Before we go on, let us make somewhat of present useful reflection to ourselves. And consider, Is it not, hereupon, wonderful that there should be among men so general a self-complacency? How strange is it, that this being the state of the case with men in this world, there should be among them, I say, so general a self-complacency? that they all should seem to be so well pleased with themselves? look with a kind eye upon themselves? that it doth not come into men's minds to think, antecedently to their recovery, to their regeneration, "I am a fallen creature, an apostate creature, one separate and cut off from God, by mine own revolt; one fallen in with the devil against God; that am in league with him to do his will, and to disobey him who gave me breath; who is the Father of my spirit, and the Author of my whole being."

Are not these true thoughts that a man might think of himself, being yet unregenerate, unrenewed? And is it not strange, when they are things that lie so much in view, they yet should so seldom come into men's minds? Can we think it possible, if they did come oftener, that they should be so well pleased with themselves? Yet this, they are generally prone to be. It is the character of the wicked man; that is, one that continues yet in a state of apostasy, that "he flatters himself in his own eyes, (Psalm 36. 2.) until his iniquity be found to be hateful." He still looks upon himself with a self-flattering eye. If there be any thing which, abstractly considered, may be looked upon as amiable, this is singly looked upon but it is seldom, in the mean time, thought, but generally forgot, what is a man's state.

O! how few are there that cry out, "What is the state of my case? If I have strength, if I have wit, if I have any thing of comeliness, I can presently strut, and think, What a fine creature am I? But, in the mean time, that I am a rebel against heaven; I am an accomplice with the devil against God; I am an apostate from my Rightful, Sovereign Lord." This would surely turn all man's self-complacency into horror and consternation, that a man would be afraid of himself, and wish he could run away from himself; and wonder how the earth comes to bear such a creature. O! this monster of an apcstate soul that is off from God, and without a disposition or inclination to return to him, carries so much of horror and prodigy with it, that it is strange all are not filled with fright and amazement, till they find some manifest proof of a regenerating, transforming grace upon their spirits: it is strange that, till then, they are not a continual terror to themselves.

LECTURE XXVI.*

But that which doth yet give us a fuller and more dreadful account of this state of the case, is, besides the consideration we are to have, what man is in himself, and in his faculties and powers, precisely considered, which do make up the sinfulness of his state, and which might be mentioned under this head, is, (3.) The aggravations of man's sinfulness.

1. We are to bethink ourselves, therefore, with whom there is a coincidency, and into what society and combination he falls, in this his corrupt state: and so, take the state of the case briefly and summarily thus; that he is, in all this, an accomplice with those apostate, disloyal, infernal spirits, that had revolted, and were fallen from God before: an amazing consideration! In all this, he is in confederation and combination with devils, with the powers of hell and darkness, against his Rightful and Sovereign Lord. And so doth the Scripture most expressly speak in divers places: so far as that the devil comes thereupon, to be stiled, "The god of this world," who "hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.' 2 Cor. 4. 4.

And O! that we could consider this, according to what it doth import and carry in it of horror and detestableness. It is a thing that we do not yet believe, that a world inhabited by reasonable creatures, God's own offspring, are universally fallen into a confederacy and combination with another god, with an enemy-god, an adversary-god, against the living and true God. Men have changed their God. And what a fearful choice have they made! fallen into a league with those wicked creatures that were weary of his government before, and that were, thereupon, thrown down into an abyss of darkness, and bound up in the chains thereof, unto the judgment of the great day. But doth the Scripture say this in vain? or hath it not a meaning, when it calls the devil, "The god of this world?" O! with what amazement should it strike our hearts, to think that so it is; that the whole order of creatures is gone off from God, and fallen into a confederacy with the devil and his angels, against their Rightful, Sovereign Lord.

It is not a thing spoken (as it were) once on the bye; but the Scripture doth industriously represent this as the settled state

Preached April 7, 1694.

of the case with men. Look to the Ephes. 2. 1. "You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins:—wherein we all had our conversation in times past, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind." And under whose regimen is this? Why, "according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." They live subject to the government of that prince: and that is a long-continued now, referring to the whole time and state of the apostasy. It speaks the fixed state of this case, that as long as men do remain dead in trespasses and sins, as it is in the 1 verse of that chapter; and all the while that that death lies upon the world, which, as we are told in the text, "hath passed upon all;" all that time, during that long-continued now, all their actions, all their motions, all their designs, are "according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience." they are led captive by him at his will; 2 Tim. 2. 26. He hath his will of them. "The lusts of your father ye will do." John 8. 44. That "will" is not a sign of the tense, but a distinct word, "you will;" you will to do the lusts of your father; you have a proneness, a propension of will, or it is grateful to your will, to do the lusts of your father: the devil is become even a father and a god to this apostate world: they are the serpent's seed: he hath (as it were) impregnated them with all the principles of malignity and disloyalty, against their Rightful, Sovereign Lord.

Methinks, this should make us afraid of ourselves, and even of one another, till there be some appearance of a change in the state of our case. We look upon it as a very terrible thing, to have the body of a man possessed with the devil: but how much more dreadful is it, to have his soul under that possession; acted upon by satan in all his designs through the whole of his course, led captive by the devil at his will! Waiting if God will give repentance: that is represented as the great business of the gospel ministry, and of a gospel minister, as in 2 Tim. 2. 24, 25. to wait with patience, and endeavour with gentleness, that they may be brought to repentance, and enabled to recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are led captive by him at his will. See what his part then is, as a god over this world; he makes them do what he will, he hath his will upon them. "My will is, that you forget God; and they do that you live in a continual contempt of God; and so they do: that you mind nothing but the affairs of this world, and how to please and gratify your flesh and sense, mind nothing but what shall, or shall not, profit your external part, or ensnare

and hurt you, and undo you; and they do just as he would have them do, throughout the whole of their course. So that, in this state of the apostasy, they are in a continual confederation as accomplices with devils, those apostate spirits, that were gone off from God before.

[2] It is a further aggravating consideration of this sinfulness, that the understandings of men do all this while remain with them they have their understandings yet about them. Man is still an intelligent creature. "There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty hath given him understanding," (Job 32. 8.) to distinguish him from a brute. It is very true, indeed, if sin had totally unmanned men, it had brought them into an utter incapacity of sinning any more. If the leading faculty were destroyed quite, he were then no more capable of sin than a log. But this makes the matter beyond all imagination wonderful, that a man should have his understanding remaining, and become such a monster as this; and yet apprehend nothing of it: an understanding that he can use about other matters; he can discourse, reason, project, lay designs, form methods in reference to all things that are of an inferior concernment. We find that in that great transformation of that haughty prince Nebuchadnezzar, (whom God turned to graze among the wild beasts of the field,) a transformation, not of his body, (as we have no reason to think that it was,) but of his mind; and we are told, that at the end of so much time, his understanding returned to him. But in this common case, men's understandings do remain with them all the while they are under this monstrous transformation: that is, while a reasonable, immortal spirit disaffects his Maker, the Father of spirits; joins itself with clods, the base things of this earth; yea, joins itself to devils, apostate, impure spirits, and falls into confederacy with them against God: and yet men are not aware of their case.

And this makes that transformation which sin hath wrought in the very nature of man, in the soul of man, his reasonable soul, so horrid a thing. If he had been transformed into any other bodily shape, (though never so monstrous,) it had been incomparably a less monstrous translation than this: to make a reasonable, understanding creature, engage in a contest against him that gave him breath, the Author and Parent of his life and being, nothing could be a more monstrous thing. If all these, metamorphoses which poets feign, had generally taken place and effect, every where among men; if they had been transformed into trunks of trees and the like, (as hath been feigned concerning divers,) it had been a less strange, a less

fearful transformation than this; a reasonable, intelligent, immortal spirit turned against his Maker; and intent upon razing out every thing of his holy image out of itself.

Now this understanding still remaining, the persisting in a way and course of sin, is a running counter to that light and knowledge which every man hath, in a degree, remaining in him, though it is but a dubious kind of twilight; light that doth rather admit to be called "darkness." "If the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness?" that is, it is ineffectual to answer the proper purposes of a directive, practical light yet what doth remain thereof, doth serve most highly to aggravate the wickedness of them in whom it is.

This is that which is more than intimated, when men are required to shew themselves men; as it is in Isaiah 46, 8. You have the proper principles of humanity yet about you, and the great distinguishing principle of reason, that exalts you above inferior creatures you have it in you, but you do not use it; you are men, but you do not shew it: "Shew yourselves men ye transgressors." And again, psalm 53. 4. "Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge?" It is implied that they have it, but they will not use it: the interrogation is a more forcible affirmation; men have knowledge in them, yet transgress: and so keep up a contest and a war against God, and against themselves. And again,

[3.] It is a further most aggravating consideration, that as, in general, they have understanding about them, and still remaining with them, they have also some natural notions of God, all the while they are thus at war with him, and in this defiance against him. Still they have the natural impress of God upon their minds that they cannot raze out; so that they do not fight against him altogether in the dark; "Light shines in the midst of that darkness which comprehends it not." That light by which God reveals himself, not only round about them, but in them; there is that which might be known of God in every man, as in that Rom. 1. 19. That which might be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath revealed it to them.

And there is, hereupon, such a thing as natural religion: for while they have a notion of God in their minds, it is not as of a Being irrelative to them, but it is as an Object of worship; an Object of trust, so as that commonly men, in their last necessities, untaught and uninstructed, do pray to him. As I remember that ancient, (Minutius Foelix,) in opposition to paganism, asserting the oneness of the Deity, and that God whom the christians serve, speaks thus: "You yourselves (saith he)