gainsaying, the instructions given him, so the converted person, conscious that he knows nothing as he ought to know, desires to have the eyes of his understanding enhghtened. He no longer disputes against the declarations of Scripture, but receives them implicitly, and looks up to God for that spiritual discernment whereby alone he can discover their truth and importance*^.]
3. In indifference to the world —
[The world is the idol which man in his unconverted state adores ; its riches and honours are the great objects of his affection and pursuit. In this he is the very reverse of a little child. An infant has no solicitude about earthly distinctions : satisfied with the one object of his desire, he leaves others to contend for power and pre-eminence. Thus it is with the Christian that is truly converted to God. He has one great concern which occupies his mind, one great prize which he is seeking to obtain. Whether he have much or little of this world he judges to be a matter of little consequence. He does indeed covet riches and honour ; but it is the honour that Cometh of God, and the unsearchable riches of Christ : and excessive cares about earthly honours or wealth he leaves to those who have no inheritance beyond the grave®.]
Having shewn his Disciples by this emblematical representation what conversion was, our Lord pro- ceeded to declare,
II. The importance of it —
This he suggests in two different points of view : 1. Without such conversion no man can be partaker
of the kingdom of grace on earth, or the kingdom of
glory in heaven —
[Conversion is necessary before we can be truly admitted into the kingdom of grace on earth. We are indeed received into covenant with God in baptism; but it is regeneration that really makes us his children. We can never come to Christ as a Saviour, till we feel our need of him ; we cannot learn of him, till we be willing to be taught ; nor can we ever glorify him, till we be dead to the things of time and sense. The gate is too strait for us ; the way of admission is too humiliating. The laws of his kingdom are such that our carnal minds neither will, nor can, obey them^. Nor can we ever partake of his king- dom of glory unless we experience this change. What could we do in heaven even if we were admitted there 1 We should have no meetness for it, no dispositions suited to the enjoy-
'^ Job xxxiv. 32. Ps. cxix. 18. ® Gal. vi. 14. cl oh, by which.
f Rom. viii. 7.