Or THE MIND BY atol. 157 Hereby doth he seduce, pervert, and corrupt them; nor bath he any way to fortify and confirm their minds a- gainst the gospel, but by increasing this blindness or darkness .in them, 2 Cor. iv. 4. Sect. 45. An evidence of the power and efficacy of this darkness, we may find in the devil himself. The apostle Peter tells us, that the angels who sinned are kept untojudgment, under chainsofdarkness, 2 Pet. ii. 4. It is plain that there is an illusion in the words unto the dealings of men with stubborn and heinous malefactors. They do not presentlyexecute them upon their offences, nor when they are first apprehended: they must be kept unto a solemn day of trial and judgment. But yet, to secure them that they make no escape, they are bound with chains which they cannot deliver themselves from. Thus God deals with fallen angels: for although yet theygo to and fro in the earth, and walk up and down in it, as also in theair, in a seeming liberty, and at their pleasure, yet are they under such chains as shall securely hold them unto the great day of their judgment and execution. That they may not escape their appointed doom, they are held in chains of darkness: they are always so absolutely and universally under the power of God, as that they are not capable of the vanity of a thought for the subducting themselves from under it. But whence is it, that in all their wisdom, experience, and long-continued prospect which they have had of their future eternal misery, none of them ever have at- tempted, or ever will, a mitigation of their punishment or deliverance from it, by repentance and compliance with the will of God? This is alone from their own darkness, in the chains whereof they are so bound; that although they believe their own everlasting ruin, and trembleat the vengeance of God therein, yet they can- not but continue in their course of mischief, disobe- dience, and rebellion. And although natural men are not under the same obdurateness with them, as having a way of escape and deliveranceprovided for them, and proposed unto them which they have not; yet this dark- ness is no less effectual to bind them in a state of sin, without the powerful illumination of the Holy Ghost, than it is in the devils themselves. And this may be farther manifestedby the consideration of the instances wherein it puts forth its efficacy in them. Sect. 42.First; It fills the mind with enmityagainst God, and all the things of God; Col. i. 21. You were enemies in your minds; Rom. viii. 7. « The carnal ', mind is enmity against God, it is not subject unto 's the law of God, neither indeed can it be." And the carnal mind there intended, is that which is in every man who bath not received, who is not made partaker of the Spirit of God, in a peculiar saving manner, as is at large declared in the whole discourse of the apostle, ver. 5, 6, 9, 10, 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 in- tends. This confidence, not only in perverting, but o penly opposing of the scripture, is but of a late date, and that which few ofthe ancient enemies of the grape of God slid rise up onto, Now God in himself is infi- nitely good and desirable. How great is hisgoodueo;f Hot; great is his beauty! Zech. ix. 17. There is noth- ing in him but what is suited to draw out, to answer and fill the affections of the soul.' Unto them that 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 abso- lute and infinite goodness, seem incompatible unto our human affections. But they arise from this darkness, . which is the corruption and depravation of our nature; by the ways that shall be declared. Sect. 47.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 advant- ages, love him above all, and beaccepted with him. But as this would render Christ and the gospel, as objec- tively proposed, if not useless, yet not indispensibly ne- cessary,so I desire to know howthis enmityagainst 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 irreconcileable? Thismust be either by the power of the mind itself upon theproposal of God'sgoodness un- to it, or by the effëctual operation in it, and upon it, of the Spirit ofGod. Any other way is notpretended un- to; and the latter is that which we contend for. And as to the former, the apostle snpposeth the goodness of God, and the proposal of this goodness of God unto the minds of men; not only as revealed in the works of
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