Acts 9:5 And he said, Who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you persecute: it is hard for you to kick against the pricks. You often hear of the narrow and rugged road which leadeth unto life; and some of you, I am afraid, have not courage enough to venture upon it. You rather choose the smooth, broad, downhill road, though it leads to death. It must be owned, that a religious life is a course of difficulties, and it is fit you should be honestly informed of it; but then it is fit you should also know that it is disagreeable and difficult only as a course of action is difficult to the sick, though it affords pleasure to those that are well. There are difficulties in the way of sin, as well as in that of holiness, though the depravity of mankind renders them insensible of it. It may be easy and pleasing to you to sin, just as it is easy to a dead body to rot, or pleasing to a leper to rub his sores. If it be hard, in one sense, to live a life of holiness, it is certainly hard, in another sense, to live a life of sin; namely, to run against conscience, reason, honour, interest, and all the strong and endearing obligations you are under to God, to mankind, and to yourselves. I. IS IT NOT A HARD THING TO BE AN UNBELIEVER, WHILE THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL SHINES AROUND US WITH FULL BLAZE OF EVIDENCE. Before a man can work up himself to the disbelief of a religion attended with such evidence, and inspiring such Divine dispositions and exalted hopes, what absurdities must he embrace! what strong convictions must he resist! what tremendous doubts must he struggle with! what glorious hopes must he resign! what violence must be offered to conscience! what care must be used to shut up all the avenues of serious thought, and harden the heart against the terrors of death and the supreme tribunal! How painful to reject the balm the gospel provides to heal a broken heart and a bleeding conscience, and the various helps and advantages it furnishes us with to obtain Divine favour and everlasting happiness! How hard to work up the mind to believe that Jesus was an impostor, or at best a moral philosopher! or that the religion of the Bible is the contrivance of artful and wicked men! These are no easy things. There are many sceptics and smatterers in infidelity, but few, very few, are able to make thorough work of it. Such men find the arms of their own reason often against them, and their own conscience forms violent insurrections in favour of religion; so that whatever they pretend, they believe and tremble too. They find it hard, even now, to kick against the goads: how much harder they will find it in the issue! Christianity will live when they are dead and damned, according to its sentence. Infidels may hurt themselves by opposing it; as an unruly stupid ox, their proper emblem, may hurt himself, but not the goads, by kicking against them. II. IS IT NOT HARD FOE MEN TO PROFESS THEMSELVES BELIEVERS AND ASSENT TO THE TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY AND "YET LIVE AS IF THEY WERE INFIDELS? If you believe Christianity — 1. You believe that there is a God of infinite excellency; the Maker, Preserver, Benefactor, and ruler of the world, and of you in particular. How, then, can you withhold your love from Him, and ungratefully refuse obedience? Is not this a hard thing? Does it not cost you some labour to reconcile your consciences to it? This would not be easy to the mightiest archangel. And if it be easy to you, it is in the same sense that it is easy to a dead body to rot. Your strength to do evil is your real weakness, or the strength of your disease. 2. You believe the doctrine of redemption through Jesus Christ. And is it no difficulty to neglect Him, to dishonour Him, to slight His love and disobey His commands? Does not at least a spark of gratitude sometimes kindle which you find it hard to quench entirely? Does not conscience often take up arms in the cause of its Lord, and do you not find it hard to quell the insurrection? Alas! if you find little or no difficulty in treating the blessed Jesus with neglect, it shows that you are giants in iniquity, and sin with the strength of a devil. 3. You must believe that holiness is essentially to constitute you a real Christian, and prepare you for everlasting happiness. And while you have this conviction, is it not a hard thing for you to be only Christians in name, or self-condemned hypocrites? Is it an easy thing to you to keep your eyes always shut against the light, which would show you to yourselves in your true colours? 4. You believe in a future state of rewards and punishments. And since you love yourselves, and have a strong desire of pleasure and horror of pain, how can you reconcile yourselves to the thoughts of giving up your portion in heaven, and being engulfed forever in the infernal pit? III. IS IT NOT HARD FOR A MAN TO LIVE IN A CONSTANT CONFLICT WITH HIMSELF? I mean with his conscience. When the sinner would continue his career to hell, conscience, like the cherubim at the gates of paradise, or the angel in Balaam's road, meets him with his flaming sword, and turns every way, to guard the dreadful entrance into the chambers of death. The life of the sinner is a warfare, as well as that of the Christian. Conscience is his enemy, always disturbing him; that is, he himself is an enemy to himself, while he continues an enemy to God. Some, indeed, by repeated violences, stun their conscience, and it seems to lie still. But this is a conquest fatal to the conquerors. IV. IS IT NOT HARD FOR YOU TO DEPRIVE YOURSELVES OF THE EXALTED PLEASURES OF RELIGION? Is not this doing violence to the innate principle of self-love and desire of happiness? Can you be so stupid as to imagine that the world, or sin, or anything that can come in competition with religion, can be of equal or comparable advantage to you? Sure your own reason must give in its verdict in favour of religion. And is it not a hard thing for you to act against your own reason, against your highest and immortal interest, and against your own innate desire of happiness? (S. Davies, A. M.) Parallel Verses KJV: And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.WEB: He said, "Who are you, Lord?" The Lord said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. |
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