Human Nature in its Fourfold State
Thomas Boston (1676 - 1732)
I. The State of INNOCENCE
II. The State of NATURE
1. The SINFULNESS of man's natural state
2. The MISERY of man's natural state
3. The INABILITY of man's natural state
"For when we were yet without strength, in due
time Christ died for the ungodly." Romans 5:6
"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me
draws him." John 6:44
We have now had a view of the total corruption of man's
nature, and that load of wrath which lies on him, that gulf of misery into
which he is plunged in his natural state. But there is one part of his
misery that deserves particular consideration, namely, his utter inability
to recover himself; the knowledge of which is necessary for the due
humiliation of a sinner. What I design here, is only to propose a few
things, whereby to convince the unregenerate man of this his inability; that
he may see an absolute need of Christ and of the power of his grace.
As a man who is fallen into a deep pit cannot be supposed
to help himself out of it—but by one of two ways; either by doing all
himself alone, or taking hold of, and improving, the help offered him by
others. Just so, an unconverted man cannot be supposed to help himself out
of his natural state—but either in the way of the law, or covenant of works,
by doing all himself without Christ; or else in the way of the Gospel, or
covenant of grace, by exerting his own strength to lay hold upon, and to
make use of the help offered him by a Savior. But, alas! the unconverted man
is dead in the pit, and cannot help himself either of these ways. Not
the first way; for the first text tells us, that when our Lord came to help
us, "we were without strength," unable to recover ourselves. We were
ungodly, therefore under a burden of guilt and wrath; yet "without
strength," unable to stand under it; and unable to throw it off, or get from
under it—so that all mankind would have undoubtedly perished, had not
"Christ died for the ungodly," and brought help to those who could never
have recovered themselves.
But when Christ comes and offers help to sinners, cannot
they take it? Cannot they improve help when it comes to their hands? No! the
second text tells, they cannot—"No man can come unto me," etc.; that
is, believe in me, John 6:44, "unless the Father draws him." This is a
drawing which enables them to come, who, until then could not come; and
therefore could not help themselves by improving the help offered.
This is a drawing which is always effectual; for it can
be no less than "hearing and learning the Father," which, whoever partakes
of, comes to Christ, verse 45. Therefore, it is not drawing in the way of
mere moral persuasion. This drawing is always is effectual. It is
drawing by mighty power, Eph. 1:12, absolutely necessary for those who have
no power in themselves to come and take hold of the offered help.
Hearken then, O unregenerate man, and be convinced that
as you are in a most miserable state by nature, so you are utterly unable to
recover yourself in any way. You are ruined; and what way will you go to
work, to recover yourself? Which of the two ways will you choose? Will you
try it alone--or will you make use of help? Will you fall on the way of
works--or on the way of the Gospel? I know very well that you will not so
much as try the way of the Gospel, until once you have found the recovery
impracticable in the way of the law. Therefore, we shall begin where corrupt
nature teaches men to begin, namely, at the way of the law of works.
I. Sinner, I would have you to believe that YOUR WORKING
will never effect it.
Work, and do your best; you will never be
able to work yourself out of this state of corruption and wrath. You must
have Christ, else you will perish eternally. It is only "Christ in you" that
can be the hope of glory. But if you will needs try it, then I must lay
before you, from the unalterable word of the living God, two things which
you must do for yourself. If you can do them, it must be yielded, that you
are able to recover yourself; but if not, then you can do nothing this way
for your recovery.
1. "If you will enter into life keep the commandments,"
Matt. 19:17. That is, if you will by doing enter into life, then perfectly
keep the ten commandments; for the object of these words is to beat down
the pride of the man's heart, and to let him see an absolute need of a
Savior, from the impossibility of keeping the law. The answer is given
suitably to the address. Our Lord checks him for his compliment, "Good
Master," ver. 16, telling him, "There is none good but one, that is God,"
ver. 17. As if he had said, You think yourself a good man, and me another;
but where goodness is spoken of, men and angels may veil their faces before
the good God. As to his question, wherein he discovered his legal
disposition, Christ does not answer him, saying, "Believe and you shall be
saved;" that would not have been so seasonable in the case of one who
thought he could do well enough for himself, if he but knew "what good he
should do;" but, suitable to the humor the man was in, he bids him "keep the
commandments," keep them precisely and accurately, as those that watch
malefactors in prison, lest any of them escape, and their life be taken for
those which escape. See then, O unregenerate man, what you can do in this
matter; for if you will recover yourself in this way, you must perfectly
keep the commandments of God.
(1.) Your obedience must be perfect, in respect of the
PRINCIPLE of it; that is, your soul, the principle of action, must be
perfectly pure, and altogether without sin. For the law requires all moral
perfection; not only actual—but habitual—and so condemns original sin;
impurity of nature, as well as of actions. Now, if you can bring this to
pass, you will be able to answer that question of Solomon, so as never one
of Adam's posterity could yet answer it, "Who can say, I have made my heart
clean?" Proverbs 20:9. But if you cannot, the very lack of this perfection
is sin, and so lays you open to the curse and cuts you off from life. Yes,
it makes all your actions, even your best actions, sinful. For "who can
bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" Job 14:4. And do you think by
sin--to help yourself out of sin and misery?
(2.) Your obedience must also be perfect in PARTS. It
must be as broad as the whole law of God—if you lack one thing, you are
undone; for the law denounces the curse on him who continues not in
everything written therein, Gal. 3:10. You must give internal and external
obedience to the whole law. You must keep all the commands in heart and
life. If you break any one of them, that will ensure your ruin. A vain
thought, or idle word, will still shut you up under the curse.
(3.) It must be perfect in respect of DEGREES; as was
the obedience of Adam, while he stood in his innocence. This the law
requires, and will accept of no less, Matt. 22:37, "You shall love the Lord
your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
mind." If one degree of that love, required by the law, be lacking; if each
part of your obedience be not brought up to the greatest height commanded;
that lack is a breach of the law, and so leaves you still under the curse. A
man may bring as many buckets of water to a house that is on fire, as he is
able to carry; and yet it may be consumed, and will be so, if he bring not
as many as will quench the fire. Even so, although you should do what you
are able, in keeping the commandments, if you fail in the least degree of
obedience, which the law enjoins, you are certainly ruined forever; unless
you take hold of Christ, renouncing all your own righteousness, as filthy
rags. See Romans 10:5; Gal. 3:10.
(4.) It must be PERPETUAL, as the man Christ's
obedience was, who always did the things which pleased the Father;
for the tenor of the law is, "Cursed is he who continues not in all things
written in the law to do them." Hence, though Adam's obedience was, for a
while, absolutely perfect; yet because at length he failed in one point,
namely, in eating the forbidden fruit, he fell under the curse of the law.
If a man were to live a dutiful subject to his prince, until the close of
his days, and then conspire against him, he must die for his treason. Even
so, though you should, all the time of your life, live in perfect obedience
to the law of God, and yet at the hour of death only entertain a vain
thought, or pronounce an idle word, that idle word, or vain thought, would
blot out all your former righteousness, and ruin you; namely, in this way in
which you are seeking to recover yourself.
Now, such is the obedience which you must perform, if you
would recover yourself in the way of the law. But though you would thus
obey, the law stakes you down in the state of wrath, until another demand of
it be satisfied.
2. You must pay what you owe. It is undeniable that
you are a sinner; and whatever you may be in time to come; justice must be
satisfied for your sins already committed. The honor of the law must be
maintained, by your suffering the denounced wrath. It may be you have
changed your course of life, or are now resolved to do it, and to set about
keeping the commands of God—but what have you done, or what will you do,
with the old debt? Your obedience to God, though it were perfect, is a debt
due to him, for the time wherein it is performed; and can no more satisfy
for former sins, than a tenant's paying the current year's rent can satisfy
the landlord for all arrears. Can the paying of new debts acquit a man from
old accounts? Nay, deceive not yourselves; you will find these laid up in
store with God, and sealed up among his treasures, Deut. 32:34. It remains
then, that either you must bear that wrath, to which for your sin you are
liable, according to the law; or else you must acknowledge that you can not
bear it, and thereupon have recourse to the surety, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me now ask you, Are you able to satisfy the justice
of God? Can you pay your own debt? Surely not—for, as he is the infinite
God, whom you have offended; the punishment, being suited to the quality of
the offence, must be infinite. But your punishment, or sufferings for sin,
cannot be infinite in value, for you are a finite creature—therefore, they
must be infinite in duration or continuance; that is, they must be eternal.
And so all your sufferings in this world are but an pledge of what you must
suffer in the world to come.
Now, sinner, if you can answer these demands, you may
recover yourself in the way of the law. But are you not conscious of your
inability to do any of these things; much more to do them all?
yet if you do not all, you do nothing. Turn, then, to what course of life
you will, you are still in a state of wrath. Pitch up your obedience to the
greatest height you can; suffer what God lays upon you; yes, and walk under
all without the least impatience—yet all this will not satisfy the demands
of the law; therefore, you are still a ruined creature. Alas, sinner! what
are you doing, while you strive to help yourself—but do not receive, and
unite with, Jesus Christ? You are laboring in the fire, wearying yourself
for very vanity; laboring to enter into heaven, by the door which Adam's sin
so bolted, that neither he, nor any of his lost posterity, can ever enter by
it. Do you not see the flaming sword of justice, keeping you off from the
tree of life? Do you not hear the law denouncing a curse on you, for all you
are doing; even for your obedience, your prayers, your tears, your
reformation of life, and so on—because, being under the law's dominion, your
best works are not so good as it requires them to be, under the pain of the
curse?
Believe it, sirs, if you live and die out of Christ,
without being actually united to him as the second Adam, the life-giving
Spirit, and without coming under the covert of his atoning blood; though you
should do the utmost that any man can do, in keeping the commands of God,
you can never see the face of God in peace. If you should, from this moment,
bid an eternal farewell to this world's joys, and all the affairs thereof,
and henceforth busy yourselves with nothing but the salvation of your souls;
if you should go into some wilderness, live upon the grass of the field, and
be companions to beasts and owls; if you should retire to some dark cavern
of the earth, and weep there for your sins, until you had wept yourselves
blind; if you should confess with your tongue, until it cleaves to the roof
of your mouth; if you should pray, until your knees grow hard as horns; if
you should fast, until your body become like a skeleton; and, after all
this, give it to be burnt—the word is gone out of the Lord's mouth in
righteousness, and cannot return, that you shall perish forever,
notwithstanding all this, as not being in Christ; John 14:6, "No man comes
unto the Father—but by me." Acts 4:12, "Neither is there salvation in any
other." Mark 16:16, "He who believes not, shall be damned."
OBJECTION
. But God is a merciful God, and he
knows that we are not able to answer these demands; we hope therefore to be
saved, if we do as well as we can, and keep the commands as well as we are
able.
Answer 1. Though you are able to do many things, you
are not able to do one thing right—you can do nothing acceptable to God,
being out of Christ, John 15:6, "Without me you can do nothing." An
unrenewed man, as you are, can do nothing but sin; as we have already
proved. Your best actions are sin, and so they increase your debt to
justice—how then can it be expected they should lessen it?
Answer 2. Though God should offer to save men, upon
condition that they did all they could do, in obedience to his commands—yet
we have reason to think, that those who should attempt it, would never be
saved—for where is the man that does as well as he can? Who sees not many
false steps he has made, which he might have avoided? There are so many
things to be done, so many temptations to carry us out of the road of duty,
and our nature is so very apt to be set on fire of hell, that we surely must
fail, even in some point that is within the compass of our natural
abilities. But,
Answer 3. Though you should do all you are able to
do, in vain do you hope to be saved in that way. What word of God is this
hope of your founded on? It is neither founded on law nor gospel; therefore,
it is but a delusion. It is not founded on the Gospel; for the Gospel
leads the soul out of itself, to Jesus Christ for all; and it establishes
the law, Romans 3:31. Whereas this hope of yours cannot be established—but
on the ruins of the law, which God will magnify and make honorable. Hence it
appears, that it is not founded on the law either. When God set Adam
a-working for happiness to himself and his posterity, perfect obedience was
the condition required of him; and the curse was denounced in case of
disobedience. The law being broken by him, he and his posterity were
subjected to the penalty for sin committed; and withal were still bound to
perfect obedience—for it is absurd to think, that man's sinning, and
suffering for his sin, should free him from his duty of obedience to his
Creator.
When Christ came in the place of the elect, to purchase
their salvation, the terms were the same. Justice had the elect under
arrest—if he is desirous to deliver them, the terms are known. He must
satisfy the justice of God for their sin, by suffering the punishment due to
it; he must do what they cannot do, namely, obey the law perfectly, and so
fulfill all righteousness. Accordingly, all this he did, and so became "the
end of the law for righteousness, to everyone who believes," Romans 10:4.
And do you think that God will abate these terms as to you, when his own Son
got no abatement of them? Expect it not, though you should beg it with tears
of blood; for if they prevailed, they must prevail against the truth,
justice, and honor of God, Gal. 3:10, "Cursed is everyone that continues not
in all things, which are written in the book of the law to do them." Ver.
12, "And the law is not of faith—but, the man who does them, shall live in
them."
It is true, that God is merciful—but cannot he be
merciful, unless he saves you in a way that is neither consistent with his
law, nor his Gospel? Have not his goodness and mercy sufficiently appeared,
in sending the Son of his love, to do "what the law could not do, in that it
was weak through the flesh?" He has provided help for those who cannot help
themselves—but you, insensible of your own weakness, must needs think to
recover yourself by your own works, while you are no more able to do it,
than to remove mountains of brass out of their place.
Therefore I conclude, that you are utterly unable to
recover yourself, in the way of works, or by the law. O, that you would
conclude the same concerning yourself!
II. Let us try, next, what the sinner can do to recover
himself, in the way of the GOSPEL.
It may be you think, that you
can not do all by yourself alone—yet Jesus Christ offering you help, you can
of yourself embrace it, and use it for your recovery. But, O sinner, be
convinced of your absolute need of the grace of Christ—for truly, there is
help offered—but you can not accept it; there is a rope cast out to draw
shipwrecked sinners to land—but, alas! they have no hands to lay hold of it.
They are like infants exposed in the open field, who must starve, though
their food be lying by them, unless some one put it in their mouths. To
convince natural men of this, let it be considered,
1. That although Christ is offered in the gospel—yet they
cannot believe in him.
Saving faith is the faith of God's elect;
the special gift of God to them, wrought in them by his Spirit. Salvation is
offered to those who will believe in Christ—but how can you believe?
John 5:44. It is offered to those that will come to Christ; but "no
man can come unto him, unless the Father draws him." It is offered to
those that will look to him, as lifted on the pole of the gospel,
Isaiah 45:22—but the natural man is spiritually blind, Rev. 3:17; and as to
the things of the Spirit of God, he cannot know them, for they are
spiritually discerned, 1 Cor. 2:14. Nay, whoever will, he is welcome;
let him come, Rev. 22:17; but there must be a day of power on the sinner,
before he can be willing, Psalm 110:3.
2. Man naturally has nothing with which to improve, for
his recovery, the help brought in by the gospel.
He is cast away
in a state of wrath; and is bound hand and foot, so that he cannot lay hold
of the cords of love thrown out to him in the gospel. The most skillful
artificer cannot work without tools; neither can the most skillful musician
play well on an instrument that is out of tune. How can anyone believe, or
repent--whose understanding is darkness, Eph. 5:8; whose heart
is a stony heart, inflexible, insensible, Ezek. 36:26; whose affections
are wholly disordered and distempered; who is averse to good, and bent
to evil? The arms of natural abilities are too short to reach supernatural
help—hence those who most excel in them, are often most estranged from
spiritual things, Matt. 11:25, "You have hidden these things from the wise
and prudent."
3. Man cannot work a saving change on himself—but so
changed he must be, else he can neither believe nor repent, nor ever see
heaven.
No action can be without a suitable principle. Believing,
repenting, and the like, are the product of the new nature; and can never be
produced by the old corrupt nature. Now, what can the natural man do in this
matter? He must be regenerate; begotten again unto a lively hope—but as the
child cannot be active in his own generation, so a man cannot be active, but
passive only, in his own regeneration. The heart is shut against Christ—man
cannot open it; only God can do it by his grace, Acts 16:14. He is dead in
sin; he must be quickened, raised out of his grave—who can do this but God
himself? Eph. 2:1-5 . Nay, he must be "created in Christ Jesus, unto good
works," Eph. 2:10. These are works of omnipotence, and can be done by no
less a power.
4. Man, in his depraved state, is under an utter
inability to do anything truly good, as was proved before at large—how,
then, can he obey the gospel?
His nature is the very reverse of
the gospel—how can he, of himself, fall in with that plan of salvation, and
accept the offered remedy? The corruption of man's nature infallibly
includes his utter inability to recover himself in any way, and whoever is
convinced of the one, must needs admit the other; for they stand and fall
together. Were all the purchase of Christ offered to the unregenerate man,
for one good thought, he cannot command it, 2 Cor. 3:5, "Not that we are
sufficient of ourselves, to think anything as of ourselves." Were it offered
on condition of a good word—yet "How can you, being evil, speak good
things?" Matt. 12:35. Nay, were it left to yourselves, to choose what is
easiest, Christ himself tells you, John 15:5, "Without me, you can do
nothing."
5. The natural man always resists the Lord's offering to
help him; yet that resistance is infallibly overcome in the elect, by
converting grace.
Can the stony heart but choose to resist the
stroke? There is not only an inability—but an enmity and
obstinacy in man's will by nature. God knows, O natural man, whether you
know it or not, that "you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and
your brow brass," Isaiah 48:4, and cannot be overcome—but by him, who has
"broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder." Hence,
commonly speaking, there is such hard work in converting a sinner. Sometimes
he seems to be caught in the net of the gospel; yet quickly he slips away
again. The hook catches hold of him; but he struggles, until, getting free
of it, he goes away with a bleeding wound. When good hopes are conceived of
him, by those that travail in birth for the forming of Christ in him, there
is oft-times nothing brought forth but wind. The deceitful heart makes
many contrivances to avoid a Savior, and cheat the man of his eternal
happiness. Thus the natural man lies sunk in a state of sin and wrath, and
utterly unable to recover himself.
Objection 1.
If we are under an utter
inability to do any good, how can God require us to do it?
Answer. God making man upright, Eccl. 7:29, gave him a
power to do everything that he should require of him; this power man lost by
his own fault. We were bound to serve God, and do whatever he commanded us,
as being his creatures; and also, we were under the superadded tie of a
covenant, for that purpose. Now, we having, by our own fault, disabled
ourselves, shall God lose his right of requiring our task, because we have
thrown away the strength he gave us whereby to perform it? Has the
creditor no right to require payment of his money, because the debtor has
squandered it away, and is not able to pay him? Truly, if God can
require no more of us than we are able to do, we need no more to save us
from wrath—but to make ourselves unable for every duty, and to incapacitate
ourselves for serving God any manner of way, as profane men frequently do;
and so the deeper a man is plunged in sin, he will be the more secure from
wrath—for where God can require no duty of us, we do not sin in omitting it;
and where there is no sin, there can be no wrath.
As to what may be urged by the unhumbled soul, against
the putting our stock in Adam's hand, the righteousness of that dispensation
was explained before. But moreover, the unrenewed man is daily throwing away
the very remains of natural abilities, that rational light and strength
which are to be found among the ruins of mankind. Nay, farther, he will not
believe his own utter inability to help himself; so that out of his own
mouth, he must be condemned. Even those who make their natural impotency too
good a covert to their sloth, do, with others, delay the work of turning to
God from time to time, and, under convictions, make large promises of
reformation, which afterwards they never regard, and delay their repentance
to a deathbed, as if they could help themselves in a moment; which shows
them to be far from a due sense of their natural inability, whatever they
pretend.
Now, if God can require of men the duty they are not able
to do, he can in justice punish them for their not doing it, notwithstanding
their inability. If he has power to exact the debt of obedience, he has also
power to cast the insolvent debtor into prison, for his not paying it.
Further, though unregenerate men have no gracious abilities—yet they
lack not natural abilities, which nevertheless they will not improve.
There are many things they can do, which they do not; they will not do
them, and therefore their damnation will be just. Nay, all their
inability to do good is voluntary; they will not come to Christ, John 5:40.
They will not repent, they will die, Ezek. 18:31. So they will be justly
condemned, because they will neither turn to God, nor come to Christ; but
love their chains better than their liberty, and darkness rather than light,
John 3:19.
Objection 2.
Why do you, then, preach Christ
to us—call us to come to him, to believe, repent, and use the means of
salvation?
Answer. Because it is our duty so to do. It is your
duty to accept of Christ, as he is offered in the Gospel; to repent of your
sins, and to be holy in all manner of conversation—these things are
commanded you of God; and his command, not your ability, is the measure
of your duty. Moreover, these calls and exhortations are the means that
God is pleased to make use of, for converting his elect, and working grace
in their hearts—to them, "faith comes by hearing," Romans 10:17, while they
are as unable to help themselves as the rest of mankind are. Upon very good
grounds may we, at the command of God, who raises the dead, go to their
graves, and cry in his name, "Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead,
and Christ shall give you light," Eph. 5:14. And seeing the elect are not to
be known and distinguished from others before conversion; as the sun shines
on the blind man's face, and the rain falls on the rocks as well as on the
fruitful plains; so we preach Christ to all, and shoot the arrow at a
venture, which God himself directs as he sees fit.
Moreover, these calls and exhortations are not altogether
in vain, even to those who are not converted by them. Such people may be
convinced, though they be not converted—although they be not sanctified by
these means—yet they may be restrained by them, from running into that
excess of wickedness, which otherwise they would arrive at. The means of
grace serve, as it were, to embalm many dead souls, which are never
quickened by them—though they do not restore them to life—yet they keep them
from putrefying, as otherwise they would do.
Finally, Though you cannot recover yourselves, nor take
hold of the saving help offered to you in the Gospel; yet even by the power
of nature, you may use the outward and ordinary means, whereby Christ
communicates the benefit of redemption to ruined sinners, who are utterly
unable to recover themselves out of the state of sin and wrath. You may and
can, if you please, do many things that would set you in a fair way for help
from the Lord Jesus Christ. You may go so far on, as not to be far from the
kingdom of God, as the discreet Scribe had done, Mark 12:34, though, it
should seem, he was destitute of supernatural abilities. Though you cannot
cure yourselves—yet you may come to the pool, where many such diseased
people as you are, have been cured; though you have none to put you into
it—yet you may lie at the side of it—"Who knows but the Lord may return, and
leave a blessing behind him?" as in the case of the impotent man, recorded
in John 5:5-8.
I hope Satan does not chain you to your houses, nor stake
you down in your fields on the Lord's day; but you are at liberty and can
wait at the posts of wisdom's doors if you will. When you come there, I hope
that Satan does not beat drums at your ears, that you cannot hear what is
said; I hope there is no force upon you, obliging you to apply all you hear
to others; I hope you may apply to yourselves what belongs to your state and
condition.
When you go home, I hope you are not fettered in
your houses, where perhaps no religious discourse is to be heard; but you
may retire to some separate place, where you can meditate, and exercise your
consciences with suitable questions upon what you have heard. I hope you are
not possessed with a dumb devil, that you cannot get your mouths opened in
prayer to God. I hope you are not so driven out of your beds to your worldly
business, and, from your worldly business to your beds again—but you might,
if you would, make some prayer to God upon the case of your perishing souls.
I hope you may examine yourselves as to the state of your souls, in a solemn
manner, as in the presence of God; I hope you may discern that you have no
grace, and that you are lost and undone without it; and you may cry unto God
for it. These things are within the compass of natural abilities, and may
be practiced where there is no grace. It must aggravate your guilt, that
you will not be at so much pains about the state and case of your precious
souls. If you do not what you can, you will be condemned, not only for the
lack of grace—but for your despising it.
Objection 3.
But all this is needless, seeing
we are utterly unable to help ourselves out of the state of sin and wrath.
Answer. Give not place to that delusion, which puts
asunder what God has joined, namely, the use of means, and a sense of our
own impotency. If ever the Spirit of God graciously influences your
souls, you will become thoroughly sensible of your absolute inability,
and yet enter upon a vigorous use of means. You will do for yourselves, as
if you were to do all; and yet overlook all you do, as if you had done
nothing. Will you do nothing for yourselves, because you cannot do all? Lay
down no such impious conclusion against your own souls. Do what you can;
and, it may be, while you are doing what you can for yourselves, God will do
for you what you cannot. "Do you understand what you read?" said Philip
to the eunuch; "How can I," said he "except some man should guide me?" Acts
8:30, 31. He could not understand the scripture he read—yet he could read
it—he did what he could, he read; and while he was reading, God sent him an
interpreter.
The Israelites were in a great strait at the Red Sea; and
how could they help themselves, when on the one hand were mountains, and on
the other the enemy in pursuit; when Pharaoh and his host were behind them,
and the Red Sea before them? What could they do? "Speak unto the children of
Israel," says the Lord to Moses, "that they go forward," Exod. 14:15. For
what end should they go forward? Can they make a passage to themselves
through the sea? No; but let them go forward, says the Lord—though they
cannot turn the sea to dry land—yet they can go forward to the shore. So
they did; and when they did what they could, God did for them what they
could not do.
Question. Has God promised to convert and save those
who, in the use of means, do what they can towards their own relief?
Answer. We may not speak wickedly for God—natural men,
being strangers to the covenant of promise, Eph. 2:12, have no such promise
made to them. Nevertheless, they do not act rationally unless they exert the
powers they have, and do what they can. For,
(1.) It is possible this course may succeed with them. If
you do what you can, it may be, God will do for you what you cannot do for
yourselves. This is sufficient to determine a man in a matter of the utmost
importance, such as this is, Acts 8:22, "Pray God, if perhaps the thought of
your heart may be forgiven you." Joel 2:14, "Who knows if he will return?"
If success may be, the trial should be. If, in a wreck at sea,
all the sailors and passengers betake themselves each to a broken board for
safety; and one of them should see all the rest perish, notwithstanding
their utmost endeavor to save themselves—yet the very possibility of
escaping by that means, would determine that one still to do his best with
his board. Why, then, do not you reason with yourselves, as the four lepers
did, who sat at the gate of Samaria? 2 Kings 7:3, 4. Why do you not say, "If
we sit still," not doing what we can, "we will surely die;" let us put it to
a trial—if we can be saved, "we shall live;" if not "we shall but die?"
(2.) It is probable this course may succeed—God is good
and merciful; he loves to surprise men with his grace, and is often "found
by those who sought him not," Isaiah 65:1. If you do this, you are so far in
the road of your duty; and you are using the means, which the Lord is
accustomed to bless, for men's spiritual recovery—you lay yourselves in the
way of the great Physician; and so it is probable you may be healed. Lydia
went, with others, to the place "where prayer was accustomed to be made;"
and "the Lord opened her heart," Acts 16:13, 14. You plough and sow, though
nobody can tell you for certain that you will get so much as your seed
again—you use means for the recovery of your health, though you are not sure
they will succeed. In these cases probability determines you; and why not in
this also? Importunity, we see, does very much with men—therefore, pray,
meditate, desire help of God; be much at the throne of grace, supplicating
for grace; and do not faint. Though God regards you not, who in your present
state are but one mass of sin, universally depraved, and vitiated in all the
powers of your soul; yet he may regard prayer, meditation, and the like
means of his own appointment, and he may bless them to you. Therefore, if
you will not do what you can, you are not only dead—but you declare
yourselves unworthy of eternal life.
To CONCLUDE. Let the saints admire the
freedom and power of grace, which came to them in their helpless condition,
made their chains fall off, the iron gate to open to them; raised the fallen
creatures, and brought them out of the state of sin and wrath, wherein they
would have lain and perished, had not they been mercifully visited.
Let the natural man be sensible of his utter
inability to recover himself. Know, that you are without strength—and can
not come to Christ, until you be drawn. You are lost, and can not help
yourself. This may shake the foundation of your hopes, if you never saw your
absolute need of Christ and his grace—but think to contrive for yourself by
your civility, morality, drowsy wishes, and duties; and by a faith and
repentance, which have sprung out of your natural powers, without the power
and efficacy of the grace of Christ. O, be convinced of your absolute need
of Christ, and his overcoming grace; believe your utter inability to recover
yourself; that so you may be humbled, shaken out of your self-confidence,
and lie down in dust and ashes, groaning out your miserable case before the
Lord. A proper sense of your natural impotence, the impotence of depraved
human nature, would be a step towards a delivery.
Thus far of man's natural state, the state of entire
depravation.