God worship him thy throne is for ever and ever Sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool So Psal. 2. 6 7 8. Thus was this great Man this Son of God incarnate brought into Heaven in state and triumph at his Resurrection 2. In reference to the Saints Jer. 31 9. I am a father to Israel and Ephraim is my first-born So 2 Cor. 6. 18. I will be a father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty Tho God does greatly delight in his beloved Son loves to see the brightness of his own glory shining out in Christ the express Image of his Person yet next to his own Image in Christ he loves to behold the Image of his Son in the Saints and therefore has predestinated them to be conformable to the Image of his Son Rom. 8. 29. Christ indeed is the first-born but many Brethren are to follow Rom. 8. 29. to be added to the Lord as the Phrase is Acts 5. 14. God loves to see the number of his Children encreasing to see his Family enlarged Under this consideration Paul bows his Knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named Ephes. 3. 14 15. With what reverence doth Paul draw nigh to this great Father I told you but now that God glories in Christ his first begotten Son you heard in what triumph the great Man Jesus Christ was brought into Heaven how God welcomed him to Glory so there is joy in Heaven at the Regeneration of a Sinner Angels rejoyce God rejoyces This day have I begotten such and such Oh that there might be Joy in Heaven upon this account this day that it might be noted down above that this and that Man were born here I will shew you the ground of this glorying of this great satisfaction that God hath in his Children Tho Christ be anointed above his fellows yet there is a great measure of anointing poured out upon the Saints the fulness of the Godhead is in none but Christ yet the fulness of God is in all the Saints Ephes. 3. 19. they are not shut out from any of the communicable Attributes of God but have their share of all that is in him according to their capacities as creatures Cast an empty Barrel into the Sea all the Sea is not in the Barrel but the Barrel is in all the Sea the Sea runs under it over it on every side of it Thus are we swallowed up in God. He comprehends us tho we cannot fully comprehend him we are in Christ according to his infinite capacity and therefore are perfectly justified by the infinite merit of his perfect Righteousness imputed to us But Christ is in us according to our finite weak capacities and therefore we are but imperfectly sanctified we have what we are able to receive and no more at present till our hearts are farther inlarged Thus you see what it is to be a Child of God how the fulness of God is bestowed upon us God glories in this And have not the Saints reason to glory in it also But alas how do Men please themselves with their Rich Relations Great Families they are Nobly descended But I must tell you all Nations are of one Blood and that is tainted too we are a Seed of evil-doers there is no Noble blood runs in your veins till you are born of God 't is Regeneration only that makes you the Sons and Daughters of the Most High then you are high born indeed To stir you up to a holy ambition after this new birth do but consider the Father of the Family the great God of Heaven and Earth blessed for ever the Father of Mercies and the God of all Comfort Consider Christ the Elder Brother of the Family Rom. 9. 5. He is over all God blessed for ever His Name is Wonderful Counsellor the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace Isa. 9. 6 7. You see how the Dignity and Majesty of his Person is described 3. Consider the many priviledges that are intailed upon new-born Souls Heirs of God joynt heirs with Christ you are born to nothing but woe and misery till you are born again How should we long to be related to such a Father to such a Brother to such an Inheritance I insist the more upon this because I am perswaded discourses of your Heavenly Father must needs be very pleasing to you who are his Children whom should Children hear of with more delight than of their Father that begat them Be not cast down at any thing that offends you here below you have a Father in Heaven who takes care of you numbers the hairs of your heads will interest himself in your smallest concerns and see that all things shall work together for good to you We may notionally and according to the Letter speak what we read and hear of Regeneration and be little affected but when once the New Nature begins to stir when a Spirit of Adoption begins to breathe in us 't will carry us out by a secret instinct to God as to a Father Nature works powerfully we say Love descends more strongly than it ascends so 't is here God loves his Children better than they can love him this is love not that we love God tho there is a great strength in the natural Affection of ingenuous Children towards their Parents The truth is nothing does more enoble our Minds raise our spirits to a true Christian Magnanimity nothing does more uphold and encourage us in our way more strengthen our Faith and Hope in Prayer than lively Apprehensions of God as our Father in Christ Jesus see how Christ hangs upon this word Father in his Prayer Iohn 17. Father Father Oh Father Holy Father Oh Righteous Father we should eye nothing more in Prayer than our Relation to God as a Father How can an unregenerate man say Our Father which art in Heaven Alas thou hast never a Father in Heaven thou art a Child of Wrath a Child of the Devil Though some unregenerate Persons may be within the Election of God yet the Scripture speaks of them according to their present state calls them Aliens Strangers Foreigners Could we conceive aright of our Covenant-relation to God and keep our thoughts working upon it it would afford an Argument to us where all other Arguments fail as Isa. 63. 16. Doubtless thou art our Father it cannot be that our Heavenly Father should forget us a Mother may forget her Child but the Lord is gracious and full of Compassion Psal. 145. 8. There is a greater fulness of Compassion in our Heavenly Father than in our Natural Parents they can do and will do what God cannot do because he will not Since the Priviledges of the Children of God are so great how should we long to be born again to be born of spirit Joh. 3. 6. To be a new lump 1 Cor. 5. 7.
joined to the Lord in one Spirit I doubt not but the spiritual glorified Body of Christ is the medium of the beatifical Vision to Angels and Saints above the Godhead shines through it in all its brightness as the Sun shines through pure Chrystal shines upon it shines into it fills every part with light there is nothing to obumbrate or shade it it transmits the light to us with advantage The Bodies of the Saints at the Resurrection being freed from all mortality and natural weakness being then immortal spiritual Bodies like unto that glorious Body of Christ they are capable of receiving this reflected glory from Jesus Christ they have a nearer and more inward view of God in Christ than the Angels have because they see him in their own nature face to face and nothing between the Glory of God shines out upon them in the Face of Christ thus are they made light in the Lord being changed into the same Image by the Spirit of the Lord. What is thus done unto perfection upon the Bodies and Souls of glorified Saints at the Resurrection is really done in some degree upon the Souls of the Saints in this life the Image of God in all his communicable Attributes is impressed upon them they partake of his Holiness Wisdom Goodness Love are merciful as their heavenly Father is merciful and cannot but express something of all this as they are new Creatures holding forth the Image of the heavenly Adam which carries them out to a love and liking of it self in whomsoever it appears therefore he who says he loves God and hates his Image in another is a liar Those who know God in Christ will be sure to take notice of his Image in the Saints God in Christ is the Object of our worship and Christ in the Saints is the Object of our endeared love and affection God is invisible we see him not it must be pure faith that keeps up love to God but Christ in the Saints is more visible to us here we have something to help our faith and to draw out our love we see the Children of God we converse with them we may lay our hands upon them and embrace them God allows us to bestow our love to him upon his Saints 't is still to him when showed to them for his sake As much as you do it to one of these you do it to me Sixthly To desire the milk of the word As a new-born Child does naturally desire the Breast of the Mother so a new-born Soul does as naturally take the breast of the Word God as he is Iehovah is the Fountain of being to all things that are and as He is the Everlasting God He is the Fountain of life to every living Creature In him we live move and have our being all things do subsist in him and by him He supports the whole Creation which he raised out of nothing For of him and through him and to him are all things There is a Creature life which is but a creature and an uncreated and eternal life which is God himself A Creature life is either of Spirits or Animals of things incorporeal or corporeal How immaterial spirits are maintained in their created natural living beings we must leave to God that made them only this I may say that the Eternal life of the Elect Angels in which they were created and confirmed by Christ differs from that eternal life which Believers have in Christ the one is a creature life or a created life it once was not tho it shall never have an end the other is the Eternal Life of God himself communicated in time and in some degree to his creature Man which makes him a new creature taken into the Eternal Life of God himself according to man's finite capacity All sublunary living creatures have their proper nourishment assigned them by the Providence of God they all live upon their fellow creatures and have their food suited to their several kinds which by a natural appetite they are carried out unto Man who has the dominion over the creature has his choice of every thing made for food but the new man or the new creature being born of God united to God in Christ and quickned by his Eternal Spirit entring into him has Eternal Life continually communicated to him from Christ the second Adam who is a quickning spirit dwelling always in the Saints If it be asked what is the Patulum vitae to the Saints as they are new creatures I answer they have meat to eat that the World knows not of hidden Manna secret communications from Christ who is their life and because they have not an immediate fruition of him here therefore they are commanded to feed upon Christ by Faith in the Word and to gather up the Heavenly Manna they meet with there Faith knows how to live upon God in the Word till the Soul can have a nearer access to him by vision above face to face then we have life more abundantly are even swallowed up of life are all life without any symptomes of mortality about us then that life and immortality which the Gospel has brought to light will more fully appear and be made manifest in all glorified Saints APPLICATION You have heard the Doctrinal part what Regeneration is the necessity of it what are the signs of it The next thing to be considered is whether you and I are regenerated and do feel any symptoms of this new birth in our selves If not the Text does plainly conclude against us that we can't see the Kingdom of God. If these marks if all these Scripture marks be not found in you and upon you it is because there is no life in you Shew me but one of these marks and I 'll shew you all the rest in that one at least make it evident to discerning Christians that they are all comprehended in that one which you see and own in your selves I have been searching you from head to foot feeling for life in every part and 't is well if we can find it in any part O how dead how cold how wan how earthy are many Professors under all their forms like a Carcass stretched out and stiff no breath no motion no heat laid out for the Grave free among the dead unconcern'd in all the mysteries of the Gospel The reason of our mistakes about Regeneration is because we don't look for so great an inward change in our selves as we ought to do We are more given to contemplation than practise grown so purely speculative in Religion that we are no further concerned in our own notions than to maintain and defend our Opinions against all others of a contrary sentiment and this has filled the World with disputes and set us all a wrangling one with another every one thinks he is in the right When Scripture and Reason are against a Man that Man is under a temptation to be against both so fond are
your thoughts in a high esteem of this Righteousness of Christ. I would not have you say as too too many do and may be they mean no more than they say if so they do not say all the truth how many real Believers have I heard say Christ will cover the Imperfection of our own Righteousness and so think they speak all the truth but they must mean something beyond all this or they do not speak right for the Righteousness of Christ apprehended by Faith does not only cover all the Defects of your own Righteousness but covers your very Righteousness it self which must never be brought in as an Argument why God should justify you must not be found in your own Righteousness not having my own Righteousness says Paul Phil. 3. 9. that is not having it on Faith in Christ does strip a Man of his own Righteousness does not only speak comfortably as to the Pardon of all the Defects of our own Righteousness but take it in its best State and highest Degree as far as our Righteousness can reach it must be covered when we come to God for Justification There are two Seasons when Christ presents us to the Father the one for Justification the other for Glorification when he does the first he presents us sinners lying in our blood as having no righteousness of our own but what is imputed to us by God and then for Glorification he presents us perfectly Holy inherently Holy without any spot or blemish upon us and this he doth with exceeding great joy so that when you would make use of Christ for Justification remember to cover all your own righteousness and put it quite off as to any trust or confidence in it 't is hard to do Righteousness and not to be proud of it conceiving we merit something by it you must be workers of Righteousness but not wearers of your own Righteousness when you stand before God for Justification take heed of having it or being found in it Nothing can make a man see the weakness and insufficiency of his own performances but a true principle of Faith that humbles him and empties him sending him stript and naked unto Christ to cover him with the unspotted Robe of his perfect Righteousness Lastly The immediate effect of Regeneration is Adoption You see I have been comparing Regeneration with other great Gospel Truths that I might find out the proper place for it and see what relation it stands in to all the other parts and members of the body of Divinity I say therefore the immediate effect of Regeneration is Adoption being born of Man we became the Children of Men so being born of God we become the Children of God Adoption and Birth go together here he that begets adopts those whom he hath begotten 't is not so among men for this is another peculiar property of Regeneration They who have power to become the Children of God they are born of God adopted and yet born born and yet adopted so that it pleaseth God the Father by all the ways of Nature of Art of civil Custom among men to set forth his Love by a natural generation or being born 'T is a natural thing among men to be born but adoption is a civil instituted thing a thing of prudence and custom among men it is brought in by Man You know how fond men are of those they have Adopted 't is next to the natural affection they bear to the Children of their own bodies so that no doubt there is much of mystery in this Doctrine of Regeneration There is not a Man in the World almost but lives in some hope of going to Heaven when he dies yet the greatest part of mankind carry themselves so as if they would only make the World believe they shall be saved not as if they were under any real hope or expectation of such a thing nothing of this appears by any serious preparation they make for Heaven or Glory But let their hopes be what they will except a man he born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. Thus much in general I shall now come to particulars and cast all I have further to say upon this Text under these following Heads viz. 1. The Author of Regeneration 2. The Subjects of Regeneration 3. The Means of Regeneration 4. The Manner of Regeneration how it is wrought and carried on in the Soul. 5. The Time of Regeneration 6. The End of Regeneration 7. The Scripture-marks and signs of Regeneration 8. The Application of the whole 1. The Author of Regeneration viz. God. 1 Ioh. 5. 18. We are said to be begotten of God born of God and this is sometimes ascribed to the Father sometimes to God the Son sometimes to God the Holy Ghost all that is called God is concerned in Man's Regeneration God the Father is said to beget us 1 Pet. 1. 3. We are said to be Created in Christ Iesus unto good works Eph. 2. 10. To be in him even in his Son Iesus Christ 1 Joh. 5. 20. to be born os the spirit Joh. 3. 5. All the persons of the Trinity have a joint agency in this work of our Regeneration c. Page 1. And great is the efficacy of Three such concurring total Causes of the same kind this is above all our Logick and Philosophy which own no such Causes God is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working Isa. 28. 29. We are in his hands as clay in the hand of the potter Jer. 18 6. He can make us Vessels of Honour if he please and this Honour have all his Saints his excellent ones in whom he delights The moving Cause is God's meer Good Will and Pleasure Iames 1. 18. His abundant mercy and loving kindness 1 Pet. 1. 3. Tit. 3. 4 5. Ephes. 2. 4 5. We should be much affected with the Love of God in our Regeneration God stands in the relation of a Father to all who are begotten by him 1. He is the Father of Christ the Second person in the Trinity Psal. 2. 7. whose Generation is Eternal who can declare it Isa. 53. 8. It is the profound object of our Faith grounded upon Divine Revelation 2. He is the Father of all true Christians who are spiritually born of his Will at the time appointed of the Father for their effectual Calling 'T is termed a Calling because they are begotten by the Word of God speaking to their hearts by it and so turning them to himself God is the Father of Christ and the Father of Believers Iohn 20. 17. My father and your father Upon these accounts it is that God glories so much in his own Paternity not only in relation to Christ his Eternal Son who is God equal with the Father but also in relation to the Saints who are his true-born Children through Christ. See an instance of both 1. In reference to Christ Heb. 1 5. Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee Let all the Angels of
unaccountable Contingency nor can ever be brought about by any mere humane contrivance what remains but that we ascribe it as the Scripture does to the Divine Will of him to whom all things are possible beginning at the Eternal Purpose of God in Election so proceeding downwards through all the methods ways and means appointed by God for the carrying on this great work of his in the hearts of men The truth is the first breaking forth of Electing Love upon us is in our Regeneration 'till something of it appears we cannot know any thing by all that is before us of God's Eternal Love to us Our actual taking any thing up into our hands argues a previous choice that our eye was upon it before So here God has from Eternity made choise of some for Salvation his Eye was upon them from Eternity and when his Grace takes actual hold of them we may then through our present effectual Vocation see up to our Eternal Election and by these visible streams go back to the invisible Fountain of Free-grace in the heart of our Heavenly Father By what he does in time we know what he intended from Eternity Let none despair of this Grace who wait upon God for it all those who have already passed the streights of the new-birth were once under as discouraging circumstances as any now can be but God had mercy on them and so he may on thee he breathed the breath of Spiritual life into them and so he can and may into thee he is a God that raises the dead dead Souls as well as dead Bodies We may see in the eye-lids of some the very shadow of Eternal death but God can turn that shadow into the morning and cause the day-spring from on high to visit them Election alters no Man's state till it issue in Conversion then you may see your names written in the Book of Life from a sence and feeling of that life in your selves to which you were fore-ordained 'Till we are regenerated we cannot tell whether ever we shall be God knows but we do not The Election shall obtain Rom. 11. 7. Therefore all that have obtained must ascribe it to Election That the purpose of God might stand according to election Rom. 9. 11. The cause of this great change that Regeneration makes must be resolved either into the Will of God or Will of the Creature there is no medium between God and the Creature whatever is done is by one or the other Some resolve Conversion and Regeneration into Man's own power derived from that general sufficient Grace purchased by Christ for all men But if man in his perfect state fell under that general sufficient Grace which he was certainly endowed with at his first Creation How can we now suppose any such general grace to be sufficient to recover fallen Man and to keep him for ever from a relapse Therefore we must place fallen Man under some stronger influence even that of Effectual Grace which does not only shew unto Man the way of Salvation by Christ but effectually draws his heart to an actual closure with Christ joyning him to the Lord in one spirit This Effectual Grace in saving some does no injury to others they perish justly from the demerits of their own sins these are saved freely through the merits of Christ. Let us not be too curious in enquiring why God saves one and not another there is a covering upon the face of this great deep The ways of God are unsearchable and his judgments past our finding out all must be resolved into the Soveraign Will of God Why should our eye be evil because his is good who does what he will with his own and gives no account of his matters Because God has purposed from Eternity to shew mercy to some not telling us who let every own study his own Salvation and put in for his share of this Free Grace which is offered to all intended for some and why not for thee Those who embrace the Promise and believe in Jesus will never find any Decree in Heaven against them hindering their Salvation and those who refuse the Promises will not come to Christ when called shall never be saved by virtue of any mere Decree Faith and Repentance are as much under the decree of God as Salvation it self if the Decree of God bring not forth such things in you now as accompany Salvation 't will never bring forth Salvation it self The Doctrine of Election is a comfortable Doctrine if we apply it to the Means as well as to the End They who deny this Doctrine and plead so much for Man's Free-will they do and must hold a falling from Grace tho God loves them now they are not sure to continue in his love nor never will be 'till they run up all their hopes into Electing Love. When once they see that God has loved them from everlasting which they may do by resolving all the present fruits of the spirit into election as the Scripture teaches us they can strongly argue from the unchangeableness of God That he who has loved them from everlasting will love them to everlasting for whom he so loves he always loves to the end Let me make some use of this Point there may be some difficulties in it but I hope God will clear them up to your Souls If the Subjects of Regeneration be the Elect only the Elect and all the Elect Then prove your Election by your Regeneration you cannot prove Regeneration by your Election for bare Election if you know it alters no Man's state Many of the elect of God lie long in an unregenerate state Election is never in Scripture brought in as a proof of Grace in us but Grace in us is brought in as a proof of our Election To prevent mistakes in some convinced tho yet unconverted sinners ay and in some weak trembling Believers too whose convictions of sin do put them into no small fright When I say Regeneration is a good proof of your Election let not any say Then my unregenerate state is as good a proof of my Reprobation it does by no means follow for these Reasons 1st Because an unregenerate state or a state of sin and unregeneracy has not that dependance upon or relation to eternal Reprobation as Regeneration or a state of Grace has to our eternal Election A state of Grace flows from eternal Election but a state of sin and unregeneracy does not flow from eternal Reprobation but from the fall of Adam God permitting it as a means through which his electing love would effectually work for the more glorious restauration of Man. They who are regenerated are elected Rom. 8. 29 30. but those who are not yet regenerated cannot be said to be not elected or reprobated 2dly A state of sin and unregeneracy is common to all both elect and reprobates but a state of Regeneration peculiar only to the Elect. We are all born in sin all by nature the
in bitterness The sense he has of the love of God to sinners in Christ Jesus kindles love in his heart towards God which is a full evidence of real Conversion We never turn to God but we begin to love him then we grieve for sin as sin with a true godly sorrow that causeth Repentance unto Salvation 'T is the duty of Ministers to make known the mystery of the Gospel Paul was afraid he should not speak out speak plain enough and so am I. CHAP. V. Of the Time of Regeneration SOmething of this fell in under the former Heads therefore I shall say the less of it now The Time is in this life All who live with God in Heaven hereafter are born to him and of him here on Earth This whole time is called the day of Grace To day if you will hear his voice And there is a particular hour in that day wherein Saving Grace takes hold of us by God's Effectual Calling which is best known by our Obediential Hearing when we answer to the Call Lord here I am ready to comply with thy Will in all things What wouldst thou have me to do and I will do it Consult your selves about this when you first find your wills brought over to Christ write down that as the day of thy Conversion you can give no account of a real work of Grace till then your knowledg cannot prove it self Saving till it thus operate upon the Will in turning that to God So that the time of thy Regeneration is when thy heart is first drawn up to trust in Christ let it fall in what year of thy life in what hour of the day it will so the thing be done it matters not when as to the issue of it to be converted is necessary to Salvation but to know precisely the time when is not necessary provided you know the time when it was not or at least not so manifest to you as now it is It shall be done unto the last as unto the first the last and the first Converts in an Age are equally welcome to God and there is something peculiar in both that does very much set forth and signalize the freeness of God's Grace viz. That he converted the one so soon and the other so late that he came so early to one who had heard so little and that he came at all to the other who had heard so much and despised it Late Converts are very rare he that comes not in now while 't is called to day may slip his opportunity and die under a dreadful conviction that he obstinately refused a fair offer of life and pardon that was made him at such a time in such a Sermon by such a Preacher who may be called forth to witness against him at the last day Whether you believe or not believe the Word will have its effect one way or other upon you all either as a favour of life or death When the favour of the knowledg of Christ is not a sweet Savour we take offence at it Death indeed may follow that deadly scent 't is a dangerous symptome of Eternal death to be offended at Christ at the purity and strictness of his Heavenly Doctrine A distinct remembrance of the certain time means and manner of our conversion is very comfortable but tho we be at some loss here yet if we can prove the thing it self 't is enough He that does the real actions of a living Man gives sufficient proof and demonstration of his first conception and real birth into the World tho he knows not the day and hour of either CHAP. VI. The End of Regeneration 1. THAT God may raise up a Holy Seed unto himself that shall be counted for a Generation to serve him That he may have a Church and People here on Earth devoted to his fear professing his Name and keeping up his Worship All people will walk every one in the name of the Lord his God and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever By our first birth we are brought forth into the World Enemies to God and Godliness by our second birth we partake of the Divine Nature become a Holy people unto the Lord our God a peculiar people 2. That his Elect may be made meet for Heaven and fitted up for Glory God begins all this in Regeneration which is pursuant to Election All those Names that are written in Heaven or in the Lamb's Book of Life shall be begotten again unto that Life which in the Eternal purpose of God belongs to their Names They are a chosen Generation which is the cause and ground of their Regeneration All the rest of the World will be left in darkness in Idolatry to worship the Dragon whose Names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World. They who belong not to this chosen Generation are rejected of God never to be born again Regeneration is a sure evidence of Election God demonstrates his Eternal Love to us by this signal effect of it in our Regeneration CHAP. VII The Scripture Marks and Signs of Regeneration 1. HE doth not commit Sin. 2. He doth Righteousness 3. He believeth that Jesus is the Christ. 4. He overcometh the World. 5. He loves Christ and all the Saints 6. He desires the sincere Milk of the Word They are not my Marks but God's laid down in his own terms as 't is written in your Bibles what you find in your selves answerable thereunto I must leave to God and your own Consciences The Text tells you Vnless a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. And Iohn in his Epistle tells you unless these marks be found upon him he is not born again and dying in that estate is excluded Heaven for ever Iohn foreseeing what false notions of Regeneration men wouâ—â— taks up with and rest in to prevent all fraud all mistakes in so great a point lays down these infallible marks of true real Regeneration as 't is distinguished from that which is but pretended false and counterfeit For ought I see there is no more required to Regeneration in the judgment of some men than to be born in such a Country where Christianity is professed and to be Baptized according to the custom of the place this is the whole of Regeneration as some state it tho none of these marks appear in them but the quite contrary They commit Sin they don't do Righteousness they hate Christ and his Members are overcome every day by the World and the temptations of it yet these must go for Regenerate persons let the Scripture say what it will to the contrary But let us not deceive our selves God will judge us by the Word and none will be looked upon at the last day as truly regenerate in whom all these marks are not found I do
are Born of God do thus live by Faith here below they consult not with Flesh and Blood their affections are suited to the apprehensions of their Faith they are filled with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory by believing they see good days a coming when all Tears shall be wiped from their Eyes they wait patiently till then rejoycing in the hope of the Glory of God. Till we get into this frame walking in the evidence of things not seen we shall never overcome the World for the things that are seen conceive them in what shape or posture you please have their emptiness and vanity in them will never satisfy they are but finite and temporal the present Fashion of this World be it what it will passes away into something else while we are a beholding it all things here below moulder and crumble away in our hands perish in the using are always the worse for wearing which shews they cannot last long when they are in their best state they are altogether vanity the highest degree of Perfection in the Creature tends to corruption and indeed disposes to it 't is as Natural to Die as to be Born there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a turning point that stops the further growth of the Creature and makes it to decline ever after till its fading Glory be quite extinguish'd therefore labour not for the meat that perishes but for that which nourishes unto Everlasting Life Till we come to Live upon Eternal unseen things we live but meanly in the midst of our Earthly sufficiencies we are in straights still wanting something till Christ be ours and then all is ours There is no room left then for any further designs in him we have plenary satisfaction and perfect rest we shall never have true hearts ease till then But the difficulty lies in bringing over our hearts to this Newness of Life to this Noble Life of Faith that fetches all its Comforts from Heaven casting up its anchor within the Vail which is sure and stedfast Flesh and Blood cannot do this there is nothing in Nature that disposes us to it therefore we must be born again be made New Creatures before we shall favour the things of heaven and such is the power of Religion upon the minds of men where it is in truth that it always works this change in them they find it and feel it in themselves Whether it be so with us whether we have any certain experience of such a thing in our own Souls we should do well to consider that even upon our knees and give God no rest day nor night till we see some better symptoms of Eternal Life in our selves we may judge of our life whether it be Eternal or no by the things we live in and live upon they who are of the Earth are Earthly they who are born from above are heavenly to be carnally mindedis death but to be Spiritually minded is life and peace The inward frame of the mind discovers what kind of Creatures we are whether old or new flesh or spirit the issues of life are from the Heart as the pulse of your Souls beats upwards or downwards so you may judge of your state as you find your selves most concerned in things above or things below till you have got above the world and have overcome it you are not born again Fifthly Every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. That which is intended here is First Love to the Saints as such Unfeigned love of the Brethren is a sign of a pure heart and that we are indeed born again Secondly Love to all men 't is due to all Owe no man any thing but love that we owe to all every man may challenge it every man is our Neighbour in that sense to be the object of our Love we must extend it to our very Enemies 't is the fulfilling of the Law the duty of man to man prescribed in the Second Table cannot be performed without it Love is above all Illumination and Knowledge a more sure mark of Regeneration He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him Love is one of the communicable Attributes of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost we are followers of God when we walk in love Common Professors have some love one to another but if you trace it up to its original you 'll find it a selfish mercenary love in which they rather respect themselves than Christ 't is not for his sake but for some outward respects of relation neighbourhood or usefulness in the common concerns of this life it may be for their agreement in opinion about some lower matters of Religion this is but the friendship of the World and may be consistent with real enmity against God and good men as such but perfect love i. e. real sincere Christian Love is for God's sake because he has so loved us and given us a new Command to love one another There is no true love among men till we are born again He exhorts those who have put off the old man and are renewed in spirit to put away all bitterness wrath c. Before Regeneration we are foolish disobedient living in malice and envy hatesul and hating one another Biting devâ—uring consuming one another It looks rather like a description of Wild Beasts than men so savage and fierce are we by nature nothing but a spirit of Regeneration will sweeten and mollify the hearts of men that which unites us to Christ unites us one to another we are all one in Christ but we shall never be all one among our selves till we are united to Christ then the Peace of God rules in our hearts to which we are called in one body There is no true good nature among men but what flows from Grace Sin hath so poysoned and sowred man's Nature that till that Serpentine Venom be purged out and a better Spirit be put into us there will be little harmony or concord among men Having put on the new man put on therefore as the elect of God c. Vide Loc. Were this mark of Regeneration more visible in our days it would be a token for good of a more effectual work of the Gospel among us than for ought I see does yet appear Hatred variance c. are reckoned up among the Works of the Flesh as directly opposite to the Fruits of the Spirit I will shew how this loving disposition arises out of Regeneration that the fundamental ground of it is our conformity to Christ which necessarily follows upon our Regeneration Christ is the express Image of his Father the Saints are in their finite capacities the express Image of Christ in whom they see the Father who as God is one with the Son whilst they behold the Son as God-man they see their humane Nature hypostatically united to the Divine they see their humane persons