Section 2. Our Deplorable Condition Before We Are Called

2. What we are before this call. 1. We are in a state of vassalage. Before God calls a man, he is at the Devil's call. If he says go, he goes: The deluded sinner is like the Slave that digs in the Mine, hews in the Quarry, tugs at the Oar; he is at the command of Satan, as the Ass is at the command of the Driver. 2. We are in a state of darkness, Ephesians 5:8. You were sometimes darkness. 1. Darkness is very disconsolate. A man in the dark, is full of fear, he trembles every step he takes. 2. It is dangerous: He who is in the dark, may quickly go out of the right way, and fall into Rivers and Whirlpools; So in the dark of ignorance, we may quickly fall into the Whirlpool of Hell. 3. Before we are savingly called, we are in a state of impotency, Romans 5:6. When we were without strength: No strength to resist a temptation, or grapple with a corruption; sin cut the lock where our strength lay. Nay, there is not only impotency, but obstinacy, Acts 7:51. You do always resist the Holy Ghost. Besides indisposition to good, there is opposition. 4. We are in a state of pollution, Ezekiel 16:6. I saw you polluted in your blood. The fancy mints earthly thoughts, the heart is the Devil's Forge, where the sparkles of lust fly. 5. We are in a state of damnation; we are born under a sad Planet, 1 John 3:36. The wrath of God abides on us. This is our condition before God is pleased by a merciful call to bring us near to himself, and free us from that misery in which we were before engulfed.