Chapter II
The great hindrance of the work of conversion is the pleas whereby men justify
themselves in an unregenerate state. How quick-witted men are to invent such carnal reasonings. Whence it is that they are so. How obstinately
they adhere to such sinful pleadings for themselves, and the causes of being
so.- That these reasonings are various in men, according to their different understanding, temper, or state. That they are in some strong, in others more weak.
The first set of men in whom we are to beat down these strongholds are the ignorant and profane ; and if we conie to such to convince them of the
danger of their natural condition, we shall find them to set on work all the wit and reason which they have, to evade or resist the conviction. If we deal with them about their ways and states, and examine what hopes they have for heaven, we shall still find they will have something to say for them
selves, with which to put us off, and to salve the sad and deplorable circum stances of their own condition, notwithstanding all that we can say to the
contrary. Shoot the word at them, and they will have some ammunition with which they will shoot again against what is said, and the lowest and
poorest men will have something to oppose herein. The meanest cottage hath some of these strongholds as well as walled towns, ignorant and profane men as well as men of knowledge and civil behaviour. They will tell us, though they know little or nothing of religion, that yet they have a good meaning, that there are none but sin as well as they, that their hearts are
good, and they hope well. Thus publicans and the most profligate sinners
will have something to say for themselves, as well as proud pharisees.
And if we consider the difficulty of the work of conversion, what is the
great hindrance of it but these false deluding pleas in men s hearts ? Whereat doth conversion stick most, that notwithstanding all the motives
880 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK X.
exhortations, or threatenings which we use, yet the wills of men are not turned ; and for all our trying such variety of keys, yet the bolts of their
wills shoot not ? Why, there are false reasonings in their hearts, which, as wrong wards, hinder the key from turning ; and though the key be fitted
to many of the wards in them, and we bring answers tomany objections, yet if the key stiek at some one that we light not on, the man is not converted. Ask any man that is converted to God what it was hindered him a long while from seeing his miserable condition, and from being humbled and
parting with his sins, and he will tell you that either he had some carnal
objection stuck in his mind against the ways of God and the people of God, which were long a-beating down r or else he thought his estate to be good enough, or not so bad as it was represented to him : that his sins were not so great in his eyes as they were magnified to him by ministers, and that he imagined his evidences for a better life and heaven to be fair enough ; and that he still had pleas and excuses to avoid the force of all that could be said against him ; and if as to some instances he was convinced, yet the conviction was not thorough, but his heart had still some stronghold which made him stand it out ; or that, ere he yielded, his flesh debated things
fully, and brought many objections, many pleas for itself; and that he
thought not that sin had had such strength on? its side as he found it had when the forts were yielded up. What is the, reason also why civil men, who are in themselves in a nearer proximity to the kingdom of heaven than
* Thou
those who are openly profane (as Christ said to him in Mark xii. 84,
art not far from the kingdom of God ), yet are hardliest of all convinced, con
verted, and brought home to God ? What is the reason of this ? It is be cause carnal reason hath more strength in them than in others ; the strong holds are better fortified in them than in profane men, and they have stronger and more specious arguments to plead why their state is good and safe.
If we consider the forces which the word of God prepares, they are fitted
to invalidate such pleas and pretences of carnal men. It doth not speak daggers and swords only, it doth not only shoot off cannon and discharge
volleys of threatenings against sin and sinners, to conquer the kingdom of
sin by mere downright blows, but it hath weapons suited to repel and beat down carnal reasonings, pleas, and excuses. And a great part of the ammunition of the sanctuary consists of such weapons wherewith to con
vince wicked men, to confute their pleas, to reason it out with them ; engines to countermine their secretest deceits, and to batter down their strongest
objections. Now if the word hath so much preparation of this kind, as it
hath, then surely much of the opposition in men s hearts against conversion
to God lies in such reasonings, pleas, or excuses ; for otherwise, these wea
pons of the word would be altogether needless. If you saw a king prepar
ing not swords, but engines of battery, and instruments for mining, you would say, Surely he means to sit down before some fort or fenced town,
for his preparations are not for a field battle, but for a siege. So here in
this case it is likewise.
Now the true grounds and reasons how and why the heart of man comes
to engender and harbour, to cleave and stick unto such carnal pleas and
reasons, are,
1. From the vastness and largeness of reason, which is so large a faculty as it is able to invent some fair gloss and cover for the foulest and most gross
enormities, and to make good appear to be evil, and evil good. We see this
by experience ; for let a man have never so bad and unjust a cause, yet some
colours and pleas will be invented for it, and something the man will find in
which to wrap it up cleanly ; as Micah speaks, Micah vii. 3, That they may
CHAP. II.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 881
do evil with both hands jearnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh
for a reward ; and the great man, he utfcereth his mischievous desire : so they wrap it up. The most foul and gross opinions, dissonant to the light of
nature, as killing of kings, breaking faith with heretics, equivocation., &c., are defended, and reason is able to invent much for them, and whole books have been written to make them good. Though the actions of kings and great men are never so enormous, yet their flatterers and abettors have tongues to
file and smooth them, as the prophet s comparison is, Isa. xxx. 10. As press
ing irons can smooth the greatest wrinkles in cloth, so can their tongues do
as to the most deformed actions. And therefore it is hard if the profanest
liver, who is in the worst estate before God, cannot find something to speak in his defence ; it is hard if his reason, quickened in his own cause by self-
love, and whetted and sharpened so much the more, cannot find something to plead for himself. If a corrupt lawyer s reason can find out shifts and
quirks for another s cause when naught, much more will he do it if the cause
is his own ; ,for here in this case self-love will be active to sharpen invention, and to make the power of reason more intense.
2. If the heart is thus able to invent specious arguments to justify or
excuse itself, it is as apt to adhere and cleave to such pleas which it frames, and to take them for good reasons, and to hold to them rather than unto what the word brings to convince on the contrary ; for such self-love and
self-flattery will incline the mind, and sway and bend it that way. For the stream of the heart being, in the current of it, for evil courses only, unto them it would run whether it had anything to plead for them or no ; and
therefore when it shall hear or think of anything that may be said to justify such courses, or to extenuate sin, or to free them from obligation to strict
holiness, the heart willingly assents to such specious shows of argument, as
if they were real and solid truths, because they all make for it, and for its
great design of continuing in sin. Accordingly, the reason which is given why so many under popery embraced that doctrine as truth is this, that they had pleasure in unrighteousness, and therefore embraced such opinions which suited to their lusts, and easily assented to such doctrine : 2 Thess.
ii. 9-12, Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all
power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deeeivableness of un
righteousness in them that perish ; because they received not the love of the
truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them
strong delusion, that they should believe a lie ; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
3. For any man to think that his estate is naught and damnable, and
that his courses are such as cannot stand with a state of grace, is the harsh
est opinion that any man can entertain of himself ; and as a man would
preserve a good opinion of himself with others, so with himself also, and would also keep up a hope of the future happiness of his condition ; for otherwise the thought and opinion of the contrary would not only hinder his
comfort, but sink him into discomfort, which is the death of the soul ; and
therefore the apostle Paul, when he speaks of his being convinced of his
sinful wretched state, he says that he died; Rom. vii. 9-11, For I was
alive without the law once ; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Now, as dying men catch hold on anything to
help them, or as a man sinking snatcheth at anything that may keep him
up above water, so do carnal men, whose souls would otherwise sink into and under a desperate opinion of themselves, and therefore they are glad
882 AN UNKEGENEEATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X.
of any the slightest reasons or pleas that can but speak peace to them. And,
4. Upon this motive the corrupt heart keeps reason off from examining into these shallow and empty grounds of its hopes, and wicked men hate the
* And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth
light which would discover things to them : John iii. 19, 20,
evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be
reproved. And, on the contrary, they are glad of any show, pretence, or
plea, which may make for them.
5. There is a pride of heart which resolves not to yield or to be subject unto the word, but is obstinate to maintain its cause, be it right or wrong, and to hold out the siege to the last ; and, accordingly, tbe man sets all his wits on work, to find out reasons to maintain itself with, and to fetch the
suit about again and again, and to put in new answers and new replies. The man resolves never to be nonplussed, or to lay down his cause, whilst any thing may be pleaded.
Now, concerning these reasonings, I would have two things to be con sidered in the general.
First, That they are in several men many and diverse, so as it is an end
less work to speak of, and unto them all. The heart of one man engenders
still upon occasion, and finds out millions of them ; and we see that there is no end of multiplying them, as there is not of writing books. Corrupt reason will still find something to say; and when one hold is battered down,
it seeks for and builds new ones. As rabbits, if let alone and not catched,
dig new burrows when their old ones are stopped, so do carnal men also in
this case, if God s Spirit doth not catch them, and subdue and convert them. Now, if one man s heart will find out many of these shifts and devices, what
variety must needs be hatched, hammered, and sought out in the hearts of
divers men ! As reason itself is a vast faculty in every man, so it is of a
different mould and fashion in several men, and that is a reason to one man which is not to another, and that shall be a plea and a shift which one man
will stick to, for the putting off the conviction of his stufulness and miserable
state, that another sees nothing in, and will not make use of it. If men s
fancies and lusts are diverse, then their reasonings are so too. And besides, as the condition of their states, as their opinions which they have drunk in
are diverse, accordingly are their carnal pleas various. The pharisees in
their times had excuses which are not now current in the light of the gospel, no, not among carnal men. Profane men have pleas which civil men slight, and civil men have pleas which temporary believers build not on, and igno rant men have pleas which men of light and understanding see through.
Secondly, It is to be considered that the carnal pleas and reasonings in some are more slight and easily refuted, but in others they are stronger. The pleas which some have, which by reason of their ignorance and willing ness to be deceived they yet stick unto as most true, are exceeding weak and
silly, and scarce worth the naming, much less the pains to confute them. For instance, the Jews therefore thought God their father, because they were lawfully begotten, and not of fornication, John viii. 41 ; but in others
these wicked arguings are stronger. For,
1. As reason itself is stronger in some men than others, so corrupt reason also is abler to invent stronger reasons and pleas for itself; and
strong delusions are in stronger understandings, and much stronger holds
are built by able men than by others who are rude and unlearned. And,
2. As the light of the word wins ground upon a man s reason, and batters
CHAP. III.] IN KESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 883
down slight works, and makes a man desert them, so much the stronger fortifications will the man s heart be still building up against the word ; for
to a man of much light weak pleas will not serve any longer. Therefore the
strongest carnal reasonings, though the sweetest, are in those who are en
lightened and have knowledge. For as in a kingdom they use not to build
forts at all, till they hear of some enemy which may invade them ; and the more ground the enemy wins, the more they will be sure to fortify the forts which are left, and to build them up stronger, as the more weak ones are taken from them ; so it is here in this case, for the heart begins not to build up any fort till the word or some light comes to make an invasion. Therefore the Gentiles who wanted the light of the word, had but weak ex cuses and pleas, and none, or very little fortification was in them, though some such excuses were found among them, as some light they had : Rom.
* Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their con science also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another. They made some apologies for themselves, as the word aToXoyou/Asvwv implies. But now till the word comes to urge ob
ii. 15,
jections against a man s state, he hath no need to make an apology for him
self; but as light increaseth, the more need there is of strongholds, whereby the heart may stand out against it, and accordingly the heart builds them, and therefore the more men are enlightened, with the stronger delusions will they strive to deceive themselves.
3. The more common graces men have, wanting true grace, the stronger carnal reasons will they have to justify their states ; and accordingly the holds of a civil and moral man are better fortified than those of one that is
profane. And therefore the apostle in Rom. i., dealing with the Gentiles, mentions none of their carnal pleas; but when he comes to the Jews in chap,
ii., he spends it in taking away their cavillings. And further, one who hath a common work of the Spirit on his heart, by the preaching of the gospel (as the second and third ground in the parable of the sower, Mat. xiii., had), hath stronger pleas, reasonings, and deceits in him, than a civil man. A
civil man hath had the pleas, excuses, and grounds of the deceit of a pro fane man discovered to him to be weak ; and one enlightened by the gospel, and who hath good motions in him, discerns the civil man s reasonings for himself to be weak, and sees how he is deceived, and therefore he will in vent stronger wherewith to defend himself. So as it is harder to convince a man who is in a civil condition, than one who is profane, for he hath more ammunition with which to make resistance, than the other hath ; and for the same reason it is harder to convince a temporary believer than a civil man, because their pleas are stronger, which the common work of the Spirit occasioneth in them.