nation; inward and spiritual lusts, which are most deceitful, being accounted brave and generous motions. Lusts or desires, which show the corruption. of the will by ill habits: lust and sin are the mere composition of corrupted nature; the whole man is made up of polluting principles, and vicious appetites.

What was preternatural to man in a state of innocency, became natural to him after his depraved state. He is carnal, sold under sin. The spring being already out of order, cannot make the motion otherwise than depraved: as when a clock is out of order, it is natural to that present condition of it to give false intelligence of the hour of the day: and it cannot do otherwise, till the wheels and weights be rectified. Our end was actively to glorify God in the service of him, and obedience to him; but since man is fallen into this universal decay of his faculties, and made unfit to answer this end; there is a necessity he should be made over again, and created upon a better foundation, that some principle should be in him, to oppose this universal depravation, enlighten his understanding, mollify his heart, and reduce his affections to their due order and object.

Not only an unfitness, but unwillingness to that which is good. We have not those affections to virtue, that we have to vice. Are not our lives, for the most part, voluntarily ridiculous? had we a full use of reason, we should judge them so. We think little of God; and when we do think of him, it is with reluctance. This cannot be our original state: for surely, God being infinitely good, never let man come out of his hands with this actual unwillingness to acknowledge and serve him; as the apostle saith in the case of the Galatians, "This persuasion comes not of him which calls you." Galat. v. 8. This unwillingness comes not from him that created you. How much, therefore, do we need a restoring prin

ciple in us! we naturally fulfil the desires of the flesh. There is then a necessity of some other principle in us, to make us fulfil the will of God, since we were created for God, not for the flesh. We can no more be voluntarily serviceable to God, while that serpentine nature, and devilish habit remain in us, than we can suppose the devil can be willing to glorify God, while the nature he contracted by his fall, abides powerful in him. It is as much as to say, that a man can be willing against his will. Nature and will must be changed, or we forever remain in this state.

Man is born a wild ass's colt. No beast more wild and brutish than man in his natural birth; and likely to remain in his wild and wilful nature without grace: a new birth can only put off the wildness of the first.

Not only unfitness and unwillingness, but inability to good. A strange force there is in a natural man, which hurries him, even against some convictions of his will, to evil.

How early do men discover an affection to vice! how greedily do they embrace it, notwithstanding rebukes from superiors, good exhortations from friends, with the concurrence of the vote of conscience, giving its Amen to those dissuasions! and yet carried against all those arguments, deceived by sin, slain by sin, sold under it. This is the miserable state of every son of nature.

Do we not find, that men sometime wrapt up in retirement, in consideration of the excellency of virtue, are so wrought upon by their solitary meditations, that they think themselves able to withstand the strongest invasion of any temptation? yet we see oftentimes, that when a pleasing temptation offers itself, though there be a conflict between reason and appetite, at length all the considerations and dictates of reason are laid aside; the former idea is laid

asleep, and that committed which their own reason told them was base and sordid. So that there is something necessary, beside consideration and resolution, to the full cure of man.

No privation can be removed but by the introduction of another form: as when a man is blind, that blindness, which is a privation of sight, cannot be removed without bringing in a power of seeing again. Original sin is a privation of original righteousness, and an introduction of corrupt principles, which cannot be removed but by some powerful principle contrary to it. Since the inability upon the earth, by reason of the curse, to bring forth its fruits in such a manner as it did, when man was in a state of innocency, the nature of it must be changed to reduce it to its original fruitfulness. So must man, since a general defilement from Adam hath seized upon him, be altered, before he can bring forth fruit to God. We must be united to Christ, ingraffed upon another stock, and partake of the power of his resurrection: without this, we may bring forth fruit, but not fruit to God. There is as utter an impossibility in a man to answer the end of his creation, without righteousness, as for a man to act without life, or act strongly without health and strength. It is a contradiction to think a man can act righteously without righteousness; for without it he hath not the being of a man; that is, man in such a capacity, for those ends for which his creation intended him.

Well then, since there is an unfitness, unwillingness, inability in a man, to answer his end, there is a necessity of a new life, a new nature, a new righteousness: there is a necessity for his happiness, that he should be brought back to God, live to God, be a son of God; and this cannot be without regeneration: for how can he be brought back to God

without a principle of spiritual motion?

How can he live to God that hath no spiritual life? How can he be fit to be a son of God who is of a brutish and diabolical nature?

Hence it follows that it is universally necessary. Necessary for all men-our Saviour knows none without this mark: there must be a change in the soul. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." 2 Cor. v. 17. There must be the habitation of the spirit. "If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Rom. viii. 9. There must be a crucifixion, not only of the corrupt affections of the flesh, but of the flesh itself. "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts." Gal. v. 24.

The old nature must be killed, with all its attendants. There is no sonship to God without likeness; no relation of a child of God without a child-like nature. Let a man be of whatsoever quality in the world, never so high, never so low; of whatsoever age, of whatsoever moral endowments; except a man, every man be born again, &c.

And simply necessary. Our Saviour doth not say he is in danger not to see the kingdom of God, or he may come short of it; but he shall not, he cannot. There is no possible way but this for any man; no other door to creep in at but by that of a new birth: salvation cannot be attained without it; and damnation will certainly be the issue of the want of it. As there is no other name under heaven, by which we can be saved, but by the name of Jesus Christ; so there is no other way under heaven, wherein we can be saved, but by the birth of the spirit.

It is necessary therefore in all places, in all professions. It is not necessary only in Europe, and not in Africa. Let a man be what he will, in any place under heaven, he must have a Jesus to save him,

and an Holy Ghost to change him: it is one and the same spirit acts in all, and produces the same qualities in all:-let men's religion and professions be what they will (men are apt to please themselves with this and that profession and opinion; but) there is no salvation in any profession, or any kind of opinion, but by regeneration. It is not necessary our understandings should be all of one size, that our opinions should all meet in uniformity; but it is necessary we should all have one spiritual nature. It is as necessary to the being of a good man that he should be spiritual, as to the being of a man that he should be rational; though there is a great latitude and variety in the degrees of men in grace as well as their reasons: some are of little faith, some of great faith; some babes in Christ, some strong men. It is not necessary all should be as strong as Abraham; but it is absolutely necessary all should be new born, as Abraham: no age, no time excludes it.

Righteousness was necessary before the fall. The new birth is but the beginning of our restoration to that state we had before the fall. Adam could not have been happy without being innocent. The holiness of God could not create an impure creature. Without it God could take no pleasure in his work.

After the fall it was necessary; continually necessary from the first moment of the fall. This work of regeneration is included in the first promise, I "will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed." Gen. iii. 15. Naturally we have a mighty friendship to Satan, a friendship to his works, though not to his person. But if any man had interest in that promise, he must exchange that friendship for an enmity.

If Jesus Christ, who is principally meant by this seed of the woman, had an enmity to Satan, then all Christ's seed must be possessed with the same spirit.