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 difpofed to prefer the creature 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 expreflion for obedience to his will. He muft alfo be reflored to the exercife of love to him, and find his happinets and comfort in him. His habitual temper, his prevailing difpofition, or that which hath the afcendency, muft 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 muft be entire and univerfal, corresponding to the corruption of the whole man, it is not unufual 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, juft as it is applied or employed, it would be fcarce poffible to illustrate 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 spiritual nature, it seems to me properly and directly to confift in these two things, 1. That our fupreme and chief end be to ferve and glorify God, and that every other aim be fubordinate to this. 2. That the foul reft in God as its chief happiness, and habitually prefer his favor to every other enjoyment. Thefe two particulars I fhall now endeavor to illuftrate a little, in the order in which I have named them.

* Gen. vi. 5.

1. Our fupreme and chief end must be to ferve and glorify God, and every other aim must be fubordinate 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All things were originally made, and are daily preferved for, nay, they fhall certainly in the iffue tend to the glory of God; that is, the exercise and illustration of divine perfection.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 wickednefs 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 furprized 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 subjection to his will. The language of every unrenewed heart, and the language of every finner's practice is, "Our lips "are our own, who is lord over us?" But he that is renewed and born again, hath feen his own entire dependance upon God, hath feen his Maker's right of dominion, and the obligation upon all his creatures to be, in every respect, fubfervient to his glory, and without referve fubmiffive to his will. He hath feen this to be moft "fit" and "reafonable," 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 fuch force as that it may obtain and preferve 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 behavior of men in the world. The unre

* 1 Cor. ii. 14.

newed man feeks his own happinefs immediately and ultimately it is to please himself that he constantly aims. This is the cause, 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 worse. He confiders religion as a restraint, and the divine law as hard and fevere. So that a fhort and fummary defcription may be given of man in his natural stateThat he hath forgotten his fubjection, that God is dethroned, and self honored, 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 thofe who are brought back to a fenfe of their duty and obligation as creatures, are ready to fay, not with their tongues only, but with their hearts, "Thou art worthy to receive glory "and honor, 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 spoken from conviction. They not only confider God as being moft great, and therefore to be feared; but as infinitely holy, as abfolutely perfect, and therefore to be loved and ferved. They efteem 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 lamented, and, by the grace of God, ftrenuously and habitually refifted.

Perhaps the attentive reader may have obferved, that I have still kept out of view our own great intereft in the fervice of God. The reafon is, there is certainly, in every renewed heart, a fenfe of duty, independent of intereft, Were this not the cafe, even fuppofing a defire of

reward or fear of punishment, fhould difpofe to obedience, it would plainly be only a change of life, and no change of heart. At the fame time, as it did not arife from any inward principle, it would neither be uniform nor lafting. It is beyond all queftion, indeed, that our true intereft is infeparable from our duty, fo that felf-feeking, is felflofing; but ftill a fenfe of duty must have the precedency, otherwise it changes its nature, and is, properly fpeaking, no duty at all.

To honor God in the heart, then, and to ferve him in the life, is the first and higheft defire of him that is born again. This is not, and cannot be the cafe, with any in a natural ftate. But, before we proceed to the other particular implied in this change, it will not be improper to make an observation, which I hope will have the greater weight, when the foundation of it is fresh in the reader's mind. Hence may be plainly feen the reason why profane and worldly men have fuch a tendency to self-righteousness, while the truly pious are filled with an abhorrence of that foul-deftroying falfhood. This, I dare fay, appears ftrange to many, as I confefs it hath often done to me, before I had thought fully upon the fubject: that thofe who are evidently none of the ftricteft in point of morals, and have leaft of that kind to boaft of, fhould yet be the moft profeffed admirers and defenders of the doctrine of juftification by works, and defpifers of the doctrine of the grace of God. But the folution is eafy and natural. Worldly men have no juft fenfe of their natural and unalienable obligation to glorify God in their thoughts, words, and actions, and therefore all that they do in religion, they look upon as a meritorious fervice, and think that certainly fomething is due to them on that account. They think it ftrange if they have walked foberly, regularly, and decently, efpecially if they have been firict and punctual in the forms of divine worship, that God fhould not be obliged (pardon the expreffion) to reward them according to their works. It is a hard fervice to them, they do it only that they may be rewarded, or at leaft may not fuffer for the neglect of it, and therefore cannot but infift upon the merit of it.

On the other hand, those who are born of God, are fenfible that it is the duty of every rational creature to love God with all his heart, and to confecrate all his powers and faculties to his Maker's fervice. They are convinced that, whoever should do fo without fin, would do only what is juft and equal, and have no plea of merit to advance. But when they confider how many fins ftill cleave to them, how far fhort they come of their duty in every instance, they ask for mercy, and not for reward, and are ready to fay with the Pfalmift David, "If thou, Lord, "shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? but "there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayeft be fear"ed."* To fum up this reafoning in a few words. The reluctant obedience which fome pay to the divine law, is confidered as a debt charged upon God; whereas real obedience is confidered as a debt due to God. And therefore it must always hold, that the very imperfection of an obedience itself increases our difpofition to overvalue and reft our dependance upon it.

TH

SECT. II.

The second part of this change,

HE next thing implied in a faving change is, that the foul refts in God as its chief happiness, and ha bitually prefers his favor to every other enjoyment. On this branch of the fubject I would beg the reader to observe, not only the meaning and fubftance of the propofition, but the order in which it is placed. There must be firft a devotedness of mind to God, and a fupreme leading concern for his honor and glory. He muft be, if I may fo fpeak, again reftored to his original right, his dominion and throne, while the creature is reduced to its obedience and fubjection. In confequence of this, there is an unfeigned acquiefcence in God, as the fource of comfort, and a high esteem of his favor as better than life. This does not go before, nay, is hardly diftinct or feparated