k Rom. ix. 6. 1 Gal. vi. 1'). '" Rom. ii. 28, 29.
sufficient : but he will say, ' Depart, I never knew you : My words were plain enough, if you had desired to understand them ; but you did not choose to let go your beloved lusts; you did not choose to give yourselves up to me in newness of heart and hfe; and therefore you would " beheve any he" rather than comply with my word : Depart, therefore, and reap for ever the fruit of your own delusions.'
And now let me once more appeal to you as men of wisdom and integrity, whether your own experience does not confirm every word that I have spoken ? Are not niany of you sensible, that, notwithstanding your baptism, you have never been so born again, as to be brought out of darkness into hght, and to be turned from the power of Satan unto God ? Are you not sensible at this very hour, that it is not the one labour of your souls to walk as Christ walked, and to obtain an entire renovation of your souls after the Divine image? In a word. Do you not find the current of your affections still running, agreeably to the bias of your corrupt nature, after the things of time and sense, instead of flowing, contrary to nature, upwards to high and heavenly things ? If so, the point is clear : you have an evidence within your- selves where the truth lies. Notwithstanding your baptism, you are yet unrenewed; you are yet in your sins ; and you are lost for ever, if you die in your present state. O cry mightily to God for the gift of his Holy Spirit, and for the influence of his converting grace ! Pray, as David did, " Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." Then shall you know by your own happy ex- perience, what it is to be born again ; and in due time shall you be partakers of the inheritance to which you are born, even " that inheritance, which is incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away."