Whatever arraigns the goodness of God whether in providence or grace, must be derogatory to his sovereign dignity, and must prove man a rebel to his lawful authority. Do we see it? Alas we do. All hearts must plead guilty to a secret repining against God's providence, and a wish to possess the lot of another rather than our own.

This predominates in the worldly minded and selfish man every day, and too often in the breasts of God's people, oh! how should they pray against this as they love God, and would love their fellow creatures for his sake.

Thus far I have endeavoured to trace by a short view of the ten commandments, what it is to commit sin it remains to be observed what it is to be the servant of sin. "His servants (said Paul) ye "are whom ye obey." But obedience must be of the heart, hence we are said to have "obeyed from "the heart that form of doctrine delivered unto "us."-Hence willingness and determination prove man a sinner. A man may have a law in his members warring against the spirit of mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of siu in his meinbers, yet if like Paul he lament it, feel it an intolerable burthen, and the cause of wretchedness, and withal be led by faith to cry out with Paul, that his deliverance is in Christ Jesus, then he cannot be said to be the servant of sin, seeing he is an adopted child of God, chosen in Christ Jesus, and under the guidance of his good spirit. That man is the

servant of sin, who loves it and lives in it as his native element, rolling it under his tongue as a sweet morsel without seeing his wretchedness, and wishing to be freed from it.

With a few practical remarks I conclude.

The first and leading point of gratitude in every child of God is, deliverance from the Egyptian bondage of sin, of which the yoke of Pharoah, is a memorial and emblem for all generations. And what more grievous and intolerable than this, to be in. a state of the most dreadful enmity to God, which must bring down the most deserved and most excruciating torments of body and soul, on the head of the offender for ever.

And if God is pleased (as scripture proves he has been pleased) to save all whom he hath chosen in Christ Jesus, what a worthy subject of gratitude for those thus chosen whilst they see multitudes, not thus graciously looked upon, but doomed to perish in eternal woe. Oh the blessed sovereignty of God doing what he will with his own, displaying his mercy in the salvation of thousands, upholding his justice in the damnation of thousands, vindicating his honors, and glorifying himself, without being worthy of the smallest imputation in his dealings towards all. If then such is the gracious character of God need we wonder to hear him so strenuously command the sole worship of his own holy name, when to this supremest and most righteous selflove, is added the greatest good will towards his

creatures; and in return for this love of God what should we do, but love him continually, ardently, and without a rival? Can we refuse to spend one day in seven in his immediate service, when he permits us to spend the rest in our lawful callings, not so to spend them that he shall be forgotten, but that whilst our hands are engaged below, our hearts may be uplifted, and even our hands be working with an intent that God may be glorified thereby. If then we love God supremely, can we refuse to love his creatures our brethren in the flesh, and this in two relations. 1st. Our earthly parents: these are God's representatives, and his honored means of bringing us into his life, his means also of preserving us in infancy, childhood, youth, even up to man, his means of providing for all our wants, of instructing us in necessary knowledge, in the cultivation of reason, both in necessary temporal science and with a due dependance on his Spirit, at which every parent should aim, in the knowledge of his God as the father of all flesh, but more especially of all his chosen in Christ Jesus. 2nd. All mankind. Can we then destroy his image, made at first by a privilege given to no other creature in his likeness, and then constituted Lord of all below: can we debase it, by taking the members of Christ and making them the members of an harlot? Can we further deprive another of those blessings God has given him, and unjustly rob him of the same, or can we endeavour to blast his reputation, and rob

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him of the fairest jewel which a man possesses on this side the grave? Can we, lastly, envy our neighbour the enjoyment of his lawful comforts, bestowed gratuitously by God and earned by the sweat of his brow?

All these laws man has broken; yet we are not by that released from an obligation to fulfil the same: though not a covenant of works, they exist as a preceptive authority enforced by God on all his creatures, to be fulfilled by themselves or their surety, to whom as they are unable to fulfil them by themselves, they must by faith look up on pain of eternal death, and that surety is Christ the augel of the covenant, the righteousness and strength of his chosen people.

11th. John iii. 3. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.

The necessity of being born again, is loudly and repeatedly enforced in the Holy Scriptures; nor is it inconsistent with the nature of things: for if a man be dead whether as to his body, or as to his soul, as being in the latter case dead in trespasses and sins, he must experience a reviving power, operating upon him in his passive state, (and man is passive in the work of regeneration),. before he can perform the functions of a rational or spiritual man. Not that in either case, a man must a second time enter into his mother's womb, but that in both

cases, he must return from a state of non-action and almost non-entity, like that of a babe before it is born, before he can again act like a man. This our Lord intimates in the 5th verse, on which I enlarge not now, lest I anticipate my subject, but on which I shall speak, when the nature of regeneration comes to be considered.

The necessity of regeneration may be enforced from many topics, as first, from the happiness temporal and eternal, which man by sin has lost, and which it behoves him out of even self-love to endeavour to regain, by any proper means which are pût into his power: 2d. From the love of God which man ought to cherish, whom by his sin he hateth, which love is the very element of a pure, holy, and god-like spirit, the want of which, proves man in a state of enmity, and liable to the first and second death. 3d. From the love of God to us, whereby he loves a chosen remnant, and hath proposed to save them, through the sending of his Son. 4th. From its being the only method by which we can -enter the kingdom of God. Of these in their order.

1st. From the happiness temporal and eternal, which man by sin has lost, and which it behovés him, even out of self-love, to endeavour to regain, by any proper means which are put into his hands.

In God's dealings with Adam before the fall we hear only this language, "In the day that thou "eatest thereof, thou shall surely die." What