nant, 1. You discern your sins as odious and dangerous, as the corruption of your souls, and that which displeaseth the most holy God. 2. You see an excellency in holiness of heart and life, as the image of God, the rectitude of man, and that which fits him for eternal blessedness, and maketh him amiable in the eyes of God. 3. You unfeignedly desire to be rid of your sin, how dear soever it hath been to you; and to be perfectly sanctified by the Holy Spirit, by his degrees, in the use of the means which he hath appointed: and you consent that the Holy Ghost, as your Sanctifier, do purify you and kindle the love of God in you, and bring it to perfection.

4. In baptism, you profess to renounce the world, the flesh, and the devil; that is, as they stand for your hearts against the will and love of God, and against the happiness of the unseen world; and against your faith in Christ your Saviour; and against the sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost. If therefore you are sincere in this part of your covenant, you do upon deliberation perceive all the pleasures, profits, and honours of this world, to be so vain and worthless, that you are habitually resolved to prefer the love and favour of God, and your salvation, before them; and to be ruled by Jesus Christ, and his Spirit and word, rather than by the desires of the flesh, or the world's allurements, or the will of man, or the suggestions of the devil; and to forsake all rather than forsake the Father, the Saviour, the Sanctifier, to whom you are devoted, and the everlasting life, which upon his promise you have taken for your hope and portion. This is the sense of baptism, and all this in profession being essential to your baptism, must be essential to your Christianity. Your parents' profession of it was necessary to your infant title to the outward privileges of the church. Your own personal profession is necessary to your continuance of those privileges, and your visible Christianity and communion with the adult. And the truth of what you profess, is necessary to your real Christianity before God, and to your title to salvation: and this is it that is to be now inquired after. You cannot hope to be admitted into heaven, upon lower terms than the sincerity of that profession which entereth you into the church: while we tell you of no higher matters necessary to your salvation, than the sin

cerity of that which is necessary to baptism and Christianity, I hope you will not say we deal too strictly with you. Inquire now by a diligent trial of your hearts, whether you truly consent to all these articles of your baptismal vow or covenant. If you do, you are regenerate by the Spirit: if you do not, you have but the sacrament of regeneration; which aggravateth your guilt, as a violated profession and covenant must needs do. And I do not think, that any man worthy to be discoursed with, will have the face to tell you, that any man, at the use of reason, is by his baptism, (or any thing else) in a state of justification and salvation, whose heart doth not sincerely consent to the covenant of baptism, and whose life expresseth not that consent.

Hence therefore you may perceive that it is a thing unquestionable, that all these persons are yet unregenerate, and in the bond of their iniquity.

1. All those that have not unfeignedly devoted themselves to God, as being not their own, but his. His by the title of creation, (Psal. c. 3,)" Know ye that the Lord he is God; it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves, we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture." And his by the title of redemption; for "we are bought with a price." (1 Cor. vii. 23.) And he that unfeignedly taketh God for his owner, and absolute Lord, will heartily give up himself unto him; as Paul saith of the Corinthians, (2 Cor. viii, 5,)"They first gave up their own selves to the Lord, and to us by the will

of God."

And he that entirely giveth up himself to God, doth with himself surrender all that he hath in desire and resolution. As Christ with himself doth give us all things," (Rom. viii. 32,) and "addeth other things to them that seek first his kingdom and its righteousness, (Matt. vi. 33,) so Christians with themselves do give up all they have to Christ.

And he that giveth up himself to God, will live to God: and he that taketh not himself to be his own, will take nothing for his own; but will study the interest of his Lord, and think he is best disposed of, when he honoureth him. most, and serveth him best, (1 Cor. vi. 19, 20,)" Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

If any of you devote not yourselves unfeignedly to God, and make it not your first inquiry, what God would have

you be and do, but live to yourselves, and yet think yourselves in a state of life, you are mistaken, and do not know yourselves. What abundance might easily see their miserable condition in this discovery, who say in effect," Our lips are our own who is Lord over us?" (Psal. xii. 4,) and rather hate and oppose the interest of God and holiness in the world, than devote themselves to the promoting of it! (Deut. xxxii. 6.) "Do ye thus requite the Lord, ye foolish people and unwise? Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee? Hath he not made thee, and established thee?"

2. All those are unregenerate and in a state of death, that are not sincerely subjected to the governing will of God, but are ruled by their carnal interest and desires; and the word of a man that can gratify or hurt them, can do more with them than the word of God: To shew them the command of a man that they think can undo them if they disobey, doth more prevail with them, than to shew them the command of God, that can condemn them unto endless misery. They more fear men that can kill the body, than God, that can destroy both soul and body in hell fire. When the lust of the flesh, and the will of man do bear more sway than the will of God, it is certain that such a soul is unregenerate. (Rom. vi. 3, 4, 6.) " Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life- Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed; that henceforth we should not serve sin,- -(ver. 16.) Know ye not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind; for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin: that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh, to the lusts of men, but to the will of God." (1 Pet. iv. 1,2.)

3. All those are unregenerate, that depend not upon God as their chief benefactor; and do not most carefully apply themselves to him, as knowing that" in his favour is life," (Psal. xxx. 5,) and that "his loving-kindness is better than

life," (Psal. lxiii. 3,) and that to his judgment we must finally stand or fall: but do ambitiously seek the favour of men, and call them their benefactors, (Luke xxii. 25; Matt. xxiii. 9,) whatever become of the favour of God. He is no child of God that preferreth not the love of God before the love of all the world. He is no heir of heaven, that preferreth not the fruition of God in heaven, before all worldly glory and felicity. "If ye be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God: Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth." (Col. iii. 1-3.) The love of God is the sum of holiness; the heart of the new creature; the perfecting of it is the perfection and felicity of man.

4. They are certainly unregenerate, that believe not the Gospel, and take not Christ for their only Saviour, and his promises of grace and glory, as purchased by his sacrifice and merits, for the foundation of their hopes, on which they resolve to trust their souls for pardon and for peace with God, and endless happiness. "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts iv. 12.) This is the record that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son: He that hath the Son, hath life; and he that hath not the Son, hath not life." (1 John v. 11, 12.)

When our happiness was in Adam's hands, he lost it: it is now put into safer hands, and Jesus Christ the second Adam is become our treasury. He is the head of the body, from whom each member hath quickening influence. (Eph. i. 22.) The life of saints is in him, as the life of the tree is in the root, unseen. (Col. iv. 3, 4.) Holiness is a living unto God in Christ; though we are dead with Christ, to the law, and to the world, and to the flesh, we are alive to God. So Paul describeth our. case in his own, "I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God: I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Gal. ii. 19, 20.) "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom. vi. 11.) Christ is the vine, and we are the branches; without him we can do nothing: If you abide not in him, and

his words in you, you are cast forth as a branch, and withered, which men gather and cast into the fire, and they are burned." (John xv. 1. 5-7.) In baptism you are married unto Christ, as to the external solemnization; and in spiritual regeneration your hearts do inwardly close with him, entertain him, and resign themselves unto him by faith and love; and by a resolved covenant become his own: and therefore baptism and the Lord's-supper are called Sacraments; because as soldiers were wont, by an oath, and listing their names, and other engaging ceremonies, to oblige themselves to their commanders, and their vow was called a Sacrament: so do we engage ourselves to Christ in the holy vow or covenant entered in baptism, and renewed in the Lord's-supper.

5. That person is certainly unregenerate, that never was convinced of a necessity of sanctification, or never perceived an excellency and amiableness in holiness of heart and life, and loved it in others, and desired it himself; and never gave up himself to the Holy Ghost, to be further sanctified in the use of his appointed means; desiring to be perfect, and willing to press forward towards the mark, and to abound in grace. Much less is that person renewed by the Holy Ghost, that hateth holiness, and had rather be without it, and would not walk in the fear and obedience of the Lord.

The spirit of holiness is that life by which Christ quickeneth all that are his members. He is no member of Christ that is without it. (Rom. viii. 9.) "According to his mercy, he saveth us by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." (Titus iii. 5.)

6. That person is unregenerate, that is under the dominion of his fleshly desires, and "mindeth the things of the flesh above the things of the Spirit;" and hath not mortified it so far, as not to live according to it. A carnal mind, and a carnal life, are opposite to holiness, as sickness is to health, and darkness unto light. "There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.- For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh: but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life

and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be :