, &c. Man was made for society: and God himself said of the first man, when he had created him, that it was not meet that he should be alone: yet the case is such now, that, in society, he must be hedged in with thorns. And that from hence we may the better see the corruption of man's nature, consider, (1.) Every man naturally loves to be at full liberty himself; to have his own will for his law; and if he would follow his natural inclinations, would vote himself out of the reach of all laws, divine and human. And hence some (the power of whose hands has been answerable to their natural inclination) have indeed made themselves absolute, and above laws; agreeable to man's monstrous design at first, to be as gods, Gen. iii. 5. Yet, (2.) There is no man that would willingly adventure to live in a lawless society: and therefore, even pirates and robbers have laws among themselves, tho' the whole society cast off all respect to law and right. Thus men discover themselves to be conscious of the corruption of nature; not daring to trust one another, but upon security. (3.) How dangerous soever it is to break thro' the hedge: yet the violence of lust makes many adventure daily to run the risk. They will not only sacrifice their credit and conscience, which last is highly esteem'd in the world; but for the pleasure of a few moments, immediately succeeded with terror from within, they will lay themselves open to a violent death by the laws of the land wherein they live. (4.) The laws are often made to yield to men's lusts. Sometimes whole societies run into such ex­travagancies, that like a company of prisoners, they break off their fetters, and put their guards to flight; and the voice of laws cannot be heard for the noise of arms. And seldom is there a time wherein [Page 40] there are not some persons so great and daring, that the laws dare not look their impetuous lusts in the face; which made David say in the case of Joab, who had murdered Abner, Th [...]se men, the son [...] of Zeruiah, be too hard for me, 2 Sam iii. 39 Lusts sometimes grow too strong for laws, so that the law is slacked, as the pulse of a dying man, Hab. i. 3, 4. (5.) Consider what necessity often appears of ammending old laws, and making new ones; which have their rise from new crimes that man's nature is very fruitful of. There would be no need of mending the hedge, if men were not like unruly beasts, still breaking it down. It is astonishing to see▪ what figure the Israelites, who were separated unto God, from among all the nations of the earth do make in their history; what horrible confusions were among them, when there was no king in Israel, as you may see, in the xviii. xix. xx. and xxi. chapters of Judges: how hard it was to reform them, when they had the best of magistrates: and how quickly they turned aside again, when they got wicked rulers. I cannot but think, that one grand design of that sacred history, was to discover the corruption of man's nature, the absolute need of the Messiah, and his grace: and that we ought in the reading of it, to improve it to that end. How cutting is that word, the Lord has to Samuel, concerning Saul, 1 Sam. ix. 17. The same shall reign over (or, as the word is, shall restrain) my people. O the corruption of man's nature! the awe and dread of the God of heaven restrains them not: but they must have gods on the earth to do it to put them to shame, Judges xviii. 7.

Sixthly, Consider the remains of that natural corruption in the saints. Tho' grace has entered, yet corruption is not quite expelled: tho' they have got the new creature, yet much of the old corrupt nature remains: and these struggle together within them, as the twins in Rebekah's womb, Gal. v. 17. They said it present with them at all times, and in all places, even in the most retired corners. If a man have an ill neighbour, he may remove; if he have an ill servant, he may put him away at the term: if a bad yoke fellow, he may sometimes leave the house, and be free of molestation that way. But should the saint go into a wilderness, or set up his tent in some remote rock in the sea, where never foot of man, beast, nor fowl had touched, there will it be with him. Should he be, with Paul, caught up to the third heavens, it shall come back with him, 2 Cor xii. 7. It followeth him as the shadow doth the body: it makes a blot in the fairest line he can draw. It is like the fig-tree in the wall, which, how nearly soever it was cut, yet still grow till the wall was thrown down; for the roots of it are fixed in the heart, while the saint is in the world, as with bands of iron and brass. It is especially active when he would do good, Rom. vii. 21. then the fowls come down upon the carcases. Hence often in holy duties, the spirit even of a saint (as it were) evaporates: and he is lef [...]ere he is aware, like Michael, with an image in the bed, instead of an husband. I need not stand to prove th [...] [Page 41] remains of the corruption of nature in the godly, to themselves; for they groan under it; and to prove it to them, were to hold out a candle to let men see the sun: and as for the wicked, they are ready to account mole-hills in the saint, as big as mountains; if not to reckon them all hypocrites. But consider these few things on this head. (1.) If it be thus in the green tree, how must it be in the dry? The saints are not born saints; but made so by the power of regenerat­i [...] grace. Have they got a new nature, and yet so much of the old remains with them? How great must that corruption be in others, where it is altogether unmixed with grace? (2.) The saints groan under the remains of it as a heavy burden? hear the Apostle, Rom. vii. 24. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the [...] of this death? What tho' the carnal man lives at ease and quiet, and the corruption of nature is not his burden: is he therefore free from it? No, no; only he is dead, and feels not the sinking weight. Many a groan is heard from a sick bed; but never one from a grave. In the saint, as in the sick man, there is a mighty struggle; life and death striving for the mastery: but in the natural man, as in the dead corpse, there is no noise; because death bears full sway. (3.) The [...] man resists the old corrupt nature: he strives to mortify it, yet it remains: he endeavours to starve it, and by that means to weaken it; yet it is active: how must it spread then, and strengthen itself in that soul, where it is not starved but fed? And this is the case of all unregenerate, who make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. If the garden of the diligent afford him new work daily, in cutting off and rooting up; surely that of the sluggard must needs be all grown over with thorns.

Lastly, I shall add but one observe more, and that is, That in every m [...]n naturally the image of fallen Adam does appear. Some children, by their features and lineaments of their face, do, as it were, father themselves: and thus we do resemble our first parents. Every one of us bear the image and impress of their fall upon him: and to evince the truth of this, I do appeal to the consciences of all, in these following particulars.

1 st, Is not a sinful curiosity natural to us? And is not this a print of Adam's image? Gen. iii. 6. Is not men naturally much more desirous to know new things, than to practise old known truths? How like to old Adam do we look in this, itching after novelties, and dis­relishing old solid doctrines? We seek after knowledge rather than holiness; and study most to know these things, which are least edify­ing. Our wild and roving fancies need a bridle to curb them, while good solid affections must be quickened and spurred up

2 dly, If the LORD, by his holy law and wise providence do put a restraint upon us, to keep us back from any thing▪ doth not that restraint whet the edge of our natural inclinations, and make us so much the keener in our desires: And in this do we not betray it plainly that we are Adam's children. Gen. iii. 2, 3, 6. I think this [Page 42] cannot be denied: for daily observation evinceth, that it is a natural principle; that stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret, is pleasant. Prov. ix. 17. The very heathens are convinced, that man was possessed with this spirit of contradiction, tho' they knew not the spring of it. How often do men give themselves the loose in these things, in which, if God had left them at liberty, they would have bound up themselves! but corrupt nature takes a pleasure in the very jumping over the hedge. And is it not a repeating of our father's folly, that men will rather climb for forbidden fruit, than gather what is shaken off the true of good providence to them, when they have God's express allowance for it!

3 dly, Which of all the children of Adam is not naturally disposed to hear the instruction that causeth to err? And was not this the rock our first parents split upon? Gen. iii. 4, 6. How apt is weak man, ever since that time, to parley with temptations! God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. Job xxxiii 14. but readily doth he listen to Satan. Men might often come fair off if they would dismiss temptations with abhorrence, when first they appear; if they would nip them in the bud, they would soon die away; but alas! when we see the train laid for us, and the fire put to it, yet we stand till it run along, and we be blown up with its force.

4 thly, Do not the eyes in our head often blind the eyes of the mind? And was not this the very case of our first parents? Gen iii. 6. Man is never more blind than when he is looking on the objects that are pleasant to sense. Since the eyes of our first parents were opened to the forbidden fruit, men's eyes have been the gates of destruction to their souls; at which impure imaginations and sinful desires have entred the heart, to the wounding of the soul, wasting of the consci­ence, and bringing dismal effects sometimes on whole societies, as in Achan's case, Joshua vii. 21. Holy Job was aware of this danger, from these two little rowling bodies, which a very small splinter of wood will make useless; so as (with that King who durst not, with his ten thousand, meet him that came with twenty thousand against him, Luke xiv. 31, 32.) he sendeth and desireth conditions of peace, Job xxxi. 1. I have made a covenant with mine eyes, &c.

5 thly, Is it not natural for us, to care for the body, even at the expence of the soul? This was one ingredient in the sin of our first parents, Gen. iii. 6. O how happy might we be, if we were but at half the pains about our souls, that we bestow upon our bodies! if that question, What must I do to be saved? (Acts xvi. [...]0.) did run but near as oft through our minds, as those other questions do, What shall we eat? What shall we drink? Wherewithal shall we be clothed? Mat. vi. 21. many a (now) hopeless case would turn very hopeful. But the truth is, most men live as if they were nothing but a lump of flesh: or as if their soul served for no other use, but like sai [...], to keep the body from corrupting; They are flesh, John iii. 6. They mind the things of the flesh, Rom. viii. 5. and they live after the flesh, [Page 43] ver. 13. If the consent of the flesh be got to an action the consent of the conscience is rarely waited for: yea, the body is often served, when the conscience has entred a dissent.

6 thly, Is not every one by nature discontent with his present lot in the world; or with some one thing or other in it? This also was Adam's case, Gen. iii. 5, 6. Some one thing is always missing; so that man is a creature given to changes. And if any doubt of this, let them look over all their enjoyments; and after a review of them, listen to their own hearts, and they will hear a secret murmuring for want of something: tho' perhaps, if they considered the matter aright, they would see that it is better for them, to want, than to have that something. Since the hearts of our first parents flew out at their eyes, on the forbidden fruit, and a night of darkness was thereby brought on the world; their posterity have a natural disease, which Solomon calls, The wandring of the desires, (or, as the word is, The walking of the soul,) Eccl. vi 9. This is a sort of a diabolical trance, wherein the soul traverseth the world; feeds itself with a thousand airy nothings: snatcheth at this and the other created excellency, in imagination and desire: goes here and there, and every-where, except where it should go. And the soul is never cured of this disease, till overcoming grace bring it back, to take up its everlasting rest in God thro' Christ: but till this be, if man were set again in paradise, the garden of the Lord; all the pleasures there would not keep him from looking, yea, and leaping over the hedge a second time.

7 thly, Are we not far more easily impressed and influenced by evil counsels and examples, than by those that are good? You will see this was the ruin of Adam, Gen iii. 6 Evil example, to this day, is one of Satan's master devices to ruin men. And tho' we have by nature, more of the fox than of the lamb; yet that ill property some observe in this creature, viz. That if one lamb skip into a water, the rest that are near will suddenly follow, may be observed also in the disposition of the children of men; to whom it is very natural to embrace an evil way, because they see others upon it before them. Ill example has frequently the force of a violent stream to carry us over plain duty: but especia [...]y, if the example be given by those we bear a great affection to; our affection, in that case blinds our judgment; and what we would abhor in others, is complied with to humour them. And nothing is more plain, than that generally men chuse rather to do what the most do, than what the best do.

8 thly, Who of all Adam's sons needs be taught the art of sowing fig-leaves together, to cover their nakedness? Gen. iii. 7. When we have ruined ourselves, and made ourselves naked, to our shame; we naturally seek to help ourselves by ourselves: and many poor shifts are fallen upon, as silly and insignificant as Adam's fig-leaves. What pains are men at, to cover their sin from their own consciences, and draw all the fair colours upon it that they can? And when once con­victions are fastened upon them, so that they cannot but see themselves [Page 44] naked; it is as natural for them to attempt to spin a cover to it out of their own bowels, as for fishes to swim in the waters, or birds to fly in the air. Therefore, the first question of the convinced is, What shall we do? Acts ii. 27. How shall we qualify ourselves? What shall we perform? Not minding that the new creature is God's own workmanship (or deed, Eph. ii. 10.) more than Adam thought of being clothed with skins of sacrifices, Gen. iii. 21.

9 thly, Do not Adam's children naturally follow his footsteps, in hiding themselves from the presence of the LORD, Gen. iii. 8. We are every whit as blind in this matter as he was, who thought to hide himself from the presence of God among the shady trees of the garden. We are very apt to promise ourselves more security in a secret sin, than in one that is openly committed. The eye of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me, Job xxiv. 15. And men will freely do that in secret, which they would be ashamed to do in the presence of a child; as if darkness could hide from an all-seeing God. Are we not naturally careless of communion with God; ay, and averse to it? Never was there any communion betwixt God and Adam's children▪ where the Lord himself had not the first word. If he would let them alone, they would never inquire after him. Isa. lvii. 16. I hide me.—Did he seek after a hiding God? Very far from it.— He went on in the way of his heart.

10 thly, How loath are men to confess sin, to take guilt and shame to themselves? And was it not thus in the case before us? Gen. iii. 10. Adam confesseth his nakedness, which he could not get denied; but not one word he says of his sins: here was the reason of it, he would fain have hid it if he could. It is as natural for us to hide sin, as to commit it. Many sad instances thereof we have in this world; but a far clearer proof of it we shall get at the day of judgment, the day in which God will judge the secrets of men, Rom. ii. 16. Many a foul mouth will then be seen, which is now wiped, and saith, I have done no wickedness, Prov. xxx. 20.

Lastly, Is it not natural for us to extenuate our sin, and transfer the guilt upon others? And when God examined our guilty first parents, did not Adam lay the blame on the woman? And did not the woman lay the blame on the serpent? Gen. iii. 12, 13. Now Adam's children need not be taught this hellish policy; for before they can well speak, (if they cannot get the fact denied) they will cunningly lispout something to lessen their fault, and lay the blame upon another. Nay, so natural is this to men, that in the greatest of sins, they will lay the fault upon God himself; they will blaspheme his holy providence, under the mistaken name of misfortune or ill luck, and thereby lay the blame of their sin at heaven's door. And was not this one of Adam's tricks after his fall? Gen. iii. 12. And the man said, the woman whom thou ga [...]st to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. Observe the order of the speech. He makes his apology in the first place; and then comes his confession: his apology is long; but his confession [Page 45] very short; it is all comprehended in a word, And I did eat. How pointed and distin [...]t is his apology, as if he was afraid his meaning should have been mistaken? The woman, says he, or that woman, as if he would have pointed the judge to his own work, of which we read, Gen. ii. 22. There was but one woman then in the world; so that one would think he needed not have been so nice and exact in point­ing at her; yet she is as carefully marked out in his defence, as if there had been ten thousand. The woman whom thou gavest me: here he speaks, as if he had been ruined with God's gifts. And to make the shift look the blacker, it added to all this, thou gavest to be with me, a constant companion, to stand by me as a helper. This looks as if Adam would have fathered an ill design upon the Lord, in giving him this gift. And after all, there is a new demonstrative here, before the sentence is compleat: he says not, The woman gave me, but the woman she gave me, emphatically, as if he had said, She, even She gave me of [...]. This much for his apology. But his con­fession is quickly over, in one word, (is he spoke it) and I did eat. And there is nothing here to point to himself, and as little to shew what he had eaten. How natural is his black art to Adam's posterity? He that runs may read it. So universally does Solomon's observe hold true, Prov. xvii. 3. The foolishness of men perverteth his ways, and his heart fretteth against the Lord Let us then call fallen Adam, father; let us not deny the relation, seeing we bear his image.

And now to shut up this point, sufficiently confirmed by concurring evidence from the Lord's word, our own experience and observation; let us be persuaded to believe the doctrine of the corruption of our nature: and to look to the sacred Adam, the blessed JESUS, for the application of his [...] blood, to remove the guilt of this sin; and for the efficacy [...] his holy Spirit, to make us new creatures, knowing that except we be born [...]gain, we cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Of the Corruption of the Understanding.

SECONDLY, I proceed to inquire into the corruption of nature, in the several parts thereof. But who can comprehend it? Who can take the exact dimension of it, in its breadth, length, height, and depth? The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: Who can kn [...]w it? Jer. xiii. 9. However, we may quickly perceive as much of it, as may be matter of deepest humiliation, and may dis­cover to us the absolute necessity of regeneration. Man in his natu­ral state is altogether corrupt. Both soul and body are polluted, as the apostle proves at large, Rom. iii. 10,—18. As for the soul, the natural corruption has spread itself through all the faculties thereof▪ and is to be found in the understanding, the will, the affections, the conscience, and the memory.

I. The Understanding, that leading faculty, is despoiled of it's primitive glory, and covered over with confusion. We have fallen [Page 46] into the hands of our grand adversary, as Samson into the hands of the Philistines, and are deprived of our two eyes. There is none that understandeth, Rom. iii. 11. Mind and conscience are defiled, Tit. i. 15. The natural man's apprehension of divine things is corrupt, Psal. l. 21. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself. His judg­ment is corrupt, and cannot be otherways, seeing his eye is evil: and therefore the scriptures, that shew that men did all wrong, says, Every one did that which was right in his own eyes, Judges xvii. 7. and xxi. 25. And his imaginations, or reasonings must be cast down, by the power of the word, being of a piece with his judgment, 2 Cor. x. 5 But to point out this corruption of the mind or understanding more particularly, let these following things be considered.

First, There is a natural weakness in the minds of men, with respect to spiritual things. The apostle determines concerning every one that is not endued with the graces of the Spirit, That he is blind, and cannot see afar off, 2 Pet. i. 9. Hence the Spirit of God in the scrip­tures, clothes, as it were, divine truths with earthly figures, even as parents teach their children, using similitudes, Hos. xii. 10. Which, tho' it doth not cure, yet doth evidence this natural weakness in the minds of men. But we want not plain proofs of it from experience. As, (1.) How hard a task is it to teach many people the common principles of our holy religion, and to make truths so plain as they may understand them? Here there must be precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, Isa. xxviii. 9. Try the same persons in other things, they shall be found wiser in their generation than the children of light. They understand their work and business in the world, as well as their neighbours; tho' they be very stupid and unteachable in the matters of God. Tell them how they may advance their worldly wealth, or how they may gratify their lusts, and they will quickly understand these things; tho' it is very hard to make them know how their souls may be saved; or how their hearts may find rest in Jesus Christ. (2.) Consider these who have many advantages, beyond the common gang of mankind; who have had the benefit of good education and instruction; yea, and are blest with the light of grace in that measure, wherein it is distributed to the saints on earth: yet how small a portion have they of the knowledge of divine things! What ignorance and confusion do still remain in their minds! How often are they mired, even in the matter of practical truths, and speak as a child in these things. It is a pitiful weakness that we cannot perceive the things which God has revealed to us: and it must needs be a sinful weakness, since the law of God requires us to know and believe them. (3.) What dangerous mistakes are to be found amongst men, in their concerns of greatest weight! what woful delusions prevail over them! do we not often see those, who otherwise, are the wisest of men, the most notorious fools, with respect to their soul's interest, Matth. xi. 25. Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent. Many that are eagle-eyed in the [Page 47] trifles of time, are like owls and bats in the light of life. Nay truly, the life of every natural man is but one continued dream and delusion: out of which he never awakes, till either by a new light darted from heaven into his soul, he come to himself, Luke xv. 17. or, in hell he lift up his eyes, chap. xvi 24. And therefore in scripture account, be he never so wise, he is a fool and a simple one.

Secondly, Man's understanding is naturally overwhelmed with gross darkness in spiritual things. Man, at the instigation of the devil, attempting to break out a new light in his mind, (Gen. iii. 5.) instead of that, br [...]ke up the doors of the bottomless pit: so, as by the smoak thereof, he was buried in darkness. When God at first had made man, his mind was a lamp of light: but now when he comes to make him over again in regeneration, he finds it darkness, Eph. v. 8. Ye were sometimes darkness. Sin has closed the windows of the soul, darkness is over all that region. It is the land of darkness and shadow of death, where the light is as darkness. The prince of darkness reigns there, and nothing but the works of darkness are framed there. We are both spiritually blind, and cannot be restored without a miracle of grace. This is thy case, whosoever thou art, if thou art not born again. And that you may be convinced in this matter, take those following evidences of it.

Evidence 1. The darkness that was upon the face of the world before, and at the time when Christ came, arising as the sun of righte­ousness upon the earth. When Adam by his sin had lost that primitive light wherewith he was endued in his creation, it pleased God to make a gracious revelation of his mind and will to him, touching the way of salvation, Gen iii. 15. This was handed down by him, and other godly fathers, before the flood: yet the natural darkness of the mind of man prevailed so far against that revelation, as to carry off all sense of true religion from the old world, except what remained in Noah's family, which was preserved in the ark. After the flood, as men multiplied on the earth, the natural darkness of mind prevails again, and the light decays, till it died out among the generality of mankind, and is preserved only among the posterity of Shem. And even with them it was well near its setting, when God called Abraham from serving other gods, Josh. xxiv. 15. God gives Abraham a more clear and full revelation, and he communicates the same to his family, Gen. xvii. 19. yet the natural darkness wears it out at length, s [...]e that it was preserved among the posterity of Jacob. They being carried down into Egypt, that darkness prevailed so, as to leave them very little sense of true religion: and a new revelation behoved to be made them in the wilderness. And many a cloud of darkness got above that, now and then, during the time from Moses to CHRIST. When CHRIST came, the world was divided into Jews and Gentiles. The Jews, and the true light with them, were within an inclosure, Psal. cxliii. 19, 20. Betwixt them and the Gentile world, there was a partition wall of GOD's making, namely, the ceremonial law; and [Page 48] upon that there was reared up another of man's own making, namely, a rooted enmity betwixt the parties, Eph ii. 14, 15. If we look abroad without the inclosure, (and except those proselytes of the Gentiles, who, by means of some rays of light breaking forth unto them from within the inclosure, having renounced idolatry, worshipped the true God, but did not conform to the Mosaical rites) we see noth­ing but dark places of the earth, full of the habitations of cru [...]lty, Psal. lxxiv. 20. Gross darkness covered the face of the Gentile world; and the way of salvation was utterly unknown among them. They were drowned in superstition and idolatry; and had multiplied their idols to such a vast number, that above thirty thousand are reckoned to have been worshipped by those of Europe alone. Whatever wisdom was among their Philosophers, the world by that wisdom knew not God, 1 Cor. 1 21. and all their researches in religion were but groping in the dark, Acts x [...]. 27. If we look within the inclosure, and, except a few that were groaning and waiting for the Consolation of Israel, we will see a gross darkness on the face of that gene­ration. Tho' to them were committed the oracles of God; yet they were most corrupt in their doctrine Their traditions were multi­plied; but the knowledge of these things wherein the life of re­ligion lies, was lost: Masters of Israel knew not the nature and necessity of regeneration, John iii. 10. Their religion was to build on their birth privilege, as children of Abraham, Matth. iii. 9. to glory in their circumcision, and other external ordinances, Philip. iii. 2, 3. And to rest in the law, (Rom. ii. 17.) after they had, by their false glosses, cut it so short, as they might go well near to the fulfilling of it, Matth. v.

Thus was darkness over the face of the world, when CHRIST the true Light came into it: and so is darkness over every soul, till he, as the Day-star, arise in the heart. The former is an evidence of the latter. What, but the natural darkness of men's minds, could still thus wear out the light of external revelation in a matter upon which eternal happiness did depend? Men did not forget the way of preserving their lives: but how quickly did they lose the knowledge of the way of salvation of their souls; which are of infinite more weight and worth! when patriarchs and prophets teaching was ineffectual, men behoved to be taught of GOD himself; who alone can open the eyes of the understanding. But, that it might appear, that the corruption of man's mind lay deeper than to be cured by mere external revelation; there were but very few converted by CHRIST's preaching, who spoke as never man spok [...], John xii. 37, 38. The great cure on the generation re­mained to be performed, by the Spirit accompanying the preaching of the apostles; who, according to the promise, (John xlv. 12.) were to do great works. And if we look to the miracles wrought by our blessed Lord, we will find, that by applying the remedy to the soul, for the cure of bodily distempers, (as in the case of [Page 49] the man sick of the palsy, Matth. ix. 2.) he plainly discovered, that it was his main errand into the world to cur [...] the diseases of the soul. I find a miracle wrought upon one that was born blind, performed in such a way, as seems to have been designed to let the world see in it, as in a glass, their case and cure, John ix. 6. He made clay, and anointed the eyes of the blind man, with the clay. What could more fitly represent the blindness of men's minds, than eyes closed up with earth? Isa vi. 1 shut their eyes; shut them up by anointing or casting them with mortar, as the word would bear. And Chap. xliv. 18. he hath shut their eyes; the word properly signifies, he hath plaistered their eyes; as the house in which the leprosy had been, was to be plaistered, Lev. xiv. 42. Thus the Lord's word discovers the design of that strange work; and by it shews us, that the eyes of our under­standing are naturally shut. Then the blind man must go and wash off this clay in the pool of Siloam; no other water will serve this purpose. If that pool had not represented him, whom the Father sent into the world, to open the blind eyes, (Isa. xlii. 7.) I think the Evangelist had not given us the interpretation of the name, which he says, signifies, sent, John ix. 7. And so we may conclude, that the natural darkness of our minds is such, as there is no cure for; but from the blood and Spirit of Jesus Christ, whose eye-salve, only can make us see, Rev. iii. 18.

Evid. 2. Every natural man's heart and life is a mass of darkness, disorder and confusion; how refined soever he appear in the sight of men. For we ourselves also, saith the apostle Paul, were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, Tit. iii. 3. and yet at that time, which this text looks to, he was blameless, touch­ing the righteousness which is in the law, Phil. iii. 6. This is a plain evidence that the [...]ye is evil, the whole body being full of darkness, Mat. vi. 23. The unrenewed part of mankind is rambling through the world. like so many blind men; who will neither take a guide, nor can guide themselves; and therefore are falling over this and the other precipice, into destruction. Some are running after their covet­iousness, till they be pierced through with many sorrows; some stick­ing in the m [...]re of sensuality; others dashing themselves on the rock of pride and self-conceit; every one stumbling on some one stone of stumbling or other: all of them are running themselves upon the sword-point of justice, while they eagerly follow, whither their un­mortified passions and affections lead them; and while some are lying alone in the way, others are coming up, and falling headlong over them. And therefore, Wo unto the (blind) world because of offences, Matth. xviii. 7. Errors in judgment swarm in the world; because it is night, wherein all the beasts of the forrest do creep forth. All the unregenerate are utterly mistaken in the point of true happiness; for tho' Christianity hath fixed that matter in point of principle; yet nothing less than overcoming grace can fix it in the practical judg­ment. All men agree in the desire to be happy: but amongst un­renewed [Page 50] men, touching the way to happiness, there are almost as many opinions as there are men; they being turned every one to his own way, Isa. liii. 6. They are like the blind Sodomites about Lot's house, all were seeking to find the door, some grope one part of the wall for it, some another; but none of them could certainly say, he had found it: and so the natural man may stumble on any good but the chief good. Look into thine own unregenerate heart, and there thou wilt see all turned upside down: heaven lying under, and earth a-top, look into thy life, there thou mayst see, how thou art playing the madman, snatching at shadows, and neglecting the substance, eagerly flying after that which is not, and slighting that which is, and will be for ever.

Evid. 3. The natural man is always as a workman left without light; either trifling or doing mischief. Try to catch thy heart at any time thou wilt, and thou shall find it either weaving the spider's web, or hatching cockatrice-eggs, (Isa. lix. 5.) roving thro' the world, or digging into the pit; filled with vanity, or else with vileness, busy doing nothing, or what is worse than nothing. A sad sign of a dark mind.

Evid. 4. The natural man is void of the saving knowledge of spiritual things. He knows not what a God he has to deal with; he is unacquainted with Christ; and knows not what sin is. The greatest graceless wits are blind as moles in these things. Ay, but some such can speak of them to good purpose: and so might these Israelites of the temptations, signs and miracles, their eyes had seen, (Deut. xxix. 3.) to whom nevertheless the Lord had not given an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto that day, ver. 4. Many a man that bears the name of a Christian, may make Pharaoh's confession of saith, Exod. v. 2. I know not the Lord, neither will they let go when he commands them to part with. God is with them as a prince in disguise among his subjects, who meets with no better treat­ment from them, than if they were his fellows, Psal. l. 21. Do they know Christ, or see his glory, and any beauty in him for which he is to be desired? if they did, they would not slight him as they do: a view of his glory would so darken all created excellency, that they would take him for, and instead of all, and gladly close with him, as he offereth himself in the gospel, John iv. 10. Psal ix. 10. Matth. xiii. 44, 45, 59. Do they know what sin is, who hug the serpent in their bosom, hold fast deceit, and refuse to let it go? I own indeed they may have a natural knowledge of those things, as the unbelieving Jews had or Christ, whom they saw and conversed with: but there was spiritual glory in him, perceived by believers only, Joh i. 14 and in respect of that glory, the (unbelieving) world knew him not, ver. 10. But the spiritual knowledge of them they cannot have; it is above the reach of the carnal mind, 1 Cor. ii. 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, for they are spirit­ually discerned. He may indeed discourse of them; but no other [Page 51] way than one can talk of honey or vinegar, who never tasted the sweetness of the one, nor the sourness of the other. He has some notions of spiritual truths, but sees not the things themselves, that are wrapt up in the words of truth, 1 Tim. i. 7. Understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. In a word natural men fear, seek, confess, they know not what. Thus may you see man's under­standing naturally is overwhelmed with gross darkness in spiritual things.

Thirdly, There is in the mind of man a natural bias to evil, where­by it comes to pass, that whatever difficulties it finds, while occupied about things truly good, it acts with a great deal of ease in evil; as being in that case, in its own element, Jer. iv. 22. The carnal mind drives heavily in the thoughts of good; but furiously in the thoughts of evil. While holiness is before it, fetters are upon it: but when once it has got over the hedge, it is a [...] the bird got out of the cage, and becomes a free-thinker indeed. Let us reflect a little on the apprehension and imagination of the carnal mind; and we shall find uncontestible evidence of this woful bias to evil.

Evidence 1. As when a man, by a violent stroke on the head, loseth his sight, there ariseth to him a kind of false light, whereby he per­ceiveth a thousand airy nothings; so man being struck blind to all that is truly good, and for his eternal interest, has a light of another sort brought into his mind; his eyes are opened, knowing evil, and so are the words of the tempter verified, Gen. iii. 5. The words of the Prophet are plain, They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge, Jer. iv. 22. The mind of man has a natural dexterity to devise mischief: none are so simple, as to want skill to contrive ways to gratify their lusts, and ruin their souls: tho' the power of every one's hand cannot reach to put their devises in execution. None needs to be taught this black art; but as weeds grow up, of their c [...]n [...]cord in the neglected ground, so doth this wisdom (which is [...]thly, sensual, devilish, James iii. 15) grow up in the minds of men, by virtue of the corruption of their nature. Why should we be surprised with the product of corrupt wits: their cunning devices to afront heaven, to oppose and run down truth and holiness, and to gratify their own and other men's lust? They row with the stream; no wonder they make great progress: their stock is within them, and increaseth by using of it: and the works of darkness are contrived with the greater advantage, that the mind is wholly destitute of spiritual light, which, if it were in them, in any measure, would so far mar the work, 1 John iii. 9. Whosoever is born of God, doth not commit sin; he does it not as by art, for his seed remaineth in him. But on the other hand, It is a sport for a soul to do mischief: but a man of understanding hath wisdom, Prov. x. 2 [...]. To do with wickedness nicely, as the word imports, is as a sport, or a play to a fool; it comes off with him easily; and why, but because he is a fool, and hath not wisdom; which would mar the contrivances of darkness? The more natural a thing is, it is done the more easily.

[Page 52] Evid. 2. Let the corrupt mind have but the advantage of one's being employed in, or present at some piece of [...]vice to God; that so the device, if not in itself sinful, yet may become sinful, by its unseasonableness; it shall quickly fall on some device or expedient, by its starting aside; which deliberation, in season, could not produce. Thus Saul, who wist not what to do, before the priest began to con­sult God, is quickly determined when once the priest's hand was in: his own heart then gave him an answer, and would not allow him to wait an answer from the Lord, 1 Sam. xiv. 18, 19. Such a devilish dexterity hath the carnal mind, in deviling what may most effectually divert men from their duty to God.

Evid. 3. Doth not the carnal mind naturally strive to grasp spiritual things in imagination; as if the soul were quite immersed in flesh and blood, and would turn every thing into its own shape? Let men who are used to the forming of the most abstracted notion, look into their own souls, and they shall find this bias in their minds: whereof the idolatry, which did of old, and still doth, so much prevail in the world, is an uncontestable evidence. For it plainly discovers, that men na­turally would have a visible deity, and see what they worship: and therefore they changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image, Rom. i. 23. The reformation of these nations (blessed be the Lord for it) hath banished idolatry, and images too, out of our churches: but heart-reformation only can break down mental idolatry, and banish the more subtile and refined image-worship, and representation of the Deity, out of the minds of men. The world, in the time of its darkness, was never more prone to the former, than the unsanctified mind is to the latter. And hence are horrible, monstrous, and mi­shapen thoughts of God, Christ, the glory above, and all spiritual things.

Evid. 4. What a difficult task is it to detain the carnal mind before the Lord! how averse is it to the entertaining of good thoughts, and dwelling in the meditation of spiritual things! if one be driven, at any time, to think of the great concerns of his soul, it is no harder work to hold in an unruly hungry beast, than to hedge in the carnal mind, that it get not away to the vanities of the world again. When God is speaking to men by his word, or they are speaking to him in prayer, doth not the mind often leave them before the Lord, like so many idols that have eyes, but see not; and ears, but hear not? The carcase is laid down before God, but the world gets away the heart: tho' the eyes be closed, the man sees a thousand vanities: the mind, in the mean time, is like a bird got loose out of the cage, skipping from bush to bush; so that, in effect, the man never comes to himself, till he be gone from the presence of the Lord. Say not, it is impossible to get the mind fixed. It is hard indeed, but not impossible. Grace from the Lord can do it, Psal. cviii. 1. Agreeable objections will do it. A pleasant speculation will arrest the minds of the inquisitive: the worldly man's mind is in little hazard of wandering, when he is contriving of business, casting up his accounts, or telling his money: [Page 53] if he answer you not at first, he tells you, he did not hear you, he was busy; his mind was fixed. Were we admitted into the presence of a king to petition for our lives, we would be in no hazard of gazing through the chamber of presence: But here lies the case, the carnal mind, employed about any spiritual good, is out of its element, and therefore cannot fix.

Evid. 5 But however hard it is to keep the mind on good thoughts, it sticks as glue to what is evil and corrupt like itself! 2 Pet. ii. 14. Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin. Their eyes cannot cease from sin; (so the words are constructed) that is, their hearts and minds venting by the eyes, what is within, are like a furious beast, which cannot be held in, when once it has got out its head. Let the corrupt imagination once be let loose on its proper object; it will be found hard work to call it back again, tho' both reason and will be for its retreat. For then it is in its own element; and to draw it off from its impurities, is as the drawing of a fish out of the water, or the renting of a limb from a man. It runs like fire set to a train of powder, that resteth not till it can get no further.

Evid. 6. Consider how the carnal imagination supplies the want of real objects to the corrupt heart; that it may make sinners happy, at least, in the imaginary enjoyment of their lusts. Thus the corrupt heart feeds itself with imagination-sins: the unclean person is filled with speculative impurities, having eyes full of adultery; the covet­ous man fills his heart with the world, tho' he cannot get his hands full of it; the malicious person, with delight, acts his revenge within his own breast) the envious man, within his own narrow soul, beholds, with satisfaction, his neighbour laid low enough; and every lust finds the corrupt imagination a friend to it in time of need. And this it doth, not only when people are awake, but sometimes even when they are asleep; whereby it comes to pass, that these sins are acted in dreams, which their hearts were carried out after, while they were awake. I know some do question the sinfulness of these things: But can it be thought they are consistent with that holy nature and frame of spirit, which was in innocent Adam, and in Jesus Christ, and should be in every man? It is the corruption of nature then, that makes filthy dreamers condemned, Jude 8. Solomon had experience of the exercise of grace in sleep: in a dream he prayed, in a dream he made the best choice; both were accepted of God, 1 Kings iii. 5,— 15. And if a man may, in his sleep, do what is good and acceptable to God, why may he not also, when asleep, do that which is evil and displeasing to God? The same Solomon would have men aware of this; and prescribes the best remedy against it, namely, The law upon the heart, Prov. vi. 20, 21. When thou sleepest, (says he, ver. 22.) it shall keep thee, to wit, from the sinning in thy sleep; that is, from sinful dreams: For one's being kept from sin, (not his being kept from affliction) is the immediate proper effect of the law of God im­prest upon the heart, Psal. cxix. 11. And thus the whole verse is [Page 54] to be understood, as appears from verse 23. For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. Now the law is a lamp of light, as it guides in the way of duty; and instructing reproofs from the law, are the way of life, as they keep from sin: neither do they guide into the way of peace, but as they lead into the way of duty; nor do they keep a man out of trouble, but as they keep him from sin. And remarkable is the particular in which Solomon instanceth, namely, the sin of uncleanness, to keep thee from the evil woman: and ver. 24. which is to be joined with verse 22. inclosing the 23d in a parenthesis, as some versions have it. These things may suffice to convince us of the natural bias of the mind to evil.

Fourthly, There is in the carnal mind, an opposition to spiritual truths, and an aversion to the receiving of them. It is as little a friend to divine truths, as it is to holiness. The truths of natural religion, which do, as it were, force their entry into the minds of natural men, they hold prisoners in unrighteousness, Rom. i. 18. And as for the truths of revealed religion, there is an evil heart of unbelief in them, which opposeth their entry; and there is an armed force—necessary to captivate the mind to the belief of them, 2 Cor. x 4, 5. God has made a revelation of his mind and will to sinners, touching the way of salvation: he has given us the doctrine of his holy word: but do natural men believe it indeed? No, they do not; for he that believeth not on the Son of God, believeth not God, as is plain from 1 John v. 10. They believe not the promises of the word: they look on them, in effect, only as fair words; for these that receive them, are thereby made partakers of the divine nature, 2 Pet. i. 4. The promises are as silver cords let down from heaven to draw sinners unto God, and to waft them over into the promised land; but they cast them from them. They believe not the threatnings of the word. As men travelling in defarts carry fire about with them, to fright away wild beasts: so God has made his law a firey law, Deut. xxxiii. 2. hedging it about with threats of wrath: But men naturally are more brutish than beasts themselves; and will needs touch the firey smoak­ing mountain, tho' they should be thrust through with a dart. I doubt not, but most, if not all of you, who are yet in the black state of nature will here plead, Not guilty▪ But remember the carnal Jews in Christ's time, were as confident as you are, and they believed Moses, John ix. 23, 29. But he confutes their confidence, roundly telling them, John v. 46. Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me. Did ye believe the truths of God, ye durst not reject, as ye do, Him who is truth itself. The very difficulty you find in assenting to this truth, bewrays that unbelief I am charging you with. Has it not proceeded so far with some at this day, that it has steeled their fore-heads with the impudence and impiety, openly to reject all revealed religion? Surely it is [...] [...]f the [...] of the heart their mouth speaketh. But tho' ye set not your mouths against the heavens, as they do, the same [Page 55] bitter root of unbelief is in all men by nature, and reigns in you, and will reign, till overcoming grace captivate your minds to the belief of the truth. To convince you in this point, consider these three things.

Evidence 1. How few are there who have been blest with an in­ward illumination, by the special operation of the Spirit of Christ, letting them into a view of divine truths in their spiritual and heavenly lustre! How have you learned the truths of religion, which ye pre­tended to believe! Ye have them merely by the benefit of external revelation, and of your education; so that you are Christians, just because you were not born and bred in a Pagan, but in a Christian country. Ye are strangers to the inward work of the holy Spirit, bearing witness by, and with the word in your hearts; and so you cannot have the assurance of faith, with respect to that outward divine revelation made in the word, 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11, 12. And therefore ye are still unbelievers. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God—Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me, says our Lord, John vi. 45. Now ye have not come to Christ, therefore ye have not been taught of God; ye have not been so taught, and therefore ye have not come; ye believe not. Behold the revelation from which the faith even of the fundamental principles in religion doth spring, Matth. xvi. 17, 18. Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God—Blessed art thou Simon Barjona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. If ever the Spirit of the LORD take a dealing with thee, to work in thee that faith, which is of the operation of God; it may be, as much time will be spent in razing the old foundation, as will make thee find a necessity of the working of his [...]ghty power, and to enable thee to believe the very foundation principles, which now thou thinkest thou makest no doubt of, Eph. i. 19.

Evid. 2. How many professors have made shipwreck of their faith (such as it was) in time of temptation and trial! See how they fall, like stars from heaven, when Antichrist prevails, 2 Thess. ii 11, 12. God shall send them strong delusions, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned, who believed not the truth. They fall into damning delusions: because they never really believed the truth, tho' they themselves and others too thought they did believe it. That house is built upon the sand, and that faith is but ill-founded, that cannot bear out, but is quite overthrown, when the storm [...]omes.

Evid. 3. Consider the utter inconsistency of most men's lives, with the principles of religion which they profess; ye may as soon bring east and west together, as their principles and practice. Men believe that fire will burn them, and therefore they will not throw themselves into it: but the truth is, most men live as if they thought the gospel a mere fable, and the wrath of God revealed in his word against their unrighteousness and ungodliness, a mere scare-crow. If ye believe the doctrines of the word, how is it that ye are so unconcerned about the state of your souls before the LORD? How is it that you are so [Page 56] little concerned with that weighty point, whether ye be born again or not? Many live as they were born, and are like to die as they live, and yet live in peace. Do such believe the sinfulness and misery of a natural state? Do they believe they are children of wrath? Do they believe there is no salvation without regeneration? and no regenera­tion but what makes man a new creature? If you believe the promises of the word, why do you not embrace them, and labour to enter into the promised rest? What sluggard would not dig for a hid treasure, if he really believed he might so obtain it? Men will work and sweat for a maintenance; because they believe that by so doing they will get it: yet they will be at no tolerable pains for the eternal weight of glory: why, but because they do not believe the word of promise? Heb. iv. 1, 2. If ye believe the threatnings, how is it that you live in your sins, live out of Christ, and yet hope for mercy? Do such believe God to be the holy and just One, who will by no means clear the guilty? No, no, none believe, None (or next to none) believe what a just GOD the LORD is, and how severely he punisheth.

Fifthly, There is in the mind of man a natural proneness to lies and falshood, which make for the safety of lusts. They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies, Psal. lvii. 3. We have this with the rest of the corruption of our nature, from our first parents. God revealed the truth to them; but through the solicitation of the temp­ter, they first doubted of it; they disbelieved it, and embraced a lie instead of it. And for an uncontestible evidence hereof, we may see that first article of the devil's creed, ye shall not surely die, Gen. iii. 4. which was obtruded by him on our first parents, and by them re­ceived; naturally embraced by their posterity, and held fast, till a light from heaven oblige them to quit it. It spreads itself through the lives of natural men; who, till their consciences be awakened, walk after their own lusts: still retaining the principle, That they shall not surely die. And this is often improved to that perfection, that the man can say, over the belly of the denounced curse, I shall have peace, tho' I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunken­ness to thirst, Deut. xxix. 19. Whatever advantage the truths of God have over error, by means of education, or otherwise; error has always, with the natural man, this advantge against truth, namely, That there is something within him, which says, O that it were true; so that [...] mind lies fair for assenting to it. And here is the reason of it. The true doctrine is, the doctrine that is according to godliness, 1 Tim vi. 3. and the truth which is after godliness, Tit. i, 1. Error, is the doctrine which is according to ungodliness; for there is never an error in the mind, nor an untruth vented in the world, (in matters of religion) but what has an affinity with one corruption of the heart or other: according to that of the apostle, 2 Thess ii. 21 They believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. So that truth and error being otherwise attended with equal advantages for their reception, error, by this means, has most ready access into the minds [Page 57] of men in their natural state. Wherefore, it is nothing strange that men reject the simplicity of gospel truths and institutions, and greedily embrace error and external pomp in religion; seeing they are so agreeable to the lusts of the heart, and the vanity of the mind of the natural man. And from hence also it is, that so many embrace atheistical principles; for none do it but in compliance with their irregular passions: none but these, whose advantage it would be that there was no God.

Lastly, Man is naturally high minded; for when the gospel comes in power to him, it is employed in casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, 2 Cor x. 5. Lowliness of mind is not a flower that grows in the field of nature; but is planted by the finger of God in a renewed heart, and learned of the lowly Jesus. It is natural to man to think highly of himself, and what is his own; for the stroke he has got by his fall in Adam, has produced a false light, whereby [...]ole hills about him appear like mountains; and a thousand airy beauties present themselves to his deluded fancy. Vain man would be wise, (so he accounts himself, and so he would be accounted of by others) though man be born like a wild oss's colt. Job xi. 12. His ways is right because it is his own: for every way of a man is right in his own eyes, Prov. xxi. 2. His state is good, because he knows no better: he is alive without the law, Rom. vii. [...]. and therefore his hope is strong, and his confidence firm. It is another tower of Babel reared up against heaven; and shall not fall while the power of darkness can hold it up. The word batters it, yet it stands; one while breaches are made in it, but they are quickly repaired; at another time, it is all made to shake; but still it keeps up; till either God himself, by his Spirit, raise an heart-quake within the man, which tumbles it down; and leaves not one stone upon another, (2 Cor. x. 41, 45.) or death batter it down and raze the foundations of it, Luke xvi. 23. And as the natural man thinks highly of himself, so he thinks meanly of God, whatever he pretends, Psal. l. 21. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself. The doctrine of the gospel, and the mystery of Christ are foolishness to him; and in his practice he treats them as such, 1 Cor. i. 13. and ii. 14. He brings the word and the works of God in the government of the world, before the bar of his carnal reason; and there they are presumptuously censured and condemned, Hos. xiv. 9. Sometimes the ordinary restraint of providence is taken off, and Satan is permitted to stir up the carnal mind; and in that case it is like an ant's ne [...]t, uncovered and disturbed; doubts, denials, and hellish reasons crowd in it, and cannot be laid by all the arguments brought against them, till a power from on high captivate the mind, and still the mutiny of the corrupt principles.

Thus much of the corruption of the understanding: which, altho the half be not told, may discover to you the absolute necessity of regenerating grace. Call the understanding now Ichabed; for the [Page 58] glory is departed from it. Consider this, ye that are yet in the state of nature, and groan ye out your case before the Lord, that the Sun of Righteousness may arise upon you, before you be shut up in ever­lasting darkness. What avails your worldly wisdom? What do your attainments in religion avail, while your understanding lies yet wrapt up in its natural darkness and confusion, utterly void of the light of life? Whatever be the natural man's gifts or attainments, we must (as in the case of the leper, Lev xlii 24.) pronounce him utterly un­clean, his plague is in his head. But that is not all; it is in his heart too, his will is corrupted, as I shall shew anon.

Of the Corruption of the Will.

II. The will, that commanding faculty, (which sometimes was faithful, and ruled with God) is now turned traitor, and rules with, and for the devil. God plan [...]ed it in man wholly a right seed; but now it is turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine. It was originally placed in a due subordination to the will of God, as was shewn before, but now it is gone wholly aside. However some do magnify the power of free-will, a view of the spirituality of the law, to which acts of moral discipline do in no ways answer; and a deep insight into the corruption of nature, given by the inward operation of the Spirit, convincing of sin, righteousness and judgment, would make men find an absolute need of the power of free-grace, to remove the bands of wickedness from off the free-will. To open up this plague of the heart, I offer these following things to be considered.

First, There is, in the unrenewed will, an utter inability for what is truly good and acceptable in the sight of God: The natural man's will is in Satan's fetters; hemmed in, within the circle of evil, and cannot move beyond it, more than a dead man can raise himself out of his grave, Eph. ii. 1. We deny him not a power to chuse, pursue and act, what, on the matter, is good: but though he can will what is good and right, he can will nothing aright and well. John xv. 5. Without me, i. e separate from me, as a branch from the stock, (as both the word and context do carry it) ye can do nothing; to wit, nothing truly and spiritually good His very choice and desire of spiritual things is carnal and selfish, John vi. 26. Ye seek me because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. He not only comes to Christ, but he cannot come. John vi. 44. And what can one do acceptable to God, who believeth not on him whom the Father hath sent? To evidence this inability for good in the unregenerate, consider these two things.

Evidence 1. How often does the light so shine before men's eyes: that they cannot but see the good they should chuse, and the evil they should refuse; and yet their hearts have no more power to comply with that light than if they were arrested by some invisible hand? They see what is right; yet they follow, and cannot [...] [Page 59] follow, what is wrong. Their consciences tells them the right way, and approves of it too; yet cannot their will be brought up to it: their corruption so chains them, that they cannot embrace it; so they sigh, and go backward, over the belly of their light. And if it be not thus, how is it that the word, and way of holiness meets with such entertainment in the world? How is it that clear arguments and reason on the side of piety and a holy life, which bear in themselves even on the carnal mind, do not bring men over to that side? Altho' the being of a heaven and a hell, were but a may be, it were sufficient to determine the will to the choice of holiness, were it capable to be determined thereto by mere reason: but men, knowing the judgment of God, (that they which commit such things are worthy of death) not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them, Rom. i 32. And how is it that these who magnify the power of free-will do not confirm their opinion before the world, by an ocular demon­stration, in a practice as far above others in holiness, as the opinion of their natural ability is above others? Or is it maintained only for the protection of lusts, which men may hold fast as long as they please; and when they have no more use for them, can throw them off in a moment, and leap out of Delilah's lap into Abraham's bosom? What­ever use some make of that principle: it does of itself, and in its own nature, cast a broad shadow for a shelter to wickedness of heart and life. And it may be observed, that the generality of the hearers of the gospel, of all denominations are plagued with it: for it is a root of bitterness, natural to all men; from whence do spring so much fearlessness about the soul's eternal state; so many delays and off-puts in that weighty matter, whereby much work is laid up for a death-bed by some; while others are ruined by a legal walk, and unacquainted with the life of faith, and the making use of Christ for sanctification; all flowing from the persuasion of sufficient natural abilities. So agreeable is it to corrupt nature.

Evid. 2. Let those, who, by the power of the spirit of bondage, having had the law laid out before them, in its spirituality, for their conviction speak and tell, if they found themselves able to incline their hearts towards it, in that case; nay, if the more that light shone into their souls, they did not find their hearts more and more unable to comply with it. There are some, who have been brought unto the place of the breaking forth, who are yet in the devil's camp, that from their experience can tell, light let into the mind, cannot give life to the will, to enable it to comply therewith: and could give their testimony here, if they would. But take Paul's testimony concerning it, who, in his unconverted state, was far from believing his utter inability for good; but learned it by experience, Rom. vi. [...] 9.10, 11, 1 [...]. I own, the natural man may have a kind of love to the law: but here lies the stress of the matter, he looks on the holy law in a carnal dress: and so, while he hugs a creature of his own fancy, he thinks he has the law, but in very deed he is without the [Page 60] law: for as yet he sees it not in its spirituality: if he did, he would find it the very reverse of his own nature, and what his will could not fall in with, till changed by the power of grace.

Secondly, There is in the unrenewed will an averseness to good. Sin is the natural man's element; he is loath to part with it, as the fishes are to come out of the water into dry land. He not only cannot come to Christ, but he will not come, John v. 40. He is polluted, and hates to be washen, Jer. xiii. 27 Wilt thou not be made clean? When shall it once be? He is sick, but utterly averse to the remedy: he loves his disease so, that he loaths the Physician. He is a captive, a prisoner, and a slave; but he loves his conqueror, his jailor and master: he is fond of his fetters, prison and drudgery; and has no liking to his liberty. For evidence of this averseness to good, in the will of man, I shall instance in some particulars.

Evidence 1. The untowardness of children. Do we not see them naturally, lovers of sinful liberty! How unwilling are they to be hedged in? How averse to restraint? The world can bear witness, that they are, as bullocks unaccustomed to the yoke; and more, that it is far easier to bring young bullocks tamely to bear the yoke; than to bring young children under discipline, and make them tamely sub­mit to the restraint of sinful liberty. Every body may see in this, as in a glass, that man is naturally wild and wilful, according to Zophar's observe, Job xi. 12. that man is born like a wild ass's colt. What can be said more? He is like a colt, the colt of an ass, the colt of a wild ass Compare Jer. ii. 24. A wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure, in her occasion who can turn her away?

Evid. 2. What pain and difficulty do men often find in bringing their hearts to religious duties? And what a task is it to the carnal heart to abide at them? It is a pain to it, to leave the world but a little, to converse with God. It is not easy to borrow time from the many things, to bestow it upon the one thing needful. Men often go to God in duties, with their faces towards the world; and when their bodies are on the mount of ordinances, their hearts will be found at the foot of the hill, going after their covetousness, Ezek. xxxiii. 31. They are soon wearied of well-doing; for holy duties are not agreeable to their corrupt nature. Take notice of them at their worldly business, set them down with their carnal company, or let them be sucking the breasts of a lust; time seems to them to fly, and drive furiously, so that it is gone ere they are aware. But how heavily does it drive, while a prayer, a sermon, or a sabbath lasts? The Lord's day is the longest day of all the week with many; and therefore they must sleep longer that morning, and go sooner to bed that night, than ordinarily they do; that the day may be made of a tolerable length: for their hearts say within them, when will the s [...]bbath be gone? Amos viii. 5. The hours of worship are the longest hours of that day: hence when duty is over, they are like men eased of a burden; and when sermon is ended, many have neither t [...] [Page 61] grace nor the good manners to stay till the blessing be pronounced, but like the beasts, their head is away as soon as one puts his hand to loose them; why, but because while they are at ordinances, they are, as Doeg, detained before the Lord, 1 Sam. xxii. 7.

Evid. 3. Consider how the will of the natural man doth rebel against the light, Job xxiv. 13. Light sometimes entreth in, because he is not able to hold it out: but he loveth darkness rather than light. Sometimes by the force of truth, the outer door of understanding is broken up; but the inner door of the will remains fast bolted. Then lusts rise against light; corruption and conscience encounter, and fight as in the field of battle; till corruption getting the upper hand, con­science is forced to give back: convictions are murdered: and truth is made and held prisoner, so that it can create no more disturbance. While the word is preached or read, or the rod of God is upon the natural man, sometimes convictions are darted in on him, and his spirit is wounded, in greater or lesser measure: but these convictions not being able to make him fall, he runs away with the arrows sticking in his conscience; and at length, one way or other, gets them out, and licks himself whole again. Thus, while the light shines, men, naturally averse to it, wilfully shut their eyes; till God is provoked to blind them judicially, and they become proof against the, word and providences too: so they may go where they will, they can sit at ease; there is never a word from heaven to them, that goeth deeper than into their ears, Hos iv. 17. Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone.

Evid. 4. Let us observe the resistance made by elect souls, when the Spirit of the Lord is at work, to bring them from the power of Satan unto God. Zion's King gets no subjects but by stroke of sword, in the day of his power, Psal. cx. 2, 3. None come to him, but such as are drawn by a divine hand, John vi. 44. When the Lord comes to the soul, he finds the strong man keeping the house, and a deep peace and security there, while the soul is fast asleep in the devil's arms. But the prey must be taken from the mighty, and the captive delivered. Therefore the Lord awakens the sinner, opens his eyes, and strikes him with terror, while the clouds are black above his head, and the sword of vengeance is held to his breast. Now he is at no small pains to put a fair face on a black heart; to shake off his fears, to make head against them, and to divert himself from thinking on the unpleasant and ungrateful subject of his soul's case. If he cannot so rid himself from them, carnal reason is called in to help, and urgeth that there is no ground for so great fear; all may be well enough yet: and if it be ill with him, it will be ill with many. When the sinner is beat from this, and sees no advantage of going to hell with com­pany, [...]e resolves to leave his sins, but cannot think of breaking off so soon; there is time enough, and he will do it afterwards. Conscience says, To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts: but he cries, To-morrow, Lord, to-morrow, Lord; and just now Lord, till that now is never like to come. And thus, many times, he comes from [Page 62] his prayers and confessions, with nothing, but a breast full of sharper convictions; for the heart doth not always cast up the sweet morsel, as soon as confession is made with the mouth, Judges x. 10.—16. And when conscience obligeth them [...]o part with some lusts, others are kept as right eyes and right hands; and there are rueful looks after those that are put away, as it was with the Israelites, who, with bitter hearts, did remember the fifth they did eat in Egypt freely, Num. xi. 5. Nay, when he is so pressed, that he must needs say before the Lord, that he is content to part with all his idols; the heart will be giving the tongue the lie. In a word, the soul, in this case, will shift from one thing to another; like a fish with the hook in his jaws, till it can do no more, and power come to make it succumb, as the wild ass in her month, Jer. ii. 24.

Thirdly, There is in the will of man a natural proneness to evil, a woful bent towards sin. Men naturally are bent to backsliding from God, Hos. ii 7. They hang (as the word is) towards backsliding; even as a hanging wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. Set holiness and life upon the one side, sin and death upon the other; leave the unrenewed will to itself, it will chuse sin, and reject holiness. This is no more to be doubted, than that water, poured on the side of a hill, will run downward but not upward, or that a flame will ascend and not descend.

Evidence 1. Is not the way of evil the first way the children of men do go! Do not their inclinations plainly appear on the wrong side, while yet they have no cunning to hide them? In the first opening of our eyes in the world, we look a-squint, hell-ward, not heaven-ward. As soon as it appears we are reasonable creatures, it appears we are sinful creatures, Psal. lviii. 3. The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born. Prov. xxii. 15. Foolishness is b [...]d in the heart of a child: but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. Folly is bound in the heart, it is woven into our very nature. The knot will not loose, they must be broken asunder by strokes. Words will not do it, the rod must be taken to drive it away: and if it be not driven far away, the heart and it will meet and knit again. Not that the rod of itself will do this: the sad experience of many parents testifies the contrary: and Solomon himself tells you, Prov. xxvii. 22. Though thou shouldst bray a fool in a mortar, among wheat, with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him. It is so bound in his heart. But the rod is an ordinance of God, appointed for that end; which, like the word, is made effectual, by the Spirit's accompanying his own ordinance. And this, by the way, shews that parents, in administring correction to their children, have need, first of all to correct their own irregular passions and look upon it as a matter of awful solemnity, setting about it with much depend­ence on the Lord, and following it with prayer for the blessing, they would have it effectual.

[Page 63] Evid. 2. How easily are men led aside to sin! The children, who are not persuaded to good; are otherways simple ones; easily wrought upon; those whom the word cannot draw to holiness, are led by Satan at his pleasure. Profane Esau, that cunning man, Gen. xxv. 27. was as easily cheated of the blessing, as if he had been a fool or an ideot. The more natural a thing is, it is the more easy: so Christ's yoke is easy to the saints, in so far as they are partakers of the divine nature: and sin is easy to the unrenewed man; but to learn to do good, as difficult as for the Ethi [...]pian to change his skin; because the will natu­rally hangs towards evil; but is averse to good. A child can cause a round thing to run, while he cannot move a square thing of the same weight; for the roundness makes it fit for motion, so that it goes with a touch. Even so, when men find the heare easily carried towards sin, while it is as a dead weight in the way of holiness; we must bring the reason of this from the natural set and disposition of the heart, whereby it is prone and bent to evil. Were man's will naturally, but in an equal balance to good and evil, the one might be embraced with as little difficulty as the other; but experience testifies, it is not so. In the sacred history of the Israelites, especially in the book of Judges, how often do we find them forsaking JEHOVAH, the mighty GOD, and doting upon the idols of the nations about them? But did ever one of these nations grow sond of Israel's GOD, and forsake their own idols? No, no; tho' man is naturally given to changes, it is but from evil to evil, not from evil to good, Jer. ii 10, 11. Hath a nation changed their gods, which yet are no gods? But my p [...]ople have changed their glory, for that which doth not profit. Surely the will of man stands not in equal balance, but has a cast to the wrong side.

Evid. 3. Consider how men go on still in the way of sin, till they meet with a stop, and that from another hand than their own; Isa. lvii. 17. I hid me, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart. If God withdraw his restraining hand, and lay the reins on the sinner's neck, he is in no doubt what way to choose; for (observe it) the way of sin is the way of his heart; his heart naturally lies that way; it hath a natural propensity to sin. As long as God suffereth them, they walk in their own way, Acts xiv. 16 The natural man is so fixed in his woful choice, that there needs no more to shew he is oft from God's way, but to tell he is upon his own.

Evid. 4. Whatever good impressions are made upon him they do not last. Tho' his heart be firm as a stone, yea, harder than the nether mill-stone, in point of receiving of them; it is otherwise unstable as water, and cannot keep them. It works against the receiving of them; and, when they are made, it works them off, and returns to its natural bias; Hos. vi. 4. Your goodness is as the morn­ing cloud, and as the early dew, it goeth away. The morning cloud promiseth a hearty shower; but, when the sun ariseth, it evanisheth: the sun beats upon the early dew, and it evaporates; so the husband­man's expectation is disappointed. Such is the goodness of the natu­ral [Page 64] man. Some sharp affliction, or piercing conviction obligeth him in some sort▪ to turn from his evil course: but his will not being renewed, religion is still against the grain with him, and there­fore this goes off again, Psal. lxxviii. 34, 36, 37. Tho' a stone, thrown up into the air, may abide there a little while; yet its natural heaviness will bring it down to the earth again: and so do unrenewed men retur [...] to the wallowing in the mire; because altho' they were washed, yet their swinish nature was not changed. It is hard to cause wet wood take fire, hard to make it keep fire: but it is harder than either of these to make the unrenewed will retain attained goodness; which is a plain evidence of the natural bent of the will to evil.

Evid. lust. Do the saints serve the Lord now, as they were wont to serve sin in their unconverted state? Very far from it, Rom. vi. 20. When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. Sin got all, and admitted no partner; but now, when they are the ser­vants of Christ, are they free from sin? Nay, there are still with them some deeds of the old man, shewing that he is but dying in them. And hence their hearts often misgive them, and slip aside unto evil, when they would do good, Rom. vii. 21. They need to watch, and keep their hearts with all diligence: and their sad experience toucheth them, that, He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool, Prov. xxviii. 26. If it be thus in the green tree, how must it be in the dry?

Fourthly, There is a natural contrariety, direct opposition and enmity, in the will of man, to God himself, and his holy will, Rom. viii. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. The will was once God's dep [...]t▪ in the soul, set to command there for him; but now it is set up against him. If you would have the picture of it, i [...] its natural state, the very reverse of the will of God represents it If the fruit hanging before one's eyes, be but forbidden, that is sufficient to draw the heart after it. Let me instance in the sin of profane swearing and cursing, to which some are so abandoned, that they take a pride in them; belching out horrid oaths and curses, as if hell opened with the opening of their mouths, or landing their speeches with minced oaths, as faith, hath, sai'd ye, hai'd ye, and such like: and all this without any manner of provocation, tho' even that would not excuse them. Pray tell me, (1.) What profit is there here? A thief gets something in his hand for his pains; a drunkard gets a belly-full; but what do ye get? Others serve the devil for pay; but ye are volun­ [...]ers, that expect no reward, but your work itself, in affronting of heaven. And if you repent not, you will get your reward in full [...]e; when ye go to hell, your work will follow you. The drunkard shall not have a drop of water to cool his tongue there. Nor will the covetous man's wealth follow him into the other world: but ye shall drive on your old trade there. And an eternity shall be long enough to give you your heart's fill of it. (2.) What pleasure is there here, but what flows from your trampling upon the holy law? Which of [Page 65] your senses doth swearing or cursing gratify? If it gratify your ears, it can only be by the noise it makes against the heavens. Tho' you had a mind to give up yourselves to all manner of profanity and sens­uality, there is so little pleasure can be strained out of these, that we must needs conclude, your love to them, in this case, is a love to them for themselves; a devilish unhired love, without any prospect of profit or pleasure from them otherwise. If any shall say, these are monsters of men; be it so: yet alas! the world is fruitful of such monsters; they are to be found almost every-where. And allow me to say, They must be admitted as the mouth of the whole unregenerate world against heaven, Rom. iii. 14▪ Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitter [...]s [...]. Ver. 19. Now we know, that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

I have a charge against every unregenerate man and woman, young or old, to be verified by the testimonies of the scriptures of truth, and the testimony of their own consciences; namely, that whether they be professors or prophane, whether they be, seeing they are not born again, they are heart-enemies to God: to the Son of God; to the Spirit of God: and to the law of God. Hear this, ye careless souls, that live at ease in your natural state

1 st, Ye are enemies to God in your minds, Col. i. 21. Ye are not as yet reconciled to him, the natural enmity is not as yet slain, tho' perhaps it lies hid, and ye do not perceive it. (1.) Ye are enemies to the very being of God, Psal. xv. 1. The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. The proud man would that none were above himself: the rebel, that there were no king; and the unrenewed man, who is a mass of pride and rebellion, that there were no God. He saith it in his heart, he wisheth it were so, tho' he be ashamed and afraid to speak it out. And that all natural men are such fools, appears from the Apostle's quoting a part of this psalm, That every mouth may be stopped, Rom. iii. 10, 11, 12, 19. I own indeed, that while the natural man looks on God as the Creator and Preserver of the world; because he loves his own self, therefore his heart riseth not against the being of his Benefactor: but this enmity will quickly appear, when he looks on God, as the Rector and Judge of the world, bind­ing him, under the pain of the curse, to exact holiness, and girding him with the cords of death, because of his sin. Listen, in this case, to the voice of the heart, and then will find it to be no God. (2.) Ye are enemies to the nature of God, Job xxi. 14. They say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. Men set up to themselves an idol of their own fancy, instead of God; and then fall down and worship it. They love him no other way, than Jacob loved Leah, while he took her for Rachel. Every natural man is an enemy to God, as he is revealed in his word. An infinitely holy, just, powerful and true Being, is not the God whom he loves, but the God whom he loathes. In effect men naturally are hater [...] of God, [Page 66] Rom. i. 30. And if they could, they certainly would make him another than what he is. For, consider it is a certain truth, That whatsoever is in God, is God: and therefore his attributes or perfections are not any thing really distinct from himself. If God's attributes be not himself, he is a compound being, and so not the first being (which to say is blasphemous) for the parts compounding are before the compound itself; but he is Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.

Now upon this, I would, for your conviction, propose to your consciences a few queries, (1.) How stand your hearts affected to the infinite purity and holiness of God? Conscience will give an answer to this, which the tongue will not speak out, If ye be not partakers of his holiness, ye cannot be reconciled to it. The Pagans finding they could not be like God in holiness, made their gods like themselves in filthiness: and thereby discovered what sort of a god the natural man would have. God is holy; can an unholy creature love his unspotted holiness? Nay, it is the righteous only that can give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness, Psal. lxxxvii. 12. God is light; can creatures of darkness rejoice therein? Nay, every one that doth evil hateth the light, John iii. 29. For, what communion hath light with darkness? 2 Cor. [...]i. 14. (2.) How stand your hearts affected to the justice of God? There is not a man, who is wedded to his lusts, as all the unregenerate are, but would be-content, with the blood of his body, to blot that letter out of the name of God, Can the male factor love his condemning judge? Or an unjustified sinner, a just God? No, he cannot, Luke vii. 47. To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. Hence seeing men cannot get the doctrine of his Justice blotted out of the Bible; yet it is such an eye-sore to them, that they strive to blot it out of their minds. And they ruin themselves by presuming on his mercy; while they are not careful to get a righte­ousness, wherein they may stand before his Justice; but say in their heart, The Lord will not do good; neither will he do evil, Zeph. i. 12. (3.) How stand ye affected to the Omniscience and Omnipresence of God? Men naturally would rather have a blind idol, than an all-seeing God; and therefore do what they can, as Adam did, to hide themselves from the presence of the Lord. They no more love an all-seeing, every-where-present God, than the thief loves to have the judge witness to his evil deeds. If it could be carried by votes, God would be voted out of the world, and closed up in heaven: For the language of the carnal heart is, The Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsake as the earth, Ezek. viii. 12 (4) How stand ye affected to the Truth and Veracity of God? There are but few in the world that can heartily subscribe to that sentence of the apostle, Rom. iii. 4. Let God be true, but every man a liar. Nay truly, there are many, who, in effect do hope that God will not be true to his word. There are thousands who hear the gospel, that hope to be saved, and think all safe with them for eternity, who never had any experience of the new birth, nor do at all concern themselves in that question, Whether they are burn [Page 67] again, or not? A question that is like to wear out from among u [...] this day Our Lord's words are plain and peremptory, Except a man be b [...]rn again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. What are such hopes then, but real hopes that God (with profoundest reverence be it spoken) will recal his word, and that Christ will prove a false prophet? What else means the sinner, who, when he heareth the words of the curs [...], blesseth himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, tho' I walk in the imagination of mine heart, Deut xxix 19. Lastly, How sta [...]d ye affected to the Power of God? None but new creatures will love him for it, on a fair view thereof; tho' others may slavishly fear him, upon the account of it. There is not a natural man, but would contribute to the utmost of his power to the building of another tower of Babel, to hem it in. On these grounds, I declare every unrenewed man an enemy to God.

2 dly, Ye are enemies to the Son of God That enmity to Christ is in your hearts, which would have made you join the husbandmen, who killed the heir, and cast him out of the vineyard: If ye had been beset with their temptations, and no more restrained than they were Am I a d [...]g, you will say, to have so treated my sweet Saviour? so said Hazael in another case; but when he had the temptation, he was a dog to do it. Many call Christ their sweet Saviour, whose consciences can bear witness, they never sucked so much sweetness from him, as from their sweet lusts, which are ten times sweeter to them than their Saviour. He is no other way sweet to them, than as they abuse his death and sufferings, for the peaceable enjoyment of their lusts; that they may live as they list in the world; and when they die, may be kept out of hell. Alas! it is but a mistaken Christ that is sweet to you, whose souls lothe that Christ, who is the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person. It is with you as it was in the carnal Jews, who delighted in him while they mistook his errand into the world, fancying that he would be a temporal deliverer to them, Mal. iii. 1 But when he was come, and sat as a refiner and purifier of silver, verse 2, 3. and cast them as reprobate silver, who thought to have had no small honour in the kingdom of the Messiah; his doctrine galled their consciences, and they rested not till they imbrued their hands in his blood. To open your eyes in this point, which ye are so loth to believe, I will lay before you, the enmity of your hearts against Christ and all his offices.

1. Every unregenerate man is an enemy to Christ in his Prophetical Office. He is appointed of the Father, the great Prophet and Teacher; but not upon the world's call, who, in their natural state, would have unanimously voted against him: And therefore, when he came, he was condemned as a seducer and blasphemer. For evidence of this enmity, I will instance in two things.

Evidence 1. Consider the entertainment he meets with, when he comes to teach souls inwardly by his Spirit. Men do what they can to stop their ears, like the deaf adder that they may not hear his voice. [Page 68] They always resist the Holy Ghost. They desire not the knowledge of his ways; and therefore bid him depart from them. The old calumny is often raised upon him, on that occasion, John x. 20. He is mad, why hear ye him? Soul exercise raised by the spirit of bondage, is ac­counted by many, nothing else but distraction, and melancholy fits; men thus blaspheming the Lord's work, because they themselves are beside themselves, and cannot judge of these matters.

Evid. 2. Consider the entertainment he meets with, when he comes to teach men outwardly by his word.

(1.) His written word, the Bible, is slighted; Christ hath left it to us, as the book of our instructions, to show us what way we must steer our course, if we would come to Emmanuel's land. It is a lamp to light us through a dark world to eternal light. And he hath left it upon us, to search it with that diligence, wherewith men dig into mines for silver and gold. John v. 39 But ah! how is this sacred treasure profaned by many! They ridicule the holy word, by which they must be judged at the last day; and will rather lose their souls than their jest, dressing up the conceit of their wanton wits in scripture phrases; in which they act as mad a part, as one who would dig into a mine to procure metal to melt and pour down his own and his neighbour's throat. Many exhaust their spirits in reading romances, and their minds pursue them, as the same doth the dry stubble; while they have no heart for, nor relish of the holy word, and therefore seldom take a Bible in their hands. What is agreeable to the vanity of their minds, is pleasant and taking; but what recommends holiness to their unholy hearts, makes their spirits dull and flat. What pleasure will they find in reading of a profane ballad, or story book, to whom the Bible is tasteless, as the white of an egg! Many lay by their Bibles with their Sabbath day's clothes; and whatever use they have for their clothes, they have none for their Bibles, till the return of the Sabbath. Alas! the dust or finery about your Bibles is a witness now, and will, at the last day, be a witness of the enmity of your hearts against Christ, as a Prophet. Besides all this, among these who ordi­narily read the scriptures, how few are there that read it as the word of the Lord to their souls, and keep communion with him in it. They do not make his statutes their counsellors, nor doth their particular case send them to their Bibles. They are strangers to the solid comfort of the scriptures. And if at any time they be dejected, it is something else than the word that revives them: as Ahab was cured of his sullen sit, by the securing of Naboth's vineyard for him.

(2.) Christ's word preached is despised. The entertainment most of the world, to whom it has come, have always give [...] [...] is that which i [...] mentioned. Matth. xxii. 5. They made light of it. And for its sake they are d [...]s [...]ised wh [...] he has employed to preach it; whatever other since men put upon their contempt of the ministry, John xv. 20. The servant is not greater than the Lord: if they have persecuted me [...] they will also persecute you; if they have kept my sayings, they will [...] [Page 69] yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake. That Levi was the son of the hated, seems not to have been without a [...]stery, which the [...] in all ages, hath unriddled. But tho' the earth [...]n vessel, where in God has put the treasure, be turned, with many, into vessels wher [...] in there is no pleasure, yet, why is the treasure itself slighted? But slighted it is, and that with a witness this day. Lord, who hath believed our report? To whom shall we speak? Men can, without remorse, make to themselves silent Sabbaths, one after another. And alas! when they come to ordinances, for the most part, it is but [...] the word is, to be seen) before the Lord, and to tread his c [...]urts; namely, as a company of beasts would do, if they were driven into them, Isa. i. 12. so little reverence and awe of God appears on their spirits. Many stand like brazen walls before the word, in whose corrupt conversation the preaching of the word makes no breach. Nay, not a few are growing worse and worse, under precept upon precepts and the result of all is, They go and fall backward, and be broken, and s [...]ared, and taken, Isa. xxviii. 13. What tears of blood are sufficient to lament that (the gospel) the grace of God, is thus received in vain! We are but the voice of one crying; the Speaker is in heaven; and speaks to you from heaven by men: why do ye refuse him that speaketh? Heb. xii. 25. God has made our Master heir of all things, and we are sent to court a spouse for him. There is none so worthy as he; none more unworthy than they to whom this match is promised; but the prince of darkness is preferred before the Prince of Peace. A dismal darkness overclouded the world by Adam's fall, more terrible than if the sun, moon and stars had been for ever wrapt up in blackness of darknes [...]; and there we should have eternally lain, had not this grace of the gospel, as a shining sun, ap­peared to dispel it, Tit. ii. 11. But yet we fly like night owls from it; and like the wild beasts, lay ourselves down in our dens; when the sun ariseth, we are struck blind with the light thereof; and, as creatures of darkness, love darkness rather than light. Such is the enmity of the hearts of men against Christ, in his prophetical office.

2. The natural man is an enemy to Christ in his priestly office. He is appointed of the Father a Priest for ever: that, by his alone sacrifice and intercession, sinners may have peace with, and access to God; but Christ crucified is a stumbling block, and foolishness to the unrenewed part of mankind, to whom he is preached, 1 Cor. i 23. They are not for him, as the new and living way. Nor is he by the voice of the world, an High Priest over the house of God. Corrupt nature goes quite another way to work.

Evidence 1. None of Adam's children naturally incline to receive the blessing in borrowed robes; but would always, according to the spider's motto, owe all to themselves; and so climb up to heaven on a thread spun out of their own bowels. For they desire to be under the law, Gal. iv. 24. And go about to establish their own righteousness, Rom. x. 3. Man, naturally, looks on GOD as a great Master; and [Page 70] himself as his servant, that must work and win heaven as his wages. Hence, when conscience is awakened, he thinks that, to the end he may be saved, he must answer the demands of the law; serve God as well as he can, and pray for mercy wherein he comes short. And thus many come to duties, that never come out of them to Jesus Christ.

Evid. 2. As men, naturally, think highly of their duties, that seem to them, to be well done; so they look for acceptance with God ac­cording as their work is done, not according to the share they have in the blood of Christ. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou se [...]st not? They'll value themselves on their performances and attainments: yea, their very opinions in religion, (Philip. iii 4, 5, 6, 7.) taking to themselves, what they rob from Christ the great High-priest.

Evid. 3. The natural man going to God, in duties, will always be found, either to go without a mediator, or with more than the only Mediator JESUS CHRIST. Nature is blind, and therefore venturous: it sets a man a going immediately to God without Christ; to rush into his presence, and put their petitions in his hand, without being introduced by the Secretary of heaven, or putting their requests into his hand. So fixed is this disposition in the unrenewed heart, that when many hearers of the gospel are conversed with upon the point of their hopes of salvation, the name of Christ will scarcely be heard from their mouths. Ask them how they think to obtain the pardon of sin? they will tell you, they beg and look for mercy, because God is a merciful God; and that is all they have to confide in. Others look for mercy for Christ's sake; but how do they know that Christ will take their plea in hand. Why, as the Papists have their mediators with the Mediator, so have they. They know he cannot but do it; for they pray, confess, mourn, and have great desires, and the like; and so have something of their own to commend them unto him: they were never made poor in spirit, and brought empty-handed to Christ, to lay the stress of all on his atoning blood.

3. The natural man is an enemy to Christ in his kingly office. The Father has appointed the Mediator King in Zion, Psal. ii. 6. And all to whom the gospel comes, are commanded, on their highest peril, to kiss the Son, and submit themselves unto him, ver. 12. But the natural voice of mankind is, Away with him; as you may see, ver. 2, 3. They will not have him to reign over them, Luke xix. 14.

Evidence 1. The workings of corrupt nature to wrest the govern­ment out of his hands. No sooner was he born, but being born a King, Herod persecuted him, Matth. ii. And when he was crucified, they set up over his head his accusation written, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews, Matth. xxvii. 37. Though his kingdom be a spiritual kingdom, and not of this world; yet they cannot allow him a kingdom within a kingdom, which acknowledgeth no other head or supreme, but the royal Mediator. They make [...] with his royal prerogatives, changing his laws, institutions and ordinances, modelling his worship according to the devices of their own hearts; introducing new offices [Page 71] and officers into his kingdom, not to be found in the book of the manner of his kingdom, disposing of the external government thereof, as may best suit their carnal designs. Such is the enmity of the hearts of men against Zion's KING.

Evid 2 How unwilling are men, naturally to submit unto, and be hedged in by the laws and discipline of his Kingdom! As a King, he is a Law-giver, (Isa. xxxiii 22.) and has appointed an external government, discipline and censors, to controul the unruly, and to keep his professed subjects in order, to be exercised by officers of his own appointment, Matth. xviii. 17, 18 1 Cor. xii. 28. 1 Tim. v. 17. Heb. xiii 17. But these are the great eye-sores of the carnal world, who love sinful liberty, and therefore cry out, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us, Psal. ii. 3. Hence this work is found to be, in a special manner, a striving against the stream of corrupt nature, which, for the most part, puts such a face on the church, as if there were no King in Israel, every one doing that which is right in his own eyes.

Evid. 3. However natural men may be brought to feign submission to the King of saints, yet lusts always retain the throne and dominion in their hearts, and they are serving divers lusts and pleasures, Tit. iii. 3. None but these in whom Christ is formed, do really put the crown on his head, and receive the kingdom of Christ within them. His crown is the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals. Who are they, whom the power of grace has not sub­dued, that will allow him to set up, and to put down, in their souls, as he will? Nay, as for others, any lord shall sooner get the rule over them, than the Lord of glory: they kindly entertain his enemies, and will never absolutely resign themselves to his government, till con­quered in a day of power. Thus ye may see that the natural man is an enemy to Jesus Christ in all his offices.

But O! how hard is it to convince men in this point! They are very loth to take with it. And in a special manner, the enmity of the heart against Christ in his priestly office, seems to be hid from the view of most of the hearers of the gospel. Yet there appears to be a peculiar malignity in corrupt nature against that office of his. It may be observed, that the Socinians, these enemies of our blessed Lord, allow him to be properly a Prophet and a King, but deny him to be properly a Priest. And this is agreeable enough to the corruption of our nature; for under the covenant of works, the Lord was known as a Prophet or Teacher, and also as a King or Ruler; but not at all as a Priest: so man knows nothing of the mystery of Christ, as the way to the Father, till it be revealed to him. And when it is revealed, the will riseth up against it; for corrupt nature lies cross to the mystery of Christ, and the great contrivance of salvation, through a crucified Saviour, revealed in the gospel. For clearing of which weighty truth, let these four things be considered.

[Page 72] First, The soul's falling in with the grand device of salvation by Jesus Christ, and setting the matters of salvation on that footing be­fore the Lord, is declared by the scriptures of truth to be an undoubt­ed mark of a real saint, who is happy here, and shall be happy here­after. Matth. xi. 6. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. 1 Cor. i. 23, 24. But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness: but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Philip iii. 3. For we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confi­dence in the flesh. Now how could this be, if nature could comply with that grand device.

Secondly, Corrupt nature is the very reverse of the gospel contriv­ance. In the gospel, God promiseth Jesus Christ as the great means of re-uniting man to himself: he has named him as the Mediator, one in whom he is well pleased, and will have none but him, Matth. xvii. 5. But nature will have none of him, Psal lxxxi. 11 God appointed the place of meeting for the reconciliation, namely, the flesh of Christ; accordingly, God was in Christ, (2 Cor. v. 29.) as the tabernacle of meeting, to make up the peace with sinners; but natural men, tho' they should die for ever, will not come thither John v. 40. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. In the way of the gospel, the sinner must stand before the Lord in an imp [...]d righteousness: but corrupt nature is for an inherent righteousness: and therefore, so far as natural men follow after righteousness, they follow after the law of righteousness, Rom. ix 31, 32. and not after the Lord our righteousness. Nature is always for building up itself, and to have some grounds for boasting: but the great design of the gospel is to exalt grace, to depress nature, and exclude boasting, Rom. iii 27. The sum of our natural religion is, to do good from and for ourselves, John v. 44. The sum of the gospel religion is, to deny ourselves and to do good from and for Christ, Philip i. 21.

Thirdly, Every thing in nature is against believing in Jesus Christ. What beauty can the blind man discern in a crucified Saviour, for which he is to be desired? How can the will, naturally impotent, yea and averse to good, make choice of him? Well may the soul then say to him in the day of the spiritual siege, as the Jebusites said to David in another case, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither, 2 Sam. v. 6. The way of nature is to go into one's self for all; according to the fundamental maxim of unsanctified morality, That a man should trust in himself; which according to the doctrine of faith, is mere foolishness; for so it is determined, Prov. xviii. 26. He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool. Now faith is the soul's going out of itself for all: and this nature, on the other hand, determines to be foolishness, 1 Cor. i. 18, 23. Wherefore there is need of the working of mighty power, to cause sinners to believe, Eph. i. 19. Isa. liii. 1. We see promises of welcome to sinners, in [Page 73] the gospel-covenant, are ample, large and free, clogg'd with no conditions, Isa. lv. 1. Rev. xxii. 17. If they cannot believe his bare word, he has given them his oath upon it, Ezek. xxxiii. 11. And for their greater assurance, he has appended seals to his sworn covenant, namely, the holy sacraments. So that no more could be demanded of the most faithless person in the world, to make us believe him, than the Lord hath condescended to give us, to make us believe himself. This plainly speaks nature to be against believing, and these who [...]lee to Christ for refuge, to have need of strong consolation. (Heb vi. 18.) to blame their strong doubts, and propensity to unbelief. Farther, also it may be observed, how, in the word sent to a secure, graceless generation, their objections are answered aforehand; and words of grace are heaped one upon another, as ye may read, Isa. lv. 7, 8, 9. Joel ii. 13. Why? Because the Lord knows, that when these secure sinners are throughly wakned, doubts, fears, and carnal reasonings against believing, will be going within their breasts, as thick as dust in a house, raised by sweeping a dry floor.

Lastly, [...]rupt nature is bent towards the way of the law, or covenant of works; and every natural man, so far as he sets himself to seek after salvation, is engaged in that way; and will not quit it, till beat from it by divine power. Now the way of salvation by works, and that of free grace in Jesus Christ, are inconsistent, Rom. xi. 6. And if by grace; then it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace; other­wise work is no more work. Gal. iii. 13. And the law is not of FAITH; but the man that DOTH them shall live in them Wherefore, if the will of man naturally incline to the way of salvation by the law; it lies cross to the gospel contrivance. And that such is the natural bent of our hearts, will appear, if these following things be considered.

1. The law was Adam's covenant; and he knew no other, as he was the head and representative of all mankind, that were brought into it with him, and lest under it by him, tho' without strength to perform the condition thereof. Hence, this covenant is ingrained in our nature: and tho' we have lost our father's strength▪ yet we still incline to the way he was set upon as our head and representative in that covenant; that is, by doing to live. This is our natural r [...] [...] and the principle which men naturally take for granted, Matth. xix. [...] What good thing shall I DO, that I may have eternal life?

2. Consider the opposition that has always been made in the wo [...] against the doctrine of free grace in Jesus Christ, by men set [...] for the way of works; thereby discovering the natural tend like an the heart. It is manifest [...] [...] the great design of the gospel [...] [...]ance is to exalt the free grace of God in Jesus Christ, Rom. iv. [...] Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grac [...]. See Eph i. 6. [...] chap. ii 7, 9. All gospel truths center in Christ: so that [...] the truth is to learn Christ, Eph. iv. 20. And to be truly taught, [...] to be taught as the truth is in Jesus, ver. 21. All dispensations of [Page 74] grace and favour from heaven, whether to nations or particular per­sons, have still had something about them proclaiming a freedom of grace; as in the very first separation made by the divine favour, Cain the elder brother is rejected, and Abel the younger accepted. This shines through the whole history of the Bible: but as true as it is, this has been the point principally opposed by corrupt nature. One may well say, that of all errors in religion, since Christ, the Seed of the woman was preached, this of works, in opposition to free grace in him, was the first that lived; and it is likely to be the last that dies. There have been vast numbers of errors, which sprung up one after another, whereof, at length, the world became ashamed and weary; so that they died out. But this has continued, from Cain the first author of this heresy, unto this day; and never wanted some that clave to it, even in the times of greatest light. I do not without ground, call Cain the author of it; when Abel brought the sacrifice of atonement, a bloody offering of the firs [...]ings of his flock, (like the Publican, smit­ing on his breast, and saying, God b [...] merciful to me a sinner) Cain ad­vanced with his thank-offering of the first fruit of the ground, (Gen. iv. 3, 4.) like the proud Pharisee, with his God I thank thee. For what was the cause of Cain's wrath, and of his murdering of Abel? Was it not that he was accepted of God for his work? Gen. iv. 4, 5. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous, (1 John iii. 22) that is, done in faith and accepted, when his were done without faith, and therefore rejected, as the Apostle teacheth, Heb. xi. 4. And so he wrote his indignation against justi­fication and acceptance with God, through faith, in opposition to works, in the blood of his brother, to convey it down to pesterity. And since that time, the unbloody sacrifice has often swimmed in the blood of those that rejected it. The promise made to Abraham of the Seed in which all nations should be blessed, was so overclouded among his posterity in Egypt, that the generality of them saw no need of that way of obtaining the blessing, till God himself confuted their error, by a fiery law from Mount Sinai, which was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come, Gal iii. 19. I need not insist w [...] tell you, how Moses and the prophets had still much ado, to lead the an [...] [...]off the conceit of their own righteousness. The 9th chapter to h [...] Deuteronomy is entirely spent on that purpose. They were very [...]ss in that point in our Saviour's time; in the time of the Apostle's, [...] in the doctrine of free grace was most clearly preached, that error [...] its head in face of clearest light; witness the epistle to the [...] and Galatians: And since that time it has not been wanting; [...] being the common sink of former heresies, and this the heart [...]ise of that delusion. And finally, it may be observed, that [...]s as the church declined from her purity otherwise, the doctrine [...]ree grace was obscured proportionably.

3. Such is the natural propensity of man's heart to the way of the law, in opposition to Christ; that, as the tainted vessel turns the tas [...] [Page 75] of the purest liquor put into it, so the natural man turns the very gospel into law; and transforms the covenant of grace into a covenant of works The ceremonial law was to the Jews a real gospel; which held blood, death, and translation of guilt before their eyes continually, as the only way of salvation: yet their very table ( i e. their altar, with the several ordinances pertaining thereto, Mal i. 12) was a snare unto them, Rom. ii. 9. while they use it to make up the defects in their obedience to the moral law, and clave to it so, as to reject him whom the altar and sacrifices pointed them to, as the substance of all: even as Hagar, whose it was only to serve, was by their father brought into her mistress's bed; nor without a mystery in the purpose of God, for these are the two covenants, Gal. iv. 24. Thus is the doctrine of the gospel corrupted by Papists, and other enemies to the doctrine of free grace. And indeed, however natural men's heads may be set right in this point; as surely as they are out of Christ, their faith, repentance and obedience, (such as they are) are placed by them in the room of Christ and his righteousness; and so trusted to, as if by these they fulfilled a new law

4. Great is the difficulty in Adam's sons their parting with the law, as a covenant of works. None part with it in that respect, but these whom the power of the Spirit of grace separates from it. The law is our first husband, and gets every one's virgin-love. When Christ comes to the soul, he finds it married to the law; so as it neither can, nor will be married to another, till it be obliged to part with the first husband, as the apostle teacheth, Rom. vii. 1, 2, 3, 4. Now, that ye may see what sort of a parting this is, consider,

(1) It is a death, Rom. vii. 4. Gal. iii 19. Intreaties will not prevail with the soul here; it saith to the first husband, as Ruth to Na [...]i, The Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me. And here sinners are true to their word; they die to the law, ere they be married to Christ Death is hard to every body: but what difficulty do ye imagine must a loving wife, on her death-bed, find in parting with her husband, the husband of her youth, and with the dear children she has brought forth to him: the law is that hus­band; all the duties performed by the natural man, are these children. What a struggle, as for life, will be in the heart ere they be got parted? I may have occasion to touch upon this afterwards. In the mean time, take the Apostle's short, but pithy description of it, Rom x. 3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. They go about to establish their own righteousness▪ like an eager disputant in schools, seeking to establish the point in question: or like a tormentor, extorting a confession from one upon the rack. They go about to establish it to make it stand: their righteousness is like a house built upon the sand; it cannot stand, but they will have it to stand: it falls, they set it up again: but still it tumbles down on them; yet they cease not to go about to make it stand. But wherefore [Page 76] all this pains about a tottering righteousness? Because, such as it is, it is their own. What ails them at Christ's righteousness? Why, that would make them free grace's debtors for all; and that is what the proud heart by no means can submit t [...]. Here lies the stress of the matter, Psal. x 4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek: (to read it without the supplement) that is, in other terms, He cannot dig, and to beg he is ashamed: Such is the struggle, ere the soul die to the law: But what speaks yet more of this woful disposition of the heart, nature oft-times gets the mastery of the disease, insomuch that the soul, which was like to have died to the law, while convictions were sharp and piercing, fatally recovers of the happy and promising sickness; and (what is very natural) cleaves more closely than ever to the law, even as a wife brought back from the gates of death would cleave to her husband: This is the issue of the exercise of many about their souls case: they are indeed brought to follow duties more closely; but they are as far from Christ as ever, if not farther.

(2) It is a violent death, Rom vii 4 Ye are become dead to the law, being killed, slain, or put to death, as the word bears. The law itself has a great hand in this; the husband gives the wound, Gal ii. 19. I though the law am dead to the law. The soul that dies this death, is like a loving wife matched with a rigorous husband: she does what she can to please him, yet he is never pleased; but tosseth, harasseth, and beats her, till she break her heart, and death sets her free; as will afterwards more fully appear. Thus it is made evident, that men's hearts are naturally bent to the way of the law, and ly cross to the gospel contrivance: and the second article of the charge, against you that are unregenerate, is verified, namely▪ that ye are enemies to the Son of God.

3 dly, Ye are enemies to the Spirit of God. He is the Spirit of holiness; the natural man is unholy, and loves to be so, and there­fore resists the holy Ghost, Acts vii. 51. The work of the Spirit is to convince the world of sin, righteousness and judgment, John xvi. 8. But O how do men strive to ward off these convictions, as ever they would ward off a blow, threatning their loss of a right-eye, or a right hand? If the Spirit of the Lord dart them in, so as they cannot evite them; the heart says, in effect, as Ahab to Eujah, whom he both hated and feared: Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And indeed they treat him as an enemy, doing their a [...]most to stifle convictions, and to murder these harbingers, that come to prepare the Lord's way into the soul▪ come fill their hands with business, to put their convictions ou [...] o [...] their heads, as Cain, who fell a building of a city: some put them off with delays and fair promises, as Felix did: some will sport them away in company, and some sleep them away. The holy Spirit is the spirit of sanctification: whose work it is to subdue lusts, and burn up corruption▪ how then can the natural man, whose lusts are to him as his limbs, yea, as his life fail of be [...] [...] enemy to him.

[...]thly. Ye are enemies to the law of [...] the natural man, d [...] to be under the law, as a covenant of works, chussing that way of [Page 77] salvation in opposition to the mystery of Christ: yet as it is a rule of life, requiring universal holiness, and discharging all manner of im­purity, he is an enemy to it: Is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, Rom. viii. 7. For, (1.) There is no unrenewed man, who is not wedded to some one last or other, which his heart can by no means part with. Now, that he cannot bring up his inclinations to the holy law, he would fain have the law brought down to his in­clinations: a plain evidence of the enmity of the heart against it. And therefore, to delight i [...] the Law of God, after the inward man, is proposed in the word as a mark of a gracious soul, Rom. vii. 22. Psal. i. 2. It is from this natural enmity of the heart against the law, that all the Pharisaical gl [...]sses upon it have arisen: whereby the com­mandment, which is in itself exceeding [...]ad, has been made very narrow, to the intent it might be the more agreeable to the natural disposition of the heart. (2) The law laid home to the natural conscience, in its spirituality, irritates corruption. The nearer it comes, nature riseth the more against it. In that case, it is as oil to the fire, which instead of quenching it makes it flame the more; When the commandment came, si [...] r [...]vived, says the Apostle, Rom. vii. 9. What reason can be assigned for this, but the natural enmity of the heart against the holy law? Unmortified corruption, the more it is opposed, the more it rageth. Let us conclude then, that the unre­generate are heart-enemies to God, his Son, his Spirit, and his law; that there is a natural contrariety, opposition, and enmity in the will of man, to God himself, and his holy will.

Fifthly, There is, in the will of man, contumacy against the Lord. Man's will is naturally wilful in an evil course. He will have his will, though it should ruin him: it is with him, as with the leviathan, (Job xli. 29.) D [...]s are counted as stubble; he laugheth at the shaking of a spear. The Lord calls to him by his word, says to him, (as Paul to the jaylor, when he was about to kill himself.) Do thyself no harm: sinners, Why will ye do? Ezek. x [...]iii. 31. But they will not hearken, Every one turneth to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle, Jer. viii. 6. We have a promise of life, in form of a command, Prov. iv. 4. Keep my commandments and [...]iv [...]: it speaks impenitent sinners to be self-destroyers, wilful self-murderers. They transgress the command of living; as if one's servant should wilfully starve himself to death, or greedily drink up a cup of poison, which his master commands him to forbear: even so do they: they will not live, they will die, Prov. viii. 36 All they that hate me, love death. O what a heart is this! It is a stony heart, (Ezek. xxxvi. 26) hard and inflexible, as a stone: mercies melt it not, judgments break it not; yet it will break ere it bow. It is an insensible heart; tho' there be upon the sinner a weight of sin, which makes the earth to stagger; although there is a weight of wrath on him, which makes the devils to tremble; yet h [...] goes lightly under the burden; he feels not the weight more than a stone: till the Spirit of the Lord quicken him, so far as to see [...]t.

[Page 78] Lastly, The unrenewed will is wholly perverse in reference to man's chief and highest end. The natural man's chief end is not his God, but his self. Man is a mere relative, dependent, borrowed being: he has no being nor goodness originally from himself; but all he hath is from God, as the first cause and spring of all perfection, natural or moral: dependence is woven into his very nature; so that if God should totally withdraw from him, he would dwindle into a mere nothing. Seeing then whatever man is, he is of him: surely in whatever he is, he should be to him; as the waters which come from the sea, do of course, return thither again. And thus man was created, directly looking to God, as his chi [...]f end: but falling into sin, he fell off from God, and turned into himself; and like a traitor usurping the throne, he gathers in the rents of the crown to himself: Now, this infers a total apostasy, and universal corruption in man; for where the chief and last end is changed, there can be no goodness there. This is the case of all men in their natural state, Psal. xiv. 2, 3. The Lord looked down—to see if there were any that did—seek God. They are all gone aside: to wit, from God; they seek not God, but them­selves. And tho' many fair shreds of morality are to be found amongst them, yet there is none that doth good, no not one; for tho' some of them run well, they are still off the way; they never aim at the right mark. They are lovers of their ownselves, (2 Tim. iii. 2.) more than God, verse 4. Wherefore, Jesus Christ having come into the world, to bring men back to God again, came to bring them out of themselves in the first place, Matth. xvi. 25. The godly groan under the re­mains of this woful disposition of the heart: they acknowledge it, and set themselves against it, in its subtile and dangerous insinuations. The unregenerate, tho' most insensible of it, are under the power thereof; and whithersoever they turn themselves, they cannot move without the circle of self: they seek themselves, they act for them­selves; their natural, civil and religious actions, from whatever spring they come, do all run into, and meet in, the dead sea of self.

Most men are so far from making God their chief end, in their natural and civil actions; that in these matters, God is not in all their thoughts. Their eating and drinking, and such like natural actions, are for themselves; their own pleasure or necessity, without any higher end: Zech vii. 6. Did ye not eat for yourselves? They have no eye to the glory of God in these things, as they ought to have, 1 Cor. x. 31. They do not eat and drink, to keep up their bodies for the Lord's service; they do them not, because God has said, thou shalt not kill: neither do these drops of sweetness God has put into the creature, raise up their souls towards that ocean of delight that is in the Creator, tho' they are indeed a sign hung out at heaven's door, to tell men of the fulness of goodness that's in God himself, Acts xiv. 16. But it is self, and not God, that is sought in them by natural men. And what are the unrenewed man's civil actions, such as buying, selling, work­ing, &c but fruit to himself? Hos. x. 1. so marrying and giving in [Page 79] marriage▪ are reckoned amongst the sins of the old world; (Matth. xxiv 38) for they had no eye to God therein, to please him; but all they had in view, was to please themselves, Gen vi 3. Finally, Self is natural men's highest end, in their religious actions: They perform duties for a name, Matth. vi 1, 2. or some other worldly interest, John vi 26. Or, if they be more refined, it is their peace and at most their salvation from hell and wrath, or their own eternal happi­ness, that is their ch [...]ef and highest end, Matth xix. 16,—22. Their eyes are held, that they see not the glory of God They seek God indeed, but not for himself, but for themselves They seek him not at all, but for their own welfare: so their whole life is woven into one web of practical blasphemy; making God the means, and self their end, yea, their chief end.

And thus have I given you some rude draughts of man's will, in his natural state, drawn by scripture and men's own experience. Call it no more Naomi but Marah: for bitter it is, and a root of bitterness. Call it no more free-will, but slavish lust; free to evil, but free from good, till regenerating grace loose the bands of wickedness. Now, since all must be wrong, and nothing can be right, where the under­standing and will are so corrupt; I shall briefly dispatch what remains, as following of course, on the corruption of those prime faculties of the soul.

The Corruption of the Affections, the Conscience and the Memory. The Body partaker of this corruption.

III. The Affections are corrupted. The unrenewed man's affec­tions are wholly disordered and distempered: they are as the unruly horse, that either will not receive, or violently runs away with the rider. So man's heart naturally is a mother of abominations. Mark vii. 21, 22. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, &c. The natural man's affections are wretchedly misplaced; he is a spiritual monster. His heart is there, where his feet should be, fixed on the earth; his heels are lifted up against heaven, which his heart should be set on, Acts ix. 5. His face is towards hell, his back towards heaven; and therefore God calls him to turn. He loves what he should hate, and hates what he should love▪ [...] in what he ought to mourn for, and mourns for what he should rejoice in: glorieth in his shame, and is ashamed of his glory; abhors what he should desire, and desires what he should abhor, Prov. ii. 13.14.15. They hit the point indeed, (as Caiaphus did in another case) who cried out on the apostles as men that turned the world upside-down, Acts xvii. 6. for that is the work the gospel has has to do in the world, where sin has put all things so out of order, that heaven lies under, and earth a-top. If the unre­newed man's affections be set on lawful objects, then they are either excessive, or defective. Lawful enjoyments of the world Love some­times [Page 80] too little, but mostly too much of them: either they get not their due; or, if they do, it is measure [...] over. Spiritual things have always too little of them. In a word, they are always in, or over; never right, only evil.

Now, here is a three-fold cord against heaven and holiness, not easily broken; a blind mind, a perverse will, and disorderly distem­pered affections. The mind swelled with self-con [...]ent, save the man should not stoop; the will opposite to the will of God, says he will not; and the corrupt affections rising against the Lord, in defence of the corrupt will, say, he shall not. Thus the poor creature stands out against God and goodness; till a day of power come, in which he is made a new creature

IV. The Conscience is corrupt and defiled, Tit i. 15. It is an evil eye, that fills one's conversation with much darkness and confusion; being naturally unable to do its office; till the Lord, by letting in a new light to the soul, awaken the conscience; it remains sleepy and unactive. Conscience can never do its work, but according to the light it hath to work by. Wherefore seeing the natural man cannot spirit­ually discern spiritual things, (1 Cor. ii. 14.) the conscience naturally is quite useless in that point: being cast into such a deep sleep, that nothing but a saving illuminations from the Lord, can set it on work in that matter. The light of the natural conscience in good and evil, sin and duty, is very defective; therefore tho' it may check for grosser sins; yet as to the more subtile workings of sin, it cannot check for them, because it discerns them not. Thus conscience will fly in the face of many, if at any time they be drunk, swear, neglect prayer, or be guilty of any gross sin; who otherwise have a profound peace; tho' they live in the sin of unbelief, are strangers to spiritual worship, and the life of faith. And natural light being but faint and languishing in many things which it doth reach, conscience in that case shoots like a stitch in one's side, which quickly goes off; its incitements to duty, and checks for and struggles against sin, are very remiss, which the natural man easily gets over. But because there is a false light in the dark mind, the natural conscience following the same will call evil good, and good evil, Isa. v. 20. And so it is often found like a blind and furious horse, which doth violently run down himself, his rider, and all that doth come in his way, John xvi. 2. Whosoever kill [...]th you, will think that he doth God service. When the natural conscience is awak­ened by the Spirit of conviction, it will indeed rage and rore, and put the whole man in a dreadful consternation, awfully summon all the powers of the soul to help in a strait; make the stiff heart to tremble, and the knees to bow; set the eyes a-weeping, the [...] [...]ss­ing; and oblige the man to cast out the goods into the sea, which it apprehends are like to sink the ship of the soul, tho' the heart [...] goes after them. But yet it is an evil conscience, which natively leads to despair, and will do it effectually, as in Judas's case; unless [...] or lusts prevail over it, to lull it asleep, as in the case of Felix, Acts. [...]v. 25. [Page 81] or the Blood of CHRIST prevail over it, sprinkling and purging it from dead works, as in the case of all true converts, Heb. ix. 14. & x. 23.

Lastly, Even the Memory bears evident marks of this corruption. What is good and worthy to be minded, as it makes but slender im­pression, so that impression easily wears off; the memory, as a leaking vessel, lets it slip, Heb. ii. 1. As a sieve that is full, when in the water, lets all go when it is taken out; so is the memory, with re­spect to spiritual things. But how does it retain what ought to be forgotten? Naughty things so bear in themselves upon it, that though men would fain have them out of mind, yet they stick there like giue. However forgetful men be in in other things, it is hard to forget an injury. So the memory often furnishes new fuel to old lusts; makes men in old age to re-act the sins of their youth, while it presents them again to the mind with delight, which thereupon licks up the former vomit. And thus it is like the riddle, that lets through the pure grain, and keeps the refuse. Thus far of the corruption of the soul.

The Body itself also is partaker of this corruption and defilement, so far as it is capable thereof. Wherefore the Scripture calls it sinful flesh, Rom. viii. 3. We may take this up in two things. (1.) The natural temper, or rather distemper of the bodies of Adam's children, as it is an effect of original sin; so it hath a native tendency to sin, incites to sin, leads the soul into snares, yea, is itself a snare to the soul. The body is a furious beast, of such metal, that if it be not beat down, kept under, and brought into subjection, it will cast the soul into much sin and misery, 1 Cor. ix. 27. There's a vileness in the body, (Phil. iii. 21.) which, as to the saints, will never be removed, until it be melted down in a grave, and cast into a new mould, at the resurrection to come forth a spiritual body: and will never be carried off from the bodies of those, who are not partakers of the resurrection to life. (2.) It serves the soul in many sins. Its members are in­struments or weapons of unrighteousness, whereby men fight against God, Rom. vi. 13. The eyes and ears are open doors, by which impure motions and sinful desires enter the soul; the tongue is a world of iniquity; James iii. 6. an unruly evil, full of deadly pois [...]n, ver. 8. By it the impure heart vents a great deal of its filthiness. The throat is an open sepulchre, Rom. iii. 13. The feet run the devil's errands, ver. 15. The belly is made a god, Philip, iii. 19. Not only by drunkards and riotous livers, but by every natural man, Zech. vii. 6. So the body naturally is an agent for the devil; and a magazine of armour against the Lord.

To conclude, man by nature is wholly corrupted: From the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness in him. And as in a dunghill, every part contributes to the corruption of the whole; so the natural man, while in that state, grows still worse and worse. The soul is made worse by the body, and the body by the soul: and every faculty of the soul serves to corrupt another more and more. Thus much for the second general Head.

How Man's Nature was corrupted.

THIRDLY, I shall shew how man's nature comes to be thus cor­rupted. The heathens perceived that man's nature was corrupted: but how sin had entred, they could not tell. But the Scripture is very plain in that point, Rom. v. 12. By one man sin entered into the world. Ver. 19. By one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. Adam's sin corrupted man's nature, and leavened the whole lump of mankind. We putrified in Adam, as our root. The root was pois­oned, and so the branches were envenomed; the vine turned the vine of Sodom, and so the grapes became grapes of gall. Adam, by his sin, became not only guilty, but corrupt; and so transmits guilt and cor­ruption to his posterity, Gen. v. 3. Job xiv. 4. By his sin he stript himself of his original righteousness, and corrupted himself: we were in him representatively, being represented by him, as our moral head, [...]n the covenant of works; we were in him seminally, as our natural head; hence we fell in him, and by his disobedience, were made sinners, as Levi, in the loins of Abraham paid tithes, Heb. vii. 9, 10. His first sin is imputed to us; therefore justly are we left under the want of his original righteousness, which, being given to him as a common person, he cast off, by his sin; and this is necessarily followed, in him and us, by the corruption of the whole nature; righteousness and corruption being two contraries, one of which must needs always be in man, as a subject capable thereof. And Adam our common father being corrupt, we are so too; for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?

Although it is sufficient to evince [...] righteousness of this dispen­sation, that it was from the Lord, who doth all things well; yet to silence the murmurings of proud nature, let these few things further be considered, (1.) In the covenant wherein Adam represented us, eternal happiness was promised to him and his posterity upon condi­tion of his, that is, Adam's perfect obedience, as the representative for all mankind: whereas, if there had been no covenant, they could not have pleaded eternal life, upon their most perfect obedience, but might have be [...], after all, reduced to nothing, notwithstanding, by natural justice, they would have been liable to God's eternal wrath, in case of sin. Who in that case would not have consented to that represen­tation? (2.) Adam had a power to stand given him, being made up­right. He was as capable to stand for himself, and all his posterity, as any after him could be for themselves. This trial of mankind, in their head, would soon have been over, and the crown won to them all, had he stood; whereas, had his posterity been independent on [...], and every one left to act for himself, the trial would have been continually a carrying on, as men came into the world. (3.) He had natural affections the strongest to engage him, being our common [...]ather. (4.) His own stock was in the ship, his all lay at stake as well [Page 83] as ours. He had no separate interest from ours; but if he forgot ours, he behoved to have forgot ours, he behoved to have forgot his own. (5.) If he had stood, we should have had the light of his mind, the righteousness of his will, and holiness of his affections, with entire purity transmitted unto us; we could not have fallen; the crown of glory, by his obedience, would have been for ever secured to him and his. This is evident from the nature of a federal representation; and no reason can be given why, seeing we are lost by Adam's sin, we should not have been saved by his obedience. On the other hand, it is reasonable, that he falling, we should, with him, bear the loss. Lastly, Such as quarrel this dispensation, must renounce their part in Christ; for we are no otherwise made sinners by Adam, than we are made righteous by Christ; from whom we have both imputed and inherent righteousness. We no more made choice of the second Adam, for our head and representative in the second covenant; than we did of the first Adam in the first covenant.

Let none wonder that such an horrible change would be brought on by one sin of our first parents, for thereby they turned away from God, as their chief end, which necessarily infers an universal deprava­tion. Their sin was a complication of evils, a total apostasy from God, a violation of the whole law. By it they broke all the ten commands at once. (1.) They chose new gods. They made their belly their god, by their sensuality: self their god, by their ambition; yea, and the devil their god, believing him, and disbelieving their Maker. (2.) Tho' they received, yet they observed not that ordinance of God, about the forbidden fruit. They contemned that ordinance so plainly enjoined them, and would needs carve out to themselves, how to serve the Lord. (3.) They took the name of the Lord their God in vain: despising his attributes, his justice, truth, power, &c. They grosly profaned that sacramental tree; abused his word, by not giving credit to it; abused that creature of his, which they should not have touched, and violently misconstrued his providence; as if God, by forbidding them that tree, had been standing in the way of their happiness; and therefore he suffered them not to escape his righteous judgment. (4.) They remembered not the Sabbath to keep it holy, but put themselves out of a condition to serve God aright on his own day. Neither kept they that state of holy rest, wherein God had put them. (5.) They cast off their relative duties. Eve forgets herself, and acts without advice of her husband, to the ruin of both; Adam instead of admonishing her to repent, yields to the temptation, and confirms her in her wickedness. They forgot all duty to their posterity. They honoured not their Father in heaven; and therefore their days were not long in the land which the Lord their God gave them. (6.) They ruined themselves, and all their posterity. (7.) Gave up themselves to luxury and sensuality (8.) Took away what was not their own, against the express will of the great Owner. (9.) They bore false witness, and lied against [Page 84] the Lord, before angels, devils, and one another; in effect giving out that they were hardly dealt by, and that heaven grudged their hap­piness. (10.) They were discontent with their lot, and coveted an evil covetousness to their house; which ruined both them and theirs. Thus was the image of God on man defaced all at once.

The Doctrine of the Corruption of Nature applied.

USE I. For Information. Is man's nature wholly corrupted? Then,

1. No wonder the grave open it's devouring mouth for us, as soon as the womb hath cast us forth; and that the cradle be turned into a coffin, to receive the corrupt lump: for we are all, in a spiritual sense, dead born; yea, and filthy, (Psal. xiv. 3.) noisome, rank, and stinking as a corrupt thing, as the word imports. Let us not complain of the miseries we are exposed to, at our entrance, nor of the continuance of them, while we are in the world. Here is the venom that has poisoned all the springs of earthly enjoyments we have to drink of. It is the corruption of man's nature, that brings forth all the miseries of human life in churches, states, families: in men's souls and bodies.

2. Behold here, as in a glass, the spring of all the wickedness, profanity, and formality in the world; the source of all the disorders in thy own heart and life. Every thing acts like itself, agreeable to its own nature; and so corrupt man acts corruptly. You need not wonder at the sinfulness of your own heart and life, nor at the sinful­ness and perverseness of others: if a man be crooked, he cannot but halt; and if the clock be set wrong, how can it point the hour right.

3. See here, why sin is so pleasant, and religion such a burden to carnal spirits: sin is natural, holiness not so. Oxen cannot feed in the sea, nor fishes in the fruitful fields. A swine brought into a palace, would get away again, to wallow in the mire. A corrupt nature tends ever to impurity.

4. Learn from this, the nature and necessity of regeneration. First, This discovers the nature of regeneration in these two things, (1.) It is not a partial, but a total change, tho' imperfect in this life. Thy whole nature is corrupted, and therefore the cure must go thro' every part. Regeneration makes not only a new head for knowledge, but a new heart, and new affections for holiness. All things become new, 2 Cor. v. 17. If one who has received many wounds, should be cured of them all, save one only, he might bleed to death, by that one, as well as a thousand. So if the change go not through the whole man, it is naught. (2.) It is not a change made by human industry, but by the mighty power of the Spirit of God. A man must be born of the Spirit, John iii. 5 Accidental diseases may be cured by men, but these which are natural, not without a miracle, John ix. 22. The change wrought upon men, by good education, or forced upon them, by a natural conscience, tho' it may pass among men for a sav [...]ing [Page 85] change, it is not so; for our nature is corrupt, and none but the God of nature can change it. Tho' a gardiner, ingrafting a pear branch into an apple tree, may make the apple-tree bear pears; yet the art of man cannot change the nature of the apple-tree: so one may pin a new life to his old heart, but he can never change the heart. Secondly, This also shews the necessity of regeneration. It is abso­lutely necessary in order to salvation, John iii. 3 Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. No unclean thing can enter the new Jerusalem: but thou art wholly unclean, while in thy natural state. If every member of thy body were disjointed, each joint behoved to be loosed, ere the members could be set aright again. This is the case of thy soul, as thou hast heard: and therefore thou must be born again; else thou shalt never see heaven, unless it be far off, as the rich man in hell did. Deceive not thyself: no Mercy of GOD, no Blood of CHRIST will bring thee to heaven, in thy unre­generate state: for God will never open a fountain of mercy, to wash away his own holiness and truth: nor did Christ shed his precious blood, to blot out the truths of God, or to overturn God's measures about the salvation of sinners. Heaven! What would you do there, that are not born again? Ye that are no ways fitting for Christ the head. That would be a strange sight, a holy head, and members wholly corrupt! a head full of treasures of grace, members wherein are nothing but treasures of wickedness! a head obedient to death, and heels kicking against heaven! Ye are no ways adapted to the society above, more than beasts for converse with men. Thou art a hater of true holiness: and at the first sight of a saint there, would cry out, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy! Nay, the unrenewed man, if it were possible he could go to heaven, in that state, he would no otherwise go to it, than now he comes to the duties of holiness, that is, leaving his heart behind him.

USE II. For Lamentation. Well may we lament thy case, O na­tural man, for it is the saddest case one can be in, out of hell. It is time to lament for thee; for thou art dead already, dead whilst thou livest; thou carriest about with thee a dead soul in a living body: and because thou art dead, thou canst not lament thy own case. Thou art loathsome in the sight of God; for thou art altogether corrupt. Thou hast no good in thee; thy soul is a mass of darkness, rebellion, and vileness before the Lord. Thou thinkest, perhaps, that thou hast a good heart to God, good inclinations, and good desires: but God knows there is nothing good in thee, but every imagination of thine heart is only evil. Thou canst do no good; thou canst do nothing but sin. For,

First, Thou art the servant of sin, Rom. vi. 17. and therefore free from righteousness, ver. 20. Whatever righteousness be, (poor soul) thou art free of it; thou dost not, thou canst not meddle with it. Thou art under the dominion of sin, a dominion where righteousness can have no place. Thou art a child and servant of the devil, tho' [Page 86] thou be neither wizzard nor witch: seeing thou art yet in the state of nature, John viii. 44 Ye are of your father the devil. And to prevent any mistake, consider, that sin and Satan have two sorts of servants, (1.) There are some employed, as it were, in coarser work: those bear the devil's mark in their fore-heads, having no form of godliness; but are profane, grosly ignorant, mere moralists, not so much as performing the external duties of religion, but living to the view of the world; as sons of earth, only minding earthly things, Philip. iii. 19. (2) There are some employed in a more refined sort of service to sin, who carry the devil's mark in their right hand; which they can, and do hide from the view of the world. These are closs hypocrites, who sacrifice as much to the corrupt mind, as the other to the flesh, Eph. ii. 3. These are ruined by a more un­discernable trade of sin: pride, unbelief, self-seeking, and the like, swarm in, and prey upon their corrupted, wholly corrupted souls. Both are servants of the same house; the latter as far as the former from righteousness.

Secondly, How is it possible thou shouldst be able to do any good, thou whose nature is wholly corrupt? Can fruit grow where there is no root? Or, can there be an effect without a cause? Can the fig-tree bear olive berries? Either a vine figs? If thy nature be wholly corrupt, as indeed it is, all thou dost is certainly so too; for no effect can ex­ceed the virtue of its cause. Can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit? Matth. vii. 18.

Ah! What a miserable spectacle is he that can do nothing but sin? Thou art the man, whosoever thou art, that art yet in thy natural state. Hear, O sinner, what is thy case.

First, Innumerable sins compass thee about. Mountains of guilt are lying upon thee. Floods of impurities overwhelm thee. Living lusts of all sorts roll up and down in the dead sea of thy soul; where no good can breathe, because of the corruption there. Thy lips are unclean: the opening of thy mouth is as the opening of an unripe grave, full of stench and rottenness, Rom. iii. 13. Their throat is an open sepulchre. Thy natural actions are sin, for when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves; and drink for yourselves? Zech. vii. 6. Thy civil actions are sin, Prov. xxi. 4. The plowing of the wicked is sin. Thy religious actions are sin, Prov. xv. 8. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. The thoughts and imaginations of thy heart, are only evil. A deed may be soon done, a word soon spoken, a thought swiftly passeth through the heart: but each of these is an Item in thy accounts. O sad reckoning! as many thoughts, words, actions; as many sins. The longer thou livest, thy accounts swell the more. Should a tear be dropt for every sin, thine head behoved to be waters, and thine eyes a fountain of tears; for nothing but sin comes from thee. Thy heart frames nothing but evil imaginations; there is nothing in thy life, but what is framed by thine heart; and therefore there is nothing in thy heart or life but evil.

[Page 87] Secondly, All thy religion, if thou hast any, is lost labour; as to acceptance with God, or any saving effect to thyself. Art thou yet in thy natural state? Truly then thy duties are sins, as was just now hinted. Would not the best wine be lothsome in a vessel wherein there is no pleasure? So is the religion of an unregenerate man. Under the law: the garment which the flesh of the sacrifice was car­ried in, tho' it touched other things, did not make them holy: but he that was unclean touching any thing, whether common or sacred, made it unclean. Even so thy duties cannot make thy corrupt soul holy, tho' they in themselves be good; but thy corrupt heart defiles them, and makes them unclean, Hag. ii. 12, 13, 14. Thou wast went to divide thy works into two sorts; some good, some evil; but th [...]u must count again and put them all under one head; for God writes on them all, only evil. This is lamentable: It will be no wonder to see those beg in harvest, who fold their hands to sleep in seed time: but to be labouring with others in the spring, and yet have nothing to reap when the harvest comes, is a very sad case; and will be the case of all professors living and dying in their natural state.

Lastly, Thou canst not help thyself. What canst thou do to take away thy sin, who art wholly corrupt? Nothing truly but sin. If a natural man begin to relent, drop a tear for his sin and reform, pre­sently the corrupt heart apprehends, at least, a merit of congruity: he has done much himself, (he thinks) and God cannot but do more for him on that account. In the mean time he does nothing but sin: so that the congruous merit is the leper that must be put out of the camp; the dead soul buried out of sight: and the corrupt lump cast into the pit. How canst thou think to recover thyself by any thing thou canst do? Will mud and filth wash out filthiness? and wilt thou purge out sin by sinning? Job took a potsherd to scrape himself, because his hands were as full of boils as his body. This is the case of thy corrupt soul: not to be recovered but by Jesus Christ, whose strength was dried up like a potsherd, Psal. xxii. 15. Thou art poor indeed, extremely miserable and poor, Rev. iii. 17. Thou hast no shalter but a refuge of lies; no garment for thy soul, but filthy rags; nothing to nourish it but husks that cannot satisfy. More than that, thou hast got such a bruise in the loins of Adam, which is not yet cured, that thou art without strength, Rom. v 6. unable to do or work for thyself; nay, more than all this, thou canst not so much as seek aright, but liest helpless, as an infant exposed in the open field, Ezek. xvi. 5.

USE III. I exhort you to believe this sad truth. Alas! it is evident, it is very little believed in the world. Few are concerned to get their corrupt conversation changed; but fewer, by far, to get their nature changed: Most men know not what they are, nor what spirits they are of: they are as the eye, which seeing many things, never sees itself. But until ye know, every one the plague of his own heart, there is no hope of your recovery. Why will you not believe it? Ye have plain scripture-testimony for it; but you are loth to entertain [Page 88] such an ill opinion of yourselves. Alas! that is the nature of your disease, Rev. iii. 17. Thou—knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Lord open their eyes to see it, before they die of it; and in hell lift up their eyes, and see what they will not see now.

I shall shut up this weighty point of the corruption of man's nature, with a few words to another doctrine from the text.

DOCTRINE God takes special notice of our natural corruption, or the sin of our nature. This he testifies two ways, 1. By his word, as in the text. God saw—that every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was enly evil continually ▪ See Psal xiv. 2, 3▪ 2. By his works. God writes his particular notice of it, and displeasure with it, as in many of his works, so especially in these two:

(1.) In the death of the infant children of men. Many miseries they have been exposed to: they were drowned in the deluge, con­sumed in Sodom by fire and brimstone; they have been slain with the sword, dashed against the stones, and are still dying ordinary deaths. What is the true cause of this? On what ground doth a holy God thus pursue them? Is it the sin of their parents? That may be the occasion of the Lord's raising the process against them: but it must be their own sin that is the ground of the sentence passing on them: for the soul that sinneth, it shall die, saith God, Ezek. xviii. 4. Is it their own actual sin? They have none. But as men do with toads and serpents, which they kill at first sight, before they have done any hurt, because of their venomous nature, so is it in this case.

(2) In the birth of the elect children of God. When the Lord is about to change their nature, he makes the sin of their nature ly heavy on their spirits. When he mind [...] to let out the corruption, the [...] gets full depth in their souls, reaching to the root of sin, Rom. vii. 7, 8, 9. The flesh, or corruption of nature is pierced, being crucified, as well as the affections and lusts, Gal v. 24

USE. Let us then have a special eye upon [...] corruption and sin of our nature. God sees it: O that we [...], and that sin were ever before us! What avails it to notice of [...] this [...]other-sin is not noticed? Turn your eyes inward to the sin of your nature. It is to be feared, many have this work to begin yet; that they have shut the door, while the grand thief is yet in the house undiscovered. This is a weighty point; and in the handling of it,

I. I shall, for conviction, point at some evidences of men's over­looking the sin of their nature, which yet the Lord takes particular notice of, (1.) Men's looking on themselves with such confidence, as if they were in no hazard of gross sins. Many would take it very hainously to get such a caution, a [...] Christ g [...]ve his Apostles, Luke xxi. [...]1. Take heed of surfeiting and drunk [...]ess. If any should suppose them to break out in gros [...] abominations, they would be ready to say, Am I a dog? It would raise the pride of their hearts, but not their fear and trembling; because they know [...] the corruption of their nature. [Page 89] (2.) Untenderness towards those that fall: Many in that case cast off all bowels of Christian compassion; for they do not consider them­selves, lest they also be tempted, Gal. vi. 1. Men's passions are often highest against the faults of others, when sin sleeps soundly in their own breasts. Even good David, when he was at his worst, was most violent against the faults of others. While his conscience was asleep under his guilt, in the matter of Uriah; the Spirit of the Lord takes notice, that his anger was greatly kindled against the man, in the parable▪ 2 Sam xii. 5. And on good grounds, it is thought, it was at the same time that he treated the Ammonites so cruelly, as is related, ver. 31. Putting them under saw [...], and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and making them pass throw the brick kiln. Grace makes men zealous against sin in others, as well as in themselves: but eyes turned inward to the corruption of nature, clothe them with pity and com­passion; and fill them with thankfulness to the Lord, that they them­selves were not the persons left to be such spectacles of human frailty. (3.) There are not a few, who, if they be kept from affliction in worldly things, and from gross out-breakings in their conversation, know not what it is to have a sad heart. If they meet with a cross, which their proud hearts cannot stoop to bear, they will be ready to say, O to be gone: but the corruption of their nature never makes them long for heaven. Lusts scandalously breaking out at a time, will mar their peace: but the sin of their nature never makes them a heavy heart. (4.) Delaying of repentance, in hopes to set about it afterwards. Many have their own appointed time for repentance and reformation: as if they were such complete masters over their lusts, that they can allow them to gather more strength, and yet over­come them. They take up resolutions to amend, without an eye to Jesus Christ, union with him, and strength from him; a plain evidence they are strangers to themselves; and so they are left to themselves, and their flourishing resolutions wither; for as they see not the ne­cessity, so they get not the benefit of the dew from heaven to water them. (5.) Men's venturing frankly on temptations and promising liberally on their own heads. They cast themselves fearlesly into temptation, in confidence of their coming off fairly: but were they sensible of the corruption of their nature, they would beware of en­tering on the devil's ground: as one girt about with bag [...] of gun-powder, would be loth to walk where sparks of fire are flying, lest he should be blown up. Self-jealousing well become [...] Christians. Lord, is it I? They that know the deceit of their bow, will not be very confident that they shall hit the mark. ( [...].) Unacquaintedness with heart-plagues. The knowledge of the plagues of the heart, is a rare qualification. There are indeed some of them: written in such great characters, that he who runs may read them: but there are others more subtile, which few do discern. How few are the [...] to whom the bias of the heart to unbelief, is a burden? Nay, they perceive it not. Many have had sharp conviction [...] of other si [...]s that were [...] [Page 90] to this day convinced of their unbelief; tho' that is the sin specially aimed at in a thorough conviction, John xvi 8, 9.— He will reprove the world of sin,—because they believe not on me. A disposition to establish our own righteousness is a weed that naturally grows in every man's heart: but few sweat at the plucking of it up: it lurks undiscovered. The bias of the heart to the way of the covenant of works, is a hidden plague of the heart to many. All the difficulty they find is, in getting up their hearts to duties: they find no difficulty in getting their hearts off them, and over them to Jesus Christ. How hard is it to stave men off from their own righteousness? Yet it is very hard to convince them of their leaning to it at all. Lastly, Pride and self-conceit. A view of the corruption of nature would be very humbling; and oblige him that has it, to reckon himself the chief of sinners. Under the greatest attainments and enlargements, it would be ballast to his heart, and hide pride from his eyes. The want of thorough humiliation, piercing to the sin of one's nature, is the ruin of many professors: for digging deep makes great difference betwixt wise and foolish builders, Luke vi. 48, 49.

II. I will lay before you a few things, in which ye should have a special eye to the sin of your nature. (1.) Have a special eye to it in your application to Jesus Christ. Do you find any need of Christ, which sends you to him as the Physician of souls? O forget not your disease when you are with the Physician. They never yet knew well their errand to Christ, that went not to him for the sin of their nature: for his blood to take away the guilt of it, and his Spirit to break the power of it. Tho' in the bitterness of your souls, you should lay before him a catalogue of your sins of ommission and com­mission, which might reach from earth to heaven; yet if the sin of your nature were wanting in it, assure yourselves, you have forgot the best part of the errand a poor sinner has to the Physician of souls. What would it have availed the people of Jericho, to have set before Elisha all the vessels in their city full of the water that was naught, if they had not led him forth to the spring, to cast in the salt there? 2 Kings ii. 19.20, 21. The application is easy. (2.) Have a special eye towards it in your repentance, whether initial or progressive, in your first repentance, and in the renewing of your repentance, after­wards. Tho' a man be sick, there is no fear of death, if the sickness strike not his heart; and there is as little fear of the death of sin, as long as the sin of our nature is not touched. But if ye would repent indeed, let the streams lead you up to the fountain; and mourn over your corrupt nature, as the cause of all sin, in heart, lip, and life. Psal. li. 4, 5. Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and none this evil in thy sight — Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. (4.) Have a special eye upon it, in your mortification. Gal. v. 24. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh. It is the root of bitterness, that must be struck at, which the ax of mortifi­cation must be laid to; else we labour in vain. In vain do men go [Page 91] about to purge the streams, while they are at no pains about the muddy fountain: It is vain religion to attempt to make the [...] truly good, while the corruption of nature retains its ancient vigour, and the power of it is not broken. Lastly, Ye are to eye it in your daily walk. He that would walk aright, must have one eye upwards to Jesus Christ; and another inward to the corruption of his own nature. It is not enough that we look about us, we must also look within us. There the wall is weakest: there our greatest enemy lies; and there are grounds for daily watching and mourning.

III. I shall offer some reasons, why we should especially notice the sin of our nature.

1. Because of all sins it is the most extensive and diffusive. It goes through the whole man, and spoils all. Other sins mar particular parts of the image of God; but this doth at once deface the whole. A disease affecting any particular member of the body is ill; but that which affects the whole is worse. The corruption of nature is the poison of the old serpent, cast into the fountain of action: and so infects every action, every breathing of the soul.

1. It is the cause of all particular lusts, and actual sins, in our hearts and lives. It is the spawn which the great Leviathan has left in the souls of men; from whence comes all the fry of actual sins and abo­minations. Mark vii. 21. Out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, &c. It is the bitter fountain: particular lusts are but rivulets running from it: which bring forth into the life, a part only, and not the whole of what is within. Now the fountain is still above the streams: so where the water is good, it is best in the fountain▪ where it is ill, it is worst there. The corruption of nature being that which defiles all, itself must needs be the most abominable thing.

3. It Is virtually all sin: for it is the seed of all sins which want but the occasion to set up their heads: being in the corruption of nature, as the effect in the virtue of its cause. Hence it is called a body of death, (Rom. vii. 24) as consisting of the several members, belonging to such a body of sins, (Col ii 11.) whose life lies in spiritual death. It is the cursed ground, fit to bring forth all manner of noxi­ous weeds. As the whole nest of venemous creatures must needs be more dreadful, than any few of them that come creeping forth; so the sin of thy nature, that mother of abominations must be worse than any particular lusts, that appear stirring in thy heart and life. Never did every sin appear in the conversation of the vilest wretch that ever lived; but look thou into thy corrupt nature, and there thou mayest see all and every sin in the seed and root thereof. There is a [...]lness of all unrighteousness there, Rom. i.29. There is atheism, idolatry, blasphemy, murder, adultery, and whatsoever is vile. Possibly none of these appear to thee in thy heart: but there is more in that un­fathomable depth of wickedness, than thou knowest. Thy corrupt heart is like an ant's nest, on which, while the stone lieth, none of them appear: but take off the stone, stir them up, but with the point [Page 92] of a straw, you will see what a swarm is there, and how lively they be Just such a sight would thy heart afford thee, did the Lord but withdraw the restraint he has upon it, and suffer Satan to stir it up by temptation.

4.The sin of our nature is, of all sins, the most fixed and abiding. Sinful actions, tho' the guilt and stain of them may remain, yet in themselves they are passing. The drunkard is not always at his cup, nor the unclean person always acting lewdness. But the corruption of nature is an abiding sin: it remains with men in its full power by night and by day, at all times, fixed as with bands of iron and brass: till their nature be changed by converting grace; and the remains of it continue with the godly, until the death of the body. Pride, envy, covetousness, and the like, are not always stirring in thee. But the proud, envious, carnal nature is still with thee: even as the clock that is wrong, is not always striking wrong; but the wrong set continues with it, without great intermission.

5. It is the great reigning sin, Rom. vi. 12. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof. There are three things you may observe in the corrupt heart. (1.) There is the corrupt nature; the corrupt set of the heart whereby men are unapt for all good, and fitted for all evil. This the apostle here calls, sin which reigns. (2.) There are particular lusts, or dispositions of that corrupt nature, which the Apostle calls the lusts thereof; such as pride, covetousness, &c (3.) There is one among these, which is (like Saul amongst the people) higher by far than the rest, namely, the sin which doth so easily beset us, Heb. xii. 1. This we usually call the predominate sin, because it doth, as it were, reign over other particular lusts; so that other lusts must yield to it. These three are like a river which divides itself into many streams, whereof one is greater than the rest. The corruption of nature is the river-head, which has many particular lusts, in which it runs: but it mainly disburdens itself into what is commonly called one's predo­minate sin. Now all of these being fed by the sin of our nature; it is evident that sin is the great reigning sin, which never loseth its superiority over particular lusts, that live and die with it, and by it. But as in some rivers, the main stream runs not always in one and the same channel: so particular predominants may be changed, as lusts in youth may be succeeded by covetousness in old age. Now, what doth it avail to reform in other sins, while the great reigning sin remains in its full power? What tho' some particular lust be broken? If that sin, the sin of our nature keep the throne, it will set up another in its stead: as when a water-course is stopt in one place, while the fountain is not dammed up, it will stream forth another way. And thus some cast off their prodigality, but covetousness comes up in its stead: some cast away their profanity, and the corruption of nature sends not its main stream that way as before: but it rans in another channel, namely, in that of a legal disposition, self-righteousness, or the like, so [Page 93] that people are ruined by their not eying the sin of their nature.

Lastly, It is an hereditary evil, Psal. li. 5. In sin did my mother conceive me. Particular lusts are not so, but in the virtue of their cause. A prodigal father may have a frugal son: but this disease is necessarily propagated in nature, and therefore hardest to cure. Surely then the word should be given out against this sin, as against the King of Israel, 1 Kings xxii. 31. Fight neither with small nor great, save only with this: for this sin being broke, all other sins are broken with it; and while it stands entire, there is no victory.

IV. That ye may get a view of the corruption of your nature, I would recommend to you three things (1.) Study to know the spirituality and extent of the law of God, for that is the glass wherein you may see yourselves (2.) Observe your hearts at all times, but especially under temptation. Temptation is a fire that brings up the scum of the vile heart: do ye carefully mark the first risings of cor­ruption. Lastly, Go to God through Jesus Christ, for illumination by his Spirit. Lay out your soul before the Lord, as willing to know the vileness of your nature: say unto him, That which I know not, teach thou m [...]: and be willing to take in light from the word. Believe, and you shall see. It is by the word the Spirit teacheth, but, without the Spirit's teaching, all other teaching will be to little purpose. Tho' the gospel should shine about you, like the sun at noon-day; and this great truth be never so plainly preached: you will never see yourselves aright, until the Spirit of the Lord light his candle within your breast: the fulness and glory of Christ, the corruption and vileness of our nature, are never rightly learned, but where the Spirit of Christ is the teacher.

And now to shut up this weighty point, let the consideration of what is said, commend Christ to you all. Ye that are brought out of your natural state of corruption unto Christ, be humble; still coming to Christ, and improving your union with him, to the further weak­ning of the remains of this natural corruption. Is your nature changed? It is but in part so. The day was, ye could not stir; now ye are cured: but remember the cure is not yet perfected, ye still go halting. And tho' it were better with you than it is; the remembrance of what you were by nature, should keep you low. Ye that are yet in your natural state, take with it: believe the corruption of your nature: and let Christ and his grace be precious in your eyes. O that ye would at length be serious about the state of your souls! What mind ye to do? Ye must die; ye must appear before the judgment seat of God. Will ye ly down, and sleep another night at ease, in this case? Do it not: for before another day you may be sisted before God's dreadful tri­bunal, in the grave cloaths of your corrupt state; and your vile souls cast into the pit of destruction, as a corrupt lump, to be for ever buried out of God's sight. For I testify unto you all, there is no peace with God, no pardon, no heaven for you, in this state: there is but a step betwixt you and eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord: [Page 94] if the brittle thread of your life, which may be broke with a touch, ere you are aware, be indeed broken while you are in this state; you are ruined for ever, and without remedy. But come speedily to Jesus Christ: he has cleansed as vile souls as yours; and he will yet cleanse the blood that he hath cleansed, Joel iii. 21. Thus far of the sinfulness of man's natural state.

Man's natural State, a State of Wrath.

DOCTRINE, The state of nature is a state of wrath. Every one in a natural unregenerate state, is in a state of wrath. We are born children of wrath; and continue so, until we be born again. Nay, as soon as we were children of Adam, we were children of wrath.

I shall usher in what I am to say on this point, with a few observes touching the universality of this state of wrath; which may serve to prepare the way of the word into your consciences.

Wrath has gone as wide as ever sin went. When angels sinned, the wrath of God brake in upon them as a flood; God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, 2 Pet. ii. 4. And thereby it was demonstrated, that no natural excellency in the creature will shield it from the wrath of God; if once it becomes a sinful creature. The finest and the nicest piece of the workmanship of heaven, if once the Creator's image upon it be defaced by sin, God can and will dash it in pieces, in his wrath; unless satisfaction be made to justice, and that image be repaired; neither of which the sinner himself can do. Adam sinned; and the whole lump of mankind was leavened, and bound over to the fiery oven of God's wrath. And from the text ye may learn, (1.) That ignorance of that state cannot free men from it; the Gentiles that knew not God, were by nature children of wrath, even as others. A man's house may be on fire, his wife and children perishing in the flames; while he knows nothing of it, and therefore is not concerned about it. Such is your case, O ye that are ignorant of these things! wrath is silently sinking into your souls, while you are blessing yourselves, saying, Ye shall have peace. Ye need not a more certain token, that ye are children of wrath, than that ye never yet saw yourselves such. Ye cannot be the children of God, that never yet saw yourselves children of the devil. Ye cannot be in the way to heaven, that never saw yourselves by nature in the high road to hell. Ye are grosly ignorant of your state by nature; and so ignorant of God, and of Christ, and your need of him: and tho' ye look on your ignorance as a covert from wrath; yet take it out of the mouth of God himself, that it will ruin you if it be not removed, Isa. xxvii. 11. It is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them. See 2 Thess. i. 8. Hos. iv. 6. (2.) No outward privileges can exempt men from this state of wrath; for the Jews, the children of the kingdom, God's peculiar people, were children of wrath even as others. Tho' ye be church-members, partakers of all church privileges; tho' you be descended of godly parents, of great and honourable families; be what ye will, ye are by nature, heirs of hell, children of wrath. (3.) No profession, nor attainments in a profession of religion, do or can exempt a man from this state of wrath. Paul was one of the straitest sect of the Jewish religion, Acts xxvi. 5, yet a child of wrath, even as others, till he was [Page 97] converted. The close hypocrite, and the profane, are alike as to their state; however different their conversations be: and they will be alike in their fatal end, Psal. cxxv. 5. As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity. (4.) Young ones that are yet but setting out into the world, have not that to do, to make themselves children of wrath, by follow­ing the graceless multitude. They are children of wrath by nature: so it is done already: they were born heirs of hell; they will indeed make themselves more so, if they do not, while they are young, flee from the wrath they were born to, by fleeing to Jesus Christ.— Lastly, Whatever men are now by grace, they were even as others, by nature. And this may be a sad meditation to them, that have been at ease from their youth, and have had no changes.

Now, these things being premised, I shall, in the first place, shew what this state of wrath is; next, confirm the doctrine; and then apply it.

I. I am to shew what this state of wrath is. But who can fully describe the wrath of an angry God? None can do it. Yet so much of it must be discovered, as may serve to convince men of the absolute necessity of fleeing to Jesus Christ, out of that state of wrath. Anger in men is a passion, and commotion of the spirit for an injury received, with a desire to resent the same. When it comes to a height, and is fixed in one's spirit, it is called wrath. Now there are no passions in God, properly speaking: they are inconsistent with his absolute uuchangeableness, and independency; and therefore Paul and Barnabas (to remove the mistake of the Lycaonians, who thought they were gods) tell them, they were men of like passions with themselves, Acts xiv. 15. Wrath then is attributed to God, not in respect of the affection of wrath, but the effects thereof. Wrath is a fire in the bowels of a man, tormenting the man himself: but there is no per­turbation in God. His wrath does not in the least mar that infinite rep [...]e and happiness, which he hath in himself. It is a most pure undisturbed act of his will producing dreadful effects against the sinner. It is little we know of an infinite God: but condescending to our weak­ness, he is pleased to speak of himself to us, after the manner of men. Let us therefore notice man's wrath, but remove every thing in our consideration of the wrath of God, that argues imperfection: and so we may attain to some view of it, however scanty. By this means we are led to take up the wrath of God against the natural man in these three.

First, There is wrath in the heart of God against him. The Lord approves him not, but is displeased with him. Every natural man lies under the displeasure of God; and that is heavier than mountains of brass, Altho' he be pleased with himself, and others be pleased with him too; yet God looks down on him, as displeased. First, His person is under God's displeasure: Thou hatest all workers of iniquity, Psal. v. 5. A godly man's sin is displeasing to God, yet his person is [Page 98] still accepted in the Beloved, Eph. i. 6, But God is angry with the wicked every day, Psal. vii. 11. There is a fire of wrath burns con­tinually against him, in the heart of God. They are as dogs and swine, most abominable creatures in the sight of God. Tho' their natural state be gilded over with a shining profession, yet they are abhorred of God: they are to him as smoke in his nose, Isa. lxv. 5. and lukewarm water, to be spewed out of his mouth, Rev, iii. 16. whited sepulchres, Matth. xxiii. 27. a generation of vipers, Matth. xii. 34. and a people of his wrath, Isa. x. 6.

Secondly, He is displeased with all they do: It is impossible for them to please him, being unbelievers, Heb. xi. 6. He hates their persons: and so hath no pleasure in, but is displeased with their best works, Isa lvi. 3. He that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck, &c. Their duty, as done by them, is an abomination to the Lord, Prov xv. 8. And as men turn their back upon them whom they are angry with; so the Lord's refusing communion with the natural man in his duties, is a plain indication of this wrath.

Secondly, There is wrath in the word of God against him. When wrath is in the heart, it seeks a vent by the lips: so God fights against the natural man with the sword of his mouth, Rev ii. 16. The Lord's word never speaks good of him, but always curseth or condemneth him. Hence it is, that when he is awakened, the word read or preached often increaseth his horror. Firs;t, It condemns all his actions, together with his corrupt nature. There is nothing he does, but the law declares it to be sin. It is a rule of perfect obedience, from which he always in all things, declines; and so it rejects every thing he doth as sin. Secondly, It pronounceth his doom, and de­nounceth God's curse against him, Gal. iii. 10. For as many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things, which are written in the book of law, to do them. Be he never so well in the world, it pronoun­ceth a woe from heaven against him, Isa.iii. 11. The Bible is a quiver filled with arrows of wrath against him, ready to be poured in on his soul. God's threatnings in his word, hang over his head as a black cloud, ready to shower down on him every moment. The word is indeed the saint's security against wrath, but it binds the natural man's sin and wrath together, as a certain pledge of his ruin, if he continue in that state. So the conscience being awakened, and per­ceiving this tie made by the law, the man is filled with terrors in his soul.

Thirdly, There is wrath in the hand of God against the natural man. He is under heavy strokes of wrath already, and is liable to more.

1 st, There is wrath on his body. It is a piece of cursed day, which wrath is sinking into by virtue of the threatning of the first covenant, Gen. ii. 17. In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. There is never a disease, gripe nor stitch, that affects him, but it comes on him with the sting of God's indignation in it. They are all cords of death, sent before to bind the prisoner.

[Page 99]2 dly, There is wrath upon his soul. (1.) He can have no com­munion with God; he is foolish, and shall not stand in God's sight, Psal v. 5. When Adam sinned, God turned him out of paradise: and natural men are, as Adam left them, banished from the gracious presence of the Lord; and can have no access to him in that state. There is war betwixt heaven and them: and so all commerce is cut off. They are without God in the world, Eph. ii. 12. The sun is gone down on them, and there is not the least glimpse of favour towards them from heaven. (2) Hence the soul is left to pine away in its iniquity. The natural darkness of their minds, the averseness to good in their wills, the disorder of their assertions, and distemper of their consciences, and all their natural plagues, we left upon them in a penal way; and being so left, increase daily. God casts a portion of worldly goods to them, more or less; as a bone is thrown to a dog: but alas! his wrath against them appears, in that they get no grace. The Physician of souls comes by them, and goes by them, and cures others beside them; while they are consuming away in their iniquity, and ripning daily for utter destruction. (3.) They ly open to fearful additional plagues on their souls, even in this life. First, Sometimes they meet with deadning strokes; silent blows from the hand of an angry God; arrows of wrath that enter into their souls without noise, Isa. vi. 10. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, &c. God strives with them for a while, and convictions enter their consciences; but they rebel against the light: and by a secret judgment, they are knocked on the head; so that, from that time, they do as it were, live and rot above ground. Their hearts are deadned; their affections withered; their consciences stupified; and their whole souls blasted; cast forth as a branch, and withered, John xv. 16. They are plagued with judicial blindness. They shut their eyes against the light, and they are given over to the devil, the god of this world, to be blinded more, 2 Cor. iv. 4. Yea, God sends them strong delusions, that they should believe a lie, 2 Thess. ii. 11. even conscience, like a self light on the shore leads them upon rocks; by which they are broken in pieces. They harden themselves against God; and he gives up with them, and leaves them to Satan and their own hearts, whereby they are hardned more and more. They are often given up unto [...]e affections, Rom. i. 26. The reins are laid on their necks; and they are left to run into all excess, as their furious lusts draw them. Secondly, Sometimes they meet with quickning strokes, whereby their souls become [...] mount Sinai; where nothing is seen, but fire and smoak: [...] heard, but the thunder of God's wrath, and the voice of the trumpet of a broken law, waxing louder and louder▪ which makes them [...] Pastner, (Jer. xx. 4.) A terror to themselves. God takes the filthy garments of their sins, which they were wont to sleep in securely; overlays them with brimstone, and sets them on fire about their ears: so they have a hell within them.

[Page 100]3 dly, There is wrath on the natural man's enjoyments. What­ever be wanting in his house, there is one thing that is never wanting there, Prov. iii. 33. The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked. Wrath is on all that he has; on the bread that he eats, the liquor he drinks, and clothes which he wears. His basket and store are cursed, Deut. xxviii. 17. Some things fall wrong with him; and that comes to pass by virtue of his wrath; other things go according to his wish, and there is wrath in that too; for it is a snare to his soul, Prov. i 32. The prosperity of fools shall destroy them. This wrath turns his bless­ings into curses, Mal ii. 2. I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already. The holy law is a killing letter to him, 2 Cor. iii. 6. The ministry of the gospel, a savour of death unto death, chap. ii. 15. In the sacrament of the Lord's supper, he eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, 1 Cor xi. 29. Nay, more than all that, Christ himself is to him, a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, 1 Pet. ii. 8. Thus wrath follows the natural man, as his shadow doth his body.

4 thly, He is under the power of Satan, Acts xxvi. 18. The devil has overcome him, so he is his by conquest; his lawful captive, Isa. xlix. 24. The natural man is condemned already, John iii. 18. and therefore under the heavy hand of him that hath the power of death, that is the devil. And he keeps his prisoner, in the prison of a natural state, bound hand and foot, Isa. lxi 1. Laden with divers lusts, as chains wherewith he holds them fast. Thou needest not, as many do, call on the devil to take thee; for he has a fast hold of thee already, as a child of wrath.

Lastly, The natural man has no security for a moment's safety from the wrath of God its coming on him to the uttermost. The curse of the law denounced against him, has already tied him to the stake: so that the arrows of justice may pierce his soul; and in him may meet all the miseries and plagues that flow from the avenging wrath of God. See how he is set as a mark to the arrows of wrath, Psal. vii. 11, 12, 13. God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not, he will whet his sword: he hath bent his bow, and made it ready; he hath also prepared for him the instruments of death. Doth he ly down to sleep? There is not a promise, he knows of, or can know, to secure him that he shall not be in hell ere he awake. Justice is pursuing, and cries for vengeance on the sinner: the law casts the fire balls of its curses continually upon him: wasted and long tired pati­ence is that which keeps in his life: he walks amidst enemies armed against him: his name may be Magor Missabib, i. e. terror round about, Jer. xx. 3. Angels, devils, men, beasts, stones, heaven, and earth, are in readiness, on a word of command [...]rom the Lord, to ruin him.

Thus the natural man lives, but he must die too; and death is a dreadful messenger to him It comes upon him armed with wrath, and puts three sad charges in his hand (1) Death chargeth him to bid an eternal farewell to all things in this world; to leave it, and make away to another world. Ah! what a dredful charge must this [Page 101] be to a child of wrath! He can have no comfort from heaven; for God is his enemy: and as for the things of the world, and the enjoy­ment of his lusts, which were the only springs of his comfort; these are in a moment dried up to him for ever. He is not ready for another world: he was not thinking of removing so soon: or if he was, yet he has no portion secured to him in another world, but that which he was born to, and was increasing all his days, namely, a treasure of wrath. But go he must; his clay god, the world, must be parted with, and what has he more? There was never a glimmering of light, or favour from heaven, to his soul: and now the wrath that did hang in the threatning as a cloud like a man's hand, is darkning the face of the whole heaven above him: and if he look unto the earth, (from whence all his light was wont to come) behold trouble and darkness, dirtness of anguish; and he shall be driven to darkness, Isa. viii 22. (2) Death chargeth soul and body to part till the great day▪ His soul is required of him, Luke xii 20. O what a miserable parting must this be to a child of wrath! care was indeed taken to provide for the body things necessary for this life▪ but alas! there is nothing laid up for another life to it; nothing to be a seed of glorious resur­rection: as it lived, so it must die, and rise again sinful flesh; fuel for the fire of God's wrath. As for the soul, he was never solicitous to provide for it. It lay in the body, dead to God▪ and all things truly good; and so must be carried out into the pit, in the grave cloths of its natural state: for now that death comes, the companions in sin must part. (3.) Death chargeth the soul to compear before the tribunal of God, while the body lies to be carried to the grave, Eccles. xii. 7. The spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Heb. ix 2, 7. It is ap­pointed unto all men once to die, but after this the judgment. Well were it for the sinful soul if it might be buried together with the body. But that cannot be: it must go and receive its sentence; and shall be shut up in the prison of hell, while the cursed body lies imprisoned in the grave, till the day of the general judgment.

When the end of the world, appointed of God, is come; the trumpet shall sound, and the dead arise. Then shall the weary earth, at the command of the Judge, cast forth the bodies; the cursed bodies of these that lived and died in their natural state: The sea, death, and hell, shall deliver up their dead, Rev. xx. 13. Their miserable bodies and souls shall be re-united, and they sitted before the tribunal of Christ. Then shall they receive that fearful sentence, D [...]part from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, Matth. xx. 41. Whereupon they shall go away into everlasting punishment, ver. 49. They shall be eternally shut up in hell, never to get the least drop of comfort, nor the least ease of their torment. There they will be punished with the punishment of loss: being ex­communicated for ever from the presence of God, his angels and saints. All means of grace, all hopes of a delivery, shall be for ever cut off from their eyes. They shall not have a drop of water to cool their [Page 102] tongues, Luke xvi. 24, 25. They shall be punished with the punish­ment of sense. They must not only depart from God; but depart into fire, into everlasting fire. There the worm, that shall gnaw them, shall never die; the fire, that shall scorch them, shall never be quenched. God shall, thro' all eternity, hold them up with the one hand, and pour the full vials of wrath into them with the other.

This is that state of wrath natural men live in; being under much of the wrath of God, and liable to more. But for a further view of it, let us consider the qualities of that wrath (1.) It is irresistible, there is no standing before it. Who may stand in thy sight, when once thou art angry? Psal. lxxxvi. 7. Can the worm, or the moth, defend itself against him that designs to crush it? As little can worm man stand before an angry God Foolish man indeed practically bids a defiance to heaven: but the Lord often, even in this world, opens such sluices of wrath upon them, as all their might cannot stop; but they are carried away thereby, as with a flood. How much more will it be so in hell? (2.) It is unsupportable. What one cannot resist, he will set himself to bear: but, Who shall dwell with devouring fire? Who shall dwell with everlasting burnings? God's wrath is a weight that will sink men into the lowest hell. It is a burden no man is able to stand under. A wounded spirit who can bear it? Prov. xviii. 14. (3.) It is unavoidable to such as will go on impenitently in their sin­ful course. He that being often reproved, hardneth his neck, shall sud­denly be destroyed, and that without remedy, Prov. xxix 1. We may now fly from it indeed, by flying to Jesus Christ: but such as fly from Christ, shall never be able to avoid it. Whither can men fly from an avenging God? Where will they find a shelter? The hills will not hear them; the mountains will be deaf to their loudest cries; when they cry to them, to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. (4.) It is powerful and fierce wrath, Psal. xc. 11. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fean, so is thy wrath. We are apt to fear the wrath of man more than we ought: but no man can appre­hend the wrath of God to be more dreadful than it really is: the power of it can never be known to the utmost; seeing it is infinite, and (properly speaking) has no utmost: how fierce soever it be, either on earth, or in hell, God can still carry it further. Every thing in God is most perfect in its kind; and therefore no wrath is so fierce as his. O sinner, how wilt thou be able to endure that wrath, which will tear thee in pieces, Psal. l. 22. and grind thee to powder, Luke xx 18. The history of the two she bears, that tare the children of Bethel, is an awful on, 2 Kings ii. 23, 24. But the united force of the rage of lions, leopards, and she bears bereaved of their whelps, is not sufficient to give us even a scanty view of the power of the wrath of God, Hos. xiii. 7, 8. Therefore I will be unto them as a lion; as a leopard by the way will I observe them. I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rent the caul of their heart, &c. (5) It is penetrating and piercing wrath. It is burning wrath, and [Page 103] firey indignation. There is no pain more exquisite, than that which is caused by fire; and no fire so piercing as the fire of God's indigna­tion, that burns into the lowest hell, Deut. xxxii. 22. The arrows of men's wrath can pierce flesh, blood and bones: but cannot reach the soul: but the wrath of God will sink into the soul, and so pierce a man in the most tender part. Like as, when a person is thunder-struck, oft-times there is not a wound to be seen in the skin; yet life is gone, and the bones are, as it were, melted: so God's wrath can penetrate into, and melt one's soul within him, when his earthly comforts stand about him entire, and untouched as in Belshazzar's case, Dan. v. 6. (6.) It is constant wrath, running parallel with the man's continuance in an unregenerate state; constantly attending him, from the womb to the grave. There are few so dark days, but the sun sometimes looketh out from under the clouds: but the wrath of God, is an abiding cloud on the subjects of it, John iii 36. The wrath of God abideth on him that believes not. (7.) It is eternal. O miser­able soul! If thou fly not from this wrath unto Jesus Christ, thy misery had a beginning, but it shall never have an end. Should devouring death wholly swallow thee up, and for ever hold thee fast in a grave; it would be kind, but thou must live again, and never die; that thou mayst be ever dying, in the hands of the living God. Cold death will quench the flame of man's wrath against us, if nothing else do it: but God's wrath, when it has come on the sinner, millions of ages will still be the wrath to come, Matth. iii. 7. 1 Thess. i. 10. As the water of a river is still coming, how much soever of it has passed. While God is, he will pursue the quarrel. Lastly, Howsoever dreadful it is, and tho' it be eternal, yet it is most just wrath: it is a clear fire, without the least smoak of unjustice. The sea of wrath raging with greatest fury against the sinner, is clear as chrystal. The Judge of all the earth can do no wrong. He knows no transports of passion, for they are inconsistent with the perfection of his nature. Is God un­righteous, who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) God forbid: for then, how shall God judge the world? Rom. iii. 5, 6.

The Doctrine of the State of Wrath confirmed and vindicated.

II. I shall confirm the doctrine. Consider, (1.) How peremptory the threatning of the first covenant is; In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die, Gen. ii. 17. Hereby sin and punishment being connected, the veracity of God ascertains the execution of the threat­ning. Now all men being by nature under this covenant, the breach of it lays them under the curse. (2.) The justice of God requires that a child of sin be a child of wrath; that the law being broken, the sanction thereof should take place. God, as man's ruler and Judge, cannot but do right, Gen. xviii. 25 Now it is a righteous thing with God to recompence sin with wrath, 2 Thess. i. 6. He is of purer eyes than to behold evil, Hab. i. 13. And he hat [...] all the workers of [Page 104] iniquity, Psal. v. 6. (3.) The horrors of a natural conscience prove this. There is a conscience in the breasts of men, which can tell them, they are sinners; and therefore liable to the wrath of God. Let men, at any time, soberly commune with themselves, and they will find they have the witness in themselves, knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things, are worthy of death, Rom. i. 32. (4) The pangs of the new birth, the work of the spirit of bondage on elect souls, in order to their conversion, demonstrate this. Hereby their natural sinfulness and misery, as liable to the wrath of God, are plainly taught them, filling their hearts with fear of that wrath. Now that this spirit of bondage is no other than the Spirit of God, whose work is to convince of sin, righteousness, and judg­ment, (John xvi. 8.) this testimony must needs be true; for the Spirit of truth cannot witness an untruth. Mean while, true be­lievers being freed from the state of wrath, receive not the spirit of bondage again to fear, but receive the Spirit of adoption, Rom. iii. 15. And therefore, if fears of that nature do arise, after the soul's union with Christ: they come from the saint's own spirit, or from a worse. Lastly, The sufferings of Christ plainly prove this doctrine. Where­fore was the Son of God, a Son under wrath, but because the child­ren of men were children of wrath? He suffered the wrath of God, not for himself, but for those that were liable to it in their own persons. Nay, this not only speaks us to have been liable to wrath; but also that wrath must have a vent, in the punishing of sin. If this was done in the green tree, what will become of the dry? What a miserable case must a sinner be in that is out of Christ; that is not vitally united to Christ, and partakes not of his Spirit? God, who spared not his own Son, surely will not spare such an one.

But the unregenerate man, who has no great value for the honour of God, will be apt to rise up against his Judge, and in his own heart condemn his procedure. Nevertheless the Judge being infinitely just, the sentence must be righteous. And therefore, to stop thy mouth, O proud sinner, and to still thy clamour against the righteous Judge, consider, First, Thou art a sinner by nature, and it is highly reason­able that guilt and wrath be as old as sin. Why should not God begin to vindicate his honour, as soon as vile worms begin to impare it? Why shall not a serpent bite the thief, as soon as he leaps over the hedge? Why should not the threatning take hold of the sinner, as soon as he casts away the command? The poisonous nature of the serpent affords a man sufficient ground to kill it, as soon as ever he can reach it; and, by this time thou mayst be convinced, that thy nature is a very compound of enmity against God. Secondly, Thou hast not only an enmity against God, in thy nature; but hast discovered it, by actual sins, which are in his eye acts of hostility. Thou has brought forth thy lust into the field of battle against thy Sovereign LORD. And now, that thou art such a criminal, thy condemnation is just: for, besides the sin of thy nature, thou hast done that against heaven, which [Page 105] if thou had done against men, thy life behoved to have gone for it; and shall not wrath from heaven overtake thee? (1.) Thou art guilty of high treason, and rebellion against the King of heaven. The thought and wish of thy heart, which he knows as well as the language of thy mouth, has been, no God, Psal. xiv. 1. Thou hast rejected his government, blown the trumpet, and set up the standard of rebellion against him: being one of these that say, We will not have this m [...]n to reign over us, Luke xix. 14 Thou hast striven against, and quenched his Spirit; practically disowned his laws proclaimed by his messengers; stopped thine ears at their voice, and sent them away mourning for thy pride. Thou hast conspired with his grand enemy the devil. Although thou art a sworn servant of the King of glory, daily receiv­ing of his favours, and living on his bounty: thou art holding a cor­respondence, and hast contracted a friendship with his greatest enemy, and art acting for him against thy Lord; for the lusts of the de [...]il ye will do, John viii. 44 (2) Thou art a murderer before the Lord. Thou hast laid the stumbling block of thine iniquity before the blind world; and hast ruined the souls of others by thy sinful course. And tho' thou dost not see now; the time may come, when thou shalt see the blood of thy relations, neighbours, acquaintances and others, upon thy head, Matth. xviii. 7. Wo unto the world because of offences—Wo to that man by whom the offence com [...]th. Yea, thou art a self-murderer before God, Prov. viii 36. He that sinneth against me, wrongeth his own soul▪ all they that hate me, love death. Ezek. xviii. 31. Why will ye die? The laws of man [...] as far as they can against the self murderer, denying his body a bur [...] place amongst others, and confiscating his goods: what wonder is it the Law of God is so severe against soul-murderers? Is it strange, that they who will need [...] depart from God now, cost what it will, be forced to depart from him at [...], into ever­lasting fire? But what is yet more criminal, thou art guilty of the murder of the Son of God, for the Lord will reckon thee among those that pierced him, Rev. 1.7. Thou hast rejected him as well as the Jews did; and by thy rejecting him, thou hast justified their deed. They indeed did not acknowledge him to be the Son of God, but thou dost. What they did against him, was in a state of humiliation; but thou hast acted against him, in his state of exaltation. These things will aggravate thy condemnation. What wonder then, if the voice of the Lamb, change to the roaring of the lion, against the traitor and murderer.

Object. But some will say, Is there not a vast disproportion betwixt our sin and that wrath you talk of? I answer, No; God punishes no more than the sinner deserves. To rectify your mist [...], in this matter, consider, (1) The vast rewards God [...]is annexed to obedience. His word is no more full of fiery wrath against sin, that it is of graci [...]s rewards to the obedience it requires. If heaven be in the p [...]mis [...]s, it is altogether equal that hell be in the threatnings If death wer [...] not in the balance with life, eternal misery with eternal happines [...], [Page 106] where were the proportion? Moreover, sin deserves the misery, but our best works do not deserve the happiness: yet both are set before us; sin and misery, holiness and happiness What reason is there then to complain? (2.) How severe soever the threatnings be, yet all has enough ado to reach the end of the law. Fear him, says our LORD, which, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, fear him, Luke xii. 5. This bespeaks our dread of divine power and majesty; but yet how few fear him indeed! The LORD knows the sinner's heart to be exceedingly intent upon fulfilling their lusts: they cleave so fondly to those fulsome breasts, that a small force does not suffice to draw them from them. They that travel through desarts, where they are in hazard from wild beasts, have need to carry fire along with them: and they have need of a hard wedge that have knotty timber to cleave; so a holy law must be fenced with a dreadful wrath, in a world lying in wickedness. But who are they that com­plain of that wrath as too great▪ but those to whom it is too little to draw them off from their sinful courses? It was the man who pretended to fear his Lord, because he was an austere man, that kept his pound laid up in a napkin: and so he was condemned out of his own mouth, Luke xix. 20, 21.22. Thou art that man, even thou whose objection I am answering. How can the wrath thou art under, and liable to, be too great, while yet it is not sufficient to awaken thee to fly from it? Is it time to relax the penalties of the law, when men are tramp­ling the commands of it under foot? (3.) Consider how God dealt with his own Son, whom he spared not, Rom. viii. 32. The wrath of God seized on his soul and body both, and brought him into the dust of death. That his sufferings were not eternal, flowed from the quality of the sufferer, who was infinite; and therefore able to bear at once, the whole load of wrath: and upon that account, his sufferings were infinite in value. But in value, they must be protracted to an eternity. And what confidence can a rebel subject have to quarrel (for his part) a punishment execute on the King's Son? (4.) The sinner doth against God what he can. Behold thou hast done evil things as thou couldst, Jer. iii. 5. That thou hast not done more, and worse; thanks to him who restrained thee; to the chain which the wolf was kept in by, not to thyself. No wonder God shew his power on the sinner, who puts forth his power against God, as far as it will reach. The unregenerate man puts no period to his sinful course; and would put no bounds to it neither, if he were not restrained by divine power for wise ends: and therefore it is just he be for ever under wrath. (5.) It is infinite majesty sin strikes against; and so it is, in some sort, an infinite evil. Sin riseth in its demerit, according to the quality of the party offended. If a man wound his neighbour, his goods must go for it; but if he wound his prince, his life must go to make amends for that The infinity of God makes infinite wrath the just demerit of sin. God is infinitely displeased with sin: and when he acts, he must act like himself, and shew his displeasure by proportionable means. [Page 107] Lastly, Those that shall lie for ever under his wrath, will be eternally sinning; and therefore must eternally suffer: not only in respect of divine judicial procedure; but because sin is its own punishment, in the same manner that holy obedience is its own reward.

The Doctrine of the Misery of Man's natural State applied.

USE (1) Of information. Is our state by nature a state of wrath? Then,

1. Surely we are not born innocent. These chains of wrath, which by nature are upon us, speak us to be born criminals. The swaddling bands wherewith infants are bound hand and foot as soon as they are born, may put us in mind of the cords of wrath, with which they are held prisoners, as children of wrath.

2. What desperate madness is it for sinners to go on in their sinful course: What is it but to heap coals of fire on thine own head, and lay more and more fuel to the fire of wrath, to treasure up unto thy­self wrath against the day of wrath, Rom. ii. 5. Thou mayst perish, when his wrath is kindled but a little, Psal. ii. 12. Why wilt thou in­crease it yet more: Thou art already bound with such cords of death, [...]s will not easily be loosed: what need is there of more? Stand, careless sinner, and consider this.

3. Thou hast no reason to complain, as long as thou art out of hell. Wherefore doth a living man complain? Lam. iii. 39▪ If one who has forfeited his life, be banished his native country, and exposed to many hardships; he may well bear all patiently, seeing his life is spared. Do ye murmur, for that ye are under pain of sickness? Nay, bless God ye are not there, where the worm never dieth. Dost thou grudge that thou art not in so good a condition in the world as some of thy neighbours are? Be thankful rather, that ye are not in the case of the damned. Is thy substance gone from thee? Wonder that the fire of God's wrath hath not consumed thyself. Kiss the rod, O sinner, and acknowledge mercy: for God punisheth us less than our iniquities deserve, Ezra ix 13.

4 Here is a memorandum, both for poor and rich. (1.) The poorest that go from door to door, and hath not one penny left them by their parents, were born to an inheritance. Their first father Adam left them children of wrath; and continuing in their natural state, they cannot miss of it; for this is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed to him by God, Job xx 29. An heritage, that will furnish them with an habitation, who have not where to lay their head: they shall be cast into utter darkness, Matth. xxv. 30. for to them is reserved the blackn [...]ss of darkness for ever, Jude 13. where their bed shall be sorrow; The [...] [...] down in sorrow, Isa. l. 11. their food shall be judgment, for God will seed them with judgment, Ezek. xxxiv. 16 and their drink shall be the red wine of God's wrath, the dregs whereof all the wicked of the earth [Page 108] shall wring out, and drink them, Psal. lxxv 8. I know, that these who are destitute of worldly goods, and withal void of the knowledge and grace of God, who therefore may be called the devil's poor, will be apt to say here, We hope God will make us suffer all our misery in this world, and we shall be happy in the next: as if their miserable outward condition in time, would secure their happiness in eternity. A gross and fatal mistake! And this is another inheritance they have, viz lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit, Jer xvi 19 But the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, Isa xxviii. 17. Dost thou think, O sinner, that God who commands judges on earth, not to respect the person of the poor in judgment ▪ Lev xix 15. will pervert judgment for thee? Nay, know for certain, that however miserable thou art here, thou shalt be eternally miserable hereafter, if thou livest and diest in thy natural state (2) Many that have enough in the world, have far more than they know of Thou hadst, (it may be) O unregenerate man, an estate, a good portion, or a large stock left thee by thy father; thou hast improven it, and the sun of pro­sperity shines upon thee; so that thou canst say with Esau, Gen. xxxiii. 9. I have enough. But know, thou hast more than all that, an inheritance thou dost not consider of: thou art a child of wrath, an heir of hell. That is an heritage which will abide with thee, amidst all the changes in the world: as long as thou continuest in an unre­generate state. When thou shalt leave thy substance to others, this shall go along with thyself, into another world It is no wonder a slaughter ox be fed to the full, and is not toiled as others are, Job xxi. 30. The wicked is reserved to the day of destruction; they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath. Well then, Rejoice, let thine heart chear thee; walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: live above reproofs and warnings from the word of God; shew thyself a man of a fine spirit, by casting off all fear of God; mock at seriousness; live like thyself, a child of wrath, an heir of hell: But know thou, that for all these things, God will bring thee into judgment, Eccles xi 9. Assure thy self, thy breaking shall come suddenly, at an instant, Isa. x [...]. 13. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool, Eccl vii. 6. The fair blaze and great noise they make, is quickly gone; so shall thy mirth be. And then that wrath that is now silently sinking into thy soul, shall make a fearful hissing

5. Wo to him, that, like Moah, hath been at ease from his youth, Jer. xlviii. 11 and never saw the black cloud of wrath hanging over His head. There are many who have no changes, therefore th [...] fear [...]t God, Psal. lv. 19. They have lived in a good belief (as they call it) all their days; that is, they never had power to believe an ill report of their souls state. Many have come by their religion too easily; and as it came lightly to them, so it will go from them, when their trial comes. Do ye think men flee from the wrath, in a morning dream? Or will they flee from the wrath, they never saw pursuing them.

[Page 109]6. Think it not strange if ye see one in great distress about his soul's condition, who was wont to be as jovial, and as little concerned about salvation, as any of his neighbours. Can one get a right view of himself, as in a state of wrath, and not be pierced with sorrows, terrors, anxiety? When a weight, quite above one's strength, lies upon him, and he is alone; he can neither stir hand nor foot: but when one comes to lift it off him, he'll struggle to get from under it. Thunder-claps of wrath from the word of God conveyed to the soul by the Spirit of the Lord, will surely keep a man awake.

Lastly, It is no wonder wrath come upon churches and nations, and upon us in this land, and that infants, and children yet unborn smart under it. Most of the society are yet children of wrath; few are fleeing from it. or taking the way to prevent it; but people of all ranks are helping it on. The Jews rejected Christ; and their children have been smarting under wrath these sixteen hundred years. God grant that the bad entertainment given to Christ and his gospel, by this generation, be not pursued with wrath on the succeeding one.

USE (2) Of Exhortation. And here, 1. I shall drop a word to these who are yet in an unregenerate state. 2 To those that are brought out of it. 3. To all indifferently.

I. To you that are yet in an unregenerate state, I would sound the alarm, and warn you to see to yourselves, while yet there is hope. O ye children of wrath, take no rest in this dismal state; but flee to Jesus Christ the only refuge. Haste and make your escape thither. The state of wrath is too hot a climate for you to live in, Micah ii. 10. Arise ye and depart, for this is not your rest. O sinner knowest thou where thou art? Dost thou not see thy danger? The curse has entered into thy soul: wrath is thy covering; the heavens are growing blacker and blacker above thy head: the earth is weary of thee, the pit is opening her mouth for thee; and should the thread of thy life be cut this moment, thou art henceforth past all hopes for ever. Sirs, if we saw you putting a cup of poison to your mouth; we would fly to you and snatch it out of your hands. If we saw the house on fire about you, while ye were fast asleep in it; we would run to you, and drag you out of it. But alas! ye are in ten thousand tha [...] greater hazard; yet we can do no more but tell you your danger; invite, exhort, be­seech, and obtest you, to look to yourselves; and lament your stupidity and obstinacy, when we cannot prevail with you to take warning. If there were no hope of your recovery, we should be silent, and would not torment you before the time: but tho' ye be lost and undone, there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. Wherefore, I cry unto you in the name of the Lord, and in the words of the prophet, Zech. ix. 12. Turn ye to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope. Flee to Jesus Christ out of this your natural state.

Motive 1 While ye are in this state, ye must stand or fall accord­ing to the law, or covenant of works. If ye understood this aright, it would strike through your hearts, as a thousand darts. One had [Page 110] better be a slave to the Turks, condemned to the galleys, or under Egyptian bondage, than be under the covenant of works now. All mankind were brought under it in Adam, as we heard before: and thou in thy unregenerate state, are still where Adam left thee. It is true, there is another covenant brought in: but what is that to thee, who art not brought into it? Thou must needs be under one of the two covenants; either under the law, or under grace. That thou art not under grace, the dominion of sin over thee, manifestly evinceth; therefore thou art under the law, Rom. vi. 14. Do not think God has laid aside the first covenant, Matth. v. 17, 18. Gal. iii. 10. No, he will magnify the law, and make it honourable. It is broken indeed on thy part: but it is absurd to think, that therefore your obligation is dissolved. Nay, thou must stand and fall by it, till thou canst pro­duce thy discharge from God himself, who is thy party in that cove­nant; and this thou canst not pretend to, seeing thou art not in Christ.

Now, to give you a view of your misery, in this respect, consider these following things, (1.) Hereby ye are bound over to death, in virtue of the threatning of death in that covenant, Gen. ii. 17. The condition being broken, ye fall under the penalty. So it concludes you under wrath. (2) There is no salvation for you under this covenant, but on a condition impossible to be performed by you. The justice of God must be satisfied for the wrong you have done already. God hath written this truth in characters of the blood of his own Son. Yea, and you must perfectly obey the law for the time to come. So saith the law, Gal. iii. 12. The man that doth them, shall live in them. Come then, O sinner, see if thou canst make a ladder, whereby thou mayst reach the throne of God; stretch forth thine arms, and try, if thou canst fly on the wings of the wind, catch hold of the clouds, and pierce through these visible heavens; and then either climb over, or break through the jasper walls of the city above. These things shalt thou do, as soon as thou shalt reach heaven in thy natural state, or under this covenant. (3.) There is no pardon under this covenant. Pardon is the benefit of another covenant, with which thou hast noth­ing to do, Acts xiii. 9. And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. As for thee, thou art in the hand of a merciless creditor, which will take thee by the throat, saying, Pay what thou owest; and cast thee into prison, there to remain, till thou hast paid the utmost farthing: unless thou beest so wise as to get a cautioner in time, who is able to answer for all thy debt, and get up thy discharge. This Jesus Christ alone can do. Thou abidest under this covenant, and pleadest mercy: but what is thy plea founded on? There is not one promise of mercy or pardon in that covenant. Dost thou plead mercy, for mercy's sake? Justice will step in betwixt it and thee; and plead God's covenant threatning, which he cannot deny. (4) There's no place for repentance in this covenant so as the sinner can be helped by it. For as soon as ever thou sinnest, the law lays its curse on thee, which is a dead weight [Page 111] thou canst by no means throw off; no, not tho' thine head were waters, and thine eyes a fountain of tears, to weep day and night for thy sin. That is what the law cannot do, in that it is weak through the flesh, Rom. viii 3. Now thou art another profane Esau, that hath sold the blessing; and there is no place for repentance tho' thou seekest it carefully with tears, while under that covenant. (5.) There is no accepting of the will for the deed under this covenant, which was not made for good will, but good works. The mistake in this point ruins many. They are not in Christ, but stand under the first covenant; and yet they will plead this privilege. This is just as if one having made a feast for those of his own family, when they sit down at table, another man's servant that has run away from his master, should presumptuously come forward and sit down among them: would not the master of the feast give such a stranger that check, Friend, how camest thou in hither? And since he is none of his family, command him to be gone quickly. Tho' a master accept the good will of his own child for the dead, can a hired servant expect that privilege? (6.) Ye have nothing to do with Christ, while under this covenant. By the law of God a woman cannot be married to two husbands at once: either death or divorce must dissolve the first marriage, ere she can marry another. So we must first be dead to the law, ere we can be married to Christ, Rom. vii. 4. The law is the first husband; Jesus Christ, who raiseth the dead, marries the widow, that was heart-broken, and slain by the first husband. But while the soul is in the house with the first husband, it cannot plead a marriage-relation to Christ; nor the benefits of a marriage-covenant, which is not yet entered into, Gal. v. 4. Christ is become of no effect to you; whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace. Peace, pardon, and such like benefits are all benefits of the covenant of grace. And ye must not think to stand off from Christ, and the marriage-covenant with him, and yet plead these benefits; more than one man's wife can plead the benefit of a contract of marriage past betwixt another man and his own wife. Lastly, See the bill of exclusion, past in the court of heaven, against all under the covenant of works, Gal. iv. 30. The son of the [...]nd-woman shall not be heir. compare ver. 24. Heirs of wrath must not be heirs of glory. Whom the first covenant hath power to exclude out of heaven, the second covenant cannot bring into it.

Objection. Then it is impossible for us to be saved. Answer, It is so, while you are in that state. But if you would be out of that dreadful condition, hasten out of that state. If a murderer be under sentence of death, so long as he lives within the kingdom, the laws will reach his life; but if he can make his escape, and get over the sea, into the dominions of another prince, our laws cannot reach him there This is what we would have you to do: flee out of the king­dom of darkness, into the kingdom of God s dear Son; out of the do­minion of the law, into the dominion of grace; then all the curses of the law, or covenant of works, shall never be able to reach you.

[Page 112] Motive 2. O ye children of wrath your state is wretched, for ye have lost God; and that is an unspeakable loss. Ye are without God in the world, Eph. ii. 12. Whatever you may call yours, you cannot call God yours. If we look to the earth▪ perhaps you can tell us, that land, that house▪ or that herd of cattle, is yours: But let us look up­ward to heaven, is that God, that grace, that glory yours? Truly, you have neither part nor lot in that matter. When Nebuchadnezzar talks of cities and kingdoms, O how big does he speak! Great Babylon that I have built,—my power,—my majesty! but he tells a poor tale, when he comes to speak of God, saying, Your God, Dan. ii. 47. and iv. 30. Alas! sinner, whatever thou hast, God is gone from thee. O the misery of a godless soul! Hast thou lost God? Then, (1.) The sap and substance of all that thou hast in the world, is gone. The godless man, have what he will, is one that hath not, Mat xxv 29. I defy the unregenerate man to attain to soul-satisfaction, whatever he possesseth; since God is not his God. All his days he eateth in darkness: in every condition, there is a secret dissatisfaction haunts his heart like a ghost: the soul wants something, tho' perhaps it knoweth not what it is: and so it will be always, till the soul return to God, the fountain of satisfaction. (2.) Thou canst do nothing to purpose for thyself; for God is gone, his soul is departed from thee, Jer. vi. 3. like a leg out of joint hanging by, whereof a man hath no use, as the word there used doth bear. Losing God, thou hast lost the fountain of good; and so, all grace, all goodness, all the saving instances of his Spirit, What canst thou do then? What fruit canst thou bring forth, more than a branch cut off from the stock? John xv. 5. Thou art become unprofitable, Rom. iii. 12. as a filthy rotten thing fit only for the dunghill. (3.) Death his come up into th [...] windows, yea, and has settled on thy face; for God, in whose favour is life, Psal. xxx. 5. is gone from thee, and so the soul of thy soul is departed. What a lothsome hump is the body, when the soul is gone? Far more lothsome is thy soul in this case. Thou art dead while thou livest. Do not deny it; seeing thy speech is laid, thine eyes closed, and all spiritual motion in thee ceaseth. Thy true friends, who see thy case, do lament, because thou art gone into the land of silence. (4) Thou hast not a steady friend among all the creatures of God; for now that thou [...] the Master's savour, all the [...] is set against thee: Conscience is thine enemy: the word never speaks good of thee: God's people lothe thee, [...] as they see what thou art, Psal. xv. 22. The beasts and [...] of the [...]ld are banded together against thee, Job v. 23. Hos. [...]. [...]8 Thy most, drink, clothes, grudge to be ser­viceable to the wreth that has lost God, and abuseth them to his dishonour. [...] thunder thee: yea, the whole creation groweth, and [...] together, because of thee, and such as thou art, [...] will have nothing to do with thee; for there shall [...] enter [...] into it any thing that defileth, Rev. xxi. 22. Only hell from [...], to meet thee at thy coming. [Page 113] Isa. xiv. 9. Lastly, Thy hell is begun already. What makes hell, but exclusion from the presence of God? Depart from me ye cursed. Now ye are gone from God already, with the curse upon you. That shall be your punishment at length (if ye return not) which is now your choice. As a gracious state is a state of glory in the bud; so a graceless state is hell in the bud; which if it continue, will come to perfection at length.

Motive 3. Consider the dreadful instances of the wrath of God; and let them serve to awaken thee to flee out of this state. Consider, (1.) How it is fallen on men. Even in this world, many have been set up as monuments of divine vengeance; that others might fear. Wrath has swept away multitudes, who have fallen together by the hand of an angry God. Consider how the Lord spared not the old world, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly: and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly, 2 Pet. ii. 5, 6. But it is yet more dreadful to think of that wepping, wailing and gnashing of teeth, amongst those, who in hell lift up their eyes, but cannot get a drop of water to cool their tongues. Believe these things, and be warned by them; lest destruction come upon thee, for a warning to others. (2.) Consider how wrath fell upon the fallen angels, whose case is absolutely hopeless. They were the first that ventured to break the hedge of the divine law; and God set them up as monuments of his wrath against sin. They once left their own habitation, and were never allowed to look in again at the hole of the door; but they are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day, Jude 6. Lastly, Behold how an angry God dealt with his own Son, standing in the room of elect sinners, Rom viii. 32. God spared not his own Son. Sparing mercy might have been expected, if any at all. If any person could have obtained it surely his own Son would have go it; but he spared him not. The Father's delight is made a man of sorrows: he who is the wisdom of God, becomes sore amazed▪ ready to faint away with a fit of horror. The weight of this wrath makes him sweat great drops of blood By the fierceness of this fire, his heart was like [...] in the midst of his bowels. Behold here how severe God is against sin! the sun was struck blind with this terrible sight! rocks were rent! graves opened! death, as it were in the excess of asto­nishment, letting its prisoners slip away. What is a deluge, a shower of fire and crimstone on Sodomites, the terrible noise of a dissolving world, the whole fabrick of heaven and earth falling down at once, angels cast down from heaven into the bottomless p [...]? What are all these, I say, in comparison with this? God suffering! groaning, dying upon a cross! infinite holiness did it, to make sin look like itself, viz. infinite [...] [...]odious. And will men live at ease while exposed to [...] wrath.

Lastly, Consider that a God he is, with whom thou hast to do, whose wrath thou art liable unto: He is a God of infinite acknowledge [Page 114] and wisdom; so that none of thy sins, however secret, can be hid from him. He infallibly finds out all means whereby wrath may be executed, toward the satisfying of justice. He is of infinite power, and so can do what he will against the sinner. How heavy must the strokes of wrath be, which are laid on by an omnipotent hand! infinite power can make the sinner prisoner, even when he is in his greatest rage against heaven. It can bring again the several parcels of dust, out of the grave; put them together again, reunite the soul and the body, sist them before the tribunal, hurry them away to the pit, and hold them up with the one hand thro' eternity, while they are lashed with the other. He is infinitely just, and therefore must punish; it were acting contrary to his nature to suffer the sinner to escape wrath. Hence the executing of this wrath is pleasing to him; for tho' the Lord hath no delight in the death of the sinner, as it is the destruction of his own creature, yet he delights in it, as it is the execution of justice. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest. Mark the reason, For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, Psal. xi. 6, 7. I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted, Ezek. v. 13. I also will laugh at your calamity, Prov. i. 26. Finally, He lives for ever, to pursue the quarrel. Let us therefore conclude, It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Be awakened then, O young sinner; be awakened, O old sinner, who art yet in the state thou wast born in. Your security is none of God's allowance, it is the sleep of death: rise out of it ere the pit close its mouth on you. It is true, you may put on a breast-plate of iron, make your bow brass, and your hearts as an adamant: who can help it? But God will break that brazen bow, and make that adaman­tine heart, at last, to fly into a thousand pieces. Ye may, if ye will, labour to put those things out of your heads, that ye may yet sleep in a sound skin, tho' in a state of wrath. Ye may run away with the arrows sticking in your consciences to your work, to work them away; or to your beds, to sleep them out; or to company, to sport and laugh them away: but convictions so stifled, will have a fearful resurrection: and the day is coming, when the arrows of wrath shall so stick in thy soul, as thou shalt never be able to pluck them out thro' the ages of eternity, unless thou take warning in time.

But if any desire to flee from the wrath to come; and for that end, to know what course to take; I offer them these few advices, and ob­test and beseech them, as they love their own souls, to fall in with them. (1) Retire yourselves into some secret place, and there me­ditate on this your misery. Believe it, and fix your thoughts on it. Let each put the [...]uestion to himself, How can I live in this state? How can I die in it? How will I rise again, and stand before the tribunal of God in it? (2) Consider seriously the sin of your nature, heart and life. A kindly sight of wrath flows from a deep sense of sin. They who see themselves exceeding [...], will find no great difficulty to perceive themselves to be heirs of wrath. (3.) Labour [Page 115] to justify God in this matter. To quarrel with God about it, and to rage like a wild bull in a net, will but fix you the more in it. Humi­liation of soul, before the Lord, is necessary for an escape. God will not sell deliverance, but freely gives it to those, who see themselves altogether unworthy of his favour. Lastly, Turn your eyes, O prisoners of hope, towards the Lord Jesus Christ; and embrace him as he offereth himself, in the gospel. There is no salvation in any other, Acts iv. 12. God is a consuming fire; ye are children of wrath: if the Mediator interpose not betwixt him and you, ye are undone for ever. If ye would be safe, come under his shadow: one drop of that wrath cannot fall there, for he delivereth us from the wrath to come, 1 Thess. i 10. Accept of him in his covenant, wherein he offereth himself to thee: and so thou shalt, as the captive woman, redeem thy life, by marrying the Conqueror. His blood will quench that fire of wrath, which burns against thee: in the white raiment of his righte­ousness thou shalt be safe; for no storm of wrath can pierce it.

II. I shall drop a few words to the saints.

First, Remember, that at that time, (namely, when ye were in your natural state) ye were without Christ—having no hope, and without God in the world Call to mind that state, ye were in formerly; and re­view the misery of it. There are five memorials, I may thence give in to the whole assembly of the saints, who are no more children of wrath: but heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, tho as yet in their minority. (1) Remember, that in the day our Lord took you by the hand, ye were in no better condition than others? O what moved him to take you, when he past by your neighbours! he found you children of wrath, even as others; but he did not leave you so. He came into the common prison, where you lay in your fetters, even as others: and from amongst the multitude of condemned malefactors, he picked out you, commanded your fetters to be taken off, put a pardon in your hand, and brought you into the glorious liberty of the children of God; while he left others in the devil's fetters. (2) Re­member there was nothing in you to engage him to love you, in the day he first appeared for your deliverance Ye were children of wrath, even as others, fit for hell, and altogether unfit for heaven: yet the King brought you into the palace: the King's Son made love to you a condemned criminal, and espoused you to himself, on the day in which ye might have had been led forth to execution. Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in the sight, Matth ix. 26. (3) Remember, ye were fitter to be lothed than loved in that day. Wonder, that when he saw you in your blood, he looked not at you with abhorrence, and passed by you. Wonder that ever such a time could be a time of love, Ezek xvi. 8. (4.) Remember, ye are decked with borrowed feathers. It is his comeliness, which is upon you, ver 14. It was he that took off your prison garments, and clothed you with robes of righteousness, garments of salvation garments where with ye are arrayed as the lilies, which toil not, neither do they spin. He took the child [...] from off your [Page 116] arms, the rope from about your neck; put you in such a dress as ye might be fit for the court of heaven, even to eat at the King's table. (5.) Remember your faults this day; as Pharaoh's butler, who had forgotten Joseph. Mind how you have forgotten, and how unkindly you have treated him, who remembred you in your low estate. Is this your kindness to your friend? In the day of your deliverance, did ye think, ye could have thus required him, your Lord?

Secondly, Pity the children of wrath, the world that lies in wicked­ness. Can ye be unconcerned for them, ye who were once in the same condition? Ye have got ashore indeed, but your fellows are yet in hazard of perishing; and will not ye make them all possible help for their deliverance? What they are, ye sometimes were This may draw pity from you, and engage you to use all means for their recovery. See Tit. iii. 1, 2, 3.

Thirdly, Admire that matchless love, which brought you out of the state of wrath Christ's love was active love, he loved thy soul from the pit of corruption. It was no easy work to purchase the life of the condemned sinner? but he gave his life for thy life. He gave his precious blood to quench that flame of wrath, which otherwise would have burnt thee up. Men get the best view of the stars, from the bottom of a deep pit: from this pit of misery into which thou wast cast by the first Adam, thou mayst get the best view of the Sun of righte­ousness, in all its dimensions. He is the second Adam, who took thee out of the horrible pit, and out of the miry clay. How broad were the skirts of that love, which covered such a multitude of sins! behold the length of it, reaching from everlasting to everlasting, Psal. ciii 17. The depth of it, going so low as to deliver thee from the lowest hell, Psal. lxxxvi. 13. The height of it, in raising thee up to sit in heavenly places, Eph. ii. 6.

Fourthly, Be humble, carry low sails, walk softly all your years▪ Be not proud of your gifts, graces, privileges, or attainments: but remember ye were children of wrath, even as others. The peacock walks slowly, hangs down his starry feathers, while he looks to his black feet. Look ye to the hole of the pit, whence ye are digged, and walk humbly as it becomes free grace's debtors.

Lastly, Be wholly for your Lord. Every wife is obliged to be dutiful to her husband; but double [...]es lie upon her who was taken from a prison or a dunghill. If your Lord has delivered you from wrath, ye ought, upon that very account, to be wholly his: to act for him, to suffer for him and to do whatever he calls you to. The saints have no reason to complain of their lot in the world, whatever it be. Well may they bear the cross for him, by whom the curse was born away from them. Well may they bear the wrath of men, in his cause, who has freed them from the wrath of God; and chearfully go to a fire for him, by whom hell-fire is quenched to them. Soul and body, and all thou hadst in the world, were sometimes under wrath: he has removed that wrath, had not all these be at his service▪ That [Page 117] thy soul is not overwhelmed with the wrath of God, is owing purely to Jesus Christ; and shall it not then be a temple for his Spirit? That thy heart is not filled with horror and despair, is owing to him only; to whom then should it be devoted but to him alone? That thine eyes are not blinded with the smoak of the pit, thy hands are not fertered with chains of darkness, thy tongue is not broiling in the fire of hell, and thy feet are not standing in that lake that burns with fire and brimstone, is owing purely to Jesus Christ; and shall not these eyes be employed for him, these hands act for him, that tongue speak for him, and these feet speedily run his errands? To him who believes that he was a child of wrath, even as others, but is now delivered by the blessed Jesus; nothing will appear too much, to do or suffer for his deliverer, when he has a fair call to it.

III. To conclude with a word to all; let no man think lightly of sin, which lays the sinner open to the wrath of God. Let not the sin of our nature, which wreaths the yoke of God's wrath, so early, about our necks, seem a small thing in our eyes. Fear the Lord, be­cause of his dreadful wrath. Tremble at the thought of sin, against which God has such fiery indignation. Look on his wrath, and stand in awe, and sin not. Do you think this is to press you to slavish fear? If it were so, one had better be a slave to God with a trembling heart; than a free man to the devil, with a feared conscience and a heart of adamant. But it is not so, you may love him, and thus fear him too; yea, ye ought to do it, though ye were saints of the first magnitude. See Psal. cxix. 10. Matth. x. 28. Luke xii. 5. Heb. xii 28, 29. Altho' ye have past the gulf of wrath, being in Jesus Christ, yet it is but reasonable, your hearts shiver, when ye look back to it. Your sin still deserves wrath even as the sins of others: and it would be terrible to be in a fiery furnace; altho' by a miracle, we were so fenced against it, as that it could not harm us.

Of the Nature of Regeneration.

I. For the better understanding of the nature of regeneration, take this along with you in the first place. That as there are false con­ceptions in nature, so there are also in grace: and by these many are deluded, mistaking some partial changes made upon them, for this great and thorough change. To remove such mistakes, let these few things be considered. (1.) Many call the church their mother, whom God will not own to be his children, Cant. i. 6. My mother s children (i. e. false brethren) were angry with me. All that are baptized are not born again. Simon was baptized, yet still in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity, Acts viii. 13, 23. Where Christianity is the religion of the country, many will be called by the name of Christ, who have no more of him, but the name: and no wonder, seeing the devil had his goats among Christ's sheep, in these places, where but few professed the Christian religion, 1 John ii. 19. They went out from us, but they were not of us. (2) Good education is not regeneration. Education may chain up men's lusts, but cannot change their hearts. A wolf is still a ravenous beast, though it be in chains. Joash was very devout during the life of his good tutor Jehoiada; but afterwards he quickly shewed what spirit he was of, by his sudden apostasy, 2 Chron. xxiv. 2, 17, 18. Good example is of mighty influence to change the outward man; but that change often goes off, when one changes his company; of which the world affords many sad instances. (3.) A turning from open profanity, to civility and sobriety, falls short of this saving change. Some are, for a while, very loose, especially in their younger years; but at length they reform, and leave their profane [...]urses Here is a change, yet but such an one, as may be found in them, utterly [...] of the grace of God and whose righteousness is so far from exceeding, that it doth not come up to the righteousness of the Suri [...] and [...]ris [...]es. (4.) One may engage in all the outward duties of religion, and yet not be born again. Tho' lead be cast into [Page 131] various shapes, it remains still but a base metal. Men may escape the pollutions of the world, and yet be but dogs and swine, 2 Pet. ii 20, 22. All the external acts of religion are within the compas o [...] natural abilities. Yea, hypocrites may have the counterfeit of all the graces of the Spirit: for we read of true holiness, Eph. iv 23. and faith unfeigned, 1 Tim i 5. which shews us, that there is a counterfeit holiness, and a feigned faith. (5.) Men may advance to a great deal of strictness in their own way of religion; and yet be strangers to the new birth, Acts xxxvi. 5. After the most strictest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee. Nature has its own unsanctified strictness in religion. The Pharisees had so much of it, that they looked on Christ as little better than a mere libertine. A man whose conscience hath been awakened, and who lives under the felt influence of the covenant of works, what will he not do, that is within the compass of natural abilities? It was a truth, tho' it came out of a hellish mouth, that skin for skin, all that a man hath will he give for his life, Job ii. 4. (6.) One may have sharp soul-exercises and pangs, and yet die in the birth. Many have been in pain, that have but as it were brought forth wind. There may be sore pangs and throws of conscience, which turn to nothing at last. Pharaoh and Simon Magus had such convictions, as made them desire the prayers of others for them. Judas repented himself; and under terrors of conscience, gave back his ill-gotten pieces of silver. All is not gold that glisters. Trees may blossom fairly in the spring, on which no fruit is to be found in the harvest: and some have sharp soul-exercises, which are nothing but foretastes of hell.

The new birth, however in appearance hopefully begun, may be marred two ways. First, Some, like Zarah, Gen. xxxviii 28, 29 are brought to the birth, but go back again. They have sharp convictions for a while: but these go off, and they turn as careless about their salvation, as profane as ever: and usually worse than ever, their last state is worse than their first, Mat. xii. 45. They get awakening grace, but not converting grace; and that goes off by degrees, as the light of the declining day, till it issue in midnight darkness. Secondly Some like Ishmael, come forth too soon; they are born before the time of the promise, Gen xvi. 1, 2. compare Gal. iv. 22. and down­ward. They take up with a mere law-work, and stay not till the time of the promise of the gospel. They snatch at consolation, not waiting till it be given them; and foolishly draw their comfort [...] the law that wounded them. They apply the healing pluster to themselves, before their wound be sufficiently s [...]rched. The [...] that rigorous husband, severely beats them, and throws in [...] and vengeance upon their souls: then they fall a reforming [...] mourning, promising and vowing, till this ghost be laid; [...] they fall asleep again in the arms of the law; but they are [...] shake [...] out of themselves and their own righteousness, not [...] forward to Jesus Christ. Lastly, There may be a wond [...] [...] [Page 132] of the affections, in souls that are not at all touched with regenerating grace Where there is no grace, there may, notwithstanding, be a flood of tears as in Esau, who found no place of repentance, tho' he sought it carefully with tears, Heb xii. 17. There may be great flashes of joy; as in the hearers of the word, represented in the parable by the stony ground, who anon with joy receive it, Matth. xiii. 20. There may also be great desire after good things, and great delight in them too; as in these hypocrites described, Isa lviii. 2. Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways.—They take delight in approaching unto God. See how high they may sometimes stand, who yet fall away, Heb. vi. 4, 5, 6 They may be enlightned, taste of the heavenly gift, be partakers of the holy Ghost, taste the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come Common operations of the divine Spirit, like a land flood, make a strange turning of things up-side-down. And when they are over, all runs again in the ordinary channel. All these things may be, where the sanctifying Spirit of Christ never rests upon the soul, but the stony heart still remains; and in that case, these affections cannot but wither because they have no root.

But regeneration is a real thorough change, whereby the man is made a new creature, 2 Cor. v. 17. The Lord God makes the creature a new creature, as the goldsmith melts down the vessel of dishonour and makes it a vessel of honour. Man is, in respect of his natural state, altogether disjointed by the fall; every faculty of the soul is, as it were, dislocate: in regeneration the Lord looseth every joint, and sets it right again. Now this change made in regeneration is,

1. A change of qualities or dispositions: it is not a change of the substance, but of the qualities of the soul. Vicious qualities are re­moved, and the contrary dispositions are brought in, in their room. The old man is put off, Eph. iv. 22. the n [...]w man put on, ver. 24. Man lost none of the rational faculties of his soul by sin; he had an under­standing still, but it was darkened; he had still a will, but it was contrary to the will of God. So in regeneration there is not a new substance created, but new qualities are infused; light instead of dark­ness, righteousness instead of unrighteousness.

2. It is a supernatural change; he that is born again, is born of the Spirit, John iii 5. Great changes may be made by the power of nature, especially when assisted by external revelation. And nature may be so elevated by the common influences of the Spirit, that one may thereby be turned into another man, (as Soul was, 1 Sam. x 6.) who yet never becomes a new man. But in regeneration nature itself is changed, and we become partakers of the divine nature; and this must needs be a supernatural change. How can we that are dead in trespasses and sins, renew ourselves, more than a dead man can raise himself out of his grave? Who, but the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, can form Christ in a soul, changing it into the same image? Who, but the Spirit of sanctification can give the new heart? Well may we say, when we see a man thus changed, This is the finger of God.

[Page 133]3. It is a change into the likeness of God, 2 Cor iii. 18. We— beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image. Every thing that generates, generates its like: the child bears the image of the parent; and they that are born of God, bear God's image. Man aspiring to be as God, made himself like the devil. In his natural state he resembles the devil, as a child doth the father, John viii 44. Ye are of your father the devil. But when this happy change comes, the image of Satan is defaced, and the image of God restored. Christ himself, who is the brightness of his Father's glory, is the pattern, after which the new creature is made, Rom. viii 29. For whom he did for [...]know, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son Hence he is said to be conformed in the regenerate, Gal. iv. 19.

4 It is an universal change; all things become new, 2 Cor. vi. 17. It is a blest leaven that leavens the whole lump, the whole spirit, and soul and body. Original sin infects the whole man; and regenerating grace, which is the salve, goes as far as the sore. This fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness; goodness of the mind, goodness of the will, goodness of the affections, goodness of the whole man One gets not only a new head to know religion, or a new tongue to talk of it; but a new heart to love and embrace it, in the whole of his conversation. When the Lord opens the sluice of grace on the soul's new birth­day, the waters run through the whole man, to purify and make him fruitful. In these natural changes spoken of before, there are, as it were, pieces of new cloth put into an old garment; a new life sewed to an old heart: but the gracious change is a thorough change, a change both of heart and life.

5. Yet it is but an imperfect change. Tho' every part of the man is renewed, there is no part of him perfectly renewed. As an infant has all the parts of a man, but none of them are come to their perfect growth; so regeneration brings a perfection of parts, to be brought forward in the gradual advances of sanctification, 1 Pet ii. 2. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby. Although in regeneration there is a heavenly light let into the mind; yet there is still some darkness there: tho' the will is renewed, it is not perfectly renewed; there is still some of the old inclination to sin remaining: and thus it will be till that which is in part be done away, and the light of glory come Adam was created at his full stature; but they that are born, must have their time to grow up; so these that are born again, do come forth into the new world of grace, but imperfectly holy; though Adam, being created upright, was at the same time perfectly righteous, without the least mixture of sinful imperfection

Lastly, Nevertheless [...] a lasting change, which never goes off. The seed is incorruptible saith the text; and so is the creature that is formed of it. The life given in regeneration, whatever decays it may fall under, can never be utterly lost. Hi [...] [...] in him, [Page 134] who is born of God, 1 John iii. 9. Though the branches should be cut down, the root shall abide in the earth; and being watered with the dew of heaven, shall sprout again: for the root of the righteous shall not be moved, Prov xii. 3.

But to come to particulars.

First, In regeneration the mind is savingly enlightned. There is a new light let into the understanding, so that they who were some­times darkness, are now light in the Lord, Eph. v 8. The beams of the light of life make their way into the dark dungeon of the heart: then night is over, and the morning-light is come, which will shine more and more unto the perfect day. Now the man is illuminated,

1. In the knowledge of God. He has far other thoughts of God, than ever he had before, Hos. ii. 20. I will even betrothe thee unto me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord brings him back to that question, What is God? And catechiseth him anew upon that grand point, so as he is made to say, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eyes seeth thee, Job xlii. 5. The spotless purity of God, his exact justice, his all-sufficiency, and other glorious perfections revealed in his word, are, by this new light, discovered to the soul, with a plainness and certainty that doth as far exceed the knowledge it had of these things before, as ocular demon­stration exceeds common fame. For now he sees what he only heard of before.

2. He is enlightned in the knowledge of sin. He hath other thoughts of it, than he was wont to have. Formerly his sight could not pierce thro' the cover Satan laid over it: but now the Spirit of God strips it before him, wipes off the paint and fairding; and he sees it in its native colours, as the worst of evils: exceeding sinful, Rom. vii. 12. O what deformed monsters do formerly beloved lusts appear! were they right eyes, he would pluck them out: were they right hands, he would consent to their cutting off. He sees how offensive sin is to God, how destructive it is to the soul; and calls himself fool, for fighting so long against the Lord, and harbouring that destroyer as a bosom friend.

3. He is instructed in the knowledge of himself. Regenerating grace causeth the prodigal to come to himself, Luke xv 17. and makes men full of eyes within, knowing every one the p [...]e of his own heart. The mind being savingly enlightned, the man sees how desperately corrupt his nature is; what enmity against God and his holy law has long lodged there: so that his soul lothes itself. No open sepulchre, no puddle, so vile and loathsome in his eyes as him­self, Ezek. xxxvi 31. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight He is no worse than he was before: but the sun is shining: and so these pollutions are seen, which he could not discern, when there was no dawning in him: as the word is, Isa. viii. 20. while as yet the day of grace was not broken with him.

[Page 135]4. He is enlightned in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, 1 Cor. i. 23, 24. But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness: but unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. The truth is, unregenerate men, tho' capable of preaching Christ, have not (properly speaking) the knowledge of him, but only an opinion, a good opinion of him; as one has of many controverted points of doctrine, wherein he is far from certainty. As when ye meet with a stranger upon the road, he behaving himself discreetly, ye conceive a good opinion of him; and therefore willingly converse with him; but yet ye will not commit your money to him; because, tho' you have a good opinion of the man, he is a stranger to you, ye do not know him. So many, they think well of Christ; but they will never commit themselves to him; seeing they know him not. But saving illumination carries the soul beyond opinion, to the certain knowledge of Christ and his excellency, 1 Thess. i. 5. For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the holy Ghost, and in much assurance. The light of grace thus discovers the suitableness of the mystery of Christ, to the divine perfections, and to the sinner's case. Hence the regenerate admire the glorious plan of salvation through Christ crucified, lay their whole weight upon it, and heartily acquiesce therein: for whatever he be to others, he is to them Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. But unrenewed men, not seeing this, are offended in him; they will not venture their souls in that bottom, but betake themselves to the broken boards of their own righteous­ness. The same light convincingly discovers a superlative worth, a transcendant glory and excellency in Christ; which darken all created excellencies, as the rising sun makes the stars to hide their heads: and so it engages the merchant-man to sell all that he hath, to buy the one pearl of great price, Matth. xiii. 45, 46. makes the soul well content, to take Christ for all, and instead of all. Even as an unskilful merchant, to whom one offereth a pearl of great price, for all his petty wares, dares not venture on the bargain; for tho' he thinks, that one pearl may be more worth than all he has, yet he is not sure of it: but when a jeweller comes to him, and assures him, it is worth double all his wares; he then greedily embraceth the bargain, and chearfully parts with all that he has for that pearl. Finally, This illumination in the knowledge of Christ, convincingly discovereth to men a fulness in him, sufficient for the supply of all their wants; enough to satisfy the boundless desires of an immortal soul They are persuaded such ful­ness is in him, and that in order to be communicate: they depend upon it, as a certain truth; and therefore their souls take up their eternal rest in him.

4. The man is instructed in the knowledge of the vanity of the world, Psal. cxix. 96. I have seen an end of all perfection. Regene­rating grace elevates the soul, sets it, as it were, amongst the stars, from whence this earth cannot but appear a little, yea, a very little [Page 136] thing; even as heaven appeared before, while the soul was immersed in the earth. Grace brings a man into a new world; while this world is reputed but a stage of vanity, an howling wilderness, a valley of tears. God hath hung the sign of vanity at the door of all created enjoyments; yet how do men throng into the house, calling and look­ing for somewhat that is satisfying; even after it has been a thousand times told them, there is no such thing in it, it is not to be got there, Isa. lvi. 10. Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy ways; yet saidst thou not, There is no hope. Why are men so foolish? The truth of the matter lies here, they do not see by the light of grace, they do not spiritually discern, that sign of vanity They have often indeed made a rational discovery of it: but can that truly wean the heart from the world? Nay, no more than painted fire can burn off the prisoner's bands. But the light of grace is the light of life, powerful and efficacious

Lastly, (To sum up all in one word) In regenerationthe mind is enlightned in the knowledge of spiritual things, 1 John ii 20 Ye have an unction from the holy One (that is, from Jesus Christ, Rev. iii 18. It is an allusion to the sanctuary, whence the holy oil was brought to anoint the priests) and ye know all things, viz necessary to salvation. Tho' men be not book-learned, if they be born again, they are Spirit-learned; for all such are taught of God, John vi. 45. The Spirit of regeneration teacheth them what they knew not before; and what they did know, as by the ear only, he teacheth them over again as by the eye. The light of grace is an overcoming light, determining men to assent to divine truths on the mere testimony of God. It is no easy thing for the mind of man, to acquiesce in divine revelation. Many pretend great respect to the scriptures, whom, nevertheless, the clear scripture-testimony will not divorce from their pre-conceived opinions. But this illumination will make men's minds run, as captives, after Christ's chariot-wheels; which, for their part, shall be allowed to drive over, and cast down their own imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God. 2 Cor. x 5. It will make them receive the kingdom of God as a little child, Mark x. 15. who thinks he has sufficient ground to believe any thing, if his father do but say it is so.

Secondly, The will is renewed. The Lord takes away the stony heart, and gives a heart of flesh, Ezek. xxxvi 26. And so, of stones raiseth up children to Abraham. Regenerating grace is powerful and efficacious, and gives the will a new set It does not indeed force it: but sweetly, yet powerfully draws it, so that his people are willing in the [...]ay of his power, Psal. cx. 3. There is heavenly oratory in the Mediator's lips, to persuade sinners, Psal. xlv. 2 Grace is poured into thy lips. There are cords of a man, and bands of love in his hands, to draw them after him, Hos xi. 4. Love makes a net for elect souls, which will infallibly catch them, and hale them to land. The cords of Christ's love are strong cords: and they need to be so; for every [Page 137] sinner is heavier than a mountain of brass: and Satan, together with the heart itself, draw the contrary way But love is strong as death; and the Lord's love to the soul he died for, is strongest love; which acts so powerfully, that it must come off victorious.

I. The will is cured of its utter inability to will what is good. While the opening of the prison to them that are bound is proclaimed in the gospel: The Spirit of God comes to the prison door, opens it, goe to the prisoner; and by the power of his grace makes his chains fall off; breaks the bond of iniquity, wherewith he was held in sin, so as he could neither will nor do any thing truly good; brings him forth into a large place, Working in him both to will and to do, of his good pleasure, Phil ii. 13. Then it is that the soul, that was fixed to the earth, can move heavenward; the withered hand is restored, and can be stretched out.

2. There is wrought in the will a fixed aversion to evil. In re­generation, a man gets a new spirit put within him, Ezek. xxxvi. 26. and that spirit lusteth against the fl [...]sh, Gal. v. 17. The sweet morsel of sin, so greedily swallowed down, he now lothes, and would fain be rid of it; even as willingly as one, that had drunk a cup of poison, would throw it up again. When the spring is stopt, the mud lies in the well unmoved: but when once the spring is cleared, the waters springing up, will work the mud away by degrees Even so, while a man continues in an unregenerate state, sin lies at ease in the heart: but as soon as the Lord strikes the rocky heart, with the rod of his strength in the day of conversion, grace is in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life, John iv. working away natural cor­ruption, and gradually purifying the heart, Acts xv. 9. The renewed will riseth up against sin, strikes at the root thereof, and the branches too. Lusts are now grievous, and the soul endeavours to starve them: the corrupt nature is the source of all evil, and therefore the soul will be often laying it before the great Physician. O what sorrow, shame and self-loathing fill the heart, in the day that grace makes its triumph­ant entrance into it? For now the madman is come to himself, and the remembrance of his follies cannot but cut him to the heart.

Lastly, The will is endued with an inclination, bent, and propensity to good In its depraved state, it lay quite another way; being prone and bent to evil only: but now, by a pull of the omnipotent, all-conquering arm, it is drawn from evil to good, and gets another set. And as the former set was natural; so this is natural too, in respect of the new nature given in regeneration which has its own holy lustings, as well as the corrupt old nature hath its sinful lustings, Gal. v. 17. The will, as renewed, inclines and points towards God and godliness. When God made man, his will, in respect of its in­tention, was directed towards God, as his chief end; in respect of its choice, it pointed towards that which God willed. When man un­made himself, his will was framed into the very reverse hereof: he made himself his chief end, and his own will his law. But when man [Page 138] is new made, in regeneration, grace rectifies this disorder in some measure, tho' not perfectly indeed; because we are but renewed in part, while in this world. It brings back the sinner, out of himself, to God as his chief end, truly, tho' not perfectly, Psal. lxxiii. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee. Philip. i. 21. For to me to live is Christ. It makes him to deny himself, and whatever way he turns, to point habitually towards God; who is the center of the gracious soul, its home, its dwelling-place in all generations, Psal. xc. 1. By regenerating grace, the will is framed into a conformity to the will of God. It is con­formed to his preceptive will, being endued with holy inclinations, agreeable to every one of his commands. The whole law is impressed on the gracious soul: every part of it is written over on the renewed heart. And altho' remaining corruption makes such blots in the writing, that oft-times the man himself cannot read it: yet he that wrote it can read it at all times; it is never quite blotted out, nor can be. What he has written, he has written, it shall stand: For this is the covenant, — I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts, Heb. viii. 10. And it is a covenant of salt, a perpetual covenant. It is also conformed to his providential will; so that the man will no more be master of his own process; nor carve out his lot for himself. He learns to say, from his heart, The will of the Lord be done,—he shall chuse our inheritance for us, Psal. xlvii. 4. Thus the will is disposed to fall in with those things, which, in its depraved state, it could never be reconciled to.

Particularly, (1.) The Lord is reconciled to the covenant of peace. The Lord God promiseth a covenant of peace to sinners; a covenant which he himself hath framed, and registrated in the Bible: but they are not pleased with it; nay, an unrenewed heart cannot be pleased with it. Were it put into their hands, to frame it according to their mind; they would blot many things out of it, which God has put in; and put in many things, God has kept out. But the renewed heart is entirely satisfied with the covenant, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure; this is all my salvation, and all my desire. Tho' the covenant could not be brought down to their depraved will, their will is, by grace, brought up to the covenant; they are well-pleased with it: there is nothing in it they would have out; nor is any thing left out of it, which they would have in. (2.) Th [...] will is disposed to receive Christ Jesus the Lord. The soul is content to submit to him. Regenerating grace undermines, and brings down the tow'ring imaginations of the heart, raised up against its rightful lord: it breaks the iron sinew, which kept the sinner from bowing to him, and disposed him to be no [...] stiff­necked, but to yield to himself. He is willing to take on the yoke of Christ's commands, to take up the cross and to follow h [...] He is content to take Christ on any terms, Psal. xc. 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.

[Page 139]Now, the mind being savingly enlightened, and the will renewed; the sinner is thereby determined and enabled to answer the gospel-call. So the main work in regeneration is done; the fort of the heart is taken: there is room made for the Lord Jesus Christ, in the inner­most parts of the soul; the outer-door of the will being now opened to him, as well as the inner-door of the understanding. In one word, Christ is passively received into the heart; he is come into the soul by his quickning spirit, whereby spiritual life is given to the man, who in himself was dead to sin. And his first vital act we may conceive to be an active receiving of Jesus Christ discerned in his glorious excellen­cies; that is, a believing on him, a closing with him, as discerned, offered, and exhibited in the word of his grace, the glorious gospel▪ the immediate effect of which is union with him, John i. 12, 13. To as many as received him, to them gave he power (or privilege) to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his Name; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but o [...] GOD. Eph. iii. 17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. Christ having taken the heart by storm, and triumphantly entered into it, in regeneration, the soul by faith yields itself to him, as it is expressed, 2 Chron. xxx. 8. Thus, this glorious King, who came into the heart by his Spirit; dwells in it by faith. The soul being drawn, runs; and being effectually called, comes.

Thirdly, In regeneration; there is a happy change made on the affections; they are both rectified and regulated.

1. This change rectifies the affections, placing them on suitable objects, 2 Thess. iii. 5. The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God. The regenerate man's desires are rectified; they are set on God himself, and the things above. He who before, cried with the world, Who will shew us any good? he changes his note, and says, Lord lift up the light of thy countenance upon us, Psal. iv. Sometimes he saw no beauty in Christ, for which he was to be desired; but now he is all desires, he is altogether lovely, Cant. v. 16. The main stream of his desires is turned to run towards God: for there is the one thing he desireth, Psal. xxvii. 4. He desires to be holy, as well as to be happy; and rather to be gracious than great. His hopes, which before were low, and staked down to things on earth, are now raised, and set on the glory which is to be revealed. He entertains the hope of eternal life, founded on the word of promise, Tit. i. 2. Which hope he has, as an anchor of the soul, fixing the heart under trials, Heb. vi. 18. And it puts him upon purifying himself, even as God is pure, John iii. 3. For he is begotten again unto a lively hope, 1 Pet. i. 3. His love is raised, and set on God himself, Psal. xxviii. 1. On his holy law, Psal. cxix. 97. Tho' it strike against his most beloved l [...]t, he says, The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good, Rom. vii. 12. He loves the ordinances of God, Psal. lxxxi [...]. 1. How ami­able are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts? Being passed from death unto life, he loves the brethren, (1 John iii. 1 [...].) the people of God, as the, [Page 140] are called, 1 Pet. i. 10. He loves God for himself, and what is God's, for his sake. Yea, as being a child of God, he loves his own enemies. His heavenly Father is compassionate and benevolent: he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just, and on the unjust: and therefore he is in the like manner disposed, Matth. v. 44, 45. His hatred is turned against sin in himself and others, Psal. ci. 3. I hate the work of them that turn aside, it shall not cleave to me. He groans under the remains of it, and longs for deliverance, Rom. vii. 24. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? His joys and delights are in God the Lord, in the light of his countenance, in his law, and in his people; because they are like him. Sin is what he chiefly fears; it is a fountain of sorrow to him now, tho' formerly a spring of pleasure.

2. It regulates the affections placed on suitable objects. Our af­fections, when placed on the creature, are naturally exorbitant: when we joy in it, we are apt to over-joy; and when we sorrow, we are ready to sorrow over-much: but grace bridles these affections, clips their wings, and keeps them within bounds, that they overflow not at all their banks. It makes a man hate his father and mother, and wife and children,—yea, and his own life also, comparatively; that is, to love them less than he loves God, Luke xiv. 26. It also sanctifies lawful affections; bringing them forth from right principles, and directing them to right ends. There may be unholy desires after Christ and his grace; as when men desire Christ, not from any love to him, but merely out of love to themselves. Give us of your oil, said the foolish virgins, for our lamps are gone out, Matth. xxv. 8. There may be an unsanctified sorrow for sin; as when one sorroweth for it, not because it is displeasing to God, but, only because of the wrath annexed to it, as did Pharaoh, Judas, and others. So a man may love his father and mother, from more natural principles, without any respect to the command of God binding him thereto. But grace sanctifies the affections in such cases, making them to run in a new channel of love to God, respect to his commands, and regard to his glory. Again, grace screws up the affections where they are too low: It gives the chief seat in them to God: and pulls down all other rivals, whether persons or things, making them ly at his feet, Psal. lxxiii. 25. Whom have I in heaven, but thee? And there is none upon earth, that I desire beside thee. He is loved for himself: and other persons or things, for his sake. What is lovely in them, to the re­newed heart, is some ray of the divine goodness appearing in them: for unto gracious souls they shine only by borrowed light. This ac­counts for the saints loving all men, and yet hating those that hate God, and contemning the wicked as vile persons They h [...]e and contemn them for their wickedness: there is nothing of God in that, and therefore nothing lovely or honourable in it: [...]ut they love them for their commendable qualities, or perfections, whether natural or moral; because, in whomsoever these are, they are from God, and [Page 141] can be traced to him as their fountain. Finally, Regenerating grace sets the affections so firmly on God, that the man is disposed, at God's command, to quit his hold of every thing else, in order to keep his hold of Christ; to hate father and mother, in comparison with Christ, Luke xiv 20. It makes even lawful enjoyments like Joseph's mantle, to hang loose about a man; that he may quit them when he is in hazard to be ensnared by holding them.

If the stream of our affections was never thus turned; we are, doubtless, going down the stream into the pit. If the lust of the [...]ye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, have the throne in our hearts, which should be possessed by the Father, Son, and holy Ghost; if we never had so much love to God, as to ourselves; if sin has been somewhat bitter to us, but never so [...]ter as suffering, never so bitter as the pain of being weaned from it: truly we are strangers to this saving change For grace turns the affections upside-down, when­ever it comes into the heart.

Fourthly, The conscience is renewed. Now, that a new light is set up in the soul in regeneration; conscience is enlightned▪ instructed, and informed That candle of the Lord, (Prov xx. 27) is now snuffed and brightned; so as it shines, and sends forth its light into the most retired corners of the heart; discovering sins which the soul was not aware of before: and, in a special manner, discovering the corruption or depravity of nature, that seed and spawn whence all actual sins proceed This produces the new complaint, Rom vii 24. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver m [...] from the body of this death? That conscience, which lay sleeping in the man's bosom before, is now awakened, and makes its voice to be heard through the whole soul: and therefore there is no more rest for him in the sluggard's bed; he must get up and be doing, arise, haste and escape for his life. It powerfully incites to obedience; even in the most spiritual acts, which lay not within the view of the natural conscience; and powerfully restrains from sin, even from these sins which do not ly open to the observation of the world. It urgeth the sovereign authority of God, to which the heart is now reconciled and which it willingly acknow­ledges: and so it engageth the man to his duty, whatever be the hazard from the world; for it fills the heart so with the fear of God, that the force of the fear of man is broken. This hath engaged many to put their life▪ in their hand, and follow the cause of religion they once contemned, and resolutely walk in the path they formerly abhorred, Gal. i. 23 [...]e which persecuted us in sin [...] past, now preacheth the faith which one▪ he destroyed. Guilt now makes the conscience to smart It hath bitter remorse for sins past, which fills the soul with anxiety, sorrow and self loathing. And every new reflexion on these sins, is apt to affect, and make its wounds breed afresh with regret. It is made tender, in point of sin and duty, for the time to come; being once burnt, it dreads the fire; and f [...]r to break the hedge, where it was formerly bit by the serpent. Totally ▪ The renewed conscience [Page 142] drives the sinner to Jesus Christ, as the only physician that can draw out the sting of guilt; and whose blood alone can purge the conscience from dead works, Heb. ix. 14. refusing all ease offered to it from any other hand. And this is an evidence, that the conscience is not only fired, as it may be in an unregenerate state; but oiled also with regenerating grace.

Fifthly, As the Memory wanted not its share of depravity, it is also bettered by regenerating grace. The memory is weakned with re­spect to those things that are not worth their room therein; and men are taught to forget injuries, and drop their resentments, Mat. v. 44, 45. Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you,—That ye may be (i. e. appear to be) the children of your Father which is in heaven. It is strengthned for spiritual things. We have Solomon's receipt for an ill memory, Prov. iii. 1. My son, saith he, forget not my law. But how shall it be kept in mind? Let thine heart keep my commandments. Grace makes a heart-memory, even where there is no good head-memory, Psal. cxix. 11. Thy word have I hid in mine heart. The heart truly touched with the powerful sweetness of truth, will help the memory to retain what is so relished. Did divine truths make deeper impressions on our hearts, they would thereby impress themselves with more force on our memories, Psal. cxix. 93. I will never forget thy precepts, for with them thou hast quickned me. Grace sanctifies the memory. Many have large, but unsanctified memories; which serve only to gather knowledge, whereby to aggra­vate their condemnation; but the renewed memory serves to remem­ber his commandments to do them, Psal. ciii. 18. It is a sacred store­house, from whence a Christian is furnished in his way to Zion: for faith and hope are often supplied out of it, in a dark hour. It is the store-house of former experiences; and these are the believer's way-marks, by noticing of which he comes to know where he is, even in a dark time, Psal. xlii 6. O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, &c. It also helps the soul to godly sorrow and self-loathing, presenting old guilt anew before the conscience: and making it bleed afresh, tho' the sin be already pardoned, Psal. xxv. 7. Remember not the sins of my youth. And where unpardoned guilt is lying on the sleeping conscience, it is often employed to bring in a word, which in a moment sets the whole soul assi [...]: as when Peter remembered the words of Jesus,—be went out and wept bitterly, Matth. xxvi. 75. The word of God laid up in a sanctified memory, serves a man to resist temptations, puts the sword in his hand against the spiritual enemies, and is a light to direct his steps in the way of religion and righteousness.

Sixthly, There is a change made on the Body, and the members thereof, in respect of their use: they are consecrated to the Lord. Even the Body is—for the Lord, 1 Cor. vi. 13. It is the temple of the holy Ghost, ver. 19. The members thereof, that were formerly in­struments of unrighteousness unto sin, become instruments of righte­ousness [Page 143] unto God, Rom. vi. 13. Servants to righteousness unto holi­ness, ver. 19. The eye that conveyed sinful imaginations into the heart, is under a covenant, Job xxxi. to do so no more; but to serve the soul in viewing the works, and reading the word of God. The ear that had often been death's porter to let in sin, is turned to be the gate of life, by which the word of life enters the soul. The tongue that set on fire the whole course of nature, is restored to the office it was designed for by the Creator; namely, to be an instrument of glorifying him, and setting forth his praise. In a word, the whole man is for God, in soul and body, which by this blessed change are made his.

Lastly, This gracious change shines forth in the conversation. Even the outward man is renewed A new heart makes newness of life. When the King's daughter is all glorious within, her cloathing is of wrought gold, Psal. xlv. 13. The single eye makes the whole body full of light, Matth. vi. 22. This change will appear in every part of one's conversation, particularly in these following things.

I. In the change of his company. Tho' sometime he despised the company of the saints, now they are the excellent in whom is all his delight, Psal. xvi. 3. I am a companion of all that fear thee, saith the royal Psalmist, Psal. cxix. 63. A renewed man joins himself with the saints: for he and they are like minded, in that which is their main work and business; they have all one new nature; they are travelling to Immanuel's land, and converse together in the language of Canaan. In vain do men pretend to religion, while ungodly company is their choice; for a companions of fools shall be destroyed, Prov. xiii. 20. Religion will make a man shy of throwing himself into an ungodly family, or any unnecessary familiarity with wicked men; as one that is clean, will beware of going into an infected house.

2. In his relative capacity, he will be a new man. Grace makes men gracious in their several relations, and natively leads them to the conscientious performance of relative duties. It does not only make good men, and good women; but makes good subjects, good hus­bands, good wives, children, servants, and in a word, good relatives in the church, common-wealth, and family. It is a just exception made against the religion of many; namely, that they are bad rela­tives, they are ill husbands, wives, masters, servants, &c. How will we prove ourselves to be new creatures, if we be still just such as we were before, in our several relations, 2 Cor. v. 17. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. Real godliness will gain a testimony to a man, from the consciences of his nearest relations, tho' they know more of his sinful infirmities, than others do; as we see in that case. 2 Kings iv. 2. Thy servant, my husband, is dead, and th [...] knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord.

3. In the way of his following his worldly business, there is a great change. It appears to be no more his all, as some time it was. Tho' [Page 144] saints apply themselves to worldly business, as well as others; yet their hearts are not swallowed up in it. It is evident they are carry­ing on a trade with heaven, as well as a trade with earth, Philip. iii 20. For our conversation is in heaven. And they go about their employ­ment in the world as a duty laid upon them by the Lord of all; doing their lawful business, as the will of God, Eph vi. 7. working, because he has said, Thou shalt not steal.

4. They have a special concern for the advancement of the king­dom of Christ in the world: they espouse the interests of religion, and prefer Jerusalem above their chief joy, Psal. cxxxvii 6. How privately soever they live, grace makes them of a public spirit, which will concern itself in the ark and work of God; in the gospel of God; and in the people of God; even these of them whom they never saw in the face. As children of God, they naturally care for these things. They have a new and unwonted concern for the spiritual good of others. And no sooner do they taste of the power of grace themselves, but they are inclined to set up to be agents for Christ and holiness, in this world; as appears in the case of the woman of Samaria, who, when Christ had manifested himself to her, went her way into the city, and saith unto the men, Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did! Is not this the Christ? John iv. 28, 29. They have seen and felt the evil of sin, and therefore pity, the world lying in wicked­ness. They would fain pluck the brands out of the fire, remembring that they themselves were plucked out of it. They will labour to commend religion to others, both by word and example; and rather deny themselves their liberty in indifferent things, than by the un­charitable use of it, destroy others, 1 Cor. viii. 13 Wherefore, if m [...]at make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend

5. In their use of lawful comforts, there is a great change They rest not in them, as their end; but use them, as means to help them in their way. They draw their satisfaction from the higher springs, even while the lower springs are running. Thus Hannah having obtained a son, rejoiced not so much in the gift, as in the giver, 1 Sam. ii. 1 And Hann [...]h prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord. Yea, when the comforts of life are gone, they can subsist without them, and rejoice in the Lord, altho' the fig-tree do not blossom, Hab. iii. 17, 18. Grace teacheth to use the conveniences of a present life passingly; and to shew a holy moderation in all things. The heart, which formerly immersed itself in these things without fear, is now shy of being over-much pleased with them; and being apprehensive of danger, uses them warily: as the dogs of Eg [...]p [...] run while they lap their water out of the river Nile, for fear of the [...] that are in it.

Lastly, This change shines forth in the man's performance of re­ligions duties. He who lived in the neglect of them, will do so no more, if once the grace of God enter into his heart. If a man be new-born, he will desire the sincere milk of the word; 1 Pet ii 2. [Page 145] Whenever the prayerless person gets the Spirit of grace, he will be in him a Spirit if supplication, Z [...]ch xii. 10. It is as natural for one that is born again to fall a praying, as for the new-born babe to fall a-crying, Acts ix. 11. [...] heart will be a temple for God, and his house a [...] which before it is superficial and carnal, is now [...] and [...] are [...]nched [...] rests not in the mere performi [...] [...] done; but in every duty [...] considering them as me [...] [...], and reckon­ing himself disappointed [...] the nature of regeneration.

The Resemblance [...].

II. I come to [...] generation, a being born again. It is so [...] of the resemblance betwixt natu­ral and spiritual generation, which he in the following pa [...]iculars.

First, Natural generation [...] [...]ysterie is thing: and so is spiritual generation. John iii. 8. The [...]ind b [...]w [...]th where is listeth, and thou hearest the sound [...], but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. The work of the Spirit is felt, but his way of working is a mystery we cannot compre­hend. A new light is let into the mind, and the will is renowed; but how that light is conveyed thither, how the will is fettered with cords of love, and how the rebel is made a willing captive, we can no more tell, than we can tell, how the bones do grow in [...] of her that is with child, Eccles. xi 5. As a man hears the sound of the wind, and finds it stirring; but knows not where i [...] b [...]gins, and where it ends; so is every one that is born of the spirits [...] finds the change that is made upon him, but how it is produced, [...] not. One thing he may know, that whereas he was blind, now he seeth: but the seed of grace doth spring and grow up, he knoweth not how, Mark iv. 26, 27.

Secondly, In both, the creature comes to a being, it had not before. The child is not, till he be generate; and a man has no gracious being, no being in grace, till he be regenerate. Regeneration is not so much the curing of a sick man, as the quickning of a dead man, Eph. ii. 1, 5. Man in his depraved state i [...] a mere non-entity in grace: and is brought into a new being, by the power of him, who calleth things that be not, as though they [...]ver [...]; being created in Jesus Christ unto good works, Eph. ii. 10. Therefore [...] Lord Jesus, to give ground of hope to the L [...]ans, in their wretched no miserable state, proposeth himself as the beginning of [...] creation of God, Rev. iii. 14. Namely, the active beginning of it; for all thing [...] by him at first, John i. 3. From whence they might gather [...] he made them when they were nothing, [...], when worse than nothing; the same hand that made [...] could make them new creatures.

[Page 146] Thirdly, As the child is merely passive in generation, so is the child of God in regeneration. The one contributes nothing to its own generation; neither does the other contribute any thing, by way of efficiency, to its own regeneration: for tho' a man may lay himself down at the pool: yet he hath no hand in moving of the water, n [...] efficacy in performing of the cure. One is born the child of a king, another the child of a beggar: the child has no hand at all in this difference. God leaves some in their depraved state; others he brings into a state of grace or regeneracy. If thou be thus honoured, no thanks to thee; for who maketh thee to differ from another? 1 Cor. iv. 7.

Fourthly, There is a wonderful contexture of parts in both births. Admirable is the structure of man's body, in which there is such a variety of organs: nothing wanting, nothing superfluous. The Psalmist considering his own body, looks on it as a piece of marvellous work: I [...] fearfully and wonderfully made, saith he, Psal. cxxxix. 14. and curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth, ver. 15. That is, in the womb, where I know not how the bones do grow, more than I know what is a-doing in the lowest parts of the earth. In natural generation, we are curiously wrought, as a piece of needle-work; as the word imports: even so it is in regeneration, Psal. xlv. 14. She shall be brought unto the King, in raiment of needle-work, raiment curiously wrought. It is the same word in both texts. And what that raiment is, the Apostle tells us, Eph. iv. 24. It is the new man, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true h [...]liness. That is the raiment, he saith, in the same place, we must put on; not excluding the im­puted righteousness of Christ. Both are curiously wrought, as master-pieces of the manifold wisdom of God. O the wonderful con­texture of graces in the new creature! O glorious creature, new-made, after the image of God! It is grace for grace in Christ, which makes up the new man, John i 16. Even as in bodily generation, the child has member for member in the parent; has every member the parent has, in a certain proportion.

Fifthly, All this, in both cases, hath its rise from that which is in itself very small and inconsiderable. O the power of God, in making such a creature of the corruptible seed! and much more in bringing forth the new creature from so small beginnings: it is as the little cloud like a man's hand, which spread till heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain, 1 Kings xiii 44, 45. A man gets a word at a sermon, which hundreds beside him hear and let slip: but it remains with him, works in him, and never leaves him, till the little word be turned up side-down by it; that is, till he become a new man. It is like the vapour that got up into Abasuerus's head, and cut off sleep from his eyes, Esther vi 1. which proved a spring of such motions, as never ceased, until Mordecai, in royal pomp, was brought on horse-back through the street, proud Haman trudging at his foot; the same Haman afterwards hanged, Mordecai advanced, and the church delivered from Haman's hellish [...]. The grain of mustard-seed [Page 147] —becometh a tree, Matth. xiii. 21, 22. God loves to bring great things out of small beginnings.

Sixthly, Natural generation is carried on by degrees, Job x. 10. Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and cruddled me like cheese? So is regeneration. It is with the soul, ordinarily, in regeneration, as with the blind man cured by our Lord, who first saw men as trees walking, afterwards saw every man clearly, Matth. viii. 23, 24, 25. It is true, regeneration being, strictly speaking, a passing from death to life, the soul is quickned in a moment: like as, when the embryo is brought to perfection in the womb, the soul is infused into the life­less lump. Nevertheless, we may imagine somewhat like conception in spiritual generation, whereby the soul is prepared for quickening: and the new creature is capable of growth, 1 Pet. ii. 2. and of life more abundantly, John x. 10.

Seventhly, In both there are new relations. The regenerate may call GOD, Father: for they are his children, John i. 12, 13. begotten of him, 1 Pet. i. 3. The bride, the Lamb's wife, (that is the church) is their mother, Gal. iv. 27. They are related, as brethren, as sisters, to angels and glorified saints, the family of heaven. They are of the heavenly stock: and the meanest of them, the base things of the world, 1 Cor. i. 28. the kinless things, as the word imports, who cannot boost of the blood that runs in their veins, are yet, by their new birth, near of kin with the excellent of the earth.

Eighthly, There is a likeness betwixt the parent and the child. Every thing that generates, generates its like; and the regenerate are partakers of the divine nature, 2 Pet i. 4. the moral perfections of the divine nature are in measure and degree communicated [...] renewed soul, and thus the divine image is retrieved; so that, as the child resembles the father, the new creature resembles God himself, being holy as he is holy.

Lastly, As there is no birth without pain, both to the mother and to the child; so there is great pain in bringing forth the new creature. The children have more or less of these birth-pains, whereby they are pricked in their heart, Acts ii. 37. The soul has sore pains when under conviction and humiliation, A wounded spirit who can bear? The mother is pained, Zion travails, Isa. lxvi. 8. she sighs, groans, crieth, and hath hard labour, in her ministers and members, to bring [...]orth children to her Lord, Gal. iv. 10. My little children, of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you. And never was a mother more feelingly touched with joy, that a man-child was born into the world, than she is upon the new birth of her children. But w [...] is more remarkable than all this, we read, not only of our Lord [...] Christ's travail, (or toil of soul) Isa. liii. 11. but (what l [...] [...]ore directly to our purpose) of his pains, or pangs, as of one travelling in child birth; so the word used Acts ii. 24. properly signifies. Well may he call the new creature, as Rachel called her dear-bought son, Benoni, i. e. The son of my sorrow: and, as she called another, Naphtali, [Page 148] i. e. my wrestling: for the pangs of that travail put him to strong crying and tears, Heb. v. 7. yea, in an agony and bloody sweat, Luke xxii. 44. And, in the end, he died of these pangs, they became to him the pains of death, Acts ii. 24.

The Doctrine of Regeneration applied.

USE I. By what is said, you may try whether you are in the state of grace or not. If ye be brought out of the state of wrath or ruin, into the state of grace or salvation; ye are new creatures, ye are born again. But ye will say, "How shall we know whether "we be born again or not?" Ans. Do you ask me, if the sun were risen, and how you should know, whether it were risen, or not? I would bid you look up to the heavens, and see it with your eyes. And would you know if the light be risen in your heart? Look in, and see. Grace is light, and discovers itself. Look into thy mind, see if it has been illuminate in the knowledge of God. Hast thou been inwardly taught what God is? Were thine eyes ever turned inward to see thyself, the sinfulness of thy depraved state; the corruption of thy nature; the sins of thy heart and life? Wast thou ever let into a view of the exceeding sinfulness of sin? Have thine eyes seen King Jesus in his beauty; the manifold wisdom of God in him, his transcendent excellency, and absolute fulness and sufficiency, with the vanity and emptiness of all things else? Next, What change is there on thy will? Are the setters taken off, wherewith it was sometimes bound up from moving heaven­wards? And has thy will got a new set? Dost thou find an aver­sion to sin, and a proneness to good wrought in thy heart? Is thy soul turned towards God as thy chief end; is thy will new-molded, into some measure of conformity to the preceptive and providen­tial will of God: Art thou heartily reconciled to the covenant of peace, and sixedly disposed to the receiving of Christ▪ as he is offered in the gospel? And as to a change on your affections, are they rectified, and placed on right objects? Are your desires going on after God? Are they "to his name, and remembrance of him?" Isa. xxvi. 8. Are your hopes in him? Is your love set upon him, and your hatred set against sin? Does your offending a good God affect your heart with sorrow, and do you fear sin more than suffer­ing? Are your affections regulated? Are they, with respect to created comforts brought down, as being too high: and with re­spect to God in Christ, screwed up, as being too low? Has he the chief seat in your heart? And are all your lawful worldly comforts and enjoyments laid at his feet? Has thy conscience been enlight­ned and awakened, refusing all ease, but from the application of the blood of a Redeemer? Is thy memory sanctified, thy body consecrated to the service of God? And art thou now walking in newness of life? Thus ye may discover, whether, ye are born again or not.

[Page 149]But, for your further help in this matter, I will discourse a little of another sign of regeneration, namely, The love of the brethren; an evidence whereby the weakest and most timorous saints have often had comfort, when they could have little or no consolation from other marks proposed to them. This the Apostle lays down, 1 John iii. 14. ‘We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.’ It is not to be thought, that the Apostle, by the brethren in this place, means brethren by a common relation to the first Adam, but to the second Adam, Christ Jesus: because, however true it is, that universal benevolence, a good-will to the whole race of mankind, takes place in the renewed soul, as being a lively lineament of the divine image; yet the whole context speaks of those that are the sons of God, ver. 1, 2. children of God, ver. 10. born of God, ver. 9. distinguishing betwixt the children of God, and the children of the devil, ver. 10. betwixt these that are of the devil, ver. 8, 12. and these that are of God, ver. 10. And the text itself comes in as a reason why we should not marvel that the world hates the brethren, the children of God, ver. 13. How can we marvel at it, seeing the love of the brethren is an evidence of one's having passed from death to life? And therefore it were absurd to look for that love amongst the men of the world, whe are dead in trespasses and sin. They cannot love the brethren: no marvel then that they hate them. Wherefore it is plain, that by brethren here, are meant brethren by regeneration.

Now, in order to set this mark of regeneration in a true light, consider these three things. (1.) This love to the brethren, is a love to them as such. Then do we love them in the sense of the text, when the grace, or image of God in them, is the chief motive of our love to them. When we love the godly for their godliness, the saints for their sanctity or holiness: then we love God in them, and so may conclude, we are born of God; for every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him, 1 John v. 1. Hypocrites may love saints, on account of a civil relation to them; because of their obliging conversation; for their being of the same opinion with themselves in religious matters: and on many other such like accounts, whereby wicked men may be induced to love the godly. But happy they, who can love them for naked grace in them; for their heaven-born temper and disposition; who can pick this pearl out of a dunghill of infirmities in, and about them; lay hold on it, and love them for it. (2.) It is a love that will be given to all, in whom the grace of God appears. They that love one saint, because he is a saint, will have love to all the saints, Eph. i. 15. They will love all, who to their discerning, bear the image of God. They that cannot love a gracious person in rags, but confine their [...]ove to these of them who wear gay cloathing, have not this love to the brethren in them. There who can con­f [...]ne their love to a party, to whom God has not confined his grace, [...] too narrow to be put among the children. In what [Page 150] points soever men differ from us, in their judgment or way: yet if they appear to agree with us, in love to God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, and in bearing his image; we will love them as brethren, if we ourselves be of the heavenly family And, (3.) If this love be in [...]che more grace any person appear to be possessed of, he will be the more beloved by us. The more vehemently the holy fire of grace doth [...]lame in any, the hearts of true Christians will be the more warmed in love to them It is not with the saints as with many other men, who [...] themselves the standard for others: and love them so [...] they think they are like them­selves. But, if they seem to out-mine, and larken them, their love is turned to hatred and envy; and they endeavour to detract from the du [...] praise of their exemplary piety; because nothing relisheth with them in th [...] practice of religion, that goes beyond their own measure; what of the life and power of religion appears in others, serves only to raise the serpentine grudge in their Pharisaical hearts. But, as for them that are born again; their love and affection to the brethren, bears proportion to the degrees of the divine image they discern in them.

Now, if ye would improve these things to the knowledge of your state, I would advise you, (1.) To set apart some time, when ye are at home, for a review of your case, and try your state, by what has been said. Many have comfort and clearness as to their state, at a sermon; who in a little time lose it again: because, while they hear the word preached, they make application of it; but do not consider of these things more deliberately and leisurely when alone. The action is too sudden and short, to give lasting comfort. And it is often so indeliberate, that it has bad conse­quences. Therefore, set about this work at home, after earnest and [...] prayer to God for his help in it. Complain not of your want [...] while the night follows the busy day; or of place, [...] and out-houses are to be got. (2.) Renew your repentance before the Lord. Guilt lying on the conscience, un­repented of, may darken all your evidences and marks of grace. It provokes the Spirit of grace to depart; and when he goes, our light ceases. It is not sit time for a [...] to read his evidences, when the candle is blown out by some conscience-wounding guilt. Lastly, Exert the powers of the new nature; let the graces of the divine Spirit in you, discover themselves by action. If ye would know whether there is a sacred fire in your breast, or not, ye must blow the [...]al: for altho' it be, and be a live-coal; yet if it be under the ashes, it will give you no light. Settle in your hearts a firm purpose, thro' the grace that is in Christ Jesus, to comply with every known duty, and watch against every known sin; hav­ing a readiness of mind, to be instructed in what ye know not. If gracious souls would thus manage their inquiries into their state; it is likely, they would have a comfortable issue. And if others w [...]u [...]d take such a solemn review and make [...]rial of their state [...]m­partially, [Page 151] sist [...]g themselves before the tribunal of their own con­sciences; they might have a timely discovery of [...]h [...]ir own naught [...] ­ness: but the neglect of self examination [...] men under sad delusions, as to their state; and depr [...]s many saints of the comfortable fight of the [...] of God in them.

But that I may afford some further help to true Christians, in their inquiries into th [...] state; I shall propose and briefly answer same cases o [...] doubts, which may possibly hinder some persons from the comfortable [...] of their happy state. The children's bread must not be with held; [...] while it is reached to them, the dogs should snatch at it.

CASE I. ‘I doubt if I be regenerate, because I know not the precise time of my conversion; nor can I trace the particular steps, in the way in which it was brought to [...].’ Ans. Th [...]' it is very desireable, to be able to give an account of the beginning and the gradual advances of the Lord's work upon our souls, as some sain [...]s can distinctly do, (how beit the manner of the Spirit's wo [...]king is still a mystery) yet this is not necessary to evidence the truth of grace. Happy he that can say, in this ca [...]e, as the blind man in the gospel, One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see, Likeas when we see flames, we know there is fire; tho' we know not how or when it began: so the truth of grace in us may be discerned: tho' we know not how, or when, it was dropt into our hearts. If thou canst perceive the happy change, which is wrought on thy soul: if thou findest thy mind is enlightned, thy will inclined to comply with the will of God in all things; espe­cially to fall in with the divine plan of salvation thro' a crucified Redeemer: in vain dost thou trouble thyself, and refuse comfort, because thou knowest not how and what way it was brought about.

CASE II. "If I were a new creature, sin could not prevail against me as it doth." Ans. Tho' we must not lay pillows for hypocrites to rest their heads upon, who indulge themselves in their sins, and make the doctrine of God's grace subservient to their lusts, lying down contentedly in the bond of iniquity, like men th [...]t are fond of golden chains: yet it must be owned, the just man falleth seven times a-day, and iniquity may prevail against the child­ren of God. But, if thou art groaning under the weight of the body of death, the corruption of thy nature; loathing thyself for the sins of thy heart and life; striving to mortify thy lusts; fleeing daily to the blood of Christ for pardon; and looking to his Spirit for sanctification: tho' thou mayst be obliged to say with the Psalmist, Iniquities prevail against me? Yet thou mayest add [...]ith him, As for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away, Psal. lxv. 3. The new creature doth not yet possess the house alone: it dwells beside an ill neighbour; namely, remaining corruption, the reliqu [...]s of depraved nature. These struggle together for the m [...]stery: The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, Gal. v [...] And sometimes corruption prev [...]ls, bringing the [...] [Page 152] of God into captivity to the law of sin, Rom vii. 23. Let not there­fore the prevailing of corruption, make thee in this case conclude thou art none of God's children: but let it humble thee to be the more watchful, and to thirst the more intensely after Jesus Christ, his blood and Spirit; and that very disposition wil [...] evidence a principle of grace in thee, which seeks the destruction of sin, that prevails so often against thee.

CASE III. ‘I find the motions of sin in my heart more violent, since the Lord began his work on my soul, than they were be­fore that time. Can this consist with a change of my nature?’ Ans D [...]eadful is the case of many, wh [...] after God has had a re­markable dealing with their souls, tending to their reformation, have thrown off all bonds; and have become grosly and openly [...]mmoral and profane; as if the devil had returned into their hearts, with seven spirits worse than himself. All I sh [...]ll say to such per­sons is, that their state is exceeding dangerous: they are in danger of sinning against the Holy Ghost: therefore let them repent, before it be too late. But if it be not th [...] with you: tho' corruption is bestirring itself more violently than formerly, as if all the forces of hell were raised, to hold fast, to b [...]ing back a fugitive; I say, these stirrings may consist with a cha [...]ge of your nature. When the restraint of grace is newly laid upon corruption, it is no won­der if this last acts more vigorously than before, warring against the law of the mind, Rom. vii. 23. The motions of sin may really be most violent; when a new principle is brought in to cast it out. And, as the sun, sending its beams through the window, discovers the motes in the house, and their motions, which were not seen before: so the light of grace may discover the rising and actings of corruption, in another manner than ever the man saw them before; tho' they really do not rise nor act more vigorously. Sin is not quite dead in the regenerate soul, it is but dying; and, dying a lingering death, being crucified, no wonder there be great fight­ings, when it is sick at the heart, and death is at the door. Besides temptations may be more in number, and stronger, while Satan is striving to bring you back who are escaped, than while he endea­voured only to retain you: After ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions, says the Apostle, to the Hebrews, chap. x. 32. But cast not away your confidence, ver. 34. Remember his grace is sufficient for you, and the God of peace will bruise Satan under your feet shortly. Pharaoh and his Egyptians never made such a formidable appearance against the Israelites, as at the Red sea, after they were brought out of Egypt: but then were the pursuers nearest to a total overthrow, Exod. xiv. Let not this case therefore make you raze your foundations: but be ye emptied of yourselves, and strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might; and ye shall come off victorious.

CASE IV. ‘But when I compare my love: God, with my love to some created enjoyments, I find the pulse of my affections beat stronger to the creature than the Creator. How then can [Page 153] I call him father? Nay, alas! these turnings of heart within me, and glowings of affection to him which sometimes I had, are gone; so that I fear, all the love I ever had to the LORD, h [...] been but a fit and flash of affection, such as hypocrites often have.’ Ans. It cannot be denied, that the predominant love of the world, is a certain mark of an unregenerate state, 1 John ii. 15. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Never­theless, th [...]se are not always the strongest affections, which are most violent. A man's affection may be more moved on some oc­cations by an object that is little regarded, tha [...] by another, that is exceedingly beloved; even as a li [...]tle brook [...]etimes makes a greater noise than a great river. The strength of our affections is to be measured by the firmness and fixedness of the root: not by the violence of their actings. Suppose a per [...]on meeting with a friend w [...]o has been long abroad, finds his affection more vehe­mently acting toward his friend on that occasion, than towards his own wife and children; will he therefore say that he loves his friend more than them? Surely no. Even so, although the Chris­tian may find himself more moved in his love to the creature, than in his love to God; yet he is not therefore to be said to love the creature more than God; seeing love to God is always more firmly rooted in a gracious heart, than love to any created enjoyment whatsoever: as appears when competition arises in such a manner, that the one or the other is to be forgone. Would you then know your case? Retire into your own hearts, and there lay the two in the balance, and try which of them weighs down the other. Ask thyself, as in the sight of God, whether thou wouldst part with Christ for the creature, or part with the creature for Christ, if thou were left to thy choice in the matter? If you find your heart disposed to part with what is dearest to you in the world for Christ, at his call: you have no reason to conclude you love the creature more than God; but on the contrary, that you love God more than the creature; albeit you do not feel such v [...]ol [...] motions in the love of God, as in the love of some created thing, Matt [...] x. 37. He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me. Luke xiv. 26. If any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother,—he cannot be my disciple. From which texts compared, we may infer, that he who hates, i. e. is rea [...]y to part with father and mother for Christ, is, in our Lord's account, one that loves them less than him; and not one who loves father and mother more than him. M [...]reover, ye are to consider there is a twofold love to Christ. (1.) There is a sensible love to [...]m, which [...]s felt as a dart in the heart; and makes a holy love-sickness in the soul, aris­ [...]ng either from want of enjoyment, as in the case of the spouse, Can [...] v. 8. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my bl [...]a, this ye tell him, that I am sick of love: or else from the [...], as in that case, Can [...]. ii. 5. Stay me with f [...]gons, comfo [...]t mo [...] apples: for I am sick of love. These glowings of affections [Page 154] are usually wrought in young converts, who are ordinarily made to sing in the day of their youth, Hos. ii. 14. While the fire-edge is upon the young convert, be looks upon others, reputed to be godly, and not finding them in such a temper and disposition as himself, he is ready to censure them; and think there is far less religion in the world, than indeed there is. But when his own cup comes to se [...] below the brim, and he finds that in himself, which made him question the state of others, he is more humbled, and feels more and more the necessity of daily recourse to the blood of Christ for pardon, and to the Spirit of Christ for sanctification; and thus grows downwards in humiliation; self-loathing, and self-denial. (2.) There is a rational love to Christ, which, without these sensible emotions felt in the former case, evidences itself by a dutiful regard to the divine authority and command. When one bears such a love to Christ, tho' the vehement stirrings of affection be wanting, yet he is truly tender of offending a gracious God; endeavours to walk before him unto all pleasing; and grieved at the heart, for what is displeasing unto him, 1 John v. 3. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. Now, although that sensible love doth not always continue with you: yet ye have no reason to account it a hypocritical fit, while the rational love remains with you, more than a faithful and loving wife needs question her love to her husband, when her fondness is abated.

CASE V. ‘The attainments of hypocrites and apostates are a terror to me, and come like a shaking sto [...] on me, when I am about to conclude from the marks of grace which I seem to find in myself, that I [...] the state of grace.’ Ans. These things should indeed stir us up [...] a most serious and impartial examination of ourselves; but ought not to keep us in a continued suspense as to our state. Sirs, ye see the outside of hypocrites, their duties, their gifts, their tears, &c. but ye see not their inside; ye do not discern their hearts, the bias of their spirits. Upon what ye see of them, ye found a judgment of charity, as to their state; and ye do well to judge charitably in such a case, because ye cannot know the secret springs of their actings: But ye are speaking, and ought to have a judgment of certainty, as to your own state; and therefore are to look in to that part of religion, which none in the world but yourselves can discern in you; and which ye can as little see in others. An hypocrite's religion may appear far greater than that of a sincere soul: but, that which makes the greatest figure in the eyes of men, is often least worth before God. I would rather utter one of these groans the Apostle speaks of, Rom. viii. 26. than shed Esau's tears, have Balaam's prophetic spirit, or the joy of the stony-ground hearers. The fire that shall try every man's work, will try, not of what bulk it is, but of what sort it is, 1 Cor. iii. 13. Now, ye may know what bulk of religion another has: and what tho' it be more bulky than your own? God doth not regard that: Why then do you make such a matter of it? It is impossible for you, without divine revelation, certainly to know of what sort another man's [Page 155] religion is: but ye may certainly know what sort your own is of, with­out extraordinary revelation; otherwise the Apostle would not exhort the saints to give diligence to make their calling and election sure, 2 Pet i. 10. Therefore, the attainments of hypo [...]rites and apostates should not disturb you in your serious inquiry into your own state. But I'll tell you two things wherein the meanest saints go beyond the most refined hypocrites. (1) In denying themselves, renouncing all confidence in themselves, and their own works, acquiescing in, being well-pleased with, and venturing their souls upon God's plan of sal­vation thro' Jesus Christ, Matth. v. 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And chap. xi. 6. Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. Philip. iii. 3. We are the circum­cision which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. (2.) In a real hatred of all sin; being willing to part with every lust, without exception, and comply with every duty the Lord makes, or shall make known to them: Psal. cxix 6. Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments. Try yourselves by these.

CASE VI. ‘I see myself fall so far short of the saints mentioned in the scriptures, and of several excellent persons of my own ac­quaintance; that, when I look on them, I can hardly look on my­self as one of the same family with them.’ Ans. It is indeed matter of humiliation, that we get not forward to that measure of grace and holiness, which we see is attainable in this life. This should make us more vigorously press towards the mark: But surely it is from the devil, that weak Christians make a rack for themselves of the attain­ments of the strong. And to yield to this temptation, is as unreason­able, as for a child to dispute away his relation to his father, because he is not of the same stature with his elder brethren. There are saints of several sizes in Christ's family: some fathers, some young men, and some little children, 1 John ii. 13, 14.

CASE VII. ‘I never read in the word of God, nor did I ever know of a child of God so tempted, and so left of God as I am; and therefore no saint's case being like mine, I cannot but conclude I am none of their number.’ Ans. This objection arises to some from their unacquaintedness with the scriptures, and with experienced Christians. It is profitable in this case, to impart the matter to some experienced Christian friend, or to some godly minister. This has been a blessed mean of peace to some persons; while their case, which appeared to them to be singular, has been evinced to have been the case of other saints. The scripture give instances of very horrid temptations, wherewith the saints have been assaulted: Job was temp­ted to blaspheme; this was the great thing the [...]vil aimed at, in the case of that g [...]t saint, Job i. 11. He will curse thee to thy f [...]e. Chap. ii. 9. Curse God and die, As [...]ph was tempted to think, it was in vain to be religious; which was in effect to throw [...] religion, Psal lxx [...]ii. 13. Verily I have cleansed my [...] in vain. Ye [...], Christ [Page 156] himself was tempted to cast himself down from a pinacle of the temple, and to worship the devil, Matth iv. 6, 9. And many of the children of God have not only been attacked with, but have actually yielded to very gross temptations for a time. Peter denied CHRIST, and cursed and swore that he know him not. Mark xiv. 71. Paul, when a per­secuter, compelled even saints to blaspheme, Acts xxvi. 10, 11. Many of the saints can, from their sad experience, bear witness to very gross temptations, which have astonished their spirits, made their very flesh to tremble, and sickened their bodies. Satan's fiery darts make ter­rible work; and will cost pains to quench them, by a vigorous manag­ing of the shi [...]ld of faith, Ephes. vi 16. Sometimes, he makes such desperate attacks, that never was one more put to it, in running to and fro, without intermission to quench the fire-balls incessantly thrown into his house by an enemy designing to burn the house about him; than the poor tempted saint is, to repel satanical injections. But these injections, these horrid temptations, though they are a dreadful afflic­tion, they are not the sins of the tempted, unless they make them theirs by consenting to them. They will be charged upon the tempter alone, if they be not consented to; and will no more be laid to the charge of the tempted party, than a bastard's being laid down at the chaste man's door, will fix guilt upon him. But, suppose neither minister nor private Christian, to whom you go [...] can tell you of any who has been in your case; yet you ought not thence to infer, that your case certainly is singular, far less to give over hopes: for it is not to be thought, that every godly minister, or private Christian, has had the experience of all the cases a child of God may be in. And we need not doubt but some have had distresses known only to God, and their own consciences; and, so, to others these distresses are as if they had never been. Yea, and though the scripture do contain suitable directions for every case a child of God can be in; and these illustrated with a sufficient number of examples: yet it is not to be imagined, that there are in the scriptures perfect instances of every particular case incident to the saints. Therefore, howbeit you cannot find an instance of your case in the scripture; yet bring your case to it, and you shall find suitable remedies prescribed there for it And study rather to make use of Christ for your case, who has salve for all sores; than to know if ever any was in your case Tho' one should shew you an instance of your case, in an undoubted saint; yet none could promise it would certainly give you ease: for a scrupulous conscience would readily find out some difference. And if nothing but a perfect conformity of another's case to yours, will satisfy, it will be hard, if not impossible to satisfy you. For it is with people's cases, as with their natural faces: though faces of all men are of one make; and some are so very like others, that, at first view we are ready to take them for the same: yet if you view them more accurately, you will see something in every face, distinguishing it from all others: though possibly you cannot tell what it is; wherefore I conclude, that if you [Page 157] can find in yourselves the marks of regeneration, proposed to you from the word; you ought to conclude, you are in the state of grace, though your case were singular, which is indeed unlikely.

CASE last, ‘The afflictions I meet with are strange and unusual. I doubt if ever a child of God was trysted with such dispensations of providence as I am’ Ans. Much of what was said on the preceeding case, may be helped in this. Holy Job was assaulted with this temptation, Job v. 1. To which [...]f the saints wilt thou turn [...] But he rejected it, and held fast his integrity. The Apostle supposeth Christians may be tempted to think strange concerning the fiery trial, 1 Pet. iv. 12 But they have need of larger experience than Solomon's who will venture to say, See this is new, Eccles. i. 10. And what though, in respect of the outward dispensations of providence it happen to you according to the work of the wicked? You may be just notwithstanding; according to Solomon's observe, Eccles. viii. 14. Sometimes we travel in ways, where we cannot perceive the prints of the foot of man or beast; yet we cannot from thence conclude, that there was never any there before us: so, albeit thou canst not per­ceive the footsteps of the flock in the way of thine affliction; thou must not therefore conclude, thou art the first that ever travelled that road. But, what, if it were so, that thou wert indeed the first? Some one saint or other behoved to be the first, in drinking of each bitter cup the rest have drunk of. What warrant have you or I, to limit the holy One of Isra [...]l to a trodden path, in his dispensations towards us? Thy way is in th [...] sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known, Psal. lxxvii. 19. If the Lord should carry you to heaven by some retired road, and let you in at a back-door, (so to speak) you would have no ground to complain. Learn to allow sovereignity a latitude; be at your duty; and let no affliction ca [...]t a vail over any evidences you otherwise have for your being in the state of grace: for no man knoweth either th [...]ir love or ha [...]red by all that is before them, Eccles. ix. 1.

USE II. Ye that are strangers to this new birth, be convinced of the absolute necessity of it Are all in the state of grace born again? Then ye have neither part nor lot in it, who are not born again. I must tell you in the words of our Lord and Saviour, (and O that he would speak them to your hearts) ye must b [...] born again, John iii. 7. And for your conviction, consider these few things.

First, Regeneration is absolutely necessary to qualify you to do any thing really good and acceptable to God. Wh [...]le you are not born again, your best works are but glistering sins; for though the matter of them is good▪ they are quite marred in the making. Consider, (1.) That without regeneration there is no faith, and without faith it is impossible to please God, Heb xi. 6. Faith is a vital act of the new-born soul. The Evangelist, shewing the different entertainment our Lord Jesus had from different persons, some receiving him, some rejecting him, points at regenerating grace, as the true [Page 158] rise of that difference; without which never one would have received him. He tells us, that as many as received him, were these which were born—of God, John i. 11, 12, 13. Unregenerate men may presume; but true faith they cannot have. Faith is a flower, that grows not in the field of nature. As the tree cannot grow without a root, neither can a man believe without the new nature, whereof the principle of believing is a part. (2.) Without regene­ration a man's works are dead works. As is the principle, so must the effects be: if the lungs be rotten, the breath will be unsavoury; and he who at best is dead in sin, his works at best will be but dead works. Unto them that are defiled and unbelieving, is nothing pure— being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work, reprobate, Tit i. 15, 16. Could we say of a man, that he is more blameless in his life, than any other in the world; that he macerates his body with fasting; and has made his knees as horns with continual praying; but he is not born again: that exception would mar all. And if one should say, there is a well-proportioned body, but the soul is gone, it is but a dead lump. This is a melting consideration Thou dost many things materially good, but God saith, All these things avail not, as long as I see the old nature reigning in the man, Gal. vi. 15. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircum­cision, but a new creature.

If thou art not born again, (1.) All thy reformation is naught in the sight of God. Thou hast shut the door, but the thief is still in the house. It may be thou art not what once thou wast, yet thou art not what thou must be, if ever thou seest heaven; for, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God, John iii. 3. (2.) Thy prayers are an abomination to the Lord, Prov xv. 8. It may be, others admire thy seriousness; thou criest as for thy life: but God accounts of the opening of thy mouth, as one would account of the opening of a grave full of rottenness, Rom. iii. 13. Their throat is an open sepulchre. Others are affected with thy prayers; which seem to them, as if thy would rend the heavens: but God accounts them as the howling of a dog: They have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds, Hos. vii. 14. Others take thee for a wrestler and prevailer with God; but he can take no delight with thee, nor thy prayers neither, Isa. lxvi. 3. He that killeth an ox, is as if he slew a man: he that sacrificeth a lamb, is as if he cut off a dog's neck,—he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Why not? Because thou art yet in the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity. (3.) All thou hast done for God and his cause in the world, though it may be followed with temporal rewards, yet is lost as to divine acceptance. This is clear from the case of Jehu; who was indeed rewarded with a king­dom, for his executing due vengeance upon the house of Ahab; as being a work good, for the matter of it, because it was commanded of God, as you may see, 2 Kings x. 13. Yet he was punished for it in has posterity, because he did it not in a right manner, Hos i. 4. I will [Page 159] avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu. God looks mainly to the heart: and if so, truly albeit thy outward appearance be fairer than that of many others, yet the hidden man of thy heart, is loth­some; thou lookest well before men, but art thou, as Moses was, fair to God, as the margin hath it, Acts vii 20 O what a difference is there betwixt the characters of Asa and Amaziah: The high places were not removed: nevertheless, Asa his heart was perf [...]ct with the Lord all his days, 1 Kings xv. 14. Amaziah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart, 2 Chron. xxv. 2. It may be, thou art zealous against sin in others, and dost admonish them to their duty, and reprove them for their sin; and they hate thee, because thou dost thy duty. But I must tell thee, God hates thee too, because thou dost it not in a right manner; and that thou canst never do, whilst thou art not born again. Lastly, All thy struggles against sin, in thine own heart and life, are naught. The proud Pharisee afflicted his body with fasting, and God struck his soul in the mean time with a sentence of condemnation, Luke xviii. Balaam struggled with his covetous temper to that degree, that though he loved the wages of unrighteousness, yet he would not win them by cursing Israel, but he died the death of the wicked, Numb. xxxi. 8. All thou dost while in an unregenerate state is for thyself: and therefore it will fare with thee, as with a subject, who having reduced the rebels, put the crown on his own head; and therefore loseth all his good service, and his head too.

Obj [...]ct. If it be thus with us, then we need never perform any re­ligious duty at all. Ans. The conclusion is not just No inability of thine can loose thee from the duty God's law lays on thee: and there is less evil in thy doing thy duty, than there is in the omitting of it. But there is a mids betwixt omitting of duty, and the doing of it as th [...]u dost it. A man ordereth masons to build a house: if they quite neglect the work, that will not be accepted; if they fall on, and build upon the old rotten foundation, neither will that please; but they must raze the old foundation, and build on firm ground Go thou and do likewise. In the mean time, it is not in vain for thee, even for thee, to seek the Lord: for tho' he regards thee not, yet he may have respect to his own ordinance, and do thee good thereby, as was said before.

Secondly, Without regeneration there is no communion with God. There is a society on earth, whose fellowship is with the Father, and with the Son Jesus Christ, 1 John i. 3. But out of that society all the unregenerate are excluded; for they are all enemies to God, as ye heard before at large. Now, can two walk together, except they be agreed? Amos iii. 3. They are all unholy: and what communion hath light with darkness—Christ with [...]lial? 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15. They may have a shew and semblance of holiness, but they are strangers to true holiness, and therefore without God in the world. How sad is this case, to be imployed in religious duties, but to have no fellowship [Page 160] with God in them! ye would not be content with your meat, unless it fed you; nor with your clothes, unless they kept you warm: and and how can you satisfy yourselves with your duties, while they are not effectual to your communion with God?

Thirdly, Regeneration is absolutely necessary to qualify you for heaven. None go to heaven but they that are made meet for it, Col. i. 12. As it was with Solomon's temple, 1 Kings vi 7. so it is with the temple above: It is built of stone made ready before it is brought thither; namely, of lively stones, 1 Pet ii. 5 wrought for the same thing, 2 Cor. v 5. for they cannot be laid in that glorious build­ing, just as they came out of the quarry of depraved nature: Jewels of gold are not meet for swine, and far less jewels of glory for unre­newed sinners. Beggars in their rags are not meet for king's houses; nor sinners to enter into the king's palace, without the raiment of needle-work, Psal. xlv 14, 15. What wise man would bring fishes out of the water to feed in his meadow? or send his oxen to feed in the sea? Even as little are the unregenerate meet for heaven, or is heaven meet for them It would never be liked of by them.

The unregenerate would find f [...]ult with heaven on several accounts. As (1.) That it is a strange country. Heaven is the renewed man's native country: his Father is in heaven; his mother is Jerusalem, which is above, Gal. iv 26 He is born from above, John iii 3. Heaven is his home, 2 Cor. v. 1. Therefore he looks on himself as a stranger on this earth, and his head is homeward, Heb. xi. 16 They desire a better country, that is, an heavenly. But the unregenerate man is the man of the earth, Psal. x. 18. written in the earth, Jer. xvii 13. Now, home is home, be it never so homely, therefore he minds earthly things, Philip. iii. 19. There is a peculiar sweetness in our native soil; and hardly are men drawn to leave it, and dwell in a strange country. In no case does that prevail more, than in this; for unrenewed men would quit their pretensions to heaven, were it not that they see they cannot make a better of it. (2.) There is nothing thereof what they delight most in, as most agreeable to the carnal heart, Rev. xxi. 27. And there shall in no wise enter into it, any thing that d [...]fileth. When Mahomet gave out paradise to be a place of sensual delights, his religion was greedily embraced: for that is the heaven men naturally chuse. If the covetous man could get bags full of gold there, and the voluptuous man can promise himself his sensual delights there; they might be reconciled to heaven, and meet for it too: but since it is not so, tho' they may utter fair words about it, truly it has little of their hearts. (3.) Ever [...] corner there is filled with that, which of all things they have the least liking of: and that is holiness, true holiness, perfect holiness Were one that abhors swine's flesh, bidden to a feast, where all the dishes were of that sort of meat, but variously prepared; he would find fault with every dish at the table, notwithstanding all the art used to make them palatable. It is true, there is joys in heaven, but it is holy joy: there are plea­sures [Page 161] in heaven, but they are holy pleasures: there are places to stand by in heaven, but it is holy ground. That holiness that casts up in every place, and in every thing there, would mar all to the unre­generate (4.) Were they carried thither, they would not only change their place, which would be a great heart break to them: but they would change their company too. Truly they would never like the company there, who care not for communion with God here; nor value the fellowship of his people, at least in the vitals of practical godliness. Many indeed mix themselves with the godly on earth, to procure a name to themselves, and to cover the naughtiness of their hearts: but that trade could not be managed there. (5.) They would never like the employment of heaven, they care so little for it now. The business of the saints there, would be an intolerable burden to them, seeing it is not agreeable to their nature To be taken up in beholding, admiring, and praising of him that sitteth upon the throne, and of the Lamb, would be work unsuitable, and therefore unsavoury to an unrenewed soul. Lastly, They would find this fault with it, that the whole is of everlasting continuance. This would be a killing ingredient in it, to them. How would such as now account the Sabbath-day a burden, brook the celebrating of an everlasting Sabbath in the heavens?

Lastly, Regeneration is absolutely necessary to your being admitted into heaven, John iii. 3. No heaven without it Tho' carnal men could digest all these things, which make heaven so unsuitable for them; yet God will never suffer them to come thither Therefore born again ye must be: else ye shall never see heaven, ye shall perish eternally. For, (1.) There is a bill of exclusion against you in the court of heaven, and against all your sort: Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God, John iii. 3. Here is a bar before you, that men and angels cannot remove. And to hope for heaven, over the belly of this peremptory sentence, is to hope that God will recal his word, and sacrifice his truth and faithfulness to your safety; which is infinitely more than to hope the earth shall be forsaken for you, and the rock removed out of his place (2) There is no holiness without regeneration. It is the new man, which is created in true holiness, Eph. iv. 24. And no heaven without holiness; for without holiness no man shall see the Lord, Heb. xii. 14 Will the gates of pearl be opened, to let in dogs and swine? No; their place is without, Rev. xxii. 15. God will not admit such into the holy place of com­munion with him here; and will he admit them into the holiest of all hereafter? Will he take the children of the devil, and give them to sit with him in his throne? Or will he bring the unclean into the city, whose street is pure gold? Be not deceived, grace and glory are but two links of one chain, which God has joined, and no man shall put asunder. None are transplanted into the paradise above, but out of the nursery of grace below. If ye be unholy while in this world, ye will be for ever miserable in the world to come. (3.) All the [Page 162] unregenerate are without Christ, and therefore having no hope while in that case, Eph. ii. 12. Will Christ prepare mansions of glory for them, that refuse to receive him into their hearts? Nay; rather, will he not laugh at their calamity, who now [...]et at nought all his counsel? Prov. i. 25, 26. Lastly, There is an infallible connection betwixt a finally unregenerate state and damnation, rising from the nature of the things themselves: and from the decree of heaven, which is fixed and unmoveable as mountains of brass, John iii. 3. Rom. viii. 6. To be carnally minded is death. An unregenerate state is hell in the bud. It is eternal destruction in embryo; growing daily, tho' thou dost not discern it. Death is painted on many a fair face, in this life. Depraved nature makes men meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the damned, in utter darkness. (1.) The heart of stone within thee, is a sinking weight, as a stone naturally goes downward; so the hard stony heart tends downward to the bottomless pit. Ye are hardned against reproof: though ye are told your danger; yet you will not see it, ye will not believe it. But remember, that the conscience its being now feared with a hot iron, is a sad presage of everlasting burnings. (2.) Your unfruitfulness under the means of grace, fits you for the ax of God's judgments, Matth. iii. 10. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down, and cast into the fire. The withered branch is fuel for the fire, John xv. 6. Tremble at this ye despisers of the gospel: if ye be not thereby made meet for heaven, ye will be like the barren ground, bearing briers and thorns, nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned, Heb. vi. 8. (3.) The hellish disposition of mind, which discover themselves in profanity of life, fit the guilty for the regions of horror. A profane life will have a miser­able end. They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God, Gal. v. 19, 20, 21. Think on this, ye prayerless persons, ye mockers of religion, ye cursers and swearers, ye unclean, and unjust persons, who have not so much as moral honesty to keep you from lying, cheating and stealing. What sort of a tree think ye it to be, upon which these fruits grow? Is it a tree of righteousness, which the Lord hath planted? Or is it such an one as cumbers the ground, which God will pluck up for fuel to the fire of his wrath? (4.) Your being dead in sin makes you meet to be wrapt in flames of brimstone, as a winding sheet; and to be buried in the bottomless pit, as in a grave. Great was the cry in Egypt, when the first-born in each family was dead; but are there not many families, where all are dead together? Nay, many there are, who are twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Sometime, in their life, they have been rouzed by apprehen­sions of death, and its consequences; but now they are so far on in their way to the land of darkness, that they hardly ever have the least glimmering of light from heaven. (5.) The darkness of your minds presageth eternal darkness O the horrible ignorance some are plagued with while others who have got some rays of morning light into their heads; are utterly void of spiritual light in their hearts! If [Page 163] ye knew your case, ye would cry out, Oh! darkness! darkness! dark­ness making way for the blackness of darkness for ever! The face-covering is upon you already, as condemned persons; so near are ye to everlasting darkness. It is only Jesus Christ who can stop the execution, pull the napkin off the face of the condemned malefactor, and put a pardon in his hand, Isa. xxv. 7. And he will destroy in this mountain, the face of the covering cast over all people, i e. The face-covering cast over the condemned, as in Haman's case, Esther vii. 8. As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Human's face. Lastly, The chains of darkness ye are bound with in the prison of your depraved state, Isa. lxi. 1. fits you to be cast into the burning fiery furnace. Ah miserable men! Sometimes their consciences stir within them, and they begin to think of amending their ways. But alas! they are in chains, they cannot do it. They are chained by the heart; their lusts cleave so fast to them, that they cannot, nay, they will not, shake them off. Thus you see what affinity there is betwixt an unregenerate state, and the state of the damned, the state of abso­solute and irretrievable misery; be convinced then, that ye must be born again; put a high value on the new birth, and eagerly desire it.

The text tells you, that the word is the seed, whereof the new creature is formed: therefore take heed to it, and entertain it, for it is your life. Apply yourselves to the reading of the Scripture. Ye that cannot read, cause others read it to you. Wait diligently on the preaching of the word, as by divine appointment, the special mean of conversion: for—it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe, 1 Cor. i. 21. Wherefore cast not yourselves out of Christ's way; reject not the means of grace, lest ye be found to judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life. Attend carefully to the word preached. Hear every sermon, as if you were hearing for eternity: and take heed, the fowls of the air pick not up this seed from you as it is sown. Give thyself wholly to it, 1 Tim iv 15. Receive it not as the word of men, but (as it is in truth) the word of God, 1 Thess ii. 13. And hear it with application, looking on it as a message sent from heaven, to you in particular tho' not to you only, Rev iii. 22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches Lay it up in your hearts, meditate upon it: and be not as the unclean beasts, that chew not the cud. But by earnest prayer beg the dew of heaven may fall on thy heart, that the seed may spring up there.

More particularly, (1.) Receive the testimony of the word of God, concerning the misery of an unregenerate state, the sinfulness thereof, and the absolute necessity of regeneration. (2.) Receive its testimony concerning God, what a holy and just one he is. (3.) Examine thy ways by it; namely, the thoughts of thy heart, the expressions of thy lips, and the tenor of thy life Look back through the several periods of thy life, and see thy sins from the precepts of the word; and learn from its threatnings, what thou art liable to, on the account of [Page 164] these sins. (4.) View the corruption of thy nature, by the help of the same word of God; as a glass which represents our ugly face in a lively manner. Were these things deeply rooted in the heart, they might be the seed of that fear and sorrow, on account of thy soul's state, which are necessary to prepare and stir thee up to look after a Saviour. Fix your thoughts upon him offered to thee in the gospel, as fully suited to thy case; having, by his obedience to the death, perfectly satisfied the justice of God, and brought in everlasting righteousness. This may prove the seed of humiliation, desire, hope and faith; and put thee on to stretch out the withered hand unto him, at his own command.

Let these things sink deeply into your hearts, and improve them diligently. Remember, whatever ye be, ye MUST be born again; else it had been better for you, ye had never been born Where­fore, if any of you shall live and die in an unregenerate state, ye will be inexcusable, having been fairly warned of your hazard.

A general View of the Mystical Union.

FIRST, In the general, for understanding the union betwixt the Lord Jesus Christ, and his elect, who believe in him, and on him.

1. It is a spiritual union. Man and wife, by their marriage-union, become one flesh: Christ and true believers, by this union, become one spirit, 2 Cor. vi. 17. As one soul or spirit actuates both the head, and the members, in the natural body; so the one Spirit of God dwells in Christ and the Christian; for, If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his, Rom viii. 9. Corporal union is made by contract; so the stones in a building are united: but this is an union of another nature. Were it possible we could eat the flesh, and drink the blood of Christ, in a corporal and carnal manner; it would profit nothing, John vi. 63. It was not Mary's bearing him in her womb, but her believing on him, that made her a saint, Luke xi. 27, 28. [Page 166] A certain woman—said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked But he said, Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it

2. It is a real union. Such is our weakness in our present state, so much are we immersed in sin, that we are prone to form in our fancy an image of every thing proposed to us; and as to whatsoever is denied us, we are apt to suspect it to be but a fiction, or what has no reality. But nothing is more real, than what is spiritual; as ap­proaching nearest to the nature of Him who is the fountain of all reality, namely, God himself. We do not see with our eyes the union betwixt our own soul and body; neither can we represent it to ourselves truly, by imagination, as we do sensible things: yet the reality of it is not to be doubted. Faith is no fancy, but the substance of things hoped for, Heb xi. Neither is the union thereby made betwixt Christ and believers, imaginary, but most real: for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, Eph v. 30.

3. It is a most close and intimate union. Believers, regenerate persons, who fiduciously credit him and rely on him, have put on Christ, Gal. iii 27. If that be not enough, he is in them, John xvii. 23. formed in them, as the child in the mother's belly, Gal. iv. 19. He is the foundation, 1Cor iii 11. They are the lively stones built upon him, 1 Pet ii. 5. He is the Head, and they the body, Eph. i. 22, 23. Nay, he liveth in them, as their very souls in their bodies, Gal. ii. 30. And, what is more than all this, they are one in the Father, and the Son, as the Father is in Christ, and Christ in the Father, John xvii 21. That they all may be one, as thou the Father art in me, and I in thee, they also may be one in us.

4. Though it is not a mere legal union, yet it is an union sustained in law. Christ as the cautioner, the Christians as the principal debtors, are one, in the eye of the law. When the elect had run themselves, with the rest of mankind, in debt to the justice of God; Christ became surety for them, and paid the debt. When they believe on him, they are united to him in a spiritual marriage-union; which takes effect so far, that what he did and suffered for them, is reckoned in law, as if they had done and suffered for themselves. Hence they are said to be crucified with Jesus, Gal. ii. 20. Buried with him, Col. ii 12. Yea, raised up together, (namely, with Christ) and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, Eph. ii. 6. In which places, saints on earth, of whom the Apostle there speaks, cannot be said to be sitting, but in the way of law-reckoning.

5. It is an indissoluble union. Once in Christ, ever in him. Having taken up his habitation in the heart, he never removes. None can untie this happy knot. Who will dissolve this union? Will he himself o it? No, he will not; we have his word for it: I will not turn away from them, Jer. xxxii. 40. But perhaps the sinner will do this mischief for himself; no, he shall not, They shall not depart from me, saith their God, ibid. Can devils do it? No, unless they be stronger [Page 167] than Christ, and his Father too: Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand, saith our Lord, John x. 28. And none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand, ver. 39. But, what say you of death, which parts husband and wife; yea, separates the soul from the body? Will not death do it? No; the Apostle, Rom. viii. 38 39. is per­suaded that neither death, (as terrible is it is) nor life, (as desirable as it is) nor devils, those evil angels, nor the devil's persecuting agents, tho' they be principalities or powers on earth; nor evil things present, already lying on us, nor evil things to come on us; nor the height of worldly felicity, nor depth of worldly misery; nor any other creature, good or ill, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord As death separated Christ's soul from his body, but could not separate either his soul or body from his divine nature; so, tho' the saints should be separated from their nearest relations in the world, and from all their earthly enjoyments; yea, tho' their souls should be separate from their bodies, and their bodies separate in a thousand pieces, their bones scattered, as when one cutteth or cleaveth wood: yet soul and body, and every piece of the body, the smallest dust of it shall remain united to the Lord Christ: for even in death, they sleep in Jesus, 1 Thess. iv. 14 And, he keepeth all their bones, Psal. xxxiv. 20 Union with Christ, is the grace wherein we stand, firm and stable, as mount Zion, which cannot be removed.

Lastly, It is a mysterious union. The gospel is a doctrine of mysteries. It discovers to us the substantial union of the three Persons in one Godhead, 1 John v 7. These three are one: the hypostatical union of the divine and human natures, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Tim iii. 16. God was manifest in the flesh: and the mystical union, betwixt Christ and believers; this is a great mystery also, Eph. v. 32. O what mysteries are here! the head in heaven, the members on earth, yet really united! Christ in the believer, living in him, walking in him: and the believer dwelling in God, putting on the Lord Jesus, eating his flesh, and drinking his blood? this makes the saints a mystery to the world; yea, a mystery to themselves.

SECONDLY I come now more particularly to speak of this union with, and ingrafting into Jesus Christ. And, (1.) I shall consider the natural stock, which the branches are taken out of (2.) The supernatural stock, they are ingrafted into. (3) What branches are cut off the old stock, and put into the new. (4) How it is done. And, Lastly, The benefits flowing from this union and ingrafting.

Of the natural and supernatural Stocks, and the Branches, taken out of the former, and ingrafted into the latter.

I. Let us take a view of the stock, which the branches are taken out of. The two Adams, that is Adam and CHRIST, are the two stocks: for the scripture speaks of these two, as if there had never been more men in the world than they, 1 Cor. xv. 45. The first man [Page 168] Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickning Spirit. Ver. 47. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. And the reason is, there were never any, that were not branches of one of these two; all men being either in the one stock or in the other; for in these two sorts all mankind stands divided: Ver. 48. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, [...]u [...] are they also that are heavenly. The first Adam then is the natural stock: on this stock are the branches found growing at first; which are afterwards cut off, and ingrafted into Christ. As for the fallen angels, as they had no relation to the first Adam, so they have none to second.

There are four things to be remembered here, (1.) That all mankind (the man Christ excepted) are naturally branches of the first Adam, Rom. v. 12. By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin: and so death passed upon all men. (2.) The bond which knit us unto the natural stock, was the covenant of works. Adam being our natural root, was made the moral root also; bearing all his poste­rity as representing them in the covenant of works. For, by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, Rom. v. 19 Now, there behoved to be a peculiar relation betwixt that one man and the many, as a foundation for imputing his sin to them. This relation did not arise from the mere natural bond betwixt him and us, as a father to his children; for so we are related to our immediate parents, whose sins are not thereupon imputed to us as Adam's sin is. It behoved then to arise from a moral bond betwixt Adam and us; the bond of a covenant, which could be no other than the covenant of works, wherein we were united to him as branches to a stock. Hence Jesus Christ, though a son of Adam, Luke iii 23, 38. was none of these branches; for seeing he came not of Adam, in virtue of the blessing of marriage, which was given before the fall, (Gen. i 28. Be fruitful and multiply, &c.) but in virtue of a special promise made after the fall, (Gen. iii. 15. The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head.) Adam could not represent him in a covenant made before his fall. (3.) As it is impossible for a branch to be in two stocks at once; so no man can be, at one and the same time, both in the first and second Adam. (4) Hence it evidently follows, that all who are not ingrafted in Jesus Christ, are yet branches of the old stock; and so partake of the nature of the same. Now, as to the first Adam, our natural stock: Consider,

First, What a stock he was originally. He was a vine of the Lord's planting, a choice vine, a noble vine wholly a right seed There was a consultation of the Trinity, at the planting of this vine, Gen. i. 26. Let us make man in our own image, often our own likeness. There was no rottenness, at the heart of it. There was sap and juice enough in it, to have nourished all the branches, to bring forth fruit unto God. My meaning is, Adam was made able perfectly to keep the command­ments of God, which would have procured eternal life to himself, and [Page 169] to all his posterity; for seeing all die by Adam's disobedience; all should have had life, by his obedience, if he had stood. Consider,

Secondly, What that stock now is: ah! most unlike to what it was, when planted by the Author and Fountain of all good. A blast from hell, and a bite with the venomous teeth of the old serpent, have made it a degenerate stock, a dead stock; nay, a killing stock.

1 st, It is a degenerate naughty stock. Therefore the Lord God said to Adam, in that dismal day, Where art thou? Gen iii 9. In what condition art thou now? How art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine, unto me? Or, where wast thou? Why not in the place of meeting with me? Why so long a-coming? What meaneth this fearful change, this hiding of thyself from me? Alas! the stock is degenerate, quite spoiled, become altogether naught, and brings forth wild grapes. Converse with the devil is preferred to communion with God Satan is believed; and God, who is truth itself, disbelieved. He who was the friend of God, is now in conspi­racy against him. Darkness is come into the room of light: ignorance prevails in the mind, where divine knowledge shone: the will, some­time righteous or regular, is now turned rebel against its Lord: and the whole man is in dreadful disorder.

Before I go further, let me stop and observe, Here is a mirror both for saints and sinners. Sinners, stand here and consider, what you are: and saints learn ye, what on [...]e ye were. Ye, sinners, are branches of a degenerate stock. Fruit you may bear indeed; but now that your vine is the vine of Sodom, your grapes must, of course, be grapes of gall, Deut. xxxii. 32. The Scripture speaks of two sorts of fruit, which grow on the branches upon the natural stock: and it is plain enough, they are of the nature of their degenerate stock. (1.) The wild grapes of wickedness, Isa. v. 2. These grow in abundance by influence from hell. See Gal. v. 19, 20, 21. At their gates are all manner of these fruits, both new and old. Storms come from heaven to put them back; but they still grow. They are struck at with the sword of the Spirit, the word of God: conscience gives them many a secret blow: yet they thrive. (2) Fruit to themselves, Hos. x. 1. What else are all the unrenewed man's acts of obedience, his refor­mation, sober deportment, his prayers, and good works? They are all done, chiefly, for himself, not for the glory of God. These fruits are like the apples of Sodom, fair to look at, but fall to ashes, when handled and tried. Ye think ye have not only the leaves of a pro­fession, but the fruits of a holy practice too; but, if ye be not broken off from the old stock, and ingrafted in Christ Jesus, God accepts not, nor regards your fruits.

Here I must take occasion to tell you, there are five faults will be found in heaven, with your best fruits. (1.) Their bitterness; your clusters [...] bitter, Deut. xxxii. 32. There is a spirit of bitterness, where with some come before the Lord, in religious duties, living in malice and envy; and which some professors entertain against others, [Page 170] because they out-shine them, by holiness of life, or because they are not of their opinion or way. This, wheresoever it reigns, is a fearful symptom of an unregenerate state. But, I do not so much mean this, as that which is common to all the branches of the old stock; namely, the leaven of hypocrisy, Luke xii. 1. which sowers and embitters every duty they perform. The wisdom that is full of good fruits, is without hypocrisy, James iii. 17. (2.) Their ill savour. Their works are abominable, for themselves are corrupt, Psal. xiv. 1. They all savour of the old stock, not of the new; it is the peculiar priviledge of the saints, that they are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, 2 Cor. ii. 15. The unregenerate man's fruits savour not of love to Christ▪ [...] of the blood of Christ, nor of the incense of his intercession; and therefore will never be accepted of in heaven. (3.) Their unr [...]peness. Their grape is an unripe grape, Job xv. 33. There is no influence on them from the Sun of Righte­ousness, to bring them to perfection. They have the shape of fruit, but no more. The matter of duty is in them; but they want right principles and ends: their works are not wrought in God, John iii. 21. Their prayers drop from their lips, before their hearts be impregnate with the vital sap of the Spirit of sup­plication: their tears fall from their eyes, ere their hearts be truly softened: their feet turn to new paths, and their way is altered; while yet their nature is not changed. (4.) Their lightness. Being weighed in the balances, they are found wanting, Dan. v. 27. For evidence whereof, you may observe, they do not humble the soul, but lift it up in prid [...]. The good fruits of holiness bear down the branches they grow upon, making them to salute the ground. 1 Cor. xv. 10 I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. But the blasted fruits of un­renewed men's performance, hang lightly on branches towering up to heaven, J [...] xvii. 13. Now know I, that the Lord will do me good, seeing [...] to my priest. They look indeed so high, that God cannot b [...]id them: Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou se [...]st not? Isa. lviii. 3. The more duties they do, and the better they [...] to perform them; the less are they humbled, the more they are lifted up. This disposition of the sinner, is the ex [...]act reverse of wh [...] [...] to be found in the saint. To men, who neither are in Christ, nor are s [...]ous to be [...]und in him, their duties are like wi [...]y bladders, wher [...]with they think to swim ashore to Immanuel' [...] land: but these must needs break, and they consequently sink; because they take not Christ for the lifter-up of their head, Psal. iii. 3. Lastly, They are not all manner of pleasant fruits, Cant. [...]. 13. Christ, as a King, must be served with variety. Where God makes the heart his garden, he plants it as Solomon d [...]ns, [...] of all kinds of fruits, Eccles. [...]. 5. And accordingly it brings for [...] [...] of the [...]irit in [...] goodness. Eph v. 9. But the ungodly [...]: their [...]edience is never universal; there is always some one thin [...] [...] other excepted. In [Page 171] one word, their fruits are fruits of an ill tree, that cannot be accepted in heaven.

2 dly, Our natural stock is a dead stock, according to the threat­ning, Gen. ii. 17 in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Our root now is rottenness, no marvel the blossom go up as dust. The stroke is gone to the heart; the sap is let out, and the tree is withered. The curse of the first covenant, like a hot thunder­bolt from heaven has lighted on it, and ruined it. It is cursed now as the fig-tree, Matth. xxi. 19. Let no fruit grow on [...], henceforth for ever. Now it is good for nothing, but to cumber the ground, and furnish fuel for Tophet.

Let me enlarge a little here also. Every unrenewed man is a branch of a dead stock. When thou seest, O sinner, a dead stock of a tree, exhausted of all its sap, having branches on it in the same condition; look on it as a lively representation of thy soul's state. (1.) Where the stock is dead, the branches must needs be barren. Alas! the barrenness of many professors plainly discovers on what stock they are growing. It is easy to pretend to faith, but shew me thy faith without thy works, if thou canst, James ii. 17. (2.) A dead stock can convey no sap to the branches, to make them bring forth fruit. The covenant of works was the bond of our union with the natural stock; but now it is become weak through the flesh; that is, through the degeneracy and depravity of human nature, Rom vii. 3. It is strong enough to command, and to bind heavy burdens on the shoulders of those who are not in Christ; but it affords no strength to bear them. The sap that was once in the root, is now gone: and the law, like a merciless creditor, apprehends Adam's heirs, saying, Pay what thou owest; when, alas! his effects are riotously spent (3.) All pains and cost are lost on the tree, whose life is gone. In vain do men labour to get fruit on the branches, when there is no sap in the root. First, The gardiner's pains are lost: ministers lose their labour on the branches of the old stock, while they continue in it. Many sermons are preached to no purpose; because there is no life to give sensation. Sleeping men may be awakened; but the dead cannot be raised without a miracle: even so, the dead sinner must remain so, if he be not restored to life, by a miracle of grace.

Secondly, The influences of heaven are lost on such a tree: in vain doth the rain fall upon it: in vain is it laid open to the winter-cold and frosts. The Lord of the vineyard digs about many a dead soul, but it is not bettered. Bruise the fool in a mortar, his folly will not depart. Tho' he meets with many crosses, yet he retains his lusts: let him be laid on a sick-bed, he will there ly like a sick beast, groaning under his pain; but not mourning for, nor turning from his sin. Let death itself stare him in the face; he will presumptuously maintain his hope, as if he would look the grim messenger out of countenance. Sometimes there are common operations of the divine Spirit performed on him: he is sent home [Page 172] with a trembling heart; and with arrows of conviction sticking in his soul; but at length he prevails against these things, and turns as secure as ever. Thirdly, Summer and winter are alike to the branches of the dead stock. When others about them are budding, blossoming, and bringing forth fruit; there is no change on them; the dead stock has no growing time at all. Perhaps it may be difficult to know, in the winter, what trees are dead, and what are alive; but the spring plainly discovers it. There are some seasons, wherein there is little life to be perceived, even among saints; yet times of reviving come at length. But even when the vine flourisheth, and the pomegranates bud forth (when saving grace is discovering itself, by its lively actings, wheresoever it is) the branches on the old stock are still withered: when the dry bones are coming together, bone to bone, amongst saints; the sinners bones are still lying about the grave's mouth. They are trees that cumber the ground, are near to be cut down: and will be cut down for the fire, if God in mercy prevent it not by cutting them off from that stock, and ingrafting them into another.

[...], Our natural stock is a killing stock. If the stock die, how can the branches live? If the sap be gone from the root and heart, the branches must needs wi [...]her. In Adam all die, 1 Cor. xv. 22. The root died in Paradise: and all the branches in it, and with it. The root is impoisoned, [...] the branches come to be infected: death is in the pot; and all that taste of the pulse, or pottage are killed.

Know then, that every natural man is a branch of a killing stock. Our natural root not only gives us not life, but it has a killing power reaching all the branches thereof. There are four things, which the first Adam conveys to all his branches; and they are abiding in, and lying on, such of them as are not ingrafted to Christ. Fi [...]st. A corrupt nature. He sinned, and his nature was thereby corrupted or depraved; and this corruption is conveyed to all his posterity. He was infected and the contagion spread itself over all his seed. Secondly, Guilt, that is an obligation to punishment, Rom v. 21. By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin: and so death passed upon all m [...]n, for that all have sinned. The threatnings of the law, as cords of death, are twisted about the branches of the old stock; to draw them over the hedge into the fire. And till they be cut off from this stock by the pruning knife; the sword of vengeance hangs over their heads, to cut them down. Thirdly, This killing stock transmits the curse into the branches. The stock, as the stock, (for I speak not of Adam in his personal and private capacity) being cursed; so are the branches. Gal iii. 10. For as many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse This curse affects the whole man, and all that belongs to him, every thing he possesses; and worketh three ways. (1.) As poison, in­fecting▪ thus their blessings are cursed, Mal ii. 2. Whatever the man enjoys, it can do him no good, but evil; being th [...] imp [...]soned [Page 173] by the curse. His prosperity in the world destroys him, Prov. i. 32. The ministry of the gospel is a savour of death unto death, to him, 2 Cor. ii. 16. His seeming attainments in religion are cursed to him: his knowledge serves but to puff him up, and his duties to keep him back from Christ. (2.) It worke [...]h as a moth, consuming and wasting by little and little, Hos. [...]. 12 Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth. There is a worm at the root, consuming them by degrees. Thus the curse pursued S [...]ul, till it wormed him out of all his enjoyments, and out of the very shew he had of religion. Sometimes they decay like the f [...]t of lambs, and melt away as the snow in a sun-shine (2.) It acteth as a lion rampant, Hos. v. 14. I will be unto Ephraim as a lion. The Lord rains on them snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest, in such a manner, that they are hurried away with the stream. He teareth their enjoy­ments from them in his wrath, pursueth them with terrors, rents their souls from their bodies, and throws the deadhed branch into the fire. Thus the curse devours like fire, which none can quench. Lastly, This killing stock transmits death to the branches upon it. Adam took the poisonous cup, and drunk it off: this occasioned death to himself and us. We came into the world spiritually dead, thereby obnoxious to eternal death, and absolutely liable to tem­poral death. This root is to us like the Scythian river, which, they say, brings forth little bladders every day, out of which come certain small flies, which are bred in the morning, winged at noon, and dead at night: a very lively emblem of our mortal state.

Now, Sirs, is it not absolutely necessary to be broken off from this our natural stock? What will our fair leaves of a profession, or our fruits of duties avail, if we be still branches of the degenerate, dead and killing stock? But, alas! among the many questions tossed among us, few are taken up about these, ‘Whether am I broken off from the old stock, or not? Whether am I ingrafted in Christ, or not?’ Ah! wherefore all this waste! Why is there so much noise about religion amongst many, who can give no good account of their having laid a good foundation, being mere stran­gers to experimental religion? I fear, if God do not, in mercy, timeously undermine the religion of many of us, and let us see we have none at all; our root will be found rottenness, and our blossom go up as dust, in a dying hour. Therefore, let us look to our state, that we be not found fools in our latter end.

II. Let us now view the supernatural stock in which the branches, cut off from the natural stock, are ingrafted. Jesus Christ is some­times called the branch, Zech. ii. 8. So he is, in respect of his human nature; being a branch, and the top branch of the house of David. Sometimes he is called a root, Isa. xi. 10. we have both together, Rev. xxii. 16. I am the root, and the off-spring of David: David's root, as God; and his off-spring, as man. The text tells, that he is the Vine: he, as Mediator, is the vine-stock, whereof believers [Page 174] are the branches. As the sap comes from the earth into the root and stock, and from thence is diffused into the branches; so by Christ, as Mediator, divine life is conveyed from the fountain unto these who are united to him by faith, John vi 57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. Now Christ is Mediator, not as God only, as some have asserted: nor yet as man only, as the Papists gene­rally hold: but he is Mediator as God-man, Acts xx. 28 — The church of God, which he hath purchased with his blood. Heb. ix 14. Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God. The divine and human natures have their distinct actings, yet a joint operation in this, discharging the office of a Mediator. This is illustrated by the similitude of a fiery sword, which at once cuts and burns: cutting it burneth, and burning it cutteth; the steel cuts, and the fire burns. Wherefore Christ, God-man, is the stock, whereof believers are the branches: and they are united to whole Christ. They are united to him in his human nature, as be­ing members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, Eph v. 30. and they are united to him in his divine nature; for so the Apostle speaks of this union, Col. i. 27. Christ, in you, the hope of glory. And by him they are united to the Father, and to the Holy Ghost, 1 John iv. 15. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. Faith, the bond of this union, receives whole Christ, God-man: and so unites us to him as such.

Behold here, O believers, your high privilege Ye were once branches of a degenerate stock, even as others: but ye are, by grace, become branches of the true Vine, John xv. 1. Ye are cut out of a dead and killing stock; and ingrafted in the last Adam, who was made a quickning Spirit, 1 Cor. xv. 45. Your loss by the first Adam is made up, with great advantage, by your union with the second. Adam, at his best estate, was but a shrub, in comparison with Christ the tree of life. He was but a servant, Christ is the Son, the Heir, and Lord of all things, the Lord from heaven. It cannot be denied, that grace was shown in the first covenant: but it is as far exceeded by the grace of the second covenant, as the twilight is, by the light of the mid-day.

III. What branches are taken out of the natural stock, and grafted into this Vine? Ans These are the elect, and none other. They, and they only, are grafted into Christ; and consequently none but they are cut off from the killing stock. For them alone he interceeds, that they may be one in him, and his Father, John xvii. 9, 23. Faith, the bond of this union, is given to none else: it is the faith of God's elect, Tit. i. 1. The Lord passed by many branches growing on the natural stock, and cuts off only here one, and there one, and grafts them into the true Vine, according as free love hath determined. Oft does he pitch upon the most unlikely branch, leaving the top-boughs; passing by the mighty, and the [Page 175] noble, and calling the weak, base, and despised, 1 Cor i. 26, 27. Yea, he often leaves the fair and smooth, and takes the rugged and knotty, and such wer [...] some of you, but ye are washed, &c 1 Cor. vi 11. If ye enquire, why so? We find no other reason but because they were chosen in him, Eph [...] 4 Predestinated to the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ, ver. 5. Thus are they gathered together in Christ: wh [...]le the rest are left growing on their natural stock, to be after­wards bound up in oundles for the fire Wherefore, to whomso­ever the gospel may come in vain, it will have a blest effect on God's elect, Acts xiii. 48. As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed! Where the Lord has much people, the gospel will have much success, sooner or latter. Such as are to be saved, will be add [...] to the mystical body of Christ.

How the [...]ranches are taken out of the natural Stock, and ingrafted into the supernatural Stock.

IV. I am to shew how the branches are cut off from the natural stock, the first Adam, and grafted into the true Vine, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks to the husbandman, not to the branch, that it is cut off from its natural stock, and ingrafted into a new one. The sinner, in his coming off from the first stock, is passive; and neither can nor will come off from it of his own accord; but clings to it, till almighty power make him to fall off, John vi 44. No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me, draw him. And chap. v. 40. Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. The ingrafted branches are God's husbandry, 1 Cor. iii. 9 The planting of the Lord, Isa. lxi. 3. The ordinary means he makes use of in this work, is the ministry of the word, 1 Cor. iii 9 We are labourers together with God. But the efficacy thereof is wholly from him, whatever the minister's part or piety be, ver. 7. Neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth: but God that giveth the increase. The Apostle preached to the Jews, yet the body of that people remained in infidelity, Rom. x. 16. Who hath believed our report? Yea, Christ himself, who spoke as never man spoke, saith concerning the success of his own ministry, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, Isa xlix. The branches may be hacked by the preaching of the word: but the stroke will never go through, till it be carried home on them, by an omnipo­tent arm. However God's ordinary way is, by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe, 1 Cor i. 21.

The cutting off of the branch from the natural stock, is performed by the prunning knife of the law, in the hand of the Spirit of God, Gal. ii. [...]9. For I, through the law, am dead to the law. It is by the bond of the covenant of works, as I said before, that we are knit to our natural stock: and therefore, as a wife, unwilling to be put away, plead [...] and hangs by the marriage tie; so do men by the [Page 176] covenant of works. They hold by it, like the man who held the ship with his hands; and when one hand was cut off, held it with the other; and when both were cut off, held it with his teeth This will appear from a distinct view of the Lord's work on men, in bring­ing them off from the old stock▪ which I now offer in these following particulars.

First, When the Spirit of the Lord comes to deal with a person, to bring him to Christ; he finds him the Laodlee [...]'s case, in a sound sleep of security, dreaming of heaven and the favour of God tho' full of sin against the holy One of Israel. Rev. iii 17. Thou know si [...]n [...] no that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. And therefore he darts in some beams of light into the dark soul; and lets the man see he is a lost man, if he turn not over a new leaf, and betake himself to a new course of life. Thus by the Spirit of the Lord, acting as a spirit of bondage, there is a criminal court erected in the man's breast; where he is arraigned, accused, and condemned for breaking the law of God, convinced of sin and judgment, John xvi. 8. And now he can no longer sleep securely in his former course of life. This is the first stroke the branch gets, in order to cutting off.

Secondly, Hereupon the man forsake his former profane courses; his lying, swearing, Sabbath-breaking, stealing, and such like practices, though they be dear to him as right eyes, he will rather quit them, than ruin his soul. The ship is like to sink, and therefore he throweth his goods over-board, that he himself may not perish. And now he begins to bless himself in his heart, and look joyfully on his evidences for heaven; thinking himself a better servant to God than many others, Luke xviii. 11. God, I thank that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, &c. But he soon gets another stroke with the ax of the law, shewing him that it is only he that doth what is written in the law, who can be saved by [...]; and that his negative holiness is too scanty a cover from the storm of God's wrath. And thus, although his sins of commission only were heavy on him before: his sins of omission now crowd into his thought [...], attended with a train of law-curses and vengeance. And c [...]th o [...] the ter [...] commands discharges thunder-claps of wrath against him, for his omitting re­quired duties.

Thirdly, Upon this he turns to a positively holy course of life. He not only is not profane, but he performs religious duties: he prays, seeks the knowledge of the principles of religion, strictly observes the Lord's day, and, like Herod, does away things, and [...]ars sermons gladly. In one word, there is a great conformity in his [...]ard conversation, to the letter of both tables of the law. And now there is a mighty change upon the man, that his neighbours cannot miss to take notice of. Hence he is cheerfully admitted by the godly into their society, as a praying person, and can confer with them about religious matters, yea, and about soul-exercise, which some are not acquainted with. And their good opinion of him confirms his good [Page 177] opinion of himself. This step in religion is fatal to many, who never get beyond it. But here the Lord reacheth the elect-branch a farther stroke. Conscience flies in the man's face, for some wrong steps in his conversation: the neglect of some duty, or commission of some sin, which is a blot in his conversation: and then the flaming sword of the law appears again over his head: and the curse rings in his ears, for cursed is he that continueth not in all things written in the law to do them, Gal. iii. 10.

Fourthly, On this account he is obliged to seek another salve for his sore. He goes to God, confesseth his sin; seeks the pardon of it, promising to watch against it for the time to come; and so finds ease, and thinks he may very well take it, seeing the scripture saith, If we confess our sins▪ he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, 1 John i. 9. not considering that he grasps at a privilege, which is theirs only who are ingrafted into Christ, and under the covenant of grace; and which the branches yet growing on the old stock cannot plead. And here sometimes there are formal and express vows made against such and such sins, and binding to such and such duties. Thus many go on all their days; knowing no other religion but to do duties, and to confess, and pray for pardon of that wherein they fail; pro­mising themselves eternal happiness, though they are utter strangers to Christ. Here many elect ones have been cast down wounded, and many reprobates have been slain; while the wounds of neither of them have been deep enough, to cut them off from their natural stock. But the Spirit of the Lord gives yet a deeper stroke to the branch which is to be cut off; shewing him, that, as yet, he is but an out-side saint; and discovering to him the filthy lusts lodged in his heart, which he took no notice of before, Rom vii. 9. When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. Then he sees his heart a dung-hill of hellish lusts; filled with covetousness, pride, malice, filthiness, and the like. Now, as soon as the door of the chambers of his imagery is thus opened to him, and he sees what they do there in the dark, his out-side religion is blown up as insufficient; and he learns a new lesson in religion; namely, That he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, Rom. ii. 28.

Fifthly, Upon this he goes further, even to in side religion; sets to work more vigorously than ever, mourns over the evils of his heart, and strives to bear down the weeds he finds growing in that neglected garden. He labours to curb his pride and passion; and to banish speculative impurities; prays more fervently, hears attentively, and strives to get his heart affected in every religious duty he performs; and thus he comes to think himself not only an outside, but an in-side Christian. Wonder not at this: for there is nothing in it beyond the power of nature, or what one may attain to under a vigorous in­fluence of the covenant of works. Therefore another yet deeper stroke is reached. The law chargeth home on the man's conscience, thal he was a transgressor from the womb; that he came into the world a guilty creature: and that, in [...] [...]ints of his ignorance, [...] [Page 178] even since his eyes were opened, he has been guilty of many actual sins, either altogether overlooked by him, or not sufficiently mourned over: (For spiritual sores, not healed by the blood of Christ, but skinned over some other way, are easily ruffled, and as soon break out again.) And therefore the law takes him by the throat, saying, Pay what thou owest.

Sixthly, Then the sinner says in his heart, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all: and so falls to work to pacify an offended God, and to atone for these sins. He renews his repentance, such as it is; bears patiently the afflictions laid upon him; yea, he afflicts himself, denies himself the use of his lawful comforts, sighs deeply, mourns bitterly, cries with tears for a pardon, till he hath wrought up his heart to a conceit of having obtained it; having thus done pen­ance for what is past, and resolving to be a good servant to God, and to hold on in outward and inward obedience, for the time to come. But the stroke must go nearer the heart yet, ere the branch fall off. The Lord discovers to him, in the glass of the law, how he sinneth in all he does, even when he does the best he can; and therefore the dreadful sound returns to his ears, Gal. iii. 10. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things, &c. When ye fasted and mourned, saith the Lord, Did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? Will muddy water make clean clothes? Will you satisfy for one sin with another? Did not your thoughts wander in such a duty? Were not your affec­tions flat in another? Did not your heart give a whorish look to such an idol? And did it not rise in a fit of impatience under such an afflic­tion? Should I accept this of your hands? Cursed be the deceiver, which sacrificeth to the Lord a corrupt thing, Mal. i. 13, 14. And thus he becomes so far broke off, that he sees he is not able to satisfy the demands of the law.

Seventhly, Hence, like a broken man, who finds he is not able to pay all his debts, he goes about to compound with his creditor. And being in pursuit of ease and comfort, he does what he can to fulfil the law; and wherein he fails, he looks that God will accept the will for the deed. Thus doing his duty, and having a will to do better, he cheats himself in a persuasion of the goodness of his state: and hereby thousands are ruined. But the elect get another stroke, which looseth their hold in this case. The doctrine of the law is born in on their consciences; demonstrating to them, that exact and perfect obedience is required by it, under pain of the curse: and that it is doing, and not wishing to do, which will avail. Wishing to do better will not answer the law's demands: and therefore the curse sounds again, Cursed is every one that continueth not—to do them; that is, actually to do them. In vain is wishing then.

Eighthly, Being broken off from hopes of compounding with the l [...]w, he falls a borrowing. He sees that all he can do to obey the law, and all his desires to be, and to do better, will not save his soul: therefore he goes to Christ, intreating, that his righteousness may [Page 179] make up what is wanting in his own, and cover all the defects of his doings and sufferings; that so God, for Christ's sake, may accept them, and thereupon be reconciled. Thus doing what he can to fulfil the law, and looking to Christ to make up all his defects, he comes at length, again to sleep in a sound skin. Many persons are ruined this way. This was the error of the Galatians, which Paul, in his epistle to them, disputes against. But the Spirit of God breaks off the sinner from this hold also: by bearing in on his cons [...]ience that great truth, Gal. iii. 12. The law is not of faith; but the man that doth them shall live in them. There is no mixing of the law and faith in this business; the sinner must hold by one of them, and let the other go: the way of the law, and the way of faith, are so far different, that it is not possible for a sinner to walk in the one, but he must [...]o [...]e off from the other: and if he be for doing, he must do all alone; Christ will not do a part for him, if he do not all. A garment pieced up of sundry sorts of righteousness, is not a garment meet for the court of heaven. Thus the man, who was in a dream, and thought he was eating, is awakened by the stroke, and behold his soul is faint; his heart sinks in him like a stone; while he finds he can neither bear his burden himself alone, nor can he get help under it.

Ninthly, What can one do, who must needs pay, and yet neither has as much of his own as will bring him out of debt, nor can he get as much to borrow; and to beg he is ashamed? What can such a one do, I say, but sell himself, as the man under the law, that was waxen poor? Lev. xxv. 47. Therefore the sinner beat off from so many holds, goes about to make a bargain with Christ, and to sell himself to the Son of God, (if I may so speak) solemnly promising and vowing, that he will be a servant to Christ, as long as he lives, if he will save his soul. And here oft-times the sinner makes a personal covenant with Christ, resigning himself to him on these terms; yea, and takes the sacrament, to make the bargain sure. Hereupon the man's great care is, how to obey Christ, keep his commands, and so fulfil his bargain. And, in this the soul finds a false, unfound peace, for a while; till the Spirit of the Lord fetch another stroke, to cut off the man from this refuge of lies likewise. And that happens in this manner: When he fails of the duties he engaged to, and falls again into the sin he covenanted against; it is powerfully carried home on his conscience, that his covenant is broken: so all his comfort goes, and terrors afresh seize on his soul, as one that has broken covenant with Christ, and commonly the man, to help himself, renews his covenant but breaks again as before. And how is it possible it should be otherwise, seeing he is still upon the old stock? Thus the work of many, all their days, as to their souls, is nothing but a making and breaking such covenants, over and over again.

Objects Some, perhaps, will say, ‘Who liveth and sinneth not? Who is there that faileth not of the duties he is engaged to?If you reject this way as unsound, who then can be saved?’ — [Page 180] Answ. True believers will be saved; namely, all who do, by faith, take hold of God's covenant. But this kind [...] govenant is men's own covenant, devised of their own heart; not God' [...] covenant revealed in the gospel of his grace [...] and the maki [...] of it is nothing else, but the making of a covenant of works with Christ, confounding the law and the gospel; a covenant he will never subscribe to, though we should sign it with our heart's blood. Rom. iv 14. ‘For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect. Ver. [...]6 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace, to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed. Chap. xi. 6. And if by grace, then it is no more of works: other­wise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work’ God's covenant is everlasting: once in, never out of it again; and the mercies of it are sure mercies, Isa. lv. 3. But that covenant of [...]urs is a tottering covenant, never sure, but broken every day. [...] is a mere servile covenant, giving Christ service for salvation: but God's covenant is a filial covenant, in which the sinner takes Christ, and his salvation freely offered, and so becomes a son, John i. 12. But as many as re­ceived him, to them gave he power to become the [...]ns of God: and being become a son, he serves his Father, not that [...] inheritance may become his, but because it is his, through Jesus Christ. See Gal. iv. 24. and downward. To enter into that spurious covenant, is to buy from Christ with money; but to take hold of God's covenant is to buy of him without money, and without price, Isa. l [...]. 1. that is to say, to beg of him. In that covenant men work for life; in God's covenant they come to Christ for life, and work from life. When a person under that covenant fails in his duty, all is gone: the covenant must be made over again. But under God's covenant, although the man fail in his duty, and for his failures fall under the discipline of the covenant, and lies under the weight of it, till such time as he has recourse anew to the blood of Christ for pardon, and renew his repentance; yet all that he trusted to for life and salvation, namely, the righteousness of Christ, still stands entire, and the covenant remains firm. See Rom. vii. 24, 25. and viii. 1.

Now, though [...] lives in making and breaking such covenants of their own [...] upon [...] re [...]king o [...] them wearing weake [...] and weake [...] by degree [...] it creates them little or no uneasiness: at the man [...] the good work is carried on, till it be accomplished in [...] off from the old stock, ti [...]; these covenants to be [...] every touch; and the terro [...] of God, being [...] upon [...] spirit, and the waters at every [...], getting [...] cease from catching [...]old of such covenants [...] other way.

Tenthly, Therefore the [...] at C [...]rt [...]'s [...]r for mercy: but, yet he is [...] on his personal worth. For, as the [...] [Page 181] the one only Mediator; so the branches of the old stock, have always something to produce, which they think may commend them to Christ, and engage him to take their cause in hand. They cannot think of coming to the spiritual market, without money in their hand They are like persons, who have once had an estate of their own, but are reduced to extreme poverty, and forced to b [...]g When they come to beg, they still remember their former character; and though they have lost their substance, yet they retain much of their former spirit, therefore they cannot think they ought to be treated as ordinary beggars; but deserve a particular regard; and, if that be not given them, their spirits rise against him to whom they ad [...] themselves for supply. Thus God gives the unhumbled sinner many com [...] mercies: and shuts him not up in the pit, according to his deserving [...] but all this is nothing in his eyes. He must be set down at the children's table, otherwise he reckons himself hardly dealt with, and wronged▪ for he is not yet brought so low, as to think, God may be justified when he speaketh, (against him) and clear from all iniqui [...], when he judgeth him, according to his real demerit, Psal. li. 4 He thinks, perhaps, that even before he was enlightned, he was better than many others; he considers his reformation of life, his repentance, and grief and tears his sin has cost him, his earnest desires after Christ, his prayers, and wrestlings for mercy; and useth all these now, as bribes for mercy, laying no small weight upon them, in his addresses to the throne of grace. But here the Spirit of the Lord shoots a sheaf of arrows into the man's heart, whereby his confidence in these things is sunk and destroyed; and instead of thinking himself better than many, he is made to see himself worse than any. The naughti­ness of his reformation of life is discovered. His repentance appears to him no better than the repentance of Judas; his tears like Esau's, and his desires after Christ to be selfish and loathsome, like theirs who sought Christ because of the loaves. John vi. 26. His answer from God seems now to be, Away proud beggar, How shall I put thee among the children? He seems to look sternly on him, for his slighting of Jesus Christ by unbelief, which is a sin he fearce discerned before. But now, [...] length, he beholds it in its crimson colours; and is pierced to the heart, as with a thousand darts, while he sees how i [...] has been going on blindly, sinning against the remedy of sin, and in the whole coarse of his life, trampling on the blood of the Son of God. And now he is, in his own eyes, the miserable object of law-vengeance, yea, and gospel-vengeance too.

Eleventhly, The man being thus far humbled, will no more plead, he is worthy for wh [...]m Christ should do this thing: but, on the contrary, looks on himself as unworthy of Christ, and unworthy of the favour of God. We may compare him, in this case, to the young man who followed Christ, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body [...] on whom, when the young men laid hold, he left the linen cloth, and fied from them naked, Mark xiv. 51, 52. Even so the man had been [Page 182] following Christ, in the thin and coldrise garment of his own personal worthiness; but by it, even by it, which he so much trusted to, the law catcheth hold of him, to make him prisoner; and then he is fain to leave it, and flees away naked; yet not to Christ, but from him. If you now tell him, he is welcome to Christ, if he will come to him; he is apt to say, Can such a vile and unworthy wretch as I, be welcome to the holy Jesus? If a plaister be applied to his wounded soul, it will not stick He says, Depart from m [...], for I am a sinful man, O Lord, Luke v. 8. No man needs speak to him of his repentance, for his comfort; he can quickly espy such faults in it as makes it naught: nor of his tears, for he is assured, they have never come into the Lord's bottle. He dispute himself away from Christ; and concludes, now that he has been such a slighter of Christ, and is such an unholy and vile creature, he cannot, he will not, he ought nor, to come to Christ; and that he must either be in better case, or else he'll never believe. And hence, he now makes his strongest efforts, to amend what was amiss in his way before: He prays more earnestly than ever, mourns more bitterly, strives against sin in heart and life, more vigorously, and watcheth more diligently; if by any means he may, at length be fit to come to Christ. One would think the man is well humbled now: But ah! devilish pride lurks under the veil of all this seeming humility. Like a kindly br [...]nch of the old stock; he adheres still; and will not submit to the righteousness [...]f God, Rom. x 3. He will not come to the market of free-grace, without money. He is bidden to the marriage of the King's Son, where the bridegroom himself furnisheth all the guests with wedding garments, stripping them of their own: but he will not come, because he wants a wedding-garment; howbeit he is very busy making one ready. This is sad work; and therefore he must have a deeper stroke yet; else he is ruined. This stroke is reached him with the ax of the law, in its irritating power. Thus the law girding the soul with cords of death, and holding it in with the rigorous commands of obedience, under the pain of the curse; and God, in his holy and wise conduct, withdrawing his restraining grace; corruption is irritated, lusts become violent, and the more they are striven against, the more they rage, like a furious horse checked with the b [...]. Then do corruptions set up their heads, which he never saw in himself before. Here oft-times atheism, blasphemy, and, in one word, horrible things concerning God, terrible thoughts concerning the faith, arise in his breast: so that his heart is a very hell within him. Thus, while he is sweeping the house of his heart, not yet watered with gospel-grace, these corruptions which lay quiet before in neglected corners, sly up and down in it like dust. He is as one who is mending a dam, and while he's repairing breaches in it, and strengthening every part of it, a mighty flood comes down, over­turns his work, and drives all away before it, as well what was newly laid, as what was laid before. Read, Rom. vii. 8, 9, 10, 13. This [Page 183] is a stroke which goes to the heart: and, by it, his hope of getting himself nore sit to come to Christ, is cut off.

Lastly, Now the time is come when the man betwixt hope and despair, resolves to go to Christ as he is: and therefore, like a dying man stretching himself, just before his breath goes out, he rallies the broken forces of his soul; tries to believe, and in some sort lays hold on Jesus Christ. And now the branch hangs on the old stock, by one single tack of a natural faith, produced by the natural vigour of one's own spirit, under a most pressing necessity, Psal. lxxxviii. 34, 35. ‘When he slew them, then they sought him, and they returned and enquired early after God. And they remembred that God was their rock, and the high God their Redeemer.’ Hos. viii. 2. Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee. But the Lord minding to perfect his work, fetches yet another stroke, whereby the branch falls quite off. The Spirit of God convincingly discovers to the sinner, his utter inability to do any thing that is good: and so he dieth, Rom. vii. 9. That voice powerfully strikes through his soul, How can ye believe? John v. 44. Thou canst no more believe, than thou canst reach up thine hand to heaven, and bring Christ down from thence. And thus at length he sees, he can neither help himself by working, nor by believing: and having no more to hang by on the old stock, he therefore falls off. And while he is distressed thus, seeing himself like to be swept away with the flood of God's wrath; and yet unable so much as to stretch forth a hand to lay hold of a twig of the tree of life, growing on the banks of the river; he is taken up, and ingrafted into the true Vine, the Lord Jesus Christ giving him the spirit of faith.

By what has been said upon this head, I design not to rack or distress tender consciences; for, tho' there are but few such, at the day, yet, God forbid I should offend any of Christ's little ones. But, alas! a dead sleep is fallen upon this generation; they will not be awakened, let us go as near the quick as we will: and therefore, I fear there is another sort of awakening abiding this sermon-proof generation, which shall make the ears of them that hear it to tingle. However, I would not have this to be looked upon as the sovereign God's stinted method of breaking off sinners from the old stock: but this I assert as a certain truth, that all who are in Christ, have been broken off from all these several confidences; and that they who were never broken off from them, are yet in their natural stock. Nevertheless, if the house be pulled down, and the old foundation razed: it is all a case, whether it was taken down stone by stone, or whether it was undetermined, and all fell down together.

Now it is, that the branch is ingrafted in Jesus Christ. And, as the law, in the hand of the Spirit of God, was the instrume [...] to cut off the branch from the natural stock, so the gospel, in the hand of the same Spirit, is the instrument used for ingrafting it in the supernatural stock, 1 John i. 3. ‘That which we have seen and heard, declare [Page 184] we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.’ See Isa. lxi. 1, 2, 3. The gospel is the silver cord let down from heaven, to draw perishing sinners to land. And, tho' the preaching of the law prepares the way of the Lord; yet it is in the word of the gospel, that Christ and a sinner meet. Now, as in the natural grafting, the branch being taken up is put into the stock; and being put into it, takes with it; and so they are united: even so in the spiritual ingrafting, Christ apprehends the sinner; and the sinner being apprehended of Christ, apprehends him; and so they become one, Philip. iii. 12.

First, Christ apprehends the sinner by his Spirit, and draws him to himself, 1 Cor. xii 13. For by one Spirit, we are all baptized into one body. The same Spirit, which is in the Mediator himself, he com­municates to his elect in due time; never to depart from them, but to abide in them, as a principle of life. Thus, he takes hold of them, by his own Spirit put into them; and so the withered branch gets life. The soul is now in the hands of the Lord of life, and possessed by the Spirit of life: how then can it but live? The man gets a ravishing light of Christ's excellency, in the glass of the gospel: he sees him a full, suitable, and willing Saviour; and gets a heart to take him for, and instead of all. The spirit of faith furnisheth him with feet to come to Christ, and hands to receive him. What by nature he could not do, by grace he can; the Holy Spirit working in him the work of faith with power.

Secondly, The Sinner, thus apprehended, apprehends Christ by faith, and so takes with the blessed stock, Eph. iii. 17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. The soul that before tried many ways of escape, but all in vain, doth now look again, with the eye of faith, which proves the healing look. As Aaron's rod, laid up in the taber­nacle, budded, and brought forth buds, Numb. xvii. 8. So the dead branch apprehended by the Lord of life, put into, and bound up with, the glorious quickning stock, by the Spirit of life, buds forth in actual believing on Jesus Christ, whereby this union is completed. We having the same spirit of faith—believe, 2 Cor. iv. 13. Thus the stock and the graft are united, Christ and the Christian are married: faith being the soul's consent to the spiritual marriage covenant, which, as it is pro­posed in the gospel to mankind sinners indefinitely, so it is demon­strated, attested, and brought home, to the man in particular, by the Holy Spirit: and so be, being joined to the Lord, is one Spirit with him. Hereby a believer liv [...] in and for Christ, and Christ lives in, and for the believer, Gal. ii. [...] I am crucified with Christ: Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in [...]. Hos. iii. 3. Thou shalt not be for another man, so will I [...] be for thee. The [...]o [...]ds then of this blessed union are, the Spirit on Christ's part, and saith [...] the believer's part.

[Page 185]Now, both the souls and bodies of believers are united to Christ. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit, 1 Cor vi 17. The very bodi [...] of believers have this honour put upon them, that they are the templ [...] of the holy Ghost, ver. 19. And the members of Christ, ver. 15. When they sleep in the dust, they sleep in Jesus, 1 Thess. iv. 14. And it is in virtue of this union, they shall be raised up out of the dust again, Rom. viii. 11. He shall quicken your m [...]tal bodies, by his Spirit [...] dwelleth in you. In token of this mystical union, the church of be­lievers is called by the name of her head and husband, 1 Cor. xii 12. For as the body is one, and hath many members,—so also is Christ

USE From what is said, we may draw these following inferences:

1 The preaching of the law is most necessary. He that would ingraft, must needs use the snedding knife. Sinners have many shifts to keep them from Christ; many things by which they keep their hold of the natural stock: therefore, they have need to be closely pursued, and hunted out of their sculking holes, and refuge of lies.

2. Yet it is the gospel that crowns the work: the law makes nothing perfect [...] [...]he law lays open the wound, but it is the gospel that heals. The law strips a man, wounds him, and leaves him half-dead: the gospel binds up his wounds, pouring in wine and oil, to heal them. By the law we are broken off: but, it is by the gospel we are taken up, and implanted in Christ.

3. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his, Rom. viii 9. We are told of a monster in nature, having two bodies differently animated, as appeared from contrary affections at one and the same time; but so united, that they were served with the self­same legs Even so, however men may cleave to Christ, call them­selves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel, Isa. xlvii 2. And they may be bound up as branches in him, John xv. 2. by the outward ties of sacraments: yet, if the Spirit that dwells in Christ, dwell not in them they are not one with him. There is a great difference betwixt adhesion and ingrafting. The ivy clasps and twists itself about the oak; but it is not one with it, for it still grows on its own root: so, to alled [...] [...] Isa. iv. 1. many professors take hold of Christ, and eat their own bread, and wear their own appar [...]l, only they are called by his name. They stay themselves upon him, but grow upon their own root: they take him to support their hopes, but their delights are elsewhere.

4. The union betwixt Christ and his mystical members, is firm and indissoluble Were it so that the believer only apprehended Christ, but Christ apprehended [...]ot him: we could promise little on the stabi­lity of such an union; it might quickly be dissolved: but, as the believer apprehends Christ by faith; so Christ apprehends him by his Spirit and none shall pluck him out of his hand. Did the child only keep hold of the nurse, it might at length weary and let go its hold, and so fall away: but if she have her arms about the child, it is in no hazard of falling away, even though it be not actually holden by her: [Page 186] so, whatever sinful intermissions may happen in the exercise of faith, yet the union remains sure, by reason of the constant indwelling of the Spirit. Blessed Jesus! All his saints are in thy hand, Deut. xxxiii. 3. It is observed by some, that the word Abba, is the same, whether you read it forward or backward! whatever the believer's case be, the Lord is still to him Abba, Father.

Lastly, They have an unsure hold of Christ, whom he has not apprehended by his Spirit. There are many half-marriages here, where the soul apprehends Christ, but is not apprehended of him. Hence many fall away, and never rise again: they let go their hold of Christ; and when that is gone, all is gone. These are the branches in Christ, that bear not fruit, which the husband-man taketh away, John xv. 2. Quest. How can that be? Ans. These branches are set in the stock, by a profession, or an unsound hypocritical faith; they are bound up with it, in the external use of the sacraments: but the stock and they are never knit; therefore they cannot bear fruit. And they need not be cut off, nor broken off; they are by the husband­man only taken away, or, (as the word primarily signifies) lifted up; and so taken away, because there is nothing to hold them: they are indeed bound up with the stock; but they have never united with it.

Quest, How shall I know if I am apprehended of Christ? Ans. You may be satisfied in this inquiry, if you consider and apply these two things.

First, When Christ apprehends a man by his Spirit, he is so drawn, that he comes away to Christ with his whole heart: for true believing is believing with all the heart, Acts viii. 37. Our Lord's followers are like these who followed Saul at first, men whose hearts God has touched, 1 Sam. x. 26. When the Spirit pours in overcoming grace, they pour out their hearts like water before him, Psal. lxii. 8. They flow unto him, like a river, Isa. ii. 2. All nations shall flow unto it: namely, to the mountain of the Lord's house. It denotes not only the abundance of converts; but the disposition of their souls, in coming to Christ: they come heartily and freely, as drawn with loving kindness, Jer. xxxi. 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, Psal. cx. 3. i. e. free, ready, open-hearted, giving themselves to thee as free-will off [...]ngs. When the bridegroom has the bride's heart, it is a right marriage▪ but some give their hand to Christ, who give him not their heart. They that are only driven to Christ by terror, will surely [...]eave him again, when that terror is gone. Terror may break a heart of stone; but the pieces into which it is broken, still continue to be stone: the terrors cannot soften it into a heart of flesh. Yet terror may begin the work, which love crowns: The strong wind, the earth­quake, and the fire going before: the still small voice, in which the Lord is, may come after them. When the blessed Jesus is seeking sinners to match with him, they are bold and perverse, they will not speak with him, [...] he hath wounded them, made them captives, and [...] them with the [...]rds of death. When this is done, then it is that he makes love t [...] [...], and [...] their hearts. The Lord tells [Page 187] us, Hos. ii 16—20. That his chosen Israel shall be married unto himself. But, how will the bride's consent be won? Why, in the first place, he will bring her into the wilderness, as he did the people, when he brought them out of Egypt, ver. 14. There the will be hardly dealt with, scorched with thirst, and bitten with serpents: and then he will speak comfortably to her, or, as [...]he expression is, he will speak upon her heart. The sinner is first driven, and then drawn to Christ. It is with the soul, as with Noah's dove; she was forced back again to the ark, because she could find nothing else to rest upon: but when she did return, she would have rested on the out side of it, if Noah had not put forth his hand, and pulled her in, Gen. viii. 9. The Lord sends the avenger of blood in pursuit of the criminal; and he, with a sad heart, leaves his own city; and, with tears in his eyes, parts with his old acquaintance, because he dare not stay with them: and he frees for his life to the city of refuge. This is not at all his choice, it is forced work; necessity has no law. But, when he comes to the gates, and sees the beauty of the place, the excellency and love­liness of it charms him; and then he enters it with heart and good­will, saying, This is my rest, and here I will stay; and, as one said in another case, I had perished unless I had p [...]rished.

Secondly, When Christ apprehends a soul, the heart is disengaged from, and turned against, sin. As in cutting off the branch from the old stock, the great idol self is brought down, the man is powerfully taught to deny himself: so, in the apprehending of the sinner by his Spirit, that union is dissolved, which was betwixt the man and his lusts, while he was in the flesh, as the Apostle expresses it. Rom. viii. 5. his heart is loosed from them, though formerly [...]s dear to him, as the members of his body; as his eyes, legs, or arms; and, instead of taking pleasure in them as some time he did; he longs to be rid of them. When the Lord Jesus comes to a soul, in the day of convert­ing grace; he finds it like Jerusalem, in the day of her nativity, (Ezek. xvi. 4.) with its navel not cut, drawing its fulsome nourishment and satisfaction from its lusts: but, he cuts off thi [...] communication, that he may set the soul on the breasts of his own consolations, and give it rest in himself. And thus the Lord wounds the head and heart of sin, and the soul comes to him, saying, ‘Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there are no pro [...]it,’ Jer. xvi. 19.

Of the Benefits flowing to true believers, from th [...]ir union with Christ.

V. And lastly, I come to speak of the benefits flowing to true believers from their union with Christ. The chief of the particular benefits believers have by it, are justification, peace, adoption, sanctifi­cation, growth in grace fruitfulness in good works, acceptance of these good works, establishment in a state of grace, support and a special conduct of providence about them. As for communion with Christ, it is such a benefit, as being the immediate consequent of union with him, [Page 188] comprehends all the rest as mediate ones. For look, as the branch, immediately upon its union with the stock, hath communion with the stock, in all that is in it: so the believer uniting with Christ, hath communion with him; in which he launcheth forth into an ocean of happiness, is led into a paradise of pleasures, and has a saving interest in the treasure hid in the field of the gospel, the unsearchable riches of Christ. As soon as the believer is united to Christ, Christ himself, in whom all fulness dwells, is his, Cant ii 16. My beloved is mine, and I am his. And, how shall he n [...]t with him freely give us ALL things? Rom. vii. 32 ‘Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas ▪ or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, ALL are yours,’ 1 Cor iii 22. Thus communion with Christ is the great comprehensive blessing, necessarily flowing from our union with him. Let us now consider the particular benefits flowing from it, before-mentioned.

The First particular benefit that a sinner hath by his union with Christ is Justification; for being united to Christ, he hath communion with him in his righte usness, 1 Cor. i. 30. "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness" He stands no more condemned; but justified before God, as being in Christ, Rom. viii 1 ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.’ The branches hereof are pardon o [...] sin, and personal acceptance.

1 s [...], His sins are pardoned, the guilt of them is removed. The bond obliging him to pay his debt, is cancelled God the Father takes the pen, dips it in the blood of his Son, crosseth the sinner's accounts, and blotteth them out of his debt-book. The sinner, out of Christ, is bound over to the wrath of God: he is under an obligation in law, to go to the prison of hell, and there to ly till he has paid the utmost farthing. This ariseth from the terrible sanction with which the law is fenced, which is no less than death, Gen. ii. 17. So that the sinner passing the bounds assigned him, is as Shemei, in another case, a man of death, 1 Kings ii. 42. But now, being united to Christ, God saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom, Job xxxiii 24. The sentence of condemnation is reversed, the be­liever is absolved, and set beyond the reach of the condemning law. His sins, which sometimes were set before the Lord, Psal xc. 8. so that they could not be hid, God now takes and casts them all behind his back, Isa. xxxvii. 17. Yea, he casts them into the depths of the sea, Mi [...]h vii. 19. What falls into a brook may be got up again; but what is cast into the sea cannot be recovered. Ay, but there are some shallow places in the sea: true, but their sins are not cast in there, but into the depths of the sea; and the depths of the sea are devouring depths, from whence they shall never come forth again. But, what if they do not sink? He will cast them in with force; so that they shall go to the ground, and sink as lead in the mighty waters of the Reds [...]er's blood. They are not only forgiven, but forgotten, [Page 189] Jer. xxxi. 34. ‘I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more.’ And tho' their after sins do, in themselves, deserve eternal wrath, and do actually make them liable to temporal strokes, and fatherly chastisements, according to the tenor of the covenant of grace, Psal lxxxix. 30.—33. Yet they can never be actually liable to eternal wrath, or the curse of the law; for they are dead to the law in Christ, Rom. vii 4. And they can never fall from their union with Christ; nor can they be in Christ, and yet under condemnati [...]n, Rom viii. 1. ‘There is therefore now no condemna­tion to them which are in Christ Jesus.’ This is an inference drawn from that doctrine of the believer's being dead to the law, delivered by the Apostle, chap. vii. 1—6. As is clear from the 2d, 3d, and 4th verses of this viii. chap. And in this respect, the justified man is "the blessed man, unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity," Psal. xxxii. 2 As one who has no design to charge a debt on another, sets it not down in his count-book.

2 dly, The believer is accept [...]d as righteous in God's sight, 2 Cor. v 21. For he is ‘found in Christ, not having his own righteousness, but that which is through the saith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith,’ Phil iii. 9. He could never be accepted of God, as [...]igh [...]eou [...], upon the account of his own righteousness: because, at best it is but imperfect; and all righteousness, properly so called, which will abide a trial before the throne of God, is perfect. The very name of it implies perfection: for unless a work be perfectly conform to the law it [...] not right, but wrong: and so cannot make a man righteous before God, whose judgment is [...]ding to truth. Yet if justice demand a righteousness of one that is in Christ, upon which he may be accounted righteous before the Lord: Surely shall such an one say, In the LORD have I righteousness, Isa. xiv 24. The law is fulfilled▪ its commands are obeyed, its sanction is satisfied. The believer's Cautioner has paid the debt. It was exacted, and he answered for it.

Thus the person united to Christ, is justified. You may conceive of the whole proceeding herein, in this manner. The avenger of blood pursuing the criminal, Christ, as the Saviour of lost sinners, doth by the Spirit apprehend him, and draw him to himself; and he by Faith lays hold on Christ: so the Lord our righteousness, and the unrighteous creature unite. From this union with Christ, results a communion with him, in his unsearchable riches, and consequently, in his righteousness, that white raiment which he has for clothing of the naked, Rev. iii. 18. Thus the righteousness of Christ becomes his: and because it is his by unquestionable title, it is imputed to him; it is reckoned his, in the judgment of God, which is always according to the truth of the thing. And so the believing sinner having a righte­ousness which fully answers the demands of the law, he is pardoned, and accepted as righteous. See Isa. xlv. 22, 24, 25. Rom. iii 24. and chap. v. 1. Now he is a free man, Who shall lay any thing to the [Page 190] charge of these whom God justifieth? Can justice lay any thing to their charge? No, for it is satisfied. Can the [...]aw? No, for it has got all its demands of them in Jesus Christ, Gal ii 26. I am cruc [...]fied with Christ. What can the law require more, after it has wounded their head; poured in wrath, in full measure, into their soul; and cut off their life, and brought it into the dust of death; in so far as it has done all this to Jesus Christ, who is their Head, Eph. i. 22. their Soul, Acts ii 25, 27 and their Life, Col. iii. 4. What is become of the sinner's own hand-writing, which would prove the debt upon him? Christ has blotted it out, Col. ii. 14. But, it may be, justice may get its eye upon it again [...] no, he took it [...]ut of the way. But, O that it had been torn in pieces, may the sinner say: yea so it is; the nails that pierced Christ's hands and feet, are driven through it, he nailed it. But what if the torn pieces be set together again? That cannot be; for he nailed it to his cross, and his cross was buried with him, but will never rise more, seeing Christ [...] no more Where is the face-covering that was upon the condemned man? Christ has destroyed it, Isa. xxv. 7. Where is death, that stood before the sinner with a grim face, and an open mouth, ready to devour him? Christ has swallowed it up in victory, ver 8. Glory, glory, glory to him that thus loved us, and washed u [...] f [...]om our sins in his own blood!

The second benefit flowing from the same spring of union with Christ, and coming by the way of justification, is Peace; peace with God, and peace of conscience, according to the measure of the sense the justified have of their peace with God, Rom. v. 1. ‘Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God.’ Chap xiv. 27. ‘For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.’ Whereas God was their enemy before, now he is reconciled to them in Christ; they are in a covenant of peace with him; and as Abraham was, so they are the friends of God. He is well-pleased with them, in his beloved Son. His word, which spoke terror to them formerly, now speaks peace, if they rightly take up its language. And there is love in all his dispen­sations toward them, which makes all work together for their good: Their consciences are purg [...]d of that guilt and filthiness that sometime lay upon them: his conscience purifying blood streams through their souls, by virtue of their union with him, Heb. ix. 14. ‘How much more shall the blood of Christ—purge your conscience from dead works, to serve the living God?’ The bonds laid on their con­sciences, by the Spirit of God, acting as the spirit of bondage, are taken off, never more to be laid on by that hand, Rom. vii. 15. ‘For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear.’ Hereby the conscience is [...] as soon as the soul becomes conscious of the application of that [...] which falls out sooner or later, according to the treasure of faith, and [...] the only wise God sees meet to time it. Unbelievers may have troubled consciences, which they may get [...]ted again: but alas! their consciences become peaceable, ere they [Page 191] become pure; so their peace is but the seed of a greater horror and confusion. Carelesness may give ease for a while, to a sick conscience; men neglecting its wounds, they close again of their own accord, before the filthy matter is purged out Many bury their guilt in the grave of an ill memory: conscience smarts a little: at length the man forgets his sin, and there is an end of it: but that is only an ease before death. Business, or the affairs of life, often give ease in this case. When Cain is banished from the presence of the Lord, he falls a building of cities. When the evil spirit came upon Saul, he calls not for his Bible, nor for the priests to converse with him about his case; but for musick, to play it away. So many, when their consci­ences begin to be uneasy, they fill their heads and hands with business, to divert themselves, and to regain ease at any rate. Yea, some will sin over the belly of their convictions, and so some get ease to their consciences, as Hazael gave to his master, by stiffling him Again the performing of duties may give some ease to a disquieted conscience; and this is all that legal professors have recourse to, for quieting of their consciences. When conscience is wounded; they will pray, confess, mourn, and resolve to do so no more: and so they become whole again, without any application of the blood of Christ, by faith. But they, whose consciences are rightly quieted: come for peace and purging to the blood of sprinkling. Sin is a sweet morsel, that makes God's elect sick souls, ere they get it vomited up. It leaves a sting be­hind it, which some one time or other, will create them no little pain.

Elihu shews us both the case and cure, Job xxxiii. Behold the case one may be in, whom God has thoughts of love to. He darteth convictions into his conscience; and makes them stick so fast, that he cannot rid himself of them, ver. 16. ‘He openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction,’ his very body sickens, ver. 19. ‘He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain.’ He loseth his stomach, ver. 20. ‘His life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat.’ His body pines away, so that there is nothing on him but skin and bone, ver. 21. ‘His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen, and his bones that were not seen, stick out.’ Tho' he is not prepared for death, he has no hopes of life, ver. 22. ‘His soul draweth near unto the grave, and (which is the height of his misery) his life to the de­stroyers:’ he is looking every moment when devils, these destroyers, Rom. ix. 11. these murderers, or man-slayers, John viii. 44. will come and carry away his soul to hell. O dreadful case! yet there is hope. God designs to k [...]p back his soul from the pit, ver. 18 a [...] he bring him forward to the brink of it. Now, see how the [...] is cured. The physician's art cannot prevail here: The disease lies more inward, than that his medicines can reach it. [...] soul coulde that be, brought the body into this disorder, and therefore the [...]eene, lies must be applied to the sick man's soul and conscience. The physician for this case must be a spiritual physician the remedies [...] [Page 192] be spiritual, a righteousness, a ransom or atonement. Upon the appli­cation of these, the soul is cur [...]d, the conscience is quieted, and the body recovers, ver. 23, 24, 25. 26 ‘If there be a messenger w [...]th him, an interpreter, one among a thousand to shew unto man his uprightness: then he is gracious unto him, and saith. Deliver him from going down to the pit. I have found a ransom. His flesh shall be fresher than a child [...]s he shall return to the days of his youth. He shall pray unto God, and he shall be favourable unto him, and he shall see his face with joy.’ The proper physician for this patient, is a messenger, an interpreter, ver. 23. that is as some expo­sitors, not without ground, understand it, the great Physician Jesus Christ, whom Job had called his Redeemer, chap xix. [...] He is a messenger, the Messenger of the Covenant of Peace, Mal iii. 1 who comes seasonably to the sick man. He is an Interpreter, the great Interpreter of God's counsels of love to sinners, John i. 28 One among a thousand, even the chief among ten thousand, Cant v 10. One chosen out of the people, Psal lxxxix. 29. ‘One to whom the Lord hath given the tongue of the learned,—to speak a word in season to him that is weary,’ Isa l. 4, 5, 6. It is he that is with him, by his Spirit, now, to convince him of righteousness, John xvi. 8 as he was with him before, to convince him [...]f sin [...]nd judgment. His work now is to shew unto him his uprightness, or his righteousness, i. e. the Interpreter Christ his righteousness; which is the only righteousness arising from the paying of a ransom, and upon which a sinner is delivered from going down to the pit, ver. 24. And thus Christ is said to declare God's name, Psal. xxii. 22. and to preach righteous­ness, Psal. xl. 9. The phrase is remarkable: it is not to shew unto the man, but unto man, his righteousness; which not obscurely inti­mates, that he is more than a man, who shews; or declareth this righteousness. Compare Amos iv. 13. ‘He that formeth the mountains, and created the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought.’ There seems to be in it a sweet allusion to the first declaration of this righteousness unto man, or as the word is, unto Adam after the fall, while he lay under terror from apprehensions of the wrath of God: which declaration was made by the Messenger, the Interpreter, namely, the eternal word of the Son of God, called The voice of the Lord God, Gen. iii. 8. and by him appearing probably in human shape. Now, while, by [...]his Spirit he is the Preacher of righteousness to the man, it is supposed the man lays hold on the offered righteousness; whereupon the ransom is applied to him, and he is delivered from going down to the pit: for God hath a ransom for him. This is intimate to him: God saith Deliver him, ver. 24. Hereupon his conscience, being purged by the blood of atonement, is pacified, and sweetly quited: ‘he shall pray upon God—and see his face with joy,’ which before he beheld with horror, ver. 26. That is a New Testament language, ‘Having an High-priest over the house of God,’ she shall draw near with a true heart, in [...] [Page 193] "assurance of faith, having his heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, Heb. x. 21, 22. But then, what becomes of the body, the weak and weary flesh? Why, ‘His flesh shall be fresher than a child's he shall return to the days of his youth, ver. 25 Yea, all his bones, (which were chastened with strong pain, ver. 19.) shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee?’ Psal. xxxv 10.

A Third benefit flowing from union with Christ, is Adoption. Believers, being united to Christ, become children of God, and mem­bers of the family of heaven. By their union with him, who is the Son of God by nature, they become the sons of God by grace, John i. 12. As when a branch is cut off from one tree, and grafted in the branch of another; the ingrafted branch, by means of its union with the adopting branch (as some not unfitly have called it) is made a branch of the same stock, with that into which it is ingrafted: so sinners being ingrafted into Jesus Christ, whose name is the Branch, his Father is their Father, his God their God, John xx. 17. And thus they, who are by nature children of the devil, become the children of God. They have the Spirit of adoption, Rom. viii. 15. namely, the Spirit of his Son, which bring them to God, as children to a father; to pour out their complaints in his bosom, and to seek necessary supply, Gal. iv. 6. ‘Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.’ Under all their weaknesses, they have fatherly pity, and compassion shewn them, Psal. ciii. 13. Like as a father pitieth his children: so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Altho' they were but foundlings, found in a desart land; yet now that to them belongs the adoption, he keeps them as the apple of his eye, Deut. xxxii. 10. Whosoever pursue them, they have a refuge, Prov. xiv. 26. His children shall have a [...] of refuge. In a time of common calamity, they have chambers for protection, where they may be hid, until the indignation be overpass, Isa. xxvi. 20. And he is not only their refuge for protection, but their portion for provision, in that refuge; Psal. cxlii. 5. ‘Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.’ They are provided for, for eternity, Heb. xi. 16. He hath prepared for them a city And what he sees they have need of for time, they shall not want, Matth. vi. 31, 32. ‘Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or, what shall we drink? Or, wherewithal shall we be clothed? For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.’ Seasonable correction is likewise their privilege as sons: so they are not suffered to pass with their faults, as happens to others who are not children, but servants of the family, and will be turned out of doors for their miscarriages at length Heb. xii. 7 ‘If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with young with sons: for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth [...] they are [...]’ of, and shall inherit the promises, Heb. vi 12. Nay, they are [...]rs of God, who himself is the porti [...]n of their [...] and saint heirs with Christ, Rom. viii. 17. And [...] [Page 194] children of the great King, and young heirs of glory, they have angels for their attendants, who are sent forth to minister for them that shall be heirs of salvation, Heb. i. 14.

A Fourth benefit is Sanctification, 1 Cor. i. 30. ‘But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification.’ Being united to Christ, they partake of his Spirit, which is the Spirit of holiness. There is a fulness of the Spirit in Christ, and it is not like the fulness of a vessel, which only retains what is poured into it; but it is the ful­ness of a fountain for diffusion and communication, which is always sending forth its water, and yet is always full. The Spirit of Christ, that spiritual sap, which is in the stock, and from thence is communicate to the branches, is the Spirit of grace, Zec. xii. 10: And where the Spirit of grace dwells, there will be found a com­plication of all graces. Holiness is not one grace only, but all the graces of the Spirit: it is a constellation of graces; it is all the graces in their seed and root. And as the sap conveyed from the stock into the branch, goes thro' it, and thro' every part of it; so the Spirit of God sanctifies the whole man. The poison of sin was diffused through the whole spirit, soul and body of the man; and sanctifying grace pursues it into every corner, 1 Thess. v. 23. Every part of the man is sanctified, though no part is perfectly so. The truth we are sanctified by, is not held in the head, as in a prison: but runs, with its sanctifying influences, through heart and life. There are indeed some graces in every believer, which appear as top-branches above the rest: as meekness in Moses, patience in Job: but seeing there is in every child of God, a holy principle going along with the holy law, in all the parts thereof, loving, liking, and approving of it; as appears from their universal respect to the commands of God: it is evident they are endued with all the graces of the Spirit; because there can be no more in the effect, than there was in the cause.

Now, this sanctifying Spirit, whereof believers partake, is unto them, (1.) A Spirit of mortification. ‘Through the Spirit they mortify the deeds of the body,’ Rom. viii. 13. Sin is crucified in them, Gal v. 24. They are planted together (namely, with Christ) in the likeness of his death, which was a lingering death, Rom. vi. 5. Sin in the saint, tho' not quite dead, yet is dying. If it were dead, it would be taken down from the cross and buried out of his sight: but, it hangs there as yet, working and struggling under its mortal wounds. Look, as when a tree has got such a stroke as re [...]ches the heart of it, all the leaves and branches there­of begin to fade and decay: so, where the sanctifying Spirit comes, and breaks the power of sin, there is a gradual ceasing from i [...], and dying to it, in the whole man; so that he no longer lives in the flesh, to the lusts of men. He does not make sin his trade and business; it is not his great design to seek himself, and to satisfy his corrupt in­clinations: [Page 195] but he is for Immanuel's land; and is walking in the high-way to it, the way, which is called, The way of holiness: though the wind from hell, that was on his back before, blows now full in his face, makes his travelling uneasy, and often drives him off the high-way. (2.) This Spirit is a spirit of vivification to them; for he is the Spirit of life, and makes them live unto righteousness, Ezek. xxxvi. 27. ‘And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes.’ These that have been ‘planted together, with Christ, in the likeness of his death, shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection,’ Rom. vi. 5. At Christ's resurrection, when his soul was re-united with his body, every member of that blessed body was enabled again to perform the actions of life: so, the soul being influenced by the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, is enabled more and more to perform all the actions of spiritual life. And as the whole of the law, and not some scraps of it only, is written on the holy heart; so believers are enabled to transcribe that law in their conversation. And, although they cannot write one line of it without blots; yet God, for Christ's sake, accepts of the performances, in point of sanctifi­cation: they being disciples to his own Son, and led by his own Spirit.

This sanctifying Spirit, communicated by the Lord Jesus to his members, is the spiritual nourishment the branches have from the Stock into which they are ingrafted; whereby the life of grace, given them in regeneration, is preserved, continued and actuated. It is the nourishment whereby the new creature liveth, and is nourished up towards perfection. Spiritual life needs to be sed, and must have supply of nourishment: and believers derive the same from Christ their head, whom the Father has constituted the head of influences to all his members, Col ii. 19. ‘And not holding the head, from which all the body, by joints and hands having nourishment ministred, or supplied, &c.’ Now, this supply is, "the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ," Phil i 19. The saints seed richly, eating Christ's flesh, and drinking his blood, for their spiritual nourishment: yet our Lord himself teacheth us, that ‘it is the Spirit that quickneth,’ even that Spirit who dwells in that blessed body, John vi 63. The human nature is united to the divine nature ▪ in the person of the Son, and so (like the bowl in Zechariah's candlestick▪ Zech. iv.) lies at the fountain-head, as the glorious means of conveyance of influences, from the fountain of the Deity; and receives not the Spirit by measure, but ever hath a fulness of the Spirit, by reason of that personal union. Hence, believer being united to the man Christ, (as the seven lamps to the bowl, by their seven pipes, Zech. iv. 2.) his flesh is to them meat indeed, and his blood drink indeed: for, feeding on that blessed body (i.e. effectually app [...]ing Christ to their souls by faith) they partake more and more of that Spirit, who dwelleth therein, to their spiritual nourishment. The holiness of God could never admit of an immediate [Page 196] union with the sinful creature, nor (consequently) an immediate communion with it: yet, the creature could not live the life of grace, without communion with the fountain of life: Therefore, that the honour of God's holiness, and the salvation of sinners, might jointly be provided for: the second person of the glorious Trinity, took, into a personal union with himself, a sinless human nature; that so this holy harmless and un [...]f [...]d humanity, might immediately receive a fulness of the Spirit, of which he might communicate to his members by his divine power and efficacy. And likeas, if there were a tree, having its root in the earth, and its branches reaching to heaven; the vast distance betwixt the root and the branches would not interrupt the communication betwixt the root and the top branch: even so, the distance betwixt the man Christ, who is in heaven, and his members, who are on earth, cannot hinder the communication betwixt them. What though the parts of mystical Christ ( viz. the head and the members) are not contigu [...]us, as joined together in the way of a cor­poral union? The union is not therefore the less real and effectual. Yea, our Lord himself shews us, that albeit we should eat his flesh, in a corporal and carnal manner, yet, it would profit nothing, John vi. 63. we would not be one whit holier thereby. But the members of Christ on earth, are united to their head in heaven, by the invisible bond of the self-same Spirit dwelling in both: in him as the head, and in them as the members, even, as the wheels, in Ezeckiel's vision, were not contiguous to the living creatures, yet were united to them, by an invisible bond of one spirit in both; so that ‘when the living creatures went, the wheels went by that,; and when the living creatures were lift up from the earth, the wheels were lift up, Ezek. i. 19.’ For, says the Prophet, the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels, ver. 20.

Hence, we may see the difference betwixt true Sanctification, and that shadow of it, which is to be found amongst some strict professors of Chr [...]stianity, who yet are not true Christians, are not regenerate by the Spirit of Christ, and is of the same kind with what has appeared in many sober he [...]hens. True sanctification is the result of the soul's union with the holy Jesus, the first and immediate receptacle of the sanctifying Spirit; out of those fulness his members do, by virtue of their union with him, receive sanctifying influences. The other is the mere product of the man's own spirit, which, whatever it has, or seems to have of the matter of true holiness, yet does not arise from the supernatural principles, nor to the high aims and ends thereof: for▪ as it comes from self, so it runs out into the dead sea of self again; and it is as wide of true holiness, as nature doth of grace. They who have this bastard holiness, are like common boat-men, who serve them­selves with their own [...]ars▪ whereas, the ship bound for [...]'s land, sails by the blowing of the divine Spirit. How is it possible there should be true sanctification without Christ? Can there be true sanctification, without partaking of the Spirit of holiness? Can we [Page 197] partake of that Spirit, but by Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, and the life? The falling dew shall as soon make its way through the flinty rock, as influences of grace shall come from God to sinners, any other way, but through him whom the Father has constituted the head of influences, Col. i. 19. ‘For it pleased the Father, that in him should all fulness dwell.’ and, chap. ii. 19. ‘And not holding the head, from which all the body, by joints and bands having nourishment ministred, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.’ Hence see how it comes to pass, that many f [...]l a [...]y from their seem­ing sanctification, and never recover: it is because they are not branches truly knit to the true Vine. Mean while, others recover from their decays, because of their union with the life-giving stock, by the quicken­ing Spirit, 1 John ii. 19. ‘They went out from us, but they were not of us: for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us.’

A Fifth benefit is growth in grace. ‘Having nourishment ministred, they increase with the increase of God,’ Col ii 19. ‘The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree, he shall grow like a Cedar in Lebanon,’ Psal. xcii. 12. Grace is of a growing nature: in the way to Zion they go from strength to strength. Though the holy man be at first a little child in grace, yet at length he becomes a young man, a father, 1 John ii. 13. Though he does not but creep in the way to heaven sometimes; yet afterwards he walks, he runs, he mounts up with wings as eagles, Isa. xl. 31. If a branch grafted into a stock never grows, it is a plain evidence of its not having knit with the stock.

But some may perhaps say, "If all true Christians be growing ones, what shall be said of these, who instead of growing, are going back?" I answer, First, There is a great difference between the Christian's growing simply, and his growing at all times. All true Christians do grow, but I do not say, they grow at all times. A tree that has life and nourishment, grows to its perfection, yet it is not always growing; it grows not in the winter. Christians also have their winters where­in the influences of grace, necessary for growth, are ceased, Cant. v. 2. I sleep. It is by faith, the believer derives gracious influence from Jesus Christ; likeas each lamp in the candlestick received oil from the bowl, by the pipe going betwixt them, Zech iv. 2. Now, if that pipe be stopt, if the saints faithly dormant and unactive; then all the rest of the graces will become dim, and seem ready to be extinguished. In consequence whereof, depraved nature will gather strength, and become active. What then will become of the soul? Why, there is still one sure ground of hope. The saint's faith is not as the hypo­crite's, like a pipe laid short of the fountain, whereby there can be no conveyance: it still remains a bond of union betwixt Christ and the soul; and therefore, because Christ lives, the believer shall live also, John xiv. 19. The Lord Jesus puts in his hand by the hole of the door, and clears the means of conveyance: and their influences for growth flow and the believer's graces look fresh and green again, Hos. xiv. 7. ‘ [Page 198]They that dwell under his shadow shall return: they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine.’ In the worst of times, the saints have a principle of growth in them, 1 John iii. 9. His seed re­maineth in him. And therefore after decays they revive again: namely when the winter is over, and the Sun of righteousness returns to them with his warm influences. Mud thrown into a pool may ly there at ease; but if it be cast into a fountain, the spring will at length work it out, and run clear as formerly. Secondly, Christians may mistake their growth, and that two ways. (1.) By judging of their case according to their present feeling. They observe themselves, and cannot perceive themselves to be growing: but there is no reason thence to conclude they are not growing, Mark iv. 27. ‘The seed springs and grows up, he knoweth not how.’ Should one fix his eye ever so stedfastly, on the sun running his race, or on a growing tree; he would not p [...]rceive the sun moving, or the tree growing: but, if he compare the tree as it now is, with what it was some years ago; and consider the place in the heavens, where the sun was in the morning; he will certainly perceive the tree has grown, and the sun has moved. In like manner may the Christian know, whether he be in a growing or declining state, by comparing his present with his former condition (2) Christians may mistake their case, by measur­ing their growth by the advances of the top only, not of the root. Though a man be not growing taller, he may be growing stronger. If a tree be taking with the ground, fixing itself in the earth, and spreading out its roots; it is certainly growing, although it be nothing taller than formerly. So, albeit a Christian may want the sweet consolation and flashes of affection, which sometimes he has had; yet if he be growing in humility, self-denial, and sense of needy depend­ence on Jesus Christ, he is a growing Christian, Hos. xiv. 5. ‘I will be as the dew unto Israel, he shall cast forth his roots as Lebanon.’

Quest. ‘But do hypocrites grow at all? And if so, how shall we distinguish betwixt their growth, and true Christian growth?’ Ans. To the first part of the question, hypocrites do grow. The tares have their growth, as well as the wheat: and the seed that fell among thorns did spring up, Luke viii. 7. only it did bring no fruit to perfection, ver. 14 Yea, a true Christian may have a false growth. James and John seemed to grow in the grace of holy zeal, when their spirits grew so hot in the cause of Christ, that they would have fired whole villages, for not receiving their Lord and Master, Luke ix. 54 ‘They said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, to consume them, even as Elias did?’ But it was indeed no such thing; and therefore he turned and rebuked them, ver. 55. ‘and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.’ To the second part of the question, it is answered, that there is a peculiar beauty in true Christian growth, distinguishing it from all false growth: it is universal, regular, proportionable. It is a ‘growing up to him in all things, which is the head,’ Eph. iv. 15. The growing [Page 199] Christian grows proportionably in all the parts of the new man. Under the kindly influences of "the Sun of righteousness, believers "grow up as calves in the stall, Mal. iv. 2. Ye would think it a monstruous growth, in these creatures, if ye saw their heads grow, and not their bodies, or if ye saw one leg grow, and another not: if all the parts do not grow proportionably Ay, but such is the growth of many, in religion. They grow like rickety children, who have a big head, but a slender body: they get more knowledge into their heads, but no more holiness into their hearts and lives: They grow very hot outwardly, but very cold inwardly; like men in a fit of the ague. They are more taken up about the externals of religion, than formerly; yet as great strangers to the power of godliness as ever. If a garden is watered with the hand, some of the plants will readily get much some little, and some no water at all; and therefore some wither, while others are coming forward: but after a shower from the clouds, all come forward together. In like manner all the graces of the Spirit grow proportionably, by the special influences of divine grace. The branches ingrafted in Christ, growing aright, do grow in all the several ways of growth at once. They grow inward, growing into Christ, (Eph. iv. 15) uniting more closely with him; and cleaving more firmly to him, as the head of influences, which is the spring of all other true Christian growth. They grow outward, in good works in their life and conversation. They not only, with Naphtali, give goodly words; but, like Joseph, they are fruitful bought. They grow upward in heavenly-mindedness, and contempt of the world; for their conversation is in heaven, Philip. iii 20. And finally, they grow downward in humility and self-lothing. The branches of the largest growth in Christ, are in their own eyes, less than the least of all saints, Eph. iii. 8. The chief of sinners, 1 Tim i 15. More brutish than any man, Prov. xxx. 2. They see, they can do nothing, no not so much as to think any thing, as of themselves, 2 Cor iii 5 that they deserve nothing, being ‘not worthy of the least of all the mercies shewed unto them,’ Gen. xxxii. 10. and that they are nothing, 2 Cor. xii. 2

A Sixth benefit is Fruitfulness. The branch ingrafted into Christ, is not barren, but brings forth fruit. John xv. 5. ‘He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.’ For that very end are souls married to Christ, that they may ‘bring forth fruit unto God,’ Rom. vii 4. They may be branches in Christ, by prof [...]ssion, but not by real implantation, that are barren branches. Whosoever are united to Christ, bring forth the fruits of gospel-obedience and true holiness. Faith is always followed with good works. The believer is not only come out of the grave of his natural state; but he has put off his grave clothes, namely, reigning lusts, ‘in the which he walked sometime,’ like a ghost: being ‘dead while he lived in them, Col iii 7, 8. For Christ has said of him as of Lazarus, Loose him, and let him go’ And now that he has put on Christ▪ [Page 200] he personates him (so to speak) as a beggar, in borrowed robes, represents a king on the stage, "walking as he also walked" Now "the fruit of the Spirit in him is in all goodness." Eph v 9 The fruits of holiness will be found in the hearts, lips, and lives of those who are united to Christ. The hidden man of the heart, is not only a temple built for God, and consecrated to him; but used and employed for him; where love, fear, trust, and all the other parts of unseen religion are exercised, Phil iii 3. ‘For we are of the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit’ The heart is no more the devil's common, where thoughts go free; for there even vain thoughts are hated, Psal cxix 123 But it is God's inclosure, hedged about as a garden from him, Cant. iv. 16. It is true, there are weeds of corruption there, because the ground is not yet perfectly healed: but the man, in the day of his new creation, is set to dress it, and keep it. A live-coal from the altar has touched his lips, and they are purified, Psal. xv 1, 2, 3. ‘Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that speaketh the truth in his heart He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour’ There may be indeed a smooth tongue where there is a false heart. The voice may be Jacob's, while the hands are Esau's. But, ‘If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain,’ James i. 26. The power of godliness will rule over the tongue, though a world of iniquity. If one be a Galilean, his speech will bewray him, he'll not speak the language of Ashdod, but the language of Canaan. He will neither be dumb in religion; nor will his tongue walk at random, seeing to the double guard nature hath given the tongue, grace hath added a third: The fruits of holiness will be found in his outward conversation, for he hath clean hands, as well as a pure heart, Psal. xxiv. 4. He is a godly man, and religiously discharges the duties of the first table of the law: he is a righteous man, and honestly performs the duties of the second table. In his conversation he is a good Christian, and a good neighbour too. He carries it towards God, as if men's eyes were upon him; and to­wards men, as believing God's eye to be upon him. These things which God hath joined, in his law, he dare not, in his practice, put asunder.

Thus the branches of Christ are full of good fruits. And those fruits are a cluster, of vital actions, whereof Jesus Christ is the prin­ciple and end: the principle: for he lives in them, and ‘the life they live, is by the sai [...]h of the Son of God,’ Gal. i. 20. The end, for they live to him, and to them to live is Christ, Philip i. 21. The duties of religion are in the world, like fatherless children▪ in rags: some will not take them in, because they never loved them nor their Father: [...] take them in, because they may be service­able to them: but the saints take them in for their Father's sake; that is, for Christ's sake; and they are lovely in their eyes, because they are like him [...] is the new life of the [...] surely [Page 201] it could never have been hammered out of the natural powers of their souls, by the united force of all created power. In eternal b [...]rrenness should their womb have been shut up; but that being married to Christ they "bring forth fruit unto God.' Rom. vii. 4.

If you ask me, How your nourishment, growth and fruitfulness may be forwarded? I offer these few advices (1.) Make sure work, as to your knitting with the stock, by faith unfeigned; and beware of hypocrisy: a branch that is not found at the heart, will certainly wither. The trees of the Lord's planting are trees of righteousness, Isa. lxi. 3. So when others fade, they bring forth fruit. Hypocrisy is a disease in the vitals of religion, which will consume all at length. It is a leak in the ship, that will certainly sink it. Sincerity of grace will make it lasting, be it never so weak: as the smallest twig, that is found at the heart, will draw nourishment from the stock, and grow, while the greatest bough [...] that is rotten, can never recover, because it receives no nourishment. (2.) Labour to be stedfast in the truths and way of God. An unsettled and wavering judgment is a great enemy to Christian growth and fruitfulness, as the Apos­tle teaches, Eph. iv. 14, 15. ‘That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and [...]ro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine. But speaking the truth in love, may grow up unto him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.’ A rolling stone gathers no fog, and a wavering judgment makes a fruitless life. Though a tree be never so sound, yet how can it grow, or be fruitful if ye be still removing it out of one soil into another? (3.) Endeavour to cut off the suckers, as gardeners do that their trees may thrive. These are unmortified lusts. Therefore ‘mor­tify your members that are upon the earth,’ Col. iii. 5. When the Israelites got meat to their lusts, they got leanness to their souls. She that has many hungry children about her hand, and must be still putting into their mouths, will have much ado to get a bit put into her own. They must refuse the craving of inordinate affections, who would have their souls to prosper. Lastly, Improve, for these ends, the ordinances of God. The courts of our God are the place, where the trees of righteousness flourish, Psalm xcii. 13. The waters of the sanctuary are the means appointed of God, to cause his people grew as willows by the water courses. Therefore drink in with "desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby, 1 Pet. ii. 2. Come to these wells of salvation: not to look at them only, but to draw water out of them. The sacrament of the Lord's supper is in a special manner appointed for those [...]der▪ It is not only a solemn puplick profession, and a seal of our union and communion with Christ; but it is a means of most intimate communion with him; and strengthens our union with him, our faith, love, repentance, and other graces, 1 Cor. x. 26. ‘The [...] of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the [...] of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the [Page 202] communion of the body of Christ?’ And chap. xii. 13. ‘We have been all made to drink into one spirit.’ Give yourselves unto prayer; open your mouths wide, and he will fill them. By these means the branches in Christ may be further nourished, grow up, and bring forth much fruit.

A seventh benfit is, The acceptance of their fruits of holiness be­fore the Lord. Though they be very imperfect they are accepted, because they savour of Christ the blessed stock, which the branches grow upon; while the fruits of others are rejected of God, Gen. ii. 4, 5. ‘And the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering: But unto Cain and his offering he had not respect.’ Compare Heb. xi. 3. ‘By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.’ O how defective are the saints duties in the eye of the law! The believer himself espies many faults in his best performances; yet the Lord graciously receives them There is no grace planted in the heart, but there is a weed of corruption hard by its side, while the saints are in this lower world. Their very sincerity is not without mixture of dissimulation or hypocrisy, Gal. ii. 13. Hence there are defects in the exercise of every grace; in the performance of every duty: depraved nature always drops something to stain their best works. There is still a mixture of darkness with their clearest light. Yet this does not mar their acceptance, Cant. vi. 10. ‘Who is she that looketh forth as the morning? or as the dawning?’ Behold how Christ's spouse is esteemed and accepted of her Lord, even when she looks forth as the morning, whose beauty is mixed with the blackness of the night! When the morning was looking out, as the word is, Judges xix. 26. i. e. in the dawning of the day, as we read it. So the very dawning of grace, and good-will to Christ, grace peeping out from under a mass of darkness in believers, is pleasant and acceptable to him, as the break of day is to the weary traveller. Though the remains of unbelief make their hand of faith to shake and tremble; yet the Lord is so well pleased with it, that he employs it to carry away pardons and supplies of grace, from the throne of grace, and the fountain of grace. His faith was effectual, who ‘cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief,’ Mark ix. 24. Tho' the remains of sensual affections make the flame of their love weak and smoaky; he turns his eyes from the smoak, and beholds the flame, how fair it is, Cant. iv. 10. ‘How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! The smell of their under garments of inherent holiness, as imperfect as it is, is like the smell of Lebanon,’ ver. 11. and that because they are covered with their elder brother's clothes, which make the sons of God to "smell as a field which the Lord hath blessed." Their good works are accepted: their cups of cold water given to a disciple, in the name of a disciple, shall not want a reward. Tho' they cannot offer for the tabernacle, gold silver, and brass, and onyx-stone, let [Page 203] them come forward with what they have; if it were but goats hair, it shall not be rejected; if it were but rams skins, they shall be kindly accepted; for they are dyed red, dipt by faith in the Medi­ator's blood, and so presented unto God. A very ordinary work done in faith, and from faith, if it were but the building of a wall about the holy city, is a great work, Neh. vi. 3. If it were but the bestowing of a box of ointment on Christ, it shall never be forgotten, Matth. xxvi. 13. Even ‘a cup of cold water only given to one of Christ's little ones, in the name of a disciple, shall be rewarded,’ Matth. x. 42. Nay, not a good word for Christ, shall drop from their mouths but it shall be registred in God's book of remembrance, Mal. iii. 16. Nor shall a tear drop from their eyes for him, but he will put it in his bottle, Psal. lvi. 8. Their will is accepted for the deed: their sorrow for the want of will, for the will itself, 2 Cor. viii. 12. ‘For if there be first a willing mind, it is accept­ed according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.’ Their groanings, when they cannot well word their desires, are heard in heaven; the meaning of these groans is well known there, and they will be returned like the dove with an olive branch of peace in her mouth. See Rom. viii. 26, 27. Their mites are better than other mens talents. Their lisping and broken sen­tences are more pleasant to their Father in heaven, than the most fluent and flourishing speeches of those that are not in Christ. Their voice is sweet, even when they are ashamed it should be heard; their countenance is comely even when they blush, and draw a vail over it, Cant. ii. 14. The Mediator takes their petitions, blots out some parts, rectifies others, and then presents them to the Father, in consequence whereof they pass in the court of heaven.

Every true Christian is a temple to God. If ye look for sacri­fices, they are not wanting there; they offer the sacrifice of praise, and they "do good; with such sacrifices God is well pleased," Heb. xiii. 15, 16. Christ himself is the altar that sanctifies the gift, ver. 10. But what comes of the skins and dung of their sacrifices? They are carried away without the camp. If we look for incense, it is there too. The graces of the Spirit are found in their hearts: and the Spirit of a crucified Christ, fires them and puts them in exercise; likeas the fire was brought from the altar of burnt-offering, to set the incense on flame: then they mount heaven-ward, like pillars of smoke, Cant. iii. 6. But the best of in­cense will leave ashes behind it: yes indeed; but as the priest took away the ashes of the incense in a golden dish, and threw them out; so our great High-priest takes away the ashes and refuse of all the saints services, by his mediation in their behalf.

An Eighth benefit flowing from union with Christ is Establishment. The Christian cannot fall away, but must persevere unto the end, John x. 28. ‘They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.’ Indeed if a branch do not knit with the [Page 204] stock, it will fall away when shaking winds arise: but the branch knit to the stock stands fast, whatever winds blows. Sometimes a stormy wind of temptation blows from hell, and tosseth the branches in Christ the true vine: but their union with him, is their security; moved they may be, but removed they never can be. The Lord "will with the temptation also make a way to escape," 1 Cor. x. 13. Calms are never of any continuance: there is almost always some wind blowing; and therefore branches are rarely altogether at rest. But sometimes violent winds arise, which threaten to rend them from off their stock. Even so it is with saints; they are daily put to it, to keep their ground against temptation: but sometimes the wind from hell riseth so high, and bloweth so furi­ously, that it makes even top-branches to sweep the ground; yet being knit to Christ their stock, they get up again, in spite of the most violent efforts of the prince of the power of the air, Psal. xciv. 18. "When I said my foot slippeth, thy mercy, O Lord, held me up." But the Christian improves by this trial; and is so far from being damaged, that he is benefited by it, in so far as it discovers what hold the soul has of Christ, and what hold Christ has of the soul. And lo [...]k as the wind in the billows, which would blow out the candle, blows up the fire: even so it often comes to pass that such temptations do enliven the true Christian, awakening the graces of the Spirit in him; and by that means, discover both the reality, and the strength of grace in him. And hence, as Luther, that great man of God, saith, ‘One Christian who hath had ex­perience of temptation, is worth a thousand others’

Sometimes a stormy wind of trouble and persecution from the men of the world, blows upon the vine, i. e mystical Christ: but union with the stock is a sufficient security to the branches. In a time of the church's peace and outward prosperity, while the ang [...]ls hold the winds that they blow not, there are a great many branches taken up, and put into the stock, which never knit with it, nor live by it, though they be bound up with it, by the bonds of external ordinances. Now these may stand a while on the stock; and stand with great ease, while the calm lasts. But when once the storms arise, and the winds blow; they will begin to fall off, one after another: and the higher the wind riseth, the greater will the number be that falls. Yea some strong boughs of that sort, when they fall, will, by their weight, carry others of their own kind, quite down to the earth with them; and will bruise and press down some true branches in such a manner, that they would also fall off, were it not for their being knit to the stock; in virtue whereof they get up their heads again, and cannot fall off▪ because of that fast hold the stock has of them. Then it is that many bran­ches, sometime high and eminent, are found lying on the earth wi­thered, and fit to be gathered up and cast into the fire, Matth. xiii. 6.

‘And when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no [...]ot, [...]h [...] withered away’ John i [...]. 6. If a man ‘ [Page 205]abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.’ But however violently the winds blow, none of the truly ingrafted branches, that are knit with the stock, are found missing, when the storm is chang [...]d into a calm, John xvii. 12. ‘Those that thou gav­est me, I have kept, and none of them is lost.’ The least twig growing in Christ shall stand it out, and subsist; when the tallest cedars growing on their own root, shall be laid flat on the ground, Rom. viii. 35. ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or naked­ness, or p [...], or sword:’ See ver. 36, 37, 38, 39. However se­verely Israel be sifted, yet shall not the least grain, or as it is in the original language, a little stone fall upon the earth, Amos ix. 9. It is an allusion to the sifting of fine peeble stones from among heaps of dust and sand: tho' the sand and dust fall to the ground, be blown away with the wind, and trampled under foot; yet there shall not fall on the earth so much as a little stone, such is the exactness of the sieve, and care of the sifter. There is nothing more ready to fall on the earth than a stone: yet if professors of religion be lively stones built on Christ the chief corner stone; altho' they be little stones, they shall not fall to the earth, whatever storm beat upon them. See 1 Pet. ii. 4, 5, 6 All the good grain in the church of Christ is of this kind; they are stones in respect of solidity; and lively stones, in respect of activity. If men be solid substantial Christians, they will not be like chaff tossed to and fro with every wind; having so much of the liveliness that they have nothing of the stone: and if they be lively Christians, whose spirit will stir in them, as Paul's did, ‘when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry,’ Act xvii. 16. they will not ly like stones, to be turned over hither and thither, cut and carved, according to the lusts of men; having so much of the stone, as leaves nothing of livelin [...]ss in them.

Our God's house is a great house, wherein are not only ‘vessels of gold, but also of earth,’ 2 Tim. ii. 20. Both these are apt to contract filthiness; and therefore, when God brings trouble upon the church, he hath an eye to both. As for the vessels of gold, they are not destroyed, but purged by a fiery trial in the furnace of affliction, as gold-smiths purge their gold, Isa i. 25. ‘And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross’ But destruction is to the vessels of earth: they shall be broken in shivers, as a potter's vessel, ver. 28. ‘And the destruction ( or breaking) of the trans­gressors, and of the sinners, shall be together.’ It seems to be an allution to that law, for breaking the vessels of earth, when unclean; while vessels of wood, and consequently vessels of gold were only to be rinsed, Lev. xv 12.

A Ninth benefit is Support. If thou be a branch ingrafted in Christ, the root beareth thee. The believer leans on Christ; as a weak woman in a journey, leaning upon her beloved husband, Cant. viii. 5. He [Page 206] stays himself upon him, as a feeble old man stays himself on his staff, Isa. l. 10. He rolls himself on him, as one rolls a burden he is not able to walk under, off his own back, upon another who is able to bear it, Psal. xxii 8. Marg. There are many weights to hang upon, and press down the branches in Christ the true Vine. But ye know, whatever weights hang on branches, the stock bears all; it bears the branch and the weight that is upon it too.

1 st, Christ supports believers in him, under a weight of outward troubles. That is a large prrmise, Isa. xliii. 2. ‘When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee: and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee.’ See how David was supported under a heavy load, 1 Sam. xxx. 6. His city Ziklag was burnt, his wives were taken captives, his men spoke of stoning him; nothing was left him but his God and his faith; but by his faith he encouraged himself in his God. The Lord comes and lays his cross on his people's shoulders; it presseth them down; they are like to sink under it, and therefore cry, "Master, save us, we perish:" but he supports them under their burden; he bears them up, and they bear their cross. Thus the Christian having a weight of outward troubles upon him, goes lightly under his burden, having withal the ‘everlasting arms underneath him.’ The Christian has a spring of comfort, which he cannot lose; and therefore never wants something to support him. If one have all his riches in money, robbers may take these away; and then what has he more? But though the landed man be robbed of his money, yet his lands remain for his support. They that build their comfort on worldly goods, may quickly be comfortless: but they that are united to Christ, shall find comfort when all the streams of worldly enjoyments are dried up, Job vi. 13. ‘Is not my help in me? And is wisdom driven quite from me?’ q. d. Though my substance is gone; though my servants, my children, my health, and soundness of body, are all gone; yet my grace is not gone too. Tho' the Sabeans have driven away my oxen and asses, and the Chaldeans have driven away camels; they have not driven away my faith and my hope too: these are yet in me, they are not driven from me; so that by them I can fetch comfort from heaven, when I can have none from earth.

2 dly, Christ supports his people under a weight of inward troubles and discouragements. Many times "heart and flesh fail them," but then, "God is the strength of their heart," Psal. lxxiii. 26. They may have a weight of guilt pressing them. This is a load that will make their back to stoop, and the spirits to sink: but he takes it off, and puts a pardon in their hand, while they cast their burden over upon him. Christ takes the soul, as one marries a widow, under a burden of debt: and so when the creditors come to Christ's spouse, she carries them to her husband, confesseth the debt, declares she is not able to pay, and lays all over upon him. The Christian some­times, through carelessness, loseth his discharge; he cannot find it, [Page 207] however he search for it. The law takes that opportunity; and bends up a process against him for a debt paid already. God hides his face, and the soul is distressed. Many arrows go through the heart now; many long accounts are laid before the man, which he reads and acknowledges. Often does he see the officers coming to apprehend him, and the prison door open to receive him. What else keeps him from sinking utterly under discouragements in this case, but that the everlasting arms of a Mediator are underneath him, and that he relies upon the great Cautioner? Further, they may have a weight of strong lusts pressing them. They have a body of death upon them. Death is a weight that presseth the soul out of the body. A leg or an arm of death (if I may so speak) would be a terrible load. (One lively lust will sometimes ly so heavy on a child of God, that he can no more remove it, than a child could throw a giant from off him.) How then are they supported under a whole body of death? Why, their support is from the root that bears them, from the everlasting arm that is underneath them. His grace is sufficient for them, 2 Cor. xiii. 9. The great stay of the believer is not the grace of God within him, that is a well, whose streams sometimes run dry: but it is the grace of God without him, the grace that is in Jesus Christ; which is an ever-flowing fountain, to which the believer can never come amiss. For the Apostle tells us in the same verse, it is the power of Christ. "Most gladly therefore," saith he, ‘will I rather glory in my in­infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me, or taber­nacle above me,’ as the cloud of glory did on the Israelites, which God spread for a covering, or shelter to them in the wilderness, Psal. cv. 39. compare Isa. iv. 5, 6. So that the believer in this combat, like the eagle, first flies aloft (by faith) and then comes down on the prey, Psal. xxxiv. 5. ‘They looked to him, and were lightened.’ And finally, they have ‘a weight of weakness and wants upon them,’ but they ‘cast over that burden on the Lord their strength, and he sustains them,’ Psal. lv. 22. With all their wants and weaknesses, they are cast upon him; as the poor, weak and naked babe, coming out of the womb, is cast into the lap of one appointed to take care of it, Psal. xxii. 10. Though they be destitute (as a shrub in the wilderness, which the foot of every beast may tread down) the Lord will regard them, Psal. cii. 17. It is no marvel, the weakest plant may be safe in a garden: but our Lord Jesus Christ is a hedge for protection to his weak and destitute ones, even in a wilderness.

Object. ‘But if the saints be supported, how is it that they fall so often under temptation and discouragements?’ Ans. (1.) How long soever they fall at any time, they never fall off; and that is a great matter. They "are kept by the power of of God through faith unto salvation," 1 Pet. i. 5. Hypocrites may so fall, so as to fall off, and fall into the pit, as a bucket falls into a well when the chain breaks. But though the child of God may fall, and that so [Page 208] low, as the water goes over his head; yet there is still a bond of union betwixt Christ and him: the cha [...]n is not broken: he will not go to the ground: he will be drawn up again, Luke xxii. 31, 32. ‘And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.’ (2.) The falls of the saints flow from their not improving their union with Christ, their not making use of him by faith, for staying or bearing them up, Psal. xxvi. 13. "I had fainted, unless I had believed." While the nurse holds the child in her arms, it cannot fall to the ground: yet if the unwary child hold not by her, it may fall backwards in her arms to its great hurt. Thus David's fall broke his bones ▪ Psal. [...] 8. but it did not break the bond of union betwixt Christ and him: The Holy Spirit, the bond of that union, was not taken from him, ver. 11.

The Last benefit I shall name, is, The special care of the husband­man, John xv. 1, 2. ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.—Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.’ Believers, by virtue of their union with Christ, are the object of God's special care and provi­dence. Mystical Christ is God's vine, other societies in the world are but wild olive trees. The men of the world are but God's out­field; the saints are his vineyard, which he has a special propriety in, and a special concern for, Cant. viii. 12. ‘My vineyard, which is mine, is before me.’ He that slumbers not, nor sleeps, is the keeper of it, he ‘does keep it lest any hurt it, he will keep it night and day:’ he in whose hand is the dew of heaven, ‘will water it every moment,’ Isa. xxvii. 3. He dresseth and purgeth it, in order to further fruitfulness, John xv. 2. He cuts off the luxuri­ant twigs that mar the fruitfulness of the branch. This is done, espcially by the word, and by the cross of afflictions. The saints need the ministry of the word, as much as the vineyard needeth one to dress and prune the vines, 1 Cor. iii. 9. ‘We are labour­ers togethers with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.’ And they need the cross too, 1 Pet. i. 6.

And therefore, if we should reckon the cross amongst the benefits flowing to believers from their union with Christ. I judge, we should not reckon it amiss. Sure I am. in their sufferings they suffer with him, Rom. viii. 17. And the assurances they have of the cross, have rather the nature of a promise, as of a threatning, Psal. lxxxix. 30.31.32.33. ‘If his children forsake my law,—then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not ut­terly take from him: nor suffer thy faithfulness to fail.’ This looks like a tutor's engaging to a dying father, to take care of the children left upon him; and to give them both nurture and admo­nition, for their good. The covenant of grace does truly beat the spears of affliction into pruning hooks, to them that are in Christ, [Page 209] Isa. xxvii. 9. ‘By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit to take away h [...]s sin.’ Why then sh [...]uld we be angry with [...]ur cross? Why should we be fright­ed at it? The believer must take up his cross, and fol [...]ow his leader, the Lord Jesus Christ. He must [...]ke up his ilk-day's cross, Luke ix. 23 ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny [...], and take up his cross daily.’ Yea, he must t [...]ke up his holy-days cross too, Lam. ii. 22 ‘Thou hast called, a [...] a solemn day, by terrors round about’ The church of the Jews had, of a long time, many a pleasing meeting at the temple, on solemn days, for the worship of G [...]d: but they got a solemnity of another na [...]ure, when God called together, about the temple and city, the Chaldean army that burnt the temple, and laid Jerusalem on heaps. And now, that the church of God is yet militant in this lower r [...]g [...]on, how can it be but the clouds will return after the rain? But the cross of Christ (which name the saints t [...]oubles do bear) is kindly [...]ame to the believer. It is a cross indeed; but no to the b [...]lie [...]er's graces, but to his corruptions. The hypocr [...]es seeming graces may [...]ndeed breathe out then last on a cross, as these of the [...]tony grou [...]d hear­ers did. Matth xiii 6. ‘And when the sun (of persecu [...]on, ver. 26) was up, they were scorched: And because they had not root, they withered away.’ But never did one of the red graces in a believer die upon the cross yet. Nay, as the candle sh [...]nes brightest in the night, and the fire burns fiercest in intense frost: So the believer's graces are, ordinarily most vigorous in a time of trouble.

There is a certain ple [...]sure and sweetness in the cross, to them who have their senses exercised to discern and to find [...]out. There is a certain sweetness in one's seeing himself upon his trials for heaven, and standing candidate for glory. [...]here is a pleasure in travelling over these mountains, where the Christian can see the prints of Christ's own feet, and the foot-steps of the flock, who have been there before him. How pleasant is it to a saint, in the exercise of grace, to see how a good God crosseth his corrupt inclinations, and prevents his folly! How sweet is it to behold these thieves upon the cross! How refined a pleasure is there in observing how God draws away provision from unruly lusts, and so pincheth them, that the Christian may get them governed! Of a truth there is a paradise within this thorn hedge. Many a time the people of God are in bonds; which are never loosed, till they be bound with cords of [...]ffliction. God takes them, and throws them into a fiery furnace, that burns off their bond; and then like the three children, Dan iii 25. they are loose, walking [...] the midst of the fire. God gives his children a potion, with o [...] [...]ter ingredient: If that will not work upon them, he w [...]l put in a second, a third, and so on, as there is need, that they may wo [...]k [...] [...] for their good, Rom. viii. 28. With cross-winds he b [...]ens [...] the harbour. They are often found in such ways, as that the [...]r [...] [...] [...]he [Page 210] happiest foot they can meet with▪ and well may they salute it, as David did Abigail, saying, ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me,’ 1 Sam. xxv. 32. Worldly things are often such a load to the Christian, that he moves but very slowly heaven-ward God sends a wind of trouble, that blows the burden off the man's back: and then he walks more speedily on his way; after God hath drawn some gilded earth from him, that was drawing his heart away from God Zeph. iii. 12. ‘I will also leave in the midst of thee, an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord.’ It was an observe of an heathen moralist, ‘That no history makes mention of any man, who hath been made better by riches.’ I doubt if our modern histories can supply the defect of ancient histories in this point. But sure I am many have been the worse of riches: thousands have been hugged to death, in the embraces of a smiling world; and many good men have got wounds from outward prosperity, that behoved to be cured by the cross. I remember to have read of one, who having an imposthume in his breast, had in vain used the help of physicians: but being wound­ed with a sword, the imposthume broke; and his life was saved by that accident, which threatned immediate death. Often have spirit­ual imposthumes gathered in the breasts of God's people▪ in the time of outward prosperity, and been thus broken and discussed by the cross. It is kindly for believers to be healed by stripes; although they are usually so weak as to cry out for fear, at the sight of the pruning-hook, as if it were the destroying [...]x: and to think the Lord is coming to kill them when he is indeed coming to cure them.

I shall now conclude, addressing myself in a few words, first to saints, and next to sinners.

I. To you that are saints, I say,

First, Strive to obtain and keep up actual communion and fellowship with Jesus Christ; that is, to be still deriving fresh supplies of grace, from the fountain thereof, in him, by faith; and making suitable re­turns of them, in the exercise of grace and holy obedience. Beware of estrangement betwixt Christ and your souls. If it has got in al­ready, (which seems to be the case of many in this day,) endeavour to get it removed. There are multitudes in the world that slight Christ, though ye should not slight him: many have turned their backs on him, that sometimes looked fall for heaven. The warm sun of outward peace and prosperity has caused some cast their cloak of religion from them, who held it fast when the wind of trouble was blowing upon them: and will ye also go away? John vi 67. The greatest ingrati­tude is stampt on your slighting of communion with Christ, Jer ii 31 ‘Have I been a wilderness unto Israel▪ a land of darkness? Where­fore say my people, We are lords, we will come no more unto thee?’ Oh! beloved, "Is this your kindness to your friend▪" It is unbecoming any wise to slight converse with her husband, [...] her especially who was taken from a prison or a dunghill, as ye wer [...] [Page 211] by our Lord. But remember, I pray you, this is a very ill chosen time to live at a distance from God:—it is a time in which divine providence frowns upon the land we live in; the clouds of wrath are gathering, and are thick above our heads? It is not a time for you to be out of your chambers, Isa xxvi. 20. They that now are walking most closly with God, may have enough ado to stand when the trial comes; how hard will it be for others then, who are like to be surprised with troubles, when guilt is lying on their consciences unremoved. To be awakened out of a sound sleep, and cast into a raging sea, as Jonah was, will be a fearful trial. To feel trouble before we see it coming, to be past hope, before we have any fear, is a very sad case Wherefore break down your idols of jealousy, mortify these lusts, these irregular appetites and desires, that have stolen away your hearts, and left you, like Samson, without his hair, and say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband; for then it was better with [...]e th [...] now,’ Hos. ii. 7.

Secondly, Walk as becomes those that are united to Christ. Evi­dence your union with him by walking as he also walked, 1 John ii. 6. If ye be brought from under the power of darkness, let your light shine before men. ‘Shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life,’ as the lanthorn holds the candle, which being in it, shines through it, Philip. ii. 15, 16. Now that ye profess Christ to be in you, let his image shine forth in your conversation, and remember the business of your lives is to prove by practical arguments what ye profess.

1. Ye know the character of a wife, ‘She that is married, c [...]eth how she may please her husband.’ Go you and do likewise ‘ [...] worthy of the Lord, unto all pleasing,’ Col. i. 10. This is the great business of life; you must please him, though it should displease all the world. What he hates must be hateful to you, because he hates it. Whatever lusts come in suit of your hearts, deny them, seeing "the grace of God has appeared, teaching so to do:" and you are, joi [...]d to the Lord. Let him be a covering to your eyes▪ for you have not your choice to make, it is made already; and you must not dishonour your Head. A man takes care of hi [...] feet, for that, if he catch hold there, it flies up to his head. ‘Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the member of an harlot? God forbid,’ says the Apostle, 2 Cor. vi. 15. Wilt thou take that heart of thine, which is Christ' dwelling place, and lodge his enemies there? Wilt thou take that body, which is his temple, and defile it, by using the members thereof, as the instrument of sin?

2. Be careful to bring forth fruit, and much fruit. The branch well laden with fruit, is the glory of the vine, and of the husband [...] too, John xv 8 ‘Herein is my Father glorified. that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples.’ A barren tree stands safer in a wood, than an orchard: And branches in Christ that bring me [...] fruit, will be taken away and cast into the fire.

[Page 212]3. Be heavenly-minded and maintain a holy contempt of the world. Ye are united to Christ, he is your Head and Husband, and is in heaven: Wherefore your hearts should be there also, Col. iii 1: ‘If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God’ Let the serpent's seed go on their belly▪ and eat the dust of this earth: but let the members of Christ be ashamed to bow down and feed with them

4 Live and act dependently depending by faith on Jesus Christ. That which grows on its own root, is a tree, not a branch. It is of the nature of a branch, to depend on the stock for all, and to derive all its sap from thence. Depend on him for life, light, strength, and all spiritual benefits. Gal. ii. [...]0. ‘I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God’ For this cause, in the mystical union, strength is united to weakness, life to death▪ and heaven to earth; that weak­ness death and earth, may mount up on borrowed wings Depend on him for temporal benefits also, Matth vi. 2. ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’ If we have trusted him with our eternal con­cerns, let us be ashamed to distrust him in the matter of our provision in the world.

Lastly, Be of a [...]eek disposition, and an uniting temper with the fellow members of Christ's body, as being united to the meek Jesus, the blessed centre of union. There is a prophecy to this pur­pose concerning the kingdom of Christ, Isa. [...].6. ‘The wolf shall dwell with the [...]amb; and the leopard shall ly down with the kid.’ It is an allusion to the beasts in Noah's ark. The beasts of prev, that were w [...]nt to kill and devo [...] others, when once they came into the ark▪ lay down in peace with them: the lamb was an no haz [...]rd by the wolf her [...]; nor the kid by the leopard. There was a beautiful accomplishment of it in the primitive church, Act. iv. 32. "And the multitude of them that bel [...]ev [...]d, were of one heart, and of one soul." And this prevails in all members of Christ, according to the measure of the grace of God in them. Man is born naked, he comes naked into this world as [...]f God de­sign [...]d him for the picture of peace: and sure [...]y when he is born again he comes not into the new world of grace, with c [...]aws to te [...], a sword to wound, and a fire in his hand to burn up his fel­low-members in Christ, because they cannot see with his light. Oh! it is sad to see Christ's lillies as thorns in one another's faces: Christ's lambs devouring one another like lions, and God's [...]a­mond cutting one another: yet it must be remembred, t [...] a [...] sin is no proper cement for the members of Christ tho' Herod and Pon­tius Pilate may be made friends, that way. The apostle' rule is plain, Heb. xii 14. "Follow peace with all men and holiness." To follow peace no further than our humour, credit, and such like things will allow us, 'tis too short: to pursue it further than holiness, that is, conformity to the divine will allows us, is too far. [Page 213] Peace is precious, yet it may be bought too dear: wherefore we must rather want it, than purchase it, at the expence of truth or holiness But other way, i [...] cannot be over dear bought; and it will always b [...] precious in the eye of the sons of peace.

II. And now, si [...]ers, what shall I say to you? I have given you some view of the privileges of these in the state of grace: ye have seen them afar off But alas! they are not yours, because ye are not in Christ's. The sinfulness of an unregenerate state is yours; and the misery of it is yours also: but, ye have neither part nor lot this matter. The guilt of all your sins lies upon you; ye have no part in the righteousness of Christ. There is no peace to you, no peace with God, no true peace of conscience; for ye have no saving interest in the great Peace maker Ye are none of God's family: the adoption we spoke [...] belongs not to you. Ye have no part in the Spirit of sanctification; and▪ in one word, ye have no inherit­ance among them that are sanctified All I can say to you in this matter, is that the ca [...] no [...] desperate, they may yet be yours, Rev. iii. 20. ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.’ Heaven is proposing an union with earth stil, the potter is making suit to his own clay, and the gates of the city of refuge are not yet closed. O! that we could compel you to come in.

Thus far of the State of Grace.