N34404:438
Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses
Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses. / By Mr. Thomas Boston, late Minister of the Gospel at Etterick.
United States : s.n. Printed for the booksellers., M,DCC,LXXXVII. 1787
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Has thy conscience been enlightened and awakened, refusing all ease, but from the application of the blood of a Redeemer? Is thy memory sanctified, thy body consecrated to the service of God? And art thou now walking in newness of life? Thus ye may discover, whether, ye are born again or not.
Has thy conscience been enlightned and awakened, refusing all ease, but from the application of the blood of a Redeemer? Is thy memory sanctified, thy body consecrated to the service of God? And art thou now walking in newness of life? Thus ye may discover, whether, ye are born again or not.
But, for your further help in this matter, I will discourse a little of another sign of regeneration, namely, The love of the brethren; an evidence whereby the weakest and most timorous saints have often had comfort, when they could have little or no consolation from other marks proposed to them. This the Apostle lays down, 1 John iii. 14. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. It is not to be thought, that the Apostle, by the brethren in this place, means brethren by a common relation to the first Adam, but to the second Adam, Christ Jesus: because, however true it is, that universal benevolence, a good-will to the whole race of mankind, takes place in the renewed soul, as being a lively lineament of the divine image; yet the whole context speaks of those that are the sons of God, ver. 1, 2. children of God, ver. 10. born of God, ver. 9. distinguishing betwixt the children of God, and the children of the devil, ver. 10. betwixt these that are of the devil, ver. 8, 12. and these that are of God, ver. 10. And the text itself comes in as a reason why we should not marvel that the world hates the brethren, the children of God, ver. 13. How can we marvel at it, seeing the love of the brethren is an evidence of one's having passed from death to life? And therefore it were absurd to look for that love amongst the men of the world, when are dead in trespasses and sin. They cannot love the brethren: no marvel then that they hate them. Wherefore it is plain, that by brethren here, are meant brethren by regeneration.