Inference 1. How miserable and deplorable an estate all unrenewed souls are in ; who can lay no claim to Christ during that state, and therefore are under an impossibility of salvation. O reader ! if this be the state of thy soul, better had it been for thee not to have been God's natural workmanship as a man, except thou be his spiritual workmanship also, as a new man. I know the schoolmen determine otherwise, and say, that damnation is rather to be chosen than, annihilation : a miserable being is better than no being : and it is very true, with respect to the glory of God, whose justice shall triumph for ever in the damnation of the unregenerate ; but, with respect to us, it is much better never to have been his creatures, in the way of generation, than not to be his new creatures, in the way of regeneration. So Christ speaks of Judas, that son of perdi- tion, Mark xiv. 21. " Good had it been for that man if he had never been born :" For what is a being without the comfort of it ? What is life without the joy and pleasure of it ? A damned being is a being without comfort ; no glimpse of light shines into that dark- ness ; they shall, indeed, see and understand the felicity, light, and joy of the saints in glory ; but not partake, in the least measure, of the comfort, Luke xiii. 28. " They shall see Abraham, and Isaac, " and Jacob, in the kingdom of God, but they themselves shut out:" Such a sight is so far from giving any comfort, that it will be the aggravation and increase of torment. O it is better to have no being at all, than to have a being only to capacitate a man for misery ; to desire death, while death flies from him, Rev. iv. 6. The opinion of the schoolmen will never pass for sound doctrine among the damned. Think on it, reader, and lay it to thine heart, better thou hadst died from the womb, better the knees had prevented thee, and the breasts which thou hast sucked, than that thou shouldst live and die a stranger to the new birth, or that thy mother should bring thee forth only to increase, and fill up the number of the damned.
Inf. 2. And, on the contrary, zee may hence learn, what cause re- generate 60uls have to bless God, for the day wherein they were born,
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O what a privileged state doth the new birth bring men into ! It is possible, for the present, they understand it not ; for many be- lievers are like a great heir lying in the cradle, that knows not to what an estate and honour he is born : nevertheless, on the same day wherein we become new creatures by regeneration, we have a firm title and solid claim to all the privileges of the sons of God, John i. 12, IS. God becomes our Father by a triple title, not only the Father of our beings by nature, which was all the relation we had to him before, but our Father by adoption, and by regene- ration : which is a much sweeter, and more comfortable relation. In that day the image of God is restored, Eph. iv. 24. this is both the health and beauty of the soul. In that day we are begotten again to a lively hope, 1 Pet. i. 3. a hope more worth than ten thousand worlds, in the troubles of life, and in the straits of death : this is a creature which lives for ever, and will make thy life happy for ever. Some have kept their birth-day as a festival, a day of rejoicing ; but none have more cause to rejoice that ever they were born, than those that are new-born.
Inf. 3. Learn from hence, that the work of grace is wholly super- natural ; it is a creation, and a creation-work is above the power of the creature. No power but that which gave being to the world, can give a being to the new creature : Almighty Power goes forth to give being to the new creature. This creature is not born of flesh, or of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God, John i. 13. The nature of this new creature speaks its original to be above the power of nature ; the very notion of a new creation spoils the proud boasts of the great asserters of the power and ability of the will of man. When God, therefore, puts the question, who maketh thee to differ ? And what hast thou that thou hast not received ? Let thy soul, reader, answer it with all humility and thankfulness. It is thou, Lord, thou only, that madest me to differ from ano- ther; and what I have received, I have received from thy free grace.
Inf. 4. If the work of grace be anew creation, let not the parents, and friends of the unregenerate utterly despair of the conversion of their relations, how great soever their present discouragements are. If it had been possible for a man to have seen the rude and indigested chaos before the Spirit of God moved upon it, would he not have said, Can such a beautiful order of beings, such a pleasant variety of creatures, spring out of this dark lump ? Surely it would have been very hard for a man to have imagined it. It may be, you see no dispositions or hopeful inclinations in your friends towards God and spiritual things ; nay, possibly they are totally opposite, and filled with enmity against them ; they deride and jeer all serious piety wherever they behold it ; this, indeed, is very sad ; but yet
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remember the work of grace is creation- work : though there be no disposition at all in their wills, no tenderness in their consciences, no light or knowledge in their minds ; yet God, that commanded the light to shine out of darkness, can shine into their hearts, to give them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ : he can say to the dry bones, live ; to the proud and stubborn heart, come down and yield thyself to the will of God ; and if he command, the work is done. God can make thee yet to rejoice over thy most uncomfortable relations ; to say with the father of the prodigal, Luke xv. 24. " This my son was dead, " and is alive again ; he was lost and is found ; and they began to be merry." Difficulties are for men, but not for God : he works, in conversion, by a power which is able to subdue all things unto itself.