{"id":1009,"date":"2011-07-16T08:18:24","date_gmt":"2011-07-16T08:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=1009"},"modified":"2011-07-16T08:18:24","modified_gmt":"2011-07-16T08:18:24","slug":"one-continued-dream-and-delusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=1009","title":{"rendered":"One continued dream and delusion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>One continued dream and delusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>(Thomas Boston, \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.gracegems.org\/28\/human_nature.htm\">Human Nature in its Fourfold State<\/a>\u201c)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no one who understands.\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/biblia.com\/bible\/kjv1900\/Romans%203.11\">Romans 3:11<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are darkened in their understanding and separated<br \/>\nfrom the life of God because of the ignorance that is in<br \/>\nthem due to the hardening of their hearts.\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/biblia.com\/bible\/kjv1900\/Ephes.%204.18\">Ephes. 4:18<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The natural man\u2019s apprehension of divine things is corrupt.<br \/>\nThe\u00a0<strong>understanding<\/strong>, that leading faculty, is despoiled of<br \/>\nits primitive glory, and covered over with confusion.<br \/>\nTell them how they may advance their worldly wealth, or how<br \/>\nthey may gratify their lusts\u2014and they will quickly understand<br \/>\nthese things. But it is very hard to make them know how their<br \/>\nsouls may be saved, or how their hearts may find rest in Christ.<br \/>\nThey are very\u00a0<strong>stupid and unteachable<\/strong> in the matters of God.<br \/>\nWhat woeful delusions prevail over them! Do we not often see<br \/>\nthose, who in other things are the wisest of men\u2014yet are<br \/>\nnotorious fools with respect to their soul\u2019s interest?<br \/>\nMany who are eagle-eyed in the\u00a0<em>trifles of time\u2014<\/em>yet are like<br \/>\nowls and bats in the light of\u00a0<em>eternal realities<\/em>. Nay, truly, the<br \/>\nlife of every natural man is but<em> <\/em><strong>one continued dream and<br \/>\ndelusion<\/strong>, out of which he never awakes, until either, by a<br \/>\ndivine light darted from heaven into his soul, he comes to<br \/>\nhimself\u2014or, in hell he lifts up his eyes in torment!<br \/>\nSin has closed the windows of the soul; darkness covers the<br \/>\nwhole. The prince of darkness reigns there, and nothing but<\/p>\n<p>the works of darkness are framed there. We are born spiritually<br \/>\nblind\u2014and cannot be restored without a miracle of grace.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor though your hearts were once full of\u00a0<strong>darkness<\/strong>, now<br \/>\nyou are full of\u00a0<strong>light <\/strong>from the Lord!\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/biblia.com\/bible\/kjv1900\/Ephesians%205.8\">Ephesians 5:8<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One continued dream and delusion (Thomas Boston, \u201cHuman Nature in its Fourfold State\u201c) \u201cThere is no one who understands.\u201d\u00a0Romans 3:11 \u201cThey are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.\u201d\u00a0Ephes. 4:18 The natural man\u2019s apprehension of divine [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,15,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-thomas-boston","category-total-depravity","category-regeneration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1009"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1011,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions\/1011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}