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God Makes Men Sensible Of Their Misery Before He Reveals His Mercy
And Love
by Jonathan Edwards
Not dated. Three sermons.
Hosea 5:15, "I will go and
return to my place, till they acknowledge their offense, and seek my
face: in their affliction they will seek me early."
IN the preceding part of the chapter is threatened the destruction of
Ephraim. Ephraim, in the prophets, generally means the ten tribes, or
the kingdom of Israel, as distinguished from the kingdom of Judah. When
we read of Ephraim and Judah in the prophets, thereby is meant the whole
people of Israel of the twelve tribes, as in verse 12 of this chapter,
“Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah
as rottenness.” By Judah is meant the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin,
which were under the king of Judah, and by Ephraim is meant the ten
tribes under the king of Israel. Ephraim is put for the whole kingdom of
Israel, because Samaria, the seat of the kingdom, the royal city, was in
that tribe. In the verse immediately preceding the text it is declared
in what a terrible manner God was about to deal with Ephraim. (Hos.
5:14) “For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the
house of Judah; I, even I, will tear and go away, and none shall rescue
him.” In the text God declares how he would deal with them after he had
torn as a lion, etc. And here,
First, God declares how he would withdraw from them. “I will go and
return to my place;” when I have torn as a lion. I will go away; I will
leave them in that condition. I will depart from them, and they shall
see no more of me.
Second, what God will wait for in them before he returns to them to show
them mercy. There are three things here signified.
1. That they should be sensible of their guilt. “Till they acknowledge
their offense.” It is in the original, “till they become guilty.” That
is, till they become guilty in their own eyes, till they are sensible of
their guilt; in the same sense as the same expression is used in Rom.
3:19, “That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God:” that is, become guilty in their own eyes.
2. That they would be sensible of their misery, implied in the
expression, “in their affliction they shall seek me.” Their calamity was
brought upon them, before God had torn them, and left them. But in their
pride and perverseness, they were not well sensible of their own
miserable condition, as this prophet observes in Hos. 7:9.
3. That they should be sensible of their need of God’s help, which is
implied in their seeking God’s face, and seeking him early, that is,
with great care and earnestness. Before, they would not seek God. They
were not sensible of their helplessness, as we learn in the verse but
one preceding the text. “When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his
wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb.” But
as we are there told, he could not heal him, nor cure his wound. And
notwithstanding all the help he could afford, God wounded him, tore him
as a young lion, and as he declares, would leave him, and he should
cease going to any other, and should be sensible that no other could
heal, and accordingly come to him for healing.
Doctrine. That it is God’s manner to make men sensible of their misery
and unworthiness, before he appears in his mercy and love to them.
I. That it is ordinarily thus with respect to the bestowment of great
and signal mercies.
II. That it is particularly so with respect to revealing his love and
mercy to their souls.
III. That they are made sensible of the desert of their sin.
I. This is God’s ordinary way before great and signal expressions of his
mercy and favor. He very commonly so orders it in his providence, and so
influences men by his Spirit, that they are brought to see their
miserable condition as they are in themselves, and to despair of help
from themselves, or from an arm of flesh, before he appears for them,
and also makes them sensible of their sin, and their unworthiness of
God’s help. This appears from the account which the Scriptures give us
of God’s dealings with his people. Joseph, before his great advancement
in Egypt, must lie in the dungeon to humble him, and prepare him for
such honor and prosperity. The children of Jacob, before Joseph reveals
himself to them, and they receive that joy, and honor, and prosperity,
which were consequent thereupon, pass through a train of difficulties
and anxieties, till at last they are reduced to distress, and are
brought to reflect upon their guilt, and to say, that they were verily
guilty concerning their brother. God humbled them in his providence, and
then an end was put to all their difficulties, and their sorrow was
turned into joy upon Joseph’s revealing himself to them. Jacob, before
he hears the joyful news of Joseph’s being yet alive, must be brought
into great distress at the parting with Benjamin, and supposed loss of
Simeon. He was reduced to great straits in his mind. He says in Gen.
42:36, “All these things are against me.” But soon after this he had
these gladsome tidings brought to him, “Joseph is yet alive, and he is
governor over all the land of Egypt.” And to confirm it, he sees the
wagons and the noble presents, which Joseph sent to him, so that he was
now brought to say, “It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive. I will go
and see him before I die.” And so with the children of Israel in Egypt.
Their bondage must wax more and more extreme. Their bondage had been
very extreme. But yet Pharaoh gives commandment that more work should be
laid upon them, and the task-masters tell them they must get their straw
where they can find it, and nothing of their work should be diminished.
And quickly upon this was their deliverance. So when the children of
Israel were brought to the Red sea, the Egyptians pursued them, and were
just at their heels, and they were reduced to the utmost distress. They
see that they must assuredly perish, unless God work a miracle for them,
for they were shut up on all sides: the Red sea was before them, and the
army of the Egyptians encompassing them round behind. And they cried
unto the Lord. And then God wonderfully appeared for their help, and
made them pass through the Red sea, and put songs of deliverance into
their mouths.
So before God brought the children of Israel into Canaan, he led them
about in a great and terrible wilderness through a train of difficulties
and temptations for forty years, that he might teach them their
dependence on him, and the sinfulness of their own hearts. Deu. 32:10,
“He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he
led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.”
God brought them into those trials and difficulties in the wilderness to
humble them, and let them see what was in their hearts, that they might
be convinced of their own perverseness by the many discoveries of it
under those temptations, and so that they might be sensible that it was
not for their righteousness that God made them his people, and gave them
Canaan, seeing it was so evident that they were a stiff-necked people.
Deu. 8:2, 3, “And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God
led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to
prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep
his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee and suffered thee to
hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy
fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by
bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the
Lord doth man live.” And Deu. 8:15-17, “Who led thee through that great
and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and
drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of
the rock of flint; who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy
fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove
thee, to do thee good at thy latter end; and thou say in thine heart, My
power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth.” And so we
have examples of this from time to time in the history of the Judges.
When Israel revolted, God gave them into the hands of their enemies. He
let them continue in their hands, till they were reduced to great
distress, and saw that they were in a helpless condition, and were
brought to reflect on themselves, and to cry unto the Lord. And then God
raised them up a deliverer. And when they cried unto God, he would not
deliver them till he had humbled them, and brought them to own their
unworthiness, and to own that they were in God’s hands. Judges 10
beginning with the 10th verse, “And the children of Israel cried unto
the Lord, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have
forsaken our God, and also served Balaam. And the Lord said unto the
children of Israel, Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians, and from
the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines? The
Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you;
and ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand. Yet ye have
forsaken me, and served other gods; wherefore I will deliver you no
more, Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver
you in the time of your tribulation. And the children of Israel said
unto the Lord, We have sinned; do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good
unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day. And they put away
the strange gods from among them, and served the Lord; and his soul was
grieved for the misery of Israel.” And this is the method in which God
declared from the beginning he would proceed with his people. Lev.
26:40, etc. “If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of
their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and
that also they have walked contrary unto me; and that I also have walked
contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their
enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then
accept of the punishment of their iniquity; then will I remember my
covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my
covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. The
land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she
lieth desolate without them; and they shall accept the punishment of
their iniquity; because, even because they despised my judgments, and
because their soul abhorred my statutes. And yet for all that, when they
be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will
I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with
them; for I am the Lord their God. But I will for their sakes remember
the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of
Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God.” It is
God’s manner, when he will bestow signal blessings in answer to prayer,
to make men seek them and pray for them with a sense of sin and misery.
As 1 Kin. 8:38, 39, “What prayer and supplication soever be made by any
man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague
of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house; then
hear thou in heaven, thy dwelling-place, and forgive, and do, and give
to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; for thou,
even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men.” By
knowing the plague of their own hearts is meant both their sin and
misery. Being sensible of their misery is included, as is evident from
the manner of expressing the same petition of Solomon’s prayer, as it is
related in 2 Chr. 6:29, “Then what prayer or supplication soever shall
be made of any man, or of all thy people Israel, when every man shall
know his own sore and his own grief.” By which is probably meant his
misery and his sin, which is the foundation of it. Paul gives us an
account how God brought him to have despair in himself before a great
deliverance, which he experienced. 2 Cor. 1:9, 10, “But we had the
sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God, which raiseth the dead; who delivered us from so great a
death.” How did Christ humble the woman of Canaan, or bring her to the
exercise and expression of a sense of her own unworthiness before he
answered her, and healed her daughter! When she continued to cry, after
he answered her not a word, and seemed to take no notice of her, and his
disciples desired him to send her away, and when she continued crying
after him, he gave a very humbling answer, saying, “It is not meet to
take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.” And when she took it
well, as owning that being called a dog was not too bad, and owning that
she was therefore unworthy of children’s bread, she only sought the
crumbs, then Christ answered her request. And the experience of God’s
people in all ages corresponds with those examples. It is God’s usual
method before remarkable discoveries of his mercy and love to them,
especially by spiritual mercies, in a special manner to humble them, and
make them sensible of their misery and helplessness in themselves, and
of their vileness and unworthiness, either by some remarkably humbling
dispensation of his providence or influence of his Spirit.
We are come now,
II. To show particularly that it is God’s manner to make men sensible of
their misery and unworthiness before he reveals his saving love and
mercy to their souls. The mercy of God, which he shows to a sinner when
he brings him home to the Lord Jesus Christ, is the greatest and most
wonderful exhibition of mercy and love, of which men are ever the
subjects. There are other things, in which God greatly expresses his
mercy and goodness to men, many temporal favors. The mercies already
mentioned, which God bestowed upon his people of old: his advancing
Joseph in Egypt, his deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt,
his leading them through the Red sea on dry land, his bringing them into
Canaan, and driving out the heathen from before them, his delivering
them from time to time from the hands of their enemies, were great
mercies. But they were not equal to this of his people from under the
guilt and dominion of sin. Several of them were typical of this, and as
God would thus prepare men for the bestowment of those less mercies by
making them sensible of their guilt and misery, so especially will he so
do, before he makes known to them this great love of his in Jesus
Christ. When God designs to show mercy to sinners, it is his manner thus
to begin with them.
He first brings them to reflect upon themselves, and consider and be
sensible what they are, and what condition they are in. What has already
been said proves this. There is a harmony between God’s dispensations.
And as we see that this is God’s manner of dealing with men when he
gives them other great and remarkable mercies and manifestations of his
favor, it is a confirmation that it is his method of proceeding with the
souls of men, when about to reveal his mercy and love to them in Jesus
Christ.
First, God makes men consider and be sensible of what sin they are
guilty. Before, it may be, they were very regardless of this. They went
on sinning, and never reflected upon what they did. [They] never
considered or regarded what or how many sins they committed. They saw no
cause why they should trouble their minds about it. But when God
convinces them, he brings them to reflect upon themselves. He sets their
sins in order before their eyes. He brings their old sins to their
minds, so that they are fresh in their memory — things which they had
almost forgotten. And many things, which they used to regard as light
offenses, which were not wont to be a burden to their consciences, nor
to appear worthy to be taken notice of, they are now made to reflect
upon. Thus they discover of what a multitude of transgressions they have
been guilty, which they have heaped up till they are grown up to heaven.
There are some sins especially, of which they have been guilty, which
are ever before them, so that they cannot get them out of their minds.
Sometimes when men are under conviction, their sins follow them, and
haunt them like a specter. God makes them sensible of the sin of their
hearts, how corrupt and depraved their hearts are. And there are two
ways in which he does this. One is by setting before them the sins of
their lives. They are so set in order before them, they appear so many
and so aggravated, that they are convinced what a fountain of corruption
there is in their hearts. Their sinful natures appear by their sinful
lives. There is sin enough, which every man has committed, to convince
him, that he is sold under sin, that his heart is full of nothing but
corruption, if God by his Spirit leads him rightly to consider it.
Another way which God sometimes makes use of, is to leave men to such
internal workings of corruption under the temptations which they have in
their terrors and fears of hell, as shows them what a corrupt and wicked
heart they have. God sometimes brings this good out of this evil, to
make men see the corruption of their nature by the workings of it under
temptations, which they have in their terrors about damnation. God leads
them through the wilderness to prove them, and let them know what is in
their hearts, as he did the children of Israel, as we have already
observed. By means of the trials which the children of Israel had in the
wilderness, they might be made sensible what a murmuring, perverse,
rebellious, unfaithful, and idolatrous people they were. So God
sometimes makes sinners sensible what wicked hearts they have, by their
experience of the exercises of corruption, while they are under
convictions. Not that this will in the least excuse men for allowing
such workings of corruption in their hearts, because God sometimes
leaves men to be wicked, that he may afterwards turn it to their good,
when he in infinite wisdom sees meet so to do. We must not go and be
wicked on purpose that we may get good by it. It will be very absurd, as
well as horridly presumptuous, for us so to do. Though God sometimes in
his sovereign mercy makes those workings of corruption, and a spirit of
opposition and enmity against God, a means of showing them the vileness
of their own hearts, and so to turn to their good. So God oftentimes is
provoked thereby utterly to withdraw and forsake them, after the example
of those murmurers, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, of whom God
sware in his wrath that they should never enter into his rest. And they
who allow themselves therein, are the most likely so to provoke God. But
it is God’s manner to show men the plague of their own hearts by some
means or other, before he reveals his redeeming love to their souls.
While sinners are unconvinced, sin lies hid. They take no notice of it.
But God makes the law effectual to bring men’s own sins of heart and
life to be reflected on, and observed. Rom. 7:9, “I was alive without
the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived.” Then sin
appeared and came to light, which was not before observed. Joseph’s
revealing himself to his brethren, is probably typical of Christ’s
revealing himself to the soul of a sinner, making known himself in his
love, and in his near relation of a brother, and a redeemer of his soul.
But before Joseph revealed himself to them, they were made to reflect
upon themselves, and say, “we are verily guilty.”
Second, God convinces sinners of the dreadful danger they are in by
reason of their sin. Having their sins set before them, God makes them
sensible of the relation which their sin has to misery. And here are two
things of which they are convinced about their danger.
1. God makes them sensible that his displeasure is very dreadful. Before
they heard often about the anger of God, and the fierceness of his
wrath, but they were not moved by it. But now they are made sensible
that it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
They are made in some measure sensible of the dreadfulness of hell. They
are led with fixedness of impression to think what a dismal thing it
will be to have God an enraged enemy, setting to work the misery of a
soul, and how dismal it will be to dwell in such torment forever without
hope. Isa. 33:14 “The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath
surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring
fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” Other sinners
are told of hell, but convinced sinners often have hell, as it were, in
their view. Their being impressed with a sense of the dreadfulness of
its misery, is the cause why it works upon their imagination oftentimes,
and it will seem as though they saw the dismal flames of hell; as though
they saw God in implacable wrath exerting his fury upon them; as though
they heard the cries and shrieks of the damned.
2. They are made in some measure sensible of the connection there is
between their sins and that wrath, or how their sin and guilt exposes
them to that wrath, of the dreadfulness of which they have such lively
apprehensions, and so fear takes hold of them. They are afraid that will
be their portion. And they are sensible that they are in a miserable and
doleful condition by reason of sin. Many things in the Scriptures make
it evident that this is God’s method. The account we have of our first
parents confirms it. They had a sense of guilt and danger, before Christ
was revealed to them. They were guilty, and were afraid of God’s wrath,
and ran and hid themselves. They were terribly afraid when they heard
God coming. And doubtless their sense of their guilt and fear, when they
were brought before God, and were called to an account, and God asked
them what they had done, and whether they had eaten of that tree,
whereof he commanded them that they should not eat, prepared them for a
discovery of mercy. God made them sensible of their guilt and danger
before he revealed to them the covenant of grace. And it is probable
that their reflecting upon what God said about the seed of the woman
bruising the serpent’s head, soon wrought faith: that it was not long
before the discovery God made of a merciful design towards them was a
means of true consolation and hope to them. Joseph’s brethren were
brought into great distress for fear of their lives before Joseph
revealed himself to them. Those who were converted by Peter’s sermon
were first pricked in their hearts in a sense of their guilt and their
danger. Acts 2:37. And Paul, before he had his first comfort, trembled,
and was astonished. Acts 9:6. And continued three days and three nights,
and neither ate nor drank, which expressed his great distress. The
jailer, before he was converted, was in terror. He called for a light,
and sprang in and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas.
Acts 16:29, 30. Christ’s invitation is made more especially to the weary
and heavy laden, which doubtless has respect, at least partly, to
laboring and being weary with a sense of guilt and danger. We read when
David was in the cave, that everyone who was in distress, was gathered
unto him. 1 Sam. 22:1. This doubtless was written as typifying Jesus
Christ, and the referring of those who were in fear and distress unto
him. The expression of flying for refuge, by which coming to Christ is
signified, implies that before they come, they are in fear of some evil.
They apprehend themselves in danger, and this fear gives wings to their
feet. Pro. 18:10, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower.” The voice of
God to a sinner, when he gives him true comfort, is a still small voice.
But this voice is preceded by a strong wind, and a terrible earthquake,
and fire, as it was in Horeb when Elijah was there. 1 Kin. 19:11, 12,
“And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the
mountains and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord
was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was
not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was
not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.”
Another thing in the Scriptures, which seems to evince this, is the
frequent comparison made between the church spiritually bringing forth
Christ, and a woman in travail, in pain to be delivered. John 16:21 and
Rev. 12:2. The conversion of a sinner is represented by the same thing.
It is bringing forth Christ in the heart. Paul speaks of men’s
regeneration as of Christ being brought forth in them. Gal. 4:19. And
therefore Christ calls believers his mother. Mat. 12:49, 50, “And he
stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my
mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father
which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
III. They are made sensible of the desert of their sin: that their sin
deserves that wrath of God to which it exposes them. They are not only
sensible of the dreadfulness of God’s wrath, how fearful a thing it
would be to fall into the hands of the living God, and to sustain the
eternal expressions of his fierce anger, as well as of the connection
between their sins and this wrath, and how their sins expose them to it,
but God is also wont, before he comforts them, to show them that their
sins deserve this wrath. By a clear discovery of the connection between
their sin and God’s wrath, they are sensible of their danger of hell, of
which many are in a measure sensible, who are wholly insensible of their
desert of hell. The threatenings of the law make them afraid indeed,
that God will punish sins. Yet they have no thorough apprehension of
their desert of the punishment threatened, and therefore many, who are
afraid, murmur against God. They charge him foolishly with being hard
and cruel. But it is God’s manner before he speaks peace to them, and
reveals his redeeming love and mercy in Jesus Christ, to make them
sensible that they also deserve it. Thus Mat. 18:24-26, “And when he had
begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which owed him ten thousand
talents. But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to
be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to
be made. The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying,
Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the lord of
that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him
the debt.” Very commonly when men are first made sensible of their
danger, their mouths are open against God and his dealings, that is,
their hearts are full of murmurings. But it is God’s manner before he
comforts and reveals his mercy and love to them, to stop their mouths,
and make them acknowledge their guilt, or their desert of the threatened
punishment. Rom. 3:19, 20, “Now we know that what things soever the law
saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be
stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by
the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for
by the law is the knowledge of sin.” God would convince men of their
guilt before he reveals a pardon to them. Now a man cannot be said to be
thoroughly sensible of his guilt, till he is sensible that he deserves
hell. A man must be sensible that he is guilty of death, or guilty of
damnation, to use the scriptural mode of expression, before God will
reveal to him his freedom from damnation. A sense of guilt consists in
two things — in a sense of sin, and in a sense of the relation which sin
has to punishment. Now the relation which sin has to punishment, is also
twofold. First, the connection which it has with punishment, by which it
exposes to it, and brings it. Secondly, its desert of punishment. When a
man is truly convinced of his desert of the punishment to which his sin
exposes him, then he may be said to be thoroughly sensible of his guilt.
Then he is become guilty, in the sense of our text, and in the sense of
Rom. 3:20.
Inquiry. How is it that a sinner is made sensible of his desert of God’s
wrath? A natural man may have a sense of this, though not the same sense
which a person may have after conversion, because a natural man cannot
have a true sight of sin, and of the evil of it. A man cannot truly know
the evil of sin against God, except it be by a discovery of his glory
and excellence. Then he will be sensible how great an evil it is to sin
against him. Yet it cannot be denied that natural men are capable of a
conviction of their desert of hell, or that their consciences may be
convinced of it without a sight of God’s glory. The consciences of
wicked men will also be convinced of the justice of their sentence and
of their punishment at the day of judgment, and doubtless will echo to
the sentence of the Judge, and condemn them to the same punishment.
Here, therefore, we would inquire how it is that a natural man may be
made sensible of this. First, we shall show what is the principle
assisted. Second, how it is assisted. And third, what are the chief
external means which are used in order to this.
First, what principle in man is assisted in convincing him of his desert
of eternal punishment? No new principle is infused. Natural men have
only natural principles, and therefore all that is done by the Spirit of
God before regeneration is by assisting natural principles. To observe,
therefore, in answer to this inquiry,
That the principle, which is assisted in making natural men sensible of
their desert of wrath, is natural conscience. Though man has lost a
principle of love to God, and all spiritual principles, by the fall, yet
natural conscience remains. Now there are two things, which are the
proper work of natural conscience. One is to give man a sense of right
and wrong. A natural man has no sense of the beauty and amiability of
virtue, or of the turpitude and odiousness of vice. But yet every man
has that naturally within, which testifies to him that some things are
right, and others wrong. Thus if a man steals, or commits murder, there
is something within, which tells him that he has done wrong. He knows
that he has not done right. Rom. 2:14, 15, “For when the Gentiles, which
have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these
having not the law, are a law unto themselves; which show the work of
the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness,
and their thoughts the mean while accusing, or else excusing, one
another.” And the other work of natural conscience is to suggest the
relation there is between right and wrong, and a retribution. Man has
that in him, which suggests to him, when he has done ill, a relation
between that ill and punishment. If a man has done that which his
conscience tells him is wrong, is unjust, his conscience tells him that
he deserves to be punished for it. Thus natural conscience has a twofold
power; a teaching or accusing, and a condemning power. The Spirit of
God, therefore, assists natural conscience the more thoroughly to do
this, its work, and so convinces a man of sin. Conscience naturally
suggests, when he has done a known evil, that he deserves punishment,
and being assisted to its work thoroughly, a man is convinced that he
deserves eternal punishment. Though natural conscience does remain in
the man since the fall, yet it greatly needs assistance in order to its
work. It is greatly hindered in doing its work by sin. Everything in
man, which is part of his perfection, is hindered and impaired by sin. A
faculty of reason remains since the fall, but it is greatly impaired and
blinded. So natural conscience remains, but sin, in a great degree,
stupefies it, and hinders it in its work. Now when God convinces a
sinner, he assists his conscience against the stupefaction of sin, and
helps it to do its work more freely and fully. The Spirit of God works
immediately upon men’s consciences. In conviction their consciences are
awakened. They are convinced in their consciences. Their consciences
smite them and condemn them.
Second, it may be inquired how God assists natural conscience so as to
convince the sinner of his desert of hell? I answer,
1. In general, it is by light. The whole work of God is carried on in
the heart of man from his first convictions to his conversion by light.
It is by discoveries which are made to his soul. But by what light is
it, that a sinner is made sensible that be deserves God’s wrath? It is
some discovery that he has, which makes him sensible of the heinousness
of disobeying and casting contempt upon God. The light which gives
evangelical humiliation, and which makes man sensible of the hateful and
odious nature of sin, is a discovery of God’s glory and excellence and
grace. But what is it which a natural man sees of God, which makes him
sensible that sin against God deserves his wrath. For he sees nothing of
the excellence and loveliness of God’s glory and grace? I answer,
2. Particularly, it seems to be a discovery of God’s awful and terrible
greatness. Natural men cannot see anything of God’s loveliness, his
amiable and glorious grace, or anything which should attract their love,
but they may see his terrible greatness to excite their terror. Wicked
men in another world, though they do not see his loveliness and grace,
yet they see his awful greatness, and that makes them sensible of the
heinousness of sin. The damned in hell are sensible of the heinousness
of their sin. Their consciences declare it to them. And they are made
sensible of it by what they see of the awful greatness of that Being,
against whom they have sinned. And wicked men in this world are capable
of being made sensible of the heinousness of sin the same way. If a
wicked soul is capable while wicked of receiving the discoveries of
God’s terrible majesty in another world, it is capable of it in this.
God may, if he pleases, make wicked men sensible of the same thing here.
And in this way natural men may be so made sensible of the heinousness
of sin, as to be convinced that they deserve hell, as is evident in that
it is by this very means, that wicked men will be made sensible of the
justice of their punishment in another world, and at the day of
judgment. For then the wicked will see so much of the awful greatness of
God, the Judge, that it will convince their consciences what a heinous
thing it was in them to disobey and contemn such a God, and will
convince them that they therefore deserve his wrath. Which shows that
wicked men are capable of being convinced in the same way. A wicked man,
while a wicked man, is capable of hearing the thunders, and seeing the
devouring fire, of mount Sinai, that is, he is capable of being made
sensible of that terrible majesty and greatness of God, which was
discovered at the giving of the law. But this brings me to the
Third, thing, viz. the principal outward means, which the Spirit of God
makes use of in this work of convincing men of their desert of hell. And
that is the law. The Spirit of God in all his work upon the souls of
men, works by his Word. And in this whole work of conviction of sin,
that part of the word is principally made use of; viz. the Law. It is
the law which makes men sensible of their sin; and it is the law,
attended with its awful threatenings and curses, which gives a sense of
the awful greatness, the authority, the power, the jealousy of God.
Wicked men are made sensible of the tremendous greatness of God, as it
were, in the same manner in which the children of Israel were, viz. by
the thunders, and earthquake, and devouring fire, and sound of the
trumpet, and terrible voice at mount Sinai. All the people who were in
the camp trembled, and they said, “Let not God speak with us, lest we
die.” So that it is the law, which God makes use of in assisting the
natural conscience to do its work. Gal. 3:24, “Wherefore the law was our
schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.” It is the law which God makes use
of, to make men sensible of their guilt, and to stop their mouths. Rom.
3:19, “Now we know that whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to
them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world may become guilty before God.” It is the law, which kills men
as to trusting in their own righteousness. “For I was alive without the
law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” Gal.
2:19, “For I through the law am dead to the law.” Conviction, which
precedes conversion, is of sin and misery. But men are not thoroughly
sensible of their sin or guilt, till they are sensible they deserve
hell; nor thoroughly sensible of their misery, till they are sensible
they are helpless.
Fourth, it is God’s manner to make men sensible of their helplessness in
their own strength. It is usual with sinners, when they are first made
sensible of their danger of hell, to attempt by their own strength to
save themselves. They in some measure see their danger, and endeavor to
work out their own deliverance. They are striving to make themselves
better. They strive to convert themselves, to work their hearts into a
believing frame, and to exercise a saving trust in Christ. Having heard
that if ever they believe, they must put their trust in Christ, and in
him alone, for salvation, they think they will trust in Christ and cast
their souls upon him. And this they endeavor to do in their own
strength. This is very common with persons upon a sick bed, when they
are afraid that they shall die and go to hell, and are told that they
must put their trust in Christ alone for salvation. They attempt to do
it in their own strength. So sinners will be striving without a sense of
their insufficiency in themselves to bring their own hearts to love God,
and to choose him for their portion, and to repent of their sins. Or
they strive to make themselves better, that so God may be more willing
to convert them and give them his grace, and enable them to believe in
Christ, and love God, and repent of their sins. But before God appears
to them as their help and deliverance, it is his manner to make them
sensible that they are utterly helpless in themselves. They are brought
to despair of help from themselves. There is a death to all their hopes
from themselves. Rom. 7:9. Before God opens the prison doors, he makes
them see that they are shut up, that they are close prisoners, and that
there is no way in which they can escape. Christ tells us in Isa. 61:1
that he was sent to bind up the broken-hearted, and to proclaim liberty
to captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.
Christ was sent to open the prison to them that are not only really, but
sensibly, bound. Gal. 3:23, “But before faith came, we were kept under
the law, shut up unto the faith, that should afterwards be revealed.”
God makes men sensible that they are in a forlorn condition, that they
are wretched, and miserable, and blind, and naked, before he comforts
them. Christ tells us in John 9:39, “For judgment I am come into the
world, that they which see not, might see; and that they which see,
might be made blind;” meaning, partly at least, by those that see, those
who think they see: having respect to the Pharisees, who were proud of
their knowledge, and by the blind, those who are sensibly blind. This is
emblematically represented by Saul’s blindness before his first comfort.
He was blind till Ananias came to him to open his eyes, probably
designed to intimate to us that before God opens the eyes of men in
conversion, he makes them sensibly blind. God brings men to this despair
in their own strength in these ways.
1. God oftentimes makes use of men’s own experience to convince them
that they are helpless in themselves. When they first set out in seeking
salvation, it may be they thought it an easy thing to be converted. They
thought they should presently bring themselves to repent of their sins,
and believe in Christ, and accordingly they strove in their own strength
with hopes of success. But they were disappointed. And so God suffers
them to go on striving to open their own eyes, and mend their own
hearts. But they find no success. They have been striving to see for a
long time, yet they are as blind as ever; and can see nothing. It is all
Egyptian darkness. They have been striving to make themselves better;
but they are bad as ever. They have often striven to do something which
is good, to be in the exercise of good affections, which should be
acceptable to God, but they have no success. And it seems to them, that
instead of growing better, they grow worse and worse. Their hearts are
fuller of wicked thoughts than they were at first. They see no more
likelihood of their conversion than there was at first. So God suffers
them to strive in their own strength, till they are discouraged, and
despair of helping themselves. The prodigal son first strove to fill his
belly with the husks which the swine did eat. But when he despaired of
being helped in that way, then he came to himself, and entertained
thoughts of returning to his father’s house.
2. God sometimes, by a particular assistance of the understanding,
enables men to see so much of their own hearts, as at once causes them
to despair of helping themselves. He sometimes convinces them by their
own trials, suffering them to try a long time to effect their own
salvation, until they are discouraged. But God, if he pleases, can
convince men without such endeavors of their own, and sometimes he does
so, as must be the case in many sudden conversions, of which the
instances are not unfrequent. By revealing to them their own hearts, he
sometimes enables them to perceive that they are so remote from the
exercise of love to God, of faith, and of every other Christian grace,
as well as from the possession of the least degree of spiritual light,
that they despair of ever bringing themselves to it. They perceive that
within their souls all is darkness as darkness itself, and as the shadow
of death, and that it is too much for them to cause light. They find
themselves dead to anything good, and therefore despair of bringing
themselves to the performance of gracious acts. Thus we have shown that
it is God’s ordinary manner, before he reveals his redeeming mercy to
the souls of men, to make them sensible of their sinfulness and danger,
of their desert of the divine wrath, and of their utter helplessness in
themselves. This we have shown to be most accordant with the Holy
Scriptures, as well as with God’s method of dealing with mankind in
other things. And we have shown in an imperfect manner how, and by what
means, it is that God thus convinces men. This work is what Christ
speaks of, as one part of the work of the Holy Ghost, John 16:8, “When
he is come, he will convince the world of sin, and of righteousness, and
of judgment.” It is God’s manner to convince men of sin, before he
convinces them of righteousness.
I come now to show the reasons of the doctrine.
The propriety of such a method of proceeding is very obvious. How
agreeable to the divine wisdom does it seem that the sinner should be
brought to such a conviction of his danger and misery, as to perceive
his utter incapacity to help himself by any strength or contrivance of
his own, and his entire unworthiness of God’s help, and desert of his
wrath. That he should be brought to acknowledge that God, in the
exercise of his holy sovereignty, may with perfect justice deal thus
with him before he appears in his pardoning mercy and love as his helper
and friend. A man who is converted is successively in two exceedingly
different states: first, a very miserable, wretched state of
condemnation, and then in a blessed condition, a state of justification.
How agreeable, therefore, does it seem to the divine wisdom, that such a
man should be conscious of this: first, of his miserable, condemned
state, and then of his happy state; that, as he is really first guilty,
and under a deep desert of hell, before he is really pardoned and
admitted to God’s favor, so he should first be conscious that he is
guilty, and under such a desert of hell, before he is conscious of being
the object of pardoning and redeeming mercy and grace. But the propriety
of God’s thus dealing with the souls of men will appear perhaps better
by considering the following reasons:
1. It is the will of God that the discoveries of his terrible majesty,
and awful holiness and justice, should accompany the discoveries of his
grace and love, in order that he may give to his creatures worthy and
just apprehensions of himself. It is the glory of God that these
attributes are united in the divine nature, that as he is a being of
infinite mercy and love and grace, so he is a being of infinite and
tremendous majesty, and awful holiness and justice. The perfect and
harmonious union of these attributes in the divine nature, is what
constitutes the chief part of their glory. God’s awful and terrible
attributes, and his mild and gentle attributes, reflect glory one on the
other, and the exercise of the one is in perfect consistency and harmony
with that of the other. If there were the exercise of the mild and
gentle attributes without the other, [and] if there were love and mercy
and grace in inconsistency with God’s authority and justice and infinite
hatred of sin, it would be no glory. If God’s love and grace did not
harmonize with his justice and the honor of his majesty, far from being
an honor, they would be a dishonor to God. Therefore as God designs to
glorify himself when he makes discoveries of the one, he will also make
discoveries of the other. When he makes discoveries of his love and
grace, it shall appear that they harmonize with those other attributes.
Otherwise his true glory would not be discovered. If men were sensible
of the love of God without a sense of those other attributes, they would
be exposed to have improper and unworthy apprehensions of God, as though
he were gracious to sinners in such a manner as did not become a Being
of infinite majesty and infinite hatred of sin. And as it would expose
to unworthy apprehensions of God, so it would expose the soul in some
respects to behave unsuitably towards God. There would not be a due
reverence blended with love and joy. Such discoveries of love, without
answerable discoveries of awful greatness, would dispose the soul to
come with an undue boldness to God. The very nature and design of the
gospel show that this is the will of God, that those who have the
discoveries of his love, should also have the discoveries of those other
attributes. For this was the very end of Christ’s laying down his life,
and coming into the world, to render the glory of God’s authority,
holiness, and justice, consistent with his grace in pardoning and
justifying sinners, that while God thus manifested his mercy, we might
not conceive any unworthy thoughts of him with respect to those other
attributes. Seeing, therefore, that this is the very end of Christ’s
coming into the world, we may conclude that those who are actually
redeemed by Christ, and have a true discovery of Christ made to their
souls, have a discovery of God’s terribleness and justice to prepare
them for the discovery of his love and mercy. God, of old, before the
death and suffering of Christ were so fully revealed, was ever careful
that the discoveries of both should be together, so that men might not
apprehend God’s mercy in pardoning sin and receiving sinners, to the
disparagement of his justice. When God proclaimed his name to Moses, in
answer to his desire that he might see God’s glory, he indeed proclaimed
his mercy: “The Lord, the Lord God, gracious and merciful,
long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy for
thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin.” (Exo. 34:6,
7) But he did not stop here, but also proclaimed his holy justice and
vengeance: “and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s
children unto the third and fourth generation.” (Exo. 34:7) Thus they
are joined together again in the fourth commandment. “For I, the Lord
thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.”
(Exo. 20:5) Thus we find them joined together in passages too numerous
to be mentioned. When God was about to speak to Elijah in Horeb, he was
first prepared for such a familiar conversing with God by awful
manifestations of the divine majesty. First there was a wind, which rent
the rocks, and then an earthquake, and then a devouring fire. 1 Kin.
19:11, 12. God is careful even in heaven, where the discoveries of his
love and grace are given in such an exalted degree, also to provide
means for a proportional sense of his terribleness, and the dreadfulness
of his displeasure, by their beholding it in the miseries and torments
of the damned, at the same time that they enjoy his love. Even the man
Christ Jesus was first made sensible of the wrath of God, before his
exaltation to that transcendent height of enjoyment of the Father’s
love. And this is one reason that God gives sinners a sense of his wrath
against their sins, and of his justice, before he gives them the
discoveries of his redeeming love.
2. Unless a man be thus convinced of his sin and misery before God makes
him sensible of his redeeming love and mercy, he cannot be sensible of
that love and mercy as it is, viz. that it is free and sovereign. When
God reveals his redeeming grace to men, and makes them truly sensible of
it, he would make them sensible of it as it is. God’s grace and love
towards sinners is in itself very wonderful, as it redeems from dreadful
wrath. But men cannot be sensible of this until they perceive in some
adequate degree how dreadful the wrath of God is. God’s redeeming grace
and love in Christ is free and sovereign, as it is altogether without
any worthiness in those who are the objects of it. But men cannot be
sensible of this, until they are sensible of their own unworthiness. The
grace of God in Christ is glorious and wonderful, as it is not only as
the objects of it are without worthiness, but as they deserve the
everlasting wrath and displeasure of God. But they cannot be sensible of
this until they are made sensible that they deserve God’s eternal wrath.
The grace of God in Christ is wonderful, as it saves and redeems from so
many and so great sins, and from the punishment they have deserved. But
sinners cannot be sensible of this till they are in some measure
sensible of their sinfulness, and brought to reflect upon the sins of
their lives, and to see the wickedness of their hearts. It is the glory
of God’s grace in Christ, that it is so free and sovereign. And
doubtless it is the will of God, that when he reveals his grace to the
soul, it should be seen in its proper glory, though not perfectly. When
men see the glory of God’s grace aright, they see it as free and
unmerited, and contrary to the demerit of their sins. All who have a
spiritual understanding of the grace of God in Christ, have a perception
of the glory of that grace. But the glory of the divine grace appears
chiefly in its being bestowed on the sinner when he is in a condition so
exceedingly miserable and necessitous. In order, therefore, that the
sinner may be sensible of this glory, he must first be sensible of the
greatness of his misery, and then of the greatness of the divine mercy.
The heart of man is not prepared to receive the mercy of God in Christ,
as free and unmerited, till he is sensible of his own demerit. Indeed
the soul is not capable of receiving a revelation or discovery of the
redeeming grace of God in Christ, as redeeming grace, without being
convinced of sin and misery. He must see his sin and misery before he
can see the grace of God in redeeming him from that sin and misery.
3. Until the sinner is convinced of his sin and misery, he is not
prepared to receive the redeeming mercy and grace of God, as through a
Mediator, because he does not see his need of a Mediator till he sees
his sin and misery. If there were, on the part of God, any exercise of
absolute and immediate mercy towards sinners bestowed without any
satisfaction or purchase, the soul might possibly see that without a
conviction of its sin and misery. But there is not. All God’s mercy to
sinners is through a Savior. The redeeming mercy and grace of God is
mercy and grace in Christ. And when God discovers his mercy to the soul,
he will discover it as mercy in a Savior; and it is his will that the
mercy should be received as in and through a Savior, with a full
consciousness of its being through his righteousness and satisfaction.
It is the will of God, that as all the spiritual comforts which his
people receive are in and through Christ, so they should be sensible
that they receive them through Christ, and that they can receive them in
no other way. It is the will of God that his people should have their
eyes directed to Christ, and should depend upon him for mercy and favor,
[so] that whenever they receive comforts through his purchase, they
should receive them as from him. And that because God would glorify his
Son as Mediator, as the glory of man’s salvation belongs to Christ, so
it is the will of God that all the people of Christ, all who are saved
by him, should receive their salvation as of him, and should attribute
the glory of it to him. None who will not give the glory of salvation to
Christ, should have the benefit of it. Upon this account God insists
upon it, and it is absolutely necessary, that a sinner’s conviction of
his sin, and misery, and helplessness in himself, should precede or
accompany the revelation of the redeeming love and grace of God. I shall
also mention two other ends which are hereby attained.
4. By this means the redeeming mercy and love of God are more highly
prized and rejoiced in, when discovered. By the previous discoveries of
danger, misery, and helplessness, and desert of wrath, the heart is
prepared to embrace a discovery of mercy. When the soul stands trembling
at the brink of the pit, and despairs of any help from itself, it is
prepared joyfully to receive tidings of deliverance. If God is pleased
at such a time to make the soul hear his still small voice, his call to
himself and to a Savior, the soul is prepared to give it a joyful
reception. The gospel then, if it be heard spiritually, will be glad
tidings indeed, the most joyful which the sinner ever heard. The love of
God and of Christ to the world, and to him in particular, will be
admired, and Christ will be most precious. To remember what danger he
was in, what seas surrounded him, and then to reflect how safe be now is
in Christ, and how sufficient Christ is to defend him and to answer all
his wants, will cause the greater exultation of soul. God, in this
method of dealing with the souls of his elect, consults their happiness,
as well as his own glory. And it increases happiness, to be made
sensible of their misery and unworthiness, before God comforts them. For
their comfort, when they receive it, is so much the sweeter.
5. The heart is more prepared and disposed to praise God for it. This
follows from the reasons already mentioned: As they are hereby made
sensible how free and sovereign the mercy of God is towards them and how
great his grace in saving them, and as they more highly prize the mercy
and love of God made known to them, all will dispose them to magnify the
name of God, to exalt the love of God the Father in giving his Son to
them, and to exalt Jesus Christ by their praise, who laid down his life
for them to redeem them from all iniquity. They are ready to say, “How
miserable should I have been, had not God had pity upon me, and provided
me a Savior! In what a miserable condition should I have been, had not
Christ loved me, and given himself for me! I must have endured that
dreadful wrath of God; I must have suffered the punishment which I had
deserved by all that great sin and wickedness of which I have been
guilty.”
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