and most gladly would he be invested with the righteous ness of God; but finds it a matter of transcendent difficulty. Now he is convinced it is no easy matter to be saved; since to believe, and to keep the whole law, are things of an equal facility; that is, they are both alike impossible to him; but nothing, he knows, is too hard for God, and therefore takes hold of his strength, Isa. 27: 5. to work this faith in him; and so, by a faith unseen, believes to a faith that is visible, Rom. 1: 17. It is faith that is at work all this while, though the soul knows it not till afterwards.

2. The other grand requisite to salvation, is sanctifica tion, or personal inherent holiness. Justification is by a righteousness imputed; sanctification infused; the former is first in order of nature; they commence together in point of time; even as light in the air at the sun's approach; or as the reversing an outlawry instantly re-instates the party in his former privileges; or as the cancelling a bill of at tainder restores the blood. Sanctification is the divine nature communicated; by which the whole man is expelled, with his deeds, or rather subdued and brought under; for they are not totally nulled in this life; only proud flesh is put down from its seat, and that is a great matter, its dominion is taken away, and the seed of God enthroned in its stead: and so we are said to be translated out of Satan's kingdom, or government, into Christ's, Col. 1: 13. It is sometimes called regeneration, or a being born again, John 3: 3. the separating a man from his wild stock, and grafting him in the true, Rom. 11: 17. the forming of Christ in us, and the law written in the heart, Heb. 8: 10. that is, dispositions according to God, or a heart after his own. It is also termed, the passing away of old things, and a becom ing new of all, 2 Cor. 5: 17. there is a change of principles, scope, and end of man's life. Not that the old faculties are blotted out or destroyed, but reduced or renewed, according to the "image of him that createth it," Col. 3: 10. Rom. 8:29. As the body, when it is regenerated, or raised again, shall be the same that was sown; but so changed, and dignified in its qualities, as if it were another; so, in the soul's regeneration, the same understanding, will, and affections do remain, but quite otherwise disposed and qualified, according to the new objects they are to converse with. And this is so main a requisite to salvation, that we are not capable of heaven without it.

Even the local heaven would not be a place of happiness to a soul unsanctified; no communion there without concord; and that is the reason why spiritual notions are so disgustful to carnal men; and if they cannot endure the shadow, how should they bear the substance and thing itself? In this.. work the soul is passive; but being thus quickened by the Spirit of life from God, and set upon their feet, they are capacitated for action. And now (say they, as Daniel, now) "let my Lord speak, for thou hast strengthened me," Dan, 10:19. And thenceforth their work and business is, "to" walk worthy of the Lord;" to glorify that grace which hath saved them; to walk before God in the daily exercise of those graces he hath given them; and to press after perfection, that is, a ripeness of grace, or meetness for that state of glory which all these are preparatory to; to show forth his praises; the virtues of him that hath called them; making his law their rule, and his glory their end above all; and all in a way of dutiful gratitude. For though ye may, and ought to have respect to your own salvation, peace, and comfort; yet so, as to substitute all to the glory of the grace of God. And take this by the way, to encourage you in your duty, that the glory of God, and his peoples' blessed, ness are so interwoven, as never to be divided: while ye keep that most directly in your eye and scope, your own concerns are most currently going on; they fall in together, and keep in the same channel.

II. Whence these requisites to salvation do proceed.

That men might know themselves to be creatures, it was needful to know the world had a beginning, by whom, and how: and no less needful to know the original of the world renewed. The not minding of which, may have been the occasion of men's ascribing the new creation to the concourse of free-will atoms: which seems at least, as irrational as the contingent coming together of the visible frame.

Our present inquiry therefore is, touching the author of faith and holiness: what 100t they spring from; who, or what is the efficient cause of regeneration; what power it is by which the new creature is formed, and brought forth. Our assertion is, that the new creature is God's workmanship, entirely and alone. This the scripture seems evi

dent for, and delivers in positive terms in James 1: 17. "Every good gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights:" which is so full an answer to the question, as one would think admits of no reply. But being a truth unacceptable to nature, and such striving among men to entitle the human power and will to the fatherhood of this new creation, it must be argued: and our argument for it is this; that the new creature must be wrought, either by a divine power, or by a natural "power, or a concurrence of both together. But,

First. It cannot be wrought by a natural power, and that for such reasons as these:

Arg. I. Because it is a creature; and, of all creatures, the noblest and most excellent. All the virtuosi in the world are not able to make an atom: they may refine and sublimate things that are, but cannot give being to the least thing that is not. How then should the natural man give being to the new creation! To suppose such a thing would be a degrading to the divine nature; a setting the image of the heavenly below that of the earthly: for he bat builds, is worthy of more honor than the thing that is built by him, Heb. 3: 3.

Arg. II. Nothing can afford what it hath not in itself. Now, every soul, in nature, is darkness, and possessed with a habitual aversion from God: but light is not brought out of darkness, nor friendship out of enmity: no man will. expect grapes from thorns; the product will be according to that of which it is produced; every seed will have its own body, 1 Cor. 15: 38. an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit, Matt. 7: 18. that which is born of the flesh is flesh, John 3: 6. and will never be better: therefore the new creature, being a divine thing, cannot be educed of natural principles.

Arg. III. The natural man is not only void of all virtue and property that tends to regeneration; but is opposite thereto. To be grafted into the true olive tree, is contrary to nature, Rom. 11:24. "the carnal mind is enmity against God," Rom. 8: 7. and enmity being a principle uncapable of reconciliation, it cannot be supposed it will help to destroy itself: "they will not so much as seek after God, nor take him into their thoughts," Psal. 10: 4. Satan they follow with natural motion, John 8: 44. but as for the word of the Lord, they profess stoutly, they "will

not hearken unto it," Jer. 49: 6. "they have loved strangers, and after them they will go," chap. 2: 25. So desperately wicked are the hearts of men, chap. 17: 9. they are even made up of fleshly lusts, which war against the soul, and whatever hath respect to his happy restoration. And this enmity is maintained and animated, (1.) By the darkness that is in them; which all men in nature are filled with; or with false lights, which are equally pernicious and obstructive to this work: by reason whereof; the most glorious objects, though just before them, are hid from their eyes; they do not, nor they cannot discern the things which are of God, 1 Cor. 2: 14. they have false conceptions of every thing; call good evil: and evil good; put light for darkness, and darkness for light; and the most excellent things are commonly farther off their approbation. It is a known experiment, that the more spiritual any truth is, the more will carnal reason object against it: "how can these things be?" John 3: 9. and "how can this man give us his flesh to eat?" chap. 6: 52. By all the understanding that men have before conversion, they are but more strongly prejudiced against the truth, Acts 17: 18. 1 Cor. 1: 19. 23. (2.) This enmity is further confirmed and fixed by the naturalness of it. If it were an adventitious quality it might possibly be separated; but now it cannot by any human power. And that it is natural, appears, in that the universality of men are infected with it: it is not here and there one, but all and every one, Jews and Gentiles, are all under sin; "none that understandeth; none that seeketh after God; none that doeth good, no, not one," Rom. 3: 9— 18. "all flesh had corrupted his ways," Gen. 6: 12. "every imagination of their heart is only evil, and that continually," chap. 8: 21. " every man is brutish and altogether filthy," Jer. 10: 14. “and this is their root; conceived in sin,” Psal. 51: 5. "they go astray from the womb," Psal. 58: 3. It also grows up with them; and the longer it lives, the worse it is, and the more impregnable, Jer. 13: 23. "it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be," Rom. 8: 7. And though, at times, they look another way, like bullets of stone or lead, which, actuated by a foreign power, are mounted into the air, their upward motion quickly ceaseth, because it was not natural; they come again to their centre, of their own accord, and there they live and die: as was verified in Saul, Ahab, Agrippa, and others.

Arg. IV. The new creature cannot be the product of natural power, because every thing is received and improved according to the nature of that which receives it. Plants, and other creatures, turn all their nourishment into their own species and property. A vine and a thistle, both planted in one soil, have the same sun, dew, air, and other influences common to both, yet each one converts the whole of that it receives into its own substance and kind. You may plant and prune, dig and dung an evil tree, bestow what pains you will upon it, it does all but enable the more pregnant production of evil fruit: just so doth the natural man, even turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, Jude ver. 4. as to the pure all things are pure; so to the impure all things are defiled, Tit. 1: 15. "David, by his afflictions, learned to keep God's laws," Psal. 119: 6, 7. but Ahaz trespassed yet more, 2 Chron. 28: 22. Good Josiah's heart melts at reading the law, he humbles himself, and falls to reforming, chap. 34: 27. 31. but wicked Johoiakim, he cuts the roll in pieces, and burns it, Jer. 36: 23. thus sin, that is, corrupt nature, works death by that which is good, Rom. 7: 8. 10.

Secondly. That the new creature is not wrought by the concurrence of divine and natural power together, the following arguments shew.

Arg. I. The Holy Ghost needs no assistance in his work: who and where is he that stood up for his help when he moved on the waters, and brought forth this world into form? Gen. 1: 2. Job 38: 4. when he weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Isa. 40: 12. 14. He that made all things of nothing, cannot be ́supposed to need the aid of any. As man had nothing to do in the conception of Christ's human nature, but the power of the Most High was alone in that work; so also it is in forming Christ within us. Why should he call in the aid of another, unless deficient in himself? and he must be greatly put to it, that takes in the help of an enemy.

Arg. II. If the Holy Ghost had need of help, the flesh affords not the least help, nor can. For, (1.) The natural man is "without strength," Rom. 5: 6. The best natured man in the world (until regenerate) is but flesh; and “all flesh is grass, and the glory of it as the flower of grass," 1 Pet. 1: 24. which fades in a moment; it is an arm that has no strength, Job 26: 2. makes a show, but can do nothing.