” White we keep aloof in generals there is little fruit to be expected; it is the hand-fight that does execution. David is not awakened by the prophet’s hovering at a distance in parabolical insinuations. He is forced to close with him, and tell him plainly, “Thou art the man.” Few will, in words, deny the necessity of the new birth; but they have a self-deluding confidence that the work is not now to do. And because they know themselves free from that gross hypocrisy which takes up religion merely for a color to deceive others, and for covering wicked designs, they are confident of their sincerity, and suspect not that more close hypocrisy, wherein the greatest danger lies, by which a man deceiveth his own soul. But man’s deceitful heart is such a matchless cheat, and self-delusion so reigning and so fatal a disease, that I know not whether be the greater, the difficulty or the necessity of the undeceiving work that I am now upon. Alas for the unconverted! they must be undeccived, or they will be undone. But how shall this be effected?
Help, O all-searching Light, and let thy discerning eye discover the rotten foundation of the selfdeceiver; and lead me, O Lord God, as thou didst the prophet, into the chambers of imagery, and dig through the wall of sinners’ hearts, and discover the hidden abominations that are lurking out of = sight in the dark. O send thy angel before me to open the sundry wards of their hearts, as thou didst before Peter, and make even the iron gates fly open of their own accord. And as Jonathan no sooner tasted the honey but his eyes were enlightened, so grant, O Lord, that when the poor deceived souls with whom I have to do shall cast their eyes upon these lines, their minds may be illuminated, and their consciences convinced and awakened, that they may see with their-eyes, and hear with their ears, and be converted, and thou mayest heal them.
This must be premised before we proceed, that it is most certain men may have a confident persuasion that their hearts and states are good, while yet they are unsound. Hear the Truth himself, who shows, in Laodicea’s case, that men may be wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, and yet not know it; yea, they may be confident they are rich, and increased in grace. Rev. 3:17. There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet. are not washed from their filthiness.” Prov. 30: 12. Who better persuaded of his fate than Paul, while he yet remained unconverted? Rom. 7: 9. So that they are miserably deceived who take a strong confidence for a sufficient evidence. They that have no better proof than barely a strong persuasion that they are converted, are certainly as yet strangers to conversion. Alleine’s Alarm. (4)
But to come more close. As it was said to the adherents of Antichrist, so here; some of the unconverted carry their marks in their forehead more openly, and some in their hands more covertly. The apostle reckons up some upon whom he writes the sentence of death; as in these dreadful catalogues, which I beseech you to attend to-with all diligence: “For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.” Eph. 5:5, 6. “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” Rev. 21:8. “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” 1 Cor. 6:9,10. Woe to them that have their name written in this catalogue. Such may know, as certainly as if God had told them from heaven, that they are unsanctified, and under an impossibility of being saved in this condition.
There are then these several classes that, past all dispute, are unconverted; they carry their marks in their foreheads. ’
1. The unclean. These are ever reckoned among the goats, and have their names, whoever is left out, in all the forementioned catalogues.
2. The covetous. These are ever branded for idolaters, and the doors of the kingdom are shut against them by name.
8. Drunkards. Not only such as drink away their reason, but withal, yea, above all, such as are too strong for strong drink. The Lord fills his mouth with woes against these, and declares them to have no inheritance in the kingdom of God. Isa. 5:11, 12, 22; Gal. 5:21.
4. Liars. The God that cannot lie has told them that there is no place for them in his kingdom, no entrance into his hill; but their portion is with the father of lies, whose children they are, in the lake of burnings. Rev. 21:8, 27.