* The author means that it shews us our need of Christ. Editor.
288 THE METHOD OF GRACE. SERM. XX.
we are unrighteous ; it cannot heal, but it can open and discover the wounds that sin hath given us ; which lie proves in this place by an argument drawn from his own experience, confirmed also by the general experience of believers, in whose persons and names we must here understand him to speak ; " For I was alive without " the law once ; but when the commandment came, sin revived, " and I died." Wherein three particulars are very observable.
First, The opinion Paul had, and all unregenerate men have of themselves before conversion : / was alive once. By life, under- stand here liveliness, cheerfulness, and confidence of his good estate and condition : he was full of vain hope, false joy, and pre- sumptuous confidence ; a very brisk and jovial man.
Secondly, The sense and opinion he had, and all others will have of themselves, if ever they come under the regenerating work of the Spirit in his ordinary method of working : I died. The death he here speaks of, stands opposed to that life before mentioned ; and signifies the sorrows, fears, and tremblings that seized upon his soul, when his state and temper were upon the change : the ap- prehensions he then had of his condition struck him home to the heart, and damped all his carnal mirth : / died.
Thirdly, The ground and reason of this wonderful alteration and change of his judgment, and apprehension of his own condition; the commandment came, and sin revived: The commandment came, i. e. it came home to my conscience, it was fixed with a divine and mighty efficacy upon my heart : the commandment was come be- fore by way of promulgation, and the literal knowledge of it ; but it never came till now in its spiritual sense and convincing power to his soul ; though he had often read, and heard the law before, yet he never clearly understood the meaning and extent, he never felt the mighty efficacy thereof upon his heart before ; it so came at this time, as it never came before. From hence the observa- tions are,
Doct. 1. That unregenerate persons are generally full of ground- less confidence and cheerfulness, though their condition be sad and miserable.
Doct. 2. That there is a mighty efficacy in the word or law of God, to kill vain confidence, and quench carnal mirth in the hearts of men, when God sets it home upon their consciences.
We shall take both these points under consideration, and improve them to the design in hand.
Doct. 1. That unregene? ate persons are generally full of ground-
SERM. XX. THE METHOD OF GGACE. 289
less confidence and cheerfulness, though their condition be sad and miserable ; Rev. iii. 17. Because thou sayest I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing ; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked ; 'Fills is the very life that unregt- nerate men do live.
In opening whereof, I shall shew you,
1. What is the life of the unregeneratc.
2. What maintains that life.
3. How it appears that this is the life the generality of the world do live.
4. The danger of living such a life as this : and then apply it.
First, What is the life of the unregenerate, and wherein it con- sists ? Now there being, among others, three things in which the life of the unregenerate doth principally consist, viz.
Carnal security, Presumptuous hope, and False joy,
Of these briefly in their order.
First, There is in unregenerate men a great deal of carnal secu- rity ; they dread no danger ; Luke xi. 21. " When a strong man " armed keepeth his palace, his goods are at peace :" There is generally a great stillness and silence in the consciences of such men ; when others, in a better condition, are watching and trembling, they sleep securely : so they live, and so oftiraes they die, Psal. lxxiii. 4. " They have no bonds in their death,''' [Hebrew, on knots], no difficulties that puzzle them. It is true, the consciences «f few men are so perfectly stupified, but that some time or other they twang and gird them ; but it seldom works to that height, or continues with them so long as to give any considerable inter- ruption to their carnal peace and quietness.
Secondly, The life of the unregenerate consisteth in presumptuous hope : this is the very foundation of their carnal security. So Christ tells the Jews, John viii. 54, 55. " Of whom ye say that " he is your God, and yet ye have not known him." The world is full of hope without a promise, which is but as a spider's web, when a stress comes to be laid upon it, John xxvii. 8. Unregene- rate men are said indeed to be without hope, Ephes. ii. 12. but the meaning is, they are without any solid, well-grounded hope ; for in scripture-account, vain hope is no hope, except it be a lively hope, 1 Pet. i. 'j. A hope flowing from union with Christ, Col. i. 27. A hope nourished by experience, Rom. v. 4. A hope for which a man can give a reason, 1 Pet. iii. 15. a hope that puts men upon heart-purifying eudeavours, 1 John iii. 3. It is in the account
290 THE METHOD OF GRACE. SERM. XX.
of God a cypher, a vanity, not deserving the name of hope ; and yet such a groundless, dead, christless, irrational, idle hope is that which the unregenerate live upon.
Thirdly, The life of the unregenerate consisteth in false joy, the immediate offspring of ungrounded hope, Mat. xiii. 28. The stony ground receive the word with joy.
There are two sorts of joy upon which the unregenerate live, viz.
1. A sensitive joy in things carnal.
2. A delusive joy in things spiritual.
They rejoice in corn, wine, and oil, in their estates and children, in the pleasant fruitions of the creature ; yea, and they rejoice also in Christ and the promises, in heaven and in glory : with all which they have just such a kind of communion as a man hath in a dream with a full feast and curious music ; and just so their joy will va- nish when they awake. Now these three, security, hope, and joy, make up the livelihood of the carnal world.
Secondly, Next it concerns us to enquire what are the things that maintain and support this security, hope and joy in the hearts of unregenerate men ; and if we consider duly, we shall find that church-privileges, natural ignorance, false evidences of the love of God, slight workings of the gospel, self-love, comparing themselves with the more profane, and Satan's policy managing all these in order to their eternal ruin, are so many springs to feed and main- tain this life of delusion in the unregenerate.
1. First, Church privileges lay the foundation to this strong de- lusion. Thus the Jews deceived themselves, saying in their hearts, " We have Abraham for our father," Mat. iii. 9. This propt up the vain hopes that Abraham's blood ran in their veins, though Abraham's faith and obedience never wrought in their hearts.