lutions, but felf in its richest ornaments, and endowments: but this is as impoffible to the unrenewed and natural man, as it is for rocks or mountains to start from their centre, and Ay like wandering atoms in the air: nature will rather chufe to run the hazard of everlasting damnation, than escape it by a total renunciation of its beloved lufts, or felf-righteoufnefs: this fupernatural work neceffarily requires a fupernatural principle, Rom. viii. 2.

Secondly, The opening the heart fully to Jefus Chrift, without which Christ can never be received, Rev. iii. 20. but this alfo is the effect of the quickening Spirit, the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jefus: fooner may we expect to fee the flowers and blossoms open without the influence of the fun, than the heart and will of a finner open to receive Chrift without a principle of fpiritual life firft derived from him: and this will be paft doube to all that confider, not only the impotence of nature, but the ignorance, prejudice, and averfations of nature, by which the door of the heart is barred, and chained againft Chrift, John v. 40. So that nature hath neither ability, nor will, power, or defire, to come to Chrift: if any have an heart opened to receive him, it is the Lord that opens it by his Almighty Power, and that in the way of an infused principle of life fupernatu

ral.

Queft. But here it may be doubted and objected, against this pofition. If we cannot believe till we are quickened with Ipi ritual life, as you fay, and cannot be justified till we believe, as all fay, then it will follow, that a regenerate foul may be in the ftate of condemnation for a time, and confequently perih, if death should befal him in that juncture.

Sol. To this I return, That when we speak of the priority of this quickening work of the Spirit to our actual believing, we rather understand it of the priority of nature, than of time, the nature and order of the work requiring it to be so: a vital principle muft, in order of nature, be infufed before a vital act can be exerted. First, Make the tree good, and then the fruit good: and admit we fhould grant fome priority in time alfo to this quickening principle, before actual faith, yet the abfurdity mentioned would be no way confequent upon that conceffion : for as the vital act of faith quickly follows the regenerating principle, fo the foul is abundantly fecured against the danger objected; God never beginning any fpecial work of grace upon the foul, and then leaving it, and the foul with it, in hazard, but preferves both to the finishing and compleating of his gracious defign, Phil. i. 6.

First Ufe of Information.

Infer. 1. If fuch be the nature and neceffity of this principle of divine life, as you have heard it opened in the foregoing difcourfe, then hence it follows, That unregenerate men are no better than dead men. So the text represents them. "You hath "he quickened who were dead in trefpaffes and fins:" (i. c.) fpiritually dead, though naturally alive; yea, and lively too as any other perfons in the world. There is a threefold confideration of objects, viz.

σ

J. Naturally.

2. Politically.

3. Theologically.

First Naturally, To all thofe things that are natural, they are alive they can understand, reafon, difcourfe, project, and contrive, as well as others; they can eat, drink, and build, plant, and fuck out the natural comfort of these things, as much as any others. So their life is defcribed, Job xxi. 12. They "take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the found of the organ; they fpend their days in wealth," &c. And James V. 5. "Ye have lived in pleafure upon earth," as the fish lives in the water its natural element, and yet this natural fenfual life is not allowed the name of life, 1 Tim. v. 9. fuch perfons are dead whilst they live; it is a base, and ignoble life, to have a foul only to falt the body, or to enable a man for a few years to eat, and drink, and talk, and laugh, and then die.

Secondly, Objects may be confidered politically, and with refpect to fuch things, they are alive alfo: they can buy and fell, and manage all their worldly affairs with as much dexterity, fkill, and policy, as other men; yea, "the children of this "world are wifer in their generation than the children of light," Luke xvi. 8. The entire fiream of their thoughts, projects, and ftudies, running in that one channel; having but one defign to manage, they muft needs excel in worldly wifdom: But then,

Thirdly, Theologically confidered, they are dead; without life, fenfe, or motion, towards God, and the things that are above their understandings are dead, 1 Cor. ii. 14. and cannot receive the things that are of God: their wills are dead, and cannot move towards Jefus Chrift, John vi, 65. Their affecti ons are dead, even to the most excellent and fpiritual objects; and all their duties are dead duties, without life or fpirit. This is the fad cafe of the unregenerate world.

*

Bern.

May God free me from him who is a man only of one business.

Infer. 2. This fpeaks encouragement to minifters and parents, to wait in hopes of fuccefs at last, even upon those that yet give them little hope of converfion at the present.

The work you fee is the Lord's, when the Spirit of life comes upon their dead fouls, they fhall believe, and be made willing; till then, we do but plough upon the rocks: yet let not our hand flack in duty, pray for them, and plead with them; you know not in which prayer, or exhortation, the Spirit of life may breathe upon them: Can thefe dry bones live? Yes, if the Spirit of life from God breathe upon them, they can, and thall live what though their difpofitions be averfe to all things that are spiritual and ferious, yet even such have been regenerated, when more sweet and promifing natures have been paffed by, and left under fpiritual death.

:

It was the obfervation of Mr. Ward, upon his brother Mr. Daniel Rogers, (who was a man of great gifts and eminent graces, yet of a very bad temper and conftitution,) Though my brother Rogers, faith he, hath grace enough for two men, yet not half enough for himself,

It may be you have prayed, and ftriven long with your relations and to little purpose, yet be not difcouraged. How of ten was Mr. John Rogers, that famous fuccefsful divine, a grief of heart to his relations in his younger years, proving a wild and lewd young man, to the great difcouragement of his pious friends; yet, at laft, the Lord graciously changed him, so that Mr. Richard Rogers would fay, when he could exercise the utmoft degree of charity or hope, for any that at present were vile and naught, I will never defpair of any man for John Roger's Jake.

Infer. 3. How honourable are Chriftians by their new birth! They are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor "of the will of man, but of God," John i. 13. (i. e.) not in an impure, or mere natural way, but in a moft fpiritual and fupernatural manner: they are the offspring of God, the children of the Moft High, as well by regeneration as by adoption; which is the greatest advancement of the human nature, next to its hypoftatical union with the fecond perfon. Oh what honour is this for a poor finful creature, to have the very life of God breathed into his foul! All other dignities of nature are trifles compared with this; this makes a Chriftian a facred hallowed thing, the living temple of God, 1 Cor. vi. 19. The fpecial object of his delight.

Infer. 4. How deplorable is the condition of the unregenerate world, in no better cafe than dead men! Now to affect our

hearts with the mifery of fuch conditions, let us confider and compare it in the following particulars.

First, There is no beauty in the dead, all their loveliness goes away at death; there is no fpiritual beauty or loveliness in any that are unregenerate: It is true, many of them have excellent moral homilitical virtues, which adorn their converfations in the eyes of men; but what are all these, but so many sweet flowers ftrewed over a dead corps ?

Secondly, The dead have no pleasure nor delight; even fo the unregenerate are incapable of the delights of the Chriftian life: "To be fpiritually minded is life and peace," Rom. viii. 6 (i. e.) this is the only ferene, placid, and pleasant life: when the prodigal, who was once dead, was alive, then he began to be merry, Luke xv. 24. They live in fenfual pleasures, but this is to be dead while alive, in fcripture-reckoning.

Thirdly, the dead have no heat, they are as cold as clay: fo are all the unregenerate towards God and things above: their lufs are bot, but their affections to God cold and frozen: that which makes a gracious heart melt, will not make an unregenerate heart move.

Fourthly, The dead must be buried, Gen. xxiii. 4. "Bury my "dead out of my fight:" So muft the unregenerate be buried out of God's fight for ever: buried in the lowest hell, in the place of darknefs, for ever, John iii. 3. Wo to the unregenerate, good had it been for them they had never been born.

Infer. 5. How greatly are all men concerned to examine their condition, with respect to fpiritual life and death! It is very common for men to prefume upon their union with, and intereft. in Chrift: This privilege is, by common mistake, extended generally to all that profess the Christian religion, and practise the external duties of it, when, in truth, no more are, or can be, united to Chrift, than are quickened by the Spirit of life which is in Chrift Jefus, Rom. viii. 1, 2. O try your intereft in Chrift by this rule, if I am quickened by Chrift, I have union with Chrift. And,

Firft, If there be spiritual fenfe in your fouis, there is fpiritual life in them: there are an, fenfes belonging to the spiritual, as well as to the animal life, Heb. v. 14. They can feel, and fenfibly groan, under foul preffures and burdens of fin, Rom. vii. 24. The dead feel not, moan not, under the burdens of fin, but the living do: they may be fenfible, indeed, of the evil of fin, with refpect to themselves, but not as against God; dam

* By prefuming they hope, and by hoping they perish. Amef.

nation may scare them, but pollution doth not; hell may frigh them, but not the offending of God.

Secondly, If there be spiritual hunger and thirst, it is a sweet fign of fpiritual life; this fign agrees to Chriftians of a day old, 1 Pet. ii. 2. Even "new born babes defire the fincere milk of "the word:" If spiritual life be in you, you know how to expound that fcripture, Pfal. xlii. 1. without any other interpreter than your own experience: you will feel fomewhat like the gnawing of an empty ftomach, making you reftlefs during the interruption of your daily communion with the Lord.

Thirdly, If there be spiritual conflicts with fin, there is fpiritual life in your foul, Gal. v. 17. Not only a combat betwixt light in the higher, and luft in the lower faculties; not only oppofition to more grofs external corruptions, that carry more infamy and horror with them, than other fins do but the fame faculty will be the feat of war; and the more inward, and fecret any luft is, by fo much the more will it be opposed, and mourned over.

In a word the weakest Christian may, upon impartial observation, find fuch figns of fpiritual life in himself (if he will allow himself time to reflect upon the bent and frame of his own heart) as defires after God, confcience of duties, fears, cares, and forrows, about fin; delight in the fociety of heavenly and spiritual men, a loathing and burden in the company of vain and carnal perfons.

Object. O! but I have a very dead heart to fpiritual things.

Sol. It is a fign of life that you feel, and are fenfible of that deadness; and besides, there is a great deal of difference betwixt Spiritual deadness and death: the one is the state of the unregenerate, the other is the disease of regenerate men.

Object. Some figns of fpiritual life are clear to me, but I cannot close with others.

Sol. If you can really close with any, it may fatisfy you, though you be dark in others: for if a child cannot go, yet if it can fuck; but if it cannot fuck, yet if it can cry; yea, if it cannot cry, yet if it breathe, it is alive.