kingdom of glory hereafter. A new heart is for a new heaven, and a new heaven is for a new heart. ' Except a man be born again/ except a man be born from above ; and so Cyrill interprets that word dvcodev.^ Generation in some sense is from below, but regeneration is only from above, and without tliis there is no fruition of God above.
* He cannot see the kingdom of God.' The Scripture speaks of several cannots.
[1.] Firxst, There is a natural cannot. Now, every son and daughter of Adam is by nature born under a cannot. They are all born under a cannot believe, a cannot repent, a cannot love God, a cannot walk vdth God, a cannot see God, a cannot enjoy God : 1 Cor. ii. 14, ' The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' A blind man cannot see colours, nor a natural man cannot discern spiritual things. They are too high, they are too sublime for him ; they are mysteries that he cannot understand, that he cannot unriddle. The natural man can ascend no higher than nature, as the water can rise no higher than the spring from whence it comes — Quantum descendit, tantum ascendit. The Scripture sets such sad souls below the ox and the ass, Isa. i. 3. Take nature civilised and moralised, refined and raised, sublimated, strengthened, and im- proved to the utmost, and it cannot enable a man to do a supernatural action ; nature cannot act ultra spJiceram, above itself. But,
[2.] Secondly, There is a contracted and an habituated cannot ; and of this cannot the prophet speaks in Jer. vi. 10, ' To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear ? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach : they have no delight in it.' They had by their carnality, impiety, sensuality, security, and obstinacy, con- tracted upon their poor souls such deafness, wretchedness, unteachable- ness, and untractableness, that they could neither love the word nor like it ; they could neither take pleasure nor delight in it ; nay, they could neither hear it nor bear it, though it never so nearly concerned the internal and eternal welfare of their souls. And of this cannot the apostle speaks in 2 Pet. ii. 14, ' Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin ; beguiling unstable souls : an heart they have exercised with covetous practices ; cursed children.' 2 By their riot and excess, by their lasciviousness and wantonness, by their loose- ness and uncleanness which they had habituated and accustomed themselves unto, they brought upon themselves a cursed necessity of sinning, so that they could not cease from sin. They mourn over sin, and yet they cannot cease from sin ; they resolve against sin, yet they cannot cease to sin ; they pray against sin, yet they cannot cease to sin ; they make many promises, vows, and covenants against sin, yet they cannot cease from sin, their souls being habituated and accustomated thereunto : Jer ii. 20, ' For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands ; and thou saidst I will not transgress '—I will never
^ On John iii. 3.— G.
* MotxctXis properly, distinctly signifies an adulteress ; and this phrase of having eyes full of the adulteress answers to that of the rhetorician, who, describing an unchaste, lascivious person, rhetorically said of him that he had whores in his eyes. VOL. IV. D
50 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RAKITY, [HeB. XII. 14.
play the harlot more ; but were they as good as their word? no) — ' for upon every high hill and junder every green tree they wandered, play- ing the harlot.' I have read of a man who, in the time of his sickness, was so terrified in his conscience for his sins, that he made the very bed to shake upon which he lay, and cried out all night long, I am damned, I am damned, and made many great promises and protesta- tions of amendment oi life, if God would be pleased to recover him. In a little while he did recover, and being recovered, he was as base and vile, as wretched and wicked, as ever he was before. Custom in sin takes away all conscience of sin : Jer. xiii. 23, ' Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may he also do good that is accustomed to do evil.' The Ethiopian cannot make his black skin white ; he cannot change the hue or the colour of it by washing ; to attempt this is but labour in vain. Nor the leopard cannot change his spots : no more can a poor sinner that hath habituated and accustomed himself to sin, that is desperately enthralled to sin, turn from his sin. The spots of the leopard are not in him by accident, but by nature ; and they are such which no art can cure, nor water wash off ; because they are not only in the skin, but in the flesh and bones, in the sinews and most inward parts. By custom sin hath bespotted not only the skin, the life, the outside of a poor sinner, but also the very heart and soul of a poor sinner, so as that he is never able to wash off these spots. Ambrose reports of one Theotimus, that, having a disease upon his body, his physician told him, that except he did abstain from intemperance, drunkenness, uncleanness, &c. , he was like to lose his eyes. His heart being habituated to sin, and set upon vsickedness, he answered. Vale lumen amicum — Farewell sweet light then.^ But,
[3.] Thirdly, As there is a contracted cannot, an habituated can- not, so there is 2i judicial cannot. The Lord inflicts a judicial cannot upon many persons in judgment : they cannot return from their sins, they cannot withstand a temptation, they cannot lay hold on eternal life, they cannot make sure work for their souls, they cannot leave their bosom-lusts, they cannot prefer Christ above all the world, they cannot make provision for eternity, they cannot see the things that belong to their peace, &c. ; and this cannot the Lord in wrath hath brought upon them : Isa. vi. 9, 10, ' And he said, 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, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes' (or anoint, besmear, lime their eyes) ; ' lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert and be healed.' 2 They would not see, they shall not see ; they would not hear, they shall not hear ; they would not understand, they shall not understand; they would not convert, they shall not convert ; they would not be healed, they shall not be healed. When men are stiffly and desperately resolved upon their sinful courses, when men grow stubborn, rebellious, licentious, and will wilfully wink and shut their eyes against the light, and stop their ears against the truth, God in his just judgment gives them up
* Many men, «aith Bernard, do seek for straws to put out their own eyes.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 51