1. Natural Every soul comes into this world shut up and fast closed against the Lord Jesus. The very will of man, Avhich is the freest and most arbitrary faculty, comes into the world barred and bolted against Christ, Rom. viii. 7. " The carnal mind is en- ^' mitv against God ; for it is not subject unto the law of God, " neither indeed can be,'' Phil. ii. 13. " It is God that worketh *' in you both to will and to do of his own good pleasure."*' This is a dismal effect of the fall. Who feels not strong aversions, violent rebellions, and obstinate resistances in his own heart, when moving towards Christ in the first weak and trembling acts of faith ?
2. There is a judicial shutting up of the heart against Christ. This is a sore and tremendous stroke of God, punishing former re- bellions: Psal. Ixxxvi. 11, 12. " Israel would have none of me, <' so I gave them up to their own hearts lusts." This looks hke a prelude of damnation, a very near preparation to ruin. Israel would have none of me; there is the natural shutting up of the heart; so I gave them up ; there is the judicial shutting up of the heart ; they would not hear, they shall not hear. O fearful judgment ! Thus the Lord gave up the Heathens, Rom. i. 26. they had abused their natural light, and now their minds are judicially darkened; given up to a sottish and injudicious mind, not able to distinguish duty from sin, safety from danger ; a mind that should elect the worst things, and reprobate the best. This was the reprobate mind unto which God gave them up ; what sadder word can the Lord speak than this, unless it be, Take him, devil ! It is true, those that God shuts up he can open, and those whom justice shuts up, mercy can set free ; but it is beyond all the power of angels and men to do it : Job xii. 14. " He shutteth up a man, and there can be no " opening." These two closures of the heart are not always found together in the same subject ; and blessed be God they are not. Christ meets with many a repulse, and endures with much patience the gainsaying of sinners, before he pronounces that dreadful sen- tence upon them, Isa. vi. 9, 10. " Go and tell this people. Hear ye " indeed, but understand not ; and see ye indeed, but perceive not : " make the heart of this people fat," &c.
But when it comes to this once, dreadful is the case of such souls ;
and none are in greater danger of this spiritual judicial stroke of God, than those that have sat long under the light, rebelling against it. That is the first thing, the hearts of men by nature are locked and shut up against Christ.
Secondly^ In the next place, let us examine what those locks and bars are which oppose and forbid's Christ's entrance into the hearti» of poor sinners And they will be found to be,
6. Prejudices against the ways of holiness.
Bars enough to secure the soul in Satan's possession, and frustrate all the designs of mercy, except an Almighty Power from heaven break them asunder.
1. The first bar making fast the soul of man against Christ, is ignorance^ that obea: irifernalis, that helhsh bolt, which effectually keeps Christ out of the soul.
If knowledge be the key that opens the heart to Christ, as it is plain it is from Luke xi. 52. where Christ denounceth a woe to thera that took a\vay ike ke^ of knowledge ; then ignorance must needs be the shutter that makes fast the door of the heart against Christ. Upon this ground Christ told the woman of Samaria, that her infidelity grew upon the root of her ignorance; Johniv. 10. " If *' thou k newest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, *' give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would '^'' have given thee living water.'"* Ah, sinners, did you but know what a Christ he is that is offered to your souk in the gospel ; did you see his beauty, fulness, suitableness, and feel your own neces- sities of him, all the world could not keep you from him : you would break through all reproaches, all sufferings, all self-denials, to come unto the enjoyment of him. But alas { it is with you, as it was with those, Cant. v. 9. " What is thy beloved (say they to " the spouse) more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge ^' us t^ Unknown excellencies attract not : ignorance is Satan's sceptre which he sways over all his kingdom of darkness, and holds his vassals in miserable bondage to him : hence the devils are call- ed, Eph. vi. 12. " The rulers of the darkness of this world." Alas, were the eyes of sinners but opened to see their woful state, and their remedy in Christ, he could never hold them in subjection one day longer : they would break av, ay from under his cruel govern- ment, and run over by thousands to Christ ; for so they do as so6n as ever God opens their eyes ; in the same hour they are turned from daxkacss to light, they are also turned from the power of
Satan to G-od, Acts xxviii. 16. O that you did but know the worth o£ your souls, the dreadful danger they are in, and the fear- ful wrath that hangs over them, the willingness and ability of Christ to save them, you could not sleep one night longer in the state you are : the next cry would be, What shall I do to he saved ? Who will shew me the way to Christ ? Help ministers, help Christians, yea, help Lord ; these would be the laments and cries of them that are now secure and quiet. But the god of this world hath bUnded the eyes of them that believe not : no cries for a physician, because no sense how their souls are stabbed by sins of commissiorhy and stabbed by sins of omission. O that the gi'eat Physician would once apply his excellent eye-salve to your understandings, which are yet darkened with gross ignorance both of your misery and remedy.
2. The second bar or lock, that shuts Christ out of men's souls, is the sin of unbelief. This is one of the strongest holds of Satan wherein he trusteth ; this is a sin that not only locks up the heart of a sinner, but also binds up the hand of a Saviour ; Mat. xiii. 58. '^ He could do no mighty works there, because of their un- '' belief."