The Works of the Rev John Witherspoon

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: oooo Moo oooo i oooo Wto oooo Cjo xi -oo oo OOOO oooo oooo Jpoo oooo sooo ooo oooo oooooooo oooo oooo oooo ooooooo o twoo oooo oooo oooo ooou ocot flM A PRACTICAL TREATISE REGENERATION. John Hi. 3. Jesus answer ed and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. INTRODUCTION. THE condition on which minifters of the gofpel hold their office, is extremely awful. They muft ren- der an account unto God of their fidelity to the fouls committed to their charge. Their duty and danger, as fervants of God, are jointly and ftrongly exprefled in the commiffion given to the prophet Ezekiel. Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the houfe of Ifrael, therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I fay unto the wicked, thou fhalt furely die; and thou giveft him- not warning, nor fpeakeft to warn the wicked from his wicked way to fave his life; the fame wicked man fhall die in his ini- quity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet, if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wick- ednefs, nor from his wicked way, he fliall die in his ini- quity: but thou haft delivered thy foul. Ezek. Hi. i7, i8, i9, It is natural for us, in fuch a fituation, to be often revolving in our minds this great and weighty truft. It is at once our duty and intereft, to confider with all poffible care, in what way we may have the eafieft and moft effectual accefs to the hearts of finners: what views of divine truth will be moft convincing; what forms of addrefs will make the ltrongeft and moft lafting imprefllon; in one word, how we may acquit ourfelves of our miniftry, fo as to be a favour of life unto life, to many of thofe who hear us, and...