•." "The friend that is not with me is against me.' ship of the world is enmity with God; whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." "Either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other."* On the other hand, if he loves God better than the world Regeneration is consummated, and there is no room for progress. Either then he has made no advance, or the work is complete. In every step of the supposed progress he is either an enemy to God or loves him supremely. Yielding then the point that the man is an enemy to God till the change is complete, it may yet be asked, is not that enmity gradually weakened? It cannot be radically weakened till its cause is weakened, which is supreme self-love, (or more generally the love of the creature, for the social affections too may set up their objects in opposition,) struggling against the law and administration of God. But the love of the creature, (in which self-love is included,) cannot be weakened before the love of God is introduced. What is there to weaken it? If the heart is taken from the creature it must be set on another object or be annihilated. But besides God there is no other object. Before the love of God therefore is implanted, there is no way radically to weaken the enmity but to weaken all the affections, and reduce the soul nearer to a state of insensibility. And even then the love of the crea * Mat. vi. 24. and xii. 30. James iv. 4. 1 John ii, 15. ture, (the sole cause of the hostility,) would exert as absolute dominion as before, only over a weaker subject. Particular lusts may be absorbed in others, but the current of sin is only turned into new channels. The passions may be more or less inflamed, and thus the actings of self-love more or less violent. By this means one with equal capacity may sin with a stronger hand than another. Again the passions may be allayed, and less guilt be incurred in an equal time: but the supreme love of the creature, which is the preparation in the soul for the future rage of all these passions, cannot be abated, (at least its dominion cannot be reduced,) but by that heavenly charity which fixes the heart supremely on God. But you ask, May not new light thrown upon the conscience convince the mind of the unreasonableness of its opposition, and thus sooth and allay the enmity? I answer: by reasoning you may compose the passions of an angry man without at all changing his disposition. After you have calmed the risings of enmity against God, I ask, is the dominion of the limited affections in the least abated? This is the decisive question: for supreme attachment to the creature comprehends the root and essence of the whole disease. Now can you weaken the love of the creature by light? Or to confine the question to a part of the evil, can you by light and conscience weaken the power of self-love? Can you reason a man out of his attachment to himself? Will all the light of the Last Day abate in the least the selfishness of the wicket? Will not light and conscience in their highest degrees act together in the regions of despair, without producing any other effect than rage and gnashing of teeth? No, but the living, you say, possess hope. Hope! and can you then bribe a man to be less selfish? What, bribe a man to hate a bribe! If enmity against God were only a prejudice, arising from a misconception of His true character, it might indeed be removed by light. In that case it would not be a sin but a virtue; for to hate a false image of God, in other words, a false God, is our duty. But if the heart of sinners is depraved, if they hate the true character of God in whatever form it appears, they will hate it the more the more it is seen, and light, so far from abating, will only rouse the enmity to stronger action. You may convince them of the justice of the divine administration; (that indeed will not rouse their enmity;) but while they love their own interest supremely, what can abate their hatred of a law which says, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God supremely, or suffer eternal pain? Can the love of private interest regard more favourably the destruction of that interest because it is just? And can self-love hold dominion, and actually govern the heart, and not controul every consideration suggested by conscience to oppose its power? without continuing to array the whole heart against the absolute destroyer of self-interest? In a word, can supreme love to one's own interest radically hate, either more or less then it actually does, the destruction of that interest, or any arrangement for its destruction, while the capacity of the soul remains the same? But you say again, May not the divine Spirit, before the love of God is implanted, bring the mind to a better frame by weakening its prejudices against religion, and exciting reflections, desires, and resolutions which come nearer to a holy character ? All that the Spirit does before Regeneration, I suppose is to pour light upon the mind; thus awakening remorse of conscience, and by alarming selflove occasioning various and strong actings of that principle. If this is all that the Spirit does before Regeneration, the question has been already answered in what was said of the influence of light. But whatever the Spirit does, He certainly does not perform impossibilities. If in the nature of things nothing can weaken the enmity that does not first déthrone the love of the creature, and if nothing can dethrone that despot but the love of God, then no operation of the Spirit which does not introduce the love of God, can weaken the empire of depravity. But I have another thing to say. The feelings of the convicted are holy, or sinful, or neither. If neither, they have no moral nature, that is, are deserving neither of praise or blame, and of course have nothing to do with our subject. If they are sinful, what approaches, I pray, can sin make to holiness? even to the lowest degree of holiness? What approaches can total darkness make to the lowest degree of light? or total dead ness to the lowest degree of life? Will you say then that they are holy? What, holy without love to God! without a particle of that "love" which "is the fulfilling of the law !" What says the apostle? "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, and have no love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing." Will you say then that the convicted sinner has some love to God though not supreme? What, while the enmity remains? while the enmity prevails? for prevail it must while he loves himself supremely,-prevail it must till his supreme affection is transferred to God. But once for all let an apostle decide whether any love to God can exist while the heart is supremely attached to another: 6. If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him.”† In every view then it appears that there can be no approaches toward Regeneration in the antecedent temper of the heart. The moment before the change the sinner is as far from sanctification as darkness is from light, as death is from life, as sin is from holiness. Admitting that his passions are some hat allayed, and the actings of self-love not Rom. xiii. 10. 1 Cor. xiii. 1-3. † 1 John ii. 15. |