glorycloud's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- men naturally delight to be without God "[2] When any part of the mind and will of God breaks in upon men, the endeavor to shake it off, as a man would a sergeant who comes to arrest him: "They like not to retain God in their knowledge" (Rom. 1:28), "A natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. 2:14)-that is, into his affections; he pushes them back as men do troublesome and importunate beggars. They have no kindness to bestow upon it. They thrust with both shoulders against the truth of God when it presses in upon them and dash as much contempt upon it as the Pharisees did upon the doctrine our Savior directed against their covetousness. As men naturally delight to be without God in the world, so they delight to be without any offspring of God in their thoughts. Since the spiritual palate of man is depraved, divine truth is unsavory and ungrateful to us till our taste and relish is restored by grace. Hence men damp and quench the motions of the Spirit to obedience and compliance with the dictates of God, strip them of their life and vigor, and kill them in the womb. How unable are our memories to retain the substance of spiritual truth but are like sand in a glass, put in at one part and runs out at the other! Have not many a secret wish that the Scripture had never mentioned some truths or that they were blotted out of the Bible, because they face their consciences and discourage those boiling lusts they would with eagerness and delight pursue? Methinks that interruption John gives our Savior, when he was upon the reproof of their pride, looks little better than a design to divert him from a discourse so much against the grain, by telling him a story of their prohibiting one to cast out devils, because he followed not them (Mark 9:33,38). How glad are men when they can raise a battery against a command of God and raise some smart objection, whereby they may shelter themselves from the strictness of it!" pg. 154 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM Stephen Charnock 'The Existence & Attributes of God' Vol. 1 11:20 a.m. - 2022-10-26 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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