! S4 The Nalitre o/ Rcgenetation. State I!!, mother, whom God will not own to be his children, Cant. i. 6. ll1....v mother'! children.. ( i. e. falfe brethren) •v.:ere angry tz.vith me, All that are baptized are not born again. Simon was baptized, yet fHll in the gall ofbitter11eji, and in the bond of iniqui.ty, Atts viii. 13, 23· Where ChriHi– anity is the religion of the country, many wil! be called by the name of Chriil, who have no more of him but tb e · name : and no wonder, feeing the devil had his goats a– mong Cht ifl's fheep, in thefe places where but few pro• , feifed the Chriftian religion, 1 John ii. 19. The;• 'Wt:nt out front ttJ, but they were mt o.f..uJ. {2.) Good education is not regeneration. I'd ucation may ch;;.in up mens Jufis, bu~ cannot chtmge!their hearts. A wolf is fhll a ravenous beaH·, though it be in chains. Joajh was~ ·:ry devout during th~;.; life of his good tutor Jehoiada; but afterwards he quickly !hewed wha-t fpirit he was of, by his fudden apofiafy . 2 Cbron. xxiv. 2, 17, 18. Good example is of mighty in– fluence to change the · outward man : but that change often goes oft~ when one changes his company; of yvhid& • the Wor.ld affords many fad inJtances. ( 3•) A turning from open profanity, to. civility ahd fobriety, falls ~hort of this fa ving -change. Some are, 'for a while; very !oofe, efpeci• a11y in their younger years: but at length they refo-rm, and l~ave their profane courfes. Here is a change, yet but fuch an one; as may·· be found in men utterly void of the grace of God, ·and whofe righteonfnefs is fo far from exceeding, that it dorh not come up to the righteou!oefs of the Scti/leJ and Phari(eeJ. (4.) One may engage in all' the oi.lt .vard duties of religion, and yet not be horo again: .Tho' lead be c;dt into vatious fhapes, it remains l1il1 but a' bafe metal. 1\Jen may efcape the pollutiom of the rwcrld; , and yet be but dogs and f wine, 2 Pet. ii. 20, 2 2. All •,he external a8:s of religion are within the compafs of natural'' abili ti es. Yea, hypo~rit(;S may have the counterfeit of all' the graces of the Spirit : for we read of lrttt' holinefi, Eph. iv . 2 4. and faith unfeigned, J Tim·. i. 5. which . . fuews us, that there is a counterfeit holinefs, and· a f.:ig" ned faith. ( 5.) Meo may advance to a grea~ deal of fhiet– nefs in their own way of religion, and yet be {hangers to the new birth, AciJxxvi . 5· Afttrthe mofljlrifhjljdl of our religion, ]liveda P harifte. Nature has its own. un• . · facctdiedr
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