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"Chrift (by grace ye are faved *.") In his epiftle to the Coloffians, he repeats the fame thing; "And you, being dead in your fins and "the uncircumcifion of your flesh, hath he "quickened together with him, having forgiven << you all your trefpafies +." The reader muft know, that in many other paffages the fame truth is to be found, couched under the fame or like metaphors; fuch as blindness, darkness, "hardness of heart." The force of the expreffion is feldom fufficiently attended to. Suffer me then to put the question, Do you give credit to the holy fcriptures? Do you form your opinions without partiality or prejudice from them? Then you must receive it as truth that man, in his natural ftate, can do nothing of himself to his own recovery, without the concurrence of superior aid. If there is any meaning or propriety in fcripture language, we must yield to this. What more could be faid, than that we are "dead" in fin? What more incapable of action, than one who is entirely deprived of life?

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But left there fhould be any remaining exception, the thing is afferted in plain and explicit terms, without any metaphor, by the apoftle John, from our Saviour's own mouth: "No

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* Eph ii, 4, 5.

+ Col, ii, 13.

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66 man can come unto me, except the Father

which hath fent me draw him and I will "raife him up at the laft day. It is written in "the prophets, And they fhall be all taught "of God; every man, therefore, that hath

heard and hath learned of the Father, cometh " unto me." I fhall mention only one paffage more, in which, under the fimilitude of a wretched outcaft, infant, the prophet Ezekiel represents the natural ftate of Jerufalem. "And "as for thy nativity, in the day thou waft born, "thy navel was not cut, neither waft thou "washed in water to fupple thee; thou waft ❝not falted at all, nor fwaddled at all. None 66 eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, "to have compaffion upon thee; but thou waft "caft out in the open field, to the loathing of ❝thy person, in the day that thou waft born."

And when I paffed by thee, and faw thee' "polluted in thine own blood, I faid unto thee, "when thou waft in thy blood, Live; yea, I "faid unto thee, when thou waft in thy blood, "Live +." Here all the circumftances are collected, that could fignify at once a miserable and weak, wretched and helpless condition; or that could ferve to make our deliverance at once. a fignal inftance both of grace and power,

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John vi. 44, 45. † Ezek, xvi, 4, 5, 6,

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This leads me to obferve, that the fame truth will receive further light from these paffages of scripture, in which the real agent in this great change is pointed out, and which ceFebrate the efficacy of his power. As in the text it is afferted, that, " except a man be born "again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of "God." So in other paffages, true believers are faid to be born of God-born from above "-born of the Spirit." The power of God exerted in the renovation of the finner, is defcribed in language taken from the first formation. of the world. "For we are his workmanship, "created in Chrift Jefus unto good works, "which God hath before ordained that we "fhould walk in them *.” And, "If any 66 man be in Chrift, he is a new creature; old "things are paft away, behold all things are "become new t." See the prophecies of the old teftament, respecting the plentiful effufion of the holy Spirit in the times of the gospel: they contain a clear description of divine fupernatural influence. Thus the prophet Ifaiah, "For I " will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and "floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my "Spirit upon thy feed, and my bleffing upon thine offspring; and they shall spring up as

Eph. ii, 10. + 2 Cor, v. 17.
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among the grafs, and as willows by the wa"ter-courfes *." To the fame purpose the prophet Ezekiel : " Then will I fprinkle clean wa"ter upon you, and ye fhall be clean from all "your filthinefs, and from all your idols will I " cleanse you. A new heart alfo will I give 66 you, and a new spirit will I put within you; " and I will take away the ftony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of "flesh; and I will put my fpirit within you, "and cause you to walk in my ftatutes; and ye "fhall keep my judgments, and do them †.' Let it not feem tedious to any that I have collected fo many paffages of fcripture on this fubject. It is no light thing; and indeed, it is no common thing to believe it from the heart. But let us now affirm it, on divine teflimony, that regeneration is the work of the Holy Ghoft.

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I would not build this truth upon any other evidence. When we ftand in God's room, bear his meffage, and speak in his name, nothing fhould be affirmed, which cannot be fupported by a "Thus faith the Lord." But having done fo, I think I may warrantably observe how much the visible state of the world correfponds with the fcripture declarations on this fubject. I hope this will be neither unfuitable nor unprofitable, † Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26, 27. E

If, xliv. 3, 4.

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confidering what an inward averfion men have to receive and apply them. Do we not daily fee many inftances of perfons, of firft rate underftandings and great natural abilities, who yet continue blind to their duty to God, and the falvation of their fouls? As they are born, fo they continue to fhew themselves through their whole lives," wife to do evil, but to do good "they have no knowledge." What proofs do they often give of the power and influence of habits of wickedness over them? How frequently does it happen, that their attachment to fin in general, or to fome particular fin, is fuch, as to bear down before it all regard to their own intereft, temporal and eternal? While at the fame time perfons of unspeakably inferior talents, enlightened by the Spirit, and fanctified by the grace of God, shall stand firm against the most dangerous temptations, and escape the pollution that is in the world through luft. This our bleffed Lord adores as a part or proof of the fovereignty and unfearchable wifdom of his heavenly Father. In that hour Jefus rejoiced in fpirit, and faid, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and "earth, that thou haft hid these things from "the wife and prudent, and haft revealed them unto babes: even fo, Father, for so it seemed "good in thy fight *."

* Luke x, 21.

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