(1.) Nature discovereth only some gross sins : Rom. ii. 15, ' Which show epyov vofxov, the work of the law written in their hearts,' &c. Heathens only condemned vices that appeared in external actions, as if virtue were not to regulate the purposes and intentions of the heart as well as the works of external deportment ; whereas outward actions are good and bad so far as they take their tincture from the heart. If some of them have thought the will and purpose to do evil faulty and culpable, they are few, and have confined it only to settled purposes and deliberate counsels, and so not touched our corruption to the quick ; and this is but one of a thousand, and that by chance ; so that nature doth but twinkle here, not break forth with a full and powerful light.
(2.) The light of nature reacheth mostly to the lower hemisphere of duties, those of the second table ; there it is most pregnant ; it cannot lead us higher, and conduct us to God and heaven. When they sat abrood upon religion, what a goodly chimera was hatched! Eom. i. 21, 22, ' Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.'
(3.) In second-table duties it is defective ; in humility and obedience. (Ls^.) As to humility, we find little of that principle among them. Nature loveth to pride itself in its own plumes. Self-love is the prin- cipal pride in the soul, and vainglory the end of their religion ; to excel others was all their aim.
(2c?.) As to obedience to magistrates and superiors, which can never be so firmly bound upon us as by the bond of conscience ; not by the fear of wrath and vengeance, not by the love of civil quiet and public good. They obey best that obey not for fear of wrath, but for con- science' sake : Eom. xiii. 5, ' Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but for conscience' sake.'
2. It informeth us that some general sense of the shamefulness of sin will not break the power and force of it. The heathens in some measure knew what was sin, and that it was a shameful thing, not of any great use to them ; they committed it still, though in secret ; but the light of Christianity doth so reprove it as to cause us to hate it ; it doth or may give us such an awakening sight and sense of it as ta. show what an odious thing it is. By the light of Christianity we see it in its proper colours.
328 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SeR. XV.
[1.] The nature and malignity and evil of sin, what it is, not a natural disorder, but a breach of the law ; that it is dvo/iia, 1 John iii. 4, ' A transgression of the law,' written by the finger of God on man's heart.
[2.] The rise and beginning of it, together with the manner of its propagation : Kom. v. 12, * Whereas by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.' Whence this apostasy of mankind cometh, that it is the work of the devil that Christ came to destroy : 1 John iii. 8,
* For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil;' without knowing which, the justice of God's providence, and the holiness of his nature can never well be understood.
[3.] The several kinds and branches and degrees of sin : Eom. i. 18,
* The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men ; ' with its aggravations, whereby it cometh to be exceeding sinful to us, which giveth a more intimate sense of it : Kom. vii. 9, i\,6ov<77]<{ ivroXij'i, ' When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died ; ' ver. 13, ' That sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.'
[4.] The effects and consequences of it. Loss of God's favour : Isa. lix. 2, ' Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you.' It interrupted that near and intimate communion we had with God ; it made us abominable in his sight, not fit to appear before him with comfort. And eternal wrath : Mat. xxv. 41, 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.'
[5.] Its remedy and cure : Eom. viii. 3, * God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.* This work of the devil was only to be destroyed by the Son of God. We cannot wash away the filthiness, nor expiate tlie guilt of it,, by any sacrifice and laver that we can use ; nothing else can free us from the wrath of God but the blood of his Son, nor cleanse our souls from this venom and poison which is gotten, not only into the will and affec- tions, but into the very mind and heart, but the light and power of his Spirit.