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within thee is a sinking weight; as a stone naturally goes downward, so the hard stony heart tends downward to the bottomless pit. Ye are hardened against reproof; though ye are told your danger, yet ye will not see it, ye will not believe it. But remember, that the conscience, its being seared with a hot iron, is a sad presage of everlasting burnings. (2.) Your unfruitfulness under the means of grace fits you for the axe of God's judgments, Matth. iii. 10. "Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire." The withered branch is fuel for the fire, John xv. 6. Tremble at this, ye despisers of the gospel; if ye be not thereby made meet for heaven, ye will be like the barren ground, bearing briers and thorns, nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned, Heb. vi. 8. (3.) The hellish disposition of mind, which discovers themselves in profanity of life, fit the guilty for the regions of horror. A profane life will have a miserable end, "They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God," Gal. v. 19, 20, 21. Think on this, ye prayerless persons, ye mockers of religion, ye cursers and swearers, ye unclean and unjust persons, who have not so much as moral honesty to keep you from lying, cheating, and stealing. What sort of a tree think ye it to be, upon which these fruits grow? Is it a tree of righteousness, which the Lord hath planted? Or is it not such an one as cumbers the ground, which God will pluck up for fuel to the fire of his wrath? (4.) Your being dead in sin makes you meet to be wrapt in flames of brimstone, as a winding sheet; and to be buried in the bottomless pit, as in a grave. Great was the cry in Egypt, when the first-born in each family was dead; but are there not many families, where all are dead together? Nay, many there are, who are twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Sometime, in their life, they have been roused by apprehensions of death, and consequences; but now they are so far on in their way to the land of darkness, that they hardly ever have the least glimmering of light from heaven. (5.) The darkness of your minds presageth eternal darkness. O the horrible ignorance some are plagued with; while others who have got some rays of morning light into their heads, are utterly void of spiritual light in their hearts! If ye knew your case, ye would cry out, Oh darkness! darkness! darkness

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making way for the blackness of darkness for ever! The face-covering is upon you already, as condemned persons; so near are ye to everlasting darkness. It is only Jesus Christ who can stop the execution, pull the napkin off the face of the condemned malefactor, and put a pardon in his hand, Isa. xxv. 7. " And he will destroy in this mountain, the face of the covering cast over all people," i. e. The face-covering cast over the condemned, as in Haman's case, Esther vii. 8. "As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face." Lastly, The chains of darkness ye are bound with in the prison of depraved state, Isa. Ixi. 1. fits you to be cast into the burning fiery furnace. Ah miserable men! Sometimes their consciences stir within them, and they begin to think of amending their ways. But, alas! they are in chains, they cannot do it. They are chained by the heart; their lusts cleave so fast to them, that they cannot, nay, they will not shake them off. Thus you see what affinity there is betwixt an unregenerate state, and the state of the damned, the state of absolute and irretrievable misery: Be convinced then, that ye must be born again; put a high value on the new birth, and eagerly desire it.

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The text tells you, that the word is the seed, whereof the new creature is formed; therefore, take heed to it and entertain it, for it is your life. Apply yourselves to the reading of the scripture. Ye that cannot read, cause others read it to you. Wait diligently on the preaching of the word, as by divine appointment, the special mean of conversion: "For it pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe," 1 Cor. i. 21. Wherefore cast not yourselves out of Christ's way; reject not the means of grace, lest ye be found to judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life. Attend carefully to the word preached. Hear every sermon, as if you were hearing for eternity; and take heed the fowls of the air pick not up this seed from you as it is sown. Give thyself wholly to it, 1 Tim. iv. 15. "Receive it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God," I Thess. ii. 15. And hear it with application, looking on it as a message sent from heaven, to you in particular, though not to you only, Rev. iii. 22. "He that hath an ear let him hear, what the Spirit saith unto the

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churches." Lay it up in your hearts, meditate upon it; and be not as the unclean beasts, that chew not the cud, but by earnest prayer beg the dew of heaven may fall on thy heart, that the seed may spring up there.

More particularly, (1.) Receive the testimony of the word of God, concerning the misery of an unregenerate state, the sinfulness thereof, and the absolute necessity of regeneration. (2.) Receive its testimony concerning God, what a holy and just one he is. (3.) Examine thy ways by it; namely, the thoughts of thy heart, the expressions of thy lips, and the tenor of thy life. Look back through the several periods of thy life, and see thy sins from the precepts of the word; and learn from its threatenings, what thou art liable to, on the account of these sins. (4.) View the corruption of thy nature, by the help of the same word of God; as a glass which represents our ugly face in a lively manner. Were these things deeply rooted in the heart, they might be the seed of that fear and sorrow, on account of thy soul's state, which are necessary to prepare and stir thee up to look after a Saviour. Fix your thoughts upon him offered to thee in the gospel, as fully suited to thy case; having, by his obe dience to the death, perfectly satisfied the justice of God, and brought in everlasting righteousness. This may prove the seed of humiliation, desire, hope, and faith; and put thee on to stretch out the withered hand unto him at his command.

Let these things sink deeply into your hearts, and improve them diligently. Remember, whatever ye be, ye must be born again; else it had been better for you ye had never been born. Wherefore, if any of you shall live and die in an unregenerate state, ye will be inexcusable, having been fairly warned of your hazard.

HEAD II.

THE MYSTICAL UNION BETWIXT CHRIST AND BELIEVERS.

JOHN XV. 5,

I am the Vine, ye are the Branches.

HAVING that shall inherit eternal life, in AVING spoken of the change, made by regenera

opposition to their natural state, the state of degeneracy; I proceed to speak of the change made upon them, in their union with the Lord Jesus Christ, in opposition to their natural relative state, the state of misery. The doctrine of the saints union with Christ is very plainly and fully insisted on, from the beginning of the 12th verse of this chapter; which is a part of our Lord's farewell sermon to his disciples. Sorrow had now filled their hearts; they were apt to say, Alas! what will become of us, when our Master is taken from our head? Who will then instruct us? Who will solve our doubts? How will we be supported under our difficulties and discouragements? How will we be able to live, without our wonted communications with him? Wherefore, our Lord Jesus Christ seasonably teaches them the mystery of their union with him, comparing himself to the vinestock, and them to the branches.

He compares, I say, (1.) himself to a vine-stock: I am the vine. He had been celebrating, with his disciples, the sacrament of his supper, that sign and seal of his people's union with himself; and had told them, he would drink no more of the fruit of the vine, till he should drink it new with them in his Father's kingdom: And now he shews himself to be the vine, from whence the wine of their consolation should come. The vine hath less beauty than many other trees, but is exceeding

fruitful; fitly representing the low condition our Lord was then in, yet bringing many sons to glory. But that which is chiefly aimed at, in his comparing himself to a vine, is to represent himself as the supporter and nourisher of his people, in whom they live, and bring forth fruit. (2.) He compares them to the branches: Ye are the branches of that vine. Ye are the branches, knit to, and growing on this stock; drawing all your life and sap from it. It is a beautiful comparison: As if he had said, I am as a vine; ye are as the branches of that vine. Now there are two sorts of branches, (1.) Natural branches, which at first spring out of the stock: These are the branches that are in the tree, and were never out of it. (2.) There are ingrafted branches, which are branches broken off from the tree that first gave their life; and put into another to grow upon it. Thus branches come to be on a tree, which originally were not on it. The branches mentioned in the text are of the latter sort; branches broken off, (as the word, in the original language, denotes,) namely, from the tree that first gave them life. None of the children of men are natural branches of the second Adam, viz. Jesus Christ, the true Vine; they are all the natural branches of the first Adam, that degenerate vine: But the elect are, all of them, sooner or later, broken off from the natural stock, and ingrafted into Christ, the true Vine.

DOCTRINE. They who are in the state of grace are ingrafted in, and united to, the Lord Jesus Christ. They are taken out of their natural stock, cut off from it; and are now ingrafted into Christ, as the new stock. In handling of this, I shall speak to the mystical union, (1.) More generally. (2.) More particularly.

A general View of the Mystical Union.

FIRST, In the general, for understanding the union be twixt the Lord Jesus Christ, and his elect, who believe in him, and on him;

1. It is a spiritual union. Man and wife, by their mar riage-union, become one flesh: Christ and true believers, by this union, become one spirit, 2 Cor vi. 17. As one soul or spiritactuates both the head and the members in the

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