3. Having cleared the impotency to discern spiritual things spiri- tually that is in the minds of natural men, by reason of their spiritual blindness, or that darkness which is in them, it remains that we consider what is the poiver and efficacy of this darkness to keep them in a constant and unconquerable aversion from God and the gospel. To this purpose, some testimonies of Scripture must be also considered; for notwithstanding all other notions and disputes in this matter, for the most part compliant with the inclinations and
270 COEEUPTION on DEPRAVATION [BOOK III.
affections of corrupted nature, by them must our judgments be de- termined, and into tbem is our faith to be resolved. I say, then, that this sjDiritual darkness hath a power over the minds of men to ahenate them from God; that is, this which the Scripture so calleth is not a mere pi'ivation, with an impotency in the faculty ensuing thereon, but a depraved habit, which powerfully, and, as unto them in whom it is, unavoidably, infiuenceth their walls and aftections into an opposition unto spiritual things, the effects whereof the world is visibly filled withal at this day. And this I shall manifest, first in general, and then in particular instances. And by the whole it will be made to appear that not only the act of believing and turning unto God is the sole work and effect of grace, — which the Pelagians did not openly deny, and the semi-Pelagians did openly grant, — but also that all power and ability for it, properly so called, is from grace also.
(1.) Col. i. 13, We are said to be delivered H r^g i^ovsiag tov ffxoToug, from "the power of darkness."' The word signifies such a power as consists in authority or rule, that bears sway, and com- mands them who are obnoxious unto it. Hence the sins of men, especially those of a greater guilt than ordinary, are called "works of darkness," Eph. v. ] 1 ; not only such as are usually perpetrated in the dark, but such as the darkness also of men's minds doth incline them unto and naturally produce. That, al,?o, which is here called "the power of darkness" is called "the power of Satan," Acts xxvi. 18; for I acknowledge that it is, not only or merely the internal darkness or blindness of the minds of men in the state of nature that is here intended, but the whole state of darkness, with what is contributed thereunto by Satan and the world. This the prophet speaks of, Isa. Ix, 2, " Behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thoe.'^ Such a darkness it is, as nothing can dispel but the light of the Lord arising on and in the souls of men. But all is resolved into internal darkness : for Satan hath no power in men, nor authority over them, but what he hath by means of this darkness; for by this alone doth that " prince of the power of the air " work effectually in " the children of disobedience," Eph. ii. 2. Hereby doth he seduce, pervert, and corrupt them ; nor hath he any way to fortify and confirm their minds against the gospel but by increasing this blindness or dark- ness in them, 2 Cor. iv. 4.
An evidence of the power and efficacy of this darkness we may find in the devil himself. The apostle Peter tells us that the angels who sinned are "reserved unto judgment" under "chains of darkness," 2 Pet. ii. 4. It is plain that there is an allusion in the words unto the dealing- of men with stubborn and heinous malefactors. Thev do
CHAP. III.] OF THE MIND BY SIN. 271
not presently execute them upon their offences, nor when they are first apprehended ; they must be kept unto a solemn day of trial and judgment. But yet, to secure them that they make no escape, they are bound with chains which they cannot deliver themselves from. Thus God deals with fallen angels; for although yet they "go to and fro in the earth, and walk up and down in it," as also in the air, in a seem- ing liberty and at their pleasure, yet are they under such chains as shall securely hold them unto the great day of their judgment and execution. That they may not escape their appointed doom, they are held in "chains of darkness." They are always so absolutely and universally under the power of God as that they are not capable of the vanity of a thought for the subducting themselves from under it. But whence is it that, in all their wisdom, experience, and the long-continued prospect which they have had of their future eternal misery, none of them ever have attempted, nor ever will, a mitigation of their punishment or deliverance from it, by repentance and com- jDliance with the will of God? This is alone from their own dark- ness, in the chains whereof they are so bound that although they believe their own everlasting ruin, and tremble at the vengeance of God therein, yet they cannot but continue in their course of mis- chief, disobedience, and rebellion. And although natural men are not under the same obdurateness with them, as having a way of escape and deliverance provided for them and proposed unto them, which they have not; yet this darkness is no less effectual to bind them in a state of sin, without the powerful illumination of the Holy Ghost, than it is in the devils themselves. And this may be farther manifested by the consideration of the instances wherein it puts forth its efficacy in them: —