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CHA P. II.

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

SECT. I.

Wherein the change in regeneration doth properly and directly consist.

I

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

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

but difobedient to the divine will in his habitual and prevailing inclination. This is the character given not of one man only, but of the human race. "And God faw "that the wickednefs of man was great in the earth, and "that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was "only evil continually."*

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

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

* Gen. vi. 5.

1. Our fupreme and chief end must be to ferve and glorify God, and every other aim must be fubordinate to

this.

All things were originally made, and are daily preferved for, nay, they fhall certainly in the iffue tend to the glory of God; that is, the exercise and illuftration of divine perfection. With this great end of creation the inclination and will of every intelligent creature ought to coincide. It is, according to fcripture and reason, the first duty of man to "give unto the Lord the glory due "unto his name." This, I know, the world that lieth in wickedness can neither understand nor approve. "The "natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of "God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he "know them, because they are fpiritually difcerned."* The truth is, we ought not to be furprized to find it so, for in this the fin of man originally confifted, and in this the nature of all fin, as fuch, doth ftill confift, viz. withdrawing the allegiance due to God, and refufing fubjection to his will. The language of every unrenewed heart, and the language of every finner's practice is, "Our lips "are our own, who is lord over us?" But he that is renewed and born again, hath feen his own entire dependance upon God, hath feen his Maker's right of dominion, and the obligation upon all his creatures to be, in every refpect, fubfervient to his glory, and without referve fubmiffive to his will. He hath feen this to be moft "fit" and "reafonable," because of the abfolute perfection and infinite excellence of the divine nature. He is convinced that all preferring of our will to that of God, is a criminal ufurpation by the creature of the unalienable rights of the great Creator and fovereign proprietor of all.

Regeneration, then, is communicating this new principle, and giving it fuch force as that it may obtain and preserve the afcendency, and habitually govern the will. Every one may eafily fee the different operation and effects of this principle and its oppofite, by the different carriage and behavior of men in the world. The unre

* 1 Cor. ii. 14.

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

This account will appear to be juft, from every view given us in fcripture of our state and character, before or after converfion. It appears very clearly, from the first condition required by our Saviour of his difciples, viz. felf-denial. Then faid Jefus to his difciples, If any "man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take

up his crofs, and follow me."* All thofe who are brought back to a fenfe of their duty and obligation as creatures, are ready to fay, not with their tongues only, but with their hearts, "Thou art worthy to receive glory "and honor, and power, for thou haft created all things, "and for thy pleasure they are and were created." It ought to be attended to, what is the import of this, when spoken from conviction. They not only confider God as being moft great, and therefore to be feared; but as infinitely holy, as abfolutely perfect, and therefore to be loved and ferved. They efteem all his commands concerning all things to be right. Their own remaining corruption is known, felt, and confeffed to be wrong. This law in their members, warring against the law of God in their minds, is often deeply lamented, and, by the grace of God, firenuously and habitually refifted.

Perhaps the attentive reader may have obferved, that I have still kept out of view our own great interest in the fervice of God. The reafon is, there is certainly, in every renewed heart, a fenfe of duty, independent of intereft. Were this not the cafe, even fuppofing a defire of

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reward or fear of punishment, fhould difpofe to obedience, it would plainly be only a change of life, and no change of heart. At the fame time, as it did not arise from any inward principle, it would neither be uniform nor lasting. It is beyond all queftion, indeed, that our true interest is infeparable from our duty, fo that felf-feeking, is felflofing; but ftill a sense of duty must have the precedency, otherwise it changes its nature, and is, properly fpeaking, no duty at all.

To honor God in the heart, then, and to ferve him in the life, is the first and highest defire of him that is born again. This is not, and cannot be the cafe, with any in a natural ftate. But, before we proceed to the other particular implied in this change, it will not be improper to make an observation, which I hope will have the greater weight, when the foundation of it is fresh in the reader's mind. Hence may be plainly feen the reason why profane and worldly men have fuch a tendency to felf-righteoufness, while the truly pious are filled with an abhorrence of that foul-deftroying falfhood. This, I dare fay, appears strange to many, as I confefs it hath often done to me, before I had thought fully upon the subject: that those who are evidently none of the ftrictest in point of morals, and have leaft of that kind to boast of, fhould yet be the moft profeffed admirers and defenders of the doctrine of juftification by works, and defpifers of the doctrine of the grace of God. But the folution is eafy and natural. Worldly men have no just sense of their natural and unalienable obligation to glorify God in their thoughts, words, and actions, and therefore all that they do in religion, they look upon as a meritorious fervice, and think that certainly fomething is due to them on that account. They think it ftrange if they have walked foberly, regularly, and decently, especially if they have been strict and punctual in the forms of divine worship, that God fhould not be obliged (pardon the expreffion) to reward them according to their works. It is a hard service to them, they do it only that they may be rewarded, or at least may not fuffer for the neglect of it, and therefore cannot but infift upon the merit of it.

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