Use 4. To teach us confidence in the power of divine grace. God can shine into the dark hearts of children, therefore certainly there is no heart so dark but God can enlighten it. Our trouble at our first conversion doth not arise out of the doubting of God's love, so much as of his power. This hard heart will never be softened ; these rebellious aliections will never be subdued to the discipline of the Spirit ; this blind mind will never be enlightened. If once they could glorify the power of his converting grace, comfort would sooner be settled in their heart. Aye, but the Lord can shine into the hearts of infants, therefore do not doubt of it. You see what he can do in those that have not the use of reason. God can give the principle of grace : Isa. Ixv. 20, ' The child shall die an hundred years old, but a sinner, being an hundred years old, shall be accursed ; ' speaking of the grace of the gospel. There are many expositions of that place. Some carry it this way, that a child in the christian state shall be as perfect and as ripe for heaven as if he were a hundred years old. This is the power of divine grace, therefore wait upon God.
Use 5. Here is encouragement to the neglected duty of education. Many times we neglect our little children, think we can do no good upon them. Oh, water the seed of grace, for aught you know they may be sanctified from the womb. It is said of John the Baptist, Luke i. 15. ' He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb.' Oh, this will make them exert and put forth those hidden operations of grace which God worketh upon their souls : therefore water the seed of grace with the dew of education. God will call you to account for the education of your children : Ezek. xvi. 20, ' More- over, thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast born unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured : is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou hast slain my children ? ' that is, dedicated to me by circumcision. Consider, they are God's children, and you are only entrusted with them that you may bring them up. Let us, that have been instruments to convey an evil nature to them, assist them in the work of grace. Many have been converted by private education before they have been called by the ministry of the gospel. You cannot do your children worse hurt than to let them run wild. Consider they are the natural branches of the covenant, and you should bestow culture upon them. Dionysius, the
90 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. XXVI,
tyrant, to be reveno:ed of his adversary, brought up his child to riot and wantonness. You cannot do yourselves a worse injury, nor your- selves a greater revenge, than to let your children run wild.
SEKMON XXVI.
But loithotit faith it is impossible to jilease God. — Heb. xi. 6.
Thirdly. The third inference is concerning carnal and unregenerate men. 'Without faith,' the apostle saith, ' it is impossible to please God ; ' therelbre, certainly a man in his natural condition can do nothing that may be accepted with God. I shall confirm this with other places of scripture : Eom. viii. 8, ' They that are in tlie flesh cannot please God ; ' ' in the flesh/ that is, in a carnal state ; it is opposed to 'them that are in Chiist,' ver. 1. There is an utter impossibility that anything of theirs should be accepted with the Lord ; which ariseth partly from the state of the person, and partly from the quality of the service which natural men perform.
. 1. From the state of the person. Unregenerate men are enemies to God, and therefore he will not accept of a gift at their hands. There is no reconciliation till an interest in Christ ; for God will not be appeased with duties ; the honour of appeasing and satisfying his justice is left alone for Jesus Christ. So it is proclaimed from heaven, Mat. iii. 17, ' This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased ; ' so Eph. i. 6, ' He hath made us accepted in the beloved.' Jesus Christ is the favourite of heaven ; he must mediate for us. As, when ' Herod was displeased witli the men of Tyre and Sidon, they made Blastus the king's chamberlain their friend, and desired peace,' Acts xii. 20 ; so if ever we would find acceptance with God, we must have a friend and favourite in heaven that must plead our cause. Now, till you have an interest in his merit and intercession, God will not accept an offer- ing at your hands ; and therefore you shall find it is God's method in the covenant of grace, to begin first with the interest of the person, and then to accept of the work. See with what scorn God rejects the oftering and the best services of wicked men, however accommodated : Frov. XV. 8, 9, ' The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the u]iright is his delight. The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord, but he loveth him that fbl- loweth after righteousness.' Many things are notable in these two verses. First, he saith, The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination; God is so far from accepting their choicest duties that he hates them. It is grievous that God should not accept : aj^ but he doth abominate them. And mark the antithesis — ' The sacrifice of the wicked,' and the ' prayer of the upright.' Sacrifice was the more outward and costly part of worship. Wicked men may do more in the outward rite than the godly themselves, to recompense the defects of inward piety; but though they come with sacrifices, yet the single prayer of the upright