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of rottenness, Rom. iii.13, "Their throat is an open sepulchre." Others are affected with thy prayers; which seem to them, as if they would rend the heavens; but God accounts them as the howling of a dog: "They have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds," Hos. vii. 14. Others take thee for a wrestler and prevailer with God: but he can take no delight in thee, nor thy prayers neither, Isa. lxvi. 3, "He that killeth an ox, is as if he slew a man: he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck:-he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol." Why that? Because thou art yet in the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity. (3.) All thou hast done for God and his cause in the world, though it may be followed with temporal rewards, yet is lost as to divine acceptance. This is clear from the case of Jehu: who was indeed rewarded with a kingdom, for his executing due vengeance upon the house of Ahab, as being a work good for the matter of it, because it was commanded of God, as you may see, 2 Kings x. 13. Yet he was punished for it in his posterity, because he did it not in a right manner, Hos. i. 4, "I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu." Good looks mainly to the heart: and if so, truly albeit thy outward appearance be fairer than that of many others, yet the hidden man of thy heart is loathsome: thou lookest well before men, but art thou as Moses was, "fair to God," as the margin hath it, Acts vii. 20. O what a difference is there betwixt the characters of Asa and Amaziah: "The high places were not removed; nevertheless, Asa's heart was perfect with the Lord all his days," 1 Kings xv. 14, Amaziah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart," 2 Chron. xxv. 2. It may be thou art zealous against sin in others, and dost admonish them of their duty; and reprove them for their sin; and they hate thee, because thou dost thy duty. But I must tell thee, God hates thee too, because thou dost it not in a right manner; and that thou canst never do, whilst thou art not born again. Lastly, All thy struggles against sin, in thine own heart and life, are naught. The proud Pharisee afflicted his body with fasting; and God struck his soul, in the mean time with a sentence of condemnation, Luke xviii. Balaam struggled with his covetous temper to that degree, that though he loved the wages of unrighteousness, yet he would not win them by cursing Israel; but he died the death of the wicked, Numb. xxxi. 8. All thou dost, while in an unregenerate state, is for thyself and therefore it will fare with thee, as with a subject, who having reduced the rebels, puts the crown on his

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own head; and therefore looseth all his good service, and his head too.

Object. If it be thus with us, then we need never perform any religious duty at all. Ans. The conclusion is not just. No inability of thine can loose thee from the duty God's Law lays on thee: and there is less evil in thy doing thy duty, than there is in the omitting of it. But there is a midst betwixt omitting of duty, and the doing of it as thou dost it. A man ordereth masons to build a house; if they quite neglect the work, that will not be accepted: if they fall on, and build upon the old rotten foundation, neither will that please; but they must raze the old foundation, and build on firm ground. "Go thou and do likewise." In the mean time, it is not in vain for thee, even for thee, to seek the Lord: for though he regard thee not, yet he may have respect to his own ordinance, and do thee good thereby, as was said before.

SECONDLY, Without regeneration there is no communion with God. There is a society on earth, whose "fellowship is with the Father, and with the Son Jesus Christ," 1 John i. 3. But out of that society all the unregenerate are excluded; for they are al enemies to God, as ye heard before at large. Now, "Can two walk together, except they be agreed ?" Amos iii. 3. They are all unholy: and what "Communion hath light with darkness-Christ with Belial? 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15. They may have a show and resemblance of holiness, but they are strangers to true holiness, and therefore without God in the world. How sad is this case, to be employed in religious duties, but to have no fellowship with God in them! ye would not be content with your meat, unless it fed you; nor with your clothes, unless they kept you warm: and how can you satisfy yourselves with your duties, while they are not effectual to your communion with God?

THIRDLY, Regeneration is absolutely necessary to qualify you for heaven. None go to heaven but they that are made meet for it, Col. i. 12. As it was with Solomon's temple, 1 Kings vi. 7, so it is with the temple above: "it is built of stone made ready before it is brought thither;" namely, of lively stones, 1 Pet. ii. 5, "wrought for the same thing," 2 Cor. v. 5, for they cannot be laid in that glorious building, just as they came out of the quarry of depraved nature. Jewels of gold are not meet for swine; and far less jewels of glory for unrenewed sinners. Beggars in their rags, are not meet for kings' houses; nor sinners to enter into the King's palace, without the raiment of needle-work, Psal. xlv. 14, 15. What wise man would bring fishes out of the water to feed in his meadow? or send his

oxen to feed in the sea? Even as little are the unregenerate meet for heaven, or is heaven meet for them. It would never

be liked by them.

The unregenerate would find fault with heaven on several accounts. As, (1.) That it is a strange country. Heaven is the renewed man's native country: his Father is in heaven; his mother is Jerusalem, which is above, Gal. iv. 26. He is "born from above," John iii. 3. Heaven is his home, 2 Cor. v. 1. Therefore he looks on himself as a stranger on this earth, and his head is homeward: Heb. xi. 16. "They desire a better country, that is, an heavenly." But the unregenerate man is "the man of the earth," Psal. x. 18. "Written in the earth," Jer. xvii. 13. Now home is home, be it never so homely; therefore, he "minds earthly things," Philip. iii. 19. There is a peculiar sweetness in our native soil; and hardly are men drawn to leave it, and dwell in a strange country. In no case does that prevail more than in this; for unrenewed men would quit their pretensions to heaven, were it not that they see they cannot make a better of it. (2.) There is nothing there of what they delight most in, as most agreeable to the carnal heart. Rev. xxi. 27, "And there shall in no wise enter into it, any thing that defileth." When Mahomet gave out paradise to be a place of sensual delights, his religion was greedily embraced: for that is the heaven men naturally choose. If the covetous man could get bags full of gold there, and the voluptuous man promise himself his sensual delights, they might be reconciled to heaven, and meet for it too: but since it is not so, though they may utter fair words about it, truly it has little of their hearts. (3.) Every corner there is filled with that which, of all things, they have the least liking of; and that is holiness, true holiness, perfect holiness. Were one who abhors swine's flesh bidden to a feast, where all the dishes were of that sort of meat, but variously prepared, he would find fault with every dish at the table, notwithstanding all the art used to make them palatable. It is true, there is joy in heaven, but it is holy joy; there are pleasures in heaven, but they are holy pleasures; there are places to stand by in heaven, but it is holy ground. That holiness that casts up in every place, and in every thing there, would mar all to the unregenerate. (4.) Were they carried thither, they would not only change their place, which would be a great heart-break to them, but they would change their company too. Truly they would never like the company there, who care not for communion with God here; nor value the fellowship of his people, at least in the vitals of practical godliness. Many indeed mix themselves with the godly on

earth, to procure a name to themselves, and to cover the naughtiness of their hearts; but that trade could not be managed there. (5.) They would never like the employment of heaven, they care so little for it now. The business of the saints there, would be an intolerable burden to them, seeing it is not agreeable to their nature. To be taken up in beholding, admiring, and praising of "Him that sitteth upon the throne, and of the Lamb," would be work unsuitable, and therefore unsavoury to an unrenewed soul. Lastly, they would find this fault with it, that the whole is of everlasting continuance. This would be a killing ingredient in it to them. How would such as now account the Sabbath-day a burden, brook the celebrating of an everlasting Sabbath in the heavens?

LASTLY, Regeneration is absolutely necessary to your being admitted into heaven, John iii. 3. No heaven without it. Though carnal men could digest all these things which make heaven so unsuitable for them, yet God will never suffer them to come thither: therefore born again ye must be; else ye shall never see heaven, ye shall perish eternally. For (1.) There is a bill of exclusion against you in the court of heaven, and against all your sort: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," John iii. 3. Here is a bar before you, that men and angels cannot remove. And to hope for heaven, over the belly of this peremptory sentence, is to hope that God will recall his word, and sacrifice his truth and faithfulness to your safety; which is infinitely more than to hope the earth shall be forsaken for you, and the rock removed out of his place. (2.) There is no holiness without regeneration. It is the new

man, "which is created in true holiness," Eph. iv. 24. And no heaven without holiness; for "without holiness no man shall see the Lord," Heb. xii. 14. Will the gates of pearl be opened to let in dogs and swine? No; their place is without, Rev. xxii. 15. God will not admit such into the holy place of communion with him here; and will he admit them into the holiest of all, hereafter? Will he take the children of the devil, and give them to sit with him on his throne? Or will he bring the unclean into the city whose street is pure gold? Be not deceived; grace and glory are but two links of one chain, which God has joined, and no man shall put asunder. None are transplanted into the paradise above, but out of the nursery of grace below. If ye be unholy while in this world, ye will be for ever miserable in the world to come. (3.) All the unregenerate are without Christ, and therefore have no hope while in that case, Eph. ii. 12. Will Christ prepare mansions of glory for them that refuse to receive him into their hearts? Nay; ra

ther will he not laugh at their calamity, who now set at nought all his counsel? Prov. i. 25, 26. Lastly, there is an infallible connection betwixt a finally unregenerate state and damnation, arising from the nature of the things themselves: and from the decree of heaven, which is fixed and unmoveable as mountains of brass, John iii. 3. Rom. viii. 6, "To be carnally minded is death." An unregenerate state is hell in the bud. It is eternal destruction in embryo; growing daily, though thou dost not discern it. Death is painted on many a fair face, in this life. Depraved nature makes men meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the damned, in utter darkness. (1.) The heart of stone within thee, is a sinking weight; as a stone naturally goes downward, so the hard stony heart tends downward to the bottomless pit. Ye are hardened against reproof: though ye are told your danger, yet you will not see it; ye will not believe it. But remember, that the conscience being now seared with a hot iron, is a sad presage of everlasting burnings. (2.) Your unfruitfulness under the means of grace, fits you for the axe of God's judgments, Matth. iii. 10, "Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." The withered branch is fuel for the fire, John xv. 6. Tremble at this, ye despisers of the gospel; if ye be not thereby made meet for heaven, ye will be like the barren ground, bearing briers and thorns, nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned," Heb. vi. 8. (3.) The hellish dispositions of mind which discover themselves in profanity of life, fit the guilty for the regions of horror. A profane life will have a miserable end. They which do such things, shall not inherit the kingdom of God," Gal. v. 19, 20, 21. Think on this, ye prayerless persons, ye mockers of religion, ye cursers and swearers, ye unclean and unjust persons, who have not so much as moral honesty to keep you from lying, cheating, and stealing. What sort of a tree think ye it to be, upon which these fruits grow? Is it a tree of righteousness, which the Lord hath planted? Or is it not such an one as cumbers the ground, which God will pluck up for fuel to the fire of his wrath? (4.) Your being dead in sin, makes you meet to be wrapped in flames of brimstone, as a winding sheet; and to be buried in the bottomless pit, as in a grave. Great was the cry in Egypt, when the first-born in each family was dead; but are there not many families, where all are dead together? Nay, many there are, who are twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Sometime, in their life, they have been roused by apprehensions of death, and its consequences; but now they are so far on their way to the land of darkness, that they hardly ever have the least glimmering of

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