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with God in them! ye would not be content with your meat, unless it fed you; nor with your clothes, unless they kept you warm: and and how can you fatisfy yourfelves with your duties, while they are not effectual to your communion with God?

Thirdly, Regeneration is abfolutely neceffary to qualify you for heaven. None go to heaven but they that are made meet for it, Col. i. 12. As it was with Solomon's temple, 1 Kings vi. 7. fo it is with the temple above: It is built of stone made ready before it is brought thither; namely, of lively ftones, 1 Pet ii. 5 wrought for the fame thing, 2 Cor. v. 5. for they cannot be laid in that glorious building, juft as they came out of the quarry of depraved nature: Jewels of gold are not meet for fwine, and far lefs jewels of glory for unre newed finners. Beggars in their rags are not meet for king's houses; nor finners to enter into the king's palace, without the raiment of needle-work, Pfal. xlv 14,15. What wife man would bring fishes out of the water to feed in his meadow? or fend his/oxen to feed in the fea? Even as little are the unregenerate meet for heaven, or is heaven meet for them. It would never be liked of by them.

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The unregenerate would find fault with heaven on feveral accounts. As (1.) That it is a ftrange country. Heaven is the renewed man's native country: his Father is in heaven; his mother is Jerufalem, which is above, Gal. iv 26. He is born from above, John Heaven is his home, 2 Cor. v. 1. Therefore he looks on himself as a ftranger on this earth, and his head is homeward, Heb. xi 16 They defire a better country, that is, an heavenly. But the unregenerate man is the man of the earth, Pfal. x 18. written in the earth, Jer. xvii 13. Now, home is home, be it never fo homely, therefore he minds earthly things, Philip. iii. 19. There, is a peculiar fweetnefs in our native foil; and hardly are men drawn to leave it, and dwell in a strange country. In no cafe does that prevail more, than in this; for unrenewed men would quit their pretenfions to heaven, were it not that they fee they cannot make a better of it. (2.) There is nothing thereof what they delight most in, as most agreeable to the carnal heart, Rev. xxi. 27. And there shall in no wife enter into it, any thing that defileth. When Mahomet gave out paradife to be a place of fenfual delights, his religion was greedily embraced: for that is the heaven men naturally chufe. If the covetous man could get bags full of gold there, and the voluptuous man can promife himself his fenfual delights there; they might be reconciled to heaven, and meet for it too but fince it is not fo, tho' they may utter fair words about it, truly it has little of their hearts. (3.) Every corner there is filled with that, which of all things they have the leaft liking of: and that is holiness, true holinefs, perfect holiness. Were one that abhors fwine's flesh, bidden to a feaft, where all the dihes were of that fort of meat, but variously prepared; he would find fault with every dish at the table, notwithstanding all the art ufed to make them palatable. It is true, there is joys in heayen, but it is holy joy: there are plea

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fures in heaven, but they are holy pleafures: there are places to stand by in heaven, but it is holy ground. That holinefs that cafts up in every place, and in every thing there, would mar all to the unregenerate (4) Were they carried thither, they would not only. change their place, which would be a great heart-break to them: but they would change their company too Truly they would never like the company there, who care not for communion with God here; nor value the fellowship of his people, at least in the vitals of practical godliness. Many indeed mix theinfelves with the godly on earth, to procure a name to themselves, and to cover the naughtiness of their hearts: but that trade could not be managed there. (5.) They would never like the employment of heaven, they care fo little for it now. The bufinefs of the faints there, would be an intolerable burden to them, feeing it is not agreeable to their nature. To be taken up in beholding, admiring, and praifing of him that fitteth upon the throne, and of the Lamb, would be work unfuitable, and therefore unfavoury to an unrenewed foul. Laftly, They would find this fault with it, that the whole is of everlafting continuance. This would be a killing ingredient in it, to them. How would fuch as now account the Sabbath-day a burden, brook the celebrating of an everlasting Sabbath in the heavens?

Laftly, Regeneration is abfolutely neceffary to your being admitted into heaven, John fii. 3. No heaven without it. Tho' carnal men could digeft all these things, which make heaven fo unfuitable for them; yet God will never fuffer them to come thither. Therefore born again ye muft be: elfe ye fhall never fee heaven, ye fhall perish eternally. For, (1.) There is a bill of exclufion against you in the court of heaven, and against all your fort: Except a man be born again, he cannot fee the kingdom of God, John iii. 3. Here is a bar before you, that men and angels cannot remove. And to hope for heaven, over the belly of this peremptory fentence, is to hope that God will recal his word, and facrifice his truth and faithfulness to your fafety; which is infinitely more than to hope the earth fhall be forfaken for you, and the rock removed out of his place (2.) There is no holiness. without regeneration. It is the new man, which is created in true holinefs, Eph. iv. 24. And no heaven without holinefs; for without holinef's no man fball fee the Lord, Heb. xii. 14. Will the gates of pearl be opened, to let in dogs and fwine? No; their place is without, Rev. xxii. 15. God will not admit fuch into the holy place of communion with him here; and will he admit them into the holleft of all hereafter? Will he take the children of the devil, and give them to fit with him in his throne? Or will he bring the unclean into the city, whofe ftreet is pure gold? Be not deceived, grace and glory are but two links of one chain, which God has joined, and no man fhall put afinder. None are tranfplanted into the paradife above, but out of the nursery of grace below. If ye be unholy while in this world, ye will be for ever miferable in the world to come. (3.) All the

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unregenerate are without Chrift, and therefore having no hope while in that cafe, Eph. ii. 12. Will Chrift prepare manfions of glory for them, that refufe to receive him into their hearts? Nay; rather, will he not laugh at their calamity, who now fet at nought all his counfel? Prov. i. 25, 26. Laftly, There is an infallible connection betwixt a finally unregenerate state and damnation, rifing from the nature of the things themselves: and from the decree of heaven, which is fixed and unmoveable as mountains of brafs, John iii. 3. Rom. viii. 6. To be carnally minded is death. An unregenerate ftate is hell in the bud. It is eternal deftruction in embryo; growing daily, tho' thou doft_not difcern it. Death is painted on many a fair face, in this life. Depraved nature inakes men meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the damned, in utter darkness. (1.) The heart of stone within thee, is a finking weight, as a ftone naturally goes downward; fo the hard ftony heart tends downward to the bottomlefs pit. Ye are hardned againit reproof: though ye are told your danger; yet you will not fee it, ye will not believe it. But remember, that the confcience its being now feared with a hot iron, is a fad prefage of everlasting burnings. (2.) Your unfruitfulness under the means of grace, fits you for the ax of God's judgmen's, Matth. iii. 10. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down, and caft into the fire. The withered branch is fuel for the fire, John xv. 6. Tremble at this ye defpifers of the gofpel: if ye be not thereby made meet for heaven, ye will be like the barren ground, bearing briers and thorns, nigh unto curfing, whofe end is to be burned, Heb. vi..8. (3.) The hellish difpofition of mind, which difcover themfelves in profanity of life, fit the guilty for the regions of horror. A profane life will have a miferable end. They which do fuch things fhall not inherit the kingdom of God, Gal. v. 19, 20, 21. Think on this, ye prayerlefs perfons, ye mockers of religion, ye curfers and fwearers, ye uuclean, and unjust perfons, who have not fo much as moral honesty to keep you from lying, cheating and stealing. What fort of a tree think ye it to be, upon which thefe fruits grow? Is it a tree of righteousness, which the Lord hath planted? Or is it fuch an one as cumbers the ground, which God will pluck up for fuel to the fire of his wrath? (4) Your being dead in fin makes you meet to be wrapt in flames of brimstone, as a winding fheet; and to be buried in the bottomlefs pit, as in a grave. Great was me cry in Egypt, when the first-born in each family was dead; but are there not many families, where all are dead together? Nay, many there are, who are twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Sometime, in their life, they have been rouzed by apprehenfions of death, and its confequences; but now they are fo far on in their way to the land of darkness, that they hardly ever have the least glimmering of light from heaven. (5.) The darkness of your minds prefageth eternal darknefs. O the horrible ignorance some are plagued with: while others who have got fome rays of morning light into their beads, are utterly void of fpiritual light in their hearts! If

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ye knew your cafe, ye would cry out, Oh! darknefs! darknefs! darknefs making way for the blackness of darkness for ever! The facecovering is upon you already, as condemned perfons; fo near are ye to everlasting darknefs. It is only Jefus Chrift who can stop the execution, pull the napkin off the face of the condemned malefactor, and put a pardon in his hand, Ifa. xxv. 7. And he will deftroy in this mountain, the face of the covering caft over all people, i. e. The facecovering caft over the condemned, as in Haman's cafe, Efther vii. 8. As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. Laftly, The chains of darkness ye are bound with in the prison of. your depraved ftaté, Ifa. Ixi. 1. fits you to be caft into the burning fiery furnace. Ah miferable men! Sometimes their confciences ftir within them, and they begin to think of amending their ways. But alas! they are in chains, they cannot do it. They are chained by the heart; their lufts cleave 'fo faft to them, that they cannot, nay, they will not, thake them off. Thus you fee what affinity there is betwixt an unregenerate ftate, and the ftate of the damned, the ftate of abfofolute and irretrievable mifery; be convinced then, that ye must be born again; put a high value on the new birth, and eagerly defire it. The text tells you, that the word is the feed, whereof the new creature is formed: therefore take heed to it, and entertain it, for it is your life. Apply yourselves to the reading of the Scripture. Ye that cannot read, cause others read it to you. Wait diligently on the preaching of the word, as by divine appointment, the special mean of converfion: for-it pleafed God by the foolishness of preaching to fave them that believe, 1 Cor. i. 21. Wherefore caft not yourselves out of Christ's way; reject not the means of grace, left ye be found to judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life. Attend carefully to the word preached. Hear every fermon, as if you were hearing for eternity: and take heed, the fowls of the air pick not up this feed from you as it is fown. Give thyfelf wholly to it, 1 Tim. iv. 15. Receive it. not as the word of men, but (as it is in truth) the word of God, 1 Theff ii. 13. And hear it with application, looking on it as a meflage fent from heaven, to you in particular tho' not to you only, Rev. iii. 22. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit faith unto the churches. Lay it up in your hearts, meditate upon it: and be not as the unclean beasts, that chew not the cud. But by earnest prayer beg the dew of heaven may fall on thy heart, that the feed may fpring up there.

More particularly, (1.) Receive the teftimony of the word of God, concerning the mifery of an unregenerate ftate, the finfulness thereof, and the abfolute neceffity of regeneration. (2.) Receive its teftimony concerning God, what a holy and juft one he is. (3.) Examine thy ways by it; namely, the thoughts of thy heart, the expreffions of thy lips, and the tenor of thy life Look back through the several periods of thy life, and fee thy fins from the precepts of the word; and learn from its threatnings, what thou art liable to, on the account of

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thefe fins. (4.) View the corruption of thy nature, by the help of the fame word of God; as a glafs which reprefents our ugly face in a lively manner. Were thefe things deeply rooted in the heart, they might be the feed of that fear and ferrow, on account of thy foul's ftate, which are neceffary to prepare and ftir thee up to look after a Saviour. Fix your thoughts upon him offered to thee in the gofpel, as fully fuited to thy cafe; having, by his obedience to the death, perfectly fatisfied the juice of God, and brought in everlasting righteoufnefs. This may prove the feed of humiliation, defire, hope and faith; and put thee on to ftretch out the withered hand unto him, at his own command.

Let these things fink deeply into your hearts, and improve them diligently. Remember, whatever ye be, ye MUST be born again; elfe it had been better for you, ye had never been born Wherefore, if any of you fhall live and die in an unregenerate ftate, ye will be inexcufable, having been fairly warned of your hazard.

HEAD II.

The MYSTICAL UNION betwixt
CHRIST and Believers.

JOHN XV. 5. I am the Vine, ye are the Branches.

HAVING fpoken of the change, made by regeneration on all thofe that fhall inherit eternal life, in oppofition to their natural real ftate, the ftate of degeneracy; I proceed to speak of the change made upon them, in their union with the Lord Jefus Chrift, in oppofition to their natural relative ftate, the ftate of mifery. The doctrine of the faints union with Chrift is very plainly and fully infifted on, from the beginning of the 12th verfe of this chapter; which is a part of our Lord's fare-well fermon to his difciples. Sorrow had now filled their hearts; they were apt to fay, "Alas! What will "become of us, when our Mafter is taken trom our head? Who will "then inftruct us? Who will folve our doubts? How will we be "fupported under our difficulties and difcouragements? How will "we be able to live without our wonted communications with him?” Wherefore our Lord Jefus Chrift feafonably teaches them the mystery of their union with him, comparing hinfelf to the vine stock, and

them to the branches.

He compares, I fay, (1.) Himfelf to a vine ftock: I am the Vine: He had been celebrating, with his difciples, the Sacrament of his Supper, that fign and feal of his people's union with himself; and

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