SERMON LXXXI.

PREACHED AT A CONFIRMATION.

THE ORDINANCES OF GOD ATTENDED WITH CERTAIN, THOUGH INVISIBLE EFFECTS.

JOHN iii. 7, 8.

MARVEL NOT THAT I SAID UNTO THEE, YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN. THE WIND BLOWETH WHERE IT LISTETH, AND THOU HEAREST THE SOUND THEREOF, BUT CANST NOT TELL WHENCE IT COMETH, AND WHITHER IT GOETH: SO IS EVERY ONE THAT IS BORN OF THE SPIRIT.*

ΤΗ

HE occafion of these words was this:Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews, confidering the wonders which Jefus Chrift did, concluded, that he was certainly a teacher come from God; he was therefore defirous to know of Jefus, whether God defigned to make known to his people by him more than he had revealed to them by Mofes and the Prophets?

Jefus answered him, That which I am come to teach you is this;-that whoever hopes for happiness in the life to come, must be born again, or from above.

• See 1 Pet. i. 23. 1 John i. 13.

I

Nicodemus,

Nicodemus, not understanding this way of fpeaking, though he was a master of Ifrael, and wondering how a man could be born again, our Lord proceeds to tell him, ver. 6, That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the fpirit is Spirit. That which you call life, and which you received from your parents, is but a mortal life, which fubjects you to fin and to death. Your parents were finners, and fo are you, and fuch will your children be after you; you have loft the image of God, in which you were created, and nothing on earth can restore you to that and to God's favour.

I do therefore (faith our Lord) folemnly affure you, that except a perfon be born of water and of the fpirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God; that is, unless he be baptized, and by that means made a member of Christ's. church, a child of God, and an heir of the kingdom of heaven, he cannot partake of that fpirit from above, which is abfolutely neceffary to change our nature, to make us new creatures, and to fit us for heaven and happiness everlasting.

Nicodemus not understanding how fuch a ceremony as baptifm fhould be a means of obtaining that Spirit; or how the Spirit which we cannot fee, fhould be able to work fuch a mighty change; our Lord proceeds to convince him, by a familiar inftance, that such a thing is not impoffible, nor unlikely: The

wind, faith he, bloweth where it lifteth, and thou beareft the found thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; that is, Though the wind be invifible, yet we find the effects of it very plainly, and in a thousand ways. In like manner, though the Spirit of God be not feen by men, yet he produces very strange effects to those to whom he is communicated. He enables them to fubdue their corruptions; he enlightens their understandings; he changes their hearts; he gives them new thoughts, new defires, new affections; in short, if they do not drive him from them, he will make them new creatures, and fit for that happiness which God defigned at first to bestow upon them.

Now from all this it appears, That if we continue in the ftate in which we were born, we are certainly undone; fox that which is born of the flesh is flesh:-that we can only be restored by the Spirit of God; By grace, ye are faved:-that baptifm is indeed the ordinary means of falvation; but that baptifm does not fave us, as it is the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good confcience, bearing witness that we have the Spirit of God:-In fhort; that nothing but becoming new creatures can fit us for heaven; and that nothing but the Spirit of God, communicated to us in his holy ordinances, can make us

new creatures.

Now,

Now, though these things are as plain from the holy scriptures as truths can be, yet it is as fure they are too often overlooked, neglected, or defpifed, by people of careless or profane minds, who will believe nothing but what they can fee with their eyes, or what is agreeable to their own corrupt taste of things; who will (with Nicodemus) not only fay, How can these things be? but defpife thofe whofe duty it is to prefs the confideration of them upon their hearers.

It is for this reafon, good Chriftians, that I have made choice of these words of Chrift, The wind bloweth where it lifteth, and thou heareft the found thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: fo is every one that is born of the Spirit. I have made choice of these words, in order to establish you in the truth, and to convince you, that the ordinances of God are attended with as certain effects as any thing in nature; and that the fruits of the Spirit, in all faithful Chriftians, may as plainly be perceived as the wind when it blows, or the fun when it fhines.

It is true, we are to live by faith, and not by fight; we are to make use of the means of grace which God has ordained, and we are to truft his word and promife that he will beftow the graces which he has affured us fhall attend his ordinances; but then, though the be invifible, the fruits thereof are eafily

d.

Thus