Chapter X
That the error of the papists is Ly this doctrine evinced, who place sin onhf in
the lower faculties of the soul. That we should be sensible of the defects of our minds, and if lie have any natural endowments of soul, we must
praise and thank God alone for them. We who have the discoveries of the
fjospel, 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
174 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK III.
in a high degree infected, and have also shewn wherein the depravation of the understanding consists, let us now farther consider what practical infer ences 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 sen
sual appetite ; and they answerably interpret the combat between the flesh and spirit, which is spoken of in Rom. vii. 23 and Gal. v. 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 appre hension, 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, dark ness 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 facul
ties 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 lust-
ings 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 vic
tory over it shews most illustrious ; and it is also for those spiritual wicked
nesses 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 prac tice 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 daugh ters 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. xix 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 im-
CHAP. X.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 175
perfections of our understandings. Hast thou parts, and learning, and know
ledge 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
* The spirit of man is the candle
so the mind of man is called : Prov. xx. 27,
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.
xxx. 2, Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the under
standing 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 in
spires a nobler, quicker spirit into some, and from thence ariseth the differ ence of men s understandings
* But there is a spirit in man ; and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. Wisdom
: Job xxxii. 8,
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 xi. 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
* Great men are not always wise : neither do the aged understand judgment. There is a
: Job xxxii. 9.
spirit in man, and an inspiration of the Almighty, which giveth him under
standing. 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. iv. 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 understand
ings, 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 under
standings, 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. xxvii. 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. iii. 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
176 AN UNREGENERATE MAN*S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK III.
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. Eaise 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 dis
covery 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. i. 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 xvii. 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. i. 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 be came 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 concern ment 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 dark
ness, 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 na
turally 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 ao, it is God who hath put a new light into thy mind, and it is a groat
CHAP. X.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 177
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
* And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side : and the fowls came and devoured them up ; what was it but such
of the word : Mat. xiii. 4,
* When any one heareth the word
hearers, who do not understand ? ver. 19,
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 can not 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 xii. 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 dark
ness, 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 regene ration 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 under-
stalling on purpose to know him, so as no wicked man knows him : 1 John
* And we know the Son of God is come, and hath given us an under
v. 20,
standing, 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. vi. 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. VOL. x. M
178 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK III.
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
* Cease not to give thanks for you, making men
Ephesians, chap. i. 16-18,
tion of you in my prayers ; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of him : the eyes of your understanding being enlightened ; that
ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the
glory of his inheritance in the saints. Thus he prays for the Philippians,
chap. i. 9, And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more
in knowledge and in all judgment. Thus he prays for the Colossians, chap,
i. 9, For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will
in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. And therefore, whenever thou
goest to God in prayer hereafter, forget not to ask this eyesalve of him : Rev. iii. 18, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou
mayest be rich ; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that
the shame of thy nakedness do not appear ; and anoint thy eyes with eye-
salve, that thou may see. What is that but his Spirit to anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see things aright, and judge of things that differ ? Re member that Christ is a prophet for thee as well as a king and priest, and
that when all his benefits are reduced but to four heads, wisdom is put in as
one, and one of the chief also : 1 Cor. i. 30, 31, But of him are ye in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and
: that, according as it is written, He that
sanctification, and redemption
glorieth let him glory in the Lord.
CHAP. I.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 179
BOOK IV,
Of that corruption which is in the practical judgments of unregenerate men.