(1.) It fills the mind with enmity against God, and all the things of God: Col. i. 21, "Ye were enemies in your mind." Bom. viii. 7, "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not sub- ject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." And the carnal mind there intended is that which is in every man who hath not received, who is not made partaker of, the Spirit of God, in a pecu- liar saving manner, as is at large declared in the whole discourse of the apostle, verses 5, 6, 9-11 ; so that the pretence is vain, and directly contradictory to the apostle, that it is only one sort of fleshly, sensual, unregenerate men, whom he intends. This confidence, not only in perverting, but openly opposing, the Scripture, is but of a late date, and that which few of the ancient enemies of the grace of God did rise up unto. Now God in himself is infinitely good and desirable. "How great is his goodness and how great is his beauty ! " Zech. ix. 17. There is nothing in him but what is suited to draw out, to answer, and fill the affections of the soul. Unto them that
272 CORRUPTION OR DEPRAVATION [BOOK III.
know him, he is the only delight, rest, and satisfaction. Whence, then, doth it come to pass that the minds of men should be filled and possessed with enmity against him? Enmity against and hatred of him who is absolute and infinite goodness seem incom- patible unto our human affections ; but they arise from this dark- ness, which is the corruption and depravation of our nature, by the ways that shall be declared.
It is pretended and pleaded by some in these days, that upon an apprehension of the goodness of the nature of God, as manifested in the works and light of nature, men may, without any other advan- tages, love him above all, and be accepted with him. But as this would render Christ and the gospel, as objectively proposed, if not useless, yet not indispensably necessary, so I desire to know how this enmity against God, which the minds of all natural men are filled withal, if we may believe the apostle, comes to be removed and taken away, so as that they should love him above all, seeing these things are absolute extremes and utterly irreconcilable? This must be either by the power of the mind itself upon the proposal of God's goodness unto it, or by the effectual operation in it and upon it of the Spirit of God. Any other way is not pretended unto ; and the latter is that which we contend for. And as to the former, the apostle supposeth Ihe goodness of God, and the proposal of this good- ness of God unto the minds of men, not only as revealed in the works of nature, but also in the law and gospel, and yet affirms that " the carnal mind," which is in every man, "is enmity against him;" and in enmity there is neither disposition nor inclination to love. In such persons there can be no more true love of God than is consis- tent with enmity to him and against him.
All discourses, therefore, about the acceptance they shall find with God who love him above all for his goodness, without any farther communications of Christ or the Holy Sj)irit unto them, are vain and empty, seeing there never was, nor ever will be, any one dram of such love unto God in the world ; for, whatever men may fancy con- cerning the love of God, where this enmity arising from darkness is unremoved by the Spirit of grace and love, it is but a self-pleasing with those false notions of God which this darkness suggests imto them. With these they either please themselves or are terrified, as they represent things to their corrupt reason and fancies. Men in this state, destitute of divine revelation, did of old seek after God, Acts xvii. 27, as men groping in the dark; and although they did in some measure find him and know him, so far as that from the things that were made they came to be acquainted with " his eternal power and Godhead," Rom. i. 20, yet he was still absolutely unto them "the un- known God," Acts xvii. 23, whom they " ignorantly worshipped," —
CHAP, in.] OF THE MIND BY SIN. 273
that is, they dhectecl some worship to him in the dedication of their altars, but knew him not: "Oi/ ayi/ooDuT-jg euGidrrs. And that tliey en- tertained all of them false notions of God is from hence evident, that none of them either, by virtue of their knowledge of him, did free themselves from gross idolatry, which is the greatest enmity unto him, or did not countenance themselves in many impieties or sins from those notions they had received of God and his goodness, Kom. i. 20, 21, The issue of their disquisitions after the nature of God was, that " they glorified him not, but became vain in their imagina- tions, and their foolish hearts were darkened." Upon the common principles of the first Being and the chief est good, their fancy or ima- ginations raised such notions of God as pleased and delighted them, and drew out their affections ; which was not, indeed, unto God and his goodness, but unto the effect and product of their own imagina- tions. And hence it was that those that had the most raised ap- prehensions concerning the nature, beiug, and goodness of God, with the highest expressions of a constant admiration of him and love imto him, when by any means the true God indeed was declared unto them as he hath revealed himself and as he will be known, these great admirers and lovers of divine goodness were constantly the greatest opposers of him and enemies unto him. And an un- controllable evidence this is that the love of divine goodness, which some do fancy in persons destitute of supernatural revelation and other aids of grace, was, in the best of them, placed on the products of their own imaginations, and not on God himself.