eating, drinking, uncleanness, and the like; and who are such enemies to God, that they had rather be set to do any work than to spend an hour in private prayer to him every day;-what probability is there, I say, that they will be able to bear their part in those sacred concerts, unless their souls be so saved from sin here, and so changed in all its faculties, that God's service and worship, which is so tedious to them now, may become the joy of their hearts.

Let none then deceive himself. As sin is death and hell begun in the unregenerate, so are holiness, eternal life, and heaven, opened in the new creature. And as sure as there will be no hell for those that are saved from their sins here, so sure it is that there will be no heaven for those who are not made partakers of the Divine nature. We might as well look for the noon of a day which never dawned, as expect to see the meridian light of glory, without having ever known the morning of regenerating grace.

Athly. We may discover the necessity of regeneration, in order to salvation, if we consider the entire corruption of our nature. Our first parents, having by their fall defaced that image of God in which they were created, and being thereupon wholly polluted in soul, body and spirit, all that come from them must be partakers of their corrupt nature. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" says Job, "I was born in sin," says David, "and in iniquity did my mother conceive me." "That which is born of the flesh is flesh;" that is to say, carnal and unclean. "Now," says St. John, "no unclean person can enter into God's kingdom." Believe it sinners: God will not take you from the dunghill of sin, and covered with satan's leprosy, to place you by him on his throne. The holy land shall not be filled with filth and rottenness; and in the heavenly Canaan there are no nests for serpents and vipers; no place for backbiting, lying, slandering, or cursing Christians; no den for angry lions to lurk in; and no mire for greedy and impure swine to wallow in; much less shall the vacant thrones of fallen angels, thrown down into hell for their pride, envy, and ambition, be given to proud, envious, ill-natured, or covetous men. Rebellious aliens must not inherit the kingdom of heaven. They must first be made children, and have the spirit of adoption, and then are they heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.

Again, that we must be new creatures to enter into heaven, appears from the enjoyments of saints and angels. They are wholly spiritual. Their felicity consists in the peace of God, the love of Christ, and the joy of angels; in an uninterrupted union and communion with the Lord; a continual admiration and fruition of all his perfections. But can carnal, worldly, unre

generate people, taste pleasure in any of these things? Are not such delights for them, just what pearls and diamonds are to swine? Do not they even now trample them under their feet, and sometimes turn about and endeavour to rend those that hold out to them even that heavenly bread, that food of angels? Sinners, you must then lose your taste for earthly joys, and be made capable of relishing spiritual delights, or all the pleasures of heaven will prove to you just as much as the most melodious concert is to a deaf man, or the finest pictures to one that was born blind.

I shall conclude all these reasons with one drawn from the holiness of God's nature, which is such, that no unclean person can stand in his presence. "His eyes are too pure," says a prophet, "to behold iniquity." "Evil shall not dwell with thee," says David, " neither shall the foolish stand in thy sight." There is such a contrariety between the holy nature of God, and the unholy nature of unregenerate men, that they can no more agree together than light with darkness; for, "what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness?" says St. Paul. A pure God with impure creatures? None at all; unless it be that which a devouring flame has with the stubble thrown therein. O sinners! learn then what the apostle means when he says, "Without holiness none shall see the Lord," lest you find him a consuming fire, as the unregenerate will most certainly do. And that you may be the more willing to get out of the state you are in by sin, let me show you the many dangers that attend it.

You are not yet a new creature, and consequently you are yet without Christ in your heart, and nothing stands between God's justice and your unregenerate soul. And for what do you expose yourself to this dreadful peril? That you may serve satan? "He that committeth sin is of the devil," says St. John. O that your eyes were open to see what master you have chosen, and what wages he will give you at last! Is it that you may take your chance with the rest of the world? Alas! do you not know the Word of God declares, that he who loves the world is the Lord's enemy; and that this world, and all that is therein, except the souls and bodies of the regenerate, are reserved unto fire against the day of judgment. Is it that you may indulge a little longer the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eye, and the pride of life? Oh! if you saw them in a true light, you would renounce them as you would the service of a base and cruel tyrant, that says to you, "Do this," though it will destroy thy body, and you do it: "Do not that," though your soul should live thereby, and you do it not. Thus, like the child who was possest by an evil spirit, you are possest by car nal desires and unruly passions, which tear you, and cast you sometimes into the fire, sometimes into the water, still waiting for the moment when they may plunge you into "the lake that burns with fire and brimstone."

Oh! do the pleasures of sin, and the smiles of the world, compensate you for the happiness of the children of God, which you renounce for them: and when the curses of God's law overtake you, will they skreen from the strokes of his wrath? For though you may little think of it, if your sins are not forgiven you, a curse attends all your enjoyments. "I will curse their blessings," says God by one of his prophets. Nay, it follows you in your religious exercises. The word which you hear is cursed to you; because you believe it not, or do it not, it proves to you "the savour of death unto death:" the prayers which you make, with so much indifference and contempt for God, draw no blessing upon you; and the Lord's table is is made a snare to you by your presumption; for, instead of feeding on the body and blood of Christ, you trample it under foot, and refuse to let it have its due effect upon you.

And not only so, but you are liable to temporal and eternal judgments. In time, God may let loose upon you the most dreadful sicknesses and afflictions, and you have no God to stand by you, no grace to comfort you under them. And in eternity, what have you to expect but an eternal despair; and for whom is "the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone" appointed, if not for the unregenerate? And who shall have the smoke of their torments ascending for ever and ever, if not those who never strove to enter in at the strait gate of the new birth, but remained willing servants of the prince of this world, and their unruly passions, for ever and ever? Oh measure, if you can, the length and breadth, the depth and height of the meaning of that word for ever and ever; and though all that Jesus says of that fire prepared for the devil and his angels, of that "fire which shall never be quenched," that "worm which never dieth," and that "outer darkness where there will be weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth;"-though all these expressions should mean no more than an eternal fever, or an eternal confinement in a dark dungeon, will you draw this upon you for the momentary pleasure of walking according to the sight of your eye, and the desire of your heart? And will not you repent of this your unhappy choice even in this life? Ah, when death shall appear to you, and tell you that he has a message from the Lord, a warrant from the King of heaven to take from you all your worldly comforts, all the carnal pleasures and delights, for which, Esau like, you sell your birth-right, and the blessing of your heavenly Father; all your nearest and dearest relations; all your wealth and honour, all your schemes of building and planting, buying and selling; and all the hopes of enjoying any longer those conveniences and superfluities, for getting of which you forget that your main business here is to be born again of the Spirit of God:-when death shall thus hurry you away from your earthly paradise; when it shall rouse your drowsy conscience, and lay before you the black catalogue of all your sins, your lies, your scoffings at virtue and religion, your goods ill-gotten and ill-spent: your profanation of the Lord'sday; your speculative wantonness; or actual filthiness; your vanity, pride, coveteousness, sensuality; with the many years spent with so much eagerness in the devil's service; what will then your views and feelings be? And how will you lament your sin and folly, in disregarding the day of your merciful visitation! Oh! consider this, ere it be for ever too late.

Biography.

For the Methodist Magazine.

MEMOIR OF REV. JOHN PITTS.

JOHN PITTS, was born in Anne-Arundell county, in the state of Maryland, February 23, in the year of our Lord 1772, of reputable parents; who were members of the Church of England, and brought up their children in the observance of the forms and ceremonies of that Church: taking great pains in their education, and in keeping them from profane sins. But it pleased God to call away his father by the stroke of death, when he was about eleven years old. He was now left to the care of a tender mother, who continued him at school, until he had acquired a tolerably good English Education. His own words in reference to this period of his life, are, "My mother strove to restrain and keep me from vicious practices. But alas! I too often broke through her injunctions, and became acquainted with wicked company; which led me into the sinful pleasure's and vanities of the world. Yet through the mercy of God, and from a sense of honour, I was kept from all scandalous vices: and at times had serious thoughts of death and judgment. I sometimes strove to comfort myself with the reflection, that I was not so wicked as some of my acquaintances, and concluded that when I was further advanced in years, I would seek religion, not considering that I was every day liable to the stroke of death, and in danger of hell while unconverted."

In the seventeenth year of his age, there was near the place where he resided a revival of religion among the Methodists, in which an elder and a younger sister were awakened and converted to God, and joined the Society. "When they told me their experience," says he, "as I could not doubt their veracity, I concluded there was such a thing as conversion, and resolved through grace to forsake sin, and never rest contented till I obtained it. I had many young companions, but they soon began to shun my company, as I strove to press upon them the necessity of regeneration. I now sought the Lord with my whole heart. The enemy sometimes tempted me, that there was no mercy for me; but these temptations did not last long: for though I knew that I was a sinner, yet I believed that Jesus died for sinners: which encouraged me to look to God for mercy. But I was entirely ignorant of the plan of salvation. I conceived that I must pray a great while before the Lord would pardon my sins. One evening I went to hear Brother G. R. preach, and in his sermon he observed that it was not the multitude of our prayers that was to recommend us to God, but faith in Christ; and that at any time when we could give up our whole heart to God, and believe in Jesus, that God was willing to receive us for the sake of Christ, and pardon our sins. This was a word in season to me. I now began to look, and expect the Lord to bless me at every time I waited upon him; and glory to his dear name, after I had sought him a few weeks in this way, he was found of me! for one evening as I was withdrawn from the world, into a lonely grove to pray, much dis tressed on account of sin, the Lord heard and answered my pe tition. I felt the guilt of sin removed, and love, peace, and joy, spring up in my soul: Glory, glory to his dear name!! I now experienced a happiness that I was before a stranger to; all nature appeared lovely, and I felt a love for all mankind. Yet, although I was thus blest, I was afraid to conclude that my sins were pardoned, lest I should deceive myself; but glory be to God, he did not leave me like the man who saw men as trees walking. The next day he gave me the witness of the spirit, that I was his child. I was now happy in God my Saviour; it appeared, almost, as if I were in a new world;" "Old things were passed away, and all things became new!" I could say with the poet,

:

"Jesus all the day long,
Was my joy and my song."

It was my delight to pray to the Lord, to read his word, to talk of his goodness, and to exhort others to seek for the same happiness. Indeed I thought that my enemies were all slain, and that I should know war no more. But alas! I soon found there was a tempting devil, and that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. I had many to weaken, and few to strengthen my hands; but glory to God I found him to be a present help in time of need. He still supported me in all my trials, and kept me in the narrow way."