your regeneration and sanctification by the Spirit of our God prove you to be justified in the name of the Lord Jesus. That thus, if you have reason to conclude yourselves destitute of this grace, you may now, in this day of salvation, be stirred up to an earnest application for it; or, if it should appear that you are already partakers of it, you may not be strangers to the comfort of knowing that you are so; and to that peculiarly forcible motive to all holy obedience, which that comfort, when genuine, never fails to furnish.

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SERMON X.

ON BEING BORN AGAIN.

JOHN iii. 3.

"Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

WE shall study the evidences of our holy religion to very little purpose, unless we follow up that study with a serious inquiry into the peculiar nature of that religion, the divine origin of which is authenticated by so unquestionable testimony. Nicodemus, the Jewish ruler, was not contented with ascertaining whether the miracles, which our Lord was said to perform, were really wrought by him. But, having satisfied his mind on this point, he was anxious to ascertain further what was the nature of those important truths, which our Lord was thus undeniably authorized to communicate to mankind. And, in

a similar manner, we should not rest contented with a conviction of the divine origin of Christianity. Such conviction loses all its value, unless it urge us to the devout and diligent examination of those lessons, which are so clearly proved to be taught us from on high.

Now, on such serious inquiry, one of the first lessons which will meet our view, will be that which Jesus Christ in the text urged in the first instance with such solemnity of asseveration on the attention of Nicodemus, and to which I would at this time wish to call your attention in the present discourse.

I. As to what our Lord meant by a man's being born again, this is a point respecting which the humble and devout student of Holy Writ will not long remain undetermined. Such a character will soon be led to the conclusion, that it is such a change in the views, inclinations, and affections, as leads to a new kind of life, especially to a careful avoidance of known sin, and the diligent practice of known duty. The person, who is born again, possesses juster and more affecting views than he had before of the infinite perfections of God, and of the reality and importance of eternal things; of the vanity of the world, of his own sinfulness and danger, and of

the inestimable value of the Saviour.

Thus the

eyes of his understanding are opened, and the light of divine truth shines into his mind, and gradually rectifies its errors and misapprehensions! His will too is reduced to a submission to the will of God. The language of his heart corresponds with that of St. Paul, who immediately on his conversion exclaimed, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" With regard to the will of God, as expressed in the law which he has given us, he acknowledges it to be holy, and just, and good; and he bows too with humble submission to the will of God, as expressed in his providence, acquiescing, even when his own projects are most crossed and disappointed, in the sovereign appointment of the great Disposer of all. His affections, further, have received a new and heavenly direction; his hopes and his fears, his joys and his sorrows, his attachments and aversions, being principally exercised in reference to those objects, in which he before felt little or no interest, but which now appear to him of such supreme and paramount importance, that everything else sinks into comparative insignificance. The person who is thus born again is rendered careful to avoid all sin. "He that is born of God," saith St. John, "doth not commit sin." He doth not so commit sin, as to approve of it,

I

and to continue in the commission of it. He hates and strives against sin, as sin, that is, as contrary to the law of God, and as displeasing to him. And thus he strives against every sin, having the same reason to show a regard to the commands and pleasure of Almighty God in one instance as in another. And while he thus strives against the commission of all sin, he aims to pay a constant regard to every duty. He does not rest contented with a negative goodness, with doing nobody any harm; his object is, by an uniformity of obedience, so to let his light shine before men, that they, seeing his good works, may be led to glorify his Father which is in heaven.

This, then, is what our Lord meant by a man's being born again. It is not, it should ever be carefully observed, the communication of any new faculties; but the rectification of those faculties which were possessed before, but which were altogether perverted and depraved by sin. It is not a change which is complete at once, or, indeed, ever completed here: its progress is gradual; its completion is reserved for heaven.

II. If it be asked on what grounds the necessity of such a change is to be considered as resting? We reply, that it rests on the solemn and repeated