Psal. xxv. 8. which shews the wonderful condescension of our divine teacher. He vouchsafes to be the instructor of sinners, in order to bring them out of darkness into light, and out of misery into happiness: "for "blessed is the man," says the Psalmist (xciv. 12.) "whom thou teachest out of thy law." He is blessed, because he is taught of God, and taught by him out of the law, to know his guilt and misery; and taught also to know the remedy provided for both. Blessed surely is he, whom God thus teaches; and yet how few among us seek this blessedness? Even among those who profess their belief of it, its importance is not sufficiently valued. The privilege is great, inestimably great, but they are too apt to neglect it; while others proudly fancy they can teach themselves; or they think it no honour to be taught of God; they disbelieve the reality, or they neglect the importance of divine teaching. Some of these reasons prevail with the generality of nominal Christians, and hinder them from being convinced of the truth of what is written in the prophets. "And they shall be all taught of

"God." But he that teacheth man knowledge can, and glory be to his rich grace, he does, conye him of the necessity of being taught of God. does enlighten the darkest, he does humble the proudest mind, and bring it earnestly to pray for instruction"Lord what I know not, that teach thou me." May this be the prayer of all your hearts, while I am explaining the nature of the promise in the text, and may God fulfil it to you at this time, that you may be con

vinced

First, of the necessity of being taught of God! Secondly, Of the manner in which God teaches his people:

Thirdly, Of the proper disposition of mind which he gives them, in order to their receiving and profiting from his divine teaching.

FIRST. Divine teaching consists in opening the eyes of the understanding to perceive spiritual and divine

not one.

objects, and to see their value and importance, in disposing the will to choose them, and the heart to love them. The divine teacher is the Holy Spirit. He prepares the mind to receive his instruction, and then fills it with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. The necessity of his doing this is founded in the present state and circumstances of fallen men for through sin all the faculties of the soul were lost, and the understanding, which is the eye of the soul, was left in the same condition as the bodily eyes would be if they had no light. light. Hence the Psalmist declares, that there is none who understandeth the things of God, and he represents God as looking down from heaven to see if there were any who did understand and seek after God; but he found none, no They all had their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. The prophets give us the same character, and speak of men as if they were all blind, and describe the Messiah to be the sun of righteousness, the light who was to arise to lighten the Gentiles, and was to be the glory of his people Israel. Thus Jehovah says of his belo Son, "I the Lord will give thee for a "covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles, to "open the blind eyes," Isa. xliii. 7. And again" I "will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends of the earth," Isa. xlix. 6. How did our Lord fulfil these prophecies? He did not, while he was upon earth, open the bodily eye of any blind person among the Gentiles, but he has fulfilled them, and glory be to his great name, he is daily fulfilling them in the Gentile world, by opening the blind eyes of our understandings to see and to discern the things of God. In this sense the Psalmist, speaking both of Jews and Gentiles, says, Psalm cxlvi. 8. "The Lord openeth the eyes of the "blind," that is, the Lord Christ: for we read, Isaiah XXXV. 4, 5. "Say unto them that are of a fearful

66

"heart, be strong, fear not, your God will come and "save you, then the eyes of the blind shall be opened: "for in that day (Isa. xxix. 18.) shall the deaf hear "the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind see "out of obscurity, and out of darkness." All these scriptures had their happy accomplishment, when God, who was to come and save us, spake with his own mouth, and said, "I am come a light into the world, "that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in "darkness," John xii. 46.

From these authorities it is certain, that fallen man is in darkness, and cannot see the things of God. The eyes of his understanding are in the same condition as his bodily eyes would be without light. He cannot see any spiritual objects, and how then can he come to the knowledge of them, unless he be taught them of God? By what other way or means can he discern them? Has he any powers or faculties of his own, which can help to enlighten him? No, he has none: for since the eyes of his understanding are in darkness, all his endeavours to enlighten them, without divine teaching, will be like those of a blind man, who only makes his blindness more manifest the more he labours and strives to give an account of those objects, which he ever saw nor felt.

But cannot the arts and sciences enlighten his blind eyes? No. They cannot help him to discover one single spiritual idea.-The arts and sciences treat of the objects of sense; to these they are confined, and cannot get beyond the bounds of nature; for it is a certain truth, and indeed it is at present a received opinion, that all our ideas come from sense. We are not able to form an idea of any thing, unless it fall under the observation of some of our senses. If any one of the senses be destroyed, the man is not able to form an idea of any object peculiar to that sense. man born deaf has no idea of sounds, nor a blind man of colours. Since then the arts and sciences treat entirely of the objects of sense, how can they give us any

A

ideas of those things which are not objects of sense: for was it ever known that the stream rose higher than the fountain head?

From hence it appears, that if the understanding be ever so greatly refined and enlarged with the knowledge of arts and sciences, yet it stands in as much need of divine teaching, as the most ignorant peasant does; because the things of God are not discoverable by the arts and sciences. Let matter of fact speak to this point. Has there not been a total ignorance of divine things, whenever the light of revelation has been extinguished? Look into the learned ages of Greece, and you find the several sects of Philosophers enquiring, What is the chief good of men; and none of them could discover what it was, and disputing about the origin of evil, and never coming near the truth. Look into the times when Rome was raised to its highest glory, and was as famous for its learning as for its conquests, and you will not find one learned Roman, who can tell you what God is. Tully has written a book upon the nature of the gods, and it is one of the most valuable of his writings; for therein he gives us the opinions of the philosophers upon this subject, and shews his own and their exceeding great ignorance of it. From these instances, not to mention others, it is evident that a man may have all the knowledge which arts and sciences can give him, and yet be totally ignorant of God, and of the things of God.

This has appeared from undoubted matter of fact. We know from the experience of the Greeks and Romans, that arts and sciences never did lead them to the knowledge of any spiritual and divine objects; and we are assured from the testimony of God's word that they never can. Man, in his natural state, blinded by sin, and under the power of it, cannot attain to any such knowledge. The apostle has decided this point for us. Speaking of the politest classical age of Rome, he says of her great philosophers, and celebrated authors, that they were without understanding, that

66

they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts were darkened. What! was Tully without understanding, was the imagination of Virgil vain, and the heart of Seneca foolish? Yes, in the things of God: “For 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 spiri"tually discerned," 1 Cor. ii. 14. While he remains a natural man, it is absolutely impossible that he should know them," neither can he know them," because he has no spiritual discernment, by which alone spiritual objects can be discovered; and therefore he must remain for ever ignorant of them, unless God should open the eyes of his understanding, and bring him out of darkness into his marvellous light.

This is a very humbling, but it is a real view of human nature, and I need not to have gone to distant ages and countries for proof. We have it near enough at home, if men's pride would but let them see it; but their pride arises chiefly from their ignorance of it, and helps to keep them ignorant. If they had but a little humility they would discover how imperfect their knowledge is, even of the things about them, and they would therefore see the necessity of being taught of God in these things, which were out of the reach of their senses: such are all spiritual and divine things, and in these they want divine teaching, and the promise is, concerning these, "All thy children shall be "taught of God." Now God never acts in vain. Unless his children wanted teaching, he need not be their teacher: but in what belongs to the spiritual world they are entirely ignorant, and they have no means of discovering, unless they be taught of God, what state they are in by nature, and if it be a state of guilt and misery, how they are to be delivered from it. God has revealed in his holy word the knowledge of what belongs to these two states; but sin has so blinded men's understandings, and depraved their judgments, that they will not assent to what is revealed, nor be