Sixth Argument.
Are not these plain proofs that man, who, according to his superior rank and primitive excellency, should in all things have the pre-eminence, is now a degraded being, cursed for his apostasy with native uncleanliness, helplessness, ignorance, and nakedness, above all other animals? SIXTH ARGUMENT.
Man’s natural ignorance, great as it is, might nevertheless be overlooked, if he had but the right knowledge of his Creator. But, alas! the holy and righteous God judicially withdraws himself from his unholy, apostate creatures. Man is not properly acquainted with Him “in whom he lives, and moves, and hath his being.” This humbling truth may be demonstrated by the following observations:—
God is infinitely perfect; all the perfection which is found in the most exalted Creatures, is but the reflection of the transcendent effulgence belonging to that glorious Sun of spiritual beauty; it is but the surface of the unfathomable depths of goodness and loveliness, which regenerate souls discover in that boundless ocean of all excellence. If therefore men saw God, they could far less help being struck with holy awe, overwhelmed with pleasing wonder, and ravished with delightful admiration; than a man born blind, and restored to sight in the blaze of a summer’s day, could help being transported at the glory of the new and unexpected scene: “Could we but see virtue in all her beauty,” said a heathen, “she would ravish our hearts.”f19 How much greater would our ravishment be if we were indulged with a clear, immediate discovery of the Divine beauty, the eternal original of all virtue, the exuberant fountain of all perfection and delight! But, alas! how few thus behold, know, and admire God, may easily be seen by the impious or vain conduct of mankind. If a multitude of men ingenuously confess they know not the king; if they take his statue, or one of his attendants for him; or, if they doubt whether there be a king, or sport with his name and laws in his presence; we reasonably conclude that they neither see nor know the royal person. And is not this the case of the superstitious, who, like the Athenians, worship an “unknown God?” Of idolaters, who bow to favourite mortals, or lifeless images, as to the true God? Of infidels who doubt the very being of a God? And of open sinners, the bulk of mankind, who live every where as if there was none?
Our natural ignorance of God manifests itself still more evidently, by the confessions both of real and nominal Christians. The former, before they knew God, and were admitted to “behold his glory shining in the face of Jesus Christ,” bitterly complained as Isaiah, “Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself;” or mournfully asked with David, “How long wilt thou hide thy face from me?” It is plain, then, that by nature they were as others, “without God (practical Atheists) in the world,” and have as much reason as St. Paul to declare, that “the world by wisdom knew not God.” As for nominal Christians, though they daily pray that “the fellowship of the Holy Ghost may be with us all,” it is evident they are utter strangers to communion with God by his Holy Spirit. For if we affirm that he blesses his children with a spiritual discovery of his presence, and “manifests himself to them as he doth not to the world” they say we are mad, or call us enthusiasts. This behaviour shows, beyond all confessions, that they are totally unacquainted with “the light of God’s countenance:” for, what greater proof can a blind man give, that he has no knowledge of the sun, than to suspect his neighbour of lunacy, for affirming that sunshine is a delightful reality?
From this moral demonstration of our natural ignorance of God, I draw the following conclusion:—If the Lord, who is a mild and condescending King to all his loyal subjects, a Father, full of endearing and tender love to all his dutiful children, hides his face from mankind in a natural state; and if what little they know of him is only by conjecture, hearsay, or inference;f20 it is a proof that they are under his displeasure, and consequently that they are rebellious, fallen creatures.
For what but rebellion could thus separate between beings so nearly related as an infinitely gracious Creator, and favourite creature, whose soul is, according to a heathen, “divinæ particula auræ;” and according to Moses, “the very breath of God?” We may then rationally conclude, with the evangelical prophet, that “our iniquities have separated between us and our God,” and that “our sins have hid his face from us,” eclipsed the Sun of righteousness, and brought such darkness on our souls, that, by nature, we know neither what we are, nor what we should be; neither whence we come, nor whither we are going; neither the grand business we have to do, nor the danger that attends our leaving it undone.