deemer's blood be ever so great, in the sight of God; yet, if it is not applied for healing and cleansing unto us, we shall be never the better for it. And therefore, except we are born again, Christ cannot be a Saviour to us.* However we may now be called by his name, yet hereafter he will profess unto all that are unregenerate, I never knew you. Regeneration and justification are inseparable. All who are favoured with the one, enjoy the other. Whatever may be said concerning priority of order, there can be no difference in respect of time. The hour of effectual calling is an eventful hour indeed. A great work is accomplished in a short time. The dead is quickened, the guilty pardoned, the outcast accepted, and the diseased in a great measure healed. But though inseparable, regeneration can neither be the cause nor condition of justification. Instead of this, the new birth is in consequence of the satisfaction which Christ has made to Divine Justice in his atonement. This glorious change is a work never performed independent of the death of Christ, but as a necessary part of that admirable plan by which those for whom Christ died are to be completely saved. Of course, he who is pardoned is certainly renewed, and cannot die of a mortal distemper. But in healing the diseased sinner, justification has its share as well as sanctification. In his natural condi❤ tion, man has a complication of disorders. He is confined in prison and in fetters,....he is scourged by his enemies, and labours under a mortal disease. About to cure him, the good Physician in the same hour disarms his enemies and knocks off his fetters,....binds up his wounds and applies sovereign medicine...............No wounds are so deep as these made on the soul by sin, and these are healed by Christs stripes, Isaiah, liii. 5. The Redeemer heals the bruises and wounds of conscience by the pardon of sin, and the sores of the soul by sanctification. In the beautiful language of Isaiah (Chap. xxxiii. 24.) the reason why the inhabitants in Sion say no more, I AM SICK, is because the people that dwell therein are forgiven their 3 No man can acknowledge the sovereignty and dominion of Christ, as the gospel requires, unless such a change be wrought in him: And without this no man can be a real christian. It is by this means, that our Lord has appointed subjects to be gathered, and members to be admitted into this kingdom. Hence it is, that those who belong to him, are said to be called and chosen out of the world, Col. iii. 3, 4. and to have a life hid with Christ in God; and so when Christ, who is their life shall appear, then shall they also appear with him in glory. It is by being born again, that the throne of a Redeemer is fixed in the hearts of men: and by this alone they are brought into a perfect subjection to his method of ruling them. His kingdom is not of this world; nor his manner of governing suited to the forms of government here. It is an argument of very great ignorance, or something worse, for men to account themselves, or pretend to make others, the subjects of Christ's kingdom, merely, because of their outward conformity to the institutions of his worship, and their complying with a particular form of church government. Nothing less than a thorough change, and renovation of the heart and mind, can translate a man from the kingdom and power of Satan, to the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. iniquity. When the starving prodigal began to eat, to drink, and be merry, and feast on the fatted calf, he was greatly nourished and cherished, comforted and cured; but these effects were in part produced by the gracious acceptance given him by his Father, when he saw him yet a great way off and ran and kissed him. Two things, however, must never be forgotten: first, that it is not in consequence of Regeneration that Christ becomes our Saviour; it is because he is our Saviour previously to Regeneration and Justification that we are either born of the Spirit or justified by GoD: secondly, nevertheless without the new Birth, and some satisfactory evidences of it, no man has a right to conclude that he is interested in the atonement made by Christ for sin. EDITOR. On this account, as well as others before-mentioned, our Saviour might justly reproach Nicodemus, that he should be a Ruler in Israel, and yet appear so insensible of the vast change it must make in a man to pass from one kingdom and government to another. Whenever any stranger came to settle amongst the Jews, the alteration both of his maxims and manners was so great, that one would have expected Nicodemus should readily conceive of the alteration that must be made in such as became the subjects of Christ's kingdom: Which being a spiritual kingdom, must needs differ exceedingly from all the kingdoms of this world: and so must require a very different spirit and turn of mind, in those that are called to act in it. Luke xiv. 26. Luke xxi. 19. with the con text. In the gospel scheme of government there are so many things not only above natural reason, but contrary to the dictates of corrupt reason, that a principle of spiritual divine life must necessarily gain the ascendency, before such rules of conduct and behaviour can be duly observed. For example; we are required to prefer the interest of a Redeemer, and his religion in the world, above all our enjoyments and relations; yea, above life itself. We are therefore farther required to be patient under sufferings and afflictions; to be watchful and constant in our devotions; to forgive our enemies; to endeavour after their conversion and reformation; and to relieve, as we have ability and opportunity, the necessities of the poor. Now let us by these and such like things try how far any person in a natural corrupi state is like to be obedient to Christ, and to live in subjection to him; and we shall soon find, that these are things so contrary to us, as not to be complied with till we are born again. We are naturally fond of life, and the outward comforts of it; apt to fret at every thing that is troublesome and painful to us, averse to prayer, hearing, reading, and the exercises of religion; full of resentment against such as offend us; and ready to despise and turn away from those that are in mean and distressed circumstances: so that except we are changed, and made new creatures, we shall never submit to such rules of conduct as these are. I Pet. iv. 7. Put all together, and then ask yourselves; can that man be a christian, that neither learns of Christ as a teacher; nor is interested in him as a Saviour? nor can be subject to him as a King I wonder men are not ashamed of the falsehood of those pretensions, that are so apparently different from their real characters: Or that any man can satisfy himself with a profession of christianity, who has no regard to the import of such a profession, and the obligations under which it lays him. But the formal christian will say, Do not I perform the duties of religion, and attend upon the worship of God, according to the direction of the gospel? yea, do not I comply with that peculiar institution of a crucified SAVIOUR, to eat and drink at a communion-table? Which many, concerning whom we may hope well, do not yet go so far as to do: And can I, after all this, be thought unworthy of the name of a christian? To such I answer; that you have indeed a claim to the sacred name, and to all the outward privileges of christians; and you are looked upon as such by us: But at the same time, you may appear quite otherwise in the esteem and account of Almighty God. The outward performance of religious duties, however it may entitle us to the good opinion of men, yet it cannot avail us in the sight of God, if there be not such an attention, such an affection, and such a steadiness and perseverance, as the gospel requires: in all which, the services of those men will be found faulty, who are strangers to the new Birth. The natural man who is destitute of a principle of divine life, has no such concern about the spirituality of his worship, and the fixedness of his heart in religious exercises; as the man that is savingly changed, and renewed, is acted by. An external devotion is what such a one contents himself with, altho' it goes no farther than a lip-service, or a bodily exercise. Isa. xxix. 13 Hence it comes to pass, that the spirit is cold and unaffected; and knows nothing of that fervour, and exceeding pleasure, which the real christian is frequently transported with. Have I not seen two persons joining in the same prayer, or hearing the same sermon, yet as distant in the frame of their minds, as heaven and earth? One trifling, and rambling with his eyes and his thoughts, after a thousand vanities; when he that has been next him, has thought himself at the very gate of heaven? One sleeping, a second setting himself against what is said; when another, in the same seat, has been eagerly catching every word that has been spoken; and has thought that what he heard, was enough to command his attention for ever? Such is the difference converting grace makes. Farther; he that is in an unregenerate state, is soon weary of every good work. He is glad of excuses to put by, or make short, every exercise of a religious nature: and is ready, upon any pressing occasion, to throw off all. Will the Job xxvii. 10. hypocrite always call upon God? If it be for his gain, or preferment, or if it appear necessary for the securing what he has, he can wholly lay aside his thoughts of religion; or, in the most material points, can alter them. He is ready to do either, as the times and his circumstances require. Whereas the real christian 1 Cor. xv. 58. is one that is stedfast and unmoveable; always abounding in the work of the Lord. He that is born again, is endued with a principle, that will carry him through all trials; and render him superior to all oppositions; and enable him to conquer all temptations; (I mean, as to the final issue of them); which can be said of no other man. Since, therefore, men may attend upon Sacraments, as well as other parts of religious worship, without a becoming temper and disposition of mind; these are only to be looked upon, as external badges of christianity, not as certain evidences of it. And from our own observation we are assured,......... that sacramental vows and promises are very little minded, in the making, and much less in the keeping of them, by some, |