and are produced by one another. They may be treated of diftinctly, but they cannot exist feparately. So that whenever any of them is found alone, or ftands independent of the other, that very thing is a fufficient evidence that it is falfe and fpurious.

3. From what has been faid on this subject, we may be enabled to judge what are the fundamental and effential doctrines of the gospel, to which all others are but fubordinate and subservient. Regeneration, or the New Birth, we are warranted to fay, after the example of our Saviour, is abfolutely neceffary to falvation: “Ex"cept a man be born again, he cannot fee the

kingdom of God." If any man, therefore, depart from this truth, he makes fhipwreck of the faith, and will at last be found to fight againft God. It is alfo plain, that the reconciliation of a finner to God must be through the blood of the atonement: "For other foundation can no man Jay, than that is laid, which is Jefus Chrift *. any man hold by, and build upon, this great foundation, he shall be finally accepted, though many things may be found in him justly blameworthy. Nor is it easy, indeed, to say what degree of error and mifapprehenfion concerning thefe truths themfelves, may be confiftent with abiding by the fubftance. But certainly all who

If

I Cor. iii. 11.

directly

directly and openly oppose them, may be faid “to "bring in damnable herefies, even denying the "Lord that bought them, and to bring upon themfelves fwift deftruction +."

This may teach us, what judgment Chriftians ought to form of the many parties and factions which divide the vifible church. There may be fmaller differences, which keep them asunder on earth, while, in faith and in love to an unfeen Saviour, they are perfectly united. We are told that God fhall gather his elect from the four winds, and that " many fhall come from the east "and weft, and fhall fit down with Abraham, "and Ifaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of hea66 ven *" I always think with much pleasure on the perfect union of this great and general affembly of the church of the first born. Then all other diftinctions, all other defignations shall be abolifhed, and those shall make one pure and unmixed fociety, who have received" a white ftone " and a new name," and "whofe names are "written in the Lamb's book of life." The profpect of this should keep us from immoderate refentment, at prefent, against any of whom we have reafon to think that they hold the foundation, are acquainted with real and practical religion, or have had experience of a faving change.

+2 Pet. ii, 1.

Matt, viii, 11.

No

No man, indeed, can deny it to be just, that every one would endeavour to support that plan of the discipline and government of the church of Christ, and even the minuteft parts of it, which appear to him to be founded upon the word of God. But ftill found doctrine is more to be efteemed than any form. Still we ought to confider the excellence of every particular form, as confifting in its fitness to promote or preserve the knowledge of the truth, and to carry on a work of illumination, conviction, and converfion, to the faving of the foul. Would any Christian fhew that he is of a truly catholic disposition, let him discover a greater attachment to those even of different denominations, who feem to bear the image of God, than to profane perfons, be their apparent or pretended principles what they will. Let us pay fome regard to other diftinctions, but ftill the greatest regard to the most important of all diftinctions, that of faints and finners.

4. As this great diftinction divides the whole human race, and is fo very important in its confequences, let me earnestly intreat every one who perufeth this treatise, to bring the matter to a trial with regard to himself. Answer this question in ferioufnefs, Whether do you belong to the one clafs or the other? We are dropping into the grave from day to day, and our ftate is fixed beyond any poffibility of change. What aftonith

ing

ing folly to continue in uncertainty whether we fhall go to heaven or hell, whether we shall be companions of angels, or affociates with blafpheming devils, to all eternity. Nothing, therefore, can be more falutary, than that you make an impartial fearch into your prefent character and state. If you have ground to conclude that you are at peace with God, what an unspeakable fource of joy and confolation? If otherwise, there is no time to lose in hastening from the brink of the pit. May I not with fome confidence make this demand of every reader, that he would fet apart fome time, and apply with vigour and earneftness to the duty of self-examination. Is not this demand reasonable? What injury can you fuffer by complying with it? Will confcience permit any to continue unreproved in the neglect of it? Have you read fo much on the fubject of regeneration, and are you unwilling to reap the benefit of it? Let every one, without exception, take up or renew this grand enquiry, "Am I in "Chrift? That is, am I a New Creature or not? "Am I a child of God? or do I ftill continue · an heir of hell?"

66

5. As it is more than probable there will be fome readers who are, or have reason to suspect, themselves unrenewed, I would now come as an ambaffador from Chrift, and endeavour to negoWherefore" as though God did

tiate peace.

"beseech

" befeech you by me, I pray you in Christ's stead, "be ye reconciled unto God *." While I attempt this, I defire to do it under a just impression of the great and principal truths which have been illuftrated on this fubject. I know that this change is a work of the Holy Spirit of grace; that he only can bring a clean thing out of an unclean; that without his effectual bleffing, the clearest and most conclufive reafoning directed to the understanding, the,moft warm and pathetic application to the affections, will be altogether fruitless. I know that great natural abilities are often perverted and abufed, that the foundest reafon in worldly things, and the most brutish folly in matters of eternity, are often joined together. That men may be learned scholars, eminent politicians, active merchants, fkilful tradefmén, and yet blinded finners, whom no inftruction can enlighten, whom no warning can alarm. But I know and believe, at the fame time, that God, "whom I ferve with my spirit in the gospel of "his Son," is able to make "his word quick "and powerful, fharper than a two-edged fword, "piercing even to the dividing asunder of foul

and fpirit, and of the joints and marrow, and "a difcerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart t." There is an exprefs appointment that the wicked fhall "receive warning," and in + Heb. iv. 12.

Cor. v. 20.

this