the Holy Ghoft, and with much assurance! In order hereto, may you feek the Lord, while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near! May the vicked among you, forfake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and may you all turn unto the Lord that he may have mercy upon you, and unto our God that he may abundantly pardon! May you turn to him in true repentance and unfeigned faith, a faith of the operation of his Spirit! May you afk that this repentance and faith may be given you, and feek, in the ufe of appointed means, that you may find! Thus may the gofpel, which is the power of God unto falvation to every penitent, believing foul, be the powerful means of your falvation! Being juftified from all things through faith in the blood of Chrift, and fanctified through the operation of his Spirit, may your conversation be fuch as becometh the gospel on earth, till you receive your heavenly inheritance, that eternal life and happy immortality brought to light by the gofpel! Amen! SERMON SERMON III. THE DEVICES WHEREBY THE GOD OF THIS WORLD PREVENTS THE EFFICACY OF THE GOSPEL. I. 2 COR. IV. 3, 4. But if our gofpel be hid, it is hid to them that are loft, in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, left the light of the glorious gofpel of Chrift fhould fhine unto them." IN Na former difcourfe on this important paffage of holy writ, I endeavoured to fhew the Nature and Defign of the gofpel of Chrift, and the dreadful Confequences which attend our rejecting it. And, undoubtedly, it is of fo excellent a nature, and proposes a defign fo benevolent and glorious, that all, to whom it is offered, ought in reason and duty, to embrace it heartily and without delay; even fuppofing they might neglect fo to do without fuffering any inconvenience. But when it is further confidered, to what extreme and endlefs mifery they certainly expose themselves who reject this gofpel, one would fuppofe no child of man who reflects at all upon the fubject, could hesitate one moment about it; one would imagine that motives of felfintereft, C4 intereft, at leaft, would prevail, where duty and gratitude had no influence; and that a fear of punishment would compel thofe, whom redeeming Love did not constrain, nor promifes of happiness allure. 2. And, bleffed be God, one or other of thefe confiderations do, through the influence of divine grace, fabfolutely needful in this weak and disordered ftate of human nature,) perfuade many to comply with the defign of this glorious gofpel. But alas! this is by no means the cafe in general, (I fpeak not of Jews, Turks, and Heathens, but of profeffing Chriftians :) The generality even of thefe do, most eertainly, reject the gofpel of Chrift and neglect the great falvation offered by it. Into the reafon of this conduct it is worth our while to enquire, especially as this may be a mean of preferving us from an imitation of it, which, I am fure, is no way defirable. This I fhall take occafion to do from the words of our text, where the apostle has given us a key to unlock this myftery; The god of this world (fays he) hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, left the light of the glorious gospel of Chrift should shine unto them." 3. The infpired penman (it feems) ftill alludes to the cafe of Mofes, who put a vail over his face, fo that the glory of it could not be difcerned by the Ifraelites. Thus, as he has intimated in the preceding chapter, a vail of obfcurity was caft over that difpenfation, through which the Jews (whofe minds alfo were blinded) could not discover the end and defign of it. Hence they were not favingly benefited by it; it did not lead them to Chrift, as was intended. Now altho' the gospel be not veiled, but fuffered to fhine out in full luftre; yet the god of this world, induftrious to prevent the falvation of mankind, by blinding the minds of them that believe not, hinders them from difcerning the light of this glorious gofpel, or from being enlightened by it. Three Three particulars offer themselves to our confideration on this subject. Ift. Who is meant by the god of this world, and why he is fo called? 2dly. Whom we are to understand by thofe that believe not? 3dly. How the god of this world blinds their minds? 1. With regard to the first of these, "Who is meant by the god of this world, and why he is fo called;" I should have thought it unneceffary to say any thing by way of explication, had I not occafionally met with fome who interpret this of Jehovah, the God of Love, the Saviour of all men, whofe tender mercies are over all his works; as if he, inorder to prevent the falvation of his creatures, whom he hath redeemed with his Son's most precious blood, acted the part of the grand adversary of mankind and blinded their minds, by fin and unbelief, left they should be enlightened by that very gofpel which he has provided, in his infinite goodness, for their illumination. The bare mention of fo wild a notion as this, is, with men of understanding and piety, fufficient to confute it. By the god of this world, the apoftle undoubtedly means Satan, who is elsewhere called "the prince of this world," and "the ruler of the darkness of this world," and "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that worketh in the children of difobedience." This apoftate Spirit, this enemy of GOD and man (and not the GOD and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift), is doubtless concerned to hinder the fuccefs of the gofpel, which is defigned for the overthrow of his kingdom, and with this view exerts, to the utmoft, all his power and policy from day to day, continually lying in wait to deceive, like a fubtle ferpent, and like a roaring lion going about feeking whom he may devour. C 5 "He "He now is plotting how he may feduce "Which would be all his folace and revenge, "As a despite done 'gainst the Moft High.' 2. Some (wife, above what is written) would account for this expreffion, whereby Satan is called the god of this world, by fuppofing that this world was originally under the dominion of the fallen angels before their rebellion, and was the feat of their kingdom; and that, upon their fall, as a punishment for their crime, it was reduced into that chaotic ftate described, Gen. i. ver. 1; where we read, The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Hence it was, they further fuppofe, that when the earth was put into its paradifaical ftate, and man was placed in it, (who they think was created to fupply the place of the fallen angels,) GOD did not entirely banish them this world, but ftill permitted them to wander to and fro in it, and not only to tempt the human race, for their trial, but also to exercise fome authority over the elements and other creatures; though under certain restrictions, beyond which they cannot pafs. But it is certain all this is mere conjecture, without any countenance from any part of Scripture. And it is plain, Satan may be called the god of this world, with fufficient propriety, without fuppofing any thing of this kind, even on the fame principles on which he is termed "the prince of this world," and "the ruler of the darkness of this world," and "the prince of the power of the air," and that is, because of the influence he has over mankind in general, and the ufe he makes of the dazzling vanities and allurements of this world, to attain and preferve that influence. 4. Accordingly |