[2.] To enter into covenant with God doth imply a renouncing of other lords and masters which are opposite to Christ and the Spirit. These are the devil, the world, and the flesh ; for these are enemies of that salvation to which God of his infinite love would bring us, through the merits of Christ, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit. One trinity is chosen and another renounced. The devil is an enemy ; for therefore we are rescued out of the power of darkness, whereby is meant the devil : Col. i. 13, 'Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.' The world is an enemy : Gal. vi. 14, ' God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.' The flesh is an enemy : Kom. viii. 12, 13, ' We are debtors, not to the flesh to live after the flesh ; for if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die.' The devil by his suggestions would tempt you to atheism and disbelief of the promises, that all the glory of the other world is but a fancy, and it is best to seek your happiness here by court- ing the world, and gratifying and contenting the flesh, and doing every- thing it craveth at your hands. Now this is grievous and burdensome to the renewed soul ; therefore it watcheth, striveth, and resisteth Satan : 1 Peter v. 8, 9, ' Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour ; whom resist, steadfast in the faith ; ' James iv. 7, ' Kcsist the devil, and he will fly from you.' The world allureth and enticeth us from our duty, and by a secret witchery enchanteth our hearts, and so the love of God is lessened, and the care of salvation jostled out : 1 John ii. 15, ' Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world : if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him ; ' James iv. 4, ' Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God ? whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.' A man is not sincere till he taketli his affections from these things, and placeth them upon God and heavenly things,
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from the pleasures, profits, and honours of the world, that he may mind, choose, and seek after better things. The flesh must be renounced, lest we hearten our enem)^ : 1 Peter ii. 11, ' Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.' Whosoever is under the dominion of his lusts and fleshly desires, and doth gratify rather than mortify them, will soon mind the things of the flesh above the Spirit, and will soon prefer the satisfaction of his lusts above the will of God, and so cannot be sincere and upright with him. In our natural estate we were under the power of all those, as it is set forth in one place : Eph. ii. 2, 3, ' Wherein in times past ye walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, that worketh in the children of disobedience , among whom we had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.' The custom and corrupt course of the world, that was their rule ; the prince of the power of the air, that was their guide ; and the flesh, or the bent of corrupt nature, that was their principle. While we are in our corrupt estate, the devil doth powerfully rule us, and the example and common practice of the world encourage us, and corrupt nature within doth incline us to sin against the Lord. Well, then, these enemies must be renounced, that we may have another rule, another lord, and another principle. Another rule, which is the law of Grod ; another lord, Jesus Christ ; another principle, his Spirit dwelling in us.
2. Such as is answerable to the notion of regeneration ; for surely the Holy Ghost would speak intelligibly, and so as to beget a right apprehension of this thing in our minds, when he useth tliis term. Now of every perfect birth, and so of regeneration, there are two effects — life and likeness, of which by and by. Now suitably to these principles thus laid down, I shall frame a few questions to be seriously put to conscience,
[1.] Do you not think that you were sometimes unsanctified, and in a state of wrath and condemnation ? If not, then you are not of the offspring of Adam, nor of human race ; for all mankind have corrupted their way, and involved themselves in sin and misery : Ps, Ii. 5, ' Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me ; ' Rom. iii, 23, ' We all have sinned, and are come short of the glory of God ; ' Eph. ii, 3, ' Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the' children of wrath, even as others.' If not, then you need no saviour, no redeemer, are wholly unconcerned in redemption by Christ, which is a recovery out of our lost estate ; for ' the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost,' Luke xix, 10. Have we had a sense of our lost estate, wherein we were by nature? Usually it is with fear, shame, and grief: Acts ii. 37, 'They were pricked in their hearts.' Fear; for nature hath a quicker sense of danger than anything else. Then shame, because of our folly and filthiness ; and grief and sorrow, because of the unkindness of sin. A drunken man that layeth himself asleep on a rotten plank on a bridge over a deep and rapid water, and there walloweth in his vomit, is in great danger, but is not sensible of his danger till he be awakened ;