own. On a supposition that either of these positions were not true, what occasion would there be that all good should be treasured up for us in another, to be received from him ? But they are true. — It is a fact, that we are destitute of all good in ourselves ; for in ourselves we are ignorant, guilty, polluted, and en- slaved.
We are ignorant. What do we by nature know of ourselves ? What know we of the corruption of the human heart ? God himself has told us, that in the heart of man there are depths of iniquity alto- gether unfathomable, and workings that are utterly unsearchable : the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked : Who can know it ? And what know we of God? of his holiness, which cannot behold iniquity without the utmost abhorrence of it ? of his justice, which cannot but visit it with righteous indignation ? and of his truth, which cannot but execute every threatening which he has denounced against it ? As to any mere notions which men may entertain in theory, I speak not of them; it is oi practical knowledge that I speak : and I need only appeal to the lives of all around us, to prove that, so far from having any just knowledge of God, " there is not in the whole world an unconverted man, that understandeth, so as duly and Jiabitually to seek after him^." On the contrary the conduct of all clearly shews, that " God is not in all their thoughts ^" And what know we of Christ and of the incomprehensible extent of his love ? Or what of his Holy jS'pirit, and all his enlightening, sanctifying, and consohng ope- rations ? What know v^'e of the evil and bitterness of sin ? or of the beauty and blessedness of true hoBiess ? The testimony which our Lord himself has borne of us is undeniably true, that, however we may fancy ourselves " rich, and increased in goods, and in need of nothing, we are wretched, and miserable, even poor, and blind, and naked^."
We are guilty also, to an extent which no words
" Rom. iii. 11. Ps. liii. 2, 3. "^ Ps. x. 4. ^ Rev. iii. 17.
c2
go 1 CORINTHIANS, I. 30. [1932.
can adequately describe. As to gross sins, I make no mention of them. Our whole life has been one continued scene of rebellion against God. Nor have we ceased to " trample under foot the blood of Christ, by which we have been redeemed ; or to do despite to the Spirit of God%" who has striven with us, warning us against the evils which we have been habituated to commit, and stimulating us to those duties, which we have neglected to perform. Truly, on the most superficial view of our state we must be convinced, that " every mouth must be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God*^."
How polluted we are, in every member of our bodies and in every faculty of our souls, God alone knoweth or can conceive. Darkness is not more opposed to light, or Behal to Christ, than we, every one of us, are to the holy will of God, whether as proclaimed in his law, or as exhibited in his Gospel. How blind we are in our understanding, how perverse in our will, how sensual in our affections, who shall be able to declare ? Even '' the Apostles themselves once had their conversation in the lusts of their flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others^:" And such have we been also. Our very " mind and conscience have been defiled," so that there is not one amongst us who must not join in that humiliating acknowledgment, that " there is no health in us."
In fact, we are altogether enslaved^ or, as the Scrip- ture expresses it, " taken in the snare of the devil, and led captive by him at his will'\" Nor is this true merely in relation to more flagrant transgressors only; " for the prince of the power of the air worketh in all the children of disobedience';" and, however in- sensible we may be of his motions, does really instigate us to every evil we commit.