PART IV Enmity against the Truth
PART IV Enmity against the Truth, &c.
Hating instruction is a part of atheism (Ps. 50:17): Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee. God complains in Hos. 8:12 that the most excellent things were accounted as a strange thing. God had given them the great things of His law, and they esteemed them not.
[1] 1. In men's loathness to believe any divine truth, or to meditate upon it Men shun the thoughts of what they do not love. If we will not let truth in, which is a message from heaven, it is a sign we care not for the person from whom it comes.
[1] 1. It is hard to believe moral or divine truths Because they are against the interests of our lusts, and would eject those principles which have got so firm a footing in our minds and affections, and would bring us into such a reformed course, which our minds, biased by such principles, do exceedingly hate. Whereas natural or mathematical verities are readily credited and kindly entertained, because they thwart not our principles, as the others do.
The more divine and spiritual the object is, the more unwilling we are to close with it; and by how much the nearer any notion of truth is to God, and the more clearly representing Him, the more averse
are we from it. And if men are enemies to that truth which most clearly discovers God and His mind, and cannot endure the thoughts of it, much less can they endure the thoughts of God Himself. They are loath to entertain anything that may disquiet them.
Christ describes this humor as it was in Noah's time, and as it will be toward the end of the world. They were eating and drinking, as though the world were their own, and loath to think of a deluge; and at the latter end men will as hardly believe the burning, as they did then the drowning of the world.
The Pharisees derided the soundest doctrine (Luke 16:14). They derided him, subsannārunt; 〈ἐξεμυκτήριζον〉—they blew their noses at Him in contempt—when He declaimed against their covetousness.
[2] 2dly. If the Word lays hold upon a man, he endeavors to shake it off As a man would a sergeant that comes to arrest him. Men like not to retain God in their knowledge (Rom. 1:28). If any truth presses in upon them, they turn it away, as men do importunate beggars: We have nothing for you; do not trouble us; we have no alms to bestow upon you. And the reason is, because men, having abortivated and deadened all those relics and natural infusions of God in their souls, any lively truth and apprehension of Him proves most unsavory.
As wine and strong waters, which have lost their natural spirit, become most ungrateful and unpleasant to the stomach, so those innate impressions of God, which are so refreshing to a good man,
are such as they do what they can to shake off or taint, by mingling with them their own corrupt notions; and when they cannot, they are filled with an irreligious rancor against God. Men keep the truths that rise up in themselves for conviction and instruction in unrighteousness, and quench the motions of the blessed Spirit, killing them in the womb.
Have not men often had secret wishes that the Scripture had never mentioned some truths, or that they were blotted out of the Bible, because they face their consciences, damp their pleasures, and cool their boiling lusts, which else they would with eagerness and delight pursue?
[3] 3dly. When men cannot shake off a truth, but it sticks fast in them, yet they have no pleasure in the consideration of it Which would be the case if there were a love to God; for men love to read over the letters which are sent by those to whom they have an affection, and to lay them up, or peruse them again at leisure. And it was an unclean beast that did not chew the cud under the law; so it is a corrupt heart that doth not chew truth by meditation.
Hence a natural man is said not to know the things of God; for while he is inclined to a sensual life, he can have no delight in spiritual things, for sensuality hinders the operations of his soul about the choicest objects.
Natural men may indeed meditate on a truth, but they do not delight in it; or if they do, it is only as it is knowledge. For we delight in nothing that we desire, but upon the same account that we desire it.
Now natural men desire to know God and some truths, not out of a sense of His excellency, but from a natural thirst after knowledge; so that they rejoice in the act, not in the object—not to quicken their affections, as idle boys strike fire, not to kindle anything, but to please themselves with the sparks.
Whereas a gracious soul accounts not only the meditation, or the operation of the soul about a thing, to be sweet, but hath a spiritual joy in the object of that meditation. Many have the knowledge of God who have no delight in it; as owls and bats have eyes to perceive the light, but by reason of the weakness of their sight have no delight to look cheerfully upon it. So neither can a man, by his natural or acquired knowledge, delight in God, or love to look upon Him, because of his corruption.
[2] 2dly. In their opposition to it [1] 1. External In the first dawning of the Gospel, what opposition did the Apostles meet with? What persecutions were raised against them? How did the carnal world, like dogs, bark at the shining of the moon? It is as natural for man to persecute the truth, which is against the grain, as it is for him to breathe.
When Socrates, upon natural principles, did confute the heathen idolatry and asserted the unity of God, the whole cry of Athens, a learned university, was against him; and because he opposed the publicly received religion, he must die. In Acts 13:45, contradicting and blaspheming are put together; disputes against the Word many times end in blasphemies.
[2] 2. Internal God's truths cast against a hard heart are like balls thrown against a stone wall, which rebound the further from it. Such a resistance there is in man, to beat back all the tenders of grace.
Where the grace of God comes in any power, it doth accidentally stir up sin in the heart; as when the sun shines upon a noisome dunghill, it stinks the worse—not that the sun communicates any filthiness or pollution to the dunghill, but by accident, in warming it, it makes the stench break forth. Sin, as a garrison in a city, is up in arms upon any alarm from its adversary. A word of God against the great Diana of a man's lust sets the whole soul in an uproar. Sin follows the steps of its father the Devil, and endeavors to bruise the heel of truth, which would break the head of lust.
Men hate the truths of God when they begin to search and tent their beloved corruptions. So Ahab, 1 Kings 22:8: I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. So also John 3:19–20: lest their deeds should be reproved. As apes are reported to break the glass, because they would not see their own deformity. The light of speculation may be pleasant, but the light of conviction is
grievous; the light strikes too strongly upon their sore eyes, and makes them smart.
[3] 3dly. If men do entertain truth, it is not for truth's sake, but for some other by-end Truth is scarcely received as truth; there is more of hypocrisy than sincerity within the pale of the Church. The dowry makes it more desirable than the beauty. Judas follows Christ for the bag.
Sometimes men entertain truth to satisfy their own passions, rather than upon God's account. The religion of many is not the judgment of the man, but the passion of the brute. Many rather entertain the doctrine for the person's sake, than the person for the doctrine, and believe anything that comes from a man they esteem and affect, as if his lips were as canonical as Scripture. Hence the Apostle's commendation, 1 Thess. 2:13: Ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God.
So that many times the very same truth delivered by another is disregarded, which, when coming from the fancy and mouth of their own idol, is cried up for an oracle; whereas, alas, it was the truth of God in the ass's mouth as well as in the angel's. And thus they have the Word of God with respect of persons, and receive it not for the sake of the fountain, but of the channel; and though they entertain the truth of God materially, yet not formally as His truth. James 2:1:
Have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons.
[4] 4thly. If men do entertain truth, it is with unsettled affections and much mixture If men let in some good notions of God, they let in also much corruption and error, like sponges that can suck up the foulest water as well as the sweetest wine. They have the unclean beasts enter into the ark of their souls, as well as the clean. There is a great levity in the heart of man.
The Jews cry Hosanna to Christ one day, and Crucify him the next.
They have their hearts open one day for truth, and the next turn it out of doors. Those truths which are easy to be understood are hard to be impressed; our affections will as soon lose them as our understandings embrace them.
Some were willing to rejoice in John's light, which gave a luster to their minds, but not in his heat, which would have given warmth to their affections. For John was a burning and a shining light; and they would rejoice in his light, but not in his heat, and that too but for a season.
We begin in the Spirit, and end in the flesh. We go from God with affections, and quickly grow cold again. Our hearts are like lutestrings, changed with every change of weather, with every temptation; and scarce one motion of God in a thousand can prevail upon us.
[5] 5thly. In a carnal improvement of truth Some endeavor to make truth subservient to lust, and, like spiders, draw cursed poison out of the sweetest flowers. As when men hear of God's willingness to pardon and receive repenting sinners, they will argue from hence for deferring their repentance till they come to die.
So Ps. 94:7: God's patience is made a topic whence to argue against His providence. Wicked men father their sins upon God's Word. A liar will find his refuge in the rewards God gave the midwives that lied to Pharaoh for the preservation of the Israelite children, and in Rahab's lie for preserving the spies. Though God rewarded their fidelity, yet we read not that He approved their sin.
Some will venture into all kinds of wicked company from Christ's example, who conversed with sinners; when Christ companied with sinners as a physician with diseased persons, to cure them, not to approve them. But these with persons, not to communicate holiness to them, but to receive infection from them. Thus, like the Devil, we have Scripture at our fingers' ends to plead for our lusts.
As the sea turns fresh water into salt, so a carnal heart turns divine things to carnal ends. As men subject the precepts of God to carnal interest, so they subject the truths of God to carnal fancies. To make a humorous and crazy fancy the interpreter of divine oracles, and not the Spirit speaking in the Word, is to rifle truth of its true mind and intent; as it is more to rob a man of his reason, the essential constitutive part of man, than of his estate.
[2] 2dly. Enmity against the duties God doth enjoin, as well as against the truths He doth reveal We are not willing to come to God in duty; which strangeness took date from the beginning of our nature. We were estranged from the womb (Ps. 58:3).
I shall instance in prayer, which is one of the greatest duties, and is an immediate speaking to God. And in that duty wherein there is the greatest intimacy with God, there is the greatest aversion, and consequently an enmity against God.
[1] 1. Unwillingness to it Men cannot endure to give God a visit; if they do, it is with such a dullness of spirit, as if they wished themselves out of His company.
This testifies that men care not for any correspondence or friendship between God and their souls.
Man, having an enmity to true holiness, hath from thence an enmity to prayer; because holiness must at least be pretended in prayer, and because in that duty there is a real speaking to God, and a communion with Him, unto which holiness is required. Now, as wicked men hate the truth of holiness, because it is unsuitable to them, so they are not friends to the pretence of it in that duty, because they must for some space be diverted from the thoughts of their beloved lusts.
I appeal to you, whether you are not more unwilling to practice prayer in your closets than to join with others, as if it were a going to the rack, and rather your penance than your privilege. If men do come to God, it is a constrained act, to satisfy conscience; and such are rather servile than son-like performances, and spring from bondage more than affection. If conscience, like a taskmaster, did not lash them to duty, they would never perform it.
If we do come willingly, it is for our own ends, to have some deliverance from some trouble. In trouble have they visited thee; they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them (Isa.
26:16). In trouble they will visit God; in prosperity He shall scarce hear of them. In affliction He finds them kneeling, and in prosperity
He finds them kicking. They can pour out a prayer in distress, and scarce drop a prayer when they are delivered.
This unwillingness to address God—what slight and low thoughts doth it imply? It is a wrong to His providence, as though we stood not in need of His assistance, but could do all our business ourselves.
It is a wrong to His excellency, as though there were no amiableness in Him to make His company desirable. This enmity is the greater, by how much God's condescension is the greater, to admit us into His presence.
It was a part of the devils' hatred; they were loath to have Christ present with them (Matt. 8:29): What have we to do with thee,
Jesus, thou Son of God? Men excuse their neglect of private prayer by their want of opportunity; but indeed they want hearts. We may
sooner step up to heaven with a holy ejaculation, than step over the threshold about our business. We naturally desire acquaintance with the greatest persons that may advance our interest; but we are ready to bury our interest, rather than be acquainted with God.
[2] 2dly. Slightness in the duty We are loath to come into God's presence, and when we are come, we are loath to keep with Him. When men do not their duty heartily, as to the Lord, they look not upon Him as their Master, whose work they ought to do, and whose honor they ought to aim at.
[1] 1. In respect of time Our dullest and deadest time we think fittest for God. When sleep is ready to close our eyes, we think it a fit time to open our hearts. How few morning sacrifices hath God from men! They leap out of their beds to their pleasures or worldly employments, without asking counsel at God's mouth. As men reserve the dregs of their life, their old age, to offer up their souls to God; so they reserve the dregs of the day, their sleepy times, for the offering of their service to God.
[2] 2dly. In respect of frame We think any frame will serve God's turn, which certainly speaks our enmity, and the slight thoughts we have of Him. Man naturally performs duty with an unholy heart, whereby it becomes an abomination to God. He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination (Prov. 28:9).
God calls for our best sacrifices, and we give Him the worst—such as He hates. I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies (Amos 5:21). They were duties which God commanded, but He hated them for their evil frames or corrupt ends. God requires works of grace, and we present Him not so much as the work of nature, but the work of corruption.
There is not that natural vigor which we have in worldly business.
You may often observe a liveliness in men as to that; but change the scene into a motion towards God, and how suddenly doth this vigor shrink, and their hearts become sluggish, and freeze with coldness.
Many times we pray as coldly as if we were loath that God should hear us, and take away that lust which conscience forceth us to pray against. How flitting are we in divine meditations, how sleepy in spiritual exercises! This proceeds from the aversion of the soul, and its estrangedness from God. But in other exercises we are active.
The soul doth not awaken itself, and stir up those animal spirits in religious duties, which it will in bodily recreations and sports; whereby it is evident we prefer the latter before any service to God.
Since there is a fullness of animal spirits in us, why might they not be excited in holy duties as well as in corporal operations, but that there is a reluctancy in the soul to exercise its supremacy over them in this case?
[3] 3dly. Weariness in it We are not weary only with that dullness, but weary of the duty itself.
Our deadness shows a disaffection; our weariness shows a greater.
We are loath that God should have so much as a day's service from us, or anything that looks like a service.
How tired are we in the performance of spiritual duties, when in the vain triflings of time we have a perpetual motion! How will many force themselves to dance and revel a whole night, when their hearts will flag and jade at the first entrance into a religious service!
Some in the Prophet wished the Sabbath over: Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! (Mal. 1:13). Attendance on Him is a weariness. God had but a poor, polluted service from them, and they were weary of that little they gave Him; they grudged Him even that.
This unwieldiness in duty is a sign we receive little satisfaction in God's company, and that there is a great unsuitableness between Him and us. When our joy begins when the duty ends, it evidenceth that there was no affectionate motion to God, but a tired and yawning service.
Unwilling servants stay not long at their master's work, neither are cheerful in it. If we did love God, it would be with us as with the needle toward the loadstone: there would be a speedy motion, and a fixed union. Saints in heaven, whose affections and judgments are perfect, behold the face of God five or six thousand years together
without weariness; but we naturally are neither willing to come, nor to stay, in His presence.
Obj. Natural men had best not pray, or meditate at all, if even their prayers are acts of enmity.
Ans. Their prayers are not acts of enmity, though the natural enmity be discovered in them. In the male-performance of the duty there is a denial of His holiness; but in the total omission there is a denial of His sovereignty, who commands it as a natural duty; or of His providence, who orders human affairs; and of His holiness also, and righteousness, in His law which enjoins it.
[4] 4thly. Neglect of expecting answers Men naturally care not for having the spiritual mercy they pray for, of course, from God, though they are desirous of any temporal mercy. For the latter they will endeavor; but the former they leave wholly upon God's hands, as if they were careless whether they had them or no. They care not whether their letters come to God's hand or no, and therefore care not much for any returns from Him; whereas, if we have any love to a person we send to, or value of a thing we send for, we should expect an answer every post.
The creature, in its natural instinct, goes beyond such persons; for there is an 〈ἀποκαραδοκία〉 (Rom. 8:19), an earnest expectation.
For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation, &c. Every creature is in a more waiting posture than a natural man.
It is a sign we do not own God for our Master, or ourselves for His servants, if we do not wait upon Him till He show mercy to us. As the eyes of servants look unto the hands of their master, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that He have mercy upon us (Ps.
123:2). It implies that we think God will not hear, or cannot hear; or that we have no need of Him, and can do well enough without Him; or that prayer is no effectual means to procure blessings. If so, why dost thou pray at all? If it be otherwise, why dost thou not wait for an answer?
So that there is a disaffection in man to the duty itself, and to God the object of it; or to the subject of it, the thing prayed for. Whereas those that love God, and love the spiritual mercy they pray for, watch thereunto with thanksgiving (Col. 4:2).
They watch for occasion of praise. As we are to be in a praying posture, to desire a blessing, so in a waiting posture, to meet with it.
But a natural man doth not love to be beholden to God, if he can help it; and if he do praise God after any common mercy received, it may proceed from a natural ingenuity, or a present sense of the mercy itself, not from any affection to the Donor. But as for any spiritual mercy, as the stirrings of his affections by any truth, he is so far from praising God for them, that he is troubled at them, and quickly quencheth them.
[5] 5thly. Desertion of the duty If God doth not answer us, naturally we cast off the duty, and say with those in Job, What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him?
and what profit should we have, if we pray unto Him? (Job 21:15).
They pray not out of conscience of the command, but merely for the profit; and if God makes them wait for it, they will not wait His leisure, but solicit Him no longer.
There are two things expressed: that God was not worthy of their service; and that the serving of Him would not bring them in a good revenue, or that advantage they expected. It is interest that draws men on to prayer; and when that is not advanced, they will beg no more. Like some beggars, if you give them not presently upon their asking, from blessing they turn to cursing.
So do men secretly do that which Job's wife advised him to do upon his affliction: Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God, and die (Job 2:9). What a stir, and puling, and waiting, and caring is here! Cast off all service; be at daggers-drawing with God.
So Mal. 3:14: It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinances, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? If they have not the benefits they beg, they think God unrighteous, and that He doth them wrong to withhold from them the favors they imagine they have deserved. And if they have not that recompense when they would, they leave off the serving of God any more, as a vain and unprofitable thing.
Whereas love moves upon a sense of duty, a natural man, who hath an aversion, moves upon a sense of interest. Love is encouraged by answer, but is not dissolved by silence; but a natural man would have