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Man's Natural Blindness In Things Of Religion 

by Jonathan Edwards

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Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise?
He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he
not see? He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that
teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know? The Lord knoweth the thoughts of
man, that they are vanity.

Psalm 94:8-11 

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Subject: There is an extreme and brutish blindness in things of religion
that naturally possesses the hearts of mankind.

SECTION I 

Introductory observations. 

In these words the following particulars are to be observed. (1.) A certain
spiritual disease charged on some persons, viz. darkness, and blindness of
mind, appearing in their ignorance and folly. (2.) The great degree of this
disease; so as to render the subjects of it fools. Ye fools, when will ye be
wise? And so as to reduce them to a degree of brutishness. Ye brutish among
the people. This ignorance and folly were to such a degree, as to render men
like beasts. (3.) The obstinacy of this disease; expressed in that
interrogation, When will ye be wise? Their blindness and folly were not only
very great; but deeply rooted and established, resisting all manner of cure.
(4.) Of what nature this blindness is. It is especially in things pertaining
to God. They were strangely ignorant of his perfections, like beasts. And
had foolish notions of him, as though he did not see, nor know, and as
though he would not execute justice, by chastising and punishing wicked men.
(5.) The unreasonableness and sottishness of the notion they had of God,
that he did not hear, did not observe their reproaches of him and his
people, is shown by observing that he planted the ear. It is very
unreasonable to suppose that he, who gave power of perceiving words to
others, should not perceive them himself. And the sottishness of their being
insensible of God's all-seeing eye, and particularly of his seeing their
wicked actions, appears, in that God is the being who formed the eye and
gave others a power of seeing. The sottishness of their apprehension of God,
as though he did not know what they did, is argued from his being the
fountain and original of all knowledge. The unreasonableness of their
expecting to escape God's just chastisements and judgments for sin is set
forth by his chastising even the heathen, who did not sin against that
light, or against so great mercies, as the wicked in Israel did; nor had
ever made such a profession as they. (6.) We may observe, that this dreadful
disease is ascribed to mankind in general. The Lord knoweth the thoughts of
MAN, that they are vanity. The psalmist had been setting forth the vanity
and unreasonableness of the thoughts of some of the children of men. And
immediately upon it he observes that this vanity and foolishness of thought
is common and natural to mankind. 

>From these particulars we may fairly deduce the following doctrinal
observation: THAT THERE IS AN EXTREME AND BRUTISH BLINDNESS IN THINGS OF
RELIGION, WHICH NATURALLY POSSESSES THE HEARTS OF MANKIND. - This doctrine
is not to be understood as any reflection on the capacity of the human
nature. For God has made man with a noble and excellent capacity. The
blindness I speak of is not merely negative ignorance, such as in trees and
stones that know nothing. They have no faculties of understanding and
perception, whereby they should be capable of any knowledge. And inferior
animals, though they have sensitive perception, are not capable of any
intellectual views. There is no fault to be found with man's natural
faculties. God has given men faculties truly noble and excellent, well
capable of true wisdom and divine knowledge. Nor is the blindness I speak of
like the ignorance of a new-born infant, which arises from want of necessary
opportunity to exert these faculties. 

The blindness that is in the heart of man, which is spoken of in the text
and doctrine, is neither for want of faculties, nor opportunity to know, but
from some positive cause. *2* There is a principle in his heart, of such a
blinding and besotting nature, that it hinders the exercises of his
faculties about the things of religion, exercises for which God has made him
well capable, and for which he gives him abundant opportunity. 

In order to make it appear that such an extreme brutish blindness, with
respect to the things of religion, does naturally possess the hearts of men,
I shall show how this is manifest in those things that appear in men's open
profession. And how it is manifest in those things that are found by inward
experience, and are visible in men's practice. 

SECTION II 

Man's natural blindness in religion, manifested by those things which appear
in men's open profession. 

  

I WOULD now show, how it is manifest that there is a sottish and brutish
blindness in the hearts of men in the things of religion, by those things
which appear in men's open profession. 

I. It appears in the grossness of that ignorance and those delusions which
have appeared among mankind. Man has faculties given him whereby he is well
capable of inferring the being of the Creator from the creatures. The
invisible things of God are very plainly and clearly to be seen by the
things that are made. And the perfections of the Divine Being, his eternal
power and Godhead, are very manifest in the works of his hands. And yet
grossly absurd notions concerning the Godhead have prevailed in the world.
Instead of acknowledging and worshipping the true God, they have fallen off
to the worship of idols. Instead of acknowledging the one only true God,
they have made a multitude of deities. Instead of worshipping a God, who is
an almighty, infinite, all-wise, and holy Spirit, they have worshipped the
hosts of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars; and the works of their own hands,
images of gold and silver, brass and iron, wood and stone; gods that can
neither hear, nor see, nor walk, nor speak, nor do, nor know anything. Some
in the shape of men, others in the shape of oxen and calves; some in the
shape of serpents, others of fishes, etc. 

The sottishness of men in thus worshipping the lifeless images which they
themselves have made, is elegantly and forcibly represented by the prophet
Isaiah. "The smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals, and fashioneth
it with hammers, and worketh it with the strength of his arms. Yea, he is
hungry, and his strength faileth; he drinketh no water, and is faint. The
carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line: he fitteth
it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after
the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in
the house. He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak,
which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest; he
planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it. Then shall it be for a man to
burn; for he will take thereof and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and
baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it: he maketh it a
graven image, and falleth down thereto. He burneth part thereof in the fire:
with part thereof he eateth flesh: he roasteth roast, and is satisfied: yea,
he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire. And the
residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down unto
it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me, for thou
art my god. They have not known, nor understood: for he hath shut their
eyes, that they cannot see, and their hearts, that they cannot understand.
And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor
understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire, yea, also I have
baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it, and
shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the
stock of a tree?" (Isa. 44:12-19). 

Many of the images which the heathen worshipped were made in the most
monstrous and terrible shapes they could devise. And the more hideous and
frightful they appeared, the better they supposed they would serve their
turn for gods. Some of their images were made so as to be the most unclean
representations; images of men openly exposing their nakedness. These
unclean images, they judged, appeared in a god-like manner, and worthy to be
worshipped. Many, instead of worshipping a holy and good God, and infinitely
perfect Being, ascribed vices to many of the gods which they worshipped. One
god they reckoned notorious for drunkenness; others notorious for
uncleanness. To others they ascribed lying and stealing; to others cruelty;
and yet looked upon them worthy to be worshipped as gods! Many worshipped
devils, who appeared to them, and whom they themselves reckoned to be evil
spirits. But yet built temples, and offered sacrifices to them because they
were afraid of them. Many worshipped beasts and birds and fishes. And the
most hateful and loathsome animals were most worshipped. Particularly,
serpents were more commonly worshipped than any other beast. Many worshipped
rivers and trees and mountains. They worshipped many diseases. There is
scarcely anything of which men have not made gods. 

And so far has that principle of blindness prevailed, with respect to the
things of religion, that it has in a great measure extinguished all light in
the minds of many, even in matters of morality, and things that have but a
distant relation to religion. So that many whole nations have professedly
approved of many things directly contrary to the light of nature. And the
most horrid vices and immoralities have been esteemed harmless, yea,
accounted virtues among them, such as revenge, cruelty, and incest. Many
nations have openly allowed the practice of sodomy. And with some it has
been accounted commendable to marry their nearest relations. Many have even
worshipped their gods in their temples with acts of drunkenness and
whoredom, and the most abominable lewdness. And the more filthy they were in
their uncleanness, they thought their gods the more pleased and delighted
with it. 

Many nations have been so under the influence of mental blindness that they
have been void of all civility, and have been reduced to a state very little
above the beasts in their common customs, and ordinary way of living, and in
a great many things far below the beasts, being, if I may so speak, much
more beastly than the beasts themselves. Now this has not been, because
these men, with whom this has been the case, have not had the same faculties
that we have. That we are not as ignorant as they, is not because we have
better natural understandings, or that our minds are by nature more clear,
and our eyes more discerning, or that our hearts are not naturally so
inclined to sottishness and delusion as theirs. But only because God has not
left us so much to ourselves, as he has them. He has given us more
instruction to help us against our delusions. God has so ordered it in his
providence that we should have his good word to instruct us. And has caused
that we should grow up from our infancy under Christian instruction. 

II. The extreme blindness and sottishness in things of religion, which is
naturally in the hearts of men, appears not only in embracing and professing
those errors that are very great, but also those that are so unnatural. They
have not only embraced errors which are very contrary to truth, but very
contrary to humanity, not only against the light of nature, but against the
more innocent inclinations of nature. Such has been, and still is, the
blindness of many nations in the world, that they embrace those errors which
do not only exclude all true virtue, all holy dispositions, but those that
have swallowed up the more harmless inclinations of human nature. 

Thus they have embraced many gross delusions that are as contrary as
possible to natural affection. Such as offering up their own children in
sacrifice to their idol, which has been a common thing in the heathen world.
And the parents have not only offered them up to death, but they have
brought them, and offered them up to the most cruel and tormenting deaths:
as, to be burnt alive, to be broiled to death in burning brass; which was
the way of offering up children to Moloch. The image of the idol being made
of brass, in a horrid shape, was heated red hot. And the poor child was laid
naked in this burning brass, and so burnt to death. And the parents
themselves brought the child to this offering, however sweet and pleasant a
child it might be. And thus the innocent child was tormented till it died,
without any regard to its piteous cries. And it has been the manner of some
nations, to offer in sacrifice the fairest and best beloved child that they
had. And thus many thousands of poor babes have been offered up. So strong
has been the tendency of the hearts of men to delusion, that it has thus
overcome those strong natural affections which men have to the fruit of
their own bodies. 

And many of these delusions have been against men's natural love of their
own ease, and aversion to pain. Many have worshipped their idols, and do so
to this day, with such rites as are most painful and tormenting, cutting,
gashing, and mangling their own flesh. Thus they sottishly worshipped Baal
of old. "And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with
knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them." (1 Kin. 18:28).
And it is still the custom in some nations grievously to torment themselves,
to kindle a fire to scorch their own bodies in a most miserable manner, and
to put themselves to various and long-continued torments to please their
idols. And it is the manner in some countries for persons, on certain
occasions, to kill themselves, yea, to put themselves to cruel deaths, to
cast themselves into great fires, and there burn themselves to death. How
powerful must be the delusions of the human mind, and how strong the
tendency of the heart to carry them such a length, and so to overcome the
tenderest feelings of human nature! 

III. The extreme blindness of the mind of man will appear further, if we
consider how general gross ignorance and delusion has been. It has for the
most part prevailed through the greater part of the world. For most of the
time from Noah's flood to the coming of Christ, all nations, except the
children of Israel, were overspread with gross heathenish darkness; being
given up to the most vain and ridiculous notions, and all manner of
superstitious, barbarous, absurd, and unnatural practices. And, for the
greater part of the time since, most nations of the world have been covered
with gross darkness. 

So it is at this day. Many nations are under popish darkness, and are in
such gross delusions that they worship the Virgin Mary, and a great
multitude of dead men, whom their church has canonized for saints, some real
saints, and others abominably wicked men. So they worship the bread in the
sacrament, and account it not only the real body of Christ, but real Christ
in body and soul, and divinity. They carry a wafer, a small piece of bread,
in procession, fall down before it, adore it, and account it Christ himself,
both in his divine and human nature. And yet believe that the body of Christ
is in heaven, and in ten thousand different places on earth at the same
time. They think they can do works of supererogation; that is, more good
works than they are obliged to do, whereby they bring God into debt to them.
They whip themselves, and put themselves to other ridiculous penances and
sufferings, whereby they think they appease the anger of God for their sins.
And they pay money to the priests to buy the pardon of their sins. Yea, they
buy indulgences for future crimes, or pardon for sins before they commit
them. They think they defend themselves from evil spirits, by sprinkling
holy water. They pay money to buy the souls of their departed friends out of
purgatory. They worship the relics of dead saints, such as pieces of their
bones, their teeth, their hair, pieces of their garments, and the like. And
innumerable other such foolish delusions are they under. 

A great part of the nations of the world are Mahometans; many of the
articles of whose belief are too childish and ridiculous to be publicly
mentioned in solemn assembly. - But the greater part of the inhabitants of
the world are to this day gross, barbarous heathens, who have not the
knowledge of the true God, but worship idols and devils, with all manner of
absurd and foolish rites and ceremonies, and are destitute of even common
civility: multitudes of nations being like beasts in human shape. - Now this
barbarous ignorance and gross delusion being of such great extent and
continuance, shows that the cause is general, and that the defect is in the
corrupted nature of mankind, man's natural blindness and proneness of his
heart to delusion. 

IV. The sottish blindness and folly of the heart of men appears in their
being so prone to fall into such gross delusions, soon after they have been
favored with clear light. Were not the minds of men exceeding dark, they
never would entertain such absurd notions at all. For they are as contrary
as possible to reason. Much less would they fall into them after they had
once been instructed in the truth. For, were it not very strange and great
sottishness indeed, they would - when they come to be informed of the truth,
and have opportunity to compare it with those gross errors - behold such a
reasonableness in the truth, and such absurdity in those errors, that they
would never be in danger of being deluded by them any more. But yet so it
is. Mankind, after they have been fully instructed, and have lived in clear
light, have, time after time, presently lost the knowledge of the truth, and
have exchanged it for the most barbarous and brutish notions. 

So it was early after the flood, whereby the wicked world, those that were
visibly so, were destroyed; and none were left but those who professed the
true religion. And they had such an eminently holy man as Noah to instruct
them. And though the true God had so wonderfully and astonishingly
manifested himself in that great work of vengeance against his enemies; yet
the posterity of Noah, in great part, presently lost the knowledge of the
true God, and fell away to idolatry, and that even while Noah was living.
And the ancestors of Abraham were tainted with that idolatry, even Terah his
own father. "And Joshua said unto all the people, thus saith the Lord God of
Israel, your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even
Terah the father of Abraham, and father of Nachor: and they served other
gods. And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood," etc.
(Jos. 24:2, 3, 4). It seems as though Abraham was called away from his
father's house, and from his own country, for this reason that the country
was overrun with idolatry. 

And even many of the posterity of Abraham and Isaac - Abraham's posterity by
Hagar and Keturah, and that part of Isaac's posterity which were of Esau -
though the true religion was so thoroughly taught and practiced in the
houses of those holy patriarchs, and God had from time to time so
wonderfully and miraculously manifested himself to them, yet - soon cast off
the true God, and fell away to idolatry. For, not very long after, we read
of the posterity of Jacob as being the only people of God, that he had in
all the earth. - And so the people of that part of the land of Canaan, who
were under that holy king Melchizedeck, soon totally cast off the worship of
the one only true God, which he taught and maintained. For before Joshua
brought in the children of Israel, the inhabitants of that land were wholly
given to idolatry. So the people of the land of Uz, who were under the
government of so great and holy a man as Job, soon lost the knowledge of the
true God, and all those religious truths which were then known among them,
and sunk into gross idolatry. 

So the posterity of Jacob, themselves - though God had manifested himself to
them, and had wrought such wonders for them in the time of Jacob and Joseph,
yet - presently fell to worship the gods of Egypt. This appears from the
words of Joshua, "Put away the gods which your fathers served on the other
side of the flood, and in Egypt." (Jos. 24:14). And how soon did they fall
to worship a golden calf in the wilderness, in the midst of the wonderful
and miraculous manifestations of the one only true God! And notwithstanding
idolatry was so strictly forbidden, and the folly and wickedness of it so
clearly manifested, in the law of Moses and in God's providence. Yet, how
soon did they fall into idolatry after they were brought into the land of
Canaan! And when God raised up eminent men, judges to instruct and govern
them, and reclaim them from their idolatrous practices, from time to time.
Though they professed to be convinced of their foolish delusion, yet they
would soon fall again into the most sottish idolatry. And this they did soon
after such great light as they enjoyed in the time of Samuel, David, and
Solomon. And so, from time to time, down to the Babylonish captivity. 

And in the apostles' times, when such great things were done to rouse the
attention of mankind, and such great light was spread over many nations,
multitudes, after they had been instructed in the Christian religion by the
apostles and others, fell away into the grossest heresies, and embraced the
most corrupt and absurd notions. - After the Roman empire had been converted
from heathenism to Christianity, and the light of the gospel had driven out
the sottish ignorance and gross absurdities of pagan idolatry, in which they
had continued so long, they soon began to fall away from the truth into
antichristian superstition and idolatry, in which are opinions and practices
no less absurd than those of the heathen. And a great part of the Christian
world fell away to Mahometanism. 

And since the reformation, wherein God wonderfully restored gospel light in
a great part of the Christian world, which was but about two hundred years
ago, many are fallen away again, some to popery, some to gross heresies, and
some to atheistical principles. So that the reformed church is greatly
diminished. - And as to our nation in particular, which has been a nation
favored with light, since the reformation, above most, if not any in the
world; how soon has it in great part fallen away! A great part of it to
atheism, deism, and gross infidelity. And others to Arminianism, and to the
Socinian and Arian heresies, to believe that Christ is a created dependent
God. And to hold other foolish absurdities! And many have of late openly
disputed and denied the moral evil of some of the greatest and most heinous
vices. 

These things show how desperately prone mankind are to blindness and
delusion, how addicted they are to darkness. - God now and then, by his
instructions lifts up some nations out of such gross darkness. But then, how
do they sink down into it again, as soon as his hand is withdrawn! Like a
heavy stone, which, though it may be forced upwards, yet sinks down again.
And will continue to sink lower and lower with a swift progress, if there be
nothing to restrain it. That is the woeful tendency of the mind of man since
the fall, notwithstanding his noble powers and faculties; even to sink down
into a kind of brutality, to lose and extinguish all useful light, and to
sink lower and lower into darkness. 

V. The extreme and brutish blindness that possesses the hearts of men
naturally, appears in their being so confident in gross errors and
delusions. Some things mentioned already show how confident and assured they
are, particularly, their running such great ventures as offering up their
children and cutting and mangling themselves. Multitudes live and die in the
most foolish and absurd notions and principles, and never seem to make any
doubt of their being in the right. 

The Mahometans seem to make no doubt but that, when they die, they shall go
to such a paradise as Mahomet has promised them. Where they shall live in
all manner of sensual pleasures, and shall spend their time in gratifying
the lusts of the flesh. Mahomet promised them that all who die in war for
the defense of the Mahometan religion, shall go to this paradise. And they
make no doubt of it. Therefore, many of them, as it were, willingly rush on
upon the point of the sword. 

The papists, many of them at least, make no doubt of the truth of those
foolish notions of a purgatory, and the power of the priests to deliver them
out of it, and give them eternal life. And therefore will not spare vast
sums of money to purchase deliverance from those imaginary torments. How
confident are many heretics in the grossest heresies! and how bold are many
deists in their infidelity! 

VI. The desperateness of that blindness which is in the heart of man,
appears, in that no nation or people in the world ever have had any remedy
or deliverance from such gross ignorance and delusion, from themselves. No
instance can be mentioned of any people whatsoever, who have once fallen
into heathenish darkness, or any other gross superstitions and ridiculous
opinions in religion, that ever had any remedy by any wisdom of their own.
Or that have, of themselves, grown wiser by the improvement of their own
faculties, and by instructing one another. Or that ever had any remedy at
all, by the teaching of any wise men, who did not professedly act as moved
and directed of God, and did not declare, that they had their instructions,
in the first place, from him. 

Thus in the heathen world. Before Christ's time, the whole world, except the
Jews, lay in their darkness for a great many hundred years, even beyond all
time of which they had any certain history among them. And there was no
remedy, nor any appearance of a remedy; they continued, ages after ages,
waxing worse and worse, sinking deeper and deeper. Among all the many
nations in the world, no one ever bethought themselves, and emerged out of
their brutish darkness. There were indeed some nations that emerged out of
slavery, cast off the yoke of their enemies, grew great, and conquered great
part of the world. But they never conquered the blindness of their own
hearts. 

There were some nations who excelled in other knowledge, as the Greeks and
Romans. They excelled in policy, and in the form of their civil government.
They had wise political rulers. They had excellent laws for regulating their
civil state, many of which have been imitated, as a pattern, by many
Christian nations ever since. They excelled many other nations in arts,
government, and civility, almost as much as men in common do beasts. Yet
they never could deliver themselves from their heathenism. Though they were
so wise in other things, yet in matters of religion they were very absurd
and brutish. For even the Greeks and Romans, in their most flourishing
state, worshipped innumerable gods. And some to whom they ascribed great
vices. And some they worshipped with most obscene and horrid rites. To some
they offered human sacrifices. The Romans had a temple dedicated to the
furies, which they worshipped. And they had a multitude of childish notions
and fables about their gods. 

And though there were raised up some wise men and philosophers among the
Greeks and Romans, who borrowed some things concerning the true God from the
Jews; yet their instructions never were effectual to deliver any one people,
or even one city or town, from their barbarous heathenism, or so much as to
get any one society, or company of men, to unite in the public worship of
the true God. And these philosophers themselves had many grossly absurd
opinions, mingled with those scraps of truth which they had gathered up. 

And the Jews, when fallen away to idolatry, as they often did, never
recovered of themselves. Never any remedy appeared, unless God raised up,
and extraordinarily moved, some person to reprove and instruct them. - And
in this age of knowledge, an age wherein learning is carried to a great
height, even many learned men seem to be carried away with the gross errors
and fooleries of the popish religion. 

Europe is a part of the world the most famed for arts and sciences of any.
And these things have been carried to a much greater height in this age than
in many others. Yet many learned men in Europe at this day, who greatly
excel in human arts and literature, are still under popish darkness. A
deceived heart has turned them aside. Nor do they seem to have any power to
deliver their souls. Nor does it come into their minds that there is a lie
in their right hands. 

Many men in France and in other countries, who are indeed men of great
learning, knowledge, and abilities, yet seem really to think that the church
of Rome is the only true church of Christ. And are zealous to uphold and
propagate it. And though now, within this hundred years, human learning has
been very much promoted, and has risen to a greater height than ever in the
world. And has greatly increased not only in our nation, but in France and
Italy, and other popish countries. Yet there seems to be no such effect of
it, as any considerable turning from popish delusions. But the church of
Rome has rather increased of late, than otherwise. 

And in England, a land wherein learning flourishes as much as in any in the
world, and which is perhaps the most favored with light of any, there are
many men of vast learning, and great and strong reason, who have embraced,
and do at this day embrace, the gross errors of the Arians and Deists. Our
nation, in all its light and learning, if full of infidels, and those that
are further from Christianity than the very Mahometans themselves. Of so
little avail is human strength, or human reason and learning, as a remedy
against the extreme blindness of the human mind. The blindness of the mind,
or an inclination to delusion in things of religion is so strong that is
will overcome the greatest learning, and the strongest natural reason. 

Men, if let alone, will not help one another. Nor will they help themselves.
The disease always proves without remedy, unless God delivers. This was
observed of old. "And none considereth in his heart, neither is there
knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burnt part of it in the fire;
yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh,
and eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I
fall down to the stock of a tree? He feeds on ashes: a deceived heart has
turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a
lie in my right hand? (Isa. 44:19, 20). 

If God lets men alone, no light arises. But the darkness grows thicker and
thicker. How is it now, at this very day, among all the nations where the
light of the gospel has not come? Many of whose ancestors, without doubt,
have been in the midnight darkness of heathenism for above three thousand
years. And not one people have delivered themselves, who have not had the
light of the gospel. And this is not owing to their want of as good natural
abilities as we have. Nor is it because they have an inclination more to
neglect their natural abilities, or make a worse improvement of them than
we. 

VII. The extreme blindness of man's heart, in matters of religion, appears
by men falling into gross delusions, or continuing in them, at the same time
that they have been under great means of instruction from God. We have many
instances of this; as Rachel in Jacob's family; and the Israelites in the
wilderness, etc. These last had great means of instruction. Yet they set up
the golden calf, etc. And after Joshua's time, they persisted in their
delusions and folly, from time to time, even under the reproofs of the
prophets, and even in such horrid delusions, so contrary to natural
affection, as offering their children in sacrifice to Moloch, burning them
alive, in a most cruel manner. 

In the time of Christ and the apostles, the Jews had great means of
instruction, and most of the nations of the world were put under great
advantages to come to the knowledge of the truth. Yet what was the effect?
It would be easy to pursue these remarks respecting the papists in the time
of the reformation, and since - the Arians and Deists in our day, etc. - but
what has been said may be quite sufficient, if the reader will but indulge
reflection. 

VIII. The exceedingly great blindness of men, in things of religion, appears
in the endless disputes and controversies, that there have been, and are,
among men, about those things which concern religion. - Of old, the wise men
and philosophers among the heathen, were, so to speak, infinitely divided
among themselves. Varro, who was one of them, reckons up several hundred
opinions about that one point, Wherein man's happiness consisted? And they
were continually in disputes one with another. But the effect of their
disputes was not any greater union, or any better agreement in their
opinions. They were as much divided after they had disputed many ages, as
they were at first. Yea, much more. 

So there have long been disputes in the Christian world about opinions and
principles in religion. There is a vast variety of sects and opinions. And
disputes have been carried on, age after age, with great warmth, and
thousands of volumes have been written one against another. And all these
disputes have not terminated the differences, but they still subsist as much
as ever. Yea, they increase and multiply more and more. Instead of ending
controversies by disputing, one dispute only lays a foundation for another.
And thus the world goes on jangling and contending, daily writing and
printing. Being as it were deluged with controversial books. And all to no
purpose. 

The increase of human learning does not bring these controversies to an
issue, but does really increase and multiply them. There probably never was
a time in our nation wherein there was such a vast variety of opinions in
matters of religion, as at this day. Every now and then, a new scheme of
things is broached, and various and contrary opinions are mixed and jumbled,
divided and subdivided. And every new writer is willing to have the credit
of some new notion. 

And after this manner does this miserable world go on in endless confusion,
like a great multitude of fool-hardy persons, who go on in the dark,
stumbling and justling one against another, without perceiving any remedy
for their own, or affording any for their neighbor's, calamity. - Thus I
have shown how the extreme blindness that possesses the hearts of men is
manifest in what appears in their profession. 
 

SECTION III 

Men's extreme blindness manifested by inward experience, and especially in
their practices under the gospel. 

  

I COME now to show, how this is manifest in those things that are found by
inward experience, and are visible in men's practices under the light of the
gospel. 

I. This appears in their being so prone to be deceived so many ways, or
being liable to such a multiplicity of deceits. There are thousands of
delusions in things which concern the affairs of religion, that men commonly
are led away with, who yet live under the light of the gospel. - They are
many ways deceived about God. They think him to be an exceeding diverse kind
of being from what he is, altogether such an one as themselves (Psa. 50:21).
They are deceived about his holiness, they do not realize it, that he is
such a holy being as he indeed is, or that he hates sin with such a hatred
as he declares he does. They are not convinced of his truth, or that he
certainly will fulfill his threatenings or his promises. They are not
convinced of his justice in punishing sin, as he does. They have very wrong
notions of Christ. They are not convinced of his ability to save them, or of
the sufficiency of his sacrifice and righteousness, nor of his willingness
to receive them. 

Men are commonly subject to a great many errors about their duty. They are
ready to bring their principles to agree with their practices, instead of
bringing their practices to their principles, as they ought to do. They will
put innumerable false glosses on the rules of God's Word, to bend them to a
compliance with their lusts. And so they "put darkness for light, and light
for darkness; bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter." 

They are subject to deceits and delusions about the things of this world.
They imagine that there is happiness and satisfaction to be found in the
profits, pleasures, and honors, which are to be had here. They believe all
the deluding flatteries and promises of a vain world. And they will hold
that deceit and grand delusion, that these things are the highest good. And
will act accordingly; will choose these things for their portion. And they
will hold and practice upon that error, that these things are of long
continuance, and are to be depended upon. 

They are greatly deceived about the things of another world. They undervalue
that heavenly glory, which is promised to the saints. And are not much
terrified with what they hear of the damnation of hell. They cannot realize
it, that its torments are so dreadful as they hear, and are very ready to
imagine that they are not eternal, but will some time or other have an end. 

They are deceived about the state of good men. They think they are not
happy, but live a melancholy life. And they are deceived about the wicked.
They envy the state of many of them as accounting them well off. "They call
the proud happy (Mal. 3:15), and bless the covetous, whom God abhors." (Psa.
10:3). And they strive a great deal more after such enjoyments as these
have, than after such as are the portion of the godly. 

They are subject to a thousand deceits and delusions about themselves. They
think themselves wise, when they are fools. They are deceived about their
own hearts. They think them much better than they really are. They think
they see many good things in themselves, when indeed there is nothing good
there. They appear lovely in their own eyes, when their hearts are like the
inside of a grave, full of dead men's bones and rotten flesh, crawling
worms, and all uncleanness. Or rather, the inward vault of hell, that is a
habitation of devils and every foul spirit. Those things in their hearts are
highly esteemed by them, which are an abomination in the sight of God. 

Men are very prone to be deceived about their own state, to think themselves
something when they are nothing, and to suppose themselves "rich and
increased in goods, and to have need of nothing, when they are wretched, and
miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." They are greatly deceived about
the principles they act from. They think they are sincere in that in which
there is no sincerity. And that they do those things from love to God, which
they do only from love to themselves. They call mere speculative or natural
knowledge, spiritual knowledge; and put conscience for grace; a servile, for
a childlike fear; and common affections, that are only from natural
principles, and have no abiding effect, for high discoveries, and eminent
actings of grace. Yea, it is common with men to call their vicious
dispositions by the name of some virtue. They call their anger and malice,
zeal for a righteous cause, or zeal for the public good. And their
covetousness, frugality. 

They are vastly deceived about their own righteousness. They think their
affections and performances lovely to God, which are indeed hateful to him.
They think their tears, reformations, and prayers, sufficient to make
atonement for their sins, when indeed if all the angels in heaven should
offer themselves in sacrifice to God, it would not be sufficient to atone
for one of their sins. They think their prayers and works, and religious
doings a sufficient price to purchase God's favor and eternal glory. When,
as they perform them, they do nothing but merit hell. 

They are greatly deceived about their strength. They think they are able to
mend their own hearts, and work some good principles in themselves. When
they can do no more towards it, than a dead corpse does towards raising
itself to life. They vainly flatter themselves, they are able to come to
Christ, when they are not. They are greatly deceived about the stability of
their own hearts. They foolishly think their own intentions and resolutions
of what good they will do hereafter, to be depended on. When indeed there is
no dependence at all to be had on them. They are greatly deceived about
their opportunities. They think that the long continuance of their
opportunity is to be depended on, and that tomorrow it is to be boasted of.
When indeed there is the utmost uncertainty of it. They flatter themselves
that they shall have a better opportunity to seek salvation hereafter, than
they have now. When there is no probability of it, but a very great
improbability. 

They are greatly deceived about their own actions and practices. Their own
faults are strangely hid from their eyes. They live in ways that are very
unbecoming Christians, but yet seem not to be at all sensible of it. Those
evil ways of theirs, which are very plain to others, are hid from them. Yea,
those very things, which they themselves account great faults in others,
they will justify themselves in. Those things for which they will be very
angry with others, they at the same time do themselves, and oftentimes in a
much higher degree, and never once think of it. While they are zealous to
pull the mote out of their brother's eye, they know not that a beam is in
their own eye. 

Those sins that they commit, which they are sensible are sins, they are
woefully deceived about. They call great sins, little ones. And in their own
imaginations, find out many excuses, which make the guilt very small, while
the many heinous aggravations are hid from their eyes. They are greatly
deceived about themselves, when they compare themselves with others. They
esteem themselves better than their neighbors, who are indeed much better
than themselves. They are greatly deceived about themselves, when they
compare themselves with God. They are very insensible of the difference
there is between God and them, and act in many things as if they thought
themselves his equals. Yea, as if they thought themselves above him. Thus
manifold are the deceits and delusions that men fall into. 

II. The desperate blindness that is natural to men appears in their being so
ignorant and blind in things that are so clear and plain. Thus if we
consider how great God is, and how dreadful sin against him must be, and how
much sin we are guilty of, and of what importance it is that his infinite
Majesty should be vindicated; how plain is it, that man's righteousness is
insufficient! And yet how greatly will men confide in it! How will they
ascribe more to it, than can be ascribed to the righteousness of the sinless
and glorious angels of heaven. What can be more plain in itself, than that
eternal things are of infinitely greater importance than temporal things?
And yet how hard is it thoroughly to convince men of it! How plain is it,
that eternal misery in hell is infinitely to be dreaded! And yet how few
appear to be thoroughly convinced of this! How plain is it, that life is
uncertain! And yet how much otherwise do most men think! How plain is it,
that it is the highest prudence in matters of infinite concern to improve
the first opportunity, without trusting to another! But yet how few are
convinced of this! How reasonable is it, considering that God is a wise and
just being, to suppose that there shall be a future state of rewards and
punishments, wherein every man shall receive according to his works! And
yet, how does this seem like a dream to most men! 

What can be in itself more plain and manifest, and easily to be known by us,
if it were not for a strange blindness, than we are to ourselves, who are
always with, never absent from ourselves; always in our own view, before our
own eyes; who have opportunity to look into our own hearts, and see all that
passes there? And yet what is there that men are more ignorant of, than they
are of themselves! There are many vicious practices, the unlawfulness of
which is very plain, the sins are gross, and contrary not only to the Word
of God, but to the light of nature. And yet men will often plead, there is
no harm in such sins. Such as, many acts of gross uncleanness; and many acts
of fraud, injustice and deceitfulness; and many others that might be
mentioned. 

There is no one thing whatsoever more plain and manifest, and more
demonstrable, than the being of a God. It is manifest in ourselves, in our
own bodies and souls, and in everything about us wherever we turn our eye,
whether to heaven, or to the earth, the air, or the seas. And yet how prone
is the heart of man to call this into question! So inclined is the heart of
man to blindness and delusion, that it is prone to even atheism itself. 

III. The great blindness of the heart of man appears, in that so little a
thing will deceive him, and confound his judgment. A little self-interest,
or only the bait of some short gratification of a sensual appetite, or a
little stirring of passion, will blind men's eyes, and make them argue and
judge most strangely and perversely, and draw the most absurd conclusion,
such as, if they were indifferent, they would see to be most unreasonable.
The devil finds easy work to deceive them a thousand ways; an argument of
the great weakness and blindness of our minds. As a little child, weak in
understanding, is very easily deceived. 

IV. The woeful blindness that possesses the hearts of men naturally, appears
in their being all totally ignorant of that in God, which they had most need
to know; viz. the glory and excellency of his nature. Though our faculties,
which we have above the beasts, were chiefly given us that we might know
this, and though without this knowledge all other will signify nothing to
us, and our faculties are as capable of it, as of any other knowledge
whatsoever - and which is as plainly and abundantly manifested as anything
whatsoever, innumerable ways, both in the word and works of God - yet all
men naturally are totally ignorant of this. As ignorant as one born blind is
of colors. Natural men of the greatest abilities and learning, are as
ignorant of it as the weakest and the most unlearned. Yea, as ignorant as
the very stocks and stones. For they see, and can see nothing at all of it. 

V. It appears, in that they are so blind in those same things in religious
matters, which they are sufficiently sensible of in other matters. In
temporal things they are very sensible that it is a point of prudence to
improve the first opportunity in things of great importance. But in matters
of religion, which are of infinitely the greatest importance, they have not
this discernment. In temporal matters they are sensible that it is a great
folly long to delay and put off, when life is in danger, and all depends
upon it. But in the concerns of their souls, they are insensible of this
truth. So in the concerns of this world, they are sensible it is prudence to
improve times of special advantage, and to embrace a good offer when made
them. They are sensible that things of long continuance are of greater
importance, than those of short duration. Yet in religious concerns, none of
these things are sensibly discerned. In temporal things they are
sufficiently sensible, that it is a point of prudence to lay up for
hereafter, in summer to lay up for winter, and to lay up for their families,
after they are dead. But men do not generally discern the prudence of making
a proper provision for a future state. - In matters of importance in this
world, they are sensible of the wisdom of taking thorough care to be on sure
grounds. But in their soul's concerns they see nothing of this. Our Savior
observed this to be the case with the Jews when he was upon earth. "Ye
hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky, and of the earth: but how is
it that ye do not discern this time?" (Luke 12:56) 

VI. The desperate blindness that naturally possesses the hearts of men under
the gospel, appears in their remaining so stupidly insensible and deceived,
under so great means of instruction and conviction. If they were brought up
under heathenish darkness, it would not be so full a demonstration of it.
But thus they remain, though under the clearest light, under the glorious
light of the gospel, where they enjoy God's own instructions in his word, in
a great fullness and plainness, and have the evidence and truth of things
set before them from time to time in the plainest manner. They have the
arguments of God's being and perfection, and of another world. They are told
how eternal things are of greater importance than temporal, and of what
importance it is to escape eternal misery. How much it is worth while to
take pains for heavenly glory, and how vain their own righteousness is. But
yet to what little purpose! 

And they have not only great means of instruction in God's Word, but also in
providence. They have the evidence of the shortness and uncertainty of life.
"He seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person
perish, and leave their wealth to others." Yet "their inward thought is,
that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling-places to all
generations: they call their lands after their own names. nevertheless man
being in honor, abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish. This their
way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings." They find
the world is vain and unsatisfactory. They find the great instability and
treachery of their own hearts, and how their own good intentions and
resolutions are not to be depended on. They often find by experience that
their attempts to make them better, fail. But, alas! With what small effect!


Such abundant evidence is there, both in what appears in the open profession
of men, and also by what is found in their inward experience, and is evident
in their practice, of the extreme and brutish ignorance and blindness, which
naturally possess their hearts. 

  

SECTION IV 

Practical inferences and application of the subject. 

HAVING shown how the truth of the doctrine is evident, both by what appears
in men's open profession, and by those things which are found by inward
experience, and are manifest by what is visible in men's practice, I proceed
to improve the subject. 

I. By this we may see how manifest are the ruins of the fall of man. It is
observable in all the kinds of God's creatures that we behold, that they
have those properties and qualities, which are every way proportioned to
their end. So that they need no more, they stand in need of no greater
degree of perfection, in order well to answer the special use for which they
seem to be designed. The brute creatures, birds, beasts, fishes, and
insects, though there be innumerable kinds of them, yet all seem to have
such a degree of perception and perfection given them, as best suits their
place in the creation, their manner of living, and the ends for which they
were made. There is no defect visible in them. They are perfect in their
kind. There seems to be nothing wanting, in order to their filling up their
allotted place in the world. And there can be no reasonable doubt but that
it was so at first with mankind. It is not reasonable to suppose, that God
would make many thousands of kinds of creatures in this lower world, and one
kind the highest of them all, to be the head of the rest, and that all the
rest should be complete in their kinds, every way endowed with such
qualifications as are proportioned to their use and end. And only this most
noble creature of all, left exceeding imperfect, notoriously destitute of
what he principally stands in need of to answer the end of his being. The
principal faculty by which God has distinguished this noble creature from
the rest, is his understanding. But would God so distinguish man in his
creation from other creatures, and then seal up that understanding with such
an extreme blindness, as to render it useless, as to the principal ends of
it, and wholly to disenable him from answering the ends of an intelligent
creature, and to make his understanding rather a misery than a blessing to
him, and rendering him much more mischievous than useful? Therefore, if the
Scripture had not told us so, yet we might safely conclude, that mankind are
not now, as they were made at first. But that they are in a fallen state and
condition. 

II. From what has been said, plainly appears the necessity of divine
revelation. The deists deny the Scripture to be the Word of God, and hold
that there is no revealed religion, that God has given mankind no other rule
but his own reason, who is sufficient, without any word or revelation from
heaven, to give man a right understanding of divine things, and of his duty.
But how is it proved in fact? How much trial has there been, whether man's
reason, without a revelation, would be sufficient or not! The whole world,
excepting one nation, had the trial till the coming of Christ. And was not
this long enough for trial, whether man's reason alone was sufficient to
instruct him? Those nations, who all that time lay in such gross darkness,
and in such a deplorable helpless condition, had the same natural reason
that the deists have. And during this time, there was not only one man, or a
succession of single persons, that had the trial, whether their own reason
would be sufficient to lead them to the knowledge of the truth. But all
nations, who all had the same human faculties that we have. If human reason
is really sufficient, and there be no need of anything else, why has it
never proved so? Why has it never happened, that so much as one nation, or
one city or town, or one assembly of men, have been brought to tolerable
notions of divine things, unless it be by the revelation contained in the
Scriptures? If it were only one nation that had remained in such darkness,
the trial might not be thought so great, because one particular people might
be under some disadvantages, which were peculiar. But thus it has been with
all nations, except those which have been favored with the Scriptures, and
in all ages. Where is any people, who to this day have ever delivered
themselves by their own reason, or have been delivered without light fetched
from the Scriptures, or by means of the gospel of Jesus Christ? 

If human reason is sufficient without the Scripture, is it not strange that,
in these latter ages - since navigation has been so improved, and America
and many other parts of the world have been discovered, which were before
unknown - no one nation has anywhere been found already enlightened, and
possessed of true notions about the Divine Being and his perfections, by
virtue of that human reason they have been possessed of so many thousand
years? The many poor, barbarous nations here, in America, had the faculty of
reason to do what they pleased with, before the Europeans came hither, and
brought over the light of the gospel. If human reason alone was sufficient,
it is strange, that no one people were found, in any corner of the land, who
were helped by it, in the chief concern of man. 

There has been a great trial, as to what men's reason can do without divine
help, in those endless disputes that have been maintained. If human reason
alone could help mankind, it might be expected that these disputes would
have helped them, and have put an end to men's darkness. The heathen
philosophers had many hundreds of years to try their skill in this way. But
all without effect. That divine revelation, which the church of God has been
possessed of, has been in the world "as a light shining in a dark place." (2
Peter 1:19) It is the only remedy which God has provided for the miserable,
brutish blindness of mankind, a remedy without which this fallen world would
have sunk down forever in brutal barbarism without any remedy. It is the
only means that the true God has made successful in his providence, to give
the nations of the world the knowledge of himself; and to bring them off
from the worship of false gods. 

If human reason be the only proper means, the means that God has designed
for enlightening mankind, is it not very strange, that it has not been
sufficient, nor has answered this end in any one instance? All the right
speculative knowledge of the true God, which the deists themselves have, has
been derived from divine revelation. How vain is it to dispute against fact,
and the experience of so many thousand years! And to pretend that human
reason is sufficient without divine revelation, when so many thousand years'
experience, among so many hundreds of nations of different tempers,
circumstances, and interests, has proved the contrary! One would think all
should acknowledge, that so long a time is sufficient for a trial,
especially considering the miseries that the poor nations of the world have
been under all this while, for want of light: the innumerable temporal
calamities and miseries - such as sacrificing children, and many other
cruelties to others, and even to themselves - besides that eternal
perdition, which we may reasonably suppose to be the consequence of such
darkness. 

III. This doctrine should make us sensible, how great a mercy it is to
mankind, that God has sent his own Son into the world, to be the light of
the world. - The subject shows what great need we stand in of some teacher
to be sent from God. And even some of the wiser men among the heathen saw
the need of this. They saw that they disputed and jangled among themselves
without coming to a satisfying discovery of the truth; and hence they saw,
and spoke of, the need there was of a teacher sent from heaven. And it is a
wonderful instance of divine mercy that God has so beheld us in our low
estate, as to provide such a glorious remedy. He has not merely sent some
created angel to instruct us, but his own Son, who is in the bosom of the
Father, and of the same nature and essence with him. And therefore
infinitely better acquainted with him, and more sufficient to teach a blind
world. He has sent him to be the light of the world, as he says of himself,
"I am come a light into the world." (John 12:46) When he came, he brought
glorious light. It was like the day-spring from on high, visiting a dark
world, as Zacharias observes (Luke 1:77, 78, 79). After Christ came, then
the glorious gospel began to spread abroad, delivering those "that had
sitten in darkness, and in the region of the shadow of death." 

What reason have we to rejoice, and praise God, that he has made such
excellent provision for us, and has set so glorious a sun in our firmament,
such a "Sun of righteousness," after we had extinguished the light which at
first enlightened us, and had, as it were, brought the world into that
state, in which it was when "without form, and void, and darkness was on the
face of it." (Jer. 4:22, 23) - The glory of that light which God has sent
into the world is fully answerable to the grossness of that darkness which
filled it. For Christ who came to enlighten us is truth and light itself,
and the fountain of all light. "He is the light, and in him is no darkness
at all." (1 John 1:5) 

IV. Hence we may learn, what must be the thing which will bring to pass
those glorious days of light, which are spoken of in God's Word. - Though
mankind be fallen into such darkness, and the world be mostly in the kingdom
of darkness; yet the Scripture often speaks of a glorious day, wherein light
shall fill the earth. "For behold the darkness shall cover the earth, and
gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory
shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings
to the brightness of thy rising." (Isa. 60:2, 3.) "And he will destroy in
this mountain, the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil
that is spread over all nations." (Isa. 25:7) "The knowledge of God shall
fill the earth, as the waters cover the sea." (Isa. 11:9) 

By what we have heard, we may on good grounds conclude, that whenever this
is accomplished, it will not be effected by human learning, or by the skill
or wisdom of great men. What has been before observed of this learned age,
is a presumptive evidence of it, wherein spiritual darkness increases with
the increase of learning. God will again make foolish the wisdom of this
world. And will, as it were, say in his providence, "Where is the wise?
where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world?" 

When this shall be accomplished, it will be by a remarkable pouring out of
God's own Spirit, with the plain preaching of the gospel of his Son, the
preaching of the spiritual, mysterious doctrines of Christ crucified, which
to the learned men of this world are foolishness. Those doctrines, which are
the stumbling-block of this learned age. "Not by might, nor by power, but by
my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." It will not be by the enticing words of
man's wisdom, but by the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Not by
the wisdom of this world, nor by the princes of this world, that come to
nought. But by the gospel, that contains the wisdom of God in a mystery,
even the hidden wisdom, which none of the princes of this world, who have
nothing to enlighten them but their own learning, know anything of. 

The Spirit of God, who searches all things, even the deep things of God,
must reveal it. For let natural men be never so worldly wise and learned,
they receive not the things of the Spirit. They are foolishness to them. Nor
can they know them, because they are spiritually discerned. This great
effect, when it is accomplished, will be a glorious effect indeed. And it
will be accomplished in such a manner, as most remarkably to show it to be
the work of God, and his only. It will be a more glorious work of God than
that which we read of in the beginning of Genesis. "And the earth was
without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters: and God said, Let there be
light, and there was light." (Gen. 1:2, 3) 

V. Hence we may learn the misery of all such persons, as are under the power
of that darkness which naturally possesses their hearts. There are two
degrees of this misery. 

First, that of which all who are in a natural condition are the subjects.
The doctrine shows that all such as are in a natural condition, are in a
miserable condition. For they are in an extremely dark and blind condition.
It is uncomfortable living in darkness. What a sorrowful state would we all
be in, if the sun should no more rise upon us, and the moon were to withdraw
her shining, and stars to be put out, and we were to spend the rest of our
time in darkness! The world would soon perish in such darkness. It was a
great plague in Egypt, when they had a total darkness for three days. They
who are deprived of sight, are deprived of the most noble of the senses.
They have no benefit of eternal light, one of the most excellent and needful
of all the things which God has made in the visible creation. But they who
are without spiritual sight and light, are destitute of that which is far
more excellent and necessary. 

That natural men are not sensible of their blindness, and the misery they
are under by reason of it, is no argument that they are not miserable. For
it is very much the nature of this calamity to be hid from itself, or from
those who are under it. Fools are not sensible of their folly. Solomon says,
"the fool is wiser in his own conceit, than seven men that can render a
reason." (Pro. 26:16) The most barbarous and brutish heathens are not
sensible of their own darkness, are not sensible but that they enjoy as
great light, and have as good understanding of things, as the most
enlightened nations in the world. 

Second, another degree of this misery is of those who are judicially given
up of God, to the blindness of their own minds. The Scripture teaches us
that there are some such. "What then; Israel hath not obtained that which he
seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded."
(Rom. 11:7) "But their minds were blinded; for until this day remaineth the
same veil untaken away." (2 Cor. 3:14) "And he said, Go and tell this
people, Hear ye indeed, and understand not; and see ye indeed, and perceive
not. Make the heart of this people fat, and their ears heavy, and shut their
eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and
understand with their hearts, and convert and be healed." (Isa. 6:6, 10)
This judgment, when inflicted, is commonly for the contempt and abuse of
light which has been offered, for the commission of presumptuous sins, and
for being obstinate in sin, and resisting the Holy Ghost, and many gracious
calls and counsels, warnings and reproofs. 

Who the particular persons are, that are thus judicially given up of God to
the blindness of their minds, is not known to men. But we have no reason to
suppose that there are not multitudes of them, and most in places of the
greatest light. There is no manner of reason to suppose that this judgment,
which is spoken of in Scripture, is in a great measure peculiar to those old
times. As there were many who fell under it in the times of the prophets of
old, and of Christ and his apostles. So doubtless there are now also. And
though the persons are not known, yet doubtless there may be more reason to
fear it concerning some than others. All who are under the power of the
blindness of their own minds are miserable. But such as are given up to this
blindness, are especially miserable. For they are reserved, and sealed over
to the blackness of darkness forever. 

  

SECTION V 

Address to sinners. 

THE consideration of what has been said of the desperate blindness which
possesses the hearts of us all naturally, may well be terrifying to such as
are yet in a Christless condition, in this place of light, where the gospel
has been so long enjoyed, and where God has in times past so wonderfully
poured out his Spirit. 

And let such persons, for their awakening, consider the following things: 

First, that they are blinded by the god of this world. Their blindness is
from hell. This darkness which natural men are under, is from the prince of
darkness. This the apostle says expressly of those who remain in unbelief
and blindness under the gospel. "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid from
them that are lost; in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of
them that believe not." (2 Cor. 4:3, 4) They belong to the kingdom of
darkness. In that darkness which reigns in their souls, the devil reigns.
And he holds his dominion there. 

Second, consider how God in his word manifests his abhorrence and wrath
towards those who remain so sottishly blind and ignorant, in the midst of
light. How does God speak of them! "Have all the workers of iniquity no
knowledge?" (Psa. 14:4) "Forty years long was I grieved with this
generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they
have not known my ways. Unto whom I sware in my wrath, that they should not
enter into my rest." (Psa. 95:10, 11) "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass
his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
Ah, sinful nation! - they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger."
(Isa. 1:3, 4) "It is a people of no understanding; therefore he that made
them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no
favour." (Isa. 27:10, 11) "My people is foolish, they have not known me,
they are sottish children, and they have no understanding: they are wise to
do evil, but to do good they have non knowledge." (Jer. 4:22) "Declare this
in the house of Jacob, and publish it in the house of Judah, saying, Hear
now this, O foolish people, and without understanding, which have eyes and
see not, which have ears and hear not. Fear ye not ME, saith the Lord; will
ye not tremble at MY presence?" (Jer. 5:20, 21, 22) 

Third, consider how much willfulness there is in your ignorance. Sinners are
ready wholly to excuse themselves in their blindness; whereas, as observed
already, the blindness that naturally possesses the hearts of men, is not a
merely negative thing. But they are blinded by "the deceitfulness of sin."
(Heb. 3:13) There is a perverseness in their blindness. There is not a mere
absence of light, but a malignant opposition to the light. As God says,
"they know not, neither will they understand, they walk on in darkness."
(Psa. 82:5) Christ observes, "that every one that doeth evil, hateth the
light, neither cometh to the light." And that "this is their condemnation,
that light is come into the world, yet men loved darkness rather than
light." (John 3:19, 20) And I may appeal to your own consciences, whether
you have no willfully rejected the many instructions you have had, and
refused to hearken? Whether you have not neglected to seek after the light,
and neglected your Bible? Whether you have not been a very negligent hearer
of the word preached, and neglected other proper means of knowledge? Whether
you have not neglected to cry to God for that wisdom which you need? Yea,
have you not resisted the means of knowledge? Have you not resisted and
quenched the motions of the Spirit, which at times you have had? And taken a
course to make yourself more and more stupid, by stifling the convictions of
your own conscience, and doing contrary to the light thereof; whereby you
have done those things that have tended to sear your conscience, and make
yourself more and more senseless and sottish? 

Fourth, consider what is the course that God will take to teach those who
will not be taught by the instructions of his word. He will teach them by
briers and thorns, and by the flames of hell. Though natural men will remain
to all eternity ignorant of the excellency and loveliness of God's nature,
and so will have no spiritual knowledge; yet God in another world will make
them thoroughly to understand many things, which senseless unawakened
sinners are sottishly ignorant of in this world. Their eyes in many respects
shall be thoroughly opened in hell. Their judgments will be rectified. They
shall be of the same judgment with the godly. They shall be convinced of the
reality of those things which they would not be convinced of here: as the
being of God, his power, holiness, and justice, that the Scriptures are the
Word of God, that Christ is the Son of God, and that time is short and
uncertain. They will be convinced of the vanity of the world, of the blessed
opportunity they had in the world, and how much it is men's wisdom to
improve their time. We read of the rich man, who was so sottishly blind in
this world, that "in hell he lift up his eyes, and saw Abraham afar off, and
Lazarus in his bosom." (Luke 16:23) With many men, alas! the first time they
open their eyes is in hell. 

God will make all men to know the truth of those great things which he
speaks of in his word, one way or another. For he will vindicate his own
truth. He has undertaken to convince all men. They who will not be convinced
in this world, by the gentle and gracious methods which God uses with them
now, shall be convinced hereafter by severe means. If they will not be
convinced for salvation, they shall be convinced by damnation. God will make
them know that he is the Lord. And he will make them know that he bears
rule. "Consume them in wrath, that they may not be; and let them know that
God ruleth in Jacob, unto the ends of the earth." (Psa. 59:13) "Let them be
confounded and troubled for ever: yea, let them be put to shame, and perish.
That men may know that thou, whose name is Jehovah, art the Most High over
all the earth." (Psa. 83:17, 18) 

What great care we had need all have, that we be not deceived in matters of
religion. If our hearts are all naturally possessed with such an extreme
brutish ignorance and blindness in things of religion, and we are
exceedingly prone to delusion, then surely great care ought to be taken to
avoid it. For that we are naturally prone to delusion, shows our danger. But
the greater our danger of any calamity is, the greater had our watchfulness
need to be. - Let us therefore be hence warned to take heed that we be not
deceived about our duty, about our own hearts, about our ways, about our
state, and about our opportunities. Thousands are deceived in these things,
and thousands perish by that means. Multitudes fall on our right hand and on
our left, and are ruined eternally by their delusion in these things. 

How foolish a thing it is for men to lean to their own understanding, and
trust their own hearts. If we are so blind, then our own wisdom is not to be
depended on, and that advice of the wise man is most reasonable. "Trust in
the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding."
(Pro. 3:5) "And he that trusteth in his own heart, is a fool." (Pro. 28:26)
- They therefore are fools, who trust to their own wisdom, and will question
the mysterious doctrines of religion, because they cannot see through them,
and will not trust to the infinite wisdom of God. 

Let us therefore become fools. Be sensible of our own natural blindness and
folly. There is a treasure of wisdom contained in that one sentence; "If any
man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that
he may be wise." (1 Cor. 3:18) Seeing our own ignorance, and blindness, is
the first step towards having true knowledge. "If any man think that he
knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know." (1 Cor. 8:2)


Let us ask wisdom of God. If we are so blind in ourselves, then knowledge is
not to be sought for out of our own stock, but must be sought from some
other source. And we have no where else to go for it, but to the fountain of
light and wisdom. True wisdom is a precious jewel. And none of our
fellow-creatures can give it us, nor can we buy it with any price we have to
give. It is the sovereign gift of God. The way to obtain it is to go to him
sensible of our weakness, and blindness, and misery on that account. "If any
lack wisdom, let him ask of God." (Jam. 1:5).

 

 

Thanks.

 

For the King's honor,

 

Charis,

 

Mike Abendroth

 

 <http://www.bbcchurch.org> www.bbcchurch.org

 

Ephesians 3:21 auvtw/| h` do,xa evn th/| evkklhsi,a| 

 

2 Tim 1:2b  "Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our
Lord."

 

"Faith is not our physician; it only brings us to the Physician ... Faith is
not our saviour. It was not faith that was born at Bethlehem and died on
Golgotha for us. It was not faith that loved us, and gave itself for us;
that bore our sins in its own body on the tree; that died and rose again for
our sins.  It is a sin-bearer that we need, and our faith cannot be a
sin-bearer. Faith can expiate no guilt; can accomplish no propitiation; can
pay no penalty; can wash away no stain; can provide no righteousness. It
brings us to the cross, . but in itself it has no merit and no virtue.
Faith is not Christ, nor the cross of Christ. Faith is not the blood, nor
the sacrifice; . Our faith does not divide the work of salvation between
itself and the cross. It is the acknowledgment that the cross alone saves,
and that it saves alone. Faith adds nothing to the cross, nor to its healing
virtue. It owns the fulness, and sufficiency, and suitableness of the work
done there, and bids the toiling spirit cease from its labours and enter
into rest. Faith does not come to Calvary to do anything. It comes to see
the glorious spectacle of all things done, and to accept this completion
without a misgiving as to its efficacy. It listens to the "It is finished!"
of the Sin-bearer, and says, "Amen."   

NOT FAITH, BUT CHRIST 

by Horatius Bonar 
(1808-1889) 

 

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