John Newton's Letters
Man in his fallen estate
"What is man, that he could be pure, or one born
of woman, that he could be righteous?" Job 15:14
Dear Sir,
We hear much in the present day of the dignity of human nature. And
it is allowed that man was an excellent creature as he came out of the hands
of God; but if we consider this question with a view to fallen man, as
depraved by sin, how can we but join with the Psalmist in wonder that the
great God should make any account of him?
Fallen as man is from his original state of happiness and
holiness, his natural faculties and abilities afford sufficient evidence
that the hand which made him is Divine. He is capable of great things. His
understanding, will, affections, imagination, and memory—are noble and
amazing powers. But view him in a moral light, as an intelligent
being, incessantly dependent upon God, accountable to him, and appointed by
him to a state of existence in an unchangeable world: considered in this
relation—man is a monster, a vile, base, stupid, obstinate, and mischievous
creature; no words can fully describe him. Man, with all his boasted
understanding and attainments, is a fool: so long as he is destitute of the
saving grace of God, his conduct, as to his most important concerns, is more
absurd and inconsistent than that of the most contemptible idiot; with
respect to his affections and pursuits, he is degraded far below the beasts;
and for the malignity and wickedness of his will, can be compared to nothing
so properly as to the devil.
The question here is not concerning this or that man, a
Nero or a Heliogabalus, but concerning human nature, the whole race of
mankind, the few excepted who are born of God. There is indeed a difference
among men, but it is owing to the restraints of Divine Providence, without
which earth would be the very image of hell. A wolf or a lion, while
chained, cannot do so much mischief as if they were loose, but the nature is
the same in the whole species. Education and personal interest, fear and
shame, human laws, and the secret power of God over the mind, combine to
form many characters that are extremely decent and respectable; and even the
most abandoned are under a restraint which prevents them from manifesting a
thousandth part of the wickedness which is in their hearts. But the heart
itself is universally deceitful, and desperately wicked.
Man is a FOOL.
"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." Romans 1:22. He can
indeed measure the earth, and almost count the stars; he abounds in arts and
inventions, in science and policy—and shall he then be called a fool? The
ancient Heathens, the inhabitants of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, were eminent
for this kind of wisdom. They are to this day studied as models by those who
aim to excel in history, poetry, painting, architecture, and other exertions
of human genius, which are suited to polish the manners without improving
the heart. But their most admired philosophers, legislators, logicians,
orators, and artists, were as destitute as infants or idiots of that
knowledge which alone deserves the name of true wisdom. Professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools. Ignorant and regardless of God,
yet conscious of their weakness, and of their dependence upon a Power above
their own, and stimulated by an inward principle of fear, of which they knew
neither the origin nor right application, they worshiped the creature
instead of the Creator, yes, placed their trust in stocks and stones, in the
works of men's hands, in non-entities and chimeras. An acquaintance with
their mythology, or system of religious fables, passes with us for a
considerable branch of learning, because it is drawn from ancient books
written in languages not known to the vulgar; but in point of certainty or
truth, we might receive as much satisfaction from a collection of dreams, or
from the ravings of lunatics.
If, therefore, we admit these admired sages as a
tolerable specimen of mankind, must we not confess that man, in his best
estate, while uninstructed by the Spirit of God, is a fool? But are we wiser
than they? Not in the least, until the grace of God makes us so. Our
superior advantages only show our folly in a more striking light. Why do we
account any people foolish? A fool has no sound judgment; he is governed
wholly by appearances, and would prefer a fine coat to the deed to a
large estate. He pays no regard to consequences: fools have sometimes hurt
or killed their best friends, and thought they did no harm. A fool cannot
reason, therefore arguments are lost upon him. At one time, if tied with a
straw, he dares not stir; at another time, perhaps, he can hardly be
persuaded to move, though the house were on fire. Are these the
characteristics of a fool? Then there is no fool like the sinner, who
prefers the toys of earth to the happiness of heaven; who is held in bondage
by the foolish customs of the world; and is more afraid of the breath of
man, than of the wrath of God.
Again: Man in his natural state is a
BEAST, yes, below the beasts which
perish. In two things he strongly resembles them; in looking no higher than
to sensual gratifications, and in that selfishness of spirit which prompts
him to propose himself and his own interest as his proper and highest end.
But in many respects he sinks sadly beneath them. Unnatural lusts, and the
lack of natural affection towards their offspring, are abominations not to
be found among the brute creation. What shall we say of mothers destroying
their children with their own hands, or of the horrid act of self-murder!
Men are worse than beasts likewise in their obstinacy; they will not be
warned. If a beast escapes from a trap, he will be cautious how he goes near
it again, and in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird. But man,
though he be often reproved, hardens his neck; he rushes upon his ruin with
his eyes open, and can defy God to his face, and dare damnation.
Once more: Let us observe how man resembles the
DEVIL. There are spiritual sins, and
from these in their height the Scripture teaches us to judge of Satan's
character. Every feature in this description is strong in man; so that what
our Lord said to the Jews is of general application, "You are of your father
the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do." Man resembles Satan in
pride: this stupid, wicked creature values himself upon his wisdom,
power, and virtue, and will talk of being saved by his good works; though if
be can, Satan himself need not despair. He resembles him in malice;
and this diabolical disposition often proceeds to murder, and would daily,
if the Lord did not restrain it. He derives from Satan the hateful spirit of
envy: he is often tormented beyond expression, by beholding the
prosperity of his neighbors; and proportionably pleased with their
calamities, though he gains no other advantage from them than the
gratification of this rancorous principle.
He bears the image likewise of Satan in his cruelty.
This evil is bound up in the heart even of a child. A disposition to take
pleasure in giving pain to others, appears very early. Children, if left to
themselves, soon feel a gratification in torturing insects and animals. What
misery does the wanton cruelty of men inflict upon cocks, dogs, bulls,
bears, and other creatures, which they seem to think were formed for no
other end than to feast their savage spirits with their torments! If we form
our judgment of men, when they seem most pleased, and have neither anger nor
resentment to plead in their excuse, it is too evident, even from the nature
of their amusements, whose they are and whom they serve. And they are the
worst of enemies to each other. Think of the horrors of war, the rage of
duelists, of the murders and assassinations with which the world is filled,
and then say, "Lord, what is man!"
Further, if deceit and treachery belong to
Satan's character, then surely man resembles him. Is not the universal
observation, and complaint of all ages, an affecting comment upon the
Prophet's words, "Trust not in a friend, put no confidence in a guide, keep
the doors of your mouth from her that lies in your bosom, for they hunt
every man his brother with a net?" How many have at this moment cause to
say, with David, "The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war
was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn
swords!"
Again: Like Satan, men are eager in
TEMPTING others to sin; not content to damn themselves, they
employ all their arts and influence to draw as many as they can with them
into the same destruction.
Lastly: In direct opposition to
God and goodness, in contemptuous enmity to the Gospel of his
grace, and a bitter persecuting spirit against those who profess it, Satan
himself can hardly exceed them. Herein, indeed, they are his agents and
willing servants; and because the blessed God is himself out of their reach,
they labor to show their despite to him in the people of his people.
I have drawn but a sketch, a few outlines, of the picture
of fallen man. To give an exact copy of him, to charge every feature with
its full aggravation of horror, and to paint him as he is—would be
impossible. Enough has been observed to illustrate the propriety of the
exclamation, "Lord, what is man!" Perhaps some of my readers may attempt to
deny or extenuate the charge, and may plead, that I have not been describing
mankind, but some of the most abandoned of the species, who hardly deserve
the name of men. But I have already provided against this exception. It is
human nature I describe; and the vilest and most profligate individuals
cannot sin beyond the powers and limits of that nature which they possess in
common with the more mild and moderate. Though there may be a difference in
the fruitfulness of trees, yet the production of one apple decides the
nature of the tree upon which it grew, as certainly as if it had produced a
thousand: so in the present case, should it be allowed that these enormities
cannot be found in all people, it would be a sufficient confirmation of what
I have advanced, if they can be found in any; unless it could be likewise
proved, that those who appeared more wicked than others, were of a different
species from the rest.
But I need not make this concession; they must be
insensible indeed who do not feet something within them so very contrary to
our common notions of goodness, as would perhaps make them rather submit to
be banished from human society, than to be compelled to disclose to their
fellow-creatures every thought and desire which arises in their hearts.
Many useful reflections may be drawn from this unpleasant
subject. We cannot at present conceive how much we owe to the guardian
care of Divine Providence, that any of us are preserved in peace and safety
for a single day in such a world as this. Live where we will, we have those
near us, who, both by nature, and by the power which Satan has over them,
are capable of the most atrocious crimes. But He whom they know not,
restrains them, so that they cannot do the things that they would. When he
suspends the restraint, they act immediately; then we hear of murders,
rapes, and outrages. But did not the Lord reign with a strong hand, such
evils would be perpetrated every hour, and no one would be safe in the house
or in the field. God's ordinance of civil government is one great means of
preserving the peace of society; but this is in many cases inadequate.
The heart of man, when fully bent upon evil, will not be intimidated or
stopped by gibbets and racks.
How wonderful is the love of God in giving his Son to die
for such wretches! And how strong and absolute is the necessity of a new
birth, if we would be happy! Can beasts and devils inherit the kingdom of
God? The due consideration of this subject is likewise needful, to preserve
believers in an humble, thankful, watchful frame of spirit. Such we once
were, and such, with respect to the natural principle remaining in us, which
the Apostle calls the flesh, or the old man, we still are! The
propensities of fallen nature are not eradicated in the children of God,
though by grace they are made partakers of a new principle, which enables
them, in the Lord's strength, to resist and mortify the body of sin, so that
it cannot reign in them. Yet they are liable to sad surprisals; and the
histories of Aaron, David, Solomon, and Peter, are left on record, to teach
us what evil is latent in the hearts of the best men, and what they are
capable of doing if left but a little to themselves. "Lord, what is man!"
The nature of fallen man agrees to the description the
Apostle has given us of his boasted wisdom: it is earthly, sensual,
devilish. I have attempted some general delineation of it in the preceding
portion; but the height of its malignity cannot be properly estimated,
unless we consider its actings with respect to the light of the Gospel. The
Jews were extremely wicked at the time of our Lord's appearance upon earth;
yet he said of them, "If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had
sin:" that is, as the light and power of his ministry deprived them of all
excuse for continuing in sin, so it proved the occasion of showing their
wickedness in the most aggravated manner; and all their other sins were but
faint proofs of the true state of their hearts, if compared with the
discovery they made of themselves, by their pertinacious opposition to him.
In this sense, what the Apostle has observed of the Law
of Moses, may be applied to the Gospel of Christ: it entered, that sin might
abound. If we would estimate the utmost extent of human depravity, and the
strongest effects it is capable of producing, we must select our instances
from the conduct of those to whom the Gospel is known. The Indians, who
roast their enemies alive, give sufficient proof that man is barbarous to
his own kind; which may likewise be easily demonstrated without going so far
from home: but the preaching of the Gospel discovers the enmity of the heart
against God, in ways and degrees of which unenlightened savages and heathens
are not capable.
By the Gospel, I now mean not merely the doctrine of
salvation as it lies in the holy Scripture, but that public and
authoritative dispensation of this doctrine, which the Lord Jesus Christ has
committed to his true ministers; who, having been themselves, by the power
of his grace, brought out of darkness into marvelous light, are by His Holy
Spirit qualified and sent forth to declare to their fellow-sinners what they
have seen, and felt, and tasted, of the word of life. Their commission is,
to exalt the Lord alone, to stain the pride of all human glory. They are to
set forth the evil and demerit of sin; the strictness, spirituality, and
sanction of the law of God; the total apostasy of mankind; and from these
premises to demonstrate the utter impossibility of a sinner's escaping
condemnation by any works or endeavors of his own; and then to proclaim a
full and free salvation from sin and wrath, by faith in the name, blood,
obedience, and mediation of God manifest in the flesh; together with a
denunciation of eternal misery to all who shall finally reject the testimony
which God has given of his Son.
Though these several branches of the will of God
respecting sinners, and other truths in connection with them, are plainly
revealed and repeatedly inculcated in the Bible; and though the Bible is to
be found in almost every house; yet we see, in fact, it is a sealed book;
little read, little understood, and therefore but little regarded, except in
those places which the Lord is pleased to favor with ministers who can
confirm them from their own experience; and who, by a sense of his
constraining love, and the worth of souls, are animated to make the faithful
discharge of their ministry the one great business of their lives: who aim
not to possess the wealth, but to promote the welfare of their hearers; are
equally regardless of the frowns or smiles of the world; and count not their
lives dear, so that they may be wise and successful in winning souls to
Christ.
When the Gospel, in this sense of the word, first comes
to a place, though the people are going on in sin, they may be said to sin
ignorantly; they have not yet been warned of their danger. Some are drinking
down iniquity like water: others more soberly burying themselves alive in
the cares and business of the world: others find a little time for what they
call religious duties, which they persevere in, though they are utter
strangers to the nature or the pleasure of spiritual worship; partly, as
thereby they think to bargain with God, and to make amends for such sins as
they do not choose to relinquish; and partly because it gratifies their
pride, and affords them (as they think) some ground for saying, "God, I
thank you I am not as other men."
The preached Gospel declares the vanity and danger of
these several ways which sinners choose to walk in. It declares, and
demonstrates, that, different as they appear from each other, they are
equally remote from the path of safety and peace, and all tend to the same
point, the destruction of those who persist in them. At the same time it
provides against that despair into which men would be otherwise plunged,
when convinced of their sins, by revealing the immense love of God, the
glory and grace of Christ, and inviting all to come to him, that they may
obtain pardon, life, and happiness. In a word, the gospel shows the pit of
hell under men's feet, and opens the gate and points out the way to heaven.
Let us now briefly observe the effects it produces in those who do not
receive it as the power of God unto salvation. These effects are various, as
tempers and circumstances vary; but they may all lead us to adopt the
Psalmist's exclamation, "Lord, what is man!"
Many, who have heard the Gospel once or a few times, will
hear it no more; it awakens their scorn, their hatred, and rage. They
pour contempt upon the wisdom of God, despise his goodness, defy His power;
and their very looks express the spirit of the rebellious Jews, who told the
prophet Jeremiah to his face, "As to the word which you have spoken to us in
the name of the Lord, we will not hearken to you at all." Those ministers
who preach it, are accounted as men who turn the world upside down; and the
people who receive it, fools or hypocrites. The word of the Lord is a burden
to them, and they hate it with a total hatred. How strongly is the
disposition of the natural heart manifested by the confusion which often
takes place in families, where the Lord is pleased to awaken one or two in a
house, while the rest remain in their sins! To profess, or even to be
suspected of, an attachment to the Gospel of Christ, is frequently
considered and treated as the worst of crimes, sufficient to cancel the
strongest obligations of family or friendship. Parents, upon such a
provocation, will hate their children, and children ridicule their parents:
many find, agreeable to our Lord's declaration, that from the time a sense
of his love engaged their hearts to love him again, their worst foes have
been those of their own household; and that those who expressed the greatest
love and tenderness for them before their conversion, can now hardly bear to
see them.
The bulk of a people will perhaps continue to hear, at
least now and then; and to those who do, the Spirit of God usually, at
one time or other, bears testimony to the truth: their consciences are
struck, and for a season they believe and tremble. But what is the
consequence? No man who has taken poison seeks more earnestly or speedily
for an antidote, than those do for something to stifle and smother their
convictions. They run to company, to drink, to anything, for relief against
the unwelcome intrusion of serious thoughts; and when they succeed, and
recover their former indifference, they rejoice as if they had escaped some
great danger. The next step is, to ridicule their own convictions; and next
to that, if they see any of their acquaintance under the like impressions,
to use every art, and strain every nerve, that they may render them as
obstinate as themselves. For this purpose, they watch as a fowler for the
bird; flatter or revile, tempt or threaten: and if they can prevail, and are
the occasion of hardening any in their sins, they rejoice and triumph, as if
they accounted it their interest and their glory, to ruin the souls of their
fellow-creatures.
By frequent hearing, they receive more light. They are
compelled to know, whether they will or not, that the wrath of God hangs
over the children of disobedience. They carry a sting in their consciences,
and at times feel themselves most miserable, and cannot but wish they had
never been born, or that they had been dogs or toads, rather than rational
creatures. Yet they harden themselves still more. They affect to be happy
and at ease, and force themselves to wear a smile when anguish preys upon
their hearts. They blaspheme the way of truth, watch for the faults of
professors, and with a malicious joy publish and aggravate them. They see
perhaps how the wicked die, but are not alarmed; they see the righteous die,
but are not moved. Neither providences nor ordinances, mercies nor
judgments, can stop them; for they are determined to go on and perish with
their eyes open, rather than submit to the Gospel.
But they do not always openly reject the Gospel truths.
Some, who profess to approve and receive them, do thereby discover the evils
of the heart of man, if possible, in a yet stronger light. They make Christ
the minister of sin, and turn his grace into licentiousness. Like Judas,
they say, Hail, Master! and betray him. This is the highest pitch of
iniquity. They pervert all the doctrines of the Gospel. From election they
draw an excuse for continuing in their evil ways; and contend for salvation
without works, because they love not obedience. They extol the righteousness
of Christ, but hold it in opposition to personal holiness. In a word,
because they hear that God is good, they determine to persist in evil.
"Lord, what is man!"
Thus willful and impenitent sinners go on from bad to
worse, deceiving and being deceived. The word which they despise becomes to
them a savor of death unto death. They take different courses, but all
are traveling down to the same pit; and, unless sovereign mercy
interposes, they will soon sink to rise no more. The final event is usually
two fold. Many, after they have been more or less shaken by the word, settle
in formality. If hearing would supply the place of faith, love, and
obedience, they would do well; but by degrees they become sermon-proof; the
truths which once struck them lose their power by being often heard: and
thus multitudes live and die in darkness, though the light has long shone
around them.
Others are more openly given up to a reprobate mind.
Contempt of the Gospel makes Infidels, Deists, and Atheists. They are filled
with a spirit of delusion to believe a lie. These are scoffers, walking
after their own lusts, for where the principles of true religion are given
up, the conduct will be vile and abominable. Such people sport themselves
with their own deceivings, and strongly prove the truth of the Gospel while
they dispute against it. We often find that people of this cast have
formerly been the subjects of strong convictions; but when the evil spirit
has seemed to depart for a season, and returns again, the last state of that
person is worse than the first.
It is not improbable that some of my readers may meet
with their own characters under one or other of the views I have given of
the desperate wickedness of the heart, in its actings against the truth. May
the Spirit of God constrain them to read with attention! Your case is
dangerous, but I would hope not utterly desperate. Jesus is mighty to save.
His grace can pardon the most aggravated offenses, and subdue the most
inveterate habits of sin. The Gospel you have hitherto slighted, resisted,
or opposed, is still the power of God unto salvation. The blood of Jesus,
upon which you have hitherto trampled, speaks better things than the blood
of Abel, and is of virtue to cleanse those whose sins are scarlet and
crimson, and to make them white as snow. As yet you are spared; but it is
high time to stop, to throw down your arms of rebellion, and humble
yourselves at his feet. If you do, you may yet escape; but if not, know
assuredly that wrath is coming upon you to the uttermost; and you will
shortly find, to your unspeakable dismay, that it is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God.