will open a way for the accomplishment of God's gracious designs towards his Church and people.
The words, as thus explained, lead us naturally to contemplate,
I. The state of persons and places unenlightened hy the Gospel —
Whatever advantages any place may possess, it is, if destitute of the Gospel, a dreary wilderness —
[Let us suppose a place in point of beauty and fertility like Paradise itself; let it be the seat of arts and sciences, the emporium of commerce, the centre of civilized and polished society; let it abound with every thing that can amuse the mind, or gratify the taste ; still, What is it without the Gos- pel ? What does it afford that can nourish an immortal soul ? No heavenly manna is found there : no wells of salvation are open to the thirsty traveller ; none are at hand to point out the way to life : its only produce is thorns and briers, which en- tangle, and impede, and wound us, every step we take ; and on every side are snares and temptations, which, like noxious animals, lie in wait for us, ever ready to accomplish our eternal ruin. The cities of Athens and of Rome must in this respect be viewed on a level with the most desolate spots upon the globe : for, whatever they might furnish for the edification or comfort of the carnal mind, they would afford no nutriment to him who was perishing for lack of spiritual food.]
The same observations we must make in relation to the souls of men —
[Whatever strength of intellect a man may possess, or however deeply he may be versed in every branch of human learning; whatever amiable qualities he may have to distin- guish him from others ; yea, whatever actual enjoyment he may receive from the riches, the honours, the pleasures of the world ; yet is his soul " a wilderness," " a solitude," " a desert :" God is not there : the fruits of the Spirit are not found there: no heavenly consolations are ever tasted by him: he is without a track, with a guide, without a shelter in the day of trouble, and without any other prospect than that of falling a prey to enemies, or perishing with hunger. The unenlightened soul is compared by Jeremiah, not to a desert merely, but to " a heath in a desert, where no good ever comes a." O that those who fancy themselves " rich and increased with goods, and in need of nothing, were made sensible, how wretched they are, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and nakedb!"
a Jer. xvii. 5, 6. b Rev. iii. 17.