66 but every man a liar." Nay truly, there are many who, in effect do hope that God will not be true to his word. There are thousands who hear the gospel, that hope to be saved, and think all safe with them for eternity, who never had any experience of the new birth, nor do at all concern themselves in that question, Whether they are born again or not? A question that is like to wear out from among us at this day. Our Lord's words are plain and peremptory, except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." What are such hopes then, but real hopes, that God (with profoundest reverence be it spoken) will recal his word, and that Christ will prove a false profit? What else means the sinner who, "when he heareth the words of the curse, blesseth himself in his heart saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart," Deut. xxix. 19. Lastly, how stand ye affected to the power of God? None but new creatures will love him for it, on a fair view thereof; though others may slavishly fear him, upon the account of it. There is not a natural man, but would contribute to the utmost of his to the building of another tower of Babel, to hem it in. these grounds I declare every unrenewed man an enemy to God. 66 power On SECONDLY. Ye are enemies to the Son of God. That enmity to Christ is in your hearts, which would have made you join the husbandman, whe "killed the heir, and cast him out of the vineyard:" if ye had been beset with their temptations, and no more restrained than they were. "Am I a dog," you will say, to have so treated my sweet Saviour? So said Hazael in another case: but when he had the temptation, he was a dog to do it. Many call Christ their sweet Saviour, whose consciences can bear witness, they never sucked so much sweetness from him as from their sweet lusts, which are ten times sweeter to them than their Saviour. He is no other way sweet to them than as they abuse his death and sufferings, for the peaceable enjoyment of their lusts; that they may live as they list in the world; and when they die, may be kept out of hell. Alas! it is but a mistaken Christ, that is sweet to you, whose souls loathe that Christ, "who is the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person." It is with you as it was with the carnal Jews, who delighted in him while they mistook his errand into the world, fancying that he would be a temporal deliverer, to them, Mal. iii. 1. But when he was come, and "sat as a refiner and purifier of silver." verse 2, 3. and cast them as reprobate silver, who thought to have had no small honour in the kingdom of the Messiah; his doctrine galled their consciences, and they rested not till they imbrued their hands in his blood. To open your eyes on this point, which ye are so loth to believe, I will lay before you, the enmity of your hearts against Christ and all his offices. 1. Every unregenerate man is an enemy to Christ in his prophetical office. He is appointed of the Father the great Prophet and Teacher; but not upon the world's call, who, in their natural state, would have unanimously voted against him. And therefore, when he came, he was condemned as a seducer and blasphemer. For evidence of this enmity, I will instance in two things. EVIDENCE 1. Consider the entertainment he meets with, when he comes to teach souls inwardly by his Spirit. Men do what they can to stop their ears, like the deaf adder, that they may not hear his voice. They always resist the Holy Ghost. They desire not the knowledge of his ways; and therefore bid him depart from them. The old calumny is often raised upon him, on that occasion, John x. 20. "He is mad, why hear ye him ?" Soul-exercise, raised by the spirit of bondage, is accounted by many, nothing else but distraction and melancholy fits; men thus blaspheming the Lord's work, because they themselves are beside themselves, and cannot judge of these matters. EVID. 2. Consider the entertainment he meets with, when he comes to teach men outwardly by his word. (1.) His written word, the Bible, is slighted: Christ has left it to us, as the book of our instructions, to show us what way we must steer our course, if we would come to Emanuel's land. It is a lamp to light us through a dark world to eternal light. And he hath left it upon us, to search it with that diligence, wherewith men dig into mines for silver and gold, John v. 39. But ah! how is this sacred treasure profaned by many! They ridicule the holy word, by which they must be judged at the last day; and will rather loose their souls than their jest, dressing up the conceit of their wanton wits in Scripture-phrases, in which they act as mad a part, as one who would dig into a mine to procure metal to melt, and pour down his own and his neighbour's throat. Many exhaust their spirits in reading romances, and their minds pursue them, as the flame doth the dry stubble; while they have no heart for, nor relish of the holy word, and therefore seldom take a Bible in their hands. What is agreeable to the vanity of their minds, is pleasant and taking; but what recommends holiness to their unholy hearts, makes their spirits dull and flat. H What pleasure will they find in reading of a profane ballad, or story book, to whom the Bible is tasteless, as the white of an egg! Many lay by their Bibles with their sabbath day's clothes: and whatever use they have for their clothes, they have none for their Bibles, till the return of the sabbath. Alas! the dust or finery about your Bibles, is a witness now, and will, at the last day, be a witness of the enmity of your hearts against Christ, as a Prophet. Besides all this, among those who ordinarily read the Scriptures, how few are there that read it as the word of the Lord to their souls, and keep communion with him in it. They do not make his statutes their counsellors; nor doth their particular case send them to their Bibles. They are strangers to the solid comfort of the Scriptures. And if at any time they be dejected, it is something else than the word that revives them as Ahab was cured of his sullen fit, by the securing of Naboth's vineyard for him. (2.) Christ's word preached is despised. The entertainment most of the world, to whom it has come have always given it, is that which is mentioned, Matth. xxii. 5. "They made light of it." And for its sake they are despised whom he has employed to preach it; whatever other face men put upon their contempt of the ministry, John xv. 20. "The servant is not greater than the Lord: if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my sayings, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake." That Levi was the son of the hated, seems not to have been without a mystery, which the world in all ages, hath unriddled. But though the earthen vessel, wherein God has put the treasure, be turned, with many, into "vessels wherein there is no pleasure," yet why is the treasure itself slighted? But slighted it is, and that with a witness this day. "Lord, who hath believed our report?" To whom shall we speak? Men can, without remorse, make to themselves silent Sabbaths, one after another. And, alas! when they come to ordinances, for the most part, it is but to appear (as the word is, "to be seen,") before the Lord, and to tread his courts, namely, as a company of beasts would do, if they were driven into them, Isa. i. 12. So little reverence and awe of God appears on their spirits. Many stand like brazen walls before the word, in whose corrupt conversation the preaching of the word makes no breach. Nay, not a few are growing worse and worse, under precept upon precept; and the result of all is, "They go and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken," Isa. xxviii. 13. What tears of blood are sufficient to lament that (the gospel) the grace of God is thus received in vain! We are but the voice of one crying; the Speaker is in heaven; and speaks to you from heaven by men: why do ye "refuse him that speaketh?" Heb. xii. 25. God has made our Master heir of all things, and we are sent to court a spouse for him. There is none so worthy as he; none more unworthy than they to whom this match is proposed; but the prince of darkness is preferred before the Prince of Peace! A dismal darkness overclouded the world by Adam's fall, more terrible than if the sun, moon, and stars had been for ever wrapt up in blackness of darkness; and there we should have eternally lain, had not this grace of the gospel, as a shining sun, appeared to dispel it, Tit. ii. 11. But yet we fly like night-owls from it; and, like the wild beasts, lay ourselves down in our dens; when the sun ariseth, we are struck blind with the light thereof; and, as creatures of darkness, love darkness rather than light. Such is the enmity of the hearts of men against Christ, in his prophetical office. 2. The natural man is an enemy to Christ in his priestly office. He is appointed of the Father a Priest for ever; that by his alone sacrifice and intercession, sinners may have peace with, and access to God; but Christ crucified is a stumblingblock, and foolishness to the unrenewed part of mankind, to whom he is preached, 1 Cor. i. 23. They are not for him, as "the new and living way." Nor is he by the voice of the world, "an High Priest over the house of God." Corrupt nature goes quite another way to work.. EVIDENCE 1. None of Adam's children naturally incline to receive the blessing in borrowed robes; but would always, according to the spider's motto, "Owe all to themselves:" and to climb up to heaven on a thread spun out of their own bowels. For they "desire to be under the law," Gal. iv. 24. And "go about to establish their own righteousness," Rom. x. 3. Man, naturally, looks on God as a great Master; and himself as his servant that must work and win heaven as his wages: Hence when conscience is awakened, he thinks that, to the end he may be saved, he must answer the demands of the Law; serve God as well as he can; and pray for mercy wherein he comes short: And thus many come to duties, that never come out of them to Jesus Christ. EVID. 2. As men naturally think highly of their duties, that seem to them to be well done, so they look for acceptance with God according as their work is done: not according to the share they have in the blood of Christ! "Wherefore have we fasted," say they, "and thou seest not?" They will value themselves on their performances and attainments; yea, their very opinions in religion, (Philip. iii. 4, 5, 6, 7.) taking to themselves what they rob from Christ the great High Priest. EVID. 3. The natural man, going to God in duties, will always be found either to go without a mediator, or with more than the only Mediator Jesus Christ. Nature is blind, and therefore venturous: it sets a man a going immediately to God without Christ; to rush into his presence, and put their petitions in his hand, without being introduced by the Secretary of heaven, or putting their requests into his hand. So fixed is this disposition in the unrenewed heart, that when many hearers of the gospel are conversed with upon the point of their hopes of salvation, the name of Christ will scarcely be heard from their mouths. Ask them how they think to obtain the pardon of sin? they will tell you, they beg and look for mercy, because God is a merciful God: and that is all they have to confide in. Others look for mercy for Christ's sake: But how do they know that Christ will take their pleain hand? Why, as the Papists have their mediators with the Mediator, so have they. They know he cannot but do it: for they pray, confess, mourn, and have great desires, and the like: and so have something of their own to commend them unto him they were never made poor in spirit, and brought empty handed to Christ, to lay the stress of all on his atoning blood. : 3. The natural man is an enemy to Christ in his kingly office. The Father has appointed the Mediator King in Zion, Psal. ii. 6. And all to whom the gospel comes, are commanded, on their highest peril, to "kiss the Son," and submit themselves unto him, ver. 12. But the natural voice of mankind is, "Away with him:" as you may see, ver. 2, 3. "They will not have him to reign over them," Luke xix. 14. EVIDENCE 1. The workings of corrupt nature to wrest the government out of his hands. No sooner was he born, but being born a king, Herod persecuted him, Matth. ii. And when he was crucified, they set up over his head this accusation written, "This is JESUS, the King of the Jews," Matth. xxvii. 37. Though his kingdom be a spiritual kingdom, and not of this world; yet they cannot allow him a kingdom, within a kingdom, which acknowledgeth no other head or supreme, but the royal Mediator. They make bold with his royal prerogatives, changing his laws, institutions, and ordinances; modelling his worship, according to the devices of their own hearts; introducing new offices and officers into his kingdom, not to be found in the book of the manner of his kingdom; disposing of the external government thereof, as many best suit |