In this estate the gospel superadds two things unto the minds of men: — {1st) It directs us unto a right performance of these things, from a right principle, by a right rule, and to a right end and pur- pose; so that they, and we in them, may obtain acceptance with God.
CHAP. III.] OF THE MIND BY SIN. 279
Hereby it gives them a new nature, and turns moral duties into evangelical obedience, (^dl-i/.) By a communication of that Spirit which is annexed unto its dispensation, it supphes us with strength for their performance in the manner it prescribes.
Hence it follows that this is the method of the gospel: — first, it proposeth and declareth things which are properly and peculiarly its own. So the apostle sets down the constant entrance of his preach- ing, 1 Cor. XV. 3. It reveals its oiun mysteries, to lay them as the foundation of faith and obedience. It inlays them in the mind, and thereby conforms the whole soul unto them. See Rom. vi. 17; Gal, iv. 19; Tit. ii. 11, 12; 1 Cor. iii. 11; 2 Cor. iii. 18. This foundation being laid, — without which it hath, as it were, nothing to do with the souls of men, nor will proceed unto any other thing with them by whom this its first work is refused, — it then grafts all duties of moral obedience on this stock of faith in Christ Jesus. This is the method of the gospel, which the apostle Paul observeth in all his epistles : first, he declares the mysteries of faith that are peculiar to the gospel, and then descends unto those moral duties which are regulated thereby.
But the prejudice we mentioned inverts the order of these things. Those who are under the power of it, when, on various accounts, they give admittance unto the gospel in general, yet fix their minds, firstly and principally, on the things which have their foundation in the law and light of nature. These they know and have some acquaint- ance with in themselves, and therefore cry them up, although not in their proper place, nor to their proper end. These they make the foundation, according to the place which they held in the law of na- ture and covenant of works, whereas the gospel allows them to be only necessary superstructions on the foundation. But resolving to give unto moral duties the pre-eminence in their minds, they con- sider afterward the peculiar doctrines of the gospel, with one or other of these effects; for, first. Some in a manner wholly despise them, reproaching those by whom they are singularly professed. What is contained in them is of no importance, in their judgment, compared with the more necessary duties of morality, which they pretend to em- brace; and, to acquit themselves of the trouble of a search into them, they reject them as unintelligible or unnecessary. Or, secondly. They will, by forced interpretations, enervating the spirit and perverting the mystery of them, square and fit them to their own low and car- nal apprehensions. They would reduce the gospel and all the mys- teries of it to their own light, as some ; to reason, as others ; to philo- sophy, as the rest; — and let them who comply not with their weak and carnal notions of things expect all the contemptuous rej^roaches which the proud pretenders unto science and wisdom of old cast upon
280 CORRUPTION OR DEPRAVATION [BOOK III.
the apostles and first preachers of tlie gospel. Hereby advancing morality above the mystery and grace of the gospel, they at once reject the gospel and destroy morality also; for, taking it off from its proper foundation, it falls into the dirt, — whereof the conversation of the men of this persuasion is no small evidence.
From this prejudice it is that the spiritual things of the gospel are by many despised and condemned. So God spake of E})hraim, Hos. viii. 12, "I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing." The things intended were ••nnin p3"i Keri] 1?^, — the "great, manifold, various things of the law." That which the law was then nnto that people, such is the gos- pel now unto us. The " torah " was the entire means of God's com- municating his mind and will unto them, as his whole counsel is re- vealed unto us by the gospel. These things he wrote unto them, or made them in themselves and their revelation plain and perspicuous. But when all was done, they were esteemed by them "T^^t') as is also the gospel, " a thing foreign" and alien unto the minds of men, which they intend not to concern themselves in. They will heed the things that are cognate unto the princijDles of their nature, tilings morally good or evil; but for the hidden wisdom of God in the mys- tery of the gospel, it is esteemed by them as " a strange thing." And innumerable other prejudices of the same nature dotli this darkness fill the minds of men withal, whereby they are powerfully, and, as unto any light or strength of their own, invincibly, kept off from re- ceiving of spiritual things in a spiritual manner.
4, Again; the power and efficacy of this darkness in and upon the souls of unregenerate men will be farther evidenced by the consi- deration of its especial subject, or the nature and use of that faculty which is affected with it. This is the mind or understanding. Light and knowledge are intellectual virtues or perfections of the mind, and that in every kind whatever, whether in things natural, moral, or spiritual. The darkness whereof we treat is the privation of spi- ritual light, or the want of it ; and therefore are they opposed unto one another : " Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord," Eph. v. 8. It is, therefore, the mind or understanding which is affected with this darkness, which is vitiated and depraved by it.