CHAP. III.] OF THE MIND BY SIN. 259
no more but so, that is, every one who is not " a spiritual man," is one who hath not received the Spirit of God, verses 11, 12, one that hath [only] the spirit of a man, enabling him to search and know the things of a man, or to attain wisdom in things natural, civil, or poli- tical.
(2.) There is in the words a supposition of the proposal of some things unto the mind of this "natural man;" for the apostle speaks with respect unto the dispensation and preaching of the gospel, whereby that proposal is made, verses 4-7. And these things are TO, To\J livih ijjaToc, rov &sov, "the things of the Spirit of God;" which are variously e:xpressed in this chapter. Yerse 2, they are called " Jesus Christ, and him crucified ; " verse 7, the " wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God hath ordained;" verse 12, "the things that are freely given to us of God;" verse 16, " the mind of Christ ;" and sundry other ways to the same purpose. There are in the gospel, and belong to the preaching of it, precepts innumerable concerning moral duties to be observed towards God, ourselves, and other men; and all these have a coincidence with and a suitableness unto the inbred light of nature, because the prin- ciples of them all are indelibly ingrafted therein. These things being in some sense the " things of a man," may be known by the " spirit of a man that is in him," verse 1 1 : howbeit they cannot be ob- served and practised according to the mind of God without the aid and assistance of the Holy Ghost. But these are not the things peculiarly here intended, but the mysteries, which depend on mere sovereign supernatural revelation, and that wholly ; things that " eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man" to conceive, verse 9 ; things of God's sovereign counsel, whereof there were no impressions in the mind of man in his first creation: see Eph. iii. 8-11.
(3.) That which is affirmed of the natural man with respect imto these spiritual things is doubly expressed :— [1.] By ou hh/i'^-h — " He receiveth them not;" [2.] By o-j bhvarai yvojmi, — " He cannot know them." In this double assertion, — Is^. A poiver of receiving spiritual things is denied : " He cannot know them ; he cannot receive them ;" as Bom. viii. 7, " The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." And the reason hereof is subjoined: " Because they are spiritually discerned ;" a thing which such a person hath no power to effect. "Idly. A will of rejecting them is implied: "He receiveth them not;" and the reason hereof is, "For they are foolishness unto him." They are represented unto him under such a notion as that he will have nothing to do with them. Sdlt/. Actually (and that both because he cannot and because he will not), he re- ceives them not. The natural man neither can, nor Avill, nor doth,
260 COEEUPTION OR DEPRAVATION [BOOK III.
receive the things of the Spirit of God ; — is altogether incapable of giving them admission in the sense to be explained.
To clear and free this assertion from objections, it must be ob- served,—
(1.) That it is not the mere literal sense of doctrines or propo- sitions of truth that is intended.^ For instance, "That Jesus Christ was crucified," mentioned by the apostle, 1 Cor. ii. 2, is a proposition whose sense and importance any natural man may understand, and assent unto its truth, and so be said to receive it. And all the doc- trines of the gospel may be taught and declared in propositions and discourses, the sense and meaning whereof a natural man may under- stand. And in the due investigation of this sense, and judging thereon concerning truth and falsehood, lies that use of reason in religious things which some would ignorantly confound with an ability of discerning spiritual things in themselves and their own proper nature. This, therefore, is granted ; but it is denied that a natural man can receive the things themselves. There is a wide dif- ference between the mind's receiving doctrines notionally, and its re- ceiving the things taught in them really. The first a natural man can do. It is done by all who, by the use of outward means, do know the doctrine of the Scripture, in distinction from ignorance, false- hood, and error. Hence, men unregenerate are said to " know the way of righteousness," 2 Pet. ii. 21, — that is, notionally and doctrin- ally; for really, saith our apostle, they cannot. Hereon "they pro- fess that they know God," — that is, the things which they are taught concerning him and his v/ill, — whilst " in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient," Tit. i. 1 6 ; Rom. ii. 23, 24. In the latter way they only receive spiritual things in whose minds they are so im- planted as to produce their real and proper effects, E,om. xii. 2 ; Eph. iv. 22-24. And there are two things required unto the receiving of spiritual things really and as they are in themselves:- —