subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. An exposition by Robert Haldane. The word rendered carnal mind, or as it may be rendered, minding of the flesh, comprehends the acts both of the understanding and of the will. Some render it the prudence or wisdom of the flesh, or the wise thoughts, The carnal mind, in its wisest thoughts, is rooted in enmity against God. This is the reason why the carnal mind is punished with death. The mind of the flesh, or of man in his unconverted state, walking according to the flesh, in its best as well as in its worst character, however moral in conduct, whether seeking acceptance with God by its own services, or following altogether the course of this world and its sinful practices, is not merely an enemy, but enmity itself against God in de-understanding will and affections. Every man whose heart is set on this world hates God, 1 John 2.15. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. And the heart of every one who has not been renewed in his mind by the Spirit of God is set on this world. Such men hate the holiness of God, His justice, His sovereignty, and even His mercy in the way in which it is exercised. Men of this character, however, have no notion that they hate God, nay, many of them profess to love Him, but God's testimony is that they are His enemies, and His testimony is to be taken against the testimony of all men. This, however, does not suppose that men may not imagine that they love God, but it is not the true God whom they are regarding, but a God of their own imagination, a God all mercy, and therefore a God unjust. while they abhor the just God and the Savior, who is the God of the Scriptures. He that cometh to God must believe that he is, Hebrews 11.6, he must believe that he is what he is. For it is not subject to the law of God. The carnal mind is not under subjection to the law of God. Whatever it may do to obtain salvation or avoid wrath, it does it not from subjection to the law. It has a rooted aversion to the spiritual law of God, and admits not its claim to perfect and unceasing obedience. All his performances in the way of religion spring from selfish motives, in a hope that, on account of these doings, it will be accepted, whereas the holy law of God utterly rejects all such service. So far from giving the law all it demands, the carnal mind gives it nothing, nothing which it does constitutes obedience to the law. The law does not in any degree or in any instance recognize the works of the carnal mind as obedience. to its requirements. Not only is it a matter of fact that the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, but such subjection is impossible. Sin cannot be in subjection to the law. This would be a contradiction in terms. For so far as it would be subject to the law of God, it would be holy. If, then, sin is essentially, and in direct terms, contrary to holiness, the sinful nature can never yield subjection to the holy law. Men may speculate about metaphysical possibilities, but whatever explanation may be given of the matter, the decision of the inspired apostle determines that the thing is impossible. That an unconverted man cannot be subject to the law of God appears to many a hard saying, but it is the uniform doctrine of the word of God. All men in their natural state, although they boast that they are free, are the slaves of sin. When Jesus addressing the Jews who professed to believe in Him, but who understood not His doctrine, said to them, Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free, they answered, We were never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou ye shall be made free? In the same manner the unconverted boast of their freedom. They affirm that their will is free, and that is they can choose the evil so they can choose the good. If by this freedom they intend that they can choose without any external force constraining or preventing them, it is true that, in this sense, they are free. But a moral agent chooses according to his inclinations or dispositions. It should always be recollected that the will is the will of the mind and the judgment of the mind. It is the mind that judges and that wills. A fool judges foolishly, a wicked man judges wickedly, a good man wills that which is good. In scripture it is said that God cannot deny himself, that he cannot lie. His nature being perfectly holy, it is impossible that he can do what is wrong. On the other hand, the wicked and condemned spirits cannot choose what is holy. When the devil speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. Man therefore, in his carnal state, chooses what is evil, but he cannot choose what is good, not indeed because of any external obstruction, for in that case he would not be criminal, but by reason of the opposition of his perverse dispositions. He is inclined to do evil, and evil he will do. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots, then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil. His language is, I have loved strangers, and after them I will go. As for the word that thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. My people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would have none of me. They say unto God, Depart from us, depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. We will not have this man to reign over us. Let us break their bands asunder and cast their cords from us. It is thus that wickedness proceedeth from the wicked. Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. How can ye believe which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only? No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him. Therefore, said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken. How can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive. Why do you not understand my speech? Even because he cannot hear my word. No man can say Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. According then to Scripture, the natural man is entirely incapable of choosing what is good, although it is his duty, and therefore fit that it should be enjoined on him. He is ungodly, a sinner, an enemy to God, and without strength. Romans 5, 6 and 10. Men in this state are represented as walking according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, as being under the power of Satan, and taken captives by him at his will. They are his lawful captives, because they are so voluntarily. From this slavery they cannot be free, but by means of the word of God, the sword of the spirit. which the Lord employs, granting to those to whom it seemeth good to him the blessing of regeneration, distributing his gifts, and dividing to every man severally as he will. It is God who hath delivered us, says the Apostle, from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son, who worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. When God proposes to do good to men, He fulfills to them this gracious promise, I will give them a heart to know Me. It was this preparation of heart that David prayed to God to grant to his son Solomon. At the same time, he acknowledged with gratitude that his own willingness to offer to God, of which he was conscious and that of his people, were from him. After celebrating the praises of Jehovah, David says, But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee. O LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of Thy people, and prepare their hearts unto The First Chronicles 29 10-18. There is nothing to prevent men from obeying the will of God but their own depraved dispositions and aversion to the things of God. The natural faculties of men would be sufficient to enable them to do what He commands if they employed them properly. If they employ them otherwise, the fault rests exclusively with themselves. And as the corruption of our nature does not deprive a man of any of his natural faculties, or of perfect liberty to act conformably to the decision of his own mind, the obligation under which he lies to do right continues in full force. From this we see, first, how justly God punishes men for their crimes, who, unless inclined and enabled by His grace, cannot liberate themselves from the slavery of sin, and, further, that the inability of men to obey God, not being natural, but moral inability, cannot deprive God of the right to command obedience under the pain of His most awful displeasure. On this subject, the distinction between natural and moral inability should always be kept in view. Natural inability consists in a defect in the mind or body which deprives a man of the power of knowing or doing anything, however desirous he may be of knowing or doing it. Natural inability, then, can never render a man criminal. Moral inability consists in an aversion to anything so great that the mind, even when acting freelyâ€"that is, without any external impulse or constraintâ€"cannot overcome it. When this aversion exists as to what is good, it is inseparable from blame, and the greater this aversion is, the greater is the criminality. All men are daily accustomed to make these distinctions, and according to this rule they constantly form their opinion of the conduct of others. In the nature of things, it is impossible that the justice of God can ever demand of reasonable creatures less than perfect obedience. To say that the moral inability of man to obey the law of God destroys or weakens in the smallest degree his obligation to obey that law is to add insult to rebellion. For what is that moral inability? It is, as has been observed, no other than aversion to God, the depraved inclination of the carnal mind, which not only entertains and cherishes enmity against God, but is itself that enmity. And let it not be said that the view the Scriptures give of the natural depravity of men and of the sovereign and efficacious grace of God reduces them to the condition of machines. Between men and machines there is this essential difference, and it is enough for us to know that man is a voluntary agent, both in the state of nature and of grace. He wills and acts according to his own dispositions, while machines have neither thought nor will. As long, then, as a man's will is depraved and opposed to God, his conduct will be bad. He will fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And, on the other hand, when God gives the sinner a new disposition and a new spirit, his conduct will undergo a corresponding change. The liberty of a moral agent consists in the power of acting conformably to his choice. Every action performed without external constraint and in pursuance of the determination of the soul itself is a free action. The soul is determined by motif, but we constantly see the same motifs acting diversely on different minds. Many do not act conformably to the motifs of which they yet acknowledge all the force. This failure of the motif proceeds from obstacles opposed by the corruption of the heart and understanding. But God, in giving a new heart and a new spirit, takes away these obstacles, and in removing them, far from depriving a man of liberty, removes that which hindered him from acting freely and from following the light of his conscience, and thus, as the Scriptures express it, makes him free. The will of man without divine grace is not free, but enslaved and willing to be so. Is it objected that if a man be so entirely corrupt that he cannot do what is right, he should not be blamed for doing evil? To this it is sufficient to reply that if there be any force in the objection, the more a voluntary agent is diabolically wicked, the more innocent he should be considered. A creature is not subject to blame if he is not a voluntary agent, but if he be so, and if his dispositions and his will were absolutely wicked, he would certainly be incapable of doing good, and according to the above argument he could not be blamed for doing evil. On this ground the devil must be excused, nay, held perfectly innocent in his desperate and irreconcilable enmity against God. A consequence so monstrous totally destroys the force of the objection whence it is deduced. But if the objection be still pressed, if anyone shall proudly demand, Who hath resisted his will? Why hath he made me thus? The only proper answer is that of the apostle. Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replyest against God? Some, indeed, taking a different and a most common view of this matter, deny the innate depravity of their nature. And, in spite of all that the Scriptures declare on this subject, persist in maintaining that they have not an inclination to evil, and are under no moral incapacity to do what is right. To such persons the same reply should be made as that of our Lord to the ignorant young man who asked Him what he should do to inherit eternal life. If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. If you cannot refuse to admit that this is your duty, you ought to love God with all your heart and soul and strength, and in all things constantly obey Him. Have you done so? No? Then on your own principles you are justly condemned, for you say that you can do what is right, and yet you have not done it. If, then, you will not submit unconditionally and without reserve to to be saved in the way which the gospel points out, in which you learn at once your malady, and the remedy of which you stand in need, your blood will be upon your own head. Now you say, we see, therefore your sin remaineth The whole, then, resolves itself into this, that all is according to the good pleasure of God. Either make the tree good, and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt, for the tree is known by his fruit. Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. You shall know them by their fruits. Every man, then, being by nature bad, must be made good before he can do good. In this, and the two preceding verses, we observe the strong and expressive and accumulated terms in which the apostle describes the alienation of the natural man from God. First, he declares that they who walk after the flesh mind the things of the flesh. Second, that the minding of the flesh is death. Third, that the carnal mind is enmity against God. Fourth, that it is not subject to the law of God. Fifth, that so great is the corruption of the carnal mind that this is impossible. From the passage before us we learn how miserable the state of man is by nature, since even his wisdom and intelligence in his unconverted state is enmity against God, so that he cannot submit himself to His law. We learn, too, that the ability both to will and to do anything good must be from God. We should abhor His compassion and mercy to us if our natural enmity against Him has been subdued, and we have been reconciled to God by the death of His Son. In proportion to the greatness of this compassion, we should place our entire confidence in Him as our covenant God. For if when we were enmity against Him, He loved us, how much more now that we are reconciled in His children. And since there are still remains of the flesh and enmity against God and His holy law in our minds, we ought to deny ourselves daily and flee to Him who can and will entirely deliver us from the body of this death. For the wages of sin is death. Here, as in the conclusion of the preceding chapter, death is contrasted with eternal life. Sin is a service or slavery, and its reward is death or eternal misery. As death is the greatest evil in this world, so the future punishment of the wicked is called death figuratively, or the second death. In this sense, death is frequently spoken of in Scripture as when our Lord says, Whosoever believeth on me shall never die. Death is a just recompense of sin. The Apostle does not add, but the wages of obedience is eternal life. This is not the doctrine of the Scripture. He adds, but the gift of God is eternal life. The gift that God bestows is eternal life. He bestows no less upon any of His people, and it is the greatest gift that can be bestowed. Dr. Gill on this passage remarks, quote, these words at first sight look as if the sense of them was that eternal life is a gift of God through Christ, which is a great and glorious truth of the gospel. But their standing in opposition to the preceding words require another sense, namely, that God's gift of grace issues an eternal life through Christ. Wherefore, by the gift of God is not meant eternal life, but either the gift of a justifying righteousness, or the grace of God in regeneration and sanctification, or both, which issue in eternal life. This remark does not appear to be well founded. The wages of sin do not issue in death or lead to it, but the wages of sin is death. Death is asserted to be the wages of sin and not to be another issue to which the wages of sin lead. And the gift of God is not said to issue in eternal life, but to be eternal life. Eternal life is the gift here spoken of. It is not, as Dr. Gill represents, eternal life is the gift of God, but the gift of God is eternal life. The meaning of these two propositions, though nearly alike, are not entirely coincident. The common version is perfectly correct. Both of the propositions might with truth be rendered convertible, but as they are expressed by the Apostle, they are not convertible, and we should receive the expression as it stands. No doubt the gift of righteousness issues in eternal life, but it is the gift of eternal life itself, and not of the gift of righteousness, that the Apostle is here speaking, and the Apostle's language should not be pressed into a meaning which is foreign to its design. Life and death are set before us in the Scriptures. On the one hand, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish. On the other, glory and honor and peace. To one or other of these states, every child of Adam will finally be consigned. To both of them, in the concluding verse of this chapter, our attention is directed, and the grounds on which never-ending misery or everlasting blessedness will be awarded are expressly declared. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. The punishment of that death, which was the threat and penalty of the first transgression, will, according to Scripture, consist in the pains both of privation and suffering. Its subjects will not only be bereaved of all that is good, they will also be overwhelmed with all that is terrible. As the chief good of the creature is the enjoyment of the love of God, how great must be the punishment of being deprived of his sense of love, and oppressed with the consciousness of his hatred. The condemned will be entirely divested of every token of the protection and blessing of God, and visited with every proof of his wrath and indignation. According to the awful declaration of the Apostle, they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, in that day when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. This punishment will be adapted to both the component parts of man's nature, to the soul as well as to the body. It will connect all the ideas of the past, the present, and the future. As to the past, it will bring to the recollection of the wicked the sins they committed, the goods they abused, and the false pleasures by which they were deluded. As to the present, their misery will be aggravated by their knowledge of the glory of the righteous, from which they themselves are forever separated, and by the direful company of the devil and his angels, to the endurance of whose cruel slavery they are forever doomed. As to the future, the horrors of their irreversible condition will be rendered more insupportable by the overwhelming conviction of its eternity. To the whole must be added that rage against God, whom they will hate as their enemy without any abatement or diminution. It is not to be questioned that there will be degrees in the punishment of the wicked. This is established by our Lord Himself when He declares that it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for the Jews. The punishment being the effect of divine justice, the necessary proportion between crime and suffering will be observed. And if some crimes are greater and more aggravated than others, there will be a difference in the punishment inflicted. In one view, indeed, all sins are equal, because equally, offenses against God and transgressions of His law. But in another view, they differ from each other. Sin is a degree proportion not only to the want of love to God and man which it displays, but likewise to the manner in which it is perpetrated. Murder is more aggravated than theft, and the sins against the second table of the law are less heinous than those committed against the first. Sins likewise vary in degree according to the knowledge of him who commits them. and inasmuch as one is carried into full execution, and another remains but in thought or purpose. The difference in the degree of punishment will not consist, however, in what belongs to privation, for in this it must be equal to all, but in those sufferings which will be positively inflicted by God. Our Lord three times in one discourse repeats that awful declaration, Their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. The term fire presents the idea of the intensity of the wrath or vengeance of God. It denotes that the sufferings of the condemned sinner are such as the body experiences from material fire, and that entire desolation which accompanies is devouring flames. Fire, however, consumes the matter on which it acts, and is thus itself extinguished. But it is not so with those who shall be delivered over to that fire which is not quenched. they will be upheld in existence by divine justice as the subjects on which it will ever be displayed. The expression, their worm dieth not, indicates a continuance of pain and putrefaction such as the gnawing of worms would produce. If fire is extinguished when its fuel is consumed, in the same way the worm dies when the subject on which it subsists is destroyed. But here it is represented as never dying because the persons of the wicked are supported for the endurance of this punishment. In employing these figures, the Lord seems to refer to the two methods in which the bodies of the dead were in former times confined to darkness and oblivion, either by incrimation or interment. In the first, they were consumed by fire, in the second devoured by worms. The final punishment of the enemies of God is likewise represented by their being cast into the lake, which burneth with fire and brimstone. This imports the multitude of griefs with which the wicked will be overwhelmed. What emblem can more strikingly portray the place of torment than the tossing waves, not merely of a flood of waters, but of liquid fire? And what can describe more awfully the intensity of the sufferings of those who are condemned than the image of that brimstone by which the fierceness of fire is augmented? These expressions, their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, to which it is added, for everyone shall be salted with fire, preclude every idea either of annihilation or of a future restoration to happiness. Under the law, the victims offered in sacrifice were appointed to be salted with salt called the Salt of the Covenant, Leviticus 2.13. Salt is an emblem of incorruptibility, and if employment enough, the perpetuity of the covenant of God with His people. In the same manner, all the sacrifices to His justice will be salted with fire. Every sinner will be preserved by the fire itself, becoming thereby incorruptible and fitted to endure those torments to which he is destined. The just vengeance of God will render incorruptible the children of wrath, whose misery, any more than the blessedness of the righteous, will never come to an end. The Son of Man, said Jesus, goeth as it is written of him. But woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It had been good for that man if he had not been born. If the punishment of the wicked in the future state were to terminate in a period, however And were it to be followed with eternal happiness, what is here affirmed of Judas would not be true. A great gulf is fixed between the abodes of blessedness and misery, and every passage from the one to the other is forever barred. The punishment, then, of the wicked will be eternal, according to the figures employed, as well as to the express declarations of Scripture. Sin, being committed against the infinity of God, merits an infinite punishment. In the natural order of justice, this punishment ought to be infinitely great. But as that is impossible, since the creature is incapable of suffering pain in an infinite degree, infinity in greatness is compensated by infinity in duration. The punishment, then, is finite in itself, and on this account it is capable of being inflicted in a greater or less degree, but as it is eternal it bears the same proportion to the greatness of him who is offended. The metaphors and comparisons employed in Scripture to describe the intensity of the punishment of the wicked are calculated deeply to impress the sentiment of the awful nature of that final retribution. Tophet is ordained of old, yea, for the king it is prepared. He hath made it deep and large, the pile thereof is fire and much wood. The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it. Isaiah 30 verse 33 While the doctrine of eternal happiness is generally admitted, the eternity of future punishment is doubted by many. The declarations, however, of the Holy Scriptures respecting both are equally explicit. Concerning each of them, the very same expressions are used. they shall go away into everlasting, literally eternal punishment. But the righteous unto life eternal. Matthew 25, 46. Owing to the hardness of their hearts, men are insensible to the great evil of sin. Hence, the threatenings of future punishment, according to the word of God, shock all their prejudices and seem to them unjust, and such as never can be realized. The tempter said to the woman, He shall not surely die, although God had declared it. In the same way, that malignant deceiver now suggests that the doctrine of eternal punishment, although written as with a sunbeam in the book of God, although expressly affirmed by the Savior in the description of the Last Judgment, and so often repeated by Him during His abode on earth, is contrary to every idea that man ought to entertain of the goodness and mercy of God. He conceals from his votaries the fact that if God is merciful, He is also just, and that while forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, He will by no means clear the guilty. Some who act as His servants in promoting this delusion have admitted that the Scriptures do indeed threaten everlasting punishment to transgressors, but they say that God employs such threatenings as avail to determine from sin, while He by no means intends their execution. The veil, then, which God has provided is, according to them, too transparent to answer the purpose He designs, and they, in their superior wisdom, have been able to penetrate it. And this is one of their apologies for the Bible, with the design of making its doctrines more palatable to the world. On their own principles, then, they are chargeable with doing all in their power to frustrate what they affirm to be a provision of mercy. Shall men, however eminent in the world, be for a moment listened to, who stand confessedly guilty of conduct so impious? Infinitely great are the obligations of believers to that grace by which they have been made to differ from others, to flee to the refuge set before them in the gospel, and to wait for the Son of God from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. The declaration of the wrath of God is a fit preparation for the announcement of grace, not only because wrath necessarily precedes grace in the order of nature, but because to dispose men to resort to grace they must be affected with the dread of wrath and the sense of their danger. The wrath of God denotes his vengeance, by ascribing, as is usual in Scripture, the passions of men to God. It implies no emotion in God, but has reference to the judgment and feeling of the sinner who is punished. It is the universal voice of nature, and is also revealed in the consciences of men. It was revealed when the sentence of death was first pronounced, the earth cursed, and the man driven out of the earthly paradise. and afterwards by such examples of punishment as those of the deluge, and the destruction of the cities of the plain by fire from heaven, but especially by the rain of death throughout the world. It was proclaimed in the curse of the law on every transgression, and was intimated in the institution of sacrifice and in all the services of the mosaic dispensation. In the eighth chapter of this epistle, the apostle calls the attention of believers to the fact that the whole creation has become subject to vanity, and groaneth and travaileth together in pain. The same creation which declares that there is a God, and publishes His glory, also proves that He is the enemy of sin, and the avenger of the crimes of men. so that this revelation of wrath is universal throughout the world, and non-complete ignorance of it. But above all, the wrath of God was revealed from heaven when the Son of God came down to manifest the divine character. And when that wrath was displayed in His sufferings and death in a manner more awful than by all the tokens God had before given of His displeasure against sin, Besides this, the future and eternal punishment of the wicked is now declared in terms more solemn and explicit than formally. Under the new dispensation, there are two revelations given from heaven, one of wrath, the other of grace. The wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Here the Apostle proceeds to describe the awful state of the Gentiles, living under the revelation of nature, but destitute of the knowledge of the grace of God revealed in the Gospel. He begins with accusing the whole heathen world first of ungodliness and next of unrighteousness. He proved that, so far from rendering to their Creator the love and obedience of a grateful heart, they trampled on His authority and strove to rob Him of His glory. Failing then in their duty towards God, and having plunged into the depths of all ungodliness, it was no wonder that their dealings with their fellowmen were characterized by all unrighteousness. The word all denotes two things. The one is that the wrath of God extends to the entire mass of ungodliness and unrighteousness, which reigns among men without accepting the least part. The other is that ungodliness and unrighteousness has arrived at their height and reigned among the Gentiles with such undisturbed supremacy that there remain no soundness among them. The first charge brought under the head of ungodliness is that of holding the truth in unrighteousness. The expression of the truth, when it stands unconnected in the New Testament, generally denotes the gospel. Here, however, it is evidently limited to the truth concerning God, which, by the works of creation and the remains of the law of conscience, and partly from tradition, was notified to the heathens. The word hold, in the original, signifies to hold fast a thing supposed to be valuable, as well as to withhold, as it is rendered 2 Thessalonians 2.6, and to restrain or suppress. The latter is a meaning here. The heathens did not hold fast the truth, but they suppressed or restrained what they knew about God. The expression signifies they retained it as in a prison, under the weight and oppression of their iniquities. But besides this general accusation, the apostle appears particularly to have had reference to the chief men among the pagans, whom they called philosophers, and who professed themselves wise. The declaration that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, attacked directly the principle which they universally held to be true, namely, that God could not be angry with any man. Almost all of them believed the truth of the divine unity, which they communicated to those who were initiated into their mysteries. But all of them at the same time held it as a maxim, and enjoined it as a precept on their disciples, that nothing should be changed in the popular worship of their country, to which, without a single exception, they conformed although it consisted of the most absurd and wicked idolatrous rites in honor of a multitude of gods of the most odious and abominable character. Thus they not only resisted and constantly acted in opposition to the force of the truth in their own minds, but also suppressed what they knew of it, and prevented it from being told to the people. because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it unto them. The apostle here assigns the reason of what he had just affirmed respecting the Gentiles as suppressing the truth in unrighteousness, namely, that which may be known of God, God hath manifested to them. They might have said they did not suppress the truth in unrighteousness, for God had not declared it to them as He had done to the Jews. He had, however, sufficiently displayed in the works of creation His almighty power, wisdom, and goodness, and other of His divine attributes, so as to render them without excuse in their ungodliness and unrighteousness. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Of the nature of that glory, of which the people of God shall be put in possession in the day of their redemption, we cannot form a clear and distinct idea. It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. In the present state, believers beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. This transformation, while they see only through a glass darkly, is gradually proceeding. But when they see face to face and shall know even as they are known, This image shall be perfected. Their blessedness will consist in a knowledge of God and His mysteries, a full and exquisite sense of His love, ineffable consolation, profound tranquility of soul, a perfect concord and harmony of the soul with the body, and with all the powers of the soul among themselves, in one word, an assemblage of all sorts of blessings. These blessings will not be measured in the proportion of the creatures who receive them, but of God who confers them, and of the dignity of the person of Jesus Christ, and of his merit, of his person. For they shall obtain that felicity only in virtue of the communion which they have with him. of his merit, for he has purchased it with his price of blood. So far, then, as we can conceive of majesty, excellence, and glory in the person of the Redeemer, so far, keeping always in view the proportion of the creature to the Creator, ought we to conceive of the value, the excellences, and the abundance of the eternal blessings which he will bestow upon his people. The Scriptures call it a fruitless satisfaction. Not a fulness of satiety, but a fulness of joy at the right hand of God, where there are pleasures for evermore. It will be a crown of righteousness. They shall sit down with Christ in His throne, as He is sat down with His Father in His throne. Blessed are they which are called unto the merry supper of the Lamb. As to the duration of this blessedness, it shall be eternal. But why eternal? Because God will bestow it upon a supernatural principle, and consequently upon a principle free from changes to which nature is exposed, in opposition to the happiness of Adam, which was natural. Because God will give it, not as to hirelings, but as to his children in title of inheritance. The servant, or the hireling, says Jesus Christ, abideth not in the house forever, but the son abideth ever. Because God will confer it as a donation, that is to say irrevocably. On this account, Paul declares that the gift of God is eternal life. None of the causes which produce change will have place in heaven. Not the inequality of nature, for it shall be swallowed up in glory. Not sin, for it will be entirely abolished. Not the temptations of Satan, for Satan will have no entrance there. Not the mutability of the creature, for God will possess His people fully and perfectly. Eternal life comes to the people of God as a free gift, yet it is through Jesus Christ. By His mediation alone reconciliation between God and man is effected, peace established, communion restored, and every blessing conferred. The smallest as well as the greatest gift is bestowed through Him, and they are not the less free gifts from God because Christ our Lord has paid the price of redemption. He Himself was given for this sin by the Father, and He and the Father are one. He then who pays the ransom is one and the same who justifies, so that the freeness of the gift is not in the smallest degree diminished. This gift of eternal life is bestowed through Jesus Christ, and by Him it is dispensed. glorify thy son, that thy son may also glorify thee, if thou hast given him power over all flesh, to give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. and are given to them eternal life. His people are constantly to keep in mind that Jesus Christ is their Lord, whose authority they are ever to regard, and whom, as their Lord and Master, they are implicitly to obey. He is the Lord, both of the dead and the living, to whom every knee shall bow, and before whose judgment feet we shall all stand. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. Swrb makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video, and printed formats. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalog, containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reform books, tapes, and videos at great discounts, is on the web at www.swrb.com. It can also be reached by email. at SWRB at SWRB.com by phone at 780-450-3730 by fax at 780-468-1096 or by mail at 4710-37A Avenue Edmonton that's E-D-M-O-N-T-O-N Alberta abbreviated capital A capital B Canada T6L3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Calvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart, from his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions. since he condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying His word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words, then, are very important, when he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.