-

character, for then I am no better than an enemy to the God of heaven," says the sinner. True, exactly true, this is your very character in the sight of Heaven; as it is written, (Rom. viii. 7,)"The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." And just so our blessed Savior, the meek and lowly Jesus, told the Pharisees, "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers;" nor had they any reason to take this plain dealing ill at his hands.

V. There is nothing short of the regenerating influences of the Holy Spirit, that can effectually take down the pride of a self-righteous heart, and beget a disposition to justify God, and take blame to ourselves, answerable to the import of the divine law.

Scriptural and rational arguments cannot do it. Rather, as the leviathan, in the book of Job, esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood, so all scriptural and rational arguments are before a self-righteous heart. Miracles are also insufficient. For when the Pharisees could evade the force of them no other way, they would even, in contradiction to common sense, declare, "He casteth out devils by Beelzebub." Just as if Satan might be divided against himself. Nay, Scripture, and reason, and miracles, all united together, are not able to take down the pride of a self-righteous heart. St. Paul tried them all, and he did his best; and a little before his death, in an Epistle to his son Timothy, he fairly owns himself beat. (2 Tim. iii. 13.) "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." He could make them see that they were inconsistent with themselves, and even make it appear to others that they were self-condemned; but still they would obstinately maintain their self-righteous principles, although they were excommunicated for it. (Tit. iii. 10, 11.) And these men were our ensamples, and these things were written for our instruction.

For an impenitent sinner to "believe that God loves him, and that his sins are forgiven," instead of taking down, naturally feeds the pride of a self-righteous heart. Witness the Pharisees of old.

To say, "that we are to be perfectly passive, to do nothing, to feel no motion in our hearts, but to be justified without any act, exercise, or exertion in the human mind," does not indeed agree with Scripture language, which calls upon us to repent and be converted, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that our sins may be blotted out, and we be saved; however, it is not so disagreeable to the pride of an indolent, sluggish heart, dead in sin, but that it may pass. For if men can but get a hope

they shall be saved, without being brought down to own that God's character is as glorious, and theirs as odious as the divine law supposes, and so without being necessitated to look to free grace through Jesus Christ, in that precise point of light in which it is exhibited to view in the gospel, the life of Agag is saved; a proud, impenitent, self-justifying, self-righteous spirit, is unsubdued; and the native enmity of the heart against the divine character, keeps its ground; and a carnal heart, under terror, can, in a strait, bear with any scheme, in which these points may be saved. But to exalt God so high, and come down so low, as in the least degree to answer to the import of the divine law, and to the import of the cross of Christ, is so diametrically opposite to the temper of a carnal heart, which is at enmity against God, that nothing short of the regenerating influences of the Holy Spirit can effect it.

No conviction, from the Spirit of God, the mind of a natural man, remaining such, is capable of, is sufficient to strike death to the root of a proud, self-righteous, self-justifying disposition. Great convictions of sin and guilt a natural man is capable of; yea, it is possible the conscience of a natural man may be so awakened, as that he may know, may be quite certain, that there is not the least jot of goodness in his heart; yea, that he is dead, altogether dead in sin; and so has nothing in the world to make a righteousness of; whereby he may be driven to despair, totally to despair of mercy, from this quarter; yea, and his mouth be so stopped, as that he has not one word to say for himself; yet all this, how much soever it may knock down and stun a self-righteous spirit, does not in the least cure the mind of a self-righteous disposition; and nothing is wanting but materials to work upon, and the disposition will rise again, and live and reign as high as ever. Thus it is in some sinners, who have had great legal convictions: upon their receiving false comfort, and getting false religious affections, they have been more proud after their supposed conversion than ever they were before; and more under the government of a self-righteous, self-justifying spirit - proud when full of comfort; and when their good feelings are all gone, virtually laying all the blame to God, who, they say, is withdrawn from them, and they can do nothing of themselves; not once imagining that they are really criminal, infinitely criminal in the sight of God, for not loving the Lord their God with all their hearts, according to the first and great command of God's holy law. And hence it is always difficult to convince a deluded sinner in proportion as his false comforts and joys have been great, although, in strict truth, there is no more grace in the heart of

the devoutest Pharisee on earth, than in the vilest pirate that ever sailed the seas; for it is true of every unregenerate man, that he is at enmity against God. (Rom. viii. 7.) By the law is the knowledge of sin; and by the law a natural man may see that he is a sinner in so complete a sense, as that he has nothing to make a righteousness of; and yet the self-righteous disposition may remain wholly unmortified. Thus in this sense, no doubt, Satan now knows that he is a sinner; and in this sense, it is certain, Satan and all wicked beings will know at the day of judgment that they are sinners. However, the pride of Satan's heart is not mortified now, nor will the pride of Satan, or any other wicked being, be slain by the convictions they will receive at the day of judgment.

Nothing can effectually take down the heart, short of that light in which the divine law and our own character is seen, through the regenerating influences of the Holy Spirit. If before regeneration the commandment come, sin revive, and I die, in a sort; yet all this is sore against the bias of the heart: but it is in regeneration, that "I through the law am" cordially "dead to the law, that I may live to God." For a disposition to justify ourselves in not loving God with all our hearts, will itself actually die and cease to be, and the contrary disposition take place, only in proportion as God appears to our souls worthy of our supreme love. It is this, and nothing short of this, which will incline us, from the heart, of our own. accord, to take all the blame of our disaffection to the divine character home to ourselves. And So, while the divine law is viewed in the light of the divine glory, it will appear as it never did before, holy, just, and good, a glorious law; and it will come to pass, as it is written, "I through the law am dead to the law, that I may live unto God."

The damned will at the day of judgment have such a knowledge of God and of themselves, as will convince their consciences that the law is just. (Rom. ii. 5. Jude 15.) Sore against their wills, they will be forced to own that God ought to have been loved and obeyed; and that they deserve damnation for their disaffection and rebellion. But, being blind to the holy beauty of the divine nature, they will feel no inclination, no free, genuine, cordial disposition to take the blame of their disaffection and rebellion home to themselves. Their proud, self-justifying temper will remain unmortified, while they are conscience-convinced that they are absolutely without excuse. They would be heartily glad to excuse themselves and lay the blame upon God, if they could; their old

disposition that way will be wholly alive: but their mouths will be stopped; and therefore they will blaspheme God, and be self-condemned, both at once-an amazing, dreadful state.

But in regeneration, the sinner is brought to such a view of God, as an absolutely perfect, infinitely glorious and amiable being; and to such a view of the divine law, as holy, just, and good, a glorious law, as even begins to kill a self-righteous, self-justifying disposition in the bottom of the heart. And from the inmost soul the man begins to see, think, and feel, that God is wholly right, and that he himself is wholly wrong; and so from the heart to give up every sin-extenuating, selfjustifying plea, and cordially to take the whole blame to himself, and frankly to own the honest truth-"I have sinned against Heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son." "God be merciful unto me, a sinner."

And now, and not till now, will he begin to see that he needs that kind of pardon which the gospel offers. A pardon which supposes, that our disaffection to the Deity is entirely inexcusable, yea, infinitely criminal; so very criminal, that the blood of an incarnate God was necessary to make atonement for it, that, consistent with the honor of the divine government, it might be forgiven.

And now, and not till now, will he begin to see the atonement of Christ. For till now he will not begin to see his disaffection to the Deity so very criminal, as to render such an atonement needful, in order to his being pardoned, consistent with the divine honor.

And as his sense of God, as an absolutely perfect, infinitely glorious and amiable being, increaseth; and his sense of the divine law as holy, just, and good, a glorious law, honored on the cross by the blood of an incarnate God; and his sense of the inexcusableness and infinite evil of not loving God with all his heart; as a sense of these increases, his proud, self-righteous, self-justifying disposition, will die; and his need of Christ and free grace appear in a clearer and clearer light. No man so sensible of his need of Christ and free grace as the apostle Paul, who beyond doubt was the holiest of all mere men that ever lived - "I through the law am dead to the law, that I may live to God. I am crucified with Christ."

SECTION X.

THE NATURE AND CONSEQUENCES OF SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS; AND HOW THE GOD OF THIS WORLD BLINDS THE MINDS OF THEM THAT BELIEVE NOT.

WHEN it is said, that Satan provoked or stirred up David to number Israel, (1 Chron. xxi. 1,) it is not to be imagined, that the corruptions of his own heart did not move him to that deed. This was no doubt the true state of the case, (ver. 17,) and Satan only took advantage of those corruptions to set him on. So, when it is said that the God of this world blinds the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them, no doubt the corruptions of the human heart lie at the bottom of all that criminal blindness, which Satan endeavors to increase and strengthen by all ways in his power.

The question therefore comes to this - What is there in the human heart, which renders men blind to the glory of the gospel? or, in other words, what is there in the heart of a fallen creature, which renders him blind to the beauty and glory of the divine nature, shining with so much brightness, in the gospel way of salvation through the blood of Christ? For if man were not a fallen, depraved, vicious creature, he could not be blind to such beauty; a beauty which affects the hearts and engages the attention of all the angelical hosts, who have not that special concern in the affair which we have. They desire, earnestly desire, to look into these things, (1 Pet. i. 12,) and discern in them the manifold wisdom of God. (Eph. iii. 10.)

I. Spiritual blindness consists primarily in the want of spiritual sight; or in not being sensible of the loveliness, beauty, and glory of divine things, as they are in themselves. There is a natural beauty and glory in the natural world, in the sun, moon, and stars, etc., which men see, who are not naturally blind; so there is a holy, heavenly, divine beauty and glory in divine things, in God and Christ, in the law and gospel, which men see, who are not spiritually blind. The word blindness, which is applied to the mind, is borrowed from one of our external senses; and in its original signification means a privation of sight. So it was with the man born blind. He was destitute of the sight of his eyes from his birth. But although this outward blindness has, in several respects, a great resemblance to inward spiritual blindness, -as a blind man has