That we may enter on the subject with the greater perfpicuity and fimplicity, it will be proper to begin with obferving, that the defign and purpose of this change is to repair the lofs which man sustained by the fall. Man, at his first creation, was made after the image of God in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, and enjoyed uninterrupted fellowship and communion with him. He was not only fubfervient to the divine glory, by a natural and neceffary fubjection to the divine dominion, which all creatures are, have been, and ever will be, but by choice and inclination, his duty and delight being invariably the fame. By the fall he became not only obnoxious to the divine difpleasure, by a single act of tranfgreffion, but difobedient to the divine will in his habitual and prevailing inclination. This is the character given not of one man only, but of the human race. "And God faw that the wickednefs of "man was great in the earth, and that every "imagination of the thoughts of his heart was "only evil continually *."

He became, at the fame time, not only unworthy of, but wholly difinclined to, communion with God, and habitually prefers the crea ture before the Creator, who is "God bleffed for "evermore." In regeneration, therefore, the finner must be reftored to the image of God,

which, in a created nature, is but another expreffion for obedience to his will. He muft alfo be restored to the exercise of love to him, and find his happiness and comfort in him. His habitual temper, his prevailing difpofition, or that which hath the afcendancy, must be the fame that was perfect and without mixture, before the fall, and shall be made equally, or perhaps more perfect, in heaven after death.

As the change must be entire and univerfal, correfponding to the corruption of the whole man, it is not unusual to fay, it may be fully comprehended in the three following things, giving a new direction to the understanding, the will, and the affections. And no doubt, with respect to every one of thefe, there is a remarkable and fenfible change. But as the understanding is a natural faculty, which becomes good or evil just as it is applied or employed, it would be scarce poffible to illuftrate the change in it without introducing, at the fame time, a view of the difpofition and tendency of the heart and affections. As, therefore, the change is properly of a moral or fpiritual nature, it feems to me properly and directly to confist in these two things, 1. That our fupreme and chief end be to serve and glorify God, and that every other aim be subordinate to this. 2. That the foul rest in God as its chief happiness, and habitually prefer his favour to

every

every other enjoyment. These two particulars I shall now endeavour to illuftrate a little, in the order in which I have named them.

1. Our fupreme and chief end must be to ferve and glorify God, and every other aim must be subordinate to this.

All things were originally made, and are daily preferved for, nay, they fhall certainly in the iffue tend to, the glory of God; that is, the exercise and illustration of divine perfection. With this great end of creation the inclination and will of every intelligent creature ought to coincide. It is, according to fcripture and reason, the first duty of man to "give unto the Lord the glory "due unto his name." This, I know, the world that lieth in wickedness can neither understand nor approve. "The natural man receiveth not "the things of the Spirit of God, for they are

foolishness unto him, neither can he know "them, because they are spiritually difcerned *" The truth is, we ought not to be surprised to find it fo, for in this the fin of man originally confifted, and in this the nature of all fin, as fuch, doth ftill confift, viz. withdrawing the allegiance due to God, and refusing fubjection to his will. The language of every unrenewed heart, and the Language of every finner's practice is, "Our lips 66 are our own, who is lord over us?" But he

1 Cor. ii, 14

that

that is renewed and born again, hath seen his own entire dependance upon God, hath seen his Maker's right of dominion, and the obligation upon all his creatures to be, in every refpect, fubfervient to his glory, and without referve fubmiffive to his will. He hath feen this to be most "fit" and "reasonable," because of the abfolute perfection and infinite excellence of the divine nature. He is convinced that all preferring of our will to that of God, is a criminal ufurpation by the creature of the unalienable rights of the great Creator and fovereign proprietor of all.

Regeneration, then, is communicating this new principle, and giving it such force as it may obtain and preserve the afcendency, and habitually govern the will. Every one may easily fee the different operation and effects of this principle and its oppofite, by the different carriage and behaviour of men in the world. The unrenewed man seeks his own happiness immediately and ultimately it is to please himself that he constantly aims. This is the caufe, the uniform caufe of his preferring one action to another. This determines his choice of employment, enjoyments, companions. His religious actions are not chofen, but fubmitted to, through fear of worfe. He confiders religion as a restraint, and the divine law as hard and fevere. So that a fhort and fum

:

mary

mary description may be given of man in his natural state, That he hath forgotten his subjection, · that God is dethroned, and felf honoured, loved, and ferved in his room.

This account will appear to be juft, from every view given us in fcripture of our ftate and character, before or after converfion. It appears very clearly, from the first condition required by our Saviour of his difciples, viz. felf-denial. "Then faid Jefus to his difciples, If any man "will come after me, let him deny himself, and "take up his crofs, and follow me *." All those who are brought back to a fenfe of their duty and obligation as creatures, are ready to say, not with their tongues only, but with their hearts, "Thou art worthy to receive glory and honour, "and power, for thou haft created all things, and "for thy pleasure they are and were created +.” It ought to be attended to what is the import of this, when fpoken from conviction. They not only confider God as being most great, and therefore to be feared, but as infinitely holy, as abfolutely perfect, and therefore to be loved and ferved. They esteem all his commands concerning all' things to be right. Their own remaining corruption is known, felt, and confeffed to be wrong. This law in their members, warring against the law of God in their minds, is often deeply laMatt. xvi. 24. Rev. iv. 11.

mented,