hearts(1).~~ And yet more expressly he says when he speaks of those who should receive the crown of life; which the Lord hath promised to them that love him; of

his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures (2). -The apostle Peter describes Christians, as those whose souls were purified in obeying the truth through the Spirit, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible (3); and as those, who were made par takers of the Divine Nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (4).—-Again, John, the beloved disciple, tell us, that every one that doth righteousness is born of God (5); but he that committeth sin is of the devil (6); and that every one that has a well grounded hope of being like Christ, and seeing him as he is, when he appears, purifies himself, even as he is pure (7) And once more, the apostle Jude, as he describes have not the Spirit, as men, that if they were saved at all, must be plucked out of the fire (8); so he echoes back that awful prophecy, which Enoch had so long since delivered, that the Lord will come with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and, to convict all that are ungodly, of all those ungodly deeds and words, by which they have violated his law (9).

those who are sensual, and

This then appears, from the whole tenor of the Scriptures, to be the positive and immutable constitution of the great God," that none who are unregenerate shall be admitted to enjoy the happiness of

heaven." And from the view that we have taken of the sacred writings it is manifest, that this, in every age, has been the language of the word of God; and under every dispensation we have sufficient evidence of this important truth. This is the doctrine of the Old Testament; and many are the passages that I have offered from the law of Moses, and from the the prophets, and the psalms, that shew it is impossible an unrenewed soul should enter into heaven. And the same also is asserted in the strongest terms in the New Testament; and when Christ came to set the Gospel of the kingdom in a clearer light, the purport of the declaration that he makes to Nicodemus in the text, was frequently repeated by him in the course of his preaching, and represented as the rule he would regard at the last day. And the inspired Apostles speak the same thing with an united voice, and testify at large in their epistles, that it is absolutely necessary we should be born again, if ever we would hope to see the kingdom of God.

So that now, Sirs, I may say, Call, if there be any that will answer; aud to which of the saints will you turn (1), to encourage your vain and presumptuous hope, of finding your lot among God's people in the kingdom of glory, if you are strangers to that im portant and universal change, which we before deseribed as regeneration in the Scripture sense of the word? The prophets under the Old Testament, and Christ and his Apostles under the New, concur, in all the variety of the most awful language, to expose se

presumptious a hope. And is it not audacious madness in any to venture their souls upon it? Thus you would undoubtedly judge of any man, who should strike a dagger into his breast, or discharge a pistol at his head, on this presumption, that the almighty power of God could prevent his death, though the heart or the brain were pierced. But it is much greater folly for a man, while he continués in an unregenerate state, to promise himself a part in the kingdom of heaven. For though there would be no reason in the world to expect a miraculous interposition, to save a life which a man was so resolutely bent to destroy; yet none can say, that such an interposition would contradict any of the express engagements of God's word; whereas to admit an unregenerate sinner into the regions of glory, would be violating, not this, or that single declaration, but the whole series and tenor of it: and we shall farther shew, in the next Discourse, that it would also be, in effect, altering the very nature of the heavenly kingdom itself, as well as its constitution. Now what hope can be more desperate, than that which can have no support, but in the subversion of the Reusemer's kingdom, and even of the eternal throne of God, the foundations of which are righteousnesa and truth t

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OF THE INCAPACITY OF AN UNREGENERATE PER◄ SON FOR RELISHING THE ENJOYMENTS

OF THE HEAVENLY WORLD.

JOHN 111. 3.

Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of GOD.

IN order to demonstrate the necessity of regeneration, of which I would fain convince not only your understandings, but your consciences, I am now proving to you, that without it, it is impossible to enter into the kingdom of God; and how weighty a consideration that is I am afterwards to represent.

That it is thus impossible, the words in the text do indeed sufficiently prove: but for the further illustration of the subject, I have proposed to consider it under two distinct views.

I have already shewn it is impossible, because "the constitution of the kingdom of heaven is such, that God has solemnly declared, and this under different dispensations, and more or less plainly in all ages of his church, that no unregenerate person, i. e. no impenitent sinner, shall have any part in it." And I am now further to shew,

[2.] That "the nature of the future happiness, which is here chiefly signified by the kingdom of God, is such, that an unregenerate person would be incapable of relishing it, even upon a supposition of kis being admitted into it."

This is a thought of so great importance, and so seldom represented in its full strength, that I shall at present confine my discourse entirely to it.

I know, sinners, it will be one of the most diffieult things in the world, to bring you to a serious persuasion of this truth. You think heaven is so

lovely, and so glorious a place, that if you could possibly get an admittance thither, you should certainly be happy. But I would now set myself, if possible, to convince you that this is a rash and illgrounded persuasion; and that on the contrary, if you were now in the regions of glory, and in the society of those blessed inhabitants, that unrenewed nature and unsanctified heart of yours, would give you a disrelish for all the sublimest entertainments of that blissful place, and turn heaven itself into a kind of hell to you.

Now for the demonstration of this, it is only neeessary for you seriously to consider "what a kind of happiness that of heaven is, as it is represented to us in the word of God;" for from thence undoubtedly we are to take our notions of it.

You might to be sure sit down and imagine a happiness to yourselves, which would perfectly suit your degenerate taste; a happiness, which the more entirely you were enslaved to flesh and sense, the more exquisitely you would be able to enter into it. If God would assign you a region in that beautiful world, where you should dwell in fine houses magnificently furnished, and gaily adorned; where the most harmonious music should sooth your ear, and