if they could, they certainly would make him another than what he is. For, consider it is a certain truth, that whatsoever is in God, is God; and, therefore, his attributes or perfections are not any thing really distinct from himself. If God's attributes be not himself, he is a compound being, and so not the first Being; (which to say is blasphemeus,) for the parts compounding are before the compound itself; but he is " Alpha and Omega, the first and the last." Now upon this I would, for your conviction, propose to your consciences a few queries:(1.) How stand your hearts affected to the infinite purity and holiness of God? Conscience will give an answer to this, which the tongue will not speak out. If ye be not partakers of his holiness, ye cannot be reconciled to it. The Pagans finding they could not be like God in holiness, made their gods like themselves in filthiness; and thereby discovered what sort of a god the natural man would have. God is holy; can an unholy creature love his unspotted holiness? Nay, it is the righteous only that can "give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness," Psal. Ixxxvii. 12. God is light; can creatures of darkness rejoice therein? Nay, "every one that doth evil hateth the light," John iii. 29. For, "What communion hath light with darkness ?” 2. Cor. vi. 14. (2.) How stand your hearts affected to the justice of God? There is not a man, who is wedded to his Justs, as all the unregenerate are, but would be content with the blood of his body, to blot that letter out of the name of God. Can the malefactor love his condemning judge? Or an unjustified sinner a just God? No, he cannot, Luke vii. 47. "To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." Hence seeing men cannot get the doctrine of his justice blotted out of the Bible, it is such an eyesore to them, that they strive to blot it out of their minds. And they ruin themselves by presuming on his mercy, while they are not careful to get a righteousness, wherein they may stand before his justice; but " their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil," Zeph. i. 12. (3.) How stand ye affected to the omniscience and omnipresence of God? Men naturally would rather have a blind idol, than an all-seeing God; and, therefore, do what they can, as Adam did, to hide say in themselves from the presence of the Lord. They no more love an all-seeing, every-where-present God, than the thief loves to have the judge witness to his evil-deeds. If it could be carried by votes, God would be voted out of the world, and closed up in heaven: For the language of the carnal heart is, "The Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsaken the earth," Ezek. viii. 12. (4.) How stand ye affected to the truth and veracity of God? There are but few in the world, that can heartily subscribe to that sentence of the Apostle, Rom. iii. 4. "Let God be true, and every man a liar." Nay truly, there are many, who, in effect, do hope that God will not be true to his word. There are thousands who hear the gospel, that hope to be saved, and think all safe with them for eternity, who never had any experience of the new birth, nor do at all concern themselves in that question, Whether they are born again or not? A question that is like to wear out from among us at this day. Our Lord's words are plain and peremptory," Except a manbe born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." What are such hopes then, but real hopes that God (with profoundest reverence be it spoken) will recall his word, and that Christ will prove a false prophet? What else means the sinner, who, “ when he heareth the words of the curse, blesseth himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart?" Deut. xxix. 19. Lastly, How stand ye affected to the power of God? None but new creatures will love him for it, on a fair view thereof; though others may slavishly fear him upon the account of it. There is not a natural man but would contribute, to the utmost of his power, to the building of another tower of Babel, to hem it in. On these grounds, I declare every unrenewed man an enemy to God. 2dly, Ye are enemies to the Son of God. That enmity to Christ is in your hearts, which would have made you join the husbandmen, who killed the heir, and cast him out of the vineyard; if ye had been beset with their temptations, and no more restrained than they were. Am I a dog, you will say, to have so treated my sweet Saviour? So said Hazael in another case; but when he had the temptation, he was a dog to do it. Many call Christ their sweet Saviour, whose consciences can bear witness, they never sucked so much sweetness from him, as from their sweet lusts, which are ten times sweeter to them than their Saviour. He is no other way sweet to them than as they abuse his death and sufferings, for the peaceable enjoyment of their lusts; that they may live as they list in the world; and when they die, may be kept out of hell. Alas! it is but a mistaken Christ that is sweet to you, whose souls loathe that Christ, who "is the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person." It is with you as it was in the carnal Jews, who delighted in him while they mistook his errand into the world, fancying that he would be a temporal deliverer to them, Mal. iii. 1. But when he was come, and " sat as a refiner and purifier of silver," ver. 2. 3. and cast them as reprobate silver, who thought to have had no small honour in the kingdom of the Messiah; his doctrine galled their consciences, and they rested not till they imbrued their hands in his blood. To open your eyes in this point, which ye are so lothe to believe, I will lay before you the enmity of your hearts against Christ and all his offices. 1. Every unregenerate man is an enemy to Christ in his prophetical office. He is appointed of the Father, the great Prophet and Teacher; but not upon the world's call, who, in their natural state, would have unanimously voted against him: And, therefore, when he came, he was condemned as a seducer and blasphemer. For evidence of this enmity, I will instance in two things. Evid. 1. Consider the entertainment he meets with, when he comes to teach souls inwardly by his Spirit. Men do what they can to stop their ears, like the deaf adder, that they may not hear his voice. They always resist the Holy Ghost. "They desire not the knowledge of his ways;" and, therefore, bid him depart from them. The old calumny is often raised upon him, on that occasion, John x. 20. "He is mad, why hear ye him?" Soul exercise raised by the spirit of bondage, is accounted by many. nothing else but distraction, and melancholy fits; men thus blaspheming the Lord's work, because they themselves are beside themselves, and cannot judge of these matters. Evid. 2. Consider the entertainment he meets with, when he comes to teach men outwardly by his word. (1.) His written word, the Bible, is slighted; Christ hath left it to us, as the book of our instructions, to show us what way we must steer our course, if we would come to Einmanuel's land. It is a lamp to light us through a dark world to eternal light. And he hath left it upon us, to search it with that diligence wherewith men dig into mines for silver and gold, John v. 39. But, ah! how is this sacred treasure profaned by many! They ridicule the holy word, by which they must be judged at the last day; and will rather lose their souls than their jest, dressing up the conceit of their wanton wits in scripture-phrases; in which they act as mad a part, as one who would dig into a mine to procure metal to melt, and pour down his own and his neighbour's throat. Many exhaust their spirits in reading romances, and their minds pursue them, as the flame doth the dry stubble; while they have no heart for, nor relish of the holy word, and therefore seldom take a Bible in their hands. What is agreeable to the vanity of their minds is pleasant and taking: But what recommends holiness to their unholy hearts, makes their spirits dull and flat. What pleasure will they find in reading of a profane ballad, or story book, to whom the Bible is tasteless, as the white of an egg! Many lay by their Bibles with their Sabbath day's clothes; and whatever use they have for their clothes, they have none for their Bibles, till the return of the Sabbath. Alas! the dust or finery about your Bibles is a witness now, and will, at the last day, be a witness of the enmity of your hearts against Christ as a prophet. Besides all this, among these who ordinarily read the scriptures, how few are there that read it as the word of the Lord to their souls, and keep communion with him in it. They do not make his statutes their counsellors, nor doth their particular case send them to their Bibles. They are strangers to the solid comfort of the scriptures. And if at any time they be dejected, it is something else than the word that revives them: As Ahab was cured of his sullen fit, by the securing of Naboth's vineyard for him. (2.) Christ's word preached is despised. The entertainment most of the world, to whom it has come, have always given it, is that which is mentioned, Mat. xxii. 5. They made light of it. And for its sake they are despised whom he has employed to preach it; whatever other face men put upon their contempt of the ministry, John xv. 20. "The servant is not greater than his Lord; if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my sayings, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake." That Levi was the son of the hated, seems not to have been without a mystery, which the world in all ages hath unriddled. But though the earthen vessel, wherein God has put the treasure, be turned, with many, into vessels wherein there is no pleasure, yet why is the treasure itself slighted? But slighted it is, and that with a witness this day. Lord, who hath believed our report? To whom shall we speak? Men can, without remorse, make to themselves silent Sabbaths, one after another. And, alas! when they come to ordinances, for the most part, it is but to appear (as the word is, to be seen) before the Lord, and to tread his courts, namely, as a company of beasts would do, if they were driven into them, Isa. i. 12. So little reverence and awe of God appears on their spirits. Many stand like brazen walls before the word, in whose corrupt conversation the preaching of the word makes no breach. Nay, not a few are growing worse and worse, under precept upon precept; and the result of all is, "They go and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken," Isa. xxviii. 13. What tears of blood are sufficient to lament that (the gospel) the grace of God is thus received in vain ! We are but the voice of one crying; the speaker is in heaven; and speaks to you from heaven by men; why do ye refuse him that speaketh? Heb. xii. 25. God has made our Master hear of all things, and we are sent to court a spouse for him. There is none so worthy as he; none more unworthy than they to whom this match is promised; but the prince of darkness is preferred before the Prince of peace. A dismal darkness overclouded the world by Adam's fall, more terrible than if the sun, moon, and stars, had been for ever wrapt up in blackness of darkness; and there we should have eternally lain, had not this grace of the gospel, as a shining sun, appeared to dispel it, Tit. ii. 11. But yet we fly like night-owls from it; and like the wild beasts, lay ourselves down in our dens; when the sun ariseth, we are struck blind with the light thereof; and, as creatures of darkness, love darkness rather than light. |