THE NATURE AND DISTINGUISHING MARKS OF TRUE CONVERSION.

[Preached at Nantwich, December 8th, 1782.]

“Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew, xviii. 3.

Our blessed Saviour uttered these words upon the following memorable occasion:—The disciples came unto Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” verse 1. Upon comparing this with the parallel place in Mark, ix. 34, it appears, that “they had been disputing among themselves, who should be the greatest.” A dispute this, extremely unprofitable, and highly unbecoming the disciples of that meek and lowly Jesus, who, though he thought it no robbery to be equal with God, yet took upon him the form of a servant, and came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. Phil. ii. 6, 7. Mat. xx. 28. But see how deeply the love of power, and a fondness for pre-eminence, are rooted in human nature! One would have thought, that with such an illustrious example of humility and condescension before their eyes as their divine Master, they should have been the last men in the world to commence a contest about greatness; especially if they at all reflected, that the uniform obscurity of their origin and education placed them all upon a level. But when we behold pride creeping into the little college of our Lord’s own disciples, and see a company of illiterate fishermen urging a controversy about superiority in office, we may from hence infer, that “to be as gods,” Gen. iii. 5, is a desire as predominant in the nature of man as it proved fatal to our first parents; that every man is born a Diotrephes,—would have the pre-eminence in all things; and that the same arrogant spirit, which lifts up a Roman pontiff with pride and blasphemy, is congenial to human nature; and that there is that in every man’s heart, which would incline him to be a little pope in pre-eminence, how low soever his pretensions may be, or contracted his sphere of action.What led to the dispute among the disciples, was, probably, the mistaken notion they had conceived respecting the nature of the Messiah’s kingdom. Fancying that it was to be a secular establishment, and having their heads full of ideas of their own future greatness, it should seem that they anticipated the period of their exaltation; and, concluding, that they should be raised to the highest posts of civil and ecclesiastical preferment, it remained only for them to determine, who among them should be chief. For genuine pride can never brook a superior; and is never perfectly gratified, until every competitor is vanquished, and its own sovereign mandates acquire a sanction from a pre-eminence of office and power. The source this, of all the fierce contentions, that have often for centuries rent the church, and are at this day ravaging the world. The unsanctified disputes of ecclesiastical rulers, or the bloody contests among the tyrannical governors of states and empires, when narrowly examined, appear to originate, for the most part, in this question, “Who shall be greatest?”

In order to strike at the root of this imperious disposition in his disciples, their wise Master gave such an answer to their question, as would best tend to mortify their vanity, and disappoint their affectation of false greatness. To give an emphasis to his observations on this important question, he took a child, and placed him in the midst of them, and then pronounced the great and interesting truth of the text. As if our Lord should say, “Imagine not that my kingdom, as to its origin and establishment, is of this world. It is entirely spiritual; is not to be founded on secular dominion, or to be conducted agreeably to the principles and temper of earthly potentates. And whereas, among men, human greatness is estimated by worldly exaltation; and they are generally deemed the chief, who rise to the highest post of honor, though avarice, pride, and ambition, are the mischievous tempers that lead to their exaltation, and are fed by the enjoyment of it; yet it shall not be so in the kingdom which I am about to establish in the hearts of the children of men. There, ambition is to have for its object, not earth, but heaven; not temporal, but eternal concerns: and the laws by which the subjects of that kingdom are to be governed, will require, not the temper of the proud and the ambitious, that is so successful in the schemes of the men of the world, but the disposition of a child, humble, teachable, dead to the world, and dependant upon me for every provision. And except ye be inwardly changed, and become transformed into this amiable and heavenly characteristic of the subjects of my kingdom, ye cannot be partakers of my glory.”

From the words, thus opened, I shall take occasion to consider; First, The nature of conversion; Secondly, The temper that distinguishes this great change; Thirdly, I shall endeavour to shew, how much every individual among us is concerned in the subject, since our Lord declares, that, without conversion, we shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

I. As to the nature of conversion, it essentially consists in an inward and universal change of heart, wrought by the gracious operation of the Spirit of God; by which new principles are established in the mind, new inclinations are imparted, and new objects pursued. The word conversion signifies the being turned away from an object of former attachment, in order to contemplate and enjoy one, that had been previously disregarded and despised. In the work, which this word is adapted to describe, there occurs this twofold change. The heart is turned away from the love of sin, the love of self, and the love of the world, and becomes captivated with the love of God, and turns to him as its chief good. Sin loses its dominion, the world appears in its true colors, stript of all that false beauty, in which a depraved heart is apt to paint it. Pleasure, that fatal enchantress, can allure no longer. She spreads all her nets, and gilds all her baits, in vain. The converted sinner perceives no melody in her syren voice, and feels no attraction from all her studied blandishments. Conversion removes the scales from his eyes, and rends the veil from his heart, that prevented him from seeing through the false disguise that covered all her lying vanities. And he turns away with disgust and disappointment from that cup, of which he once drank so freely. He nauseates what he once imbibed so eagerly; and in that draught, from which he once hoped to derive such happiness, he now sees poison and death concealed. The love of God having vanquished the love of the world in his heart, he now heartily coincides with that wise man, whose experience taught him, that “all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” Eccles. i. 14.

As it is a very common case for one, who has been a profligate, to commence Pharisee, or to turn from sin to self, which is but a refined species of wickedness; it is necessary to observe, that in the great change of which the Holy Spirit is the author, it is the principal office of that divine Agent, to convince of sin, and to drive the sinner from the false refuge of self-dependance, to the glorious righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without this, a sinner would take down one idol only to set up a worse in its stead. And, as there is none so injurious to the honor of the Redeemer, or so deeply prejudicial to a sinner’s immortal interests, as self-righteousness; this idol, as the leader of all the rest, must be dethroned, that Christ might have in all things the pre-eminence. “In him shall all the seed of Israel be justified.” Isa. xlv. 25. When a man, therefore, is truly converted, the Holy Spirit never teaches him to turn in upon himself, and contemplate with proud self-complacency his own worthiness, or to admire his own performances; while, like the Pharisee in the gospel, he looks down with conscious superiority upon a poor publican at the footstool of mercy. No. With Job, he abhors himself, and repents as in dust and ashes. Job, xiii. 6. With Isaiah, he cries, “Woe is me! for I am undone.” Isa. vi. 5. And, with St. Paul, he desires to “be found in Christ, not having on his own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness of God by faith.” Phil. iii. 9. So that, as naturalists say, it is the peculiarity of the heliotrope or sun-flower to expand its beauties to the rays of the sun, and always to keep its face turned towards that bright luminary; in like manner, the converted soul spontaneously turns to the Sun of Righteousness, by the light of whose countenance it is cheered and attracted, and to whose merits it is indebted for all its prospects in time and eternity. The love of Jesus is the load-stone that draws, and his perfect righteousness the object which the happy sinner contemplates with delight and admiration. To that exhaustless spring of all the hopes and comforts of God’s people he turns, and from him he looks for wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. 1 Cor. i. 30.

Where conversion is genuine, it may be discovered by the universality of its influence, and the depth of its operation. It begins at the heart, and extends its salutary effects to all the sublime faculties of the mind, and the whole tenor of the outward conversation. The understanding is renewed in knowledge. Col. iii. 10. The contrariety of the will is broken, and is changed into a passive acquiescence in the sovereign will of God. “The carnal mind, which is enmity against God,” Rom. viii. 7, is subdued by the superior influence of divine grace. All offences at the gospel-plan of salvation cease; for, when the veil of unbelief that covers the heart is rent, it then “turns to the Lord.” 2 Cor. iii. 15. The languid affections are quickened, and are set on things above. Col. iii. 1. The desires are turned into a right channel, and directed to proper objects. The eye of the understanding being illuminated to “behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord Jesus,” 2 Cor. iii. 18; the heart, enraptured with a view of his matchless excellency, cries out, “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth, that I desire besides thee.” Psal. lxxiii. 25. The desire of the soul is to him, and to the remembrance of his great name and glorious salvation. Isa. xxvi. 8. The thoughts, that formerly wandered upon subjects of the most trivial, or the most pernicious nature, are now turned to the interesting concerns of eternity, and are often employed in meditating upon that sweetest, most sublime, and most copious of all topics, the stupendous love of God manifested in the unspeakable gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. The strain of conversation becomes very materially altered, from froth and levity, or, what is worse, from perhaps indecency and gross profaneness, to seriousness, purity, and spirituality. The aversion to engage in religious converse ceases; and no company appears so honorable or so delightful, as that which is composed of persons, who love to talk of the great things that belong to their peace. Prayer is deemed an exalted privilege, as well as a duty; and praise is considered as the employ of heaven. The hands are lifted up, and the knee is bent in supplication before the divine throne; and the tongue, which is the glory of man, awakes to vindicate the honor of truth, to recommend the Friend of sinners, or to publish the preciousness of his salvation. The feet, turned away from crooked and perverse ways, are swift to bear the converted sinner to the house of God; where, as he sits rejoicing in the name of Jesus, and happy in the sound of that blessed gospel, that charms his ear, and captivates his heart, he joins issue with the sweet Psalmist of Israel, and says, “How amiable are thy dwellings, thou Lord of Hosts! One day in thy courts is better than a thousand.” Psal. lxxxiv. l, 10.

It has been suggested in the beginning of this head of the discourse, that to turn the heart of a sinner is the work of God. And most certainly, whatever conversion is, the scriptures authorize us to believe, that it is not the work of man; and indeed cannot be, since the extreme depravity and helplessness of his nature render him altogether insufficient to any good word or work. If conversion consisted in nothing more than the breaking off some outwardly vicious courses, or the mere adopting a line of regular attendance on the external forms of devotion; if it implied no more than decency of manners, and an exemption from gross indulgencies, or the relinquishing of former excesses; in those cases, perhaps, man might exert his power with considerable success, and, in part at least, claim the honor of being instrumental to his own salvation. But as conversion hath, for its subject, the immortal soul, with all its strong propensities, intemperate desires, irregular passions, impetuous appetites, and depraved principles; as it comprehends a work that gets at the very root of sin, and cleanses the fountain of corruption, that renovates the very constituent faculties of the human mind, and forms a radical cure in the very centre and seat of the malady; it is evident, that the change necessary to produce this effect must be the result of a divine agency; or, in plainer terms, that He who made the heart, and He alone, can change it. A truth this, confirmed by the express authority of the word of God. “Without me,” says Christ, “ye can do nothing.” John, xv. 5. And he says again, “No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me, draw him.” John, vi. 44. In that solemn prayer uttered by the church in her distress, and recorded in the lamentations of Jeremiah, she acknowledges the same truth, when she cries, “Turn THOU us unto thee O Lord, and we shall be turned.” Lam. v. 21. And this is the language of Ephraim bemoaning himself in Jer. xxxi. 18. Where, after having bewailed the refractoriness of his heart, that made him feel, under the discipline of Jehovah’s rod, like “a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke,” he cries out, “Turn THOU me and I shall be turned.” And when the great change was effected, in retrospect, as before in prospect, he attributes the accomplishment of it to the power of God, saying, “Surely, after that I WAS TURNED, I repented,” &c. verse 19. And, indeed, the passive form of the words of the text fully implies the truth I am contending for, especially when compared with similar language in Acts, iii. 19. Psal. li. 13. As for those passages of scripture, which seem to make the power of turning to be the sinner’s sole act, or to rest in the efforts of the ministers of the gospel, as Ezek. xiv. 6. and Mal. iv. 6. Acts, xxvi. 18. they are to be interpreted, in consistency with the general maxim already laid down, as only declarative in one case, of the instrumentality, which divine wisdom useth in the accomplishment of its purposes; and, in the other, of the derived influence, which the sinner himself is enabled to exert, but by a power, originally not his own. Thus, ministers are said to turn others from darkness to light, and sinners to turn themselves, only in consequence of the blessing and power of God, which enable them to do the one and the other respectively. For, when the great Apostle of the Gentiles reviewed the success of his ministrations, or when he contemplated the evidences of his conversion, he resolves both into the agency and sovereignty of divine grace, saying, “Not I, but the grace of God which was with me.—By the grace of God I am what I am.” 1 Cor. xv. 10.

I cannot prevail upon myself to dismiss this branch of the subject, without observing further, in confirmation of what hath been already urged, that the change effected in the conversion of a sinner, is compared, in scripture, to some of those operations in nature, to accomplish which nothing short of an Almighty agency is requisite. It is, for instance, called “a new creation,” 2 Cor. v. 17;—a new birth, John, iii. 3;—a resurrection from the dead, Col. iii. 1;—a quickening from a death in trespasses and sins, Ephes. ii. 1;—the communication of light to the soul, by the same powerful voice that said in the beginning, “Let there be light.” 2 Cor. iv. 6;—a translation from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. Col. i. 13. And the renovation which it produceth, is said to make believers “the habitation of God by his spirit,” Ephes. ii. 22;—“his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,” Ephes. ii. 10;—branches, taken from a barren stock, and engrafted into the “true vine” by the operation of the Spirit, John, xv. 5;—sons of God by adoption, Gal. iv. 6;—and joint-heirs with Christ to an everlasting inheritance, purchased at the price of his blood.

Now, from such bold and striking metaphors, as make the power that created the universe, that arranged the elements when in a state of chaos, that formed the light, and that raised the dead, to be representative of that influence exerted in conversion, what are we to infer? but that, as an omnipotent agency is displayed in the works of nature, it is equally requisite in the operations of grace; and, in fact, that none but He who made the world, can convert a sinner. A truth this, to which the experience of every true believer bears an additional testimony. Reviewing himself as a brand plucked from the burnings, he cannot but stand astonished at the mighty power of that grace, which saved him from eternal perdition, when he was just upon its very brink. “How infinitely indebted,” he will often say, “do I consider myself to that gracious Saviour, whose mercy vanquished such a rebel! and whose blood was sufficient to expiate the guilt of such deep-dyed transgressions! When I reflect, with what impetuosity I was running in the road to ruin; with what obduracy of heart I defied Omnipotence, while I was trampling his law under my feet, and lived regardless either of his threatenings or his promises; what a contumacious resistance I made to all the overtures of divine mercy in the gospel, and with what blindness, unbelief, and hardness of heart, I quarrelled with the way of salvation through a crucified Saviour; in what a false security I was wrapt up, even when my headstrong corruptions were precipitating me to destruction; and how determined I was never to relinquish the fond but fatal prepossessions that only fed the pride of my heart, and kept it in a state of servile conformity to a world lying in wickedness;—when I revolve all these considerations in my mind, I rejoice with trembling, to think, how narrowly I escaped; and am constrained to attribute all to the sovereign and unsought interposition of divine grace. Surely nothing but a supernatural power could have softened a heart so hard as mine; and none but God himself could have saved a sinner so rebellious. Therefore, while life, and breath, and being, last, to Him I will offer up the glowing effusions of love and gratitude, and record through eternity what he hath done for my soul.”A work of this nature, in which the hand of God is so conspicuous, must be productive of the most salutary effects to the highly favored sinner, who is the subject of it. For, “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (?’ ?a??? ?t?s?? a new creation): old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.” 2 Cor. v. 17. The renovation, intimated in this passage, having introduced new light into the understanding, and new desires into the heart and affections, it must consequently have a proportionable effect upon the temper; not wholly to eradicate the constitutional peculiarity of it, but to sanctify, and render it subservient to the glory of God and the good of society. Nor does this great change go merely to correct, regulate, and sanctify the natural temper, whatever in different constitutions it may happen to be, but it likewise establishes in the heart tempers, to which it was before an utter stranger; which I now proceed to consider under the second head; and that is,

II. The distinguishing mark of true conversion, that, of “becoming as little children.”

Although, in numerous instances, the work of conversion is attended with circumstances so striking as not only to obviate all doubt respecting the reality of it, but also to enable many to fix, with the utmost precision, the date of its origin, and to recollect perfectly the time and manner in which the light of conviction first dawned; yet, as in others, the work has been wrought at an early period of life, has been less perceptible in its first impressions, and has been carried on by degrees slow and progressive, like “seed cast into the ground, which springeth and groweth up, a man knoweth not how;” Mark, iv. 27. I prefer the consideration of what is essential to conversion, and common to all the subjects of it, to what is peculiar to some, and comparatively of little consequence. For the point of real moment with every sinner is, not so much to inquire how, when, and by what instrument he was converted, as to ascertain, that the work has really been wrought. And, indeed, as it is extremely possible for a man, busy in the former inquiry, and partial in his inferences respecting the safety of his state, to rest the great affair on circumstances rather uncertain in their nature, and at no time decisive, while he fatally overlooks what is essential to the work itself; in order to set us right in a matter of such vast concern, the text, and the whole tenor of sacred scripture, lead us to examine, whether we are “become as little children;” because this is the safest and most certain criterion of our being the children of God: and thus, in particular, St. Peter argues with the professors of Christianity in his day, saying, “If these things, (faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, charity,) be in you, and abound, they make you, that ye shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things, is blind, and cannot see afar off.” 2 Pet. i. 8, 9.

When our Lord makes the principal characteristic of true conversion to consist in a temper resembling that of little children, the comparison is not designed to consider them, as they are by nature, but as they happen to be by constitution, by the texture of their tender frame, and their accidental inability to exercise those faculties of the mind, or those organs of the body, which, when age and strength co-operate, man very soon uses as instruments of unrighteousness. It is in this light, and this alone, that we can interpret the force of the resemblance in the text, consistently either with scripture or matter of fact. The former assures us, that “man is born as the wild ass’s colt.” Job, xi. 12. And experience soon demonstrates the truth of this striking comparison, when that “folly which is bound up in the heart of a child,” Prov. xxii. 15, shooteth forth into those branches of iniquity, and fruits of unrighteousness, which, like the flower in the seed, or the fruit wrapt up in the germ, only wanted time and strength to bring them to maturity. Yet, as long as corruption is checked by infantile weakness, and nature has not power, in that first stage of the life of man, to put forth its innate propensities, infants and little children become eventual teachers to adults; and many with hoary heads need not be ashamed to go and learn wisdom from the weakest and youngest of their own species; especially if they attend to the several points of view, in which scripture places little children, as objects worthy of our imitation.

1. In the first place, as they are no sooner ushered into life, than they cry for that nutriment, which the God of nature hath so wisely adapted to their weak condition; in like manner, must we evidence the reality of our regeneration, by an insatiate thirst for that spring of salvation opened in the scriptures of truth. Thus the Apostle Peter says, “As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.” 1 Pet. ii. 2. And St. Paul uses the same idea, when writing to the Corinthian Church, he says, “I have fed you with milk and not with strong meat.” 1 Cor. ii. 2. See also Heb. v. 13, 14. As the new-born babe, by instinct of nature, cries for the breast, so the new-born soul first evidences its introduction into divine life, by its love to the scriptures. For this spiritual food, other things are thrown aside; and what constituted the soul’s repast, when dead in sin, is, after its regeneration, esteemed as chaff, or dreaded even as poison. The midnight lamp, that had been often exhausted in the perusal of publications of the most frothy or the most pernicious tendency, is now extinguished, that the soul might indulge in sweet meditation on the word of God. In the streams, which flow from this fountain, there are no dregs of latent error or poison of lurking impurity. And, while they communicate life and health by their salubrious influence, they convey also the most refined enjoyment to the renewed mind. The sacred pages, like the fragrant name, which gives them all their preciousness, are as “ointment poured forth.” Solomon’s Song, i. 3. They emit an odor that regales the senses and ravishes the heart. The promises are those “breasts of consolation,” from whence the new-born soul derives all its nourishment; and while it “hears them, reads, marks, learns, and inwardly digests them,” [259] its life is fed, and its happiness enlarged. This made the Royal Psalmist say, “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth.” Psal. cxix. 103. So that they who can delight more in frothy novels, and the pernicious productions of the stage, than in a perusal of the word of God; or who can make any other book whatever take the lead of the Bible, have no more pretensions to refinement of taste, than they have to true religion. And such persons need not go far to find out whether they be converted or not; their disrelish to the scriptures is as decisive a mark against them as possible. And till their vitious taste is refined, and their depraved nature renewed, they cannot resemble little children, according to the idea suggested in the text, and must, therefore, be far from the kingdom of heaven.

2. Another sense, in which we should become as little children, is in the imitation of their humility. This is the temper more immediately recommended in the context, because it is the direct reverse of that which led the disciples to dispute about pre-eminence, and to ask their Lord an unimportant and vain question. Whatever seeds of pride lurk in the nature of infants, yet such is their imbecility of constitution, that, for want of power to exert themselves, they are rather patterns of humility; but more especially, if such little children as our Lord referred to, are partakers of the grace of God. Pride shews itself in forms of various nature. Elation of heart, when the sun of worldly prosperity shines, and proportionable depression and pusillanimity, when the scene shifts to the gloom of adversity—envy at another man’s good fortune, and repining at our own—impatience of reproof, and a quick and acrimonious resentment of injuries—an overweening desire to grasp at worldly things, only to feed and pamper a worldly mind—a violent promptitude to boast of personal endowments, to the depreciating of others, and the aggrandizing of Self, that darling idol of an unhumbled heart—are all pride, that hydra with many heads, shewing itself in these and various other ways impossible to be enumerated. But, to be humble, look at the infant lulled to rest in his mother’s arms, or the child taken up with the objects of his puerile amusement, dead to the broils of the contentious, and to all the ambitious pursuits of the proud: the former, anxious only for that nutriment, which, when received, operates as a pleasing opiate to its senses; the latter extending his solicitude and ambition only to some little matter, which it costs no care or expense to possess, leaving sceptres, titles, riches, and honors, to those who exert all their subtlety and all their pride to procure them. To be thus easy, like a little child, about worldly pre-eminence, and to be solicitous only, or primarily, about the honor that cometh from God, is the privilege of a Christian, and a mark of conversion. And why should infatuated mortals indulge a contrary temper, when, “before honor is humility;” but especially when it is considered that the loftiest head must be laid low in the grave, and that “dust to dust” will conclude the noblest song of earth. If you disdain to learn humility from a little child, yet take as your pattern that illustrious example of condescension, the holy child Jesus, who for us men and for our salvation exchanged the glory of the heaven of heavens for a manger and a cross.

3. We must become teachable as little children. This amiable disposition is one principal branch of true humility, and essentially consists in submitting our reason to the authority of revelation. A point this, not so easy to be accomplished, when we reflect on the pride of the human heart, and see multitudes propagating such tenets, as if they meant to teach the scriptures, and not that the scriptures should teach them. This more especially happens, when the pride of reason and the parade of learning unite their influence to puff men up with a fond conceit of the superiority of their wisdom. But how mortifying to the vanity of these sons of science to hear the following declaration from the mouth of the Son of God! “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” Mat. xi. 25. Were a man possessed of all the learning of Greece and Rome, he may, notwithstanding, be a fool in God’s account; and, until he is so, in his own estimation, his profound wisdom is nothing but foolishness, and, instead of aiding him in the investigation of truth, often proves a dreadful bar in his way. “If any man among you seem to be wise in this world,” says St. Paul, “let him become a fool, that he may be wise.” 1 Cor. iii. 18. And the reason which the apostle urges for this extraordinary requisition, is, that “the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God.” Verse 19. Conceive human nature at the very summit of secular wisdom, and you see it elevated to the very pinnacle of pride; from whence men find it very difficult to descend into the valley of self-abasement. And yet descend they must, if ever they would know themselves or Christ Jesus the Lord; and instead of going to the throne of divine grace with philosophic pride and conscious wisdom, they must approach it as children, and as fools.The language of this humble temper is, “That which I see not, teach thou me.” Job, xxxiv. 32.—“Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” Psal. cxix. 18. And he who has been enabled to adopt it, like a child under tutors and governors, submitting to their instruction, and acquiescing in their discipline, sits at the feet of Jesus, to learn the mysteries of his kingdom, and receive the fulfilment of that promise, “It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God.” John, vi. 45.

4. As true religion is the most efficacious bond of society, by inspiring such tempers as promote benevolence and peace among men, St. Paul recommends the following maxim to the church of Corinth, “In malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.” 1 Cor. xiv. 20. Malice is a deeply-rooted ill-will, accompanied with rancorous hatred, and a thirst of revenge; a temper that rages in the hearts of natural men, but cannot be harboured or indulged in a regenerate breast. Here again we are to learn of little children. If a momentary passion ruffles their temper, or awakens their feeble resentment; yet how soon is the cause of their indignation forgot! and in how few instances does the sun ever go down upon their wrath! In the bounds which nature hath fixed to their short-lived anger, they become examples highly worthy our imitation, that we should be “slow to wrath;” James, i. 19; “be angry and sin not;” Ephes. iv. 26; and that we should “put on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another; if any man have a quarrel against any; even as Christ forgave us, so also should we.” Col. iii. 12, 13. But, where the contrary tempers of studied revenge and inveterate malice predominate, and are secretly indulged, they are as certain evidences of the reigning dominion of sin, and of an unconverted state of heart, as habitual drunkenness and debauchery.

5. As children look up to their parents for their entire provision; are indebted to them, under God, for their being; and receive their education and their fortune from their hands; so, to demonstrate our conversion, we must live a life of dependance upon the Supreme Being for every thing contributory to our comfort here, and our salvation hereafter. That we all live, move, and have our being in God, is a truth admitted by all. But yet, multitudes who subscribe to the doctrine, nevertheless “live as without God (??e?? atheists) in the world;” possessing atheistical hearts with orthodox heads; “professing that they know God; but in works denying him, being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate;” Tit. i. 16; never heartily imploring his blessing upon the bounties of his providence, or thanking him for the continuance of favors, which, by their ingratitude, they are daily forfeiting, together with the lives that his mercy so eminently spares. To instil the opposite temper, of dependance, gratitude, and confidence, our Lord sends us not only to little children, but also to the fowls of the air, and the flowers of the field; that, from the growth of a lily, or the provision made by the great Father of the universe, for the young ravens that call upon him, we may learn to live upon his all-beneficent hand; to acknowledge his parental care; and to trust that all-surrounding and all-protecting Providence, which makes the hairs of our head, as well as the whole world itself, the objects of his preserving and merciful superintendence.

But how much more should we learn to look up to the great Author of redemption for our spiritual provision! Whatever is necessary to the delight, the refreshment, the guidance, the establishment, the salvation of sinners, is all laid up in the rich fulness of the Son of God. If they want spiritual repast, he is the “bread of life.” If they want consolation, he is the fountain of living waters, and the God of all comfort. If they want wisdom, all the treasures of it centre in him, and he is Wonderful, Counsellor. If they want a righteousness to justify before the great Jehovah, his name is The Lord our Righteousness. Jer. xxiii. 6. If they want a friend to speak for them to God, to plead their cause, and render their services acceptable, he is their Advocate with the Father; and, for the unchangeableness of his affection, hath in all ages proved himself a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. If they want one, whose wisdom and power are sufficient to baffle all the stratagems of hell, and to vanquish the most formidable enemies, Jesus is the Captain of salvation, and his strength is the arm of the Lord God omnipotent. If they want a foundation, whose stability is adequate to the immense weight that rests upon it, Lo! Jesus is a sure foundation and the rock of ages. Upon the covenant and promises sealed with his blood they may securely rest their peace and happiness, all their vast interests for time and eternity.

That the mind may be formed into a susceptibility of these great truths, the temper of a little child must first be implanted in it. For, while its natural pride and enmity remain, there is nothing to which a sinner is so averse, as to that of renouncing self, and being dependant for his whole salvation upon the Lord Jesus Christ. From hence arose the unwillingness of the Jews to “submit themselves unto the righteousness of God;” Rom. x. 3; and from the same bitter root sprung self-righteous Saul’s “confidence in the flesh.” Phil. iii. 4. But, as soon as the power of God brought that once-elated Pharisee to the dust, and effectually broke his heart, he who thought that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus, is made to cry out to that very person, whom he once blasphemed, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” From that moment, the lofty self-justiciary became a little child, and ever after gloried only in the cross. He learned to “count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord;” Phil. iii. 8; esteemed himself nothing, and Jesus all; and “the life which he lived in the flesh, was by the faith of the Son of God.” Gal. ii. 20. The idol of self-righteousness in his heart was pulled down, that Christ, and Christ alone, might ever after possess, in all things, the pre-eminence; as he must, in ours also, if ever we would enjoy a well-grounded hope of entering the kingdom of heaven. Which leads me to consider,

III. How much every individual is concerned in the subject, since our Lord declares, that, without conversion, in the scriptural light in which it has been represented, none can be partaker of his glory.

This awful declaration rests upon the veracity and power of God, and upon the nature of that work of the Spirit, “which makes us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” Col. i. 12.

1. Unconverted sinners can not enter the kingdom of heaven, because the God of truth hath declared they shall not. His word is more than ten thousand barriers in the way. And his veracity is so engaged to defend and fulfil every threatening, as well as every promise, that sinners might as well expect that God should change his nature, as change his word. Therefore if he hath said “the wicked shall be cast into hell;” Psal. ix. 17;—“he that believeth not shall be damned;” Mark, xvi. 16;—and that, “neither fornicators, nor isolators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God;” 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10; we may be fully persuaded, that Jehovah will as certainly fulfil these most tremendous threatenings, as if we saw the accomplishment of them, this instant, with our eyes. Heaven and earth shall pass away; but one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the scriptures, until all be fulfilled. If Satan suggest “you shall not surely die,” remember “he was a liar from the beginning;” and that the fatal consequence of crediting that original falsity, was a confirmation of this unalterable truth, “that the wages of sin is death,” and that “what a man soweth that shall he also reap.”

2. When God makes a promise or denounceth a threatening, his power as well as his faithfulness is exerted equally to the accomplishment of the one and the other. No intervention of second causes shall stay his hand, or obstruct, or even retard his designs; because himself the great First Cause makes them all subservient to his sovereign will. So that he must fulfil every promise to his people, because his ability is equal to his veracity, and both spring from his eternal willingness to do so. And he will execute every denunciation of his wrath, because he can. Could the potsherds of the earth contend successfully with their Maker, they might then entertain some distant hope at least of evading his threatenings, and eluding his wrath: but, before they can expect to accomplish either, they must first cope with Omnipotence, and take heaven itself by storm: for, sooner shall the great Jehovah be dethroned, and his dominion in the heavens be subverted, than sinners unconverted be suffered to dwell there. The hand of God himself shall shut the gates of the celestial city against them; and all the power of the Lord God Almighty shall be exerted, together with his truth and justice, to keep them out, for ever. In vain shall the sons of Belial attempt to enter; in vain shall they knock, and importunately cry, saying, “Open unto us.” Their exclusion will be announced and confirmed by those cutting words of the Judge, “Depart from me, for I know you not.”

3. But the admission of unchanged sinners to the kingdom of God is an utter impossibility, because they want that conformity of heart to the exercise of heaven, which is necessary to make them willing to stay there, even if they were admitted. And it was upon this ground, that our Lord told Nicodemus, that “except a man be born again, he could not see the kingdom of God.” John, iii. 3. By regeneration, the aversion of the heart to spiritual exercises is taken away, and a delight in them substituted in its stead. But in a carnal mind this aversion is deeply rooted. And could a sinner, under the influence of it, be suffered to enter the kingdom of heaven, all the bliss of paradise would be no heaven to him. Carrying with him an indisposedness of heart to the employ of heaven, and having his eyes previously blinded by carnal lusts, he would not see any beauty in the palace of the great King, or enjoy any satisfaction in the beatific presence of the King himself. Having been accustomed on earth to frequent the company of the dissolute and the gay, he would feel awkward and unhappy in the society of saints and angels. All the harps of heaven would communicate no melody to his ears; and the exercise of praise and adoration would appear, as it did on earth, an intolerable burden. He would derive no enjoyment even from that river of the water of life, that floweth in a pure and perennial stream of happiness from the throne of God, and of the Lamb: for, having left the world with his heart full of carnal delights, the recollected pleasures of the sensuality and dissipation below, would crowd in upon his mind to mar all the felicity of heaven, and to make him prefer a Mahometan paradise to the exalted fruition of the blessed God, and all the refined pleasures which they taste, who contemplate his perfections, and bask in the beams of his love.

Besides the want of a disposition to the employ of heaven, there is in the hearts of the unregenerate a positive enmity against God, and the laws of his kingdom, which makes them rebels and enemies. And it cannot be supposed that such could find a place in that harmonious society, where perfect love to God is the bond of eternal concord and happiness among the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem. As soon might the devil and his angels expect to be translated to glory, as sinners, with hearts fraught with enmity against God, hope for a place in his kingdom. Rev. xxii. 11, 15.

From what has been said, it is evident,

1. That, as conversion is the work of God, to prescribe “rules” for the sinner’s own accomplishment of it, as some legal authors have done, is palpably as absurd as to furnish a man with a set of rules for making a world. For the old and the new creation have one and the same agent; and he is the Almighty Creator of the universe. Isa. xlv. 17, 18.

2. That conversion doth not consist in those things, which the blindness of some, the pride of others, and the pharisaical zeal of not a few, would substitute in its stead. For instance; baptism is not conversion. It is only the outward sign of it. And, to mistake the sign for the thing itself, is as absurd as to make a shadow equal to the substance. The thing signified in baptism is, “a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness:” and this is conversion. But how many content themselves with having partaken of the outward ordinance, who do not understand the significancy of the institution, and know nothing of the blessings symbolically represented in it! “He is not a Jew, who is one outwardly,” (nor is he a Christian who is one no farther); “but he is a Jew,” (and a Christian,) “who is one inwardly: and circumcision,” (or baptism) “is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” Rom. ii. 28, 29.—Neither does the great change consist in a transient effect on the passions. These may often be mechanically wrought upon, and violent emotions excited in them, without the least concomitant influence from the Spirit of God. One man may be affected under a sermon, and another weep at a tragedy, and both be in the same predicament as to their state of heart towards God. When the passions are moved, because the affections are engaged, and the understanding enlightened in the subject, then the work is produced, not by the pathos of eloquence, or the violent mechanism of bawling and unmeaning vociferation, but by the finger of God. A change of the latter kind will be permanent and abiding. But conversions, such as spring from a transient gust of passion, will always evaporate, “like the morning cloud or the early dew, that passeth away.” Hos. vi. 4.—It would be equally absurd and dangerous to place true religion in an outward and partial reformation, often accompanied with a shew of zeal, which, at the bottom, is nothing but emptiness and ostentation. When a man all of a sudden cuts off some superfluities of naughtiness in dress and outward indulgence; when he prunes off some excrescences, while the root of corruption remains untouched; when to-day he acts the part of a novice, and to-morrow, like a fungus that shoots up in a night, he raises his head as a Reformer, without wisdom or materials for beginning or conducting a reformation; in such cases, the conversion is often from bad to worse; it is as if a harmless statue should be transformed into a venomous reptile; or folly, stealing the venerable garb of truth, should commence tyrant, and like Solomon’s madman, with the hand of outrageous zeal, scatter about arrows, fire-brands, and death. Prov. xxvi. 19. From such conversions, and such converts as these, may the Lord at all times defend and save his church!—To change a denomination, or to adhere to that in which one may happen to have been born and educated, is not conversion. A man may turn protestant, then turn calvinist, then turn arminian, then turn methodist, then turn quaker or quietist, (an usual transition,) then turn dissenter, and last of all turn churchman, and yet, through all these revolutions, which have been more than once exemplified in a single character, he may not once have thought seriously of turning CHRISTIAN—a name infinitely more honorable than all the empty titles that men assume to themselves to distract the minds of their brethren, and to rear their own consequence, often, upon the ruins of peace and union. Some are, no doubt, very sincere, and highly to be commended, for changing a denomination, when the interests of truth and the prosperity of their souls, or the dictates of conscience, are the objects in view. But there is not a greater delusion under the heavens, than for a man to infer the safety of his state, merely from an idea of the purity of the communion to which accident or bigotry may have induced him to join himself. To turn to a party, and to turn to God, are as different as light and darkness.—As for those, who plead for their continuance in the old beaten track of formality, because, as they say, “they will not change their religion,” a discourse upon the nature of true conversion is intended to convince such, that they have, in fact, no religion to change. And as for those, under the influence of a more refined delusion, who place religion in the espousal of orthodox opinions, which have no renovating influence on their hearts and lives, and often take a false refuge in doctrines, of which, alas! they never experienced the power; it is necessary to tell these, and their partners in self-deception, that religion is principally A TEMPER; and that to be really changed, is to have “the mind that was in Christ Jesus,” to be governed by that love, which St. Paul describes in 1 Cor. xiii.; and to be influenced by the humble temper of a little child. Without this, party is an insignificant badge, doctrines but chaff, zeal but wild-fire, and conversion but a name.

To conclude. Whatever denomination we adhere to, or whatever principles we espouse, let us remember, that, without the power of vital godliness, such badges of distinction must appear to him, who searcheth the heart, only as a “sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” And as I have labored to urge this as a leading sentiment through the whole discourse, every candid hearer must see, that the ambition of my heart, like that of every disinterested servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, is, to be instrumental, not in turning you to a particular name or favorite persuasion, but in converting you to God. Whether, then, you have erected your hopes, and built your system on the broad but rotten base of infidelity; whether you have commenced a free liver in consequence of being a free thinker—for they are characters closely allied—or, with some right notions in your head, betray a heart immersed in the world and dead in sin; whether you are dissipated with the gay, dissolute with the abandoned, or formal with the self-righteous; whatever accidental superiority, by birth, education, or fortune, you may possess above others; or howsoever applauded you may be for decency of manners or regularity of outward devotion; yet, in whatever light, either infidelity, libertinism, formality, or morality, can place a character, the unalterable truth of the text stands to cut off the fallacious pretensions of each. Conversion implies infinitely more than any moralist upon earth can attain to: and it differs as much from mere orthodoxy, as the genial and vivid light of the sun doth from the faint beams of the pale orb, that borrows light, but derives no heat, from his luminous body. As for formality in religion, it is not even the shadow of that, of which it claims the essence. And as for the profane and the licentious, continuing such, the text stands as a barrier against the impiety of their principles, and the presumptuousness of their hope. For, except they, and the characters already alluded to, be converted, and become as little children, they cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.