True Grace As Distinguished From The Experience of Devils

SERMON V 52 .

TRUE GRACE DISTINGUISHED FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF DEVILS.

James ii. 19.

Thou believest that there is one God; thou dost well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

OBSERVE in these words,—

1. Something that some depended on, as an evidence of

their good estate and acceptance, as the objects of God’s favor, viz., a speculative faith, or

belief of the doctrines of religion. The great doctrine of the existence of one only God is

particularly mentioned; probably, because this was a doctrine wherein, especially, there was

a visible and noted distinction between professing Christians and the heathens, amongst

whom the Christians in those days were dispersed. And therefore, this was what many

trusted in, as what recommended them to, or at least was an evidence of their interest in,

the great spiritual and eternal privileges, in which real Christians were distinguished from

the rest of the world.

2. How much is allowed concerning this faith, viz., that it is a good attainment; “Thou

dost well.” It was good, as it was necessary. This doctrine was one of the fundamental doctrines

of Christianity; and, in some respects, above all others fundamental. It was necessary

to be believed, in order to salvation. To be without the belief of this doctrine, especially in

those that had such advantage to know as they had to whom the apostle wrote, would be a

great sin, and what would vastly aggravate their damnation. This belief was also good, as it

had a good tendency in many respects.

3. What is implicitly denied concerning it, viz., that it is any evidence of a person’s being

in a state of salvation. The whole context shows this to be the design of the apostle in the

words. And it is particularly manifest by the conclusion of the verse; which is,

4. The thing observable in the words, viz., the argument by which the apostle proves,

that this is no sign of a state of grace, viz., that it is found in the devils. They believe that

there is one God, and that he is a holy, sin-hating God; and that he is a God of truth, and

will fulfill his threatenings, by which he has denounced future judgments, and a great increase

of misery on them; and that he is an almighty God, and able to execute his threatened vengeance

upon them.

Therefore, the doctrine I infer from the words to make the subject of my present discourse,

is this, viz., nothing in the mind of man, that is of the same nature with what the

devils experience, or are the subjects of, is any sure sign of saving grace.

If there be any thing that the devils have, or find in themselves, which is an evidence of

the saving grace of the Spirit of God, then the apostle’s argument is not good; which is plainly

this: “That which is in the devils, or which they do, is no certain evidence of grace. But the

devils believe that there is one God. Therefore, thy believing that there is one God, is no

52 Preached before the Synod of New York, convened at Newark, in New Jersey, on September 28, 1752.

sure evidence that thou art gracious.” So that the whole foundation of the apostle’s argument

lies in that proposition: “That which is in the devils, is no certain sign of grace.”—Nevertheless,

I shall mention two or three further reasons, or arguments of the truth of this doctrine.

I. The devils have no degree of holiness: and therefore those things which are nothing

beyond what they are the subjects of, cannot be holy experiences.

The devil once was holy; but when he fell, he lost all his holiness, and became perfectly

wicked. He is the greatest sinner, and in some sense the father of all sin. John viii. 44. “Ye

are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do: he was a murderer from

the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there was no truth in him. When he

speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” 1 John iii. 8. “He

that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning.” He is often

spoken of, by way of eminence, as “the wicked one.” So, Matt xiii. 19. “Then cometh the

wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart.” And verse xiii. 38. “The

tares are the children of the wicked one.” 1 John ii. 13. “I write unto you, young men, because

ye have overcome the wicked one.” And verse iii. 12. “Not as Cain, who was of that wicked

one.” And verse v. 18. “Whosoever is born of God—keepeth himself, and that wicked one

toucheth him not.” So the devils are called evil spirits, unclean spirits, powers of darkness,

rulers of the darkness of this world, and wickedness itself. Eph. vi. 12. “For we wrestle not

against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the

darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

Therefore, surely, those things which the minds of devils are the subjects of, can have

nothing of the nature of true holiness in them. The knowledge and understanding which

they have of the things of God and religion, cannot be of the nature of divine and holy light,

nor any knowledge that is merely of the same kind. No impressions made on their hearts,

can be of a spiritual nature. That kind of sense which they have of divine things, however

great, cannot be a holy sense. Such affections as move their hearts, however powerful, cannot

be holy affections. If there be no holiness in them as they are in the devil, there can be no

holiness in them as they are in man; unless something be added to them beyond what is in

the devil. And if any thing be added to them, then they are not the same things; but are

something beyond what devils are the subjects of; which is contrary to the supposition; for

the proposition which I am upon is, that those things which are of the same nature, and

nothing beyond what devils are the subjects of, cannot be holy experiences. It is not the

subject that makes the affection, or experience, or quality holy; but it is the quality that

makes the subject holy.

And if those qualities and experiences which the devils are the subjects of, have nothing

of the nature of holiness in them, then they can be no certain signs, that persons which have

them are holy or gracious. There is no certain sign of true grace, but those things which are

spiritual and gracious. It is God’s image that is his seal and mark, the stamp by which those

that are his are known. But that which has nothing of the nature of holiness, has nothing of

this image. That which is a sure sign of grace, must either be something which has the nature

and essence of grace, or flows from, or some way belongs to, its essence; for that which distinguishes

things one from another is the essence, or something appertaining to their essence.

And therefore, that which is sometimes found wholly without the essence of holiness or

grace, can be no essential, sure, or distinguishing mark of grace.

II. The devils are not only absolutely without all true holiness, but they are not so much

as the subjects of any common grace.

If any should imagine, that some things may be signs of grace which are not grace itself,

or which have nothing of the nature and essence of grace and holiness in them; yet, certainly

they will allow, that the qualifications which are sure evidences of grace, must be things that

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are near akin to grace, or having some remarkable affinity with it. But the devils are not

only wholly destitute of any true holiness, but they are at the greatest distance from it, and

have nothing in them in any wise akin to it.

There are many in this world who are wholly destitute of saving grace, who yet have

common grace. They have no true holiness, but nevertheless have something of that which

is called moral virtue; and are the subjects of some degree of the common influences of the

Spirit of God. It is so with those in general that live under the light of the gospel, and are

not given up to judicial blindness and hardness. Yea, those that are thus given up, yet have

some degree of restraining grace while they live in this world; without which the earth could

not bear them, and they would in no measure be tolerable members of human society. But

when any are damned, or cast into hell, as the devils are, God wholly withdraws his restraining

grace, and all merciful influences of his Spirit whatsoever. They have neither saving grace

nor common grace; neither the grace of the Spirit, nor any of the common gifts of the

Spirit; neither true holiness, nor moral virtue of any kind. Hence arises the vast increase of

the exercise of wickedness in the hearts of men when they are damned. And herein is the

chief difference between the damned in hell, and unregenerate and graceless men in this

world. Not that wicked men in this world have any more holiness or true virtue than the

damned, or have wicked men, when they leave this world, any principles of wickedness infused

into them: but when men are cast into hell, God perfectly takes away his Spirit from

them, as to all its merciful common influences, and entirely withdraws from them all restraints

of his Spirit and good providence.

III. It is unreasonable to suppose, that a person’s being in any respect as the devil is,

should be a certain sign that he is very unlike and opposite to him, and hereafter shall not

have his part with him. True saints are extremely unlike and contrary to the devil, both relatively

and really. They are so relatively. The devil is the grand rebel; the chief enemy of God

and Christ; the object of God’s greatest wrath; a condemned malefactor, utterly rejected and

cast off by him; for ever shut out of his presence; the prisoner of his justice; an everlasting

inhabitant of the infernal world. The saints, on the contrary, are the citizens of the heavenly

Jerusalem; members of the family of the glorious King of heaven; the children of God; the

brethren and spouse of his dear Son; heirs of God; joint-heirs with Christ; kings and priests

unto God. And they are extremely different really. The devil, on account of his hateful

nature, and those accursed dispositions which reign in him, is called Satan, the adversary,

Abaddon and Apollyon, the great destroyer, the wolf, the roaring lion, the great dragon, the

old serpent. The saints are represented as God’s holy ones, his anointed ones, the excellent

of the earth; the meek of the earth; lambs and doves; Christ’s little children; having the image

of God, pure in heart; God’s jewels; lilies in Christ’s garden; plants of paradise; stars of

heaven; temples of the living God. The saints, so far as they are saints, are as diverse from

the devil, as heaven is from hell; and much more contrary than light is to darkness: and the

eternal state that they are appointed to, is answerably diverse and contrary.

Now, it is not reasonable to suppose, that being in any respect as Satan is, or being the

subject of any of the same properties, qualifications, affections, or actions, that are in him,

is any certain evidence that persons are thus exceeding different from him, and in circumstances

so diverse, and appointed to an eternal state so extremely contrary in all respects.

Wicked men are in Scripture called the children of the devil. Now is it reasonable to suppose,

that men’s being in any respect as the devil is, can be a certain sign, that they are not his

children, but the children of the infinitely holy and blessed God? We are informed, that

wicked men shall hereafter have their part with devils; shall be sentenced to the same everlasting

fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels. Now, can a man’s being like the

devil in any respect be a sure token that he shall not have his part with him, but with glorious

angels, and with Jesus Christ, dwelling with him, where he is, that he may behold and partake

of his glory?

IMPROVEMENT.

The first use may lie in several inferences, for our instruction.

I. From what has been said, it may be inferred, by parity of reason, that nothing that

damned men do, or ever will experience, can be any sure sign of grace.

Damned men are like the devils, are conformed to them in nature and state. They have

nothing better in them than the devils, have no higher principles in their hearts; experience

nothing, and do nothing, of a more excellent kind; as they are the children and servants of

the devil, and as such, shall dwell with him, and be partakers with him of the same misery.

As Christ says, concerning the saints in their future state, Matt. xxii. 30. “That they shall be

as the angels of God in heaven,” so it may be said concerning ungodly men in their future

state, that they shall be as the fallen, wicked angels in hell.

Each of the forementioned reasons, given to show the truth of the doctrine with respect

to devils, holds good with respect to damned men. Damned men have no degree of holiness;

and therefore those things which are nothing beyond what they have, cannot be holy exper-

iences. Damned men are not only absolutely destitute of all true holiness, but they have not

so much as any common grace. And lastly, it is unreasonable to suppose, that a person’s

being in any respect as the damned in hell are, should be a certain sign that they are very

unlike and opposite to them, and hereafter shall not have their portion with them.

II. We may hence infer, that no degree of speculative knowledge of things of religion is

any certain sign of saving grace. The devil, before his fall, was among those bright and

glorious angels of heaven, which are represented as morning-stars, and flames of fire, that

excel in strength and wisdom. And though he be now become sinful, yet his sin has not abolished

the faculties of the angelic nature; as when man fell, he did not lose the faculties of

the human nature.—Sin destroys spiritual principles, but not the natural faculties. It is true,

sin, when in full dominion, entirely prevents the exercise of the natural faculties in holy and

spiritual understanding; and lays many impediments in the way of their proper exercise in

other respects. It lays the natural faculty of reason under great disadvantages, by many and

strong prejudices; and in fallen men the faculties of the soul are, doubtless, greatly impeded

in their exercise, through that great weakness and disorder of the corporeal organ to which

it is strictly united, and which is the consequence of sin.—But there seems to be nothing in

the nature of sin, or moral corruption, that has any tendency to destroy the natural capacity,

or even to diminish it, properly speaking. If sin were of such a nature as necessarily to have

that tendency and effect; then it might be expected, that wicked men, in a future state, where

they are given up entirely to the unrestrained exercise of their corruptions and lusts, and

sin is in all respects brought to its greatest perfection in them, would have the capacity of

their souls greatly diminished. This we have no reason to suppose; but rather, on the contrary,

that their capacities are greatly enlarged, and that their actual knowledge is vastly increased;

and that even with respect to the Divine Being, and things of religion, and the great concerns

of the immortal souls of men, the eyes of wicked men are opened, when they go into another

world.

The greatness of the abilities of devils may be argued, from the representation in Eph.

vi. 12. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,”

&c. The same may also be argued from what the Scripture says of Satan’s subtlety. Gen. iii.

1, 2. Cor. xi. 3. and Acts xiii. 10. And as the devil has a faculty of understanding of large capacity,

so he is capable of a great speculative knowledge of the things of God, and the invisible

and eternal world, as well as other things; and must needs actually have a great understanding

of these things; as these have always been chiefly in his view; and as his circumstances, from

his first existence, have been such as have tended chiefly to engage him to attend to these

things. Before his fall, he was one of those angels who continually beheld the face of the

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Father in heaven: and sin has no tendency to destroy the memory, and therefore has no

tendency to blot out of it any speculative knowledge that was formerly there.

As the devil’s subtlety shows his great capacity; so the way in which his subtlety is exercised

and manifested—which is principally in his artful management with respect to things

of religion, his exceeding subtle representations, insinuations, reasonings, and temptations,

concerning these things—demonstrates his great actual understanding of them; as, in order

to be a very artful disputant in any science, though it be only to confound and deceive such

as are conversant in it, a person had need to have a great and extensive acquaintance with

the things which pertain to that science.

Thus the devil has undoubtedly a great degree of speculative knowledge in divinity;

having been, as it were, educated in the best divinity school in the universe, viz. the heaven

of heavens. He must needs have such an extensive and accurate knowledge concerning the

nature and attributes of God, as we, worms of the dust, in our present state, are not capable

of. And he must have a far more extensive knowledge of the works of God, as of the work

of creation in particular; for he was a spectator of the creation of this visible world; he was

one of those morning-stars, Job xxxviii. 4-7. “who sang together, and of those sons of God,

that shouted for joy, when God laid the foundations of the earth, and laid the measures

thereof, and stretched the line upon it.” And so he must have a very great knowledge of

God’s works of providence. He has been a spectator of the series of these works from the

beginning; he has seen how God has governed the world in all ages; and he has seen the

whole train of God’s wonderful successive dispensations of providence towards his church,

from generation to generation. And he has not been an indifferent spectator; but the great

opposition between God and him, in the whole course of those dispensations, has necessarily

engaged his attention in the strictest observation of them. He must have a great degree of

knowledge concerning Jesus Christ as the Savior of men, and the nature and method of the

work of redemption, and the wonderful wisdom of God in this contrivance. It is that work

of God wherein, above all others, God has acted in opposition to him, and in which he has

chiefly set himself in opposition to God. It is with relation to this affair, that the mighty

warfare has been maintained, which has been carried on between Michael and his angels,

and the devil and his angels, through all ages from the beginning of the world, and especially

since Christ appeared. The devil has had enough to engage his attention to the steps of divine

wisdom in this work: for it is to that wisdom he has opposed his subtlety; and he has seen

and found, to his great disappointment and unspeakable torment, how divine wisdom, as

exercised in that work, has baffled and confounded his devices. He has a great knowledge

of the things of another world; for the things of that world are in his immediate view. He

has a great knowledge of heaven; for he has been an inhabitant of that world of glory: and

he has a great knowledge of hell, and the nature of its misery; for he is the first inhabitant

of hell; and above all the other inhabitants, has experience of its torments, and has felt them

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constantly, for more than fifty-seven hundred years. He must have a great knowledge of the

Holy Scriptures; for it is evident he is not hindered from knowing what is written there, by

the use he made of the words of Scripture in his temptation of our Savior. And if he can

know, he has much opportunity to know, and must needs have a disposition to know, with

the greatest exactness; that he may, to greater effect, pervert and wrest the Scripture, and

prevent such an effect of the word of God on the hearts of men, as shall tend to overthrow

his kingdom. He must have a great knowledge of the nature of mankind, their capacity,

their dispositions, and the corruptions of their hearts; for he has had long and great observation

and experience. The heart of man is what he had chiefly to do with, in his subtle

devices, mighty efforts, restless and indefatigable operations and exertions of himself, from

the beginning of the world. And it is evident that he has a great speculative knowledge of

the nature of experimental religion, by his being able to imitate it so artfully, and in such a

manner as to transform himself into an angel of light.

Therefore it is manifest, from my text and doctrine, that no degree of speculative

knowledge of religion is any certain sign of true piety. Whatever clear notions a man may

have of the attributes of God, the doctrine of the Trinity, the nature of the two covenants,

the economy of the persons of the Trinity, and the part which each person has in the affair

of man’s redemption; if he can discourse never so excellently of the offices of Christ, and

the way of salvation by him, and the admirable methods of divine wisdom, and the harmony

of the various attributes of God in that way; if he can talk never so clearly and exactly of the

method of the justification of a sinner, and of the nature of conversion, and the operations

of the Spirit of God, in applying the redemption of Christ; giving good distinctions, happily

solving difficulties, and answering objections, in a manner tending greatly to enlighten the

ignorant, to the edification of the church of God, and the conviction of gainsayers, and the

great increase of light in the world: if he has more knowledge of this sort than hundreds of

true saints of an ordinary education, and most divines; yet all is no certain evidence of any

degree of saving grace in the heart.

It is true, the Scripture often speaks of knowledge of divine things, as what is peculiar

to true saints; as in John xvii. 3. “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true

God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent.” Matt. xi. 27. “No man knoweth the Sun, but

the Father: neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the

Son will reveal him.” Ps. ix. 10. “They that know thy name will put their trust in thee.” Philip.

iii. 8. “I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my

Lord.” But then, we must understand it of a different kind of knowledge from that speculative

understanding which the devil has to so great a degree. It will also be allowed, that the

spiritual saving knowledge of God and divine things, greatly promotes speculative knowledge,

as it engages the mind in its search into things of this kind, and much assists to a distinct

understanding of them; so that, other things being equal, they who have spiritual knowledge,

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are much more likely than others to have a good doctrinal acquaintance may be no distinguishing

characteristic of true saints.

III. It may also be inferred from what has been observed, that for persons merely to

yield a speculative assent to the doctrines of religion as true, is no certain evidence of a state

of grace. My text tells us, that the devils believe; and as they believe that there is one God,

so they believe the truth of the doctrines of religion in general. The devil is orthodox in his

faith; he believes the true scheme of doctrine; he is no Deist, Socinian, Arian, Pelagian, or

antinomian; the articles of his faith are all sound, and in them he is thoroughly established.

Therefore, for a person to believe the doctrines of Christianity merely from the force

of arguments, as discerned only by speculation, is no evidence of grace.

It is probably a very rare thing for unregenerate men to have a strong persuasion of the

truth of the doctrines of religion, especially such of them as are very mysterious, and much

above the comprehension of reason. Yet if he be very confident of the truth of Christianity

and its doctrines, and is able to argue most strongly for the proof of them, in this he goes

nothing beyond the devil; who doubtless has a great knowledge of the rational arguments

by which the truth of the Christian religion and its several principles are evinced.

And therefore when the Scripture speaks of believing that Jesus is the Son of God, as a

sure evidence of grace, as in 1 John v. 1. and other places, it must be understood, not of a

mere speculative assent, but of another kind and manner of believing, which is called the

faith of God’s elect, Titus i. 1. There is a spiritual conviction of the truth, which is a believing

with the whole heart, peculiar to true saints; of which I shall speak more particularly.

IV. It may be inferred from the doctrine which has been insisted on, that it is no certain

sign of persons being savingly converted, that they have been subjects of very great distress

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and terrors of mind, through apprehensions of God’s wrath, and fears of damnation.

That the devils are the subjects of great terrors, through apprehensions of God’s wrath,

and fears of its future effects, is implied in my text; which speaks not only of their believing,

but trembling. It must be no small degree of terror which should make those principalities

and powers, those mighty, proud, and sturdy beings, to tremble.

There are many terrors that some persons who are concerned for their salvation, are

the subjects of, which are not from any proper awakenings of conscience, or apprehensions

of truth, but from melancholy or frightful impressions on their imagination; or some

groundless apprehensions, and the delusions and false suggestions of Satan. But if they have

had never so great and long-continued terrors from real awakenings, and convictions of

truth, and views of things as they are, this is no more than what is in the devils, and will be

in all wicked men in another world. However stupid and senseless most ungodly men are

now, all will be effectually awakened at last. There will be no such thing as slumbering in

hell. There are many that cannot be awakened by the most solemn warnings and awful

threatenings of the word of God—the most alarming discourses from the pulpit, and the

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most awakening and awful providences—but all will be thoroughly awakened by the sound

of the last trumpet, and the appearance of Christ to judgment. All sorts will then be filled

with most amazing terrors, from apprehensions of truth, and seeing things as they are; when

“the kings of the earth, and the great men (such as were the most lofty and stout-hearted,

most ready to treat the things of religion with contempt), shall hide themselves in the dens,

and in the rocks of the mountains; and say to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide

us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the

great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” Rev. vi. 15-17.—Therefore

if persons have been first awakened, and afterwards have had comfort and joy, it is no certain

sign that their comforts are of the right hand, because they were preceded by very great

terrors.

V. It may be further inferred from the doctrine, that no work of the law on men’s hearts,

in conviction of guilt, and just desert of punishment, is a sure argument that a person has

been savingly converted.

Not only are no awakenings and terrors any certain evidence of this, but no mere legal

work whatsoever, though carried to the utmost extent. Nothing wherein there is no grace

or spiritual light, but only the mere conviction of natural conscience, and those acts and

operations of the mind which are the result of this—and so are, as it were, merely forced by

the clear light of conscience, without the concurrence of the heart and inclination with that

light—is any certain sign of the saving grace of God, or that a person was ever savingly

converted.

The evidence of this, from my text and doctrine, is demonstrative; because the devils

are the subjects of these things; and all wicked men that shall finally perish, will be the subjects

of the same. Natural conscience is not extinguished in the damned in hell; but, on the contrary,

remains there in its greatest strength, and is brought to its most perfect exercise; most

fully to do its proper office as God’s vicegerent in the soul, to condemn those rebels against

the King of heaven and earth, and manifest God’s just wrath and vengeance, and by that

means to torment them, and be as a never-dying worm within them. Wretched men find

means in this world to blind the eyes and stop the mouth of this vicegerent of a sin-revenging

God; but they shall not be able to do it always. In another world, the eyes and mouth of

conscience will be fully opened. God will hereafter make wicked men to see and know these

things from which now they industriously hide their eyes, Isa. xxvi. 10, 11. “Let favor be

showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he

deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. Lord, when thy hand is lifted up,

they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people, yea, the

fire of thine enemies shall devour them.” We have this expression often annexed to God’s

threatenings of wrath to his enemies; “And they shall know that I am the Lord,” this shall

be accomplished by their woeful experience, and clear light in their consciences, whereby

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they shall be made to know, whether they will or not, how great and terrible, holy and

righteous, a God Jehovah is, whose authority they have despised; and they shall know that

he is righteous and holy in their destruction. This all the ungodly will be convinced of at

the day of judgment, by the bringing to light of all their wickedness of heart and practice;

and setting all their sins, with all their aggravations, in order, not only in the view of others,

even of the whole world, but in the view of their own consciences. This is threatened, Psalm

l. 21. “These things thou has done, and I kept silence: thou thoughtest that I was altogether

such a one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.”

Compare this with the four first verses of the psalm.—The design of the day of judgment is

not to find out what is just, as it is with human judgments; but it is to manifest what is just;

to make known God’s justice in the judgment which he will execute, to men’s own consciences,

and to the world. And therefore that day is called “the day of wrath, and revelation

of the righteous judgment of God,” Rom. ii. 5. Now sinners often cavil against the justice

of God’s dispensations, and particularly the punishment which he threatens for their sins;

excusing themselves, and condemning him: but when God comes to manifest their

wickedness in the light of that day, and to call them to an account, they will be speechless;

Matt. xxii. 11, 12. “And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which

had not on a wedding-garment. And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither,

not having a wedding-garment? And he was speechless.” When the King of heaven and

earth comes to judgment, their consciences will be so perfectly enlightened and convinced

by the all-searching Light they shall then stand in, that their mouths will be effectually

stopped, as to all excuses for themselves, all pleading of their own righteousness to excuse

or justify them, and all objections against the justice of their Judge, that their conscience

will condemn them only, and not God.

Therefore it follows from the doctrine, that it can be no certain sign of grace, that persons

have had great convictions of sin. Suppose they have had their sins of life, with their aggravations,

remarkably set before them, so greatly to affect and terrify them; and withal, have

had a great sight of the wickedness of their hearts, the greatness of the sin of unbelief, and

of the unexcusableness and heinousness of their most secret spiritual iniquities. Perhaps

they have been convinced of the utter insufficiency of their own righteousness, and they

despair of being recommended to God by it; have been convinced that they are wholly

without excuse before God, and deserve damnation; and that God would be just in executing

the threatened punishment upon them, though it be so dreadful. All these things will be in

the ungodly at the day of judgment, when they shall stand with devils, at the left hand, and

shall be doomed as accursed to everlasting fire with them.

Indeed there will be no submission in them. Their conscience will be convinced that

God is just in their condemnation; but yet their wills will not be bowed to God’s justice.

There will be no acquiescence of mind in that divine attribute; no yielding of the soul to

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God’s sovereignty, but the highest degree of enmity and opposition. A true submission of

the heart and will to the justice and sovereignty of God, is therefore allowed to be something

peculiar to true converts, being something which the devils and damned souls are and ever

will be far from; and to which a mere work of the law, and convictions of conscience, however

great and clear, will never bring men.

When sinners are the subjects of great convictions of conscience, and a remarkable

work of the law, it is only transacting the business of the day of judgment in the conscience

before-hand. God sits enthroned in the clouds of heaven; the sinner is arraigned as it were

at God’s bar; and God appears in his awful greatness, as a just and holy, sin-hating and sinrevenging,

God, as he will then. The sinner’s iniquities are brought to light; his sins set in

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order before him; the hidden things of darkness, and the counsels of the heart are made

manifest, as it will be then. Many witnesses do as it were rise up against the sinner under

convictions of conscience, as they will against the wicked at the day of judgment; and the

books are opened, particularly the book of God’s strict and holy law is opened in the conscience,

and its rules applied for the condemnation of the sinner; which is the book that will

be opened at the day of judgment, as the grand rule to all such wicked men as have lived

under it. And the sentence of the law is pronounced against the sinner, and the justice of

the sentence made manifest, as it will be at the day of judgment. The conviction of a sinner

at the day of judgment will be a work of the law, as well as the conviction of conscience in

this world: and the work of the law (if the work be merely legal) is never carried further in

the consciences of sinners now than it will be at that day, when its work will be perfect in

thoroughly stopping the sinner’s mouth; Rom. iii. 19. “Now we know that what things soever

the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and

all the world may become guilty before God.” Every mouth shall be stopped by the law,

either now or hereafter; and all the world shall become sensibly guilty before God, guilty of

death, deserving of damnation.—And therefore, if sinners have been the subjects of a great

work of the law, and have thus become guilty, and their mouths have been stopped; it is no

certain sign that ever they have been converted.

Indeed the want of a thorough sense of guilt, and desert of punishment, and conviction

of the justice of God in threatening damnation, is a sign that a person never was converted,

and truly brought with the whole soul to embrace Christ as a Savior from this punishment:

for it is easily demonstrable, that there is no such thing as entirely and cordially accepting

an offer of a Savior from punishment which we think we do not deserve. But having such

a conviction is no certain sign that persons have true faith, or have every truly received

Christ as their Savior. And if persons have great comfort, joy, and confidence suddenly let

into their minds, after great convictions, it is no infallible evidence that their comforts are

built on a good foundation.

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It is manifest, therefore, that too much stress has been laid by many persons on a great

work of the law preceding their comforts, who seem not only to have looked on such a work

of the law as necessary to precede faith, but also to have esteemed it as the chief evidence of

the truth and genuineness of succeeding faith and comforts. By this means it is to be feared

very many have been deceived, and established in false hope. And what is to be seen in the

event of things, in multitudes of instances, confirms this. It may be safely allowed that it is

not so usual for great convictions of conscience to prove abortive, and fail of a good issue,

as for lesser convictions; and that more generally when the Spirit of God proceeds so far

with sinners, in the work of the law, as to give them a great sight of their hearts, and of the

heinousness of their spiritual iniquities; and to convince them that they are without excuse—

and that all their righteousness can do nothing to merit God’s favor; but they lie justly

exposed to God’s eternal vengeance with mercy—a work of saving conversion follows. But

we can have no warrant to say, it is universally so, or to lay it down as an infallible rule, that

when convictions of conscience have gone thus far, saving faith and repentance will surely

follow. If any should think they have ground for such a determination, because they cannot

conceive what end God should have, in carrying a work of conviction to such a length, and

so preparing the heart for faith, and after all, never giving saving faith to the soul; I desire

it may be considered, where will be the end of our doubts and difficulties, if we think ourselves

sufficient to determine so positively and particularly concerning God’s ends and designs in

what he does. It may be asked such an objector, what is God’s end in giving a sinner any

degree of the strivings of his Spirit, and conviction of conscience, when he afterwards suffers

it to come to nothing?

If he may give some degree that may finally be in vain, who shall set the bounds, and

say how great the degree shall be? Who can, on sure grounds, determine, that when a sinner

has so much of that conviction which the devils and damned in hell have, true faith and

eternal salvation will be the certain consequence? This we may certainly determine, that, if

the apostle’s argument in the text be good, not any thing whatsoever that the devils have is

certainly connected with such a consequence. Seeing sinners, while such, are capable of the

most perfect convictions, and will have them at the day of judgment, and in hell; who shall

say, that God never shall cause reprobates to anticipate the future judgment and damnation

in that respect? And if he does so, who shall say to him, what dost thou? Or call him to account

concerning his ends in so doing? Not but that many possible wise ends might be

thought of, and mentioned, if it were needful, or I had now room for it.—The Spirit of God

is often quenched by the exercise of the wickedness of men’s hearts, after he has gone far in

a work of conviction, so that their convictions never have a good issue. And who can say

that sinners, by the exercise of their opposition and enmity against God, which is not at all

mortified by the greatest legal convictions, neither in the damned in hell nor sinners on

earth, may not provoke God to take his Spirit from them, even after he has proceeded the

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greatest length in a work of conviction? Who can say, that God never is provoked to destroy

some, after he has brought them, as it were, through the wilderness, even to the edge of the

land of rest? As he slew some of the Israelites, even in the plains of Moab.

And let it be considered, where is our warrant in Scripture, to make use of any legal

convictions, or any method or order of successive events in a work of the law, and consequent

comforts, as a sure sign of regeneration. The Scripture is abundant, in expressly mentioning

evidences of grace, and of a state of favor with God, as characteristics of true saints. But

where do we ever find such things as these amongst those evidences? Or where do we find

any other signs insisted on, besides grace itself, its nature, exercises, and fruits? These were

the evidences that Job relied upon: these were the things that the psalmist everywhere insists

upon as evidences of sincerity, and particularly in the 119th Psalm, from the beginning to

the end: these were the signs that Hezekiah trusted to in his sickness.

These were the characteristics of those that are truly happy given by our Savior in the

beginning of his sermon on the mount. These are the things that Christ mentions, as the

true evidences of being his real disciples, in his last and dying discourse to his disciples, in

the 14th, 15th, and 16th chapters of John, and in his intercessory prayer, chap. xvii. These

are the things which the apostle Paul often speaks of as evidences of his sincerity, and sure

title to a crown of glory. And these are the things he often mentions to others, in his epistles,

as the proper evidences of real Christianity, a justified state, and a title to glory. He insists

on the fruits of the Spirit; love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

meekness, temperance; as the proper evidences of being Christ’s, and living in the Spirit:

Gal. v. 22-25. It is that charity, or divine love, which is pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be

entreated, full of mercy, &c, that he insists on, as the most essential evidence of true godliness;

without which, all other things are nothing. Such are the signs which the apostle James insists

on, as the proper evidence of a truly wise and good man: James iii. 17. “The wisdom that is

from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and

good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” And such are the signs of true

Christianity, which the apostle John insists on throughout his epistles. And we never have

anywhere in the Bible, from the beginning to the end of it, any other signs of godliness given,

than such as these. If persons have such things as these apparently in them, it ought to be

determined that they are truly converted, without its being first known what method the

Spirit of God took to introduce these things into the soul, which oftentimes is altogether

untraceable. All the works of God are in some respects unsearchable; but the Scripture often

represents the works of the Spirit of God as peculiarly so: Isa. xl. 13. “Who hath directed

the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor, hath taught him?” Eccles. xi. 5. “As thou

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knowest not what is the way of the Spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her

that is with child: so thou knowest not the works of God, who maketh all.” John iii. 8. “The

wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence

it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”

VI. It follows from my text and doctrine, that it is no certain sign of grace, that persons

have earnest desires and longings after salvation.

The devils, doubtless, long for deliverance from the misery they suffer, and from that

greater misery which they expect. If they tremble through fear of it, they must, necessarily,

earnestly desire to be delivered from it. Wicked men are, in Scripture, represented as longing

for the privileges of the righteous, when the door is shut, and they are shut out from among

them: they come to the door, and cry Lord, Lord, open to us. Therefore, we are not to look

on all desires that are very earnest and vehement, as certain evidences of a pious heart. There

are earnest desires of a religious nature, which the saints have, that are the proper breathings

of a new nature, and distinguishing qualities of true saints: but there are also longings, which

unregenerate men may have, which are often mistaken for marks of godliness. They think

they hunger and thirst after righteousness, and have earnest desires after God and Christ,

and long for heaven; when, indeed, all is to be resolved into self-love; and so is a longing

which arises from no higher principles than the earnest desires of the devils.

VII. It may be inferred from what has been observed, that persons who have no grace

may have a great apprehension of an external glory in things heavenly and divine, and of

whatsoever is external pertaining to religion.

If persons have impressed strongly on their minds ideas obtained by the external senses,

whether by the ear, as any kind of sound, pleasant music, or words spoken of excellent signification;

words of Scripture, suitable to their case, or adapted to the subject of their meditations:

or ideas obtained by the eye, as of a visible beauty and glory, a shining light, golden

streets, gates of precious stone, a most magnificent throne surrounded by angels and saints

in shining ranks: or any thing external belonging to Jesus Christ, either in his humbled state,

as hanging on the cross, with his crown of thorns, his wounds open, and blood trickling

down; or in his glorified state, with awful majesty, or ravishing beauty and sweetness in his

countenance; his face shining above the brightness of the sun, and the like: these things are

no certain signs of grace.

Multitudes that are now in hell, will have ideas of the external glory that pertains to

things heavenly, far beyond whatever any have in this world. They will see all that external

glory and beauty, in which Christ will appear at the day of judgment, when the sun shall be

turned into darkness before him; which, doubtless, will be ten thousand times greater than

ever was impressed on the imagination of either saints or sinners in this present state, or

ever was conceived by any mortal man.

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VIII. It may be inferred from the doctrine, that persons who have no grace may have a

very great and affecting sense of many divine things on their hearts.

The devil has not only a great speculative knowledge, but he has a sense of many divine

things, which deeply affects him, and is most strongly impressed on his heart. As,

1. The devils and damned souls have a great sense of the vast importance of the things

of another world. They are in the invisible world, and they see and know how great the

things of that world are: their experience teaches them in the most affecting manner. They

have a great sense of the worth of salvation, and the worth of immortal souls, and the vast

importance of those things that concern men’s eternal welfare. The parable in the latter end

of the 16th chapter of Luke teaches this, in representing the rich man in hell, as entreating

that Lazarus might be sent to his five brothers, to testify to them, lest they should come to

that place of torment. They who endure the torments of hell have doubtless a most lively

and affecting sense of the vastness of an endless eternity, and of the comparative momentariness

of this life, and the vanity of the concerns and enjoyments of time.—They are convinced

effectually, that all the things of this world, even those that appear greatest and most

important to the inhabitants of the earth, are despicable trifles, in comparison of the things

of the eternal world. They have a great sense of the preciousness of time, and of the means

of grace, and the inestimable value of the privileges which they enjoy which live under the

gospel. They are fully sensible of the folly of those that go on in sin; neglect their opportunities;

make light of the counsels and warnings of God; and bitterly lament their exceeding

folly in their own sins, by which they have brought on themselves so great and remediless

misery. When sinners, by woeful experience, know the dreadful issue of their evil way, they

will mourn at the last, saying, “How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof,

and have not obeyed the voices of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed

me!” Prov. iv. 11-13.

Therefore, however true godliness is attended with a great sense of the importance of

divine things—and it is rare that men who have no grace maintain such a sense in any steady

and persevering manner—yet it is manifest that those things are no certain evidences of

grace. Unregenerate men may have a sense of the importance of eternity, and the vanity of

time, the worth of immortal souls; the preciousness of time and the means of grace, and the

folly of the way of allowed sin. They may have such a sense of those things, as may deeply

affect them, and cause them to mourn for their own sins, and be much concerned for others;

though it be true, they have not these things in the same manner, and in all respects from

the same principles and views, as godly men have them.

2. Devils and damned men have a strong and most affecting sense of the awful greatness

and majesty of God. This is greatly made manifest in the execution of divine vengeance on

his enemies. Rom. ix. 22. “What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power

known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?” The

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devils tremble before this great and terrible God, and under a strong sense of his awful

majesty. It is greatly manifested to them and damned souls now; but shall be manifested in

a further degree, in that day when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming

fire, to take vengeance upon them; and when they shall earnestly desire to fly, and be hid

from the face of him that sits on the throne (which shall be, “because of the glory of his

majesty,” Isa. ii. 10.) and when they shall be punished with everlasting destruction, from

the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. When Christ comes at the last

day, in the glory of his Father, every eye shall see him in that glory (in this respect, they shall

see his terrible majesty), and they also that pierced him, Rev. i. 7. Both those devils, and

wicked men, which tormented and insulted him when he appeared in meanness and ignominy,

shall then see him in the glory of his Father.

It is evident, therefore, that a sense of God’s terrible majesty is no certain evidence of

saving grace: for we see that wicked men and devils are capable of it; yea, many wicked men

in this world have actually had it. This is a manifestation which God made of himself in the

sight of that wicked congregation at mount Sinai, which they saw, and with which they were

deeply affected, so that all the people in the camp trembled.

3. Devils and damned men have some kind of conviction and sense of all attributes of

God, both natural and moral, that is strong and very affecting.

The devils know God’s almighty power: they saw a great manifestation of it, when they

saw God lay the foundation of the earth, &c, and were much affected with it. They have seen

innumerable other great demonstrations of his power; as in the universal deluge, the destruction

of Sodom, the wonders of Egypt, at the Red sea, and in the wilderness; causing the sun

to stand still in Joshua’s time, and many others.—And they had a very affecting manifestation

of God’s mighty power on themselves, in casting all their hosts down from heaven into hell;

and have continual affecting experience of it, in God’s reserving them in strong chains of

darkness, and in the strong pains they feel. They will hereafter have far more affecting experience

of it, when they shall be punished from the glory of God’s power, with that mighty

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destruction in expectation of which they now tremble. So the devils have a great knowledge

of the wisdom of God: they have had unspeakably more opportunity and occasion to observe

it in the work of creation, and also in the works of providence, than any mortal man has

ever had; and have been themselves the subjects of innumerable affecting manifestations of

it, in God’s disappointing and confounding them in their most subtle devices, in so wonderful

and amazing a manner. So they see and find the infinite purity and holiness of the divine

nature, in the most affecting manner, as this appears in his infinite hatred of sin, in what

they feel of the dreadful effects of that hatred. They know already by what they suffer, and

will know hereafter to a greater degree, and far more affecting manner, that such is the opposition

of God’s nature to sin, that it is like a consuming fire, which burns with infinite

vehemence against it. They also will see the holiness of God, as exercised in his love to

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righteousness and holiness, in the glory of Christ and his church; which also will be very

affecting to devils and wicked men. And the exact justice of God will be manifested to them

in the clearest and strongest, most convincing and affecting, light, at the day of judgment;

when they will also see great and affecting demonstrations of the riches of his grace, in the

marvelous fruits of his love to the vessels of mercy; when they shall see them at the right

hand of Christ, shining as the sun in the kingdom of their Father, and shall hear the blessed

sentence pronounced upon them; and will be deeply affected with it, as seems naturally

implied in Luke xiii. 28, 29. The devils know God’s truth, and therefore they believe his

threatenings, and tremble in expectation of their accomplishment. And wicked men that

now doubt his truth, and dare not trust his word, will hereafter, in the most convincing, affecting

manner, find his word to be true in all that he has threatened, and will see that he is

faithful to his promises in the rewards of his saints. Devils and damned men know that God

is eternal and unchangeable; and therefore they despair of there ever being an end to their

misery. Therefore it is manifest, that merely persons having an affecting sense of some, or

even of all God’s attributes, is no certain sign that they have the true grace of God in their

hearts.

Object. Here possibly some may object against the force of the foregoing reasoning,

that ungodly men in this world are in exceeding different circumstances from those in which

the devils are, and from those which wicked men will be in at the day of judgment. Those

things which are visible and present to these, are now future and invisible to the other; and

wicked men in this world are in the body, that clogs and hinders the soul, and are encompassed

with objects that blind and stupify them. Therefore it does not follow, that because

the wicked in another world have a great apprehension and lively sense of such things

without grace, ungodly men in their present state may have the same.

Ans. To this I answer: It is not supposed that ever men in this life have all those things

which have been mentioned to the same degree that the devils and damned men have

them.—None supposes that ever any in this life have terrors of conscience to an equal degree

with them. It is not to be supposed that any mortal man, whether godly or ungodly, has an

equal degree of speculative knowledge with the devil. And, as was just now observed, the

wicked at the day of judgment, will have a vastly greater idea of the external glory of Christ

than ever any have in the present state. So, doubtless, they will have a far greater sense of

God’s awful greatness and terrible majesty, than any could subsist under in this frail state.

So we may well conclude, that the devils and wicked men in hell have a greater and more

affecting sense of the vastness of eternity, and (in some respects) a greater sense of the importance

of the things of another world, than any here have; and they have also longings

after salvation to a higher degree than any wicked men in this world.

But yet it is evident that men in this world may have things of the same kind with devils

and damned men; the same sort of light in the understanding; the same views and affections,

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the same sense of things, the same kind of impressions on the mind and on the heart. The

objection is against the conclusiveness of that reasoning which is the apostle’s more properly

than mine. The apostle judged it a conclusive argument against such as thought their believing

there was one God an evidence of their being gracious, that the devils believed the same. So

the argument is exactly the same against such as think they have grace, because they believe

God is a holy God, or because they have a sense of the awful majesty of God.—The same

may be observed of other things that have been mentioned. My text has reference, not only

to the act of the understandings of devils in believing, but to that affection of their hearts

which accompanies the views they have; as trembling is an effect of the affection of the heart.

Which shows, that if men have both the same views of understanding, and also the same

affections of heart, that the devils have, it is no sign of grace.

And as to the particular degree to which these things may be carried in men in this

world without grace, it appears not safe to make use of it as an infallible rule to determine

men’s state. I know not where we have any rule to go by, to fix the precise degree in which

God by his providence, or his common influences on the mind, will excite in wicked men

in this world, the same views and affections which the wicked have in another world; which,

it is manifest, the former are capable of as well as the latter, having the same faculties and

principles of soul; and which views and affections, it is evident, they often are actually the

subjects of in some degree, some in a greater and some in a less degree. The infallible evidences

of grace which are laid down in Scripture are of another kind: they are all of a holy

and spiritual nature; and therefore things of that kind which a heart that is wholly carnal

and corrupt cannot receive or experience, 1 Cor. ii. 14. I might also here add, that observation

and experience, in very many instances, seem to confirm what Scripture and reason teaches

in these things.

The second use may be of self-examination.

Let the things which have been observed put all on examining themselves, and inquiring,

whether they have any better evidences of saving grace, than such as have been mentioned.

We see how the infallible Spirit of God, in the text, plainly represents the things of which

the devils are the subjects, as no sure signs of grace. And we have now, in some instances,

observed how far the devils and damned men go, and will go, in their experience, their

knowledge of divine things, their belief of truth, their awakenings and terrors of conscience,

their conviction of guilt, and of the justice of God in their eternal dreadful damnation, their

longings after salvation, their sight of the external glory of Christ and heavenly things, their

sense of the vast importance of the things of religion, and another world; their sense of the

awful greatness and terrible majesty of God, yea, of all God’s attributes. These things may

well put us on serious self-examination, whether we have any thing to evidence our good

estate, beyond what the devils have. Christ said to his disciples, “Except your righteousness

exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the

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kingdom of heaven,” so the Spirit of Christ, in his apostle James, does in effect say, in my

text, except what you experience in your souls go beyond the experiences of the devils, ye

shall in no case enter into the kingdom of God.

Here, it may be, some will be ready to say, I have something besides all these things;

what the devils have not, even love and joy.

I answer, you may have something besides the experiences of devils, and yet nothing

beyond them. Though the experience be different, yet it may not be owning to any different

principle, but only the different circumstances under which these principles are exercised.

The principles from whence the fore-mentioned things in devils and damned men arise,

are these two, nature understanding and self-love. It is from these principles of natural understanding

and self-love, as exercised about their own dispositions and actions, and God

as their judge, that they have natural conscience, and have such convictions of conscience

as have been spoken of. It is from these principles that they have such a sense of the importance

of the things of religion, and the eternal world, and such longings after salvation. It is

from the joint exercise of these two principles that they are so sensible of the awful majesty

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of God, and of all the attributes of the divine nature, and so greatly affected with them. And

it is from these principles, joined with external sense, the wicked, at the day of judgment,

will have so great an apprehension of, and will be so greatly affected by, the external glory

of Christ and his saints. And that you have a kind of love or gratitude and joy, which devils

and damned men have not, may possibly not arise from any other principles in your heart

different from these two, but only from these principles as exercised in different circumstances.

As for instance, your being a subject of the restraining grace of God, and under

circumstances of hope. The natural understanding and self-love of devils possibly might

affect them in the same manner if they were in the same circumstances. If your love to God

has its first source from nothing else than a supposed immediate divine witness, or any

other supposed evidence, that Christ died for you in particular, and that God loves you; it

springs from no higher principles than self-love; which is a principle that reigns in the hearts

of devils. Self-love is sufficient, without grace, to cause men to love those that love them;

Luke vi. 32. “For if ye love them which love you, what thank have you? For sinners also love

those that love them.” And would not the hearts of devils be filled with great joy, if they, by

any means, should take up a confident persuasion that God had pardoned them, and was

become their friend, and that they should be delivered from that wrath of which they now

are in trembling expectation. If the devils go so far as you have heard, even in their circumstances,

being totally cast off, and given up to unrestrained wickedness, being without hope,

knowing that God is and ever will be their enemy, they suffering his wrath without mercy:

how far may we reasonably suppose they might go, in imitation of grace and pious experience,

if they had the same degree of knowledge, as clear views, and as strong conviction, under

circumstances of hope, and offers of mercy; and being the subjects of common grace, re-

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straining their corruptions, and assisting and exciting the natural principles of reason,

conscience, &c! Such things, or any thing like them, in the heart of a sinner in this world;

at the same time that he, from some strong impression on his imagination, has suddenly,

after great terrors, imbibed a confidence, that now this great God is his Friend and Father,

has released him from all the misery he feared, and has promised him eternal happiness: I

say, such things would, doubtless, vastly heighten his ecstasy of joy, and raise the exercise

of natural gratitude (that principle from whence sinners love those that love them), and

would occasion a great imitation of may graces in strong exercises. Is it any wonder then

that multitudes under such a sort of affection are deceived? Especially when they have devils

to help forward the delusion, whose great subtlety has chiefly been exercised in deceiving

mankind through all past generations.

Inquiry. Here possibly some may be ready to inquire, if there be so many things which

men may experience from no higher principles than are in the minds and hearts of devils;

what are those exercises and affections that are of a higher nature, which I must find in my

heart, and which I may justly look upon as sure signs of the saving grace of God’s Spirit?

Answer. I answer, those experiences and affections which are good evidences of grace,

differ from all that the devils have, and all that can arise from such principles as are in their

hearts, in two things, viz., their foundation and their tendency.

1. They differ in their foundation, or in that belonging to them which is the foundation

of all the rest that pertains to them, viz., an apprehension of sense of the supreme holy beauty

and comeliness of divine things, as they are in themselves, or in their own nature.

Of this the devils and damned in hell are, and for ever will be, entirely destitute. This

the devils once had, while they stood in their integrity; but they wholly lost it when they fell.

And this is the only thing that can be mentioned pertaining to the devil’s apprehension and

sense of the Divine Being, that he did lose. Nothing else belonging to the knowledge of God,

can be devised, of which he is destitute. It has been observed, that there is no one attribute

of the divine nature, but what he knows, with a strong and very affecting conviction. This

I think is evident and undeniable. But to the supreme beauty of the divine nature he is altogether

blind. He sees no more of it, than a man born perfectly blind does of colors. The great

sight he has of the attributes of God gives him an idea and strong sense of his awful majesty,

but no idea of his beauty and comeliness. Though he has seen so much of God’s wonderful

works of power, wisdom, holiness, justice, and truth, and his wonderful works of grace to

mankind, of so many thousand years, and has had occasion to observe them with the

strongest attention; yet all serves not to give him the least sense of his divine beauty. And

though the devils should continue to exercise their mighty powers of mind with the strongest

intention; and should take things in all possible views, in every order and arrangement; yet

they never will see this. So little akin is the knowledge they have of God of that kind, the

more do they hate God. That wherein the beauty of the divine nature does most essentially

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consist, viz., his holiness, or moral excellency, appears in their eyes furthest from beauty. It

is on that very account chiefly that he appears hateful to them. The more holiness they see

in him, the more hateful he appears: the greater their sight is of his holiness, the higher is

their hatred of him raised. And because of their hatred of his holiness, they hate him the

more, the more they see of his other attributes. They would hate a holy Being, whatever his

other attributes were; but they hate such a holy Being the worse, for his being infinitely wise,

and infinitely powerful, &c, more than they would do, if they saw him in less power and

less wisdom.

The wicked, at the day of judgment, will see everything else in Christ, but his beauty

and amiableness. There is no one quality or property of his person, that can be thought of,

but what will be set before them in the strongest light at that day, but only such as consist

in this. They will see him coming in the clouds of heaven, “in power, and great glory, in the

glory of his Father.” They will have that view of his external glory, which is vastly beyond

what we can imagine; and they will have the strongest and most convincing demonstrations

of all his attributes and perfections. They will have a sense of his great majesty, that will be,

as it were, infinitely affecting to them. They shall be made to know effectually, “that he is

the Lord.” They shall see what he is, and what he does; his nature and works shall appear

in the strongest view: but his infinite beauty and amiableness, which is all in all, and without

which every other property is nothing, and worse than nothing, they will not see.

Therefore in a sight or sense of this fundamentally consists the difference between the

saving grace of God’s Spirit, and the experiences of the devils and damned souls. This is the

foundation of every thing else that is distinguishing in true Christian experience. This is the

foundation of the faith of God’s elect. This gives the mind a saving belief of the truth of divine

things. It is a view of the excellency of the gospel, or sense of the divine beauty and amiableness

of the scheme of doctrine there exhibited, that savingly convinces the mind that it is

indeed divine or of God. This account of the matter is plainly implied; 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. “But

if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath

blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,

who is the image of God, should shine into them.” And, verse 6, “For God, who commanded

the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge

of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” It is very evident that a saving belief of the

gospel, is here spoken of by the apostle as arising from a view of the divine glory or beauty

of the things it exhibits. It is by this view that the soul of a true convert is enabled savingly

to see the sufficiency of Christ for his salvation. He that has his eyes opened to behold the

divine superlative beauty and loveliness of Jesus Christ, is convinced of his sufficiency to

stand as a Mediator between him, a guilty hell-deserving wretch, and an infinitely holy God,

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in an exceeding different manner than ever he can be convinced by the arguments of authors

or preachers, however excellent.

When he once comes to see Christ’s divine loveliness, he wonders no more that he is

thought worthy by God the Father to be accepted for the vilest sinner. Now it is not difficult

for him to conceive how the blood of Christ should be esteemed by God so precious as to

be worthy to be accepted as a compensation for the greatest sins. The soul now properly

sees the preciousness of Christ, and so does properly see and understand the very ground

and reason of his acceptableness to God, and the value God sets on his blood, obedience,

and intercession. This satisfies the poor guilty soul, and gives it rest, when the finest and

most elaborate discourses about the sufficiency of Christ, and suitableness of the way of

salvation, would not do it. When a man comes to see the proper foundation of faith and

affiance with his own eyes, then he believes savingly. “He that seeth the Son, and believeth

on him, hath everlasting life,” John vi. 40. When Christ thus manifests God’s name to men,

then they believe that all things whatsoever God has given to Christ are of him, and believes

that Christ was sent of God,” John xvii. 6, 8. And “they that thus know Christ’s name will

trust in him,” Psalm ix. 10. In order to true faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God is revealed

in men, Gal. i. 15, 16. And it is this sight of the divine beauty of Christ, that bows the wills,

and draws the hearts of men. A sight of the greatness of God in his attributes, may overwhelm

men, and be more than they can endure; but the enmity and opposition of the heart may

remain in its full strength, and the will remain inflexible. Whereas one glimpse of the moral

and spiritual glory of God, and the supreme amiableness of Jesus Christ shining into the

heart, overcomes and abolishes this opposition, and inclines the soul to Christ, as it were,

by an omnipotent power. So that now, not only the understanding, but the will and the

whole soul, receives and embraces the Savior. This is most certainly the discovery, which is

the first internal foundation of a saving faith in Christ in the soul of the true convert, and

not any immediate outward or inward witness, that Christ loves him, or that he died for

him in particular, and is his Savior; so begetting confidence and joy, and seeming love to

Christ, because he loves him. By such faith and conversion (demonstrably vain and counterfeit),

multitudes have been deluded. The sight of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ,

works true supreme love to God. This is a sight of the proper foundation of supreme love

to God, viz., the supreme loveliness of his nature; and a love to him on this ground is truly

above any thing that can come from a mere principle of self-love, which is in the hearts of

devils as well as men. And this begets true spiritual and holy joy in the soul, which is indeed

joy in God, and glorying in him, and not rejoicing in ourselves.

This sight of the beauty of divine things will excite true desires and longings of soul

after those things: not like the longings of devils, but natural free desires; the desires of appetite,

the thirstings of a new nature, as a new-born babe desires the mother’s breast; and

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as a hungry man longs for some pleasant food he thinks of; or as the thirsty hart pants after

the cool and clear stream.

This sense of divine beauty is the first thing in the actual change made in the soul in

true conversion, and is the foundation of every thing else belonging to that change; as is

evident by those words of the apostle, 2 Cor. iii. 18. “But we all with open face, beholding,

as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory,

even as the Spirit of the Lord.”

2. Truly gracious affections and exercises of mind differ from such as are counterfeit,

which arise from no higher principles than are in the hearts of devils, in their tendency; and

that in these two respects.

(1.) They are of a tendency and influence very contrary to that which was especially the

devil’s sin, even pride. That pride was in peculiar manner the devil’s sin, is manifest from

1 Tim. iii. 6. “Not a novice, lest, being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of

the devil.” False and delusive experiences evermore tend to this, though oftentimes under

the disguise of great and extraordinary humility. Spiritual pride is the prevailing temper

and general character of hypocrites, deluded with false discoveries and affections.—They

are in general of a disposition directly contrary to those two things belonging to the Christian

temper, directed to by the apostle; the one in Rom. xii. 16. “Be not wise in your own

conceit,” and the other in Phil. ii. 3. “Let each esteem others better than themselves.” False

experience is conceited of itself, and affected with itself. Thus he that has false humility is

much affected to think how he is abased before God. He that has false love is affected, when

he thinks of the greatness of his love. The very food and nourishment of false experience is

to view itself, and take much notice of itself; and its very breath and life is to be some way

showing itself.—Whereas truly gracious views and affections are of a quite contrary tendency.

They nourish no self-conceit; no exalting notion of the man’s own righteousness, experience,

or privileges; no high conceit of his humiliations. They incline to no ostentation, nor selfexaltation,

under any disguise whatsoever. But that sense of the supreme, holy beauty and

glory of God and Christ, which is the foundation of them, mortifies pride, and truly humbles

the soul. It not only cuts off some of the outermost branches, but it strikes at the very root

of pride; it alters the very nature and disposition of the heart. The light of God’s beauty, and

that alone, truly shows the soul its own deformity, and effectually inclines it to exalt God

and abase itself.

(2.) These gracious exercises and affections differ from the other in their tendency to

destroy Satan’s interest; and that in two respects:

First, in the person himself. They cause the soul to hate every evil and false way, and to

produce universal holiness of heart and life, disposing him to make the service of God, the

promotion of his glory and the good of mankind, the very business of his life: whereas those

false discoveries and affections have not this effect. There may indeed be a great zeal, and

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a great deal of what is called religion; but it is not a truly Christian zeal: it is not being zealous

of good works. Their religion is not the service of God; it is not seeking and serving God;

but indeed seeking and serving themselves.—Though there may be a change of life, it is not

a change from every wicked way to a uniform Christian life and practice, but only turning

the stream of corruption from one channel to another. Thus the apostle James distinguishes,

in our context, a true faith from the faith of devils; James ii. 19, 20. “Thou believest that

there is one God. The devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that

faith without works is dead?” And thus the apostle John distinguishes true communion with

God; 1 John i. 6, 7. “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we

lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship

with one another, and the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin.” By this he distinguishes

true spiritual knowledge, in verses ii. 3, 4. “Hereby we do know that we know him, if we

keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments,

is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” And hereby the same apostle distinguishes true love,

in verses iii. 18, 19. “Let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed (in work, as the

word signifies) and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure

our hearts before him.”

2. Truly gracious experiences have a tendency to destroy Satan’s interest in the world.

When false religion, consisting in the counterfeits of the operations of the Spirit of God,

and in high pretences and great appearances of inward experimental religion, prevails among

a people—though for the present it may surprise many, and may be the occasion of alarming

and awakening some sinners—tends greatly to wound and weaken the cause of vital religion,

and to strengthen the interest of Satan, desperately to harden the hearts of sinners, exceedingly

to fill the world with prejudice against the power of godliness, to promote infidelity

and licentious principles and practices, to build up and make strong the devil’s kingdom in

the world, more than open vice profaneness, or professed atheism, or public persecution,

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and perhaps more than any thing else whatsoever.

But it is not so with true religion in its genuine beauty.—That, if it prevails in great

power, will doubtless excite the rage of the devil, and many other enemies of religion.

However, it gives great advantage to its friends, and exceedingly strengthens their cause,

and tends to convince or confound their enemies. True religion is a divine light in the souls

of the saints; and as it shines out in the conversation before men, it tends to induce others

to glorify God. There is nothing like it (as to means) to awaken the consciences of men, to

convince infidels, and to stop the mouths of gainsayers.—Though men naturally hate the

power of godliness, yet when they see the fruits of it, there is a witness in their consciences

in its favor. “He that serveth Christ in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost,

is acceptable to God, and approved of men,” Rom. xiv. 17, 18. The prevailing of true religion

ever tends to its honor in the world, though it commonly is the occasion of great persecution.

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It is a sure thing, the more it appears and is exemplified in the view of the world, the more

will its honor, and the honor of its author, be advanced. Phil. i. 11. “Being filled with the

fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God.”

The third use may be of exhortation, to seek those distinguishing qualifications and affections

of soul which neither the devil, nor any unholy being, has or can have.

How excellent is that inward virtue and religion which consists in those! Herein consists

the most excellent experiences of saints and angels in heaven. Herein consists the best experience

of the man Christ Jesus, whether in his humbled or glorified state. Herein consists

the image of God.—Yea, this is spoken of in Scripture as a communication of something of

God’s own beauty and excellency. A participation of the divine nature, 2 Peter i. 4. A partaking

of his holiness, Heb. xii. 10. A partaking of Christ’s fullness, John i. 16. Hereby the saints

are filled with all the fullness of God, Eph. iii. 18, 19. Hereby they have fellowship with both

the Father and the Son, 1 John i. 3. that is, they communicate with them in their happiness.

Yea, by means of this divine virtue, there is a mutual indwelling of God and the saints; 1

John iv. 16. “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.”

This qualification must render the person that has it excellent and happy indeed, and

doubtless is the highest dignity and blessedness of any creature. This is the peculiar gift of

God, which he bestows only on his special favorites. As to silver, gold, and diamonds, earthly

crowns and kingdoms, he often throws them out to those whom he esteems as dogs and

swine; but this is the peculiar blessing of his dear children. This is what flesh and blood

cannot impart. God alone can bestow it. This was the special benefit which Christ died to

procure for his elect, the most excellent token of his everlasting love; the chief fruit of his

great labors, and the most precious purchase of his blood.

By this, above all other things, do men glorify God. By this, above all other things, do

the saints shine as lights in the world, and are blessings to mankind. And this, above all

things, tends to their own comfort; from hence arises that “peace which passeth all understanding,”

and that “joy which is unspeakable and full of glory.” And this is that which will

most certainly issue in the eternal salvation of those who have it. It is impossible that the

soul possessing it should sink and perish. It is an immortal seed; it is eternal life begun; and

therefore they that have it can never die. It is the dawning of the light of glory. It is the daystar

risen in the heart, that is a sure forerunner of that sun’s rising which will bring on an

everlasting day. This is that water which Christ gives, which is in him that drinks it “a well

of water springing up into everlasting life,” John iv. 14. It is something from heaven, of a

heavenly nature, and tends to heaven. And those that have it, however they may now wander

in a wilderness, or be tossed to and fro on a tempestuous ocean, shall certainly arrive in

heaven at last, where this heavenly spark shall be increased and perfected, and the souls of

the saints all be transformed into a bright and pure flame, and they shall shine forth as the

sun in the kingdom of their Father. Amen.

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