lute creature: The experience of every past day of life, since I began to think of religion at all, proves it: Yet thou must, by some means or other, attain to inward strength and inward purity, or thou art lost; and all these great capacities, and glorious faculties, will but make thy ruin so much the more distinguished. Oh how weighty the care! oh how great the charge! What shall I do, that thought, that reason, that immortality, may not be my destruction? Where shall I find a rock, that will be firm enough for my support and safety? where shall I find the means to build the fabric of such a happiness, as thine, oh my soul, must be, if ever I am happy at all ?"

Thus does God teach the mind, by its inward reviews and reflections, this important lesson of its own impotence and guilt, of its depravity and ruin; and so prepares it for those new apprehensions of Christ, which I mentioned as the third particular.

3. The regenerate soul has new apprehensions "concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, considered as a Mediator in general, and as such a particular Mediator as he is exhibited in the word of God."

That affecting view, which the regenerate soul has, of the majesty, glory, power, and purity, of the blessed God, will undoubtedly convince him, how unfit he is in himself to appear before his awful presence. He is ready to sink down in the dust at the very thought, and to say, Who is able to stand before such a great and holy God, as thou art? If I were in all the original rectitude and glory of my nature, I could not do it : How much less surrounded as I am, with so much guilt, with so much pollution! I need, as it were, A days-man betwixt us, who might lay his hand upon us both, who should transact affairs in my name with God, and bring the peaceful messages of God to me: Let such an one speak with me, and I will hear; but let not God speak with me, lest I die‡."

And when he comes to take a more near and intimate view of this Mediator which God has exhibited in the gospel, the renewed soul is even charmed and transported with the view: And that Jesus, whose name he before pronounced with so much coldness, that the very mention of it was a kind of profanation, now is regarded by him as The chiefest among ten thousands. He Beholds his glory, as that of the only begotten

1 Sam. vi. 20.
VOL. II.

+ Job ix. 33.

+ Exod. xx. 19.

§ Cant. v. 10.

3 E

of the Father, full of grace and truth*. The union of the divine and human nature in the person of Christ, though it appears indeed a mystery, which he cannot fully explain, is nevertheless a glorious certainty, which in the general he most cordially believes. He sees Emmanuel God dwelling with us in human flesh, and acquiesces in the sight; while the rays of divine glory are attempered by passing Through the vail, that is to say, his flesh†. He considers Christ, as Made of God unto him wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: And each of these views rejoices him to the very heart. "Ignorant as I am, I shall be taught and instructed by him, that great Prophet whom God sent into the world; by him, who is incarnate wisdom, as well as incarnate love; whose words resound in the gospel, and whose spirit seals the instructions of his word. Guilty as I am, my crimes shall be expiated; for there is Redemption in his blood, even the forgiveness of sins§: There is an everlasting righteousness, that he has introduced; and oh, how richly will it adorn my soul!

-This pollution of mine shall not for ever exclude me from a comfortable intercourse with the pure Majesty of heaven; for Christ is come to be my sanctification; and he can cleanse me by his Spirit, and transform me into that divine delightful image which I have lost.Victorious Lord, how easily canst thou redeem me from that state of servitude, in which I have been kept so long complaining! how easily, and how powerfully, canst thou vindicate me Into the glorious liberty of the children of God!-Blessed Jesus, thou art my light, and my strength, my hope, and my joy! Thou art just such a Saviour, as my necessity requires; thou fillest up all my wants, and all my wishes; thou art all in all to me! I would not be ignorant of thee for ten thousand worlds; I would not live a day, nor an hour, without recollecting, who, and what thou art, and maintaining that intercourse with thee, which is the life of my

soul."

4. The regenerate soul has also new apprehensions" of the importance of eternity, when compared with time and all its

concerns."

of

It is indeed a most pitiable thing, and awakens our astonishment, grief, and indignation, to observe how the things this world press down immortal spirits, and reduce them almost

John i. 14.

Eph. i. 7.

+ Heb. x. 20.
Rom. viii. 21.

+1 Cor. i. 30.

indeed to a state of brutality. Most deplorable it is, to see the power and energy of those motives, which are taken merely from this earth, and its little concernments; so that if a man did but know what was the favourite vanity, he might almost predict, from the knowledge of circumstances, how a man's actions would be ordered; and might almost be sure, that he would follow, whithersoever this interest, or that pleasure, this ambitious, or that mercenary view called him; though all the prospects for an eternal world pleaded the contrary way. Such is the folly and Madness that is in men's hearts while they live; and after that, they go down to the dead*, and spend that immortal duration, which they have despised, in fruitless lamentations. Fatal delusion! which it is the great design of the gospel to cure.

But when a soul becomes wise to salvation, it is taught to Look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; because it has now a full sense of what before it only notionally confessed, that the things which are seen, are temporal; but the things which are not seen, are eternal†.Eternity! it is impossible I should tell you, how much an eye that is enlightened by God, sees, and reads, as it were in that one word; while one scene beyond another is still opening on the mind, till its sight, and its thoughts are swallowed up: And as the creatures are as nothing with respect to God, so all the interests of time, with respect to eternity, appear as Less than nothing, and vanity. To be made for an everlasting existence appears in so awful a view, that while it has some pleasing hope, it rejoices with trembling; and every remaining fear, with relation to this great interest, seems a greater evil, than the certainty of any temporal calamity.

I might add upon this head, that the regenerate soul has not only new views of the importance, but likewise of the nature of the invisible and eternal state; and particularly of the nature of the celestial happiness. It does not consider it merely, or chiefly, as a state of corporeal enjoyment, formed to gratify and delight the senses; but as a state of perfect conformity to God, and most endearing intercourse with him; of which as it begins already by divine grace to taste the pleasures, so it most ardently thirsts after them; and would be heartily willing to lose this body for ever, and to bid an eternal adieu to every object capable of giving it delight; rather than it would consent to lose,

Eccles. ix. 3.

† 2 Cor. iv. 18.

Isa. xl. 17.

in a perpetual succession of such objects, the sight of the Father of Spirits, and that sensibility of his love, which adds the most substantial solidity, and exalted relish to every inferior good, that can be desired from it.

5. A regenerate man has also new apprehensions "of the way which God has marked out to this happiness."

Nothing is more common, than for carnal and ignorant men to imagine, that it is a very easy thing to get to heaven; and upon this presumption, they Hew out to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water; and often live and die with a Lye in their right hand. But the renewed soul, having such awful notions of the blessed God, and such apprehensions of the excellency and glory of the heavenly state, as you have heard, deeply feels how absolutely necessary it is, that something of a very great and important change should pass in the mind of that sinful creature, that ever hopes to be a partaker of it. He sees, that it is impossible, any external profession, or external rite, should secure so great an end; impossible, that baptism should be regeneration, in that sense in which the scripture uses the word, or that by this alone, though ever so regularly administered, a man's eternal happiness should be secured. He sees, that to be associated to this or that party of christians, to join with established, or with separate churches, and to be ever so zealous for their respective order, worship, and discipline, is a thing quite of foreign consideration here; and that the best, or the worst of men, may be, and probably are, on one side, and on another; nay, that ignorance, pride, and bigotry may take occasion from hence, to render men farther from the kingdom of God, than any mistake in judgment, or practice, on these disputed points, could have set them.

No, my brethren, when a man's eyes are enlightened by God's renewing Spirit, he sees and feels, that in the language of scripture, he must be Created anew in Christ Jesus: He sees, that Holiness is a character without which no man shall see the Lords; and he is perhaps little anxious, whether this, or the faith that produces it, shall be called a condition, or a qualification, or an instrument, while he sees he must perish without it: He sees, that as it is absolutely necessary, so it is very extensive, as the Commandment which is its rule is exceeding broad: He sees, that it must not only effectually regulate the actions of his life, but controul all the sentiments of his heart: Nay, he sees,

*Jer. ii. 13. † Isa. xliv. 20. Eph. ii. 10. § Heb. xii. 14. || Psal. cxix. 96.

it must not only be submitted to as a necessary, but be chosen as a most amiable thing: And accordingly, he does chuse it as such. The unregenerate soul, when he hears of repentance and reformation, though he understands not half that it means, nor is aware of what will in fact be the greatest difficulty of it, looks upon it at best as a nauseous medicine, which he must take, or die: But the regenerate man finds his heart so wonderfully and so happily changed, that he regards it for itself, as the food, the health, and the life of his soul; as that which necessarily brings its own pleasures, and in a considerable degree its own reward along with it; so that now, as David beautifully expresses it, He openeth his mouth, and panteth; because he longs for God's commandments*.

And I will add once more, The good man is also made sensible of the place which faith and holiness hold, in the scheme which God has laid, for our justification before him, and our acceptance with him. I do not say, that all christians conceive of this with equal perspicuity, or express their conceptions with equal exactness: The most candid allowance should here be made for the different ideas they fix to the same phrases, as they have been used to look upon them with veneration, or with suspicion. But this I will venture to say, because I am persuaded the scripture will bear me out in it," that the confidence of a regenerate soul is not fixed on his own holiness, or faith, as the meritorious cause of his acceptance with God." He is deeply and cordially sensible, that he is made Accepted in the beloved+; and seeing nothing but guilt, and weakness, and ruin in himself, he ascribes to the blessed Jesus, and to the riches of God's free grace in him, his righteousness, his strength, and his salvation. And where a man is thus persuaded, I think he must in effect believe, even though he might scruple in words expressly to own it, "that Christ, as our great surety, having perfectly obeyed the law of God himself, and by his blood having fully satisfied the divine justice for the breach of it, we, on our believing in him by a vital faith, are justified before God by the imputation of his perfect righteousness." This latter way of stating it, when rightly explained, appears just equivalent to the former; and it is a manner of conceiving and expressing it, which, when rightly understood, seems extremely suitable to that deep humility, and poverty of spirit, to which the renewed soul is brought, when, like a New-born babe, it desires the sincere milk of the word, that it may grow thereby. But as

* Ver. 131.

† Eph. i. 6.

1 Pet. ii. 2.