The four last things viz. death, judgment, heaven, hell, practically considered and applied in…

1. This holy Change is expressed in Scripture by the new Birth. Our Saviour, with a solemn repeated Asseveration,¹ tells Nicodemus; Verily, verily, except a Man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Sin is natural to Man from his Conception and Birth, and infects with its Contagion all his Faculties. This is fomented and cherished by Temptations that easily encompass him. The Understanding is polluted with evil Principles, full of strong Prejudices, and lofty Imaginations against the supernatural Mysteries of Salvation. 'Tis full of Ignorance and Folly, and from hence either rejects them as incredible, or despises them as impertinent or unprofitable. The Will is depraved and perverse, full of unruly and unhallowed Affections. The Senses are luxurious and rebellious. In short, Man is so viciously and sensually inclined, so alienated from the Life of God, as if he had no diviner Part within him, that should aspire to a spiritual Blessedness, that should regulate and ⟨p. 359⟩control the excess of the inferior Appetites. This is the unhappy Character Satan impressed on him in his Fall, and without Renovation upon an infinite account he is uncapable of seeing God. This Renovation consists not in the change of his Substance, as the Water was miraculously turned into Wine at the Marriage in Cana of Galilee: the same Soul with its essential Powers, the same Body with its natural Senses, the Work of the Creator remains; but in the cleansing of his stained Nature, in the sanctifying his Faculties that are the Springs of his Actions, the whole Man is quickened into a Divine Life, and enabled to act in conformity to it. And of this the new Birth is a convenient Illustration. An active Principle of Holiness is planted in him, that springs up into visible Actions. The Apostle particularly expresses it in his earnest Prayer for the Thessalonians, The very God of Peace sanctify you wholly, and preserve your whole Spirit, Soul and Body blameless, till the coming of Jesus Christ. Every Faculty is renewed, and every Grace infused that constitutes the Divine Image. The Mind is renewed by Spiritual Light, to believe the Truth and ⟨p. 360⟩Goodness of unseen Things promised, the reality and dreadfulness of Things threatened in the Word of God. It sees the truest Beauty in Holiness, the highest Honour in Obedience to God, the greatest Equity and Excellence in his Service.