The Rejection of Gospel-light,

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The Rejection of Gospel-light, the Condemnation of Men

A sermon by Samuel Davies, delivered at Princeton College

"And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light—for fear that his deeds will be exposed!" John 3:19-20

What a strange and alarming declaration is this! Light has come into the world! The Sun of Righteousness has risen upon this region of darkness; therefore it is enlightened; therefore it is bright daylight with all its rational inhabitants: therefore they will no longer grope and stumble in darkness—but all find their way into the world of eternal light and glory.

These would be natural inferences from this event that we would be apt to expect from the entrance of light into the world. But hear and tremble, you inhabitants of the enlightened parts of the earth! hear and tremble, you inhabitants of Princeton! The benevolent Jesus, the Friend of human nature, the Saviour of men, whose lips never dropped an over-severe word, or gave a false alarm: Jesus himself proclaims, "And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."

"This is the condemnation!" That is, this is the great occasion of more aggravated condemnation at the final judgement, and of more severe and dreadful punishments in the eternal world; or, this is the cause of men's condemning themselves even now at the bar of their own consciences.

That light has come into the world—Jesus, the Sun of the moral world, has risen, and darts his beams around him in the gospel. And this furnishes guilty minds with materials for self-condemnation; and their obstinate resistance of the light enhances their guilt, and will render their condemnation the more aggravated; and the reason is, that "men love darkness rather than light!" They choose ignorance rather than knowledge! The Sun of righteousness is not agreeable to them—but shines as a baleful, ill-boding luminary. If they did but love the light, its entrance into the world would be their salvation; but now it is their condemnation!

Truly, light is sweet—and it is a pleasant thing for the eyes to see the light of the sun. And no light is so sweet as this divine light from heaven—no sun so bright and reviving as the Sun of righteousness!

But why do they hate the light? Alas! there is no reason for it—but this wretched one, "men loved darkness rather than light—because their deeds were evil!" And evil deeds always excite uneasiness in the light, and afford the conscience matter of self-accusation, therefore they wrap them selves up in darkness, and avoid the painful discoveries of the light!

The text directs us to the following inquiries:

What is that light which has come into the world?

What is that darkness which is opposed to it?

What are the evidences of men's loving darkness rather than light?

What is the reason for it?

In what respect is the light's coming into the world, and men's loving darkness rather than light—their condemnation?

1. What is that LIGHT, which has come into the world?

The answer to this and the other questions, I shall endeavour to accommodate to our own times and circumstances, that we may the more readily apply it to ourselves.

The light of reason entered our world as soon as the soul of man was created; and, though it is greatly obscured by the grand apostasy—yet some sparks of it still remain.

To supply its defects, the light of Revelation soon darted its beams through the clouds of ignorance which obscured the human mind—on its flying off to so great a distance from the Father of lights. This heavenly day began feebly to dawn upon the first pair of sinners, in that early promise concerning the seed of the woman: and it grew brighter and brighter in the successive revelations made to the patriarchs, to Moses, and the prophets; until at length the Messiah appeared, as an illustrious sun—after a gradual, tedious twilight of the opening dawn.

The light of human literature has also come into the world, and shines with unusual splendours upon our age and nation; and lo! it illuminates this little village, and extends its beams through the land.

But it is not light in any of these senses, that our Lord principally intends—but himself and his blessed gospel; a more clear and divine light than any of the former.

He often represents himself under the strong and insightful metaphor of LIGHT. "I am the light of the world," says he: "he who follows me shall not walk in darkness." John 8:12. "I am come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in me, should not abide in darkness." John 12:46. Light is a strong and beautiful metaphor for knowledge, prosperity, comfort, and happiness; and these are the rays which the blessed Jesus diffuses around him. But wherever he does not shine, all is sullen and dismal darkness. HELL is the BLACKNESS of darkness forever, because he does not extend to it the light of his countenance. That countrywhere he does not shine—is the land of darkness and the shadow of death! And that heart which is not illuminated with the light of the knowledge of his glory—is the gloomy dungeon of infernal spirits. But wherever he shines, there is intellectual day, the bright meridian of glory and blessedness.

His gospel also is frequently represented as a great light; and no metaphor was ever used with more emphasis and propriety. Hisgospel is the medium through which we discover the glory of the Deity, the beauties of holiness, the evil of sin, and the reality and infinite importance of eternal, invisible things! His gospel is the light that reveals the secrets of the heart, and revealsourselves to ourselves. It is this which gives us a just and full view of our duty to God and man, which is but imperfectly or falsely represented in every other system of religion and morality in the world. It is this which reveals and ascertains the method in which rebels may be reconciled to their offended Sovereign, and exhibits a Saviour in full view to perishing sinners.

Hail! sacred heaven-born light! Welcome to our eyes, O brightest and fairest effulgence of the divine perfections! May this day-spring from on high, visit all the regions of this benighted world, and overwhelm it as with a deluge of celestial light! Blessed be God, its vital rays have reached to us in these ends of the earth; and if any of us remain ignorant of the important discoveries it makes—it is because we love darkness rather than light! Which leads me to inquire,

II. What is that DARKNESS, which is opposed to this heavenly light?

Darkness is a word of gloomy import; and there is hardly anything dismal or destructive—but what is expressed by it in Scripture. But the precise sense of the word in my text is, a state of ignorance, and the absence of the means of conviction. Men love darkness rather than light; that is, they choose to be ignorant, rather than well-informed. They choose to be ignorant, particularly of such things as will give them uneasiness to know—such as their sin, and the danger to which it exposes them. They are wilfully ignorant; and hence they hate the means that would alarm them with the mortifying discovery. They would rather be flattered than told the honest truth, and know their own character and condition; and hence they shut their eyes against the light of the gospel—which would flash the painful conviction upon them. Though the light of the gospel shines round you—yet are not some of you involved in this darkness? This you may know by the next inquiry.

III. What are the EVIDENCES of men's loving darkness, rather than light?

The general evidence, which comprehends all the rest, is their avoiding the means of conviction, and using all the artifices in their power to render them ineffectual.

Those of you who love darkness rather than light, are so much upon your guard against the discovery, as not to perceive your own character. Though you may have a turn for speculation, and perhaps delight in every other branch of knowledge—yet the knowledge of yourselves, the knowledge of your duties to God, the discovery of your sin and danger, of your miserable condition as under the condemnation of the divine law—this kind of self-knowledge you carefully shun! And, when it irresistibly flashes upon you—then you endeavor to shut up all the avenues of your mind, through which it might break upon you, and you avoid those means of conviction from which it proceeds!

You set yourselves upon an attempt which is very preposterous and absurd in a rational being, and that is, Not to think. When the ill-boding surmise rises within, "All is not well with my soul! I am not prepared for the eternal world! If I should die in this condition, I am undone forever!" When conscience thus whispers your doom, it may make you sad and pensive for a minute or two—but you soon forget it; you designedly labor to cast it out of your thoughts, and to recover your former stupid serenity. The light of conviction is a painful blaze to a guilty eye! So you wrap yourselves up in darkness, lest it should break in upon you!

When your thoughts are likely to fix upon this painful subject, do you not labor to divert them into another channel? You immerse yourselves in business, you mingle in company, you indulge and nourish a thoughtless levity of mind, you break out of retirement into the wide world—that theatre of folly, trifling, and dissipation! And all this to scatter the gloom of conviction which hangs over your ill-boding minds, and silence the clamours of an exasperated conscience! You laugh, or talk, or work, or study away thesefits of seriousness! You endeavour to prejudice yourselves against them, by giving them ill names such as fanaticism, narrow-mindedness, and I know not what! Whereas they are indeed—the honest struggles of an oppressed conscience to obtain a fair hearing, and give you faithful warning of approaching ruin! They are the benevolent efforts of the Spirit of grace to save a lost soul. And O! it would be happy for you if you had yielded to them, and nourished the serious hour!

For the same reason, also, you love a soft representation of Christianity, as an easy, indolent, inactive thing; requiring no vigorous exertion, and attended with no difficult conflict! You love an easy-going gospel which encourages your hopes of heaven—even while you remain in a course of sloth, carelessness, and sinful indulgence! Your favourite sermons and favourite books—are those which flatter you with smooth things, putting the most favourable construction upon your wickedness, and representing the way to heaven as smooth and easy!

Or if you have an unaccountable fondness for faithful, and therefore, alarming preaching, as it must be owned that some self-flatterers have, it is not with a view to apply it to yourselves—but to others. If you love the light, it is not that you may see yourselves—but other objects. And whenever it forces upon you a glance of yourselves, you immediately turn from it and hate it!

Hatred of the light, perhaps, is the reason why so many among us are so impatient of public worship; so fond of their own homes on the sacred hours consecrated to divine service: and are so reluctant, so late, or so inconstant in their attendance. It is darkness perhaps, at home; but the house of God is filled with bright light, which they hate—because their deeds are evil!

This also is one reason why they hate the conversation of zealous Christians, who are not ashamed to talk of what lies nearest their hearts—their Savior, and His gospel; and to express an abhorrence of what they so sincerely hate—the sins of mankind, and every appearance of evil. I say, this is one reason why their conversation is such a heavy and painful burden to those who love darkness. Such godly men reflect the beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and the beauties of holiness all around them! They carry light with them wherever they go—and this light strikes painful conviction to the guilty. The strictness, the warm devotion and spirituality of their lives, pass a sentence of condemnation upon the ungodly; a sentence which they cannot but feel, and which therefore renders them very uneasy. Hence it is that such lively and holy believers are not at all popular in the world.

The favourites of the world are your pliable, obliging, accommodating professors, who never carry true religion with them into polite company—but conform themselves to the taste of those they converse with. These give no man's conscience uneasiness, they reflect no heavenly light—but thicken the darkness of every company in which they appear; therefore they are quite acceptable to every lover of darkness.

Another expedient that has often been used, and which some of you perhaps have attempted, to avoid the light, is: to endeavour to work up yourselves to a disbelief of the Christian gospel. If you could banish that heavenly light out of the world, or substitute darkness in its place—then you might perpetrate the works of darkness with more confidence and abandonment! Therefore you eagerly listen to the laughs, the jeers, the railleries and sophisms of loose wits against the gospel; and you are afraid to give a fair hearing to the many satisfactory evidences in its favour. Thus you nourish that hideous monster, UNBELIEF; which is your own offspring, not Satan's, though he is the father of lies; for the demons believe—and tremble! James 2:19.

These artifices and the like, are the effects, and consequently the evidences and indications of men's loving darkness rather than light. And instead of a larger illustration, I shall conclude this head with a plain honest appeal to my hearers.

As in the presence of the heart-searching God, I solemnly appeal to your consciences, whether you do not deal partially with yourselves, and refuse pursuing those hints of your dangerous condition—because you love darkness, and therefore do not want to make a full discovery of your dreadful condition! Do not your hearts smite you, because you have suppressed evidence, when it was against you, and shut your eyes against plain conviction? When the looking-glass of the divine law has been held up before you, and shown you your own hideous image—have you not gone away, and soon forgot what kind of men you are? Do you not know in your consciences, that the hopes you entertain of future happiness—are not the result of severe repeated trial—but on the other hand, owe their strength and even their being to a superficial examination, or none at all—to blind self-flattery and excessive self-love, which tempt you to believe things—just as you would have them? Is it censoriousness, or is it evidence and faithfulness, that constrains me to cry out, "O! how rare are well-founded, well-attested hopes of heaven among us! Hopes supported by that only sufficient proof—a conspicuous holiness of heart and life!"

I proceed to inquire,

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