But what if it were fo, that thou wert indeed the firft? Some one faint 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 Ifrael to a trodden path, in his difpenfations towards us?" Thy way is in the fea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy foottleps are not known," Pfal. Ixxvii. 19. If the Lord fhould carry you to heaven by fome retired road, and let you in at a back-door, (fo to speak) you would have no ground to complain. Learn to allow fovereignty a latitude; be at your duty: and let no affliction caft avail over any evidences you otherwife have for your being in the fate of grace: for "po man knoweth either their love or hatred by all that is before them,,' Ecclef. ix, 1.

USE II. Ye that are ftrangers to this new birth, be convinced of the abfolute neceflity of it. Are all in the ftate 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 that he would fpeak them to your hearts) "Ye must be born again," John iii. 17. And for your conviction confider thefe few things.

Firft, Regeneration is abfolutely neceffary to qualify you to do any thing really good and acceptable to God. While you are not born again, your beft works are but gliftering fins; for though the matter of them is good, they are quite marred in the making. Confider, (1.) That without regeneration there is no faith; and, "without faith it is impoffible to please God," Heb. xi. 6. Faith is a vital act of the new-born foul. The Evangelift, fhewing the different entertainment our Lord Jefus bad from different perfons; fome receiving him, fome rejecting him; points at regenerating grace, as the true rife of that difference; without which, never one would have received him. He tells us, that as many as received him, were thefe 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, fo muft the effects be: if the lungs be rotten, the Breath will be unfavoury: and he who, at beft, is dead in fin, bis works at beft will be but dead works. Unto them that are › defiled and unbelieving, is nothing pure-being abominable, and

difobedient, and unto every good work reprobate, Tit. i.. 15, 16. Could we fay of a man, that he is more blameless in his life, than any other in the world; that he macerates his body with fafting; and has made his knees as borns with con tinual praying; but he is not born again: that exception would mar all. As if one fhould, fay, there is a well-proportioned body, but the foul is gone, it is but a dead lump. This is a melting confideration. Thou doft many things materially good; but God faith, All thefe things avail not, as long as I fee the old nature reigning in the man, Gal. vi. 15. For, in Jefus Chrift, neither circumcifion availeth any thing, nor upcircumcifion, but a new creature.”

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If thou art not born again,. (1) All thy reformation is naught in the fight of God. Thon hat that the door, but the thief is ftill in the houfe. It may be thou art not what once. thou waft, yet thou art not what thou must be, if ever thou feeft heaven for," Except a man be born again, he cannot fee the kingdom of God," John iii. 3. (2.) Thy prayers are. an abomination to the Lord, Proy. xv. 8. It may be, others. admire thy ferioufnefs; thou crieft 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 rottennefs, Rom. iii. 13. Their throat is an open fepulchre." Others are affected with thy prayers which feem to them, as if they 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," Hof. vii. 14: Others take thee for a wrestler and prevailer with God: but he can take no delight with thee, nor thy prayers neither, Ifa. Ixvi. 3. "He that killeth an ox, is as if he flew a man he that facrifice-h a lamb,. as if he cut off a dog's neck:-he that burneth incenfe, as if he ble ffed an idol" Why that Because thou art yet in the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity. (3.) All thou haft done for God and is caufe in the world, though it may be followed with temporal rewards, yet is loft as to divine acceptance. This is clear from the fe of Jehu; who was indeed rewarded. with a kingdom, for his executing due vengeance 'upon the houfe of Ahab, as being a work good for the matter of it, because it was commanded of God, as you may fee, 2 Kings Yet he was punished for it in his pofterity, because he did it not in a right manner, Hof. i. 4- "I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the houfe of Jehu.', God locks mainly to the heart and if fo, truly albeit thy outward appearance be faires

x. 13.

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than that of many others, yet the hidden man of thy heart is loathfome: thou lookelt well before men, but art thou as Mofes was, "fair to God," as the margin hath it, acts vii. 20. O what a difference is there betwixt the characters of Afa and Amaziah: "The high places were not removed; nevertheless, Afa his heart was perfect with the Lord all his days," 1 Kings XV. 14. "Amaziah did that which was right in the fight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart," 2 Chron. xxv. 2. It may be thou art zealous against fin in others, and doft admonish them to their duty, and reprove them for their fin and they hate thee, becaufe thou doft thy duty. But I muft tell thee, God hates thee too, because thou dost it not in a right manner; and that thou canst never do, whilft thou art not born again. Laftly, All thy ftruggles againft fin, in thine own heart and life, are naught. The proud Pharifee afflicted his body with fafting; and God ftruck his foul, in the mean time with a fentence of condemnation, Luke xviii. Balaam Aruggled with his covetous temper to that degree, that though he loved the wages of unrighteoufnefs, yet he would not win them by cur fing Ifrael; but he died the death of the wicked, Numb. xxxi. 8. All thou doft, while in an unregenerate ftate, is for thyfelf: and therefore it will fare with thee, as with a fubject, who having reduced the rebels, put the crown on his own head; and therefore lofeth all his good fervice, and his head too.

Object. If it be thus with us, then we need never perform any religious duty at all. Auf. The conclufion is not juft. No inability of thine can loofe thee from the duty God's law lays on thee: and there is lefs evil in thy doing thy duty, than there is in the omitting of it. But there is a mids betwixt omiting of duty, and the doing of it as thou daft it. A man ordereth masons to build a heufe; 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 pleafe : but they muft raze the old foundation, and build on firm ground. “Go thou and do hkewife." In the mean time, it is not in vain for thee, even for thee, to feek the Lord: for tho' he regards thee not, yet he may have refpect to his own ordinance, and do thee good thereby, as was faid before.

SECONDLY, Without regeneration there is no communion with God. There is a fociety on earth, whofe "fellowship is with the Father, and with the Son Jefus Chrift," John i. 3. But out of that fociety all the unregenerate are excluded; for they are all enemies to God, as ye heard before at large. Now, " Cau

"Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" Amos iii. 3° They are all unholy and what "Communion hath light with darkness-Chrift with Belial? 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15. They may have a fhew and refemblance of holiness, but they are ftrangers to true holiness, and therefore without God in the world. How fad is this cafe, to be employed in religious duties, but to have no fellowship with God in them! ye would not be content with your meat, unless it fed you; nor with your clothes, unlefs they kept you warm: and how can you fatisfy yourselves with your duties, while they are not effectual to your communion with God?

THIRDLY, Regeneration is abfolutely neceffary 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. fo it is with the temple above: " It is built of stone made ready before it is brought thither" namely, of lively ftones, Pet. ii. 5. wrought for the fame thing," 2 Cor. v. 5. for they cannot be laid in that glorious building, jnft as they came out of the quarry of depraved nature: Jewels of gold are not meet for fwine; and far lefs jewels of glory for unrenewed fioners. Beggars in their rags, are not meet for kings houses; nor finners to enter into the King's palace, without the raiment of needle work, Pfal. xlv. 14, 15. What wife-man would bring fishes out of the water to feed in his meadow? or fend his oxen to feed in the fea? Even as little are the unregenerate meet for heaven, or is heaven meet for them. It would never be liked by them.

accounts.

The unregenerate would find fault with heaven on feveral As, (1.) That it is a ftrange country. Heaven is the renewed man's native country: his Father is in heaven; his mother is Jerufalem, 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 ftranger on this earth, and his head is homeward: Heb. xi. 16. "They defire a better country, that is, an heavenly." But the unregenerate man is "the man of the earth," Pfal. x. 18. "Written in the earth," Jer. xvii. 13. Now home is home, be it never fo homely; there fore, he "minds earthly things," Philip. iii. 19. There is a peculiar sweetness in our native foil; and hardly are men drawn to leave it, and dwell in a ftrange country. In no cafe does that prevail more, than in this; for unrenewed men would quit their pretenfions to heaven, were it not that they fee they cannot make a better of it. (2.) There is nothing there of what they de

light moft in, as moft agreeable to the carnal heart. Rev. xxi. 27. "And there fhall in no wife enter into it, any thing that defileth.', When Mahomet gave out paradife to be a place of fenfual delights, his religion was greedily embraced : for that is the heaven men naturally chufe. If the covetous man could get bags full of gold there, and the voluptuous man, can promife himself his fenfual delights there; they might be reconciled to heaven, and meet for it too: but fince it is not fo, tho' they may utter fair words about it, truly it has little of their hearts. (3.) Every corner there is filled with that which, of all things they have the leaft liking of; and that is holiness, true holiness, perfect holiness. Were one that abhors swine's flesh bidden to a feaft, where all the dishes were of that fort of meat, but variously prepared; he would find fault with every dish at the table, notwithstanding all the art ufed to make them palatable. It is true, there is joy in heaven, but it is holy -joy; there are pleasures in heaven, but they are holy pleafures: there are places to ftand by in heaven, but it is holy ground. That holiness that cafts 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 godlinefs. Many indeed mix themselves with the godly on earth, to procure a name to themselves, and to cover the haughtinefs of their hearts; but that trade could not be managed. there. (5) They would never like the employment of heaven, they care fo little for it now. The business of the faints there, would be an intolerable burden to them, seeing it is not agreeable to their nature. To be taken up in beholding, admiring and praifing of "Him that fitteth upon the throne, ad of the Lamb," would be work unfuitable, and therefore unfavoury to an unrenewed foul. Laftly, 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 fuch as now account the fabbath-day à burden, brock the celebrating of an everlafting fabbath in the heavens?

LASTLY Regeneration is abfolutely neceffary to your being admitted into heaven. John iii. 3. No heaven without it. Tho' carnal men could digeft all these things which make heaven fo unfuitable for them, yet God will never fuffer them to come

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