OF THE JEWS’ REJECTION AND BLINDNESS II.
James Dodson
DISCOURSE IV.
Rom. xi. 25. “That blindness in part is happened to Israel.”
When any extraordinary calamity befalls the children of men, they are disposed to inquire, How it has come upon them? And to what extent? The knowledge of the former may direct them to the proper means of deliverance, and a view of the latter will inform them of the true measure of their affliction. Ignorance of these things renders the suffering person’s state exceedingly disagreeable. When the calamity is of general interest to men, an understanding of the circumstances now alluded to, is necessary even to those who may not be particularly concerned in the trouble, that they may know its nature and tendency, and may not be deceived by mistaken views of it. In stating this grievous calamity of Israel, the Apostle furnishes us with information concerning these two important objects. If we inquire how this blindness came on them, he tells us, it happened unto them. And if our inquiry is about its extent, he assures us, that it has happened to them in part.
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II. I am now to describe the manner in which this blindness has happened to Israel.
1. This miserable condition has befallen Israel according to the decree of God. The words of the Apostle James contain a truth which necessarily follows upon our belief of the Divine existence: “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world,” Acts xv. 18. This knowledge is equivalent to a Divine decree to accomplish all those works which he has purposed to fulfil. The blindness of Israel being included in those works, God must have foreknown and foreordained it, before the foundation of the world. The judgments which God inflicted on Edom and Babylon were an accomplishment of the Divine purpose concerning them: “Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord that he hath taken against Edom, and his purposes that he hath purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: surely the least of the flock shall draw them out; surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them,” Jer. xlix. 20. The very same words are spoken by the Lord against Babylon, and against the land of the Chaldeans, Chap. l. 45. To induce them to forsake their sins, and to seek the Lord, the consideration of his purpose is urged on the Jews: “Gather yourselves together—before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger come upon you—seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth,” Zeph. ii. 1, 2, 3. As the purpose of God shall stand, and the thoughts of his heart to all generations, so, in the execution of them among men, He will do all his pleasure. When this blindness, and all the miseries which attended it, did happen to Israel, God executed on them the holy purposes of his will. The Divine decrees are secret, and are known to God alone; they can, therefore, have no influence on human conduct. Notwithstanding the decree, men act freely and of their own choice; the sins of men, therefore, cannot be imputed to God’s decree, but to the corrupt dispositions of their own hearts. Though Christ’s crucifixion was according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, yet the Jews voluntarily perpetrated it with wicked hands, Acts ii. 23.
2. Israel’s blindness happened to them on account of their own sins. Their iniquities separated between them and their God, and their sins caused him to cast them off. The Scriptures of the Old Testament, which God’s ancient people enjoyed, had foretold that
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their Messiah, the Saviour of the world, should come unto them as the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, out of the tribe of Judah, and of the house and lineage of David. The Scriptures had also foretold the miraculous formation of his manhood, he was to be born of a virgin; the place of his birth, Bethlehem Ephratah; the treatment he should receive, he was to be despised and rejected of men; the merit of his obedience, he should magnify the law and make it honourable; the nature and design of his sufferings, he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities; the design of his death, he was cut off, but not for himself; the time of his finishing his work, four hundred and forty-nine years after the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem; the manner of his death, they should pierce his hands, his feet and his side, and not a bone of him should be broken; and even the distribution of his garments, for they were to part his raiment among them, and to cast lots for his vesture. Their Scriptures had also predicted the coming, and the ministry of his Harbinger, fulfilled in John the Baptist; the offices he should execute, a Prophet, a Priest, and a King; his resurrection from the dead; his ascension into heaven; and the calling of the Gentile nations into the Church of God. Now, though all these things, and many more, were most circumstantially fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ, yet they obstinately rejected the Just One, they killed the Prince of Life, and crucified the Lord of Glory. Besides, the purity of his doctrine, the holiness of his life, the multitude of his miracles, the supernatural occurrences at his death, the miraculous qualifications of his Apostles, their preaching and success, did all demonstrate that Jesus was the Christ. Notwithstanding of all this evidence, they continued in unbelief, they rejected his Gospel, blasphemed his name, persecuted his Apostles and followers, both in Judea and in other lands, and did every thing in their power to prevent the erection of the Christian Church in the world. On account of these things, in connection with their many immoralities, which were conspicuous and aggravated, this blindness happened to them.
3. This blindness came upon them as an execution of the Divine threatenings. In many parts of his holy word, God has denounced his wrath against the enemies of that Mighty One, upon whom he has laid his people’s help. I shall turn your attention to two of these threatenings, which are expressly applied to that generation
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of the Jews. One of them is recorded, Psal. ii. 1—5. “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed. Let us break their bands asunder, and cast their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak to them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.” When Peter and John had escaped from the hands of the Jewish rulers, their persecutors, it is said, “And being let go they went to their own company, and reported all that the Chief Priests and Elders had said unto them.” Upon hearing this, all the Apostles united in a most solemn address unto God, repeating in their prayer, the first and second verses of this Psalm, and applying them to the present state of things in the following words, “For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done,” Acts iv. 27. The threatenings mentioned in the 4th and 5th verses of the Psalm, were soon executed on the Jews, by the hand and power of the Romans.—The other threatening to which we now advert, has a respect to this spiritual blindness and all its hurtful effects. It is found, Isa. vi. 9—12. “And he said, Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and convert, and be healed. Then said I, Lord, how long. And he answered, until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate. And the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.” Three days after Paul, in the situation of a prisoner, had arrived at Rome, he sent for the chief of the Jews, and a day having been appointed for a conference, many came to his lodging. To that company he explained and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the Prophets, from morning till evening. As the result of this important conversation, it is said, “and some believed the things that were spoken, and some believed
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not.” But before the meeting broke up, Paul spake one word; “Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the Prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear,” &c. Acts xxviii. 26. Now, if that part of this ancient prediction, respecting their spiritual blindness, was fulfilled on the Jews in the Apostle’s days, that part of the same prophecy, which describes their dreadful destruction, the dispersion of the people, and the desolation of their land, must also be applicable to them. This blindness, therefore, has come upon them in the execution of Divine threatenings. Besides all these, our Divine Lord himself uttered many threatenings against the Jewish nation, in parables, in express denunciations, in descriptions of the mode of attack upon them, and in foretelling the miseries that should come upon them; and every one of them was fulfilled, when this blindness finally sat down on that people.
4. This blindness happened to Israel, accompanied with the most grievous punishment from the hand of God. For wrath came upon them to the uttermost. About the 70th year of the Christian era, or near 40 years after Christ’s death, Jerusalem, according to his prediction, was compassed about with the Roman armies. In the following words, the compassionate Saviour had given his followers most seasonable warning: “And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled,” Luke xxi. 20, 21, 22. When the fatal day arrived, the Christians in Jerusalem and Judea, remembering and obeying their Lord’s injunctions, were in perfect safety, when slaughter and desolation overspread the land, and when war, famine, pestilence and death filled the devoted city. Our Saviour’s predictions concerning the unbelieving Jews themselves, were also most minutely accomplished. “For there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people,” verse 23. During those bloody wars which ended in the Jewish catastrophe, multitudes were slain, and much desolation was brought on the country, and the other cities of Judea. At the siege of Jerusalem, many thousands were killed in the war that raged in the city among the different
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factions of the Jews, and by the operations of the Romans, who fought against them without its gates. The siege was begun at the time of one of their religious feasts, when great multitudes of Jews, beside its ordinary population, were assembled at Jerusalem. Divine providence gathered them together, that they might perish in the iniquity of the city. When this blindness happened to Israel, the cities were wasted without inhabitants, the houses without men, and the land was utterly desolate.
Let us now proceed,
III. To shew how this blindness has happened to Israel in part.
1. The blindness which happened to Israel was partial, because, in the days of the Apostles, many of the Jews believed in Christ. The number of the disciples who were present at a solemn meeting held at Jerusalem, between Christ’s ascension to heaven and the day of Pentecost, is said to have been about an hundred and twenty, Acts i. 15. After the day of Pentecost, the number of believers increased greatly. At Peter’s sermon, which was preached on that very day, we are told, “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added to the church about three thousand souls,” Chap. ii. 41. The next account of the success of the Gospel among them, is contained in Chap. iv. 4. “Howbeit, many of them that heard the word believed, and the number of the men was about five thousand.” As they continued to preach the Gospel in Jerusalem, their success increased; for in chap. v. 14. we read, “And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.” In Chap. vi. 7. we are informed, that “the word of God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the Priests were obedient to the faith.” In the account which James gave to Paul of the state of the Church at Jerusalem, he uses the following words: “Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who believe,” Chap. xxi. 20. The Gospel had also great success among the Jews who dwelt in the cities of the Gentiles. When some were driven from Jerusalem by persecution, they went as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but the Jews only. Of them it is said, “And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed, and turned to the Lord.” The effect of Barna-
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bas’ visit to that people, is stated at the same time, “And much people was added unto the Lord,” Chap. xi. 21, 24. Besides all these believers, many were brought to embrace Christ by the ministry of John, and by his own personal ministry, who were alive at that time. “After that,” says the Apostle Paul, “he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present; but some are fallen asleep,” 1 Cor. xv. 6. Since the Jewish converts to Christianity, before the destruction of Jerusalem, were so many, it is with great propriety that the Apostle said, that blindness in part had happened to them.
2. The blindness which happened to Israel was partial, because while they dwelt in their own land, before their overthrow and dispersion, they enjoyed the means of grace and salvation. During the forty years that intervened, between Christ’s death and Jerusalem’s destruction, a christian church existed in that city, and in the land of Judea. For a great part of that time, some of the Apostles themselves ministered to that church. After their decease, some of those who succeeded them in the Gospel ministry, laboured among that people. When the Apostles received their final instructions from their Lord, “He commanded them to preach repentance, and the remission of sins among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” To this command, the Apostles and their successors yielded obedience, until the very day that the Roman army approached to the holy city. If it had been otherwise, there would have been no necessity for the Saviour’s command to his followers, to depart from Jerusalem and Judea, and flee speedily to the mountains, when they saw that city encompassed with armies. That people, therefore, enjoyed the dispensation of Gospel ordinances, till the time when destruction, like a whirlwind, came upon the unbelieving Jews. Nor have we any cause to conclude, that these ordinances were continued with them in vain. By means of them, accompanied with the influences of the Holy Spirit, God gathered out from among that disobedient and gainsaying people, all those Jews, whom he had ordained to eternal life; while all those who rejected the Gospel, were left inexcusable. In this way there was a mixture of light in the midst of their darkness, and many saw, when the great multitude were blind. On this consideration also, the Apostle might say, that blindness in part had befallen Israel. The Apostle’s words are a description of the Jews in his own time; in
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our text, he tells us what had happened to them already, and surely this was partial blindness only.
3. This blindness which happened to Israel is blindness in part, because many of them, even after their dispersion, had access to the church of Christ. The knowledge of the true God, and his worship, gradually forsook the Gentile nations, at the beginning of the Mosaic economy, till they were so ingulphed in the gross darkness of ignorance, idolatry and wickedness, as to leave the posterity of Jacob, the sole possessors of the saving knowledge of God. In the same way, did the knowledge of God, and the way of salvation, depart from the Jews, at the commencement of the Christian dispensation, till the Gentiles became the only members of the Redeemer’s church. The desolation of their land, the destruction of Jerusalem, the burning of their temple, the dispersion of the people, and the cruelty which the Heathenish Gentiles exercised on them contributed greatly to extinguish any glimmerings of light that remained among them, and to envelope them in that spiritual darkness and misery which characterize those who dwell in the region and shadow of death. It must also be remembered, that the Jews, under the Gospel dispensation, have enjoyed free access into the Christian Church. This spiritual society still exists in the world, and whosoever will, may come, and take of the water of life freely. The true religion, which was revealed to the Jews, was open to all the world. The inhabitants of any land, far or near, hearing of the God of Israel, had access to come and see. Their laws which they received from God, concerning the stranger, were of the most liberal and benevolent description. Strangers, coming to enquire after their God and their religion, were cheerfully received and taught. When they became proselytes to the Jewish religion, they were admitted to the communion of the ancient church, and to the enjoyment of all her privileges. It is exactly the same now with the Jews, when the church is established among the Gentiles, as it was with the Gentiles when the church was fixed among the Jews. Under the former dispensation, some of the Gentiles, from time to time, forsook their heathenish idolatry, and embraced the faith of Israel. And under the Gospel dispensation, some of the Jews have, now and then, relinquished their infidelity, and have become members of the Christian Church. The conversion of individual Gentiles to the faith of the
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Jews, prior to the coming of Christ, was a prelude to the conversion of the Gentiles in the days of the Gospel. And the accession of some Jews to Christianity, is a pledge that they as a body will embrace the Christian faith. Since the nature of the Gospel, and the scriptural constitution of the Christian Church, exclude none, but invite all to come to Jesus that they may find rest to their souls, and since some of the Jews have, almost in every generation, believed in Christ as the true Messiah, it may therefore be said, with the greatest propriety, that partial blindness only has happened to Israel.
4. This blindness which has happened to Israel is partial, because it is temporary. As it is not total relative to individuals, neither is it final with regard to time. They are not cast off for ever. They are visited with blindness but for an appointed time. This time indeed is long, because their iniquities, which procured this punishment, were greater than any of their former provocations. Though the time is very long, and their blindness is exceedingly confirmed; yet the day will come when this dreary period shall expire, and then this blindness will be removed. The tribes of God marched out of Egypt triumphantly, when the appointed years of their servitude in that house of bondage came to an end. The Jews were honourably liberated from the land of Babylon, when the seventy years of their captivity expired. They shall also be delivered from their present blindness and dispersion among all nations, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall be come in. At that most auspicious era, He who opened the eyes of the blind will open the understandings of the seed of Jacob, and then they shall see. The light of the word and Spirit of grace shall enter their hearts, and they who were darkness shall be light in the Lord. The Sun of Righteousness shall arise on them with healing in his wings, for he must yet be the glory of his people Israel. He who gathereth the outcasts of Israel into one, will gather the seed of Abraham, and keep them as a shepherd doth his flock. He will cause the great trumpet of the everlasting Gospel to be blown in the Gentile nations where they reside, and they who were outcasts and ready to perish, shall come and worship the Lord in his holy mountain at Jerusalem. It is therefore blindness in part, because it is only blindness for a time. In the words which follow the text, you see it is limited, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
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What shall happen unto them when this season shall arrive? “And so all Israel shall be saved.” How shall this salvation be conferred on them? “There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” And what is the security that all these things will be accomplished? “For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.”
This Discourse must now be finished with a few practical inferences.
1. The Gospel is most precious, and the privileges of those who enjoy it are very great. It is a light shining in a dark place. It gives men the knowledge of salvation, for the remission of their sins. By the glorious Gospel, revealing Christ, who is the light of the world, the day-spring from on high hath visited us, through the tender mercy of our God. The grand design of it is to give light to them that sit in darkness, and to guide their feet into the ways of peace. Ignorance of the Gospel, or the neglect and misimprovement of it, detain men in that darkness which is the substance of spiritual death, and the shadow of that which is eternal. A true belief of the Gospel, and a saving faith in Christ whom it reveals, accompanied with a life of holiness, under the influence of the truth as it is in Jesus, translate men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive the everlasting inheritance. After the Jews had crucified the Lord of glory, the preaching of the Gospel of our salvation began at Jerusalem. The messages of grace were first delivered, and the offers of salvation were first made to those who had been his betrayers and murderers. These messages they despised, and these offers they rejected, by contradicting the doctrines and blaspheming the Author of the Gospel, and by persecuting the messengers of peace and the christian converts. By this behaviour, they made choice of darkness rather than the light, and voluntarily placed themselves in a state of hardened blindness. The infinite importance of the matters revealed, and the amazing condescension displayed in the revelation of them, increased the guilt, and aggravated the condemnation of this rebellious people. Let all persons who enjoy this Gospel, beware lest they fall after the same example of unbelief. The Gospel indeed is precious, and the privileges of Gospel hearers are invaluable; but the enjoyment of them will not secure the sal-
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vation of any man. That we may obtain that salvation which is revealed in the Gospel, the doctrines of it must be sincerely believed, Christ must be received to dwell in our hearts by faith, his righteousness must be put on, his promises must be embraced, and we must be brought to an unreserved obedience, in heart and life, to his holy law. Unless the Gospel produce these effects in us, we have neither part nor lot in its blessings.
2. The nature and excellence of spiritual illumination may be learned from this subject. It is the reverse of Jewish blindness, and the happy privilege of those who are saved. It is bestowed by Jesus himself: “Then opened he their understandings, that they might understand the Scriptures,” Luke xxiv. 45. “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true.” It is the gift of God the Father, to his people, through the agency of the Holy Spirit: “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling,” Eph. i. 17, 18. This saving illumination is a spiritual discovery of Divine things, bestowed on us by the Father of lights, through the mediation of the Lord Jesus. In corporeal vision, the following things are contained:—An object must be presented to our view, we must possess the faculty of seeing, light must shine upon the object, our eye must be turned to the object, and we must examine it till we acquire a proper knowledge of it. Saving illumination is the faculty of spiritual sight, by which we carefully contemplate Divine things by the light of the holy Scriptures, till we obtain a saving knowledge of them. Corporeal sight is God’s gift to us, as the God of nature; and spiritual sight is freely given to us by the God of our salvation. This knowledge of spiritual objects has a beginning and an increase. It began with the Apostle Paul when he had come to Damascus. His corporeal sight was restored, and this spiritual vision was graciously bestowed on him at the same time. This counterpart to Jewish blindness, and to the natural darkness of all mankind, is begun on the day of converting grace, is increased while believers are in this world, and will be perfected in heaven, when they shall be like Christ, for they shall see him as he is. Let all and every one of us be concerned to obtain this spiritual
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illumination, and the enlargement of it; “That he who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, may shine in our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of his glory, in the face of Jesus Christ. If this is our enjoyment in this present life, we may expect in the life to come, the light of eternal day, according to our Lord’s promise: “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father.”
3. The misery of those who remain under spiritual blindness is very great. The blindness that happened to Israel involved them in distress. Every nominal christian is subjected to the same wretchedness. Destitute of spiritual illumination, notwithstanding their Gospel privileges and profession, they are in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. To be shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin, which is the condition of all men by nature, as well as it was David’s state, comprehend among other parts of the ruins of the fall, this spiritual blindness. To this natural blindness about spiritual things, we must add that which is acquired; for evil men, in every part of their blindness and misery, wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. In them the Psalmist’s words are fulfilled: “They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness.” This blindness infallibly leads those who end their days under its dominion, to the blackness of darkness for ever. So inveterate is it, that all human efforts for its removal, without Divine power, will be unavailing. When this blindness fell down upon the Jews, they knew not their spiritual condition, they were pleased with themselves, they used no suitable means for obtaining deliverance, they despised those who embraced the light, and they were not alarmed on account of their danger. All these things are found in the state of blind and formal professors of religion. Like the Jews, they are ignorant of their situation before the Lord. Through the blindness of their minds, they account themselves rich, and increased with goods, and to stand in need of nothing; while they are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.—On account of this fatal deception, they are pleased with themselves. They are pleased with their state, pleased with their duties, pleased with their hearts, pleased with their profession, and pleased with their vain hopes of salvation. They use no suitable means for their deliverance. They indeed may observe the ordinary routine of religious services, both private and public;
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but these, being a ground of their confidence, only strengthen their delusion. They do not seek spiritual convictions of their sin, by comparing the thoughts of their heart, the words of their mouth, and the actions of their life, with God’s infinitely holy law, in its spirituality and extent, that they may abhor themselves and repent in dust and ashes. They do not press on their consciences the consideration of the infinite evil of sin and its dreadful demerit, that they may be convinced of their need of an infinite atonement. They do not seriously consider the nature and necessity of saving faith, which is produced in the hearts of believers by the power of the Divine Spirit, by means of the promise, constraining them to embrace Christ and his righteousness, and God reconciled in him to them, as their God and portion for ever. They do not think upon that purity of heart, that spirituality of soul, and on that holiness in words and actions which saving faith produces, and which are necessary to evidence its truth and reality. So long as these, and many other things of the same kind, do not engross their attention, they use no proper means for obtaining deliverance from their spiritual blindness.—They also despise the saints of God. Conscious of some essential defects in their own religion, and sensible that others possess what they cannot discern in themselves, they endeavour to remove that uneasiness which these discoveries produce in them, by undervaluing and reproaching those who are pure in heart.—Nor are they suitably affected with their danger. Convictions of this may sometimes press into their minds; but, instead of listening to them, and suffering them to have their perfect work, they use every mean to stifle them. This is a situation of much spiritual misery.
4. Nominal christians should seek this spiritual sight, and true christians should desire its increase. To our glorifying and enjoying God in this world, and to our everlasting felicity with him in heaven, this spiritual vision of Divine things is indispensably necessary. God is willing to bestow it, and has appointed means for us to improve, that we may obtain it. Let those who are destitute of this knowledge, carefully attend to those means which God has appointed for this end. Searching the Scriptures and meditation on them, hearing the Gospel and remembering and thinking on the truths of God, and making an application of the doctrines and precepts of the word to our own souls, are some of those means
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which sinners, by the authority of God, are commanded to improve. While they are employed in this manner, let them cry earnestly to the Lord, that he may open their eyes, that they may behold wondrous things out of his law. Let them desire and pray for the Holy Spirit, that, by his teaching, they may know the things that are freely given to them of God; for he hath said, “Turn ye at my reproof; behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you,” Prov. i. 23. When persons seriously improve the means which we have mentioned, they may be considered as turning, in so far, at God’s reproof; and therefore, they may expect the teaching of the Spirit explaining to them the doctrines and duties of God’s word. Although our observation of the means does not meritoriously procure the Spirit’s operations for enlightening our minds; yet those who use them in humility and diligence, are in the way which God approves, and in which he usually commands the blessing on the children of men.—Those who already enjoy this spiritual light, stand in need of its enlargement, that their path may resemble the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. When the christian is not advancing in spiritual light, his soul will not grow either in holiness or in comfort. The same means by which initial illumination was obtained, must be resorted to, in order to enjoy that which is progressive. Let all those who seek this illumination, and those who seek its increase, improve those means, in a humble dependance on the Divine blessing, that they may obtain the desire of their hearts.
5. That those who despise and misimprove the light, will soon be surrounded with darkness. God’s dispensations with the Jews verify this inference. Their sufferings, in consequence of this sin, are a solemn warning to us. “Then Jesus said unto them, yet a little while is the light with you; walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you; for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light,” John xii. 35, 36. Oh, how important and instructive are these sayings! They contain the privilege of all christians—the light is with them; their time of enjoying it—yet a little while; their duty under this enjoyment—walk while ye have the light, believe in the light; the punishment of those who neglect this duty—darkness will come upon them; their
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misery under this darkness—they know not whither they go; and the blessedness of those who walk and believe in the light—they shall be the children of light. Those who improve the light shall be children of light in grace, and the children of light in glory. And those who refuse and oppose the light, shall be covered with such darkness as will prevent them from knowing whither they go. When true christians neglect this light, they will soon be involved in the darkness of outward troubles, of inward distress, and sorrow of heart. The saints of God, misimproving this light, will soon be found walking in darkness. Let those who have believed in Jesus habitually improve Christ, his word and Spirit, as the light of their souls, that they may enjoy spiritual peace and consolation, and be prepared for the inheritance of the saints in light. On the other hand, all those who, through ignorance and unbelief, neglect the light, or, through enmity and hatred of the light, oppose and corrupt it, if sovereign grace do not turn them, they shall be given up to higher degrees of spiritual blindness and hardness in this world, till they are cast into utter darkness in the world to come, where there shall be everlasting weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, and would consider their latter end. Let such sinners in Sion be afraid, let them mortify their pride, their enmity, and their unbelief, and fly to him who hath said, “I am the light of the world, he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life,” John viii. 12.
6. In executing his threatenings on those who reject the light, God exercises much long-suffering patience. God’s conduct with the Jewish nation is a striking illustration of this truth. Under the ministry of John the Baptist, they began to despise the light of Israel. During Christ’s public ministry, they, in a more obstinate manner, opposed it. They discovered their implacable enmity at him who is the light, when they crucified and slew him. They manifested their opposition to his Gospel light, even after his crucifixion, by rejecting it, and by persecuting those who preached, and those who embraced it. They continued their malignant abhorrence of the Gospel and the followers of Jesus, for the space of forty years after Christ’s death, when all the Apostles, John excepted, had fallen asleep in Jesus. During this long season of the most wicked and unrelenting opposition to the merciful designs of Heaven to fallen man, the Lord spared and tried them. He did not bring destruction
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on them when they rejected the good tidings of great joy, preached to them by him who was a burning and a shining light. Neither did he inflict his judgments on them, when they blasphemed the person, rejected the Gospel, and disregarded the innumerable miracles of him who was himself the light of the world. He did not make a way for his anger to destroy them, even when they crucified the Lord of glory. Nor did he pour his wrath on them during the long period of forty years, which they spent in hardened unbelief, and persecution of the heralds and professors of the Gospel. Is this the manner of man? Throughout this season of Divine forbearance, the Gospel was preached in Jerusalem and Judea, they were frequently called to repentance toward God, and to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord spared and tried that generation, and their children, and their children’s children. To them, as well as to their fathers in the wilderness, was that complaint applicable: “Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their hearts, and they have not known my ways,” Psal. xcv. 10. The same long-suffering and patient forbearance does God exercise every day, with sinful men and guilty nations. By this it is evident, that he is not willing that any should perish, but that they should believe, repent and be saved. How great is the number of those who have provoked him forty years in the wilderness, and who are still preserved on his footstool and in his Church! How wonderful is his patience with Heathen, Mahometan, and Popish nations, who still continue in gross darkness, who believe in the absurdities of an imposter, and who wickedly pervert his holy religion! How great is his forbearance with more enlightened nations, who have perverted the doctrines, corrupted the worship, and changed the government and administrations of his Church! As individuals and societies, we have been guilty of despising the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering. It is therefore of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassion fails not.
Lastly. Though God may long exercise his sparing mercy on sinful persons and nations, he will at last inflict on them threatened and deserved punishment. His providences toward the Jews confirm this observation. He exercised patience with them, and blessed them for many years with the means of instruction; but at last the hour of his judgments came, and the season of their desolation. This will be done unto all God’s incorrigible enemies, whether they are indi-
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viduals or collective bodies of men. His day of wrath came upon the antediluvians, and on the inhabitants of the cities of the plain. It came upon Egypt, on Babylon, and on the Jewish people. And it will come upon all the enemies of God’s Church. The vision of judgment on Christ’s enemies, as well as the vision of mercy on his friends, is for “an appointed time; but at the end it shall speak, and not lie; though it may tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” The veracity of God, and the glory of his name, are concerned in them both; and, therefore, when mercy is bestowed on his Church, wrath shall be inflicted on his enemies. This awful truth will be verified on all impenitent sinners. When God does not execute speedily his sentence against men’s evil works, they often encourage themselves to persevere and increase in their transgressions. This conduct will aggravate their guilt, and make their condemnation more dreadful. Instead of forsaking their sins, and turning to God in Christ Jesus, they treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous displeasure of God. Oh how criminal in the sight of God, and how destructive to ourselves is this abuse of God’s long-suffering patience. While the space which he gives us to repent is continued, let sinful men and ungodly nations forsake their ways and their thoughts, and turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy upon them; and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. There is no permission to delay. Reason and revelation concur in condemning this as an improper and hazardous course. Since now is the accepted time and the day of salvation, and since we know not what shall be on the morrow, let us listen to the dictates of reason and the injunctions of revelation, by seeking the Lord while he may be found, and calling upon him while he is near.