Part 2
1st, The wealth of the rich makes immorality abound among them. It swells the heart in pride, and fills them with admiration of themselves; it ministers much fuel to their lusts, and affords them occasions of fulfilling them. The natural vanity of the heart and mind, has a broad field to rove about in, so that they are apt to forget themselves and think their circumstances give them an allowance to make themselves vile, and that the laws of God and man are not made but for to bold the poorer sort, Prov. 30:9. Hence our Lord says, Matth. 19:23, 24. "Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven." "And again I say unto you,
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." And says the apostle, 1 Cor. 1:26. "Ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called." They are to be pitied for their snares and temptations.
2dly, The poor, those who are in extreme poverty. Among them also immorality remarkably abounds. Their condition deprives them of many advantages others have. They are generally neglected in their education, all their care being to get to put in their mouths. They have rarely the advantage of good company. Their pinching circumstances embitter their spirits, that they relish not the things of God, and afford many snares and temptations to dishonesty, lying, falsehood, and all manner of wickedness, whereby they may think to better their outward circumstances. And when they turn idle, and vague up and down, their case readily turns most hopeless, Prov. 30:9. forecited, Jer. 5:4. "Therefore have I said, Surely these are poor, they are foolish; for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God."
Hence may be seen the reason why the greatest regularity of life is found among those of the middle sort, though some of them are immoral too. They want the snares and temptations of the rich on the one hand, and of the poor on the other. They have neither the full idleness of the one, nor the poverty and idleness of the other.
If we compare the immoral part of the world lying in wickedness with the other two, though it is true they are all of the same world, and will perish if they be not separated from it; yet the religious and moral have the advantage of the immoral.
1. In this life, in many respects. They walk more agreeable to the dignity of human nature, than the immoral, who are more akin to the
brutes, being led by their brutal passions and affections even as they. They are more useful and beneficial to mankind; whereas the immoral are the pests of human society, working mischief to one or other. They have more inward quiet, and are not put on the rack that immorality brings on men, to compass their mischievous designs, to cover their deeds, and defend them. And so they have more outward safety, their regular lives being a fence to them, both from danger without and within.
2. In the life to come. Though the world, the unregenerate world's religion and morality will not bring them to heaven, yet it will make them a softer hell than the immoral shall have, Rev. 20:12, 13. And no man can doubt but works of morality are not so ill as works of immorality; unsanctified soberness is not so bad as reveiling and open profaneness. It is true, hypocrites shall have a hot part in hell; but can one imagine that their throwing off the mask, and giving themselves the swing, will make an easier part? No; Rev. 21:8. "The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death." No doubt the more light men sin against, their condemnation will be the more aggravated; but certainly it will be sorer for immoral Pagans than moral ones, for immoral Christians than moral ones, where the worm never dieth, and the fire is not quenched. Conscience will have less guilt, and not so deep, to charge on the one as on the other.
II. The State of the Unregenerate World
Having seen the parts of that world, we are next to view the state of these parts; and that is, the whole world lieth in wickedness, the moral as well as immoral part, and the religious as well as the other.
It is the common state of the whole unregenerate world; whatever differences are among them, they all agree in this, they are lying in wickedness. In speaking to this, I shall,
1. Confirm and evince the truth of it in the general.
2. Explain this state of the unregenerate world, their lying in wickedness.
FIRST, I am to confirm and evince the truth of the doctrine in the general.
First, Satan is the god of the whole unregenerate world; how can it miss then to be wholly lying in wickedness? 2 Cor. 4:4. It is the honour and advantage of the regenerate, that God is their God, Heb. 8:10; but the unregenerate world is apostate from God, and have taken Satan in his room, giving him the homage they owe to God. Now Satan is the god of the unregenerate world lying in wickedness,
1. In respect of his god-like power over them; which we may take up in these particulars.
(1.) The sovereignty of it. The unregenerate world is Satan's dominion, whereof he is prince, John 12:31. and 14:30. Though he is under check and control of heaven, and the most fearful vengeance is abiding him from the Lord, yet he is a sovereign prince among them, ruling more absolutely than any prince in this world doth his subjects, 2 Tim. 2:26. None of them all have their subjects so much at their beck, as he has the men of the world.
(2.) The rivalship of it, being set up and managed just to confront the kingdom of God among men. Though Satan is the most miserable thing of the whole creation; yet, by a peculiar pride and spite against
God, he sets up directly, and immediately against God and his Son Jesus Christ, whose kingdom the regenerate are. And his rival kingdom is the unregenerate world. Between these is the lasting enmity, Gen. 3:15. and these are the opposite kingdoms that can never mix, Psal. 12:7; and the design of the gospel is to pull down Satan's kingdom, Acts 26:18; Col. 1:13.
(3.) The extent of it, reaching over the whole world, from one end of the earth to the other. All the power that ever the Chaldean, Persian, Grecian, and Roman monarchs had, never reached but over a part of the world; but the power of the devil reaches over all countries, wherever unregenerate men are.
(4.) The nature of it. He receives external worship from many in the world, having many whole nations at his devotion. But from the whole unregenerate world he receives the subjection, homage, and obedience of the inner man; and that is peculiarly due to God; Eph. 2:2. "Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." Men of greatest eminency over others can only pretend to rule their outward man; the soul, the inner man, must be left to God; and that Satan usurps in the unregenerate world. He entered into Judas moving him to betray Christ, filled the hearts of Ananias and Sapphira to lie to the Holy Ghost, &c.
2. In respect of his prime origination of their corruption. As from God men have their nature, whereby they are men, and their new nature whereby they are regenerate men; so from the devil men have all the corruption and sin of their nature, whereby they are unregenerate men; wherefore as men owe themselves to God, as men and Christians; so they are owing to the devil, as they are
unregenerate men lying in wickedness, See John 14:30. He hath of his own in them. Hence,
(1.) The devil is the common father of the unregenerate world as such. It is owing to him as the procreating cause thereof. It was the spawn of the old serpent conveyed by the first sin into human nature, that corrupted all mankind. Hence men are said to be of him, 1 John 3:12. and of him as a child is of a father, John 8:44. So the world lying in wickedness is called our father's house or family, Psal. 45:10. And not only are notoriously wicked persons, but all the unregenerate called children of the devil, 1 John 3:10; as bearing his image, John 8:44. "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do."
(2.) Their continuation in that their state, they have from him also. God preserves by his providence all that his own hands made, and the divine preservation is in effect a continued creation. But since the corruption of the world is originally from the devil, not from God; the maintenance of it comes the same way. So Satan upholds that world by his power, and he is incessant in his working for that end.
This gives a very dismal view of the unregenerate world; it is not God's world, but the devil's world, deriving its original from him, and over which he has the power of a god. Whence we must see, that it is surely,
(1.) The mire of sin, in which the miserable inhabitants must be continually wallowing; for nothing doth so much please the god of that world. He is an enemy to all good, and as far as his power reaches, no good can have place. The dust is his meat, and so a life of sin is a wallowing in the mire.
(2.) The region of death and destruction, which God will certainly destroy, if once he had his own out of it. For Christ came to destroy the works of the devil.
Secondly, Spiritual darkness, thick darkness, is over the whole of that world, Eph. 5:8. how can any thing but works of darkness be found in it? The Egyptian darkness was an emblem of this, they had a thick darkness, only in Goshen there was light; so the Egyptians rose not from their place to do business, Exod. 20:22, 23. Consider,
1. The sun went down on all mankind in Adam's transgressing the covenant; the light of God's countenance was then withdrawn, and so there was a terrible eclipse, witness Adam's hiding himself from the presence of God, and all men naturally following his footsteps in that.
2. The unregenerate world remains as Adam left them, the Sun of righteousness Jesus Christ is not yet arisen to them, Mal. 4:2, 3. Though he has spread abroad his light in the world, it is not yet come into their hearts. They know him not, they have not yet received the saving illumination of his Spirit.
Their state in point of darkness concludes them under sin, far from all good.
(1.) They are in darkness, Acts 26:18. Every unregenerate man sits in darkness, Matth. 4:16. He is like a captive or prisoner in a dark dungeon, where no light comes. The smoke of the opened pit that was let into the world by sin, makes thick darkness there, and that is round about every man till converting grace scatter it.
(2.) They are under the power of darkness, Col. 1:13. They are not like those that are in the dark, but can come out when they please
into the light; but they are under the power of it, as in chains of darkness. No human art can remove the darkness of a natural state, nay it retains its power over them in the midst of gospel light. God alone can dispel it, 2 Cor. 4:6.
(3.) The powers of hell rule in that darkness, Eph. 6:12. When the night comes on, the wild beasts come out of their dens, and range abroad; and so the dark world is Satan's walk, where he goes about like a roaring lion. Hence it comes to pass, that if any light begin to peep in, Satan presently stops it, 2 Cor. 4:3, 4. Thus convictions are stifled, and resolves of reformation fly up as dust.
(4.) It is a darkness of blindness; they really have not eyes to see with, Deut. 29:4. A child of God may be in the dark at a time, but then he will come forth at length into the light, and will see; but every unregenerate man is spiritually blind, Rev. 3:17. the darkness has blinded him, 1 John 2:11. He wants a faculty of discerning spiritual things in their true natures, 1 Cor. 2:14. Their understanding is darkened.
(5.) The light in the unregenerate world is darkness, Matth. 6:23. That is, it is a false light which quite misrepresents things, so they call good evil, and evil good. Hence to them the vanities of a present world are substantial, and the treasure hid in the field of the gospel is but a trifle. And because they think they see, their case is more hopeless, as Christ said to the Pharisees, John 9:41, "If ye were blind ye should have no sin; but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth."
(6.) Lastly, There is a continual night in the unregenerate world, 1 Thess. 5:5. There is an eternal day in heaven, no night there; with the regenerate the day is broken; but with the unregenerate the black and dark night still remains, Isa. 8:20. From all which it appears,
that they lie in sin, as prisoners in a dungeon; and that an unconverted state is the suburbs of hell, where there is outer darkness.
Thirdly, They are all lying under the curse, Gal. 3:10. For not being in Christ, they are under the law as a Covenant of works, Rom. 3:19. It is the regenerate only that are delivered from it, Rom. 8:1. "There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." Hence all the unregenerate are declared out of Christ, 2 Cor. 5:17. and debarred out of heaven, John 3:3. And whatever differences may be among them as to their way and walk, the curse goes over their whole world. Now this proves that they are lying in wickedness two ways.
1. In that the curse always implies wickedness. A holy God will lay none under the curse of the law, but such as are lying under sin. It is wickedness that draws the curse after it; and the latter could have had no place in the world, till once the former made way for it. So being children of wrath by nature, proves us to be in a state of corruption by nature.
2. While it lies on, sin and wickedness retain their strength, 1 Cor. 15:56. "The strength of sin is the law." The reason is, the curse on a sinner effectually bars all sanctifying influences from heaven; so that it is not possible that the sinner can rise up from his state of sin, while in that case. When the fig-tree was cursed, it withered away; and so does the world in wickedness under the curse. Therefore faith is the only way to holiness; for by it alone the sinner is united to Christ, and justified, whereby the curse is removed; and then he is sanctified, or brought out of his state of wickedness.
Fourthly, They are all dead in sin, Eph. 2:1. There was a great cry in Egypt, when there was one dead in every family; but the unregenerate world is all dead together. God, the life of the soul, is
departed from them; they are alienated from the life of God, their speech is laid, and their spiritual senses are bound up. So that world is the region of the shadow of death. There is this difference indeed,
1. Some are dead and rotten; these are the immoral part of the world, who by their profane lives are as intolerable to sober men, as a stinking carcase; whose conversation, by reason of their profanity, is like the opening of an unripe grave, Rom. 3:13. therefore compared to dogs and swine.
2. Some are embalmed dead; these are the moral and religious part of the world. A form of godliness, the study and practice of moral virtue, is to them as the embalming of the dead corpse, though they cannot put spiritual life in a soul. So that these also are dead still, and lying dead in sin, though they smell not so rank as the profane and immoral.
Lastly, They are all destitute of every principle of holiness, and there cannot be an effect without a cause of it; there can be no acts of holiness without a principle to proceed from. They are destitute,
1. Of the Spirit of God; he dwells not in them, Jude, 19. compare 1 Cor. 2:14. All true sanctification according to the scripture is by the Spirit; it is his taking possession of the soul that looses the bands of sin and death, Rom. 8:2. and he dwells in all that are Christ's, ver. 9. But they are possessed by the spirit of the world, which is opposite to the Spirit of God, and has contrary effects, 1 John 4:5. They are of the world; therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
2. They are destitute of the new nature; it is by regeneration the new man is framed; in the unregenerate is the old man alone, which is corrupt with his deeds, Eph. 4:22. Since then the tree is not good,
how can the fruit be good? If the new nature is totally wanting, how can there be the actions, life, and conversation of the new frame?
3. They are destitute of faith. And without that there can be nothing acceptable to God, Heb. 11:6. Feigned faith they may have; but true faith they have not; for that unites with Christ, and makes a new creature.
4. Lastly, Love, the immediate principle of all acceptable obedience, is wanting in them; for that proceeds from faith, and faith works by it. They cannot love God, they have not believed in him, for these go together. And where no love is, there can be no holy obedience.
SECONDLY, I come now to explain this state of the unregenerate world, there lying in wickedness. And we shall consider,
1. What of wickedness they lie in.
2. How they lie in it.
1. I am to consider what of wickedness they lie in. All the unregenerate world lies,
FIRST, In a state of sin and wickedness, Acts 8:23. I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. Their state before the Lord is a sinful and wicked state; they have never been washed, nor purged from their sin. They are all over sinful and wicked, as over head and ears in the mire, Rev. 3:17. This we take up in two things.
First, Their nature is wholly corrupted with sin and wickedness, Matth. 7:18. Some of them may have a fair shew outwardly, but inwardly they are all overspread with the leprosy of sin, wholly corrupt, John 3:6. The infection by the first sin has gone over the
whole man, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot. And the cure has never yet been begun in them, as having never been touched with regenerating grace. Even the saints' nature is corrupt, but they are renewed in part; but the unregenerate are wholly corrupted in the whole man, Isa. 8:10; there is not the least stroke of purity in them, Tit. 1:15.
I. Their souls in all their faculties are overspread with sin, and wholly corrupted.
(1.) Their mind and understanding is wretchedly vitiated. It is overwhelmed with gross darkness as to spiritual things, Eph. 4:17, 18. Darkness is over all that region; it is the land of darkness and shadow of death, where the very light is darkness; so that they cannot receive the things of God, more than a blind man the light of the sun, 1 Cor. 2:14. So unbelief reigns there, they cannot believe, for they cannot see, Eph. 2:2.
(2.) Their will is wholly perverse and rebellious against God, neither plying nor able to ply to the will of God, Rom. 8:7. The wrong set it got by the fall, it keeps; and nothing less than creating power can give it a new set. What God wills not, that they will, and what he wills, they will not; so that the holy law has an irritating effect on them. It is called a stony heart; break it may, but bow it cannot, till melted down by regenerating grace.
(3.) Their affections are all in disorder, Jer. 17:9. There is no moderating of them, by religion and reason, but they are turbulent and unmanageable, Jer. 2:23, 24. They are wretchedly misplaced; they love what they should loath, and loath what they should love. They can keep no measure, they run to evil, and what is good is against the grain with them. They are monsters in spiritual things;
their hearts are where their feet should be, on the world, and their heels lifted up against heaven.
(4.) Their conscience is in miserable plight. Tit. 1:15. It is unfit to do its office truly for want of saving illumination. Hence it is a lax conscience, that lets many evils pass without any check at all, being silent and senseless; but as to gross sins, in checking which it becomes through custom in them very remiss and easy. And if at any time it be awakened, it is easily bribed or boasted to silence.
2. The body partakes of that corruption, by communication with the sinful soul. It incites to sin; is a house wherein the soul finds many a snare spread for it; so that many, to gratify their senses and bodily appetites, make shipwreck of their souls. Therefore the apostle says, "I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway," 1 Cor. 9:27. It serves the soul in much sin, with the members thereof instruments of unrighteousness, Rom. 6:13. The eyes and ears are windows whereat death comes into the soul; the tongue an unruly evil; the lips unclean, the throat an open sepulchre; the feet swift to mischief; and the belly made a god, not only by them that feed delicately, but those that live on coarse fair, Zech. 7:6.
Secondly, Their lives and conversations are wholly corrupted. Psal. 14:3. For the fountain being poisoned, no pure streams can come forth from thence, Matth. 12:34. The conversation of unregenerate men is one continued course of error, and wandering out of the way of God's commandments. Some of them are nearer the way than others of them, but all of them are quite off it, Psal. 14:3. Whether they move slow or fast, they are out of course, Eccl. 10:15. For many of their actions are ill in themselves, in the very matter of them condemned by the law of God, and which they never truly repent of.
All of them are wrong in the manner, the best, of them are marred in the making, through the want of right principles, motives, and ends.
SECONDLY, The whole unregenerate world lies under the dominion and reigning power of sin and wickedness, Rom. 6:17. Even in the regenerate sin dwells, as a troublesome guest; but it has lost the throne in the heart. But in the unregenerate, it has full sway, and is the sovereign commanding principle in them. There are two things that evidence this.
1. Sin is in them in its full strength and vigour, and therefore rules and commands all. The strength of sin is the law, 1 Cor. 15:56. and they are under the law, under it as a covenant of works, and therefore under the curse. And wherever the curse lies, there sin remains in its strength and power; and there is no cutting off the locks of sin, and breaking the power of it, but by removing the curse, and delivering from the law as a covenant, Rom. 6:14.
2. It possesses them alone without an opposite principle. The old man of sin has not only the possession of every part, but of the whole of every part, there being no principle of grace brought in upon it to counteract it. In the regenerate there is a corrupt principle indeed, called the flesh; but it reigns not, because there is an opposite principle brought in upon it to resist it, Gal. 5:17. But the unregenerate are wholly flesh, John 3:6. So they are like the dead man, where death bears full sway; in the other death and disease are struggling for the mastery.
THIRDLY, They lie in the habitual practice of sin and wickedness, Psal. 14:1. "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God; they are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good." Where sin reigns in the heart, one's course of life cannot be otherwise; if the eye be evil, the whole body must be full of darkness.
Where the old corrupt nature remains in its vigour, it is impossible but the life and conversation must be corrupt too. It is true, there is a great difference of life and practice among the men of the world; but that all the unregenerate lie in the practice of sin and wickedness, however they differ in the kinds of it, is clear from the following considerations.
First, The bent, strain, and course of their life is quite wrong, Eph, 2:1, 2. They are off from the mark; Adam led us all off the road, and they are not brought to it again. However quickly they move at any time, they are always like an arrow shot beside the mark, a traveller that is off his road, Eccl. 10:15. They are a company of wanderers, straying sheep, wandering on the mountains of vanity, 1 Pet. 2 ult. though they go their sundry ways, Isa. 53:6; some wandering in the wilderness of formality, others in the mires and bogs of profanity. But all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, Rom. 3:23.
Secondly, Any good they do is accidental, even as a wanderer in his course of wandering may stumble sometimes on the road; but it is not the product of their main scope and aim. So the Danites consulted God as to their way, not that they were seeking an occasion of it, but an occasion met them, Judges 18:5. So some expound that passage, Lev. 26:23. If ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary to me, &c. Unregenerate men may do good; but it is by the by only, as it happens to suit with their particular humours and interests; for self is the dead sea with them, wherein all is swallowed up; and they are unconverted.
Thirdly, The best things they do are sin, unapproved, unaccepted of God, Prov. 15:8. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, Isa. 66:3. "He that killeth an ox, is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he out off a dog's neck; he that offereth an
oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol." They reckon wrong, dividing their actions into good works and ill works; they are entirely divided into glistering sins, and black and dark sins; and what they call their good works, are but glistering sins. For they are not done in faith; and whatsoever is not of faith, is sin, Rom. 14 ult. Their sinful unregenerate state corrupts all, as a tainted vessel doth the liquor poured into it, Hag. 2:11–14. Their actions materially good, are really evil, as wrong in the principles, manner, and end.
Lastly, Whatever good an unregenerate man does, he still lives in the allowed practice of some sin without repenting or forsaking it. Let him have never so many good things about him, there is still one thing lacking, that mars all, Mark 10:21. This will be evident, if ye consider,
1. That an universal and impartial respect to the commands of God, is a mark of the regenerate, Psal. 119:9. "Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments." This bears that in the case of others there is always some exception, they never go along with the holy law without reserve. There is always something in Christ that offends them, that they stick at, and cannot go down with them, Matth. 11:6.
2. Sin's reign being still entire in them, it must have some lust or other for its sceptre to command by, Rom. 6:12. The current or channel of a water may be altered; but as long as the fountain is not dried up, it will have some channel to run in. A man's particular predominant may alter; but while unregenerate, he will always have some predominant, that shall command all.
3. The heart of man must needs hang on at one door or other for rest to itself. Faith carries the soul to take up its rest in God, Heb. 4:3. But
the unregenerate being unbelievers, do not make God their rest: therefore without controversy they will be found about the creature's door, seeking their rest there. So the heart has still some secret haunt of lust or other, that it can never be driven away from.
That haunt of the heart will be found in one of two.
1st, In the desires of the flesh, Eph. 2:3. There the grosser part of the world do nestle, who live as if they were nothing but flesh, and had nothing but the body, and a present life, to care for. And here one of two things will readily be found the reigning sin of the unregenerate.
1. Covetousness and worldly mindedness. There is in the world the lust of the eye, the gains and profits of a present world; and there many an unsanctified heart has its secret haunt, ever minding earthly things, Phil. 3:19. Here is the bait for the rich and the poor, the main stream of their cares runs there, the one for increasing, the other for getting: some by lawful means, but immoderately used, others right or wrong. But that is instead of God to them, 1 John 2:15; and therefore it is called idolatry, Col. 3:5.
2. Sensuality. There is in the world the lust of the flesh, the pleasures of sense, and carnal appetite; and there many an unrenewed heart has its secret haunt, that it can by no means be kept out of. There may be many good things about them; but their running issue there can never be stopt. The pleasures of sense are better to them, than all the pleasures of communion with God; and they are instead of it to them, 2 Tim. 3:4, 5. Hence some are voluptuous epicures, whose belly is their god; some fleshly slaves, abandoned to, and wholly in the power of their fleshly lusts.
2dly, Or in the desires of the mind, Eph. 2:3. There is in the world the pride of life too; and there the more refined part of the
unregenerate world do nestle. And here are several things that will be found reigning sins of the unregenerate, the haunts of their unrenewed hearts.
1. Reigning pride and self-conceit, 2 Tim. 3:2. Having never had a kindly work of humiliation wrought on them, the natural height of their spirit is unbroken. If they have any natural or acquired excellencies about them, they admire themselves in these, and take it very ill if others do not do so too. If they happen to obtain any religious or moral excellences, their case then becomes most hopeless, that publicans and harlots enter into the kingdom of heaven before them: for their unrenewed hearts have no ballast for that sail.
2. Bitterness of spirit, showing itself in malice and revenge against those they think have injured them. The unregenerate world is the region of malice and bitterness, as peopled by the seed of the serpent, Tit. 3:3, "For we ourselves also, (saith the apostle Paul,) were sometimes foolish,—living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another." This temper of spirit is more the nature of the unregenerate than generally we are aware of. The contrary disposition is the badge of the family of God, Matt. 5:44, 45. "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven, for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." An unforgiving disposition is a sign of an unforgiven state, Matth. 6:14, 15. Therefore there were none more spiteful and malicious than the Pharisees, because there were none farther from a state of pardon with God. When grace comes, it turns lions into lambs, Isa. 11:6; and has a benign influence to the good of mankind, Rom. 13:10.
3. Reigning vanity of mind, Eph. 4:17. All the unregenerate world having left God, follow after vanity; for there is no mids, 1 Sam. 12:21. They are all in the dark, groping here and there for rest to their hearts among the creatures; they find it not, but a thousand disappointments cause them not to give over. They are like a sick man on his bed, turning every where for ease, and tossing; only never turning to God in Christ. The sick heart has this and the other fair promise made to it, to give it ease; for that end the world makes a mighty stir about meat, clothes, building, planting, doing and undoing again, turning upside down, changing and tacking about; and all in vain, without finding rest.
4. Natural enmity against God, Rom. 8:7. The unregenerate world is, in the language of the Holy Ghost, a generation of vipers, Matth. 3:7. And the seed of the serpent have all their venomous nature unchanged in them, whatever shapes or form of religion, or morality has cast them into. And this their natural enmity against God appears in two things.
(1.) A reigning enmity against the power of godliness, wherever it appears, Acts 13:10. Unrenewed professors of religion may very well like religion of the stamp of their own, and may have as much zeal as could burn up others that are not of their way; but to heaven shall hell be as soon reconciled, as they to real godliness in the power thereof, as it expresseth the image of Christ. And therefore there are none more virulent against the most serious godly than they, against those whose life is likest Christ's on earth.
(2.) An irreconcilable enmity to the law, and the holiness it requires, Rom. 8:7. The image of God was most lively expressed on the man Christ, and in his holy life when on earth the world saw it; and it no sooner appeared, than the natural enmity of the unregenerate world
appeared against God, in the treatment they gave to him, until they had him persecuted to the death. Now the most lively expression of the image of God, to be seen on earth, is in the holy law; but darkness and light may as soon be reconciled, as the unregenerate heart to the law. This appears, if ye consider,
(1.) There is never an unrenewed heart for the whole law, but at most to pick and chuse in it. Their shoulders can never away with the whole yoke of Christ. Seek all the unregenerate world, ye shall no sooner find one that is for fulfilling all God's will, than one after God's own heart, Acts 13:22. Some or other of his commands are always grievous to them, and that they can by no means bear.
(2.) The law brought close home to the unregenerate has an irritating power on them, Rom. 8:9. The more they are girded with the holy commandment, the more they sting against it; the closer it is applied to them, the farther they flee from it. It is like the stirring of the ant's nest, and the fretting of the serpent, that causes it spit its venom. Hence the more means of grace many have, they are the more vile; as the more the sun beats on the dunghill, its stench is the greater.
(3.) Akin to this is the enmity of the world against the ministers of Christ, which all ages and places have given pregnant instances of. The true reason of it is their office, an office ungrateful to the world, to declare the laws of Heaven, John 15:20, 21. "Remember that word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me." Hence the current of spite against them, as against stewards who are to execute in a family the orders of the head thereof which are very unacceptable. Thus men being touched in their sore places,
are irritated; yea, if providence frown upon men, their ill nature is ready to appear against them; because the unhumbled heart frets against the Lord, and so it rebounds on his servants standing in that relation to him.
5. Selfishness, 2 Tim. 3:2. Men shall be lovers of their own selves. It is among the first lessons Christ puts in the hands of his scholars, to deny themselves; importing that all unregenerate men are overgrown with selfishness. Man falling off from God, set up himself as his chief end; and hence comes no due concern for the honour of God, nor for the good of others; but all swallowed up in concern for themselves; driving forward to that end over both the one and the other. Now grace corrects this disposition, bringing men out of the circle of self in which they were confined. This selfishness appears.
(1.) In their worldly management, where it swallows up neighbourlove, as in a devouring gulf, Phil. 2:20, 21. Hence no due sympathy with the afflicted, their sorrows no allay to their joys; yea a secret satisfaction in the crosses, losses, and afflictions of others, that the sorrows of others are matter of joy and triumph to them, Prov. 24:17, 18. Envying and grudging at the prosperity of others, undermining them in their affairs, not standing to drive on their own interest on the ruin of their neighbours; a scandalous cruel practice, which God is this day visibly contending for.
(2.) In their religious management, where it swallows up the love of God in Christ, like a devouring gulf, Phil. 2:21. Hence no due concern for the honour of God in the world, no mourning for the sins of others, but a careless Gallio-like temper whether the interests of religion sink or swim. No rejoicing in the glorifying of God, where they themselves cannot pretend to a share; an ill eye on the good of others, and hardly a good word to spare for it, but a readiness to
detract from it and sully it, unless they be of their party and way; in that case they find room for it, because there is room for self there, Phil. 1:15–18.
6. Lastly, Unbelief. This is the common sin of all the unregenerate world (John 3:18, 19.) that hear the gospel. They may escape a mire of pollution, that others fall into, who are yet sunk over head and ears here. It is a sin that is the need-nail to all others, John 7:24. and yet such a spiritual sin, that it is hardly discerned; it not being of the nature of those sins that a natural conscience boggles at. But all the unregenerate live in it.
(1.) They do not truly believe the gospel, Isa. 53:1. There is a report sent from another world, of life and salvation for sinners through Christ; they do not contradict, they say they believe it, nay they think they believe it; but in reality they believe it not. For to quit the enjoyment of their lusts, and the pursuit of the vain world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is in their eyes to quit certainty for uncertain hope. Any faith they have of it is but superficial; for it is risen without the root of saving illumination, and the demonstration of the Spirit, 1 Cor. 2:4, 5, Matth. 16:17.
(2.) They have never been brought freely away to Christ, in the way of believing, for all, John 1:12, 13. All the proposals of the gospel made to them, have never prevailed farther than to make them almost Christians, they have not felt the day of power to make them willing, Psal. 110:3. Men have drawn them, conscience has pressed them; but they have not felt the Father's drawing yet. Two things evince this.
(1.) They are not yet come freely away out of themselves, to Christ, for a rest to their consciences, Phil. 3:3. They have never yet died to the law, and therefore cannot be married to Christ, Rom. 7:4. They are not poor in spirit, Matth. 5:3. There is something left them still of
their own, which though they cannot trust to before God for altogether, yet they can in part. They are never brought freely out of their own righteousness, Rom. 10:3.
(2.) They are not come freely away from the creature into Christ, for a rest to their hearts, Heb. 4:3. They have never seen the fulness in Christ, that he should be the one thing desired by them; but in their way Christ may bear the weight somewhat for a rest to their consciences, but the heart can have no rest but in the creature; for they say, as Isa. 4:1, "We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach." He is not the one pearl to than, for which all is to be sold.
(3.) They do not live by faith, which is the only true Christian life, Gal. 2:20. So far from it, that,
(1.) Sense, and not faith, is their guide in their way, quite contrary to the Christian course, 2 Cor. 5:7. "We walk by faith, not by sight" The constant cry of the unregenerate world is, "Who will shew us any good?" Psal. 4:6. and nothing is good in their eyes but sensible good. So the things that are seen, and present, are valued and pursued; things that are not seen, and future, are slighted as uncertain.
(2.) Self, and not Christ, is what they lean to for carrying them on their way. The life of faith is a leaning on Christ, Cant. 8:5. But instead of that, the unregenerate lean on their own stock, their selfwisdom for management, their self-strength for performance, and their self-worth for acceptance.
Thus it appears, that they still live in the allowed practice of some sin or other. Now,
1. The effect thereof is, that that one thing mars all to them, in point of acceptance; and keeps them in a state of death, Mark 10:21. While one sin is allowedly kept, no good they do can be accepted of God, Psal. 66:18. It is as poison poured into a cup, which goes through all. And it effectually concludes them in a state of death; for an offending right eye or right hand puts the whole body in hazard of perishing, Matth. 5:29, 30. One leak may sink the ship. Abimelech the son of Gideon's concubine, slew his seventy brethren the sons of the wives.
2. The reason hereof is, that one sin is kept in the allowed practice thereof, evidenceth that any good done by such a one, is not done out of love to God, and regard to his holy law, but from some self end. For if the authority of God upon any command were sufficient to recommend the obedience of it to a man, it would recommend all the commands to him, because all bear the same impress of divine authority, James 2:10, 11.
FOURTHLY, The whole unregenerate world lies under the guilt of sin, the guilt of revenging wrath, Rom. 3:19. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. By the sanction of the law, guilt follows sin; the creature sinning becomes liable to wrath; there is a bond wreathed about their neck, by which they may be drawn to suffer. Hence sin is called a debt, because as it is the taking away of obedience due, it binds to suffer punishment accordingly. That we may have a view of their state under the guilt of sin, consider,
1. It is the guilt of eternal wrath they lie under, being bound over thereto by the curse, Gal. 3:10. The regenerate may be under guilt too; but it is only the guilt of fatherly anger; there is no curse, no revenging wrath in their case, Rom. 8:1. But the unregenerate are
under a bond of guilt binding them to suffer in hell to the complete satisfaction of justice.
2. The guilt of their original sin they were born with, is still lying on them, Eph. 2:3.—And were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. They came into the world condemned men; and not being in Christ, the sentence is never reversed, though the execution is delayed. They have not the king's pardon, though they are yet spared, and easy as if there were no quarrel.
3. Every actual transgression, in heart, lip, or life, by omission, or commission, brings on new guilt of that kind on them, Gal. 3:10. "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." So the guilt of their sins is added to the guilt of their original sin; and as many actual sins as they are chargeable with, so many pliars there are of that cord of death on them. As they repeat their sins, the law repeats its curse.
4. An unregenerate man can do nothing but what is sin, Matth. 7:18. Accordingly God testifies of them that there is none that doeth good, no not one, Rom. 3:12. His nature being wholly corrupt, all his actions are corrupt too; his natural actions, Zech. 7:6. his civil actions, Prov. 21:4. and his religious actions, Prov. 15:8. So that in all they do, they contract new guilt, Hag. 2:14.
5. Man is a busy creature, still doing. And none are more busy than the unregenerate that can do no good, Isa. 57:20. "The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." The heart of man is like the watch, that may go as fast going wrong, as when going right: it is still employed about vanity or vileness; and every imagination is evil, Gen. 6:5.
6. Lastly, All their guilt sticks with them, nothing of it goes off, being out of Christ, Eph. 2:1. Believers are daily contracting guilt, it is true; but then they are daily getting it removed too, through daily application of the blood of Christ by faith, as the living man is putting off nastiness from him; whereas all abides with the unregenerate world, as the vermin on the dead corpse that can put off none.
Now put all these together, and what a dreadful lair has the unregenerate world in the guilt of sin! Floods of guilt are still rolling in on them, as the waters are running continually into the sea; but whereas the sea lets out of its waters that it receives in, they keep all the floods of guilt that roll in on them. So the longer they live, they are the more miserable, because the more guilty.
LASTLY, The whole unregenerate world lies in the filth and pollution of sin, Tit. 1:15. Unto them that are defiled and unbelieving, is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. Sin is a defiling evil, it pollutes the sinner in the sight of God, defacing his image in the soul, and rendering him unlike God. God is glorious in holiness, this holiness he has expressed in his law, and sin is the quite contrary of that holiness. So that God can no more cease to abominate it, than to delight in his own image, Hab. 1:13; Jer. 44:4.
1. Their natural defilement and pollution which they were born in, still remains, Psal. 51:5. for they are not born again of the water and the Spirit. An emblem of their case ye have in Ezek. 16. The whole soul of their frame is unclean, polluted, and unlike God, Tit. 1:15.
2. Every actual transgression, or omission, or commission, leaves a new stroke of pollution on them, rendering them more unlike God, Rom. 3:13. So that their spiritual uncleanness is ever increasing, and the longer they live, they do but contract the more defilement.
3. Lastly, All sticks on them, nothing of their old or new defilement is removed; because they were never washed in the laver of regeneration, Ezek. 22:24. And what a wretched case must that be, where new filth is still coming on the soul, but none going off?
II. I shall now shew how the unregenerate world lies in wickedness. They lie in it in the most hopeless case; which we may take up in three things. They lie,
1. Bound in it, Acts 8 bound in it like prisoners, Isa. 61:1. They are in chains of guilt, which they cannot break off; there are fetters of strong lusts upon them, which hold them fast. Satan has overcome them, and brought them into bondage; and though they see their case is wrong, though a natural conscience witnesseth their hasard; yet they cannot leave it, but go on like an ox to the slaughter, and a fool to the correction of the stocks.
2. Asleep in it, Eph. 5:14. They have drunk of the intoxicating cup, and are fast asleep, though within the sea mark of vengeance. Though some times they are made to start in their sleep, by passing convictions like a stitch in the side; yet there is no awakening of them, by all the alarms they get from the word, from providence, and their own conscience. If they are at any time moved by these, yet they quickly fall over asleep again.
3. Lastly, Dead in it, Eph. 2:1. A natural life, through the union of a soul with their body, they have; but their spiritual life is gone, the union of their souls with God being quite broken, Eph. 4:18. The image of God on the soul, the principal of vital holy actions, is away from them; so they lie in wickedness, breathless and motionless, ready to be buried out of God's sight.
The Doctrine of the Unregenerate world
lying in Wickedness, applied
USE I. Of information. See here,
First, The spring and fountain of the abounding sin in our day: The whole world lies in wickedness; and wickedness proceedeth from the wicked, 1 Sam. 24:13. What but wickedness can be expected in a wicked world? The unregenerate bear the far greater bulk in the land, as in the world; and they are lying in wickedness. Here then is the opened fountain of the great deep, that has brought on a deluge of wickedness. Hence,
1. The apostacy in principles, men departing from the faith, and bringing in damnable heresies. The infidelity of this generation has gone to a monstrous height; contempt of revealed religion has fearfully spread. The doctrine of the grace of Christ is despised; and the doctrine of the person of Christ is rudely attacked; the foundations that were left in safety in the time of Prelacy, yea under Popery, are now overturned.* So has the wickedness of the world lying in wickedness broke out in our day.
2. Apostacy in practice. There is a deluge of profanity gone over the land; men have loosed the bridle to their lusts, opened the sluice to their wickedness, and there is no stopping of it by men's endeavours, Psal. 119:126. "It is time for thee, Lord, to work; for they have made void thy law." All ranks have corrupted their ways in church and state; that they are like to wear out serious godliness, and the saints of the Most High. And the generation is remarkably worse than their father's, more loose, and regardless of all that is good.
Secondly, The spring of all the miseries that are lying on us, and we are threatened with. The world is lying in wickedness, and therefore lies in misery; for God is a sin-hating and sin-revenging God. It is the sin and wickedness of the generation, that has brought on the decay of trade, and is impoverishing the country, for a witness against the misimprovement of a thriving condition. To that is owing the present straitness, and diminishing of our ordinary food; for the abuse of fulness in luxury, sensuality, and lasciviousness; the desolating of the flocks, for men's oppressing one another; the great sickness and death in families wherewith the Lord is afflicting us. And these look but like the beginning of sorrows, for there is no turning to the hand that smiteth.
Let not men harden themselves in the case, because it seems to fare as ill with saints as sinners. For,
1. It is God's ordinary way in his proceedings against a land, to begin with his own house and family, Ezek. 9:6. For though they are not of, yet they are in the world, and contract infection, so that with them also there are sins against the Lord. And because the Lord has a kindness for them, they get the brim of the cup, Zech. 1:11, 12.
2. But it is a sign for ill to the world lying in wickedness. And of a long time we have had that sign, of particular strokes directed against those that are the most serious, 1 Pet. 4:17, 18. For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? and if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? If God's own people drink of the cup of judgment, the world lying in wickedness shall pledge them, and drink after, Jer. 25:27, 29. And the former getting the brim, the dregs will fall to the latter, Psal. 75:8. And thus God's own prophets have
been signs to a people with whom God had a controversy, Ezek. 24. Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign; according to all that he hath done, shall ye do; and when this cometh, ye shall know that I am the Lord.
3. Lastly, Though in the outward course of providence all falls alike to all, yet the cross of the saint is better than the crown of the sinner, Isa. 53:10, 11. "Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Wo unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him; for the reward of his hands shall be given him," Rom. 8:28. "And we know that all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose," Prov. 1:32. "The prosperity of fools shall destroy them."
Thirdly, It is not strange to find men of the world lying in the habitual practice of some abomination; for the whole world lieth in wickedness. Men will carry themselves agreeable to their state of regeneracy or irregeneracy; and to find unregenerate men lying in this and the other wickedness, is no more strange than to find fish swimming in the water, and birds flying in the air; it is their element.
1. Accordingly some lie in open wickedness, declaring their sin as Sodom, Isa. 53:9. For where men cannot restrain them, they are at liberty, because they have no fear of God before their eyes. Their lust is their law in these things, and they go so far in the road as their feet will carry them, doing evil as they may or can.
2. Some lie in some secret wickedness, which they get kept secret from the open view of the world, and for the eye of a jealous God that mars them not, Ezek. 8:12. "Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The Lord seeth us not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth." This evil world has a loathsome aspect as it is, for all the covering of abominations in it; but were the secret
abominations in it brought out to men's knowledge, the secret frauds and cheats, whoredoms, adulteries, and lasciviousness, murders, thefts, &c. set in the light, how much more loathsome would the world appear? Eph. 5:12. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But two things are certain,
(1.) Where the fountain of sin is not stopt by regenerating grace, it must needs have its main stream running in the practice of some one wickedness or other, Rom. 6:12. An unregenerate man's predominant sin may indeed be changed; but he shall sooner cease to breathe, than to have some one running issue or other. And that will always be his neckbreak here, that will part betwixt Christ and him, Mark 10:21, 22; and that will be the most terrible gnawing worm in the conscience hereafter.
(2.) Whether it be an open or secret wickedness, it will be called at length before a tribunal, where there will be no shifting of compearance, defeating of probation, nor stopping execution, Acts 17:31. "He hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained." Rom. 14:10. "We shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ." There the most secret pieces of wickedness shall be discovered before all the world, Eccl. 12 ult. "For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. Prov. 26:26, "Whose hatred is covered with deceit, his wickedness shall be shewed before the whole congregation." And the most daring transgressor shall be made to stand trembling, Eccl. 11:9. "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment."
Fourthly, The world must be an infectious society; it must be a pestilential air that is breathed in it, and wickedness in it must be of a growing and spreading nature. For the whole world lieth in wickedness. Hence,
1. Unregenerate men, if they get not a cast of saving grace to change their nature, will undoubtedly grow worse and worse, 2 Tim. 3:13. As that which lies in the dunghill, rots the more the longer it lies; so men lying in irregeneracy, in wickedness, the longer they live their case is the more hopeless. How evidently is this seen, in there being some hope of some while they are yet young, yet not being converted then, they grow at length to a pitch that there is no dealing with them?
2. Unregenerate men are snares and neckbreaks one to another, serving to advance the growth of wickedness in one another, Matth. 18:7. As in a dunghill one part serves to rot another, so is it in the world lying in wickedness. The ill example of some encourages others, and so the elder corrupt the younger, especially when they go about to train them up in the ways of wickedness.
3. They are snares even to the godly. It is hard to come near a mire or dunghill and not be defiled. There was a suffocating vapour arose from the high priest's hall, that made Peter fall a denying his Master. This made the Psalmist say, "Wo is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar," Psal. 120:5.
Hence we may learn,
(1.) They have a hard task in hand, whose business it is to deal with the world lying in wickedness, in order to their reformation; for the longer they lie in their wickedness they are the more strengthened in it, their hearts are the more hardened, their consciences more
seared, and the bands of wickedness grow stronger. And then one helps another in an ill course, they unite and combine to strengthen one another in wickedness. So that it is a heavy task.
(2.) The danger of ill company, 1 Cor. 15:32. "Evil communications corrupt good manners." The wicked world is a dangerous society, and has been ruining to many. How many have been ruined, by their being educated and living amongst those of the world lying in wickedness, never having an opportunity of good company, where they might see or get good? How many have been ruined by their falling into ill company, after hopeful beginnings? The stream of our nature runs the wrong way, so the world lying in wickedness rows with the stream, and so is successful in working sinners' ruin, Prov. 13:20. "He that walketh with wise men, shall be wise; but a companion of fools shall be destroyed."
Fifthly, This accounts for the uneasy life that the serious-godly have in the world. The whole world lieth in wickedness. Our Lord Jesus had an uneasy life in it, and so will all his followers have to the end. The church in the world is like a lily among thorns; however the world may caress its own, the serious-godly will not get leave to forget that they are from home while in it; strangers and pilgrims; that they are in a wilderness. How can their life in it miss to be uneasy? For unto them,
1. It is a loathsome world, where their eyes must behold abominations that they cannot help, Hab. 1:3. "Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me; and there are that raise up strife and contention." However the swine of this world may delight to wallow in their own mire, and to lie in their own dunghill; yet to heavenborn souls, the steuch arising from that dunghill must needs be
noisesome. Hence says the prophet, Jer. 9:2. "Oh, that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of way-faring men, that I might leave my people, and go from them; for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men."
2. It is a vexatious world; the temper of the parties is so different, so opposite, that they can never hit it, but must needs be heavy one to another. As the way of the godly is uneasy to the world, so the way of the world is uneasy to them, makes them many a sorrowful day and heavy heart, and draws many a sigh and groan from them, as in Lot's case, 2 Pet 2:7, 8. And the uneasiness arising from that quarter makes heaven more desirable, as to burdened men groaning.
3. It is an ensnaring world, wherein snares of all sorts are going, and they are many times catched in the trap ere they are aware, 2 Tim. 3:1, 2. This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, &c. The world lying in wickedness lays snares for them, that by drawing them into their courses, they may make them like themselves. And at all times they are in hazard by them, either by omission of necessary duty, or commission of sin.
4. It is a world wherein wickedness thrives apace as in its native soil, but any good has much ado to get up its head, Jer. 4:22. "For my people is foolish, they have not known me, they are sottish children, and they have none understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge." The ground being cursed, thistles and thorns grow up of their own accord; but after much labour for the seed-corn, the husbandman has but a sorry increase. So the work of wickedness goes on with speed; but O how hard is it to make a good
work take! The most prudent management can hardly carry a good work, but one sinner destroyeth much good, Eccl. 9 ult.
Sixthly, This accounts for the frightful end this visible world will make, by the general conflagration, 2 Pet. 3:10. There is a curse on it, for the wickedness in it, that once deluged it, it will in the end burn it up. It has been a stage of wickedness, and will be pulled down; a sink of abominations, and will be overthrown. The creatures groan in it, under the abuse of them to the serving of the lusts of men; they must be delivered.
Lastly, This shews the dangerous state of the unregenerate world; they lie in wickedness. Therefore,
1. They now lie under wrath, hanging in the threatening and curse which is over their heads, Eph. 2:8. Being in the region of wickedness, it is the region of wrath, John 3 ult. They are in a state of wrath, it is on them and theirs.
2. They will perish under that wrath, whoever continue and come not out from among them. For the world now lying in wickedness, will sink down into the pit, and lie eternally under their guilt and filth, Matth. 25 ult. Rev. 20:14, 15.
USE II. Of exhortation.
1. To all I would say, Search and try what society ye belong to, whether ye are still of, or separated from, the world lying in wickedness. It is certain, we are all naturally of the world; there is no coming out of it, but by regenerating grace; and being come, ye will have taken another route. What has been already said, particularly on the first clause of the verse, touching the marks and characters of
those that are of God, and so separated from the world, may serve to discover your state in this point.
2. To saints separated from the world, I would say,
(1.) Do not much wonder at the harsh entertainment ye meet with in it. Value not the frowns of the world lying in wickedness; and think not strange of frowns of providence on you while ye are in it. For it will never be quite well with the family of God, while they are here in the same place with the world.
(2.) Watch against it while ye are in it, as being in hazard of sins and snares in a world lying in wickedness. Be not secure; knowing that your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour, 1 Pet. 5:8.
(3.) Look homeward, and long to be with Christ; where you shall be for ever out of the reach of all evil, and enjoy such peace and freedom as your enemies can disturb no more.
3. Lastly, To sinners of the world lying in wickedness, I would say, Come out from among them, and be separated, as ye would not be ruined with them, and perish eternally in their destruction. But of this in the next discourse.
THE DIVINE CALL TO SINNERS TO COME OUT FROM AMONG THE WORLD
LYING IN WICKEDNESS, EXPLAINED
AND URGED
Several Sermons preached at Ettrick, in 1729
1 JOHN 5:19
The whole world lieth in wickedness
2 Cor. 6:17
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.
YE have had a frightful description of the world lying in wickedness. We come now to press the exhortation to come out of it, in the words of this compared text. In which we have,
1. The gospel-call to sinners, Come out from among them. For whereas the words are taken out of Isa. 52:11. it is plain the prophet there speaks of the days and preaching of the gospel, though with an eye to the deliverance from Babylon, ver. 7–10. In it we have,
(1.) The substance of the duty that sinners are called to, Come out from among them, viz. the world lying in wickedness, whereof Babylon was an emblem, as the Jews were of the elect. Babylon was the mother of abominations, and devoted to destruction; so the world lying in wickedness is. To come out from among them, is to come out of your natural state, unto Christ by faith; that is the only way to come out from among them. And that the text aims at no less, is evident,—that adoption into God's family is thereupon promised.
(2.) The touchstone of sincerity in it. Be ye separate. Right coming out from among the world lying in wickedness, is a coming out from among them freely and for altogether. A withdrawing for a time, the relation standing will not do; nor a halting between two; there must be a total separation, by going quite to the other side, and setting up against them. Thus the apostle explains the double call to depart, Isa. 53:11. Depart ye, depart ye, going still farther and farther from them, till the great gulf be fixed betwixt you and them.
(3.) A necessary direction for the right managing of your coming away,—Touch not the unclean thing. They are an unclean society, like a leprous person: consult not with them, but be resolute without tampering with them. Every thing among them is unclean; take up none of it to carry with you, as Rachel did her father's images. Be afraid of every person and thing in the world lying in wickedness, as of fire.
2. The gospel offer and promise, to be accomplished on complying with the call, I will receive you. I the Lord Christ will take you in. Be not afraid that ye shall be at any loss in the case; such refugees shall have the borders of the Lord's land, the gates of his house opened to them.