-- CHAPTER X: That the error of the papists is by this doctrine evinced, who place sin only in the l
chambers of the heart, not only one room to see what is done there, and what thoughts and fancies are in the outward room (which is a room that all come into, both good and bad), but from thence go into the privy chamber, and hear what principles, sayings, dictates, reasonings you are guided by, what resolutions you fix on, what aims you have. Then go down to the affections, and view how they, as agents, act their parts, and see all this time how conscience is imprisoned as in a dungeon, Rom. 1:18, being withheld in unrighteousness, while they act all in the dark: 1 Cor. 4:5, 'Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall every man have praise of God.' He calls the counsels of the heart the hidden works of darkness, and whilst conscience is thus imprisoned, it may call, and cry till it be hoarse, but it shall not be heard.
CHAPTER X:
That the error of the papists is by this doctrine evinced, who place sin only in the lower faculties of the soul.
That we should be sensible of the defects of our minds, and if we have any natural endowments of soul, we must praise and thank
God alone for them.—We who have the discoveries of the gospel, and a spiritual light to discern the things of it, should much more bless God As we have not only proved this corruption to have overspread the whole soul, but in particular have demonstrated that the superior faculties are in a high degree infected, and have also shewn wherein the depravation of the understanding consists, let us now farther consider what practical inferences and uses this doctrine will afford us.
Use 1. We see, then, how great an error it is of the papists, and some others, who assert that the higher parts of the soul are not touched nor tainted with sin, but they thrust it all down to the inferior, and to the sensual appetite; and they answerably interpret the combat between the flesh and spirit, which is spoken of in Rom. 7:23 and Gal. 5:17, to be but the rebellion of the senses, and animal appetite against reason, the one of which (they say) is meant by flesh, the other by spirit; and as thus they make the conflict to be between soul and body, they answerably place the whole or greatest part of religion in bodily worship. All their acts of mortification are to keep under the body, whilst the soul lies neglected, as not needing any remedy or help. But we have not so learned Christ, nor so little know ourselves; and therefore as we feel our superior faculties depraved by sin, we most of all are humbled for, and strive against the spiritual corruptions of our minds, such as ignorance, unbelief, atheism, pride, darkness of apprehension, and dulness of heart and affections in the ways and worship of God, and hypocrisy, and base selfish ends, by which we find ourselves apt to be swayed and biassed in our best actions; we find not only sensual lusts warring in our members, but atheism against the knowledge of God, darkness against divine light, and unbelief against faith. It is true, indeed, sins of the understanding are least discernible, for the law in our members is more clamorous and impetuous, and sensual things do more sensibly affect us; but yet the other sins of the mind, though more stilly, and with less noise, yet do more constantly assault us and prevail. It is true also of the combat between flesh and spirit, that it is less sensible in the superior faculties of the soul than in the inferior; because, not only grace, but the light of nature and conscience make resistance against the lusts of our senses and fleshly appetites, but natural conscience doth not oppose the spiritual lustings of the mind.
It doth not check pride, unbelief, selfishness, &c., as it doth drunkenness, adultery, and other lusts of the flesh; but yet it is in the combat between sin and grace in the mind, and understanding, and will, that a godly man's courage and resolution against sin most shines, and his victory over it shews most illustrious; and it is also for those spiritual wickednesses in the mind that a godly man is most
humbled. And as he also professeth that it is not bodily worship which can take away the guilt of sin, so neither can the keeping under and torturing the body only, cast out the powers of sin. You may pray, and cry your eyes out, but sin will not flow out with your tears; you may fast down all your spirits and flesh, and yet, though bodily lusts may hereby be lean, yet pride and hypocrisy may grow the fatter. The papists shew also their corruption in this, that it is all their care and business to keep people in ignorance and darkness, and such a practice is suitable to their corrupt principles and errors, which by this means they may maintain undiscovered, as darkness hides all things. But we who love and teach the truth, are also for light; and so far are we from thinking ignorance to be the mother of devotion, that we reckon it among the daughters of sin, and account grace to be spiritual light in the mind, as well as holiness in the heart and affections. We open to the people the treasures of divine knowledge, and we exhort men to seek it, since without it the heart cannot be good, as Solomon speaks: Prov. 19:2, 'Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good; and he that hasteth with his feet, sinneth.'
Use 2. Let us be sensible of all those before-mentioned defects and imperfections of our understandings. Hast thou parts, and learning, and knowledge in natural or civil affairs, or hast thou spiritual gifts? know whom to thank for them. They grew not out of thy corrupt nature, which is too vile and base a soil to produce any thing that is good, but it is God who, out of his bounty and riches of goodness, hath endowed thee with them; and he holds the candle to thee whilst thou readest and understandest, for so the mind of man is called:
Prov. 20:27, 'The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.' What doth Agur acknowledge with much humility, though he was a teacher of others? Prov. 30:2,
'Surely I am more brutish than any man, 'and have not the understanding of a man.' 'I am brutish since I was a man' (as some read it), and have not the understanding of a man by nature.' It is
God who inspires a nobler, quicker spirit into some, and from thence ariseth the difference of men's understandings: Job 32:8, 'But there
is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.' Wisdom goes neither by greatness of birth, nor the advantages of education, for great persons may have wise men about them, to inform them, who yet are not able to instil into them wisdom, nor can make them wise: Job 11:12, 'For vain men would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass's colt;' and a wild ass's colt is the most indocible creature of all other. Neither doth wisdom come merely by age and experience: Job 32:9. 'Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment. There is a spirit in man, and an inspiration of the Almighty, which giveth him understanding.' View but your own pictures in fools, and tell me what hath put the difference between you and them. If you say a various temper of body, it is true, indeed, it hath a hand in it, but yet what fogged the oil in them, which should have afforded fuel to the light of mind, so that the candle burns blue in them? What was it produced that cloudy temper in them? Was it not Adam's sin? Why might it not have had the like effect on thee? It was God only that gave thee finer blood and spirits, that the light of thy mind might burn more clear and bright. And if you think temper is the only cause of this difference, do but look on Nebuchadnezzar, a great and wise king, and yet how soon is his heart changed from a man's to a beast's! Dan. 4:16, 'Let his heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart be given unto him, and let seven times pass over him.'
And so he was driven from men, as not having reason enough to converse with them. And what was his case might be thine, for that which befalls one man for sin, might befall all by reason of the first sin. But God was graciously pleased not to deal thus with men, though he might justly have done so; and as though he might annihilate men for sin, and take their beings away, yet he doth not, no not in hell. So neither doth he take away their understandings, no, not from the devils; for how, then, should they be punished with the sense of his wrath? And yet that punishment, which is inflicted, is a destruction of their well-being, and therefore is called destruction, though their being still remains. So in this life God deprives not men of their understandings, for how then should they be men? Yet because they want the goodness of understanding, the holiness of it,
therefore they are often in Scripture said to have no understanding:
Isa. 27:11, 'When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire; for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour;'
Rom. 3:11, 'There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.'
In the mean time, it is a great obligation that lies on those who have parts to employ them for God, who preserves them when sin might have taken them utterly away, And this may humble men too, who are most proud of knowledge, and are puffed up, whenas it is not their own, but borrowed from God. Much of man's wit now depends upon the right tempering of the dust, with which he is clothed, and so is but a flower of the grass, which each man lays down in the grave; for the compass of understanding with which men shall arise into the other world is from another account. And this should also teach men to depend on God for their knowledge and learning, and the increase of them, for alas, they cannot secure to themselves all their wit or learning. The parts of their mind are as subject to decay as the beauties of the face, and may be wasted and lost as well as them or their estates; and indeed men who presume on them, or who use them not for God, we see ordinarily bereft of them, and prove fools and sots in the end, or at least they die despised and forgotten.
Use 3. Raise your hearts unto thankfulness to God by all these steps which follow.
1. Bless God, that he hath brought thee to those times and places where the gospel is preached, and the great truths of it are laid open and made plain to thee. This is one mercy, and a great one, for without such a discovery thou couldst never have found them out.
God made trial of the utmost men's wits could do for some thousands of years among the Gentiles, but they bewildered themselves in their inventions: 1 Cor. 1:21, 'For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God,
by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe.' They had quite lost themselves in all their vain inquiries, and therefore (says the apostle) after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, he set out the gospel to be preached, to reveal, what they could not search out. They had, indeed, some knowledge of God, but yet even that was not their own, but a borrowed wisdom received from God. God indeed afforded them some light to grope after him:
Acts 17:27, 'That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us.'
But they were so far from knowing God by all this wisdom, that by their abuse of it they were put further off, and became vain in their imaginations, and did not glorify God as God; and so with all their wit they were but fools: Rom. 1:20–22, 'For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.' This would have been thy case, and thus it would have been also with thee, if God had not made the light of his gospel to shine for thy better direction. It is then great goodness that God hath revealed himself so clearly and fully to men in his word, and 'tis a great mercy to thee that thou shouldst ever come where these great truths, and of such high concernment to thy soul, are spoken of, and preached. God hath not dealt thus with every man, nay, not with every nation, as he hath with thee; but when he leaves kingdoms, whole multitudes of people together, to sit in sad darkness, thou standest in his light.
2. Bless God, if he hath farther given thee an insight into these truths by enlightening thy understanding, which (as hath been discoursed) was naturally dark, and blind, and had no spiritual discerning. If thou beginnest to conceive of things spiritual better than others, or than thyself did some time ago, it is God who hath put a new light into thy mind, and it is a great mercy, which thou shouldst, with the highest praises, acknowledge. For remember that in thyself thou art
but darkness, as all other men are whom God hath not enlightened, as he hath thee; and, therefore, many, who, though wiser than thee in the world, and attentive hearers also, yet understand not so much as thou. The first ground in the parable which received the seed of the word: Mat. 13:4, 'And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside: and the fowls came and devoured them up;' what was it but such hearers, who do not understand? ver. 19, 'When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart: This is he which received seed by the way-side.' And the most hearers are such, who do not so much as conceive in the general notions, the truth of spiritual things. They cannot conceive that there is such a thing as regeneration, much less what it is, as was the case with Nicodemus. There are those who walk in darkness, though the light shines round about them, who are ignorant under all the means of knowledge, because of the blindness of their heart, and therefore they walk in darkness, and know not whither they go:
John 12:35, 'Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you: walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness, knoweth not whither he goeth.' If thou seest light in the Lord, bless him for those eyes which he hath given thee, whilst he hath denied them to others.
3. But now if God hath proceeded farther in mercy toward thee, and not only hath revealed these truths to thee, and not to others in other places, and times, and hath given thee a new light whereby thou seest those things, which thyself saw not before, though thou wert an auditor, and heardest them before; but if God hath gone farther, and renewed thy mind also, and put in a new principle to see things aright, to see thy misery, so as to be truly humbled for it, to see
Christ, so as to prize him above all the world, to see what the truth is in Jesus; i.e. what that truth of grace, and regeneration is which Jesus requires of thee, and to see this in thy own heart too; for this thou hast farther cause to be thankful. Thou canst now say, I know
God and Christ, and am not deceived, for he hath given me an understanding on purpose to know him, so as no wicked man knows
him: 1 John 5:20, 'And we know the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true: and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.' This is a higher mercy, and favour bestowed on thee, and therefore greatly bless God for it. For though thou mightest have had a new light, whereby thou mightest have come to see things which thou never sawest before, yet thou mightest not have had a new understanding. They of whom the apostle speaks in Heb. 6:4, were enlightened anew indeed, but yet they were not renewed in the spirit of their minds, for that is proper only to the godly, who never fall away; it is peculiar to them alone, as to have a new light, and new objects, so to have a new eye.
Use 4. See and admire the great and wonderful work which God effects in regenerating our natures. How great and difficult is the work of grace, wherein Christ must not only be at the trouble, and cost of purchasing, by his blood, truths to be revealed, but he must send his Spirit to reveal and bring them to light, and then he must be at the cost to set up a candle by which to read them, and when all is done, he must find you eyes with which to read. And then he must also take the pains to teach you himself; he cannot set under-ushers to do this office, but when you have eyes given, you must be all taught by himself too.
If the knowledge thus of spiritual truths be not in any manner in us, no not so much as a power to receive these things savingly into our minds, then certainly the work is God's, and wholly his. Men think, indeed, that to subdue their affections and to curb their lusts, a great and mighty power is necessary, but as for knowledge they think that they have at command enough of it, and more than they can tell what to do with, and that it is sufficiently easy. But consider that to make thee able to know spiritual things savingly costeth God as much as any other work that passeth on thy soul, and therefore Paul in every epistle prays for it. Thus he prays for the Ephesians, chap. 1:16–18,
'Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,