EOM. V. 6.] OUT OF HIS MISERY. 479
perfect harmony between the Testaments ; there you will find man represented as a ' child of wrath by nature/ Eph. ii. 3, even the elect as well as others to be a ' servant of sin,' Eom. vi. 17. Never such an imperious master, never such a willing servant : sin never leaveth commanding, and we love the work. You will find him again expressed as one averse from God, ' alienated from his life,' Eph. iv. 18. It is a melancholy thought to a carnal heart to think of the life of God. As an enemy to the law, Rom. viii. 7 ; one that neither can nor will please God. As ' blind,' and knoweth not what to do, 2 Peter i. 9 : and this blindness spiritual is worse than bodily. A man that is blind in body seeketh for a fit guide ; as Elymas, w4ien he was stricken blind, ' sought about for one to lead him by the hand,' Acts xiii. 11. As weak and ' without strength,' here in the text ; yea, stark ' dead in trespasses and sins,' Eph. ii. 1-5 ; yea, worse than dead : a dead man doeth no more hurt, his evil dieth with him ; but there is a life of resistance and rebellion against God that goeth along with this death in sin. Now, put all this together, and you may spell out man's misery, what a wretched, impotent creature he is in his natural estate. The scripture does not speak this by glances or short touches ; neither is it a hyperbole used once or twice, but everywhere, where it professedly speaks of this matter. Certainly man contributeth little to his own conversion : he cannot ' hunger and thirst ' after Christ that ' drinks in iniquity like water ; ' there is nothing in nature to carry him to grace who is altogether sinful. If the scripture had only said that man had accustomed himself to sin, and was not ' born in sin ; ' that man was somewhat prone to iniquity, and not ' greedy ' of it ; and did often think evil, and not ' continually ; ' that man was somewhat obstinate, and not a ' stone,' an ' adamant ; ' if the scripture had only said that man was indifferent to God, and not a professed ' enemy ; ' if a captive of sin, and not a ' servant ; ' if only weak, and not * dead ; ' if only a neuter, and not a ' rebel ; ' — then there might be something in man, and the work of conversion not so difficult. But the scripture saith the quite contrary.
[2.] The cure. Certainly to remedy so great an evil requires an almighty power, and the all-sufficiency of grace ; therefore it is good to see how conversion is described in scripture. Sometimes by enlightening the mind : ' And the eyes of your understandings being enlightened,' &c. , Eph. i. 18. Man, the wisest creature on this side heaven, is stark blind in the things of God. Though he hath the light of nature, and can put on the spectacles of art, and dress his notions of divine things by the glass of the word, yet ere the cure is wrought, something must be done upon the faculty : the eyes of onr understandings must be en- lightened, as well as the object revealed. Ay ! but this infusion of light is not all ; the scripture speaks of opening the heart : ' He opened the heart of Lydia,' Acts xvi. 14. God doth not only knock at the heart, but open it. He knocks many times by the outward means, but fiuds no entrance. Yea, as one that would open a door, — he tries key after key, till he hath tried all the keys in the bunch ; so does God use means after means ; but till he puttetb his fingers upon the handles of the lock, Cant. v. 4, 5, the door is not opened to him. Well, then, the mind must be enlightened, and the heart opened. If
480 man's impotency to help himself [Eom. Y. 6.
these words are not empliatical enough, you will find conversion expressed by regeneration : ' Except a man 1)6 born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,' John iii. 3. Mark, we must not only be reformed, but regenerated. IS^oav because generation is an ordinary work of nature, and often falls out in the course of second causes, therefore it is expressed by the metaphor of resurrection, Eph. ii. 5. But that which hath been may be again ; therefore it is called a creation : ' We are' Trolrjfza avrov, 'his workmanship,' Eph. ii. 10; 2 Cor. iv. 6, V. 17 ; Ps. Ii. 10. Yea, further it is expressed by victory, 1 John iv. 4; or the beating and binding of the 'strong man,' by- one that is 'stronger than he,' Luke xi. 21, 22; by 'bringing into cap- tivity every proud thought,' 2 Cor. x. 5. All tliese expressions doth the scripture use to set out the mystery of grace. One expres- sion may not enough be heeded, and therefore are many types and figures of it used, that what is wanting in one notion may be supplied by another. As let us gather them up a little. There must be not only light in the mind, but the heart must be moved ; and that not a little stirred, but changed, fashioned anew, born again. And because generation supposeth a previous disposition in the matter, not only is it called ' regeneration,' but the term ' resurrection' is used, in which the matter is wholly unprepared. But yet because still here is matter to work upon, therefore it is called creation, which was a making all things out of nothing. God works faith where there is no faith, and repentance where was no repentance ; ' and calleth the things that are not as though they were.' But now because sin makes us worse than nothing, and as in creation, as there was nothing to help, so there was nothing to resist and hinder, therefore it is expressed by victory ; implying the opposition of God's work, and the resistance that there is in the heart of man till it be overpowered by grace.