not so much of the guilt as of the misery. I have sometimes read sermons upon the inclination of the sinner to evil, in which it has been very powerfully proven, and certainly the pride of human nature has been well humbled and brought low; but one thing always strikes me, if it is left out, as being a very great omission, that is — the doctrine that man is guilty in all these things. If his heart is against God, we ought to tell him it is his sin; and if he cannot repent, we ought to show him that sin is the sole cause of his disability — that all his alienation from God is sin — that as long as he keeps from God it is sin. I fear many of us here must acknowledge that we do not charge the sin of it to our own consciences. Yes, say we, we have many corruptions. Oh! yes. But we sit down very contented. My brethren, we ought not to do so. The having those corruptions is our crime, which should be confessed as an enormous evil; and if I, as a minister of the Gospel, do not press home the sin of the thing, I have missed what is the very virus of it. I have left out the very essence, if I have not shown that it is a crime. Now, “the carnal mind is enmity against God.” What a sin it is! This will appear in two ways. Consider the relation in which we stand to God, and then remember what God is; and after I have spoken of these two things, I hope, you will see, indeed, that it is a sin to be at enmity with God.
20. What is God to us? He is the creator of the heavens and the earth; he bears up the pillars of the universe; his breath perfumes the flowers; his pencil paints them; he is the author of this fair creation; “we are the sheep of his pasture; he has made us, and not we ourselves.” He stands to us in the relationship of a Maker and Creator; and from that fact he claims to be our King. He is our legislator, our lawmaker; and then, to make our crime still worse and worse, he is the ruler of providence; for it is he who keeps us from day to day. He supplies our wants; he keeps the breath within our nostrils; he bids the blood still pursue its course through the veins; he holds us in life, and prevents us from death; he stands before us, our creator, our king, our sustainer, our benefactor; and I ask, is it not a sin of enormous magnitude — is it not high treason against the emperor of heaven — is it not an awful sin, the depth of which we cannot fathom with the line of all our judgment — that we, his creatures, dependent upon him, should be at enmity with God?
21. But the crime may be seen to be worse when we think of what God is. Let me appeal personally to you in an interrogative style, for this has weight with it. Sinner! why are you at enmity with God? God is the God of love; he is kind to his creatures; he regards you with his love of benevolence; for this very day his sun has shone upon you, this day you have had food and raiment, and you have come up here in health and strength. Do you hate God because he loves you? Is that the reason? Consider how many mercies you have received at his hands all your lives long! You are born with a body not deformed; you have had a tolerable share of health; you have been recovered many times from sickness; when lying at the gates of death; his arm has held back your soul from the last step to destruction. Do you hate God for all this? Do you hate him because he spared your life by his tender mercy? Behold his goodness that he has spread before you! He might have sent you to hell; but you are here. Now, do you hate God for sparing you? Oh, why are you at enmity with him? My fellow creature, do you not know that God sent his Son from his bosom, hung him on the tree, and there suffered him to die for sinners, the just for the unjust? and do you hate God for that? Oh, sinner, is this the cause of your enmity? Are you so estranged that you give enmity for love? And when he surrounds you with favours, girds you with mercies, encircles you with lovingkindness, do you hate him for this? He might say as Jesus did to the Jews: “For which of these works do you stone me?” For which of these works do you hate God? Did an earthly benefactor feed you, would you hate him? Did he clothe you, would you abuse him to his face? Did he give you talents, would you turn those powers against him? Oh, speak! Would you forge the iron and strike the dagger into the heart of your best friend? Do you hate your mother who nursed you on her knee? Do you curse your father who so wisely watched over you? Indeed, you say, we have some little gratitude towards earthly relatives. Where are your hearts, then? Where are your hearts, that you can still despise God, and be at enmity with him? Oh! diabolical crime! Oh! satanic enormity! Oh! iniquity for which words fail in description! to hate the all lovely — to despise the essentially good — to abhor the constantly merciful — to spurn the ever beneficent — to scorn the kind the gracious one; above all, to hate the God who sent his Son to die for man! Ah! in that thought — “the carnal mind is enmity against God,” — there is something which may make us shake; for it is a terrible sin to be at enmity with God. I would I could speak more powerfully, but my Master alone can impress upon you the enormous evil of this horrid state of heart.
22. IV. But there are one or two doctrines which we will try to deduce from this. Is the carnal mind at “enmity against God?” Then salvation cannot be by merit; it must be by grace. If we are at enmity with God, what merit can we have? How can we deserve anything from the being we hate? Even if we were pure as Adam, we could not have any merit; for I do not think Adam had any desert before his Creator. When he had kept all his Master’s law, he was but an unprofitable servant; he had done no more than he ought to have done; he had no surplus — no balance. But since we have become enemies, how much less can we hope to be saved by works! Oh, no; the whole Bible tells us, from beginning to end, that salvation is not by the works of the law, but by the deeds of grace. Martin Luther declared that he constantly preached justification by faith alone, “because,” said he, “the people would forget it; so that I was obliged almost to knock my Bible against their heads, to send it into their hearts.” So it is true, we constantly forget that salvation is by grace alone. We always want to be putting in some little scrap of our own virtue; we want to be doing something. I remember a saying of old Matthew Wilkes: “Saved by your works! you might as well try to go to America in a paper boat!” Saved by your works! It is impossible! Oh no; the poor legalist is like a blind horse going around and around the mill, or like the prisoner going up the treadmill, and finding himself no higher after all he has done; he has no solid confidence, no firm ground to rest upon. He has not done enough — “never enough.” Conscience always says, “this is not perfection; it ought to have been better.” Salvation for enemies must be by an ambassador — by an atonement — yes, by Christ.
23. Another doctrine we gather from this is, the necessity of an entire change of our nature. It is true that by birth we are at enmity with God. How necessary then it is, that our nature should be changed! there are few people who sincerely believe this. They think that if they cry “Lord, have mercy upon me,” when they lie dying, they shall go to heaven directly. Let me suppose an impossible case for a moment. Let me imagine a man entering heaven without a change of heart. He comes within the gates. He hears a sonnet. He starts! It is to the praise of his enemy. He sees a throne, and on it sits one who is glorious; but it is his enemy. He walks streets of gold, but those streets belong to his enemy. He sees hosts of angels; but those hosts are the servants of his enemy. He is in an enemy’s house; for he is at enmity with God. He could not join the song, for he would not know the tune. There he would stand; silent, motionless; until Christ should say, with a voice louder than ten thousand thunders, “What do you here? Enemies at a marriage banquet? Enemies in the children’s house? Enemies in heaven? Get you gone! ‘depart you cursed, into everlasting fire in hell!’ ” Oh! sirs, if the unregenerate man could enter heaven, I mention once more the often repeated saying of Whitfield, he would be so unhappy in heaven, that he would ask God to let him run down into hell for shelter. There must be a change, if you consider the future state; for how can enemies to God ever sit down at the banquet of the Lamb?
24. And to conclude, let me remind you — and it is in the text after all — that this change must be worked by a power beyond your own. An enemy may possibly make himself a friend; but enmity cannot. If it is only an adjunct of his nature to be an enemy he may change himself into a friend; but if it is the very essence of his existence to be enmity, positive enmity, enmity cannot change itself. No, there must be something done more than we can accomplish. This is just what is forgotten in these days. We must have more preaching of the Holy Spirit, if we are to have more conversion work. I tell you, sirs, if you change yourselves, and make yourselves better, and better, and better, a thousand times, you will never be good enough for heaven, until God’s Spirit has laid his hand upon you; until he has renewed the heart, until he has