[1] "There is light enough for those whose sincere desire is to
see; and darkness enough for those of a contrary
disposition. There is brightness enough to illuminate the
elect; and enough of obscurity to humble them. There is
obscurity enough to blind the reprobate; and brightness
enough to condemn them and to leave them without
excuse."--_Blaise Pascal._
[2] "The smallest particle of light falling on the sensitive
plate produces a chemical change that can never be undone
again; and the light of Christ's love, once brought to the
knowledge and presented for the acceptance of a soul,
stamps on it an ineffaceable sign of its having been there.
Once heard, it is henceforward a perpetual element in the
whole condition, character, and destiny of the hearer.
Every man that ever rejects Christ, does these things
thereby--wounds his own conscience, hardens his own heart,
and makes himself a worse man, just because he has had a
glimpse of holiness, and has willingly, and almost
consciously, "loved darkness rather than light." Unbelief
is its own judgment, its own condemnation: unbelief, as
sin, is punished like other sins, by the perpetuation of
deeper and darker forms of itself. Every time that you
stifle a conviction, fight down a conviction, or din away a
conviction, you have harmed your soul, made yourself a
worse man, lowered the tone of your conscience, enfeebled
your will, made your heart harder against love; you have
drawn another horny scale over the eye that will prevent
you from seeing the light that is yonder. You have, as much
as in you is, approximated to the other pole of the
universe (if I may say that), to the dark and deadly
antagonist of mercy, and goodness, and truth, and
grace."--_Alexander Maclaren._
[3] "The great iniquity is, or then is the Gospel hid in a
sinful sense, when men have it among them, or may have it,
and will not hear it; or do hear it, and never understand
it,--that is, never apply or set themselves to understand
it; or receive no conviction from it; or receive no
suitable impression on their hearts from it. Thus, all the
while, is the Gospel hid to them by their own iniquity,
that they do voluntarily make resisting efforts against it,
as everything of sin must have somewhat of _voluntarium_ in
it. It supposeth that otherwise a brute agent might be as
capable of sin as a rational one, and that cannot be. But
here lies the iniquity, that men might understand and they
will not; and there is a natural faculty that should turn
them, even in their very hearts; but there is a sinful
disinclination, and they will not turn. For it is the will
that is not turned: "Ye will not come unto me that ye might
have life." And so, when the Gospel is hid, it is hid, not
because men cannot see, but because they will not. They do
(as it were) pretend the veil; stretch forth the veil
before their eyes or bind it close over their own eyes,
hoodwink themselves that they will not see. Being thus
sinfully hidden, it comes also to be penally hidden by a
_nemesis,_ hidden by a just _vindicta._ Ye will not
understand, then ye shall not understand; ye will harden
your hearts against light, against grace, against the
design of the Gospel, and they shall be hardened. Since ye
will have it so, so let it be."--_John Howe._