Natural Men Are God's Enemies, part 3.

I now proceed,

III. To show why, or on what account they are enemies to God.

The general reason is, That God is opposite to them in the worship of their idols.

The apostacy of man does summarily consist in departing from the true God to idols; forsaking his Creator, and setting up other things in his room.

When God at first created man, he was united to his Creator; the God that made him was his God. The true God was the object of his highest respect, and had the possession of his heart. Love to God was the principle in his heart, that ruled over all other principles, and every thing in the soul was wholly in subjection to it. But when man fell, he departed from the true God, and the union that was between his heart and his Creator was broken: He wholly lost the principle of love he had to God. And henceforward man clave to other gods. He gave that respect to the creature which is due to the Creator. When God ceased to be the object of his supreme love and respect, other things of course became the objects of it.

 

Man will necessarily have something that he respects as his God. If man does not give his highest respect to the God that made him, there will be something else that has the possession of it. Men will either worship the true God, or some idol: It is impossible it should be otherwise; something will have the heart of man. And that which a man gives his heart to, may be called his god; and therefore, when man by the fall extinguished all love to the true God, he set up the creature in his room.

And so man came to be at enmity against the true God, for having lost his esteem and love of the true God, and set up other gods in his room, and in opposition to him; and God still demanding their worship, and opposing them in their worship of those false gods; and man continuing still to worship idols, enmity necessarily follows.

That which a man chooses for his god, he sets his heart mainly upon. And nothing will so soon excite enmity as opposition in that which is dearest. A man will be the greatest enemy to him who opposes him in what he chooses for his god: He will look on none as standing so much in his way, as he that would deprive him of his god. "Ye have taken away my gods; and what have I more?” Judg. 18:24. A man in this respect cannot serve two masters that stand in competition for his service. And not only if he serves one, he cannot serve the other, but if he cleaves to one he will necessarily hate the other. "No man can serve two masters: For either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon," Matth. 6:24, And this is the very reason that men hate God. In this case it is as when two kings set up in one kingdom in opposition one to the other; and they both challenge the same throne, and are competitors for the same crown; they that are loyal, hearty subjects to the one, will necessarily be enemies to the other. It always happens so, nor indeed can it be otherwise.

As that which is a man's god, is the object of his highest love; so that God, who chiefly opposes him in it, must be the object of his greatest hatred.

The gods which a natural man worships, instead of the God that made him, are himself and the world. He has withdrawn his esteem and honor from God, and proudly exalts himself as Satan did: He was not willing to be in such subjection; and therefore rebelled, and set up himself for God. So a natural man in the proud and high thoughts he has of himself, sets up himself upon God's throne. And he gives his heart to the world, worldly riches, and worldly pleasures, and worldly honors; they have the possession of that regard which is due to God. The apostle sums up all the idolatry of wicked men in their love of the world. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, it not of the Father, but is of the world.” 1 John 2:15, 16. And the Apostle James observes, that a man must necessarily be the enemy of the true God, if he be a friend of the world. “Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God.” James 4.

All the sin that men commit, is what they do in the service of their idols: There is no one act of sin, but what is an act of service to some false god. And therefore wherein soever God opposes sin in them, he is opposite to their worship of their idols; on which account they are enemies to God.

God opposes them in their service of their idols in the following respects.

1. He manifests his utter abhorrence of their worship of their idols. Their idols are what they love above all things; they would by no means part with them. This wickedness is sweet unto them, Job 20:12. If you take them away what have they more? If they lose their idols, they lose their all. To rend away their idols from them would be more grievous to them, than to rend body and soul asunder; it is like rending their heart in twain. They love their idolatry; but God does not approve of it, but exceedingly hates it; he hates it implacably, and will by no means be reconciled to it; and therefore they hate him. God declares an infinite hatred of every act of sin which they do; or every act that they do in the service of their false gods. He approves of it in no part, but hates it all. He declares himself to be an holy God, and a jealous God; a God that is very jealous of his own honor; and that greatly abhors the giving that honor to another.

2. He utterly forbids their cleaving to those idols, and all the service that they do to them. He not only shows that he dislikes it, but he utterly forbids it; and demands that they should worship him, and serve him only, and give their hearts wholly to him, without tolerating any competitor. He allows them to serve their idols in no degree; but requires them to east them away utterly, and pay no more worship to them at anytime. He requires a final parting with their idols. Not only that they should refrain from them for a while, but cast them away forever, and never gratify their idolatrous respect to them any more. This is so exceeding contrary to them, and what they are so averse to, and so obstinate in their refusal of, that they are enemies to God for it. They cannot endure God's commands, because they forbid all that which their hearts are so engaged in. And as they hate God's command's, so they hate him whose commands they are.

3. He threatens them with everlasting damnation for their service of their idols. He threatens them for their past idolatry. He threatens them with his eternal wrath, for their having departed from him, and their having chosen to themselves other gods. He threatens them for that disposition they have in their hearts to cleave to other gods: He threatens the least degrees of that respect which they have in their hearts to their idols. He manifests that he will not tolerate any regard to them, but has fixed eternal death, as the wages of every degree of it. And he will not release them from their guilt; he holds them to their obligations; he will not acquit them at all; and he will accept of no atonement that they can make. He will not forgive them, whatever they do in religion; whatever pains they take; whatever tears they shed. He will accept of no money or price that they have to offer.

And he threatens every future act of their idolatry. He not only forbids them ever to be guilty of the least act, but forbids them on pain of eternal damnation. So strictly does God prohibit them the service of their idols, that are so dear to them, that are their all, and which they would on no account part with. He threatens them with everlasting wrath for all exercises of inordinate love of worldly profit; for all manifestations of inordinate regard to worldly pleasures, or worldly honors. He threatens them with everlasting torments for their selfexaltation. He requires them to deny themselves, and renounce themselves, and to abase themselves at his feet, on pain of bearing his wrath to all eternity.

The strictness of God's law is a principal cause of man's enmity against God. If God were a God that did not so much hate sin; if he were one who would allow them in the gratification of their lusts, in some degree: And his threatenings were not so awful against all indulgence of their lust; if his threatenings were not so absolute; if his displeasure could be appeased by a few tears, and a little reformation, or the like; they would not be so great enemies, nor hate him so much as they do now. But God shows himself to be an implacable enemy to their idols, to every degree of their service of them; and has threatened everlasting wrath, infinite calamity for all that they do in the service of their lusts; and holds them bound under his wrath therefor. And this makes them irreconcilable enemies to him.

For this reason the Scribes and Pharisees were such bitter enemies to Christ, because he showed himself to be such an enemy to their pride, and conceit of their own wisdom, and their self righteousness, and inordinate affection of their own honor, which was their God. Natural men are enemies to God, because he is so opposite to them in that in which they place their all. If you go to take away that which is very dear to a man, nothing will provoke him more. God is infinitely opposite to that in which natural men place all their delight, and all their happiness, viz. their gods. He is an enemy to that which natural men value as their greatest honor and highest dignity; and which they trust wholly to, that which is all their dependence, viz. their own righteousness.

Hence natural men are greater enemies to God than they are to any other being. Some of their fellow creatures may stand very much in their way with regard to some things they set their hearts upon; but God opposes them with respect to all their idols, and those gods which are their all. And then God's opposition to their idols, which are above all things dear to them, is infinitely great. None of our fellow creatures over oppose us in any of our interests so much as God opposes wicked men in their idolatry; for God has an infinite opposition against it. His infinite opposition is manifested by his threatening an infinite punishment, viz. his dreadful wrath to all eternity, misery without end. Hence we need not wonder that natural men are enemies to God.

Natural Men are God's Enemies part 2.

I proceed now,

II. To say something with respect to the degree of, this enmity; tending in some measure to show, how great enemies natural men are to God.

1. They have no love to God; their enmity is mere enmity, without any mixture of love. A natural man is wholly destitute of any principle of love to God, and never had the least exercise of this love. Some natural men have had better natural tempers than others, and some are better educated than others, and some live a great deal more soberly than others; but one has no more love to God than another; for none have the least spark of that. The heart of a natural man is as destitute of love to God, as dead, stiff, cold corpse is of vital heat. “I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.” John 5:43

2. Every faculty and principle of action is wholly under the dominion of enmity against God. The nature of man is wholly infected with this enmity against God. He is tainted with it throughout, in all his faculties and principles. And not only so, but every faculty is entirely and perfectly subdued under it, and enslaved to it. This enmity against God has the absolute possession of the man. The Apostle Paul, speaking of what he was naturally, says, “I am carnal, sold under sin." Rom. 7:14.

The understanding is under the reigning power of this enmity against God, so that it is entirely darkened and blinded with regard to the glory and excellency of God. The will is wholly under the reigning power of it. All the affections are governed by enmity against God: There is not one affection, nor one desire, that a natural man has, or that he is ever stirred up to act from, but what contains in it enmity against God. A natural man is as full of enmity against God, as any viper, or any venomous beast, is full of poison.

3. The power of the enmity of natural men against God, is so great, that it is insuperable by any finite power. It has too great and strong a possession of the heart, to be overcome by any created power. Natural men cannot overcome their own enmity, let them strive never so much with their own hearts. Indeed, a natural man never sincerely strives to root out his enmity against God; his endeavors are hypocritical: He delights in his enmity, and chooses it. Neither can others do it, though they sincerely, and to their utmost, endeavor to overcome this enmity. If godly friends and neighbors labor to persuade them to cast away their enmity, and become friends to God, they cannot persuade them to it. Though ministers use never so many arguments and entreaties, and set forth the loveliness of God, and tell them of the goodness of God to them, and hold forth to them God's own gracious invitations, and intreat them never so earnestly to cast off their opposition and enmity, and to be reconciled, and become friends, yet they cannot overcome it: Still they will be as bad enemies to God as ever they were. The tongue of men or of angels cannot persuade them to relinquish their opposition to God. Miracles will not do it. How many miracles did the children of Israel see in the wilderness! Yet their enmity against God remained, as appeared by their often murmuring. And how often did Christ use miracles to this end without effect? But the Jews yet obstinately stood out. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.” Matth. 23:37. And how great did the enmity of these people appear to be after all; how spiteful and venomous were their hearts towards Christ, as appears to be after all; how spiteful and venomous were their hearts towards Christ, as appears by their cruel treatment of him in his last sufferings!

They are mortal enemies to God, i. e. They have that enmity in their hearts, that strikes at the life of God. A man may be no friend to another, and may have an ill spirit towards him, and yet not be his mortal enemy: His enmity will be satisfied and glutted with something short of the death of the person. But it is not so with natural men with respect to God, they are mortal enemies. Indeed natural men cannot kill God. They have no hope of it, and so make no attempts. It has ever been looked upon so much above their power, that, it may be, it is not thought of. But this is no argument that this is not the tendency of the principle.

Natural men are enemies to the dominion of God; and their nature shows their good will to pull him down out of heaven, and dethrone him if they could! Yea, they are enemies to the being of God, and would be glad if there was no God, and therefore it necessarily follows, that they would kill him, and cause that there should be none, if they could.

"The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God," Psal. 14:1. This saving in his heart, there is no God, implies in it, not only an aptness to question the being of God, but it implies that he inclines it should be so. His heart says, i.e. his inclination says. The words in the original are thus: “The fool hath said in his heart, no God.” The words, there is, are in the original, but were put in by the translators. Now, if we read the words so, “The fool hath said in his heart, no God," they will perhaps show the Psalmist's meaning more fully than as they are now translated. “The fool hath said in his heart, no God," That is, I would have none, I do not desire any, I wish there was none; that would suit my inclination best. That is the language of the inclinations of a natural man; no God. Let there be no God for me, let me have no God; let the world be emptied of a God, he stands in my way. And hence he is an Atheist in his heart, he is ready to think there is none; and that also is ready to be the language of his heart, “There is no God.”

The viper's poison is deadly poison; and when he bites, he seeks the precious life. And men are in this respect a generation of vipers. Their poison, which is enmity against God, seeks the life of God. “O generation of vipers.” Matth. 3:7. "The wicked are estranged from the womb.... Their poison is like the poison of a serpent.” Psal. 58:3, 4. “For their vine is the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are the grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps," Deut. 32:32, 33.

The divine nature being immortal, and infinitely out of our reach, there is no other trial possible, whether the enmity that is naturally in the heart against God, be mortal or no, but only for God to take on him the human nature and become man, so as to come within man's reach, that they should be capable of killing him. There can be no other experiment but this. And this trial there has been. And what has been the event? Why, when once God became man, and came down to dwell here among such vipers as fallen men, they hated him and persecuted him; and never left him till they had imbrued their hands in his blood. There was a multitude of them that appeared combined in this design. Nothing would do, but he must be put to death. All cry out, “Crucify him, crucify him. Away with him." They had rather Barabbas, who greatly deserved death, should live, than he should not die. Nothing would restrain them from it; even all his preaching, and all his miracles; but they would kill him. And it was not the ordinary kind of execution that would satisfy them; but it must be the most cruel, and most ignominious they possibly could invent. And they, in the time of it added to it, and aggravated it as much as ever they could, by mocking him, and spitting on him, and scourging him. This shows what the nature und tendency of man's enmity against God is; here it appeared in its true colors.

5. Natural men are greater enemies to God than they are to any other being whatsoever. Natural men may be very great enemies to their fellow creatures, but not so great as they are to God. There is no other being that so much stands in sinners way, in those things that they chiefly set their hearts upon, as God. Men are wont to hate their enemies in proportion to two things, viz. their opposition to what they look upon to be their interest, and their power and ability. One that is looked upon a great and powerful enemy, will be more hated than one that is weak and impotent. But none of their enemies are so powerful as God.

Man's enmity to other enemies may be got over: Time may wear it out, and they may be reconciled and be friends. But natural men, without a mighty work of God to change their hearts, will never get over their enmity against God. They are greater enemies to God than they are to the devil. Yea, they treat the devil as their friend and master, and join in with him against God. "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do: He was a murderer from the beginning,” John 8:44.

Natural Men Are God's Enemies part 1.

 

Natural Men are God's Enemies.

God, though the Creator of all things yet has some enemies in the world.

Men in general will own, that they are, or have been sinners. There are few, if any at all, whose consciences are so blinded as not to be sensible they have been guilty of sin. And most sinners will own that they have bad hearts. They will own that they do not love God so much as they should do, and that they are not so thankful as they ought to be for mercies; and that in many things they fail. And yet few of them are sensible that they are God's enemies. They do not see how they can be truly so called; they are not sensible that they wish God any hurt, or endeavor to do him any.

 

But we see that the scripture speak of them as enemies to God. So in our text, and elsewhere, “And you that were sometimes alienated, and enemies in your minds by wicked works.” Col. 1:21. “The carnal mind is enmity against God.” Rom. 7:7.

And that all natural, or unregenerate men are indeed so, is what I shall endeavor now particularly to show. Which I propose to do in the following method:

1. I shall show, in what respects they are enemies to God.

2. To how great a degree they are enemies.

3. Why they are enemies.

4. I shall answer some objections.

1. I am to show, in what respects they are enemies to God.

1. Their enmity appears in their judgments; in the judgment and esteem they have of God. They have a very mean esteem of God. Men are ready to entertain a good esteem of those with whom they are friends: They are apt to think highly of their qualities, to give them their due praises; and if there be defects, to cover them. But those to whom they are enemies, they are disposed to have mean thoughts of; they are apt to entertain a dishonorable opinion of them; they will be ready to look contemptably upon any thing that is praiseworthy in them.

So it is with natural men towards God. They entertain very low and contemptible thoughts of God. Whatever honor and respect they may pretend and make a show of towards God if their practice be examined, it will show, that they do certainly look upon him to be a Being, that is but little to be regarded. They think him one that is worthy of very little honor and respect, not worthy to be much taken notice of. The language of their hearts is, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?" Exod. 5:2. "What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have if we pray unto him?” Job. 21:15. They count him worthy neither to be loved nor feared. They dare not behave with that slight and disregard towards one of their fellow creatures, when a little raised above them in power and authority, as they dare and do towards God. They value one of their equals much mere than God, and are ten times more afraid of offending such an one, than of displeasing the God that made them. They cast such exceeding contempt on God, us to prefer every vile lust before him, And every worldly enjoyment is set higher in their esteem than God. A morsel of meat, or a few pence of worldly gain, is preferred before him. God is set last and lowest in the esteem of natural men.

2. They are enemies in the natural relish of their souls. They have an inbred distaste and disrelish of God's perfections. God is not such a sort of being as they would have. Though they are ignorant of God, yet from what they hear of him, and from what is manifest by the light of nature of God, they do not like him. By his being endowed with such attributes as he is, they have an aversion to him. They hear God is an infinitely holy pure, and righteous Being, and they do not like him upon this account; they have no relish of such kind of qualifications; they take no delight in contemplating them. It would be a mere task, a bondage to a natural man, to be obliged to set himself to contemplate these attributes of God. They see no manner of beauty or loveliness, nor taste any sweetness in them. And upon the account of their distaste of these perfections, they dislike all the other of his attributes. They have greater aversion to him because he is omniscient and knows all things; because his omniscience is an holy omniscience. They are not pleased that he is omnipotent, and can do whatever he pleases; because it is a holy omnipotence. They are enemies even to his mercy, because it is a holy mercy. They do not like his immutability, because by this he never will be otherwise than he is, an infinitely holy God.

 

It is from this disrelish that natural men have of the attributes of God, that they do not love to have much to do with God. The natural tendency of the heart of man is to fly from God, and keep at a distance from him; and get as far off as possible from God. A natural man is averse to communion with God, and is naturally disinclined to those exercises of religion wherein he has immediately to do with God. It is said of wicked man, "God is not in all his thoughts," Psal. 10:4. It is evident that the mind of man is naturally averse to thinking about God; and hence, if any thoughts of God be suggested to the mind, they soon go away; such thoughts are not apt to rest in the minds of natural men. If any thing is said to them of God, they are apt to forget it: It is like seed that falls upon the hard path, it does not at all enter in, and the fowls of the air soon catch it away; or like seed that falls upon a rock. Other things will stick; but divine things do, as it were, rebound, and if they were cast into the mind, they meet with that there which soon thrusts them out again; they meet with no suitable entertainment but are soon chased away.

 

Hence also it is that natural men are so difficultly persuaded to be constant in the duty of secret prayer. They would not be so averse to spending a quarter of an hour, night and morning, in some bodily labor, but it is because they are averse to a work wherein they have so immediately to do with God, and they naturally love to keep at a distance from God.

3. Their wills are contrary to his will, God's will and theirs are exceeding cross the one to the other. God wills those things that they hate, and are most averse to; and they will those things that God hates. Hence they oppose God in their wills: They set up their wills against the will of God. There is a dreadful, violent, and obstinate opposition of the will of natural men to the will of God.

They are very opposite to the commands of God. It is from the enmity of the will, that "the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Rom. 7:7. Hence natural men are enemies to God's government. They are not loyal subjects, but enemies to God, considered as Lord of the world. They are entire enemies to God's authority.

4. They are enemies to God in their affections. There is in every natural man a seed of malice against God: Yea, there is such a seed of this rooted in the heart of man naturally. And it does often dreadfully break forth and appear. Though it may in a great measure he hid in secure times, when God lets men alone, and they meet with no great disturbance of body or mind; yet if God does but touch men a little in their consciences, by manifesting to them a little of his wrath for their sins, this often times brings out the principle of malice against God, which is exercised in dreadful heartrisings, inward wranglings and quarrelings, and blasphemous thoughts; wherein the heart is like a viper, hissing, and spitting poison at God. There is abundance of such a principle in the heart. And however free from it the heart may seem to be when let alone and secure, yet a very little thing will set it in a rage. Temptations will show what is in the heart. The alteration of a man's circumstances will often discover the heart: A change of circumstance will bring that out which was hid before, Pharaoh had no more natural enmity against God than other men; and if other natural men had been in Pharaoh's circumstances, the same corruptions would have put forth themselves in as dreadful a manner. The Scribes and Pharisees had naturally no more of a principle of malice in their hearts against Christ than other men; and other natural men would, in their case, and having as little restraint, exercise as much malice against Christ as they did. When wicked men come to be cast into hell, then their malice against God will appear. Then will it appear what dreadful malice they have in their hearts. Then their hearts will appear as full of malice as hell is full of fire. But when wicked men come to be in hell, there will be no new corruptions put into their hearts; but only old ones will then break forth without restraint. That is all the difference between a wicked man on earth and a wicked man in hell, that in hell there will be more to stir up the exercise of corruption, and less to restrain it than on earth; but there will be no new corruption put in, A wicked man will have no principle of corruption in hell, but what he carried to hell with him. There are now the seeds of all the malice that will be exercised then, the malice of damned spirits is but a branch of the root, that is in the hearts of natural men now. A natural man has a heart like the heart of a devil; but only as corruption is more under restraint in man than in devils.

5. They are enemies in their practice. “They walk contrary to him.” Lev. 26:21. Their enmity against God does not lie still, but they are exceeding active in it. They are engaged in a war against God. Indeed they cannot hurt God, he is so much above them; but yet they do what they can. They oppose themselves to his honor and glory: They oppose themselves to the interest of his kingdom in the world; They oppose themselves to the will and command of God; and oppose him in his government. They oppose God in his works, and in his declared designs; while God is doing one work, they are doing the contrary, and as much as in them lies, counter working; God seeks one thing, and they seek directly the contrary. They list under Satan's banner, and are his willing soldiers in his opposing the kingdom of God.

Different ways of acting of the same divine nature

 II. To give some reasons of it.

First. They are all from the same Spirit of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:4, 1 Corinthians 12:6, "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. Diversities of operations, but it is the same God that worketh all in all." The graces of Christianity are all from the Spirit of Christ sent forth into the heart, and dwelling there as an holy principle and divine nature. And therefore all graces are only the different ways of acting of the same divine nature, as there may be different reflections of the light of the sun. But it is all the same kind of light originally, because it all comes from the same fountain, the same body of light. Grace in the soul is the Holy Ghost acting in the soul, and there communicating his own holy nature. As it is in the fountain, it is all one and the same holy nature; and only diversified by the variety of streams sent forth. These streams must be all [[of the same nature]],4 seeing that they thus come from the same fountain. And the difference of many of them, whereby they have different denominations, is chiefly from the various respects to those and those objects and manners of exercise rather than a real difference in their abstracted nature.5

Second. They are all communicated in the same work of that Spirit, viz. the work of conversion. There is not one conversion to bring the heart to faith, and another6 to infuse love to God, and another humility, and another repentance, and another love to men. But all are given in one work of the Spirit. All these things are infused by one conversion,7 one change of the heart; which argues that all the graces are united and linked together, as being contained in that one and the same new nature which is given in regeneration; just as it is in the first generation, several faculties are communicated in one generation of the child, the sense of seeing, hearing, feeling, speaking and tasting, and the power of moving, breathing and digesting. It is all therefore one common nature, one common life manifoldly diversified.

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Third. All graces have the same root and foundation, viz. the knowledge of God's excellency. The same sight or sense of God's excellency begets faith, and love, and repentance, and all other graces.8 One sight of this will beget all those, because the sight of God's excellency shows the ground and reason of all holy disposition, and all holy behavior towards God. They who know God's name will love him, and trust in him, and have a spirit to submit to him, and a spirit to praise and to obey him. Psalms 9:10, "They that know thy name, will put their trust in thee." John 6:40, "He that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life." 1 John 3:6, "Whosoever abideth in him, sinneth not; whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him." Jeremiah 22:16, "Was not this to know me?"

Fourth. All gracious dispositions have the same rule, viz. the law of God; and therefore must be linked together. For seeing they all have respect to this rule, they all tend to confirm the whole of that rule, and conform the heart and life to it. For he who has a true respect to one of God's commands, will have [[respect]]9 to all; for they are all established by the same authority, and are all jointly an expression of the same holy nature of God. James 2:10–11, "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law."

Fifth. They have all the same end. God is the end to which all the graces tend. As they are from the same cause, rising out of the same fountain, all standing on the same foundation, growing on the same root, and directed by the same rule, so they are all directed to the same end, viz. God, his glory, and our own happiness in him; which shows that they must be nearly related, and very much linked together.

Sixth. And lastly. They are related to one grace as the sum of them all; and that is charity, or divine love. This, we have before shown, is the sum of all true Christian grace,1 however many names we may give the different ways and manners of the exercise of grace; yet if we strictly examine them, they are all related to one. Love is the fulfilling of them all. They are but so many diversifications, and different habitudes and relations and manners of exercise of the same thing. One grace does in

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effect contain them all. Whence it is no wonder that they are nearly allied, and are always together, and dependent on one another, and implied one in another.

Overview of Jonathan Edwards

For an overview of the life and thought of Jonathan Edwards, you can download a special issue of Christian History here:

https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/issue/jonathan-edwards-and-the-great-awakening

A good online source for his writings:

http://digitalpuritan.net/jonathan-edwards/

From the Miscellanies:

237. ETERNAL PUNISHMENT.

It seems to me certain that the wicked that are punished by God will continue to hate God all the while they are punished, and that their punishment, instead of humbling them, will stir up their hatred to God and make them blaspheme him. Now it is not probable that their punishment will be either taken off or mitigated whilst they do so, nor that they will cease so to do while their punishment is upon them. Those minds that are so destitute of principles of virtue, will unavoidably dreadfully hate that being that brings so much misery upon them. Therefore, the punishment of the damned will be eternal.

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239. SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE.

From what has been said under the foregoing head, we learn wherein spiritual knowledge consists. For seeing [that] in order to the knowledge of spiritual things there must be those things in the mind, at least in order to a knowledge anything clear and adequate, sinners must be destitute even of the ideas of

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many spiritual and heavenly things and of divine excellencies, because they don't experience them. It's impossible for them so much as to have the idea of faith, trust in God, holy resignation, divine love, Christian charity; because their mind is not possessed of those things, and therefore can't have an idea of the excellencies and beauties of God and Christ, of which those things are the image—he "knows not the things of the Spirit of God" [1 Corinthians 2:14].

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240. URIM AND THUMMIM.

There has been great inquiry, what was that urim and thummim that was in the breastplate of the high priest, whereas I think we have it plainly described in Exodus 28:17–21.9 And I don't see that, from anything said in Scripture about it, we have reason to think it any other than those twelve precious stones with the names of the twelve tribes on them. And when it is said in Exodus 28:30, "And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the urim and thummim," it is as if he had said thus, thou [shalt] put in the breastplate the urim and thummim which has been described. The drift of this verse does not seem to be to order anything new, but only to give a name to that which had been before described and to tell the use of it, viz. that Aaron might bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually; the which seems to me to intend, that the high priest might bear that upon his breast which in God's account and judgment should represent the children of Israel, and should stand for 'em before him upon the heart of the high priest their mediator. Every jewel stood for a tribe, and had the name of that tribe written on it that it stood for. God's people are called his jewels. So Christ bears our judgment; that is, he is our representative in judgment and, as to God's dealings with respect to his law, he stands for us.

The name "urim and thummim" signifies light and perfection; and it being 'tis the plural number, may more properly be rendered "glisterings" (or "brightnesses") and "beauties," because of the charming appearances that the jewels made by their different kinds of glisterings,

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and the beautiful proportion of their different colors. (The church that those jewels represented is in Psalms 50:2 called by a name that is much like to this, viz. "the perfection of beauty.") Some say there was an extraordinary brightness given those jewels beyond what was natural to them. That the urim and thummim were not two distinct things in the breastplate appears, because sometimes when they are spoken of, but one of the names are mentioned; it's called urim only, as Numbers 27:21 and 1 Samuel 28:6.

The use of it seems to be much the same with the plate of gold on the miter mentioned in Exodus 28:36, whereon was engraved "holiness to the Lord"; which the high priest was to have on his forehead, that he might bear the iniquity of the children of Israel, and that he might be accepted when he came in before the Lord (as Exodus 28:38). By the urim and thummim he was to bear the judgment of the children of Israel on his heart; by this plate of gold he was to bear the iniquity of the children of Israel on his head. 

We find them both mentioned after the same manner, where we have an account of Moses putting the holy garments upon Aaron, as in Leviticus 8:8–9, "And he put the breastplate upon him; and he put in the breastplate the urim and the thummim. And he put the miter upon his head; also upon the miter, even upon his forefront, did he put the golden plate, the holy crown, as the Lord commanded Moses." 

That which was properly called the breastplate, was a cloth curiously wrought, doubled (as Exodus 28:15–16), and the urim and thummim was1 the four rows of stones set in it Exodus 28:17–18].

The manner of inquiring of God by it was the priest's appearing with it on before the most holy place, waiting for an answer from off the mercy seat; and when they inquired in the camp there was a tabernacle that the ephod was kept in, made in the resemblance of the tabernacle of the congregation (of which see Prideaux's Connection, Part I, p. 222).2 

The urim and thummim, by the beauty and excellency of its

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appearance was as proper to obtain acceptance and counsel of God, as incense by the sweetness of its smell was to render their prayers and sacrifices acceptable.

It will [be] objected, that if the urim and thummim were nothing but that plate of gold with the jewels in it, why is it said in Ezra and Nehemiah, that those priests that could not prove their genealogy should not eat of the most holy things till there stood up a priest with urim and thummim (as Ezra 2:63)? for if it had been only gold and jewels they could have gotten them before now. 

I answer, so if it had been any other material thing they could have gotten them as well as those jewels. But it seems that being lately returned from captivity they had not yet gotten them; and it's no wonder they should not, in the circumstances they were in. 

But it seems by this, that they expected to get them in a short time; which if it had been something that must be immediately given by God, they had not so much reason to expect it, for it seems that God had denied them hitherto. 

But if the objection be allowed, all that it can argue is that the urim and thummim was not any material thing, but a power given to the breastplate of foretelling or of obtaining divine responses. 

For we can't imagine in reason, that any material thing was expected to be sent down from heaven, to be put into the breastplate; but Leviticus 8:8 proves it was [a] material thing. Therefore, if they had those jewels in the breastplate at that time, the reason of their speaking in this manner must be, because they did not think them worthy the name of urim and thummim till they had such a power given them as3 the former urim and thummim had.

9. Matthew Poole summarized the inquiry up to his time in Synopsis criticorum (5 vols. London, 1669–76), 1, Pars I, cols. 463–65; he more briefly sketched the chief answers to the riddle in his Annotations (Exodus 28:30, in loc). John Spencer's epoch-making Dissertatio de urim et thummim (Cambridge, 1669) appeared in the same year as the first volume of Poole's Synopsis, but Poole ignored it in the Annotations (1683). Prideaux (see n. 2 below) mentioned Spencer but dismissed his ideas as "absurd and impious." Spencer had identified the urim and thummim with the teraphim and had cited parallels from Egyptian priestly divination. Poole considered the urim and thummim a "singular piece of Divine Workmansip," now indescribable, required as a condition for obtaining answers from God, and for Prideaux they meant simply the "divine vertue and power" which the breastplate possessed when properly used. ↩

1. Here occur the words, "that plate of gold that was fastened on it with"; JE deleted them at the same time he changed the page reference to Prideaux (see next note). ↩

2. MS: "p. 156 (222)." Humphrey Prideaux, The Old and New Testament Connected in the History of the Jews and Neighboring Nations, from the Declension of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah to the Time of Christ (2 pts. in 2 vols. fol. London, 1716–18). JE's original page number shows that when he wrote No. 240 he owned or had access to the 2nd (1716–18), 4th (1718), 6th (1719), or 8th (1720) edition. The 9th edition (London, 1725) was a genuinely new edition in 4 vols. 8vo. Sometime before writing No. 597 JE acquired the 9th edition (which he cities in Humble Inquiry [Works, 12, 281, n. 2]), and then or later went back and changed the page reference in No. 240 to fit that edition. In the passage to which JE refers, Prideaux contends that the ark which the Israelites carried into battle was not the ark of the covenant but a chest containing the ephod and breastplate. ↩

3. MS: "and." ↩

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36 ¶ And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD.

37 And thou shalt put it on a blue lace, that it may be upon the mitre; upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be.

38 And it shall be upon Aaron’s forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts; and it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord.

(Exodus 28:36–38)

The earth will be lightened/transfigured

D&C 63:20 Nevertheless, he that ^aendureth in faith and doeth my ^bwill, the same shall overcome, and shall receive an ^cinheritance upon the earth when the day of transfiguration shall come;

21 When the ^aearth shall be ^btransfigured, even according to the pattern which was shown unto mine apostles upon the ^cmount; of which account the fulness ye have not yet received.

Fourth. The future appearance of Christ in his glory at the day of judgment, that will be most pleasant and joyful to the saints, will be dreadful and amazing to those that have rejected Christ. At the day of judgment, the Sun of righteousness shall appear in its greatest glory; Christ shall then come in the glory of his Father, and all the holy angels with him. In the morning of that day, this Sun shall arise and shine forth with rays inconceivably bright.

He shall shine with a brightness far exceeding the brightness of the natural sun, even so much that the sun shall be turned into darkness before it. It shall appear dark in comparison of it.

This shall be the most joyful and pleasant sight to believers that ever their eyes beheld. It will be a thousand times more refreshing to them than ever was the sight of the rising sun to them that have wandered in a wilderness, through the longest and darkest night. The sight of [it] will fill their souls with unspeakable gladness and rejoicing. It will be a bright day to the saints. The beams of that glorious Sun that will then appear will make it bright. The earth will be lightened with his glory, and the light of his glory that the world will then be filled with will be a sweet light to them. That brightness that the disciples saw on the Mount when Christ was transfigured before them was some resemblance of it: that was most pleasant to the disciples, so that they said it was good to be there, and were for building tabernacles that they might dwell there; and Peter calls [it] an “excellent glory” that they saw there (2 Peter 1:17).

But this appearance, that will be so pleasant to believers, will fill the souls of unbelievers with amazement. The first sight of it will strike them with terror. They shall be for hiding “in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains” [Revelation 6:15]. Every ray of that glory that Christ shall then appear in will be like a stream of scorching fire, and will pierce their hearts with a keener torment than a stream of fierce lightning. They shall see Christ appearing in his majesty, and it will be dreadful majesty to them, that will fill 'em with horrors and set them a-trembling and gnashing their teeth, at the same time that it fills the hearts of the saints with rejoicing and their mouths with singing.

That day will burn as an oven indeed. That brightness that the light of Christ's glory shall fill the world with will be more terrible to them than if the world was filled with the fiercest flames. It will make the world like an oven to them, and as it were turn it into a furnace. Christ will then appear

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an infinitely holy, just judge. The sight of this holiness and justice will be joyful to the saints; it will appear as a ravishing beauty in their eyes. But the ungodly will hate the sight of it. Christ's pure eyes will pierce their souls with torment, like piercing flames of fire that they cannot endure. Christ will then sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. He shall be as a refiner's fire that shall burn up the dross [Malachi 3:3].

So that day that will be the brightest and most pleasant to the godly that ever they saw, shall be the most dismal day to the others that ever they saw. The light of the same majesty and glory that shall fill the world with light to the one, shall fill it as it were with tormenting fire to the other. In his light shall be a paradise for the one and an oven or furnace for the other.

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Worldly prosperity and adversity

 True Repentance Required

I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Luke 13:5

Under the Law, worldly comforts and blessings were dispensed in some measure proportionably to their uprightness or impiety, though there were even then some exceptions from this general rule to lead the observers to the consideration, and expectation, of another state wherein God would reward all according to their works, as God frequently assured his people under the Mosaic Dispensation he would certainly do. Wherefore, they seeing that it was not done always in this [world], must unavoidably expect another state to succeed, as it is manifest they did expect by several passages in the book [of] Job, and Psalms, and elsewhere.

But worldly rewards and punishments were sanctions that were chiefly insisted upon before the publishing of the gospel, as may be seen by reading the book of Deuteronomy, which very much consists1 of promises and threatenings of this nature to enforce the observation and obedience of the Law.

And we have many instances of the bestowment of such temporal rewards upon the godly, and inflicting worldly adversities on the wicked; many upon the children of Israel the while they were in the wilderness, frequent instances under the judges, and afterwards under the kings. Thus, Saul and his family were blotted out for their transgression; and David, being a man after God's own heart, greatly flourished and prospered, and after him his son, Solomon, while he remained steadfast to his duty, and as he fell from it his glory fell with him. And so it constantly went well or ill with their kings, even to the captivity into Babylon, according as they feared the Lord or

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forsook him. This was needful for the infant state and childhood of the church to keep them from sin and awe them to obedience, when they enjoyed so much less light than we do.

But when Christ came into the world, the sanctions of God's commands are no more outward, and worldly prosperity and adversity; 

but, 

heaven and hell, 

eternal misery and eternal blessedness, 

fire and brimstone or light and glory, 

a bottomless gulf of misery or else rivers of pleasure forevermore.

So that now we need not to [be] stumbled at all by the great worldly prosperity of some of the wicked, and the great adversity of some of the godly. 

When we see a wicked [person] flourishing and spreading himself like a green bay tree, we suddenly may curse his habitation. When we see sinful and debauched men rolling in heaps of silver and gold, dwelling in proud palaces and decked in gorgeous apparel, and glutted with the fat and drunken with the sweet, we may well weep over him out of pity to him, considering what a poor, miserable wretch he is. We may pronounce the lifeless stocks and stones blessed in comparison of him.

And if we see a godly man oppressed, afflicted, vexed, and parched with worldly afflictions and adversities, yea, frying at the stake, we may well admire at their happiness and pronounce them thrice happy and blessed.

We have no cause to be stumbled at all because Nero, the wicked tyrant, reigned over all the earth and was drowned in worldly pleasures, and the poor Christians—or rather the blessed and thrice happy Christians—martyred and roasted, and fried, and cast to wild beasts, and crucified and put to all manner of the worst of deaths. What should we think if our eyes were opened and should see the difference of their states as they are now? Wherefore, Christ commands and instructs us in the beginning of this chapter, not to judge of the internal state of the souls of men by their outward condition, seeing that this state was not an estate of rewards and punishment, but of probation.

For says Christ, "Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans because they suffered such things as those eighteen, on whom the Tower of Siloam fell, and slew them? Think ye that they were sinners above all that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" [Luke 13:2–5].

In the words observe two things: first, a solemn preface, "I tell you, Nay"; "I assure you, it is as I declare unto you." Second, the assertion

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itself, "except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish"; in which observe, first, the thing presupposed, and that is the danger of perishing; second, the means without which it cannot be escaped, to wit, repentance: "except ye repent."