Man’s Natural Blindness In
Things Of Religion
By Jonathan Edwards
Psalm 94:8-11
Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye
fools, when will ye be wise? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he
that formed the eye, shall he not see? He that chastiseth the heathen, shall
not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know? The Lord
knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.
SECTION I
Introductory observations.
Subject: There is an extreme and brutish blindness in
things of religion that naturally possesses the hearts of mankind.
IN these words the following particulars are to be
observed. (1.) A certain spiritual disease charged on some
persons, viz. darkness, and blindness of mind, appearing in their
ignorance and folly. (2.) The great degree of this disease; so as to
render the subjects of it fools. Ye fools, when will ye be wise?
And so as to reduce them to a degree of brutishness. Ye brutish among
the people. This ignorance and folly were to such a degree, as to render
men like beasts. (3.) The obstinacy of this disease; expressed in that
interrogation, When will ye be wise? Their blindness and folly were not
only very great; but deeply rooted and established, resisting all manner of
cure. (4.) Of what nature this blindness is. It is especially in things
pertaining to God. They were strangely ignorant of his perfections, like
beasts. And had foolish notions of him, as though he did not see, nor
know, and as though he would not execute justice, by chastising and punishing
wicked men. (5.) The unreasonableness and sottishness of the
notion they had of God, that he did not hear, did not observe
their reproaches of him and his people, is shown by observing that he planted
the ear. It is very unreasonable to suppose that he, who gave power of
perceiving words to others, should not perceive them himself. And
the sottishness of their being insensible of God’s all-seeing eye, and
particularly of his seeing their wicked actions, appears, in that God is the
being who formed the eye and gave others a power of seeing. The
sottishness of their apprehension of God, as though he did not know what they
did, is argued from his being the fountain and original of all
knowledge. The unreasonableness of their expecting to escape God’s just
chastisements and judgments for sin is set forth by his chastising even the heathen,
who did not sin against that light, or against so great mercies, as the wicked
in Israel did; nor had ever made such a profession as they. (6.) We may
observe, that this dreadful disease is ascribed to mankind in general. The
Lord knoweth the thoughts of MAN, that they are vanity. The psalmist
had been setting forth the vanity and unreasonableness of the thoughts of some
of the children of men. And immediately upon it he observes that this vanity
and foolishness of thought is common and natural to mankind.
From these particulars we may fairly deduce the following
doctrinal observation: THAT THERE IS AN EXTREME AND BRUTISH BLINDNESS IN THINGS
OF RELIGION, WHICH NATURALLY POSSESSES THE HEARTS OF MANKIND. — This doctrine
is not to be understood as any reflection on the capacity of the human
nature. For God has made man with a noble and excellent capacity. The blindness
I speak of is not merely negative ignorance, such as in trees and stones
that know nothing. They have no faculties of understanding and perception, whereby
they should be capable of any knowledge. And inferior animals, though they have
sensitive perception, are not capable of any intellectual views.
There is no fault to be found with man’s natural faculties. God has
given men faculties truly noble and excellent, well capable of true wisdom and
divine knowledge. Nor is the blindness I speak of like the ignorance of a
new-born infant, which arises from want of necessary opportunity to exert these
faculties.
The blindness that is in the heart of man, which is spoken
of in the text and doctrine, is neither for want of faculties, nor opportunity
to know, but from some positive cause. *2* There is a
principle in his heart, of such a blinding and besotting nature, that it
hinders the exercises of his faculties about the things of religion,
exercises for which God has made him well capable, and for which he gives him
abundant opportunity.
In order to make it appear that such an extreme brutish
blindness, with respect to the things of religion, does naturally possess the
hearts of men, I shall show how this is manifest in those things that appear in
men’s open profession. And how it is manifest in those things that are found by
inward experience, and are visible in men’s practice.
SECTION II
Man’s natural blindness in religion, manifested by
those things which appear in men’s open profession.
I WOULD now show, how it is manifest that there is a
sottish and brutish blindness in the hearts of men in the things of religion,
by those things which appear in men’s open profession.
I. It appears in the grossness of that ignorance
and those delusions which have appeared among mankind. Man has faculties given
him whereby he is well capable of inferring the being of the Creator from the
creatures. The invisible things of God are very plainly and clearly to be seen
by the things that are made. And the perfections of the Divine Being, his
eternal power and Godhead, are very manifest in the works of his hands. And yet
grossly absurd notions concerning the Godhead have prevailed in the world.
Instead of acknowledging and worshipping the true God, they have fallen
off to the worship of idols. Instead of acknowledging the one only true
God, they have made a multitude of deities. Instead of worshipping a
God, who is an almighty, infinite, all-wise, and holy Spirit, they have
worshipped the hosts of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars; and the works of
their own hands, images of gold and silver, brass and iron, wood and stone;
gods that can neither hear, nor see, nor walk, nor speak, nor do, nor know
anything. Some in the shape of men, others in the shape of oxen and calves;
some in the shape of serpents, others of fishes, etc.
The sottishness of men in thus worshipping the lifeless
images which they themselves have made, is elegantly and forcibly represented
by the prophet Isaiah. “The smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals, and
fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with the strength of his arms. Yea,
he is hungry, and his strength faileth; he drinketh no water, and is faint. The
carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line: he fitteth it
with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the
figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in the
house. He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he
strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest; he planteth an ash,
and the rain doth nourish it. Then shall it be for a man to burn; for he will
take thereof and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he
maketh a god, and worshippeth it: he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down
thereto. He burneth part thereof in the fire: with part thereof he eateth
flesh: he roasteth roast, and is satisfied: yea, he warmeth himself, and saith,
Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire. And the residue thereof he maketh a god,
even his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth
unto it, and saith, Deliver me, for thou art my god. They have not known, nor
understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see, and their
hearts, that they cannot understand. And none considereth in his heart, neither
is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the
fire, yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted
flesh, and eaten it, and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall
I fall down to the stock of a tree?” (Isa. 44:12-19).
Many of the images which the heathen worshipped were made
in the most monstrous and terrible shapes they could devise. And
the more hideous and frightful they appeared, the better they supposed they
would serve their turn for gods. Some of their images were made so as to be the
most unclean representations; images of men openly exposing their
nakedness. These unclean images, they judged, appeared in a god-like manner,
and worthy to be worshipped. Many, instead of worshipping a holy and good God,
and infinitely perfect Being, ascribed vices to many of the gods which
they worshipped. One god they reckoned notorious for drunkenness; others
notorious for uncleanness. To others they ascribed lying and stealing;
to others cruelty; and yet looked upon them worthy to be worshipped as
gods! Many worshipped devils, who appeared to them, and whom they
themselves reckoned to be evil spirits. But yet built temples, and offered
sacrifices to them because they were afraid of them. Many worshipped beasts
and birds and fishes. And the most hateful and loathsome animals
were most worshipped. Particularly, serpents were more commonly
worshipped than any other beast. Many worshipped rivers and trees
and mountains. They worshipped many diseases. There is scarcely
anything of which men have not made gods.
And so far has that principle of blindness
prevailed, with respect to the things of religion, that it has in a great
measure extinguished all light in the minds of many, even in matters of morality,
and things that have but a distant relation to religion. So that many whole
nations have professedly approved of many things directly contrary to the light
of nature. And the most horrid vices and immoralities have been esteemed
harmless, yea, accounted virtues among them, such as revenge,
cruelty, and incest. Many nations have openly allowed the practice
of sodomy. And with some it has been accounted commendable to marry
their nearest relations. Many have even worshipped their gods in their temples
with acts of drunkenness and whoredom, and the most abominable lewdness.
And the more filthy they were in their uncleanness, they thought their gods the
more pleased and delighted with it.
Many nations have been so under the influence of mental
blindness that they have been void of all civility, and have been
reduced to a state very little above the beasts in their common customs, and
ordinary way of living, and in a great many things far below the beasts, being,
if I may so speak, much more beastly than the beasts themselves. Now this has
not been, because these men, with whom this has been the case, have not had the
same faculties that we have. That we are not as ignorant as they, is not
because we have better natural understandings, or that our minds are by nature
more clear, and our eyes more discerning, or that our hearts are not naturally
so inclined to sottishness and delusion as theirs. But only because God has not
left us so much to ourselves, as he has them. He has given us more instruction
to help us against our delusions. God has so ordered it in his providence that
we should have his good word to instruct us. And has caused that we should grow
up from our infancy under Christian instruction.
II. The extreme blindness and sottishness in things of
religion, which is naturally in the hearts of men, appears not only in
embracing and professing those errors that are very great, but also those that
are so unnatural. They have not only embraced errors which are very
contrary to truth, but very contrary to humanity, not only
against the light of nature, but against the more innocent inclinations of
nature. Such has been, and still is, the blindness of many nations in the
world, that they embrace those errors which do not only exclude all true
virtue, all holy dispositions, but those that have swallowed up the more
harmless inclinations of human nature.
Thus they have embraced many gross delusions that are as
contrary as possible to natural affection. Such as offering up their own
children in sacrifice to their idol, which has been a common thing in the
heathen world. And the parents have not only offered them up to death,
but they have brought them, and offered them up to the most cruel and tormenting
deaths: as, to be burnt alive, to be broiled to death in burning
brass; which was the way of offering up children to Moloch. The image of the
idol being made of brass, in a horrid shape, was heated red hot. And the poor
child was laid naked in this burning brass, and so burnt to death. And the parents
themselves brought the child to this offering, however sweet and pleasant a
child it might be. And thus the innocent child was tormented till it died, without
any regard to its piteous cries. And it has been the manner of some nations, to
offer in sacrifice the fairest and best beloved child that they had. And thus
many thousands of poor babes have been offered up. So strong has been the
tendency of the hearts of men to delusion, that it has thus overcome those
strong natural affections which men have to the fruit of their own bodies.
And many of these delusions have been against men’s
natural love of their own ease, and aversion to pain. Many have worshipped
their idols, and do so to this day, with such rites as are most painful and
tormenting, cutting, gashing, and mangling their own flesh. Thus they sottishly
worshipped Baal of old. “And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their
manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them.” (1 Kin.
18:28). And it is still the custom in some nations grievously to torment
themselves, to kindle a fire to scorch their own bodies in a most miserable
manner, and to put themselves to various and long-continued torments to please
their idols. And it is the manner in some countries for persons, on certain
occasions, to kill themselves, yea, to put themselves to cruel
deaths, to cast themselves into great fires, and there burn themselves to
death. How powerful must be the delusions of the human mind, and how strong the
tendency of the heart to carry them such a length, and so to overcome the
tenderest feelings of human nature!
III. The extreme blindness of the mind of man will appear
further, if we consider how general gross ignorance and delusion has
been. It has for the most part prevailed through the greater part of the world.
For most of the time from Noah’s flood to the coming of Christ, all nations,
except the children of Israel, were overspread with gross heathenish darkness;
being given up to the most vain and ridiculous notions, and all manner of
superstitious, barbarous, absurd, and unnatural practices. And, for the greater
part of the time since, most nations of the world have been covered with gross
darkness.
So it is at this day. Many nations are under popish
darkness, and are in such gross delusions that they worship the Virgin Mary,
and a great multitude of dead men, whom their church has canonized for saints,
some real saints, and others abominably wicked men. So they worship the bread
in the sacrament, and account it not only the real body of Christ, but real
Christ in body and soul, and divinity. They carry a wafer, a small piece
of bread, in procession, fall down before it, adore it, and account it
Christ himself, both in his divine and human nature. And yet believe that the
body of Christ is in heaven, and in ten thousand different places on earth at
the same time. They think they can do works of supererogation; that is, more
good works than they are obliged to do, whereby they bring God into debt
to them. They whip themselves, and put themselves to other ridiculous penances
and sufferings, whereby they think they appease the anger of God for their
sins. And they pay money to the priests to buy the pardon of their sins.
Yea, they buy indulgences for future crimes, or pardon for sins before
they commit them. They think they defend themselves from evil spirits, by
sprinkling holy water. They pay money to buy the souls of their departed
friends out of purgatory. They worship the relics of dead saints, such
as pieces of their bones, their teeth, their hair, pieces of their garments,
and the like. And innumerable other such foolish delusions are they under.
A great part of the nations of the world are Mahometans;
many of the articles of whose belief are too childish and ridiculous to be
publicly mentioned in solemn assembly. — But the greater part of the
inhabitants of the world are to this day gross, barbarous heathens, who
have not the knowledge of the true God, but worship idols and devils,
with all manner of absurd and foolish rites and ceremonies, and are destitute
of even common civility: multitudes of nations being like beasts in human
shape. — Now this barbarous ignorance and gross delusion being of such great
extent and continuance, shows that the cause is general, and that the
defect is in the corrupted nature of mankind, man’s natural blindness
and proneness of his heart to delusion.
IV. The sottish blindness and folly of the heart of men appears
in their being so prone to fall into such gross delusions, soon
after they have been favored with clear light. Were not the minds of men
exceeding dark, they never would entertain such absurd notions at all. For they
are as contrary as possible to reason. Much less would they fall into them
after they had once been instructed in the truth. For, were it not very strange
and great sottishness indeed, they would — when they come to be informed of the
truth, and have opportunity to compare it with those gross errors — behold such
a reasonableness in the truth, and such absurdity in those errors, that they
would never be in danger of being deluded by them any more. But yet so it is.
Mankind, after they have been fully instructed, and have lived in clear
light, have, time after time, presently lost the knowledge of the truth,
and have exchanged it for the most barbarous and brutish notions.
So it was early after the flood, whereby the wicked world,
those that were visibly so, were destroyed; and none were left but those who
professed the true religion. And they had such an eminently holy man as Noah to
instruct them. And though the true God had so wonderfully and astonishingly
manifested himself in that great work of vengeance against his enemies; yet the
posterity of Noah, in great part, presently lost the knowledge of the true God,
and fell away to idolatry, and that even while Noah was living. And the
ancestors of Abraham were tainted with that idolatry, even Terah his own
father. “And Joshua said unto all the people, thus saith the Lord God of
Israel, your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even
Terah the father of Abraham, and father of Nachor: and they served other gods.
And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood,” etc. (Jos.
24:2, 3, 4). It seems as though Abraham was called away from his father’s
house, and from his own country, for this reason that the country was overrun
with idolatry.
And even many of the posterity of Abraham and Isaac
— Abraham’s posterity by Hagar and Keturah, and that part of Isaac’s posterity
which were of Esau — though the true religion was so thoroughly taught and
practiced in the houses of those holy patriarchs, and God had from time to time
so wonderfully and miraculously manifested himself to them, yet — soon cast off
the true God, and fell away to idolatry. For, not very long after, we read of
the posterity of Jacob as being the only people of God, that he had in
all the earth. — And so the people of that part of the land of Canaan, who were
under that holy king Melchizedeck, soon totally cast off the worship of the one
only true God, which he taught and maintained. For before Joshua brought in the
children of Israel, the inhabitants of that land were wholly given to idolatry.
So the people of the land of Uz, who were under the government of so great and
holy a man as Job, soon lost the knowledge of the true God, and all those
religious truths which were then known among them, and sunk into gross
idolatry.
So the posterity of Jacob, themselves — though God
had manifested himself to them, and had wrought such wonders for them in the
time of Jacob and Joseph, yet — presently fell to worship the gods of Egypt.
This appears from the words of Joshua, “Put away the gods which your fathers served
on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt.” (Jos. 24:14). And how soon did
they fall to worship a golden calf in the wilderness, in the midst of the
wonderful and miraculous manifestations of the one only true God! And
notwithstanding idolatry was so strictly forbidden, and the folly and
wickedness of it so clearly manifested, in the law of Moses and in God’s
providence. Yet, how soon did they fall into idolatry after they were brought
into the land of Canaan! And when God raised up eminent men, judges to instruct
and govern them, and reclaim them from their idolatrous practices, from time to
time. Though they professed to be convinced of their foolish delusion, yet they
would soon fall again into the most sottish idolatry. And this they did soon
after such great light as they enjoyed in the time of Samuel, David, and
Solomon. And so, from time to time, down to the Babylonish captivity.
And in the apostles’ times, when such great things
were done to rouse the attention of mankind, and such great light was spread
over many nations, multitudes, after they had been instructed in the Christian
religion by the apostles and others, fell away into the grossest heresies, and
embraced the most corrupt and absurd notions. — After the Roman empire had been
converted from heathenism to Christianity, and the light of the gospel had
driven out the sottish ignorance and gross absurdities of pagan idolatry, in
which they had continued so long, they soon began to fall away from the truth
into antichristian superstition and idolatry, in which are opinions and
practices no less absurd than those of the heathen. And a great part of the
Christian world fell away to Mahometanism.
And since the reformation, wherein God wonderfully
restored gospel light in a great part of the Christian world, which was but
about two hundred years ago, many are fallen away again, some to popery,
some to gross heresies, and some to atheistical principles. So
that the reformed church is greatly diminished. — And as to our nation in
particular, which has been a nation favored with light, since the reformation,
above most, if not any in the world; how soon has it in great part fallen away!
A great part of it to atheism, deism, and gross infidelity. And
others to Arminianism, and to the Socinian and Arian heresies, to believe that
Christ is a created dependent God. And to hold other foolish absurdities! And
many have of late openly disputed and denied the moral evil of some of the
greatest and most heinous vices.
These things show how desperately prone mankind are to
blindness and delusion, how addicted they are to darkness. — God now and then,
by his instructions lifts up some nations out of such gross darkness. But then,
how do they sink down into it again, as soon as his hand is withdrawn! Like a
heavy stone, which, though it may be forced upwards, yet sinks down again. And
will continue to sink lower and lower with a swift progress, if there be
nothing to restrain it. That is the woeful tendency of the mind of man since
the fall, notwithstanding his noble powers and faculties; even to sink down
into a kind of brutality, to lose and extinguish all useful light, and to sink
lower and lower into darkness.
V. The extreme and brutish blindness that possesses the
hearts of men naturally, appears in their being so confident in gross
errors and delusions. Some things mentioned already show how confident and
assured they are, particularly, their running such great ventures as offering
up their children and cutting and mangling themselves. Multitudes live and die
in the most foolish and absurd notions and principles, and never seem to make
any doubt of their being in the right.
The Mahometans seem to make no doubt but that, when
they die, they shall go to such a paradise as Mahomet has promised them. Where
they shall live in all manner of sensual pleasures, and shall spend their time
in gratifying the lusts of the flesh. Mahomet promised them that all who die in
war for the defense of the Mahometan religion, shall go to this paradise. And
they make no doubt of it. Therefore, many of them, as it were, willingly rush
on upon the point of the sword.
The papists, many of them at least, make no doubt
of the truth of those foolish notions of a purgatory, and the power of
the priests to deliver them out of it, and give them eternal life. And
therefore will not spare vast sums of money to purchase deliverance from those
imaginary torments. How confident are many heretics in the grossest
heresies! and how bold are many deists in their infidelity!
VI. The desperateness of that blindness which is in the
heart of man, appears, in that no nation or people in the world ever have had
any remedy or deliverance from such gross ignorance and delusion, from themselves.
No instance can be mentioned of any people whatsoever, who have once fallen
into heathenish darkness, or any other gross superstitions and ridiculous
opinions in religion, that ever had any remedy by any wisdom of their own.
Or that have, of themselves, grown wiser by the improvement of their own
faculties, and by instructing one another. Or that ever had any remedy at all,
by the teaching of any wise men, who did not professedly act as moved and
directed of God, and did not declare, that they had their instructions, in the
first place, from him.
Thus in the heathen world. Before Christ’s time,
the whole world, except the Jews, lay in their darkness for a great many
hundred years, even beyond all time of which they had any certain history among
them. And there was no remedy, nor any appearance of a remedy; they continued,
ages after ages, waxing worse and worse, sinking deeper and deeper. Among all
the many nations in the world, no one ever bethought themselves, and emerged
out of their brutish darkness. There were indeed some nations that emerged out
of slavery, cast off the yoke of their enemies, grew great, and conquered great
part of the world. But they never conquered the blindness of their own hearts.
There were some nations who excelled in other knowledge,
as the Greeks and Romans. They excelled in policy, and in the form of their
civil government. They had wise political rulers. They had excellent laws for
regulating their civil state, many of which have been imitated, as a pattern,
by many Christian nations ever since. They excelled many other nations in arts,
government, and civility, almost as much as men in common do beasts. Yet they
never could deliver themselves from their heathenism. Though they were
so wise in other things, yet in matters of religion they were very absurd and
brutish. For even the Greeks and Romans, in their most flourishing state,
worshipped innumerable gods. And some to whom they ascribed great vices.
And some they worshipped with most obscene and horrid rites. To some they
offered human sacrifices. The Romans had a temple dedicated to the furies,
which they worshipped. And they had a multitude of childish notions and fables
about their gods.
And though there were raised up some wise men and
philosophers among the Greeks and Romans, who borrowed some things concerning
the true God from the Jews; yet their instructions never were effectual to
deliver any one people, or even one city or town, from
their barbarous heathenism, or so much as to get any one society, or
company of men, to unite in the public worship of the true God. And
these philosophers themselves had many grossly absurd opinions, mingled with
those scraps of truth which they had gathered up.
And the Jews, when fallen away to idolatry, as they
often did, never recovered of themselves. Never any remedy appeared,
unless God raised up, and extraordinarily moved, some person to reprove and
instruct them. — And in this age of knowledge, an age wherein learning
is carried to a great height, even many learned men seem to be carried away
with the gross errors and fooleries of the popish religion.
Europe is a part of the world the most famed for
arts and sciences of any. And these things have been carried to a much greater
height in this age than in many others. Yet many learned men in Europe at this
day, who greatly excel in human arts and literature, are still under popish
darkness. A deceived heart has turned them aside. Nor do they seem to have any
power to deliver their souls. Nor does it come into their minds that there is a
lie in their right hands.
Many men in France and in other countries, who are
indeed men of great learning, knowledge, and abilities, yet seem really to
think that the church of Rome is the only true church of Christ. And are
zealous to uphold and propagate it. And though now, within this hundred years,
human learning has been very much promoted, and has risen to a greater height
than ever in the world. And has greatly increased not only in our nation, but
in France and Italy, and other popish countries. Yet there seems to be no such
effect of it, as any considerable turning from popish delusions. But the church
of Rome has rather increased of late, than otherwise.
And in England, a land wherein learning flourishes
as much as in any in the world, and which is perhaps the most favored with
light of any, there are many men of vast learning, and great and strong reason,
who have embraced, and do at this day embrace, the gross errors of the Arians
and Deists. Our nation, in all its light and learning, if full of infidels,
and those that are further from Christianity than the very Mahometans
themselves. Of so little avail is human strength, or human reason and learning,
as a remedy against the extreme blindness of the human mind. The blindness of
the mind, or an inclination to delusion in things of religion is so strong that
is will overcome the greatest learning, and the strongest natural reason.
Men, if let alone, will not help one another. Nor will
they help themselves. The disease always proves without remedy, unless God
delivers. This was observed of old. “And none considereth in his heart, neither
is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burnt part of it in the
fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted
flesh, and eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall
I fall down to the stock of a tree? He feeds on ashes: a deceived heart has
turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie
in my right hand? (Isa. 44:19, 20).
If God lets men alone, no light arises. But the darkness
grows thicker and thicker. How is it now, at this very day, among all the
nations where the light of the gospel has not come? Many of whose ancestors,
without doubt, have been in the midnight darkness of heathenism for above three
thousand years. And not one people have delivered themselves, who have not had
the light of the gospel. And this is not owing to their want of as good natural
abilities as we have. Nor is it because they have an inclination more to
neglect their natural abilities, or make a worse improvement of them than we.
VII. The extreme blindness of man’s heart, in matters of
religion, appears by men falling into gross delusions, or continuing in them,
at the same time that they have been under great means of instruction
from God. We have many instances of this; as Rachel in Jacob’s family; and the
Israelites in the wilderness, etc. These last had great means of instruction.
Yet they set up the golden calf, etc. And after Joshua’s time, they persisted
in their delusions and folly, from time to time, even under the reproofs of the
prophets, and even in such horrid delusions, so contrary to natural affection,
as offering their children in sacrifice to Moloch, burning them alive, in a
most cruel manner.
In the time of Christ and the apostles, the Jews had great
means of instruction, and most of the nations of the world were put under great
advantages to come to the knowledge of the truth. Yet what was the effect? It
would be easy to pursue these remarks respecting the papists in the time of the
reformation, and since — the Arians and Deists in our day, etc. — but what has
been said may be quite sufficient, if the reader will but indulge reflection.
VIII. The exceedingly great blindness of men, in things of
religion, appears in the endless disputes and controversies, that there
have been, and are, among men, about those things which concern religion. — Of
old, the wise men and philosophers among the heathen, were, so to speak,
infinitely divided among themselves. Varro, who was one of them, reckons up
several hundred opinions about that one point, Wherein man’s happiness
consisted? And they were continually in disputes one with another. But the
effect of their disputes was not any greater union, or any better agreement in
their opinions. They were as much divided after they had disputed many ages, as
they were at first. Yea, much more.
So there have long been disputes in the Christian
world about opinions and principles in religion. There is a vast variety of
sects and opinions. And disputes have been carried on, age after age, with
great warmth, and thousands of volumes have been written one against another.
And all these disputes have not terminated the differences, but they still
subsist as much as ever. Yea, they increase and multiply more and more. Instead
of ending controversies by disputing, one dispute only lays a foundation for
another. And thus the world goes on jangling and contending, daily writing and
printing. Being as it were deluged with controversial books. And all to no
purpose.
The increase of human learning does not bring these
controversies to an issue, but does really increase and multiply them. There
probably never was a time in our nation wherein there was such a vast variety
of opinions in matters of religion, as at this day. Every now and then, a new
scheme of things is broached, and various and contrary opinions are mixed and
jumbled, divided and subdivided. And every new writer is willing to have the
credit of some new notion.
And after this manner does this miserable world go on in
endless confusion, like a great multitude of fool-hardy persons, who go on in
the dark, stumbling and justling one against another, without perceiving any
remedy for their own, or affording any for their neighbor’s, calamity. — Thus I
have shown how the extreme blindness that possesses the hearts of men is
manifest in what appears in their profession.
SECTION III
Men’s extreme blindness manifested by inward
experience, and especially in their practices under the gospel.
I COME now to show, how this is manifest in those things
that are found by inward experience, and are visible in men’s practices
under the light of the gospel.
I. This appears in their being so prone to be deceived
so many ways, or being liable to such a multiplicity of deceits. There
are thousands of delusions in things which concern the affairs of religion,
that men commonly are led away with, who yet live under the light of the
gospel. — They are many ways deceived about God. They think him to be an
exceeding diverse kind of being from what he is, altogether such an one as
themselves (Psa. 50:21). They are deceived about his holiness, they do
not realize it, that he is such a holy being as he indeed is, or that he hates
sin with such a hatred as he declares he does. They are not convinced of his truth,
or that he certainly will fulfill his threatenings or his promises. They are
not convinced of his justice in punishing sin, as he does. They have
very wrong notions of Christ. They are not convinced of his ability
to save them, or of the sufficiency of his sacrifice and righteousness,
nor of his willingness to receive them.
Men are commonly subject to a great many errors about
their duty. They are ready to bring their principles to agree with their
practices, instead of bringing their practices to their principles, as they
ought to do. They will put innumerable false glosses on the rules of God’s
Word, to bend them to a compliance with their lusts. And so they “put darkness
for light, and light for darkness; bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.”
They are subject to deceits and delusions about the things
of this world. They imagine that there is happiness and satisfaction to
be found in the profits, pleasures, and honors, which are to be had here. They
believe all the deluding flatteries and promises of a vain world. And they will
hold that deceit and grand delusion, that these things are the highest good.
And will act accordingly; will choose these things for their portion. And they
will hold and practice upon that error, that these things are of long
continuance, and are to be depended upon.
They are greatly deceived about the things of another
world. They undervalue that heavenly glory, which is promised to the
saints. And are not much terrified with what they hear of the damnation of
hell. They cannot realize it, that its torments are so dreadful as they hear,
and are very ready to imagine that they are not eternal, but will some time or
other have an end.
They are deceived about the state of good men. They
think they are not happy, but live a melancholy life. And they are deceived
about the wicked. They envy the state of many of them as accounting them
well off. “They call the proud happy (Mal. 3:15), and bless the covetous, whom
God abhors.” (Psa. 10:3). And they strive a great deal more after such
enjoyments as these have, than after such as are the portion of the godly.
They are subject to a thousand deceits and delusions about
themselves. They think themselves wise, when they are fools. They are
deceived about their own hearts. They think them much better than they really
are. They think they see many good things in themselves, when indeed there is
nothing good there. They appear lovely in their own eyes, when their hearts are
like the inside of a grave, full of dead men’s bones and rotten flesh, crawling
worms, and all uncleanness. Or rather, the inward vault of hell, that is a
habitation of devils and every foul spirit. Those things in their hearts are
highly esteemed by them, which are an abomination in the sight of God.
Men are very prone to be deceived about their own state,
to think themselves something when they are nothing, and to suppose themselves
“rich and increased in goods, and to have need of nothing, when they are
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” They are greatly
deceived about the principles they act from. They think they are sincere
in that in which there is no sincerity. And that they do those things from love
to God, which they do only from love to themselves. They call mere speculative
or natural knowledge, spiritual knowledge; and put conscience for grace; a
servile, for a childlike fear; and common affections, that are only from
natural principles, and have no abiding effect, for high discoveries, and
eminent actings of grace. Yea, it is common with men to call their vicious
dispositions by the name of some virtue. They call their anger and malice, zeal
for a righteous cause, or zeal for the public good. And their covetousness, frugality.
They are vastly deceived about their own righteousness.
They think their affections and performances lovely to God, which are indeed
hateful to him. They think their tears, reformations, and prayers, sufficient
to make atonement for their sins, when indeed if all the angels in heaven
should offer themselves in sacrifice to God, it would not be sufficient to
atone for one of their sins. They think their prayers and works, and religious
doings a sufficient price to purchase God’s favor and eternal glory. When, as
they perform them, they do nothing but merit hell.
They are greatly deceived about their strength.
They think they are able to mend their own hearts, and work some good
principles in themselves. When they can do no more towards it, than a dead corpse
does towards raising itself to life. They vainly flatter themselves, they are
able to come to Christ, when they are not. They are greatly deceived about the stability
of their own hearts. They foolishly think their own intentions and resolutions
of what good they will do hereafter, to be depended on. When indeed there is no
dependence at all to be had on them. They are greatly deceived about their opportunities.
They think that the long continuance of their opportunity is to be depended on,
and that tomorrow it is to be boasted of. When indeed there is the utmost
uncertainty of it. They flatter themselves that they shall have a better
opportunity to seek salvation hereafter, than they have now. When there is no
probability of it, but a very great improbability.
They are greatly deceived about their own actions and practices.
Their own faults are strangely hid from their eyes. They live in ways that are
very unbecoming Christians, but yet seem not to be at all sensible of it. Those
evil ways of theirs, which are very plain to others, are hid from them. Yea,
those very things, which they themselves account great faults in others, they
will justify themselves in. Those things for which they will be very angry with
others, they at the same time do themselves, and oftentimes in a much higher
degree, and never once think of it. While they are zealous to pull the mote out
of their brother’s eye, they know not that a beam is in their own eye.
Those sins that they commit, which they are sensible are
sins, they are woefully deceived about. They call great sins, little ones. And
in their own imaginations, find out many excuses, which make the guilt very
small, while the many heinous aggravations are hid from their eyes. They are
greatly deceived about themselves, when they compare themselves with others.
They esteem themselves better than their neighbors, who are indeed much better
than themselves. They are greatly deceived about themselves, when they compare
themselves with God. They are very insensible of the difference there is
between God and them, and act in many things as if they thought themselves his
equals. Yea, as if they thought themselves above him. Thus manifold are the
deceits and delusions that men fall into.
II. The desperate blindness that is natural to men appears
in their being so ignorant and blind in things that are so clear and plain.
Thus if we consider how great God is, and how dreadful sin against him must be,
and how much sin we are guilty of, and of what importance it is that his
infinite Majesty should be vindicated; how plain is it, that man’s
righteousness is insufficient! And yet how greatly will men confide in it! How
will they ascribe more to it, than can be ascribed to the righteousness of the
sinless and glorious angels of heaven. What can be more plain in itself, than
that eternal things are of infinitely greater importance than temporal things?
And yet how hard is it thoroughly to convince men of it! How plain is it, that
eternal misery in hell is infinitely to be dreaded! And yet how few appear to
be thoroughly convinced of this! How plain is it, that life is uncertain! And
yet how much otherwise do most men think! How plain is it, that it is the
highest prudence in matters of infinite concern to improve the first
opportunity, without trusting to another! But yet how few are convinced of
this! How reasonable is it, considering that God is a wise and just being, to
suppose that there shall be a future state of rewards and punishments, wherein
every man shall receive according to his works! And yet, how does this seem
like a dream to most men!
What can be in itself more plain and manifest, and easily
to be known by us, if it were not for a strange blindness, than we are to
ourselves, who are always with, never absent from ourselves; always in our own
view, before our own eyes; who have opportunity to look into our own hearts,
and see all that passes there? And yet what is there that men are more ignorant
of, than they are of themselves! There are many vicious practices, the
unlawfulness of which is very plain, the sins are gross, and contrary not only
to the Word of God, but to the light of nature. And yet men will often plead,
there is no harm in such sins. Such as, many acts of gross uncleanness; and
many acts of fraud, injustice and deceitfulness; and many others that might be
mentioned.
There is no one thing whatsoever more plain and manifest,
and more demonstrable, than the being of a God. It is manifest in ourselves, in
our own bodies and souls, and in everything about us wherever we turn our eye,
whether to heaven, or to the earth, the air, or the seas. And yet how prone is
the heart of man to call this into question! So inclined is the heart of man to
blindness and delusion, that it is prone to even atheism itself.
III. The great blindness of the heart of man appears, in
that so little a thing will deceive him, and confound his judgment. A
little self-interest, or only the bait of some short gratification of a sensual
appetite, or a little stirring of passion, will blind men’s eyes, and make them
argue and judge most strangely and perversely, and draw the most absurd
conclusion, such as, if they were indifferent, they would see to be most
unreasonable. The devil finds easy work to deceive them a thousand ways; an
argument of the great weakness and blindness of our minds. As a little child,
weak in understanding, is very easily deceived.
IV. The woeful blindness that possesses the hearts of men
naturally, appears in their being all totally ignorant of that in God,
which they had most need to know; viz. the glory and excellency
of his nature. Though our faculties, which we have above the beasts, were
chiefly given us that we might know this, and though without this knowledge all
other will signify nothing to us, and our faculties are as capable of it, as of
any other knowledge whatsoever — and which is as plainly and abundantly
manifested as anything whatsoever, innumerable ways, both in the word and works
of God — yet all men naturally are totally ignorant of this. As ignorant as one
born blind is of colors. Natural men of the greatest abilities and learning,
are as ignorant of it as the weakest and the most unlearned. Yea, as ignorant
as the very stocks and stones. For they see, and can see nothing at all of it.
V. It appears, in that they are so blind in those same
things in religious matters, which they are sufficiently sensible of in
other matters. In temporal things they are very sensible that it is a point of
prudence to improve the first opportunity in things of great importance. But in
matters of religion, which are of infinitely the greatest importance, they have
not this discernment. In temporal matters they are sensible that it is a great
folly long to delay and put off, when life is in danger, and all depends upon
it. But in the concerns of their souls, they are insensible of this truth. So
in the concerns of this world, they are sensible it is prudence to improve
times of special advantage, and to embrace a good offer when made them. They
are sensible that things of long continuance are of greater importance, than
those of short duration. Yet in religious concerns, none of these things are
sensibly discerned. In temporal things they are sufficiently sensible, that it
is a point of prudence to lay up for hereafter, in summer to lay up for winter,
and to lay up for their families, after they are dead. But men do not generally
discern the prudence of making a proper provision for a future state. — In matters
of importance in this world, they are sensible of the wisdom of taking thorough
care to be on sure grounds. But in their soul’s concerns they see nothing of
this. Our Savior observed this to be the case with the Jews when he was upon
earth. “Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky, and of the earth:
but how is it that ye do not discern this time?” (Luke 12:56)
VI. The desperate blindness that naturally possesses the
hearts of men under the gospel, appears in their remaining so stupidly insensible
and deceived, under so great means of instruction and conviction. If they were
brought up under heathenish darkness, it would not be so full a demonstration
of it. But thus they remain, though under the clearest light, under the
glorious light of the gospel, where they enjoy God’s own instructions in his
word, in a great fullness and plainness, and have the evidence and truth of
things set before them from time to time in the plainest manner. They have the
arguments of God’s being and perfection, and of another world. They are told
how eternal things are of greater importance than temporal, and of what
importance it is to escape eternal misery. How much it is worth while to take
pains for heavenly glory, and how vain their own righteousness is. But yet to
what little purpose!
And they have not only great means of instruction in God’s
Word, but also in providence. They have the evidence of the shortness and
uncertainty of life. “He seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the
brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.” Yet “their inward
thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their
dwelling-places to all generations: they call their lands after their own
names. nevertheless man being in honor, abideth not: he is like the beasts that
perish. This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their
sayings.” They find the world is vain and unsatisfactory. They find the great
instability and treachery of their own hearts, and how their own good
intentions and resolutions are not to be depended on. They often find by
experience that their attempts to make them better, fail. But, alas! With what
small effect!
Such abundant evidence is there, both in what appears in
the open profession of men, and also by what is found in their inward
experience, and is evident in their practice, of the extreme
and brutish ignorance and blindness, which naturally possess their hearts.
SECTION IV
Practical inferences and application of the
subject.
HAVING shown how the truth of the doctrine is evident,
both by what appears in men’s open profession, and by those things which
are found by inward experience, and are manifest by what
is visible in men’s practice, I proceed to improve the subject.
I. By this we may see how manifest are the ruins of
the fall of man. It is observable in all the kinds of God’s creatures
that we behold, that they have those properties and qualities, which are every
way proportioned to their end. So that they need no more, they stand in need of
no greater degree of perfection, in order well to answer the special use for
which they seem to be designed. The brute creatures, birds, beasts, fishes, and
insects, though there be innumerable kinds of them, yet all seem to have such a
degree of perception and perfection given them, as best suits their place in
the creation, their manner of living, and the ends for which they were made.
There is no defect visible in them. They are perfect in their kind. There seems
to be nothing wanting, in order to their filling up their allotted place in the
world. And there can be no reasonable doubt but that it was so at first with
mankind. It is not reasonable to suppose, that God would make many thousands of
kinds of creatures in this lower world, and one kind the highest of them all,
to be the head of the rest, and that all the rest should be complete in their
kinds, every way endowed with such qualifications as are proportioned to their
use and end. And only this most noble creature of all, left exceeding
imperfect, notoriously destitute of what he principally stands in need of to
answer the end of his being. The principal faculty by which God has
distinguished this noble creature from the rest, is his understanding. But
would God so distinguish man in his creation from other creatures, and then
seal up that understanding with such an extreme blindness, as to render it
useless, as to the principal ends of it, and wholly to disenable him from
answering the ends of an intelligent creature, and to make his understanding
rather a misery than a blessing to him, and rendering him much more mischievous
than useful? Therefore, if the Scripture had not told us so, yet we might
safely conclude, that mankind are not now, as they were made at first. But that
they are in a fallen state and condition.
II. From what has been said, plainly appears the necessity
of divine revelation. The deists deny the Scripture to be the Word of
God, and hold that there is no revealed religion, that God has given
mankind no other rule but his own reason, who is sufficient, without any word
or revelation from heaven, to give man a right understanding of divine things,
and of his duty. But how is it proved in fact? How much trial has there been, whether
man’s reason, without a revelation, would be sufficient or not! The whole
world, excepting one nation, had the trial till the coming of Christ. And was
not this long enough for trial, whether man’s reason alone was sufficient to
instruct him? Those nations, who all that time lay in such gross darkness, and
in such a deplorable helpless condition, had the same natural reason that the
deists have. And during this time, there was not only one man, or a succession
of single persons, that had the trial, whether their own reason would be
sufficient to lead them to the knowledge of the truth. But all nations, who all
had the same human faculties that we have. If human reason is really
sufficient, and there be no need of anything else, why has it never proved so?
Why has it never happened, that so much as one nation, or one city or town, or
one assembly of men, have been brought to tolerable notions of divine things,
unless it be by the revelation contained in the Scriptures? If it were only one
nation that had remained in such darkness, the trial might not be thought so
great, because one particular people might be under some disadvantages, which
were peculiar. But thus it has been with all nations, except those which
have been favored with the Scriptures, and in all ages. Where is any
people, who to this day have ever delivered themselves by their own reason, or
have been delivered without light fetched from the Scriptures, or by means of
the gospel of Jesus Christ?
If human reason is sufficient without the Scripture, is it
not strange that, in these latter ages — since navigation has been so improved,
and America and many other parts of the world have been discovered, which were
before unknown — no one nation has anywhere been found already enlightened, and
possessed of true notions about the Divine Being and his perfections, by virtue
of that human reason they have been possessed of so many thousand years? The
many poor, barbarous nations here, in America, had the faculty of reason
to do what they pleased with, before the Europeans came hither, and
brought over the light of the gospel. If human reason alone was sufficient, it
is strange, that no one people were found, in any corner of the land, who were
helped by it, in the chief concern of man.
There has been a great trial, as to what men’s reason can
do without divine help, in those endless disputes that have been maintained. If
human reason alone could help mankind, it might be expected that these disputes
would have helped them, and have put an end to men’s darkness. The heathen
philosophers had many hundreds of years to try their skill in this way. But all
without effect. That divine revelation, which the church of God has been
possessed of, has been in the world “as a light shining in a dark place.” (2 Peter
1:19) It is the only remedy which God has provided for the miserable, brutish
blindness of mankind, a remedy without which this fallen world would have sunk
down forever in brutal barbarism without any remedy. It is the only means that
the true God has made successful in his providence, to give the nations of the
world the knowledge of himself; and to bring them off from the worship of false
gods.
If human reason be the only proper means, the means
that God has designed for enlightening mankind, is it not very strange, that it
has not been sufficient, nor has answered this end in any one instance? All the
right speculative knowledge of the true God, which the deists themselves
have, has been derived from divine revelation. How vain is it to dispute
against fact, and the experience of so many thousand years! And to pretend that
human reason is sufficient without divine revelation, when so many thousand
years’ experience, among so many hundreds of nations of different tempers,
circumstances, and interests, has proved the contrary! One would think all
should acknowledge, that so long a time is sufficient for a trial, especially
considering the miseries that the poor nations of the world have been under all
this while, for want of light: the innumerable temporal calamities and
miseries — such as sacrificing children, and many other cruelties to others,
and even to themselves — besides that eternal perdition, which we may
reasonably suppose to be the consequence of such darkness.
III. This doctrine should make us sensible, how great a mercy
it is to mankind, that God has sent his own Son into the world, to be the light
of the world. — The subject shows what great need we stand in of some teacher
to be sent from God. And even some of the wiser men among the heathen saw
the need of this. They saw that they disputed and jangled among
themselves without coming to a satisfying discovery of the truth; and hence
they saw, and spoke of, the need there was of a teacher sent from heaven.
And it is a wonderful instance of divine mercy that God has so beheld us
in our low estate, as to provide such a glorious remedy. He has not merely sent
some created angel to instruct us, but his own Son, who is in the
bosom of the Father, and of the same nature and essence with him. And therefore
infinitely better acquainted with him, and more sufficient to teach a blind
world. He has sent him to be the light of the world, as he says of himself, “I
am come a light into the world.” (John 12:46) When he came, he brought glorious
light. It was like the day-spring from on high, visiting a dark world, as
Zacharias observes (Luke 1:77, 78, 79). After Christ came, then the glorious
gospel began to spread abroad, delivering those “that had sitten in darkness,
and in the region of the shadow of death.”
What reason have we to rejoice, and praise God, that he
has made such excellent provision for us, and has set so glorious a sun in our
firmament, such a “Sun of righteousness,” after we had extinguished the light
which at first enlightened us, and had, as it were, brought the world into that
state, in which it was when “without form, and void, and darkness was on the
face of it.” (Jer. 4:22, 23) — The glory of that light which God has sent into
the world is fully answerable to the grossness of that darkness which filled
it. For Christ who came to enlighten us is truth and light itself, and the
fountain of all light. “He is the light, and in him is no darkness at
all.” (1 John 1:5)
IV. Hence we may learn, what must be the thing which will
bring to pass those glorious days of light, which are spoken of in God’s Word.
— Though mankind be fallen into such darkness, and the world be mostly in the
kingdom of darkness; yet the Scripture often speaks of a glorious day,
wherein light shall fill the earth. “For behold the darkness shall cover the
earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and
his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light,
and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” (Isa. 60:2, 3.) “And he will
destroy in this mountain, the face of the covering cast over all people, and
the veil that is spread over all nations.” (Isa. 25:7) “The knowledge of God
shall fill the earth, as the waters cover the sea.” (Isa. 11:9)
By what we have heard, we may on good grounds conclude,
that whenever this is accomplished, it will not be effected by human learning,
or by the skill or wisdom of great men. What has been before observed of this
learned age, is a presumptive evidence of it, wherein spiritual darkness increases
with the increase of learning. God will again make foolish the wisdom of this
world. And will, as it were, say in his providence, “Where is the wise? where
is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world?”
When this shall be accomplished, it will be by a
remarkable pouring out of God’s own Spirit, with the plain preaching of the
gospel of his Son, the preaching of the spiritual, mysterious doctrines of
Christ crucified, which to the learned men of this world are foolishness. Those
doctrines, which are the stumbling-block of this learned age. “Not by
might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” It will not be
by the enticing words of man’s wisdom, but by the demonstration of the Spirit
and of power. Not by the wisdom of this world, nor by the princes of this
world, that come to nought. But by the gospel, that contains the wisdom of God
in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which none of the princes of this world,
who have nothing to enlighten them but their own learning, know anything of.
The Spirit of God, who searches all things, even the deep
things of God, must reveal it. For let natural men be never so worldly wise and
learned, they receive not the things of the Spirit. They are foolishness to
them. Nor can they know them, because they are spiritually discerned. This
great effect, when it is accomplished, will be a glorious effect indeed. And it
will be accomplished in such a manner, as most remarkably to show it to be the
work of God, and his only. It will be a more glorious work of God than that
which we read of in the beginning of Genesis. “And the earth was without form
and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters: and God said, Let there be light, and there
was light.” (Gen. 1:2, 3)
V. Hence we may learn the misery of all such persons, as
are under the power of that darkness which naturally possesses their hearts.
There are two degrees of this misery.
First, that of which all who are in a natural
condition are the subjects. The doctrine shows that all such as are in a
natural condition, are in a miserable condition. For they are in an extremely
dark and blind condition. It is uncomfortable living in darkness. What a
sorrowful state would we all be in, if the sun should no more rise upon us, and
the moon were to withdraw her shining, and stars to be put out, and we were to
spend the rest of our time in darkness! The world would soon perish in such
darkness. It was a great plague in Egypt, when they had a total darkness for
three days. They who are deprived of sight, are deprived of the most noble of
the senses. They have no benefit of eternal light, one of the most excellent
and needful of all the things which God has made in the visible creation. But
they who are without spiritual sight and light, are destitute of that which is
far more excellent and necessary.
That natural men are not sensible of their
blindness, and the misery they are under by reason of it, is no argument that
they are not miserable. For it is very much the nature of this calamity to be
hid from itself, or from those who are under it. Fools are not sensible of
their folly. Solomon says, “the fool is wiser in his own conceit, than seven
men that can render a reason.” (Pro. 26:16) The most barbarous and brutish
heathens are not sensible of their own darkness, are not sensible but that they
enjoy as great light, and have as good understanding of things, as the most enlightened
nations in the world.
Second, another degree of this misery is of those
who are judicially given up of God, to the blindness of their own minds. The
Scripture teaches us that there are some such. “What then; Israel hath not
obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and the
rest were blinded.” (Rom. 11:7) “But their minds were blinded; for until this
day remaineth the same veil untaken away.” (2 Cor. 3:14) “And he said, Go and
tell this people, Hear ye indeed, and understand not; and see ye indeed, and
perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and their ears heavy, and shut
their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and
understand with their hearts, and convert and be healed.” (Isa. 6:6, 10) This
judgment, when inflicted, is commonly for the contempt and abuse of light which
has been offered, for the commission of presumptuous sins, and for being
obstinate in sin, and resisting the Holy Ghost, and many gracious calls and
counsels, warnings and reproofs.
Who the particular persons are, that are thus judicially
given up of God to the blindness of their minds, is not known to men. But we
have no reason to suppose that there are not multitudes of them, and most in
places of the greatest light. There is no manner of reason to suppose that this
judgment, which is spoken of in Scripture, is in a great measure peculiar
to those old times. As there were many who fell under it in the times of the
prophets of old, and of Christ and his apostles. So doubtless there are now
also. And though the persons are not known, yet doubtless there may be more
reason to fear it concerning some than others. All who are under the power of
the blindness of their own minds are miserable. But such as are given up to
this blindness, are especially miserable. For they are reserved, and sealed
over to the blackness of darkness forever.
SECTION V
Address to sinners.
THE consideration of what has been said of the desperate
blindness which possesses the hearts of us all naturally, may well be
terrifying to such as are yet in a Christless condition, in this place of
light, where the gospel has been so long enjoyed, and where God has in times
past so wonderfully poured out his Spirit.
And let such persons, for their awakening, consider the
following things:
First, that they are blinded by the god of this
world. Their blindness is from hell. This darkness which natural men are under,
is from the prince of darkness. This the apostle says expressly of those who
remain in unbelief and blindness under the gospel. “But if our gospel be hid,
it is hid from them that are lost; in whom the God of this world hath blinded
the minds of them that believe not.” (2 Cor. 4:3, 4) They belong to the kingdom
of darkness. In that darkness which reigns in their souls, the devil reigns.
And he holds his dominion there.
Second, consider how God in his word manifests his
abhorrence and wrath towards those who remain so sottishly blind and ignorant,
in the midst of light. How does God speak of them! “Have all the workers of
iniquity no knowledge?” (Psa. 14:4) “Forty years long was I grieved with this
generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have
not known my ways. Unto whom I sware in my wrath, that they should not enter into
my rest.” (Psa. 95:10, 11) “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s
crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah, sinful nation!
— they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger.” (Isa. 1:3, 4) “It is a
people of no understanding; therefore he that made them will not have mercy on
them, and he that formed them will show them no favour.” (Isa. 27:10, 11) “My
people is foolish, they have not known me, they are sottish children, and they
have no understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have non
knowledge.” (Jer. 4:22) “Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in
the house of Judah, saying, Hear now this, O foolish people, and without
understanding, which have eyes and see not, which have ears and hear not. Fear
ye not ME, saith the Lord; will ye not tremble at MY presence?” (Jer. 5:20, 21,
22)
Third, consider how much willfulness there
is in your ignorance. Sinners are ready wholly to excuse themselves in their
blindness; whereas, as observed already, the blindness that naturally possesses
the hearts of men, is not a merely negative thing. But they are blinded by “the
deceitfulness of sin.” (Heb. 3:13) There is a perverseness in their blindness.
There is not a mere absence of light, but a malignant opposition to the light.
As God says, “they know not, neither will they understand, they walk on in
darkness.” (Psa. 82:5) Christ observes, “that every one that doeth evil, hateth
the light, neither cometh to the light.” And that “this is their condemnation,
that light is come into the world, yet men loved darkness rather than light.”
(John 3:19, 20) And I may appeal to your own consciences, whether you have no
willfully rejected the many instructions you have had, and refused to hearken?
Whether you have not neglected to seek after the light, and neglected your
Bible? Whether you have not been a very negligent hearer of the word preached,
and neglected other proper means of knowledge? Whether you have not neglected
to cry to God for that wisdom which you need? Yea, have you not resisted the
means of knowledge? Have you not resisted and quenched the motions of the
Spirit, which at times you have had? And taken a course to make yourself more
and more stupid, by stifling the convictions of your own conscience, and doing
contrary to the light thereof; whereby you have done those things that have
tended to sear your conscience, and make yourself more and more senseless and
sottish?
Fourth, consider what is the course that God will
take to teach those who will not be taught by the instructions of his word. He
will teach them by briers and thorns, and by the flames of hell. Though natural
men will remain to all eternity ignorant of the excellency and loveliness of
God’s nature, and so will have no spiritual knowledge; yet God in another world
will make them thoroughly to understand many things, which senseless unawakened
sinners are sottishly ignorant of in this world. Their eyes in many respects
shall be thoroughly opened in hell. Their judgments will be rectified. They
shall be of the same judgment with the godly. They shall be convinced of the reality
of those things which they would not be convinced of here: as the being of God,
his power, holiness, and justice, that the Scriptures are the Word of God, that
Christ is the Son of God, and that time is short and uncertain. They will be
convinced of the vanity of the world, of the blessed opportunity they had in
the world, and how much it is men’s wisdom to improve their time. We read of
the rich man, who was so sottishly blind in this world, that “in hell he lift
up his eyes, and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.” (Luke 16:23)
With many men, alas! the first time they open their eyes is in hell.
God will make all men to know the truth of those great
things which he speaks of in his word, one way or another. For he will
vindicate his own truth. He has undertaken to convince all men. They who will
not be convinced in this world, by the gentle and gracious methods which God
uses with them now, shall be convinced hereafter by severe means. If they will
not be convinced for salvation, they shall be convinced by damnation. God will
make them know that he is the Lord. And he will make them know that he bears
rule. “Consume them in wrath, that they may not be; and let them know that God
ruleth in Jacob, unto the ends of the earth.” (Psa. 59:13) “Let them be
confounded and troubled for ever: yea, let them be put to shame, and perish.
That men may know that thou, whose name is Jehovah, art the Most High over all
the earth.” (Psa. 83:17, 18)
What great care we had need all have, that we be not
deceived in matters of religion. If our hearts are all naturally possessed with
such an extreme brutish ignorance and blindness in things of religion, and we
are exceedingly prone to delusion, then surely great care ought to be taken to
avoid it. For that we are naturally prone to delusion, shows our danger. But
the greater our danger of any calamity is, the greater had our watchfulness
need to be. — Let us therefore be hence warned to take heed that we be not
deceived about our duty, about our own hearts, about our ways, about our state,
and about our opportunities. Thousands are deceived in these things, and
thousands perish by that means. Multitudes fall on our right hand and on our
left, and are ruined eternally by their delusion in these things.
How foolish a thing it is for men to lean to their own
understanding, and trust their own hearts. If we are so blind, then our own
wisdom is not to be depended on, and that advice of the wise man is most
reasonable. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own
understanding.” (Pro. 3:5) “And he that trusteth in his own heart, is a fool.”
(Pro. 28:26) — They therefore are fools, who trust to their own wisdom, and will
question the mysterious doctrines of religion, because they cannot see through
them, and will not trust to the infinite wisdom of God.
Let us therefore become fools. Be sensible of our own
natural blindness and folly. There is a treasure of wisdom contained in that
one sentence; “If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him
become a fool, that he may be wise.” (1 Cor. 3:18) Seeing our own ignorance,
and blindness, is the first step towards having true knowledge. “If any man
think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.”
(1 Cor. 8:2)
Let us ask wisdom of God. If we are so blind in ourselves,
then knowledge is not to be sought for out of our own stock, but must be sought
from some other source. And we have no where else to go for it, but to the
fountain of light and wisdom. True wisdom is a precious jewel. And none of our
fellow-creatures can give it us, nor can we buy it with any price we have to
give. It is the sovereign gift of God. The way to obtain it is to go to him
sensible of our weakness, and blindness, and misery on that account. “If any
lack wisdom, let him ask of God.” (Jam. 1:5).
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