Wesley Corpus

Sin has closed the window of the soul. It is the land of darkness and the shadow of death, where ‘the light is as darkness.’ The ‘prince of darkness’ reigns therein, and nothing but the ‘works of darkness’ are framed there. That you may be the more fully convinced of this, take the following evidences of it:-- “1. The darkness that was upon the face of ‘the world’ before, and at the time that Christ came. When Adam by his sin had lost his light, it pleased God to reveal to him the way of salvation. (Gen. iii. 15.) This was handed down by holy men before the flood; yet the natural darkness of the mind of man so prevailed, as to carry off all sense of true religion from the old world, except what remained in Noah’s family. After the flood, as men increased, their natural darkness of mind prevailed again, and the light decayed, till it died out among the generality of mankind, and was preserved only among the posterity of Shem. And even with them it was near setting, when God called Abraham ‘from serving other gods.” (Joshua xxiv. 15.) God gave him a more full revelation, which he communicated to his family: (Gen. xviii. 19:) Yet the natural darkness wore it out at length, save that it was preserved among the posterity of Jaeob. In Egypt, that darkness so prevailed over them also, that a new revelation was necessary. And many a dark cloud got above that, during the time from Moses to Christ. When Christ came, nothing was to be seen in the Gentile world but “darkness and cruel habitations. They were drowned in super stition and idolatry; and whatever wisdom was among their philosophers, ‘the world by that wisdom knew not God, but became more and more vain in their imaginations. Nor were the Jews much wiser: Except a few, gross darkness covered them also. Their traditions were multiplied; but the know ledge of those things wherein the life of religion lies was lost. They gloried in outward ordinances, but knew nothing of “worshipping God in Spirit and in truth.' . “Now, what but the natural darkness of men’s minds could still thus wear out the light of external revelation?