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Post by Admin on Jun 18, 2024 13:39:46 GMT -5
PREFACE
THE subject of the ensuing discourses is of that inestimable
excellency and importance, that it deserves our deepest reflections
and care to consider and apply it: it is the great mystery of godliness,
the design of eternal wisdom, the chiefest of all God's works, that
contains the glorious wonders of his mercy and power, wherein he
renders himself most worthy of our supreme veneration and
affection. Our most raised thoughts are infinitely beneath its dignity.
Though the light of the gospel hath clearly revealed so much of it, as
is requisite to be known in our earthly state, yet the sublimer parts
are still secret, and reserved for a full discovery, by the brightness of
our Saviour's appearance. Now if the excellency of things excites our
spirits to be attentive in searching into their nature, this divine object
should awaken all our powers, and arrest our minds, in the serious
steady contemplation of it, being alone capable to satisfy their
immortal appetite.
The importance of it is correspondent to its excellency; for it is no
less than the recovery of us from extreme and eternal misery, and the
restoring of us to the enjoyment of the blessed God; a felicity without
comparison or end. If we have any regard to salvation, (and who
would be so unhappy as to neglect it for unconcerning frivolous
vanity?) it will be delightful to know the means by which we may
obtain it; and to employ the flying moments of our short time, in
those things that are profitable for our last end, that we may not lose
temporal and eternal life together.
Many of the ancient and modern divines have written of this noble
argument, from whom I have received benefit in the following
composure; but none, as I know, hath considered all the parts
together, and presented them in one view. There still remains a rich
abundance for the perpetual exercise of our spirits. The eternal word
alone was able to perfect all things by once speaking. Human words
are but an echo that answers the voice of God, and cannot fully
express its power, nor pass so immediately through the sense to the
heart, but they must be repeated. May these discourses be effectual
to inflame us with the most ardent love to our Saviour, who
ransomed us with the invaluable price of his own blood; and to
persuade us to live for heaven, the purchase of that sacred treasure, I
shall for ever acknowledge the divine grace, and obtain my utmost
aim.
. A view of man's primitive state
The Introduction. A short view of man's primitive state. His
conformity to God; natural, moral, and in happiness and dominion
over the creatures. The moral resemblance, as it refers to all the
faculties. The happiness of man, with respect to his sensitive and
spiritual nature. Of all sublunary creatures he is only capable of a
law. What the law of nature contains. God entered into a covenant
with man. The reasons of that dispensation. The terms of the
covenant were becoming God and man. The special clause in the
covenant concerning the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The
reasons of the prohibition.
THE felicity which the Lord Jesus procured for believers, includes a
perfect freedom from sin, and all afflictive evils, the just
consequences of it: and the fruition of righteousness, peace and joy,
wherein the kingdom of God consists. In this the evangelical
covenant excels the natural; the law supposes man upright, and the
happiness it promises to exact obedience, is called life; it rewards
innocence with immortality: but the blessedness of the gospel is
styled salvation, which signifies the rescuing of lapsed man from a
state of misery, and the investing of him with unperishing glory.
In order to the discovering of the excellency of this benefit, arid the
endearing obligations laid on us by our Redeemer, it is necessary to
take a view of that dreadful and desperate calamity which seized
upon mankind: the wretchedness of our captivity illustrates the glory
of our redemption. And since the misery of man was not the original
condition of his nature, but the effect of his guilty choice, it is
requisite to make some reflection upon his first state, as he came out
of the pure hands of God; that comparing our present misery with
our lost happiness, we may revive in our breasts the affections of
sorrow, shame and indignation against ourselves; and considering
that the heavenly Adam hath purchased for us a title to a better
inheritance than was forfeited by the earthly one, we may, with the
more affectionate gratitude extol the favour and power of our
Redeemer.
God who is the living fountain of all perfections, spent an entire
eternity in the contemplation of his own excellencies, before any
creature was made. In the moment appointed by his wisdom, he gave
the first being to the world. Three distinct orders of natures he
formed, the one purely spiritual, the other purely material, and
between both one mixed, which unites the extremes in itself. This is
man, the abridgement of the universe, allied to the angels in his soul,
and to material things in his body, and capable of the happiness of
both; by his internal faculties enjoying the felicity of the intellectual,
and by his external tasting the pleasures of the sensitive world. Man's
greatest excellency was a perfect conformity to the divine pattern.
"God created man in his own likeness, in the image of God created he
him." This includes,
First, The natural similitude of God in the substance of the soul, as it
is an intelligent, free, spiritual and immortal being. This is assigned
to be the reason of the law, that "Whoso sheds man's blood, by man
shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made he man." Gen.
9:6.
Secondly, A moral resemblance in its qualities and perfections.
Thirdly, That happiness and dignity of man's state, which was the
consequent and accession to his holiness. The natural resemblance I
shall not insist on. For the distinct illustration of the other, we must
consider God in a threefold respect.
1. In respect of his absolute holiness, unspotted purity, infinite
goodness, incorruptible justice, and whatever we conceive under the
notion of moral perfections.
2. With respect to his complete blessedness, (the result of his infinite
excellencies; as he is perfectly exempt from all evils which might
allay and lessen his felicity, and enjoy those pleasures which are
worthy of his pure nature and glorious state.
3. In regard of his supreme dominion, which extends itself to all
things in heaven and earth. Now in the participation of these the
image of God did principally consist. The holiness of man was the
copy of the divine purity; his happiness a representation of the divine
felicity; and his dominion over the lower world the resemblance of
God's sovereignty.
I will take a particular survey of them.
I. Man was conformed to God in holiness. This appears by the
expressions of the apostle concerning the sanctification of corrupt
man, which he sets forth, by the 'renewing of him in knowledge,
righteousness and holiness, after the image of the Creator.' The
renovation of things is the restoring of them to their primitive state,
and is more or less perfect, by its proportion to, or distance from the
original. Holiness and righteousness are the comprehensive sum of
the moral law, which not only represents the will, but the nature of
God in his supreme excellency, and in conformity to it the divine
likeness eminently appeared. Adam was created with the perfections
of grace: the progress of the most excellent saints is incomparably
short of his beginning: by this, we may, in part, conjecture at the
beauty of holiness in him, of which one faint ray appearing in
renewed persons is so amiable. This primitive beauty is expressed in
scripture by rectitude: "God made man upright." There was an
universal entire rectitude in his faculties, disposing them for their
proper operations. This will more fully appear by considering the
distinct powers of the soul, in their regular constitutions.
1. The understanding was enriched with knowledge. Nature was
unveiled to Adam, he entered into its sanctuary, and discovered its
mysterious operations. When the creatures came to pay their
homage to him, "whatsoever he called them, that was the name
thereof," Gen. 2:19. And their names expressed their natures. His
knowledge reached through the whole compass of the creation, from
the sun the glorious vessel of light, to the glow-worm that shines in
the hedge. And this knowledge was not acquired by study, it was not
the fruit of anxious inquiry, but as the illumination of the air is in an
instant by the light of the morning, so his understanding was
enlightened by a pure beam from the Father of lights.
Besides, he had such a knowledge of the Deity, as was sufficient for
his duty and felicity. His mind did not stick in the material part of
things, but ascended by the several ranks of beings to the universal
cause. He discovered the glory of the divine essence and attributes by
their wonderful effects.
(1.) Almighty power. When he first opened his eyes, the stupendous
fabric of heaven and earth presented itself to his view, and in it the
most express and clear characters of that glorious power which
produced it. For what could overcome the infinite distance between
not being and being, but infinite power? As there is no proportion
between not being and being, so the cause which unites those terms,
must be without limits. Now the divine word alone (which calls the
things that are not, as if they were) caused the world to rise from the
abyss of empty nothing. "At God's command the heavens and all
their host were created." And this led him to consider the immensity
of the divine essence; for infinite power is incompatible with a finite
essence, and by the consideration of the immensity he might ascend
to the eternity of God. To be eternal without beginning, and infinite
without bounds, infer one another, and necessarily exist in the same
subject. For it is impossible that any thing which is formed by
another, and hath a beginning, should not be limited in its nature by
the cause that produced it. Therefore the apostle declares, Rom. 1:20
that the eternal power of God is set forth in the creation of the world;
joining with the discovery of his power, that of his eternity.
(2.) Admirable wisdom appeared to man in the creation. For by
considering the variety and union, the order and efficacy, the beauty
and stability of the world, he clearly discerned that wisdom which so
regularly disposed all. It is thus that wisdom speaks, Prov. 8:27, 28,
29. "When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a
compass upon the face of the depth: when he established the clouds
above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: when he
gave the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his
commandments: when he appointed the foundations of the earth; I
was with him," contriving all in the best manner for ornament and
use. The knowledge of this filled his soul with wonder and delight.
The psalmist breaks forth with astonishment, as one in the midst of
innumerable miracles, Psal. 104:24. "O Lord, how manifold are thy
works! in wisdom hast thou made them all." And if he discovered
such wonderful and divine wisdom in the works of God, when the
vigor of the human understanding was so much impaired by the
fall; how much more did Adam, who perfectly understood universal
nature, the offices of its parts, the harmony of the whole, and all the
just laws of union, by which God hath joined together such a
multitude of beings so distant and disagreeing, and how the public
peace is preserved by their private enmity? This discovery caused
him to acknowledge, that "great is the Lord, and of great power: his
understanding is infinite."
(3.) Infinite goodness shined forth in the creation. This is the leading
attribute, that called forth the rest to work. As there was no matter,
so no motive to induce God to make the world, but what arose from
his goodness: for he is an all-sufficient being, perfectly blessed in
himself. His majesty is not increased by the adoration of angels, nor
his greatness by the obedience of nature; neither was he less happy,
or content, in that eternal duration before the existence of any
creature, than he is since. His original felicity is equally incapable of
accession, as of diminution. It is evident therefore, that only free and
unexcited goodness moved him to create all things, that he might
impart being and happiness to the creature, not enrich his own.
And as by contemplating the other works of God, so especially by
reflecting upon himself: Adam had a clear sight of the divine
attributes which concurred in his creation. Whether he considered
his lowest part, the body, it was formed of the earth, the most
artificial and beautiful piece of the visible world.* The contrivance of
its parts was with that proportion and exactness, as most conduced
to comeliness and service. Its stature was erect and raised, becoming
the Lord of the creatures, and an observer of the heavens. A divine
beauty and majesty was shed upon it. And this was no vanishing ray,
soon eclipsed by a disease, and extinguished by death, but shined in
the countenance without any declination. The tongue was man's
peculiar glory, being the interpreter of the mind, and capable to
signify all the affections of the soul. In short, the body was so framed,
as to make a visible discovery of the prerogatives of his creation. And
when he reflected upon his soul that animated his dust, its excellent
endowments wherein it is comparable to the angels, its capacity of
enjoying God himself for ever, he had an internal and most clear
testimony of the glorious perfections of his Creator. For man, who
alone admires the works of God, is the most admirable of all.*
2. The image of God was resplendent in man's conscience, the seat of
the practical knowledge, and treasury of moral principles. The
directive faculty was sincere and uncorrupt, not infected with any
disguising tincture: it was clear from all prejudices, which might
tender it an incompetent judge of good and evil. It instructed man in
all the parts of his relative obligations to God, and the creatures. It
was not fettered and confined, fearfully restraining from what is
lawful; nor licentious and indulgent in what is forbidden. Briefly,
conscience in Adam upright, was a subordinate god, that gave laws,
and exacted obedience to that glorious being who is its superior.
3. There was a divine impression on the will. Spiritual reason kept
the throne, and the inferior faculties observed an easy and regular
subordination to its dictates. The affections were exercised with
proportion to the quality of their objects. Reason was their inviolable
rule, love the most noble, and master-affection, which gives being
and goodness to all the rest, even to hatred itself; (for so much we
hate an object, as it hinders our enjoyment of the good we love:) this
precious incense was offered up to the excellent and supreme being,
which was the author of his life. Adam fully obeyed the first and great
command, of loving the Lord with all his heart, soul and strength.
His love to other things was regulated by his love to God. There was a
perfect accord between flesh and spirit in him. They both joined in
the service of God, and were naturally moved to their happiness. As
the two eyes consent in their motion, so reason and sense agreed for
the same end. In short, the image of God in Adam, was a living,
powerful principle, and had the same relation to the soul which the
soul hath to the body, to animate and order all its faculties in their
offices and operations, according to the will of his Creator.
The image of God consisted (though in an inferior degree) in the
happy state of man. Herein he resembled that infinitely blessed
being. This happiness had relation to the two natures, which enter
into man's composition:
1. To the animal and sensitive, and this consisted in two things. 1. In
the excellent disposition of his organs. 2. In the enjoyment of
convenient objects.
(1.) In the excellent disposition of the organs. His body was formed
immediately by God, and so not liable to these defects which proceed
from the weakness of second causes. No blemish, or disease, which
are the effects and footsteps of sin, were to be found in him. His
health was not a frail inconstant disposition, easily ruined by the
jarring elements, but firm and stable. The humors were in a just
temperament, to prevent any distemper which might tend to the
dissolution of that excellent frame. Briefly, all the senses were quick
and lively, able to perform with facility, vigor and delight, their
operations
(2.) There were convenient objects to entertain his sensitive faculties.
He enjoyed nature in his original purity, crowned with the
benediction of God, before it was blasted with the curse. The world
was all harmony and beauty, becoming the goodness of the Creator;
and not as it is since the fall, disordered and deformed in many parts,
the effect of his justice. The earth was liberal to Adam of all its
treasures, the heavens of their light, and sweetest influences. He was
seated in Eden, a place of so great beauty and delight, that it
represented the celestial paradise which is refreshed with rivers of
pleasure. And as the ultimate end of the creatures was to raise his
mind, and inflame his heart with the love of his great benefactor; so
their, first and natural use was the satisfaction of the senses, from
whence the felicity of the animal life did proceed.
2. His supreme happiness consisted in the exercise of his most noble
faculties on their proper objects. This will appear by considering,
that as the spiritual faculties have objects which infinitely excel those
of the sensitive; so their capacity is more enlarged, their union with
objects is more intimate, and their perception is with more quickness
and vivacity: and thereby are the greatest instruments of pleasure to
the rational being. Now the highest faculties in man are the
understanding and will, and their happiness consists in union with
God by knowledge and love.
(1.) In the knowledge of God. As the desire of knowledge is the most
natural to the human soul, so the obtaining of it produces the most
noble and sweetest pleasure. And proportionably to the degrees of
excellency that are in objects, so much of rational perfection and
satisfaction accrues to the mind by the knowledge of them. The
discovery of the works of God greatly affected man, yet the
excellencies scattered among them are but an imperfect and mutable
shadow of God's infinite and unchangeable perfections. How much
more delightful was it to his pure understanding, tracing the
footsteps and impressions of God in natural things, to ascend to him
who is the glorious original of all perfections! And though his finite
understanding could not comprehend the divine excellencies, yet his
knowledge was answerable to the degrees of revelation wherein God
was manifested. He saw the admirable beauty of the Creator through
the transparent veil of the creatures. And from hence there arose in
the soul a pleasure pure, solid and satisfying, a pleasure divine; for
God takes infinite contentment in the contemplation of himself.
(2.) The happiness of man consisted in the love of God. It was not the
naked speculation of the Deity that made him happy, but such a
knowledge as ravished his affections: for happiness results from the
fruitions of all the faculties. It is true, that by the mediation of the
understanding the other faculties have access to an object; the will
and affections cannot be inclined to any thing, but by virtue of an act
of the mind which propounds it as worthy of them: it follows
therefore that when by the discovery of the transcendent excellencies
in God, the soul is excited to love and to delight in him as its supreme
good, it is then really and perfectly happy. Now as Adam had a
perfect knowledge of God, so the height of his love was answerable to
his knowledge, and the completeness of his enjoyment was according
to his love. All the divine excellencies were amiable to him. The
majesty, purity, justice, and power of God, which are the terror of
guilty creatures, secured his happiness whilst he continued in his
obedience. His conscience was clear and calm, no unquiet fears
discomposed its tranquillity, it was the seat of innocence and peace.
Briefly, his love to God was perfect, (1 John 4:10) without any allay of
tormenting fear; and delight, its inseparable attendant, was pure,
without the least mixture of sorrow.
3. There was in man's dominion and power over the creatures a
shining part of God's image. He was appointed God's lieutenant in
the world, and adorned with a flower of his crown. God gave him the
solemn investiture of this dignity, when he brought the creatures to
receive their names from him, (Psal. 8:5, 6) which was a mark of
their homage, and a token of his supreme empire to command them
by their names. As this dominion was established by the order of
God, so it was exercised by the mediation of the body. In his face and
words there was something so powerful, as commanded all the hosts
of the lower world. And as their subjection was most easy without
constraint or resistance, so it was most equal without violence and
oppression.
Thus holy and blessed was Adam in his primitive state. And that he
might continue so, he was obliged for ever to obey the will of God,
who bestowed upon him life and happiness. By the first neglect of his
duty he would most justly and inevitably incur the loss of both. This
will appear by considering the design of God in the creation.
God did not make the world and man for the mere exercise of his
power, and so left them; but as the production of all things was from
his goodness, so their resolution and tendency are for his glory. He is
as universally the final, as the efficient cause of all creatures. For that
which receives its being from another, cannot be an end to itself; for
the prevision of the end in the mind of the Creator sets him a work,
and is antecedent to the being of the creature. Therefore the wise
man tells us, Prov. 16:4 that "God made all things for himself." And
the apostle, Rom. 11:36. That "of him, and to him, and through him
are all things; to whom be glory for ever." The lower rank of
creatures objectively glorify God, as there is a visible demonstration
of his excellent attributes in them: man is only qualified to know and
love the Creator. And as the benefit of all redounds to him, it is his
duty to pay the tribute for all. By his mouth the world makes its
acknowledgment to God. He is the interpreter of the silent and
uninterrupted praises, which the full choirs of heaven and earth
renders to him. "O Lord, all thy works praise thee," Psal. 145:10
(from the most noble to the least worthy) "thy saints bless thee."
Thankfulness is the homage due from understanding creatures.
And from hence it follows, that man only was in a state of moral
dependance, and capable of a law. For a law being the declaration of
the superior's will requiring obedience, and threatening punishment
on the failure thereof, there must be a principle of reason and choice
in that nature that is governed by it. 1. To discover the authority that
enjoins it. 2. To discern the matter of the law. 3. To determine itself
out of judgment and election to obedience, as most excellent in itself,
and advantageous to the performer.
Now all inferior creatures are moved by the secret force of natural
inclinations; they are insensible of moral engagements, and are not
wrought on in an illuminative way by the foresight of rewards and
punishments: but man who is a reasonable creature, owes "a
reasonable service," Rom. 12:1. And it is impossible that man should
be exempt from a law, for as the notion of a God, that is, of the first
supreme Being, excludes all possibility of obligation to another,
"Who hath first given to the Lord, and it shall be recompensed to him
again?" Rom. 11:35. And of subjection to a law; for supremacy and
subjection are incompatible; so the quality of a creature includes the
relation of dependance and natural subjection to the will of God. This
is most evident from that common principle which governs the
intelligent creation: it is a moral maxim to which the reasonable
nature necessarily assents, that the dispensing of benefits acquires to
the giver a right to command, and lays on the receiver an obligation
to obey; and these rights and duties are measured by the nature of
the benefits as their just rule. This is visible in that dominion which
is amongst men.
If we ascend to the first springs of human laws, we shall find the
original right of power to arise either from generation in nature, or
preservation in war, or some public good accruing to the society by
the prudent care of the governor. Now the being and blessedness of
the creature are the greatest and most valuable benefits that can be
received; and in the bestowing of them is laid the most real
foundation of power and authority. Upon this account man, who
derives his life and felicity from God, is under a natural and strong
obligation to comply with his will. From this right of creation God
asserts his universal dominion: "I have made the earth, and created
man upon it, even my hands have stretched out the heavens, and all
their hosts have I commanded," Isa. 45:12. And the psalmist tells us,
Psal. 100:3. "Know ye that the Lord he is God, it is he that made us,
and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his
pasture." His jurisdiction is grounded on his propriety in man; and
that arises from his giving being to him. Isa. 44:21. "Remember, O
Israel, for thou art my servant, I have formed thee." From hence he
hath a supreme right to impose any law, for the performance of
which man had an original power. Universal obedience is the just
consequent of our obligations to the divine goodness.
Suppose that man were not the work of God's hands, yet the infinite
excellency of his nature gives him a better title to command us, than
man hath upon the account of his reason to govern those creatures
that are inferior to him. Or suppose that God had not created the
matter of which the body is composed, but only inspired it with a
living soul, yet his right over us had been unquestionable.* The civil
law determines, that when an artificer works on rich materials, and
the engraving be not of extraordinary value, that the whole belongs
to him who is the owner of the materials: but if the matter be mean,
and the workmanship excellent, in which the price wholly lies; as if a
painter should draw an admirable picture on a piece of canvass, the
picture of right belongs to him that drew it, instit. Justin. So, if
according to the error of some philosophers, (Plato) the matter of
which the world was made had been eternal, yet God having infused
a reasonable soul into a piece of clay, which is the principle of its life,
and gives it a transcendent value above all other beings which were
made of the same element, it is most just he should have a property
in him, and dominion over him.
The law of nature, to which man was subject upon his creation,
contains those moral principles concerning good and evil, which
have an essential equity in them, and are the measures of his duty to
God, to himself, and to his fellow-creatures. This was published by
the voice of reason, and is "holy, just and good." Rom. 7:12. Holy, as
it enjoins those things wherein there is a conformity to those
attributes and actions of God which are the pattern of our imitation:
so the general rule is, "be holy, as God is holy, in all manner of
conversation," 1 Pet. 1:15. And this is most honourable to the human
nature. It is just, that is exactly agreeable to the frame of man's
faculties, and most suitable to his condition in the world. And good,
that is, beneficial to the observer of it; "in keeping of it, there is great
reward." Psal. 19:11. And the obligation to it is eternal; it being the
unchangeable will of God, grounded on the natural and unvariable
relations between God and man, and between man and the creatures.
Besides the particular directions of the law of nature, this general
principle was planted in the reasonable soul, to obey God in any
instance wherein he did prescribe his pleasure.
Moreover, God was pleased to enter into a covenant with Adam, and
with all his posterity naturally descending from him. And this was
the effect,
1. Of admirable goodness: for by his supremacy over man, he might
have signified his will merely by the way of empire, and required
obedience; but he was pleased to condescend so far as to deal with
man in a sweeter manner, as with a creature capable of his love, and
to work upon him by rewards and punishments congruously to the
reasonable nature.
2. Of wisdom, to secure man's obedience: for the covenant being a
mutual engagement between God and man, as it gave him infallible
assurance of the reward to strengthen his faith, so it was the surest
bond to preserve his fidelity. It is true, the precept alone binds, by
virtue of the authority that imposes it, but the consent of the creature
increases the obligation; it twists the cords of the law, and binds
more strongly to obedience. Thus Adam was God's servant, as by the
condition of his nature, so by his choice, accepting the covenant,
from which he could not recede without the guilt and infamy of the
worst perfidiousness.
The terms of the covenant were becoming the parties concerned, God
and man; it established an inseparable connexion between duty and
felicity. This appears by the sanction, Gen. 2:17. "In the day thou
eatest of the forbidden fruit, thou shalt die:" in that particular species
of sin the whole genus is included; according to the apostle's
exposition, Gal. 3:10. "Cursed is every one that doth not continue in
all the works of the law to do them." The threatening of death was
expressed, it being more difficult to be conceived: the promise of life
upon his obedience was implied, and easily suggested itself to the
rational mind. These were the most proper and powerful motives to
excite his reason, and affect his will. For death primarily signifies the
dissolution of the vital union between the soul and body, and
consequently all the preparatory dispositions thereunto, diseases,
pains, and all the affections of mortality, which terminate in death as
their centre. This is the extremest of temporal evils, which innocent
nature shrunk from, it being a deprivation of that excellent state
which man enjoyed. But principally it signified the separation of the
soul from God's reviving presence, who is the only fountain of
felicity. Thus the law is interpreted by the Lawgiver, "the soul that
sins shall die," Ezek. 18:4. Briefly, death in the threatening is
comprehensive of all kinds and degrees of evils, from the least pain
to the completeness of damnation. Now, it is an inviolable principle
deeply set in the human nature, to preserve its being and
blessedness; so that nothing could be a more powerful restraint from
sin, than the fear of death, which is destructive to both.
This constitution of the covenant was founded not only in the will of
God, but in the nature of things themselves; and this appears by
considering,
1. That holiness is more excellent in itself, and separately considered,
than the reward that attends it. It is the peculiar glory of the divine
nature, "God is glorious in holiness." And as he prefers the infinite
purity of his nature, before the immortal felicity of his state; so he
values in the reasonable creature the virtues by which they represent
his holiness, more than their perfect contentment by which they are
like him in blessedness. Now God is the most just esteemer of things,
his judgment is the infallible measure of their real worth; it is
therefore, according to natural order, that the happiness of man
should depend upon his integrity, and the reward be the fruit of his
obedience.
And though it is impossible that a mere creature in what state soever,
should obtain any thing from God by any other title but his voluntary
promise, the effect of his goodness, yet it was such goodness as God
was invited to exercise by the consideration of man's obedience. And
as the neglect of his duty had discharged the obligation on God's
part, so the performance gave him a claim by right of the promise to
everlasting life.
2. As the first part of the alliance was most reasonable, so was the
second, that death should be the wages of sin. It is not conceivable
that God should continue his favour to man, if he turned rebel
against him: for this were to disarm the law, and expose the
authority of the lawgiver to contempt, and would reflect upon the
wisdom of God. Besides, if the reasonable creature violates the law, it
necessarily contracts an obligation to punishment. So that if the
sinner who deserves death, should enjoy life, without satisfaction for
the offence, or repentance to qualify him for pardon, (both which
were without the compass of the first covenant) this would infringe
the unchangeable rights of justice, and disparage the divine purity.
In the first covenant there was a special clause, which respected man
as the inhabitant of paradise, that he should "not eat of the tree of
knowledge of good and evil" upon pain of death, Gen. 2:17. And this
prohibition was upon the most wise and just reasons.
1. To declare God's sovereign right in all things. In the quality of
Creator he is supreme Lord. Man enjoyed nothing but by a derived
title from his bounty and allowance, and with an obligation to render
to him the homage of all. As princes, when they give estates to their
subjects, still retain the royalty, and receive a small rent, which,
though inconsiderable in its value, is an acknowledgment of
dependance upon them: so when God placed Adam in paradise, he
reserved this mark of his sovereignty, that in the free use of all other
things, man should abstain from the forbidden tree.
2. To make trial of man's obedience in a matter very congruous to
discover it.* If the prohibition had been grounded on any moral
internal evil in the nature of the thing itself, there had not been so
clear a testimony of God's dominion, nor of Adam's subjection to it.
But when that which in itself was indifferent, became unlawful
merely by the will of God, and when the command had no other
excellency but to make his authority more sacred; this was a
confining of man's liberty, and to abstain was pure obedience.
Besides, the restraint was from that which was very grateful, an
alluring to both the parts of man's compounded nature. The sensitive
appetite is strongly excited by the lust of the eye; and this fruit being
beautiful to the sight, (Gen. 3:6) the forbearance was an excellent
exercise of virtue in keeping the lower appetite in obedience. Again,
the desire of knowledge is extremely quick and earnest, and, in
appearance, most worthy of the rational nature; nullus animo
suavior cibus. Lactant. It is the most high and luscious food of the
soul. Now the tree of knowledge was forbidden; so that the
observance of the law was the more eminent, in keeping the
intellectual appetite in mediocrity. In short, God required obedience
as a sacrifice. For the prohibition being in a matter of natural
pleasure,* and a curb to curiosity, which is the lust and
concupiscence of the mind after things concealed; by a reverend
regard to it, man presented his soul and body to God as a living
sacrifice, which was his reasonable service. Rom. 12:1.
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Post by Admin on Jun 18, 2024 13:41:05 GMT -5
II. The fall
Man's natural state was mutable. The devil, moved by hatred and
envy, attempts to seduce him. The temptation was suitable to man's
compounded nature. The woman being deceived, persuades her
husband. The quality of the first sin. Many were combined in it. It
was perfectly voluntary. Man had power to stand. The devil could
only allure, not compel him. His understanding and will the causes of
his fall. The punishment was of the same date with his sin. He
forfeited his righteousness and felicity. The loss of original
righteousness, as it signifies the purity and liberty of the soul. The
torment of conscience that was consequent to sin. A whole army of
evils enter with it into the world.
MAN was created perfectly holy, but in a natural, therefore mutable
state. He was invested with power to prevent his falling, yet under a
possibility of it. He was complete in his own order, but receptive of
sinful impressions. An invincible perseverance in holiness belongs to
a supernatural state; it is the privilege of grace, and exceeds the
design of the first creation.
The rebellious spirits, who by a furious ambition had raised a war in
heaven, and were fallen from their obedience and glory, designed to
corrupt man, and to make him a companion with them in their
revolt. The most subtile amongst them sets about this work, urged by
two strong passions, hatred and envy.
1. By hatred. For being under a final and irrevocable doom, he looked
on God as an irreconcilable enemy: and not being able to injure his
essence, he struck at his image: as the fury of some beasts discharges
itself upon the picture of a man. He singled out Adam as the mark of
his malice, that by seducing him from his duty, he might defeat God's
design, which was to be honoured by man's free obedience, and so
obscure his glory as if he had made man in vain.
2. He was solicited by envy, the first native of hell: for having lost the
favour of God, and being cast out of heaven, the region of joy and
blessedness, the sight of Adam's felicity exasperated his grief. That
man, who by the condition of his nature, was below him, should be
prince of the world, whilst he was a prisoner under those chains
which restrained and tormented him, the power and wrath of God,
this made his state more intolerable. His torment was incapable of
allay, but by rendering man as miserable as himself. And as hatred
excited his envy, so envy inflamed his hatred, and both joined in
mischief. And thus pushed on, his subtilty being equal to his malice,
he contrives a temptation, which might be most taking and
dangerous to man in his raised and happy state. He attempts him
with art, by propounding the lure of knowledge and pleasure, to
inveigle the spiritual and sensitive appetites at once. And that he
might the better succeed, he addresses to the woman, the weakest
and most liable to seduction. He hides himself in the body of a
serpent, which before sin was not terrible unto her: and by this
instrument insinuates his temptation. He first allures with the hopes
of impunity, "ye shall not die;" then he promiseth an universal
knowledge of "good and evil." By these pretences he ruined
innocence itself. For the woman deceived by those specious
allectives, swallowed the poison of the serpent, and having tasted
death, she persuaded her husband, by the same motives, to despise
the law of their Creator. Thus sin entered, and brought confusion
into the world. For the moral harmony of the world consisting in the
just subordination of the several ranks of beings to one another, and
of all to God; when man who was placed next to God broke the
union, his tall brought a desperate disorder into God's government.
And though the matter of the offence seems small, yet the
disobedience was infinitely great; it being the transgression of that
command, which was given to be the instance and real proof of
man's subjection to God. Totam legem violavit in illo legalis
obedientiæ præcepto. Tertul. The honour and majesty of the whole
law was violated in the breach of that symbolical precept. It was a
direct and formal rebellion, a public renunciation of obedience, an
universal apostacy from God, and change of the last end, that
extinguished the habit of original righteousness. Many sins were
combined in that single act.
1. Infidelity: this was the first step to ruin. It appears by the order of
the temptation: it was first said by the devil, "ye shall not die," to
weaken their faith; then, "ye shall be like gods," to flatter their
ambition. The fear of death would have controlled the efficacy of all
his arguments; till that restraint was broke, he could fasten nothing
upon them. This account the apostle gives of the fall, 1 Tim. 2:14.
"The woman being deceived, was in the transgression." As obedience
is the effect of faith, so disobedience of infidelity: and as faith comes
by hearing the word of God, so infidelity by listening to the words of
the devil. From the deception of the mind proceeded the depravation
of the will, the intemperance of the appetite, and the defection of the
whole man. Thus as the natural, so the spiritual death made its first
entrance by the* eye. And this infidelity is extremely aggravated, as it
implies an accusation of God both of envy and falsehood.
1. Of envy; as if he had denied them the perfections becoming the
human nature, and they might ascend to a higher orb than that
wherein they were placed, by eating the forbidden fruit. And what
greater disparagement could there be of the divine goodness, than to
suspect the Deity of such a low and base passion, which is the special
character of the angels of darkness?
2. It was equally injurious to the honour of God's truth. For it is not
easy to conceive, that Adam, who was so lately the effect of God's
omnipotence, should presently distrust it as unable to inflict the
punishment threatened, but his assent was weakened as to the truth
of the threatening: he did not believe the danger to be so great or
certain upon his disobedience. And he that "believes not God, makes
him a liar." 1 John 5:16. An impiety not to be thought on without
horror. And that which heightens the affront, is, that when he
distrusted the fountain of truth, he gave credit to the father of lies; as
appears by his compliance, the real evidence of his faith. Now what
viler contumely could be offered to the Creator?
2. Prodigious pride: † he was scarce out of the state of nothing, no
sooner created, but he aspired to be as God. Not content with his
image, he affected an equality, to be like him in his inimitable
attributes. He would rob God of his eternity to live without end; of
his sovereignty, to command without dependance; of his wisdom to
know all things without reserve. Infinite insolence! and worthy of the
most fiery indignation! That man, the son of the earth, forgetful of
his original, should usurp the prerogatives which are essential to the
Deity, and set up himself a real idol, was a strain of that arrogancy
which corrupted the angels.
3. Horrid ingratitude: he was appointed heir apparent of all things;
yet undervaluing his present portion, he entertains a project of
improving his happiness. The excellent state newly conferred upon
him, was a strong obligation to pay so small an acknowledgment to
his Lord. The use of all the garden was allowed to him, only a tree
excepted.* Now in the midst of such variety and plenty, to be
inflamed with the intemperate appetite of the forbidden fruit, and to
break a command so equal and easy, what was it but a despising the
rich goodness of his great benefactor? Besides, man was endued with
a diviner spirit than the inferior order of creatures: reason and
liberty were the special privileges of his nature; and, to abuse them to
rebellion, renders him, as more unreasonable, so more disingenuous
than the creatures below him, who inflexibly obey the will of God.
4. The visible contempt of God's majesty, with a slighting his justice.
For the prohibition was so express and terrible, that till he had cast
off all respects to the Lawgiver, it was not possible he should venture
to disobey him. The sin of Adam is therefore called by the apostle,
disobedience, Rom. 5:19 as eminently such; it being the first and
highest instance of it, and virtually a breach of all the laws at once in
that contempt of the Lawgiver. It was the profanation of paradise
itself, the place of God's special presence: there he fell, and trampled
on God's command before his face. What just cause of astonishment
is it, that a reasonable creature should bid open defiance to the
Author of its life! That a little breathing dust should contemn its
Creator! That man should prefer servile compliance to the will of the
tempter, before free subjection to his father and sovereign! To
depose God, and place the devil in his throne, was double treason,
and provoked his infinite jealousy.
5. Unaccountable and amazing folly. What a despicable acquisition
tempted him out of happiness! If there had been any possible
comparison between them, the choice had been more excusable. But
that the pleasures of taste and curiosity should outvie the favour of
God which is better than life; that the most pernicious evil, gilded
with the thin appearance of good, should be preferred before the
substantial and supreme good, is the reproach of his reason, and
makes the choice so criminal. And what less than voluntary madness
could incline him to desire that, which he ought infinitely to have
feared, that is, the knowledge of evil? for nothing could destroy his
happiness but the experience of evil. What a wilful distraction could
induce him to believe, that by defacing God's image, he should
become more like him? Thus "man being in honour, but without
understanding, became like the beasts that perish." Psal. 49:12.
6. A bloody cruelty to himself, and to all his posterity. When God had
made him a depository, in a matter of infinite moment, that is, of his
own happiness, and all mankind's, this should have been a powerful
motive to have kept him vigilant: but giving a ready ear to the
tempter, he betrayed his trust, and, at once, breaks both the tables of
the law, and becomes guilty of the highest impiety and cruelty. He
was a murderer before a parent, he disinherited all his children
before they were born, and made them slaves before they knew the
price of liberty.
And that which increases the malignity of this sin, and adds an
infinite emphasis to it, is, that it was perfectly voluntary, his will was
the sole cause of his fall. And this is evident by considering;
1. That Adam innocent had a sufficient power to persevere in his holy
state. There was no subtraction of any grace which was requisite to
his standing; he left God before he was forsaken by him.* Much less
was there any internal impulsion from God. It is inconsistent with
the divine purity to incline the creature to sin: as God cannot be
tempted to evil, neither tempts he any man. It is injurious to his
wisdom, to think that God would spoil that work, which he had
composed with so much design and counsel. And it is dishonourable
to his goodness; he loved his creature, and love is an inclination to do
good; it was impossible therefore for God to induce man to sin, or to
withdraw that power which was necessary to resist the temptation,
when the consequence must be his inevitable ruin.
2. The devil did only allure, he could not ravish his consent. Though
his malice is infinite, yet his power is so restrained, that he cannot
fasten an immediate, much less an irresistible impression on the
will:* He therefore made use of an external object to invite him. Now
objects have no constraining force, they are but partial agents, and
derive all their efficacy from the faculties to which they are agreeable.
And although since sin hath disordered the flesh, there is difficulty in
resisting those objects which pleasantly insinuate themselves; yet
such an universal rectitude was in Adam, and so entire a subjection
in the sensual appetite to the superior power of reason, that he might
have obtained an† easy conquest. A resolute negative had made him
victorious: by a strong denial he had baffled that proud spirit. As the
heavenly Adam, when he, who is only rich in promises, offered to
him the monarchy of the world with all its glory, disdained the offer,
and cast off satan with contempt. The true rock was unmoved, and
broke all the proud waves that dashed against it.
3. It will fully appear that the disobedience was voluntary, by
considering what denominates an action to be so. The two springs of
human actions are the understanding and will; and as there is no
particular good but may have the appearance of some difficult
unpleasant quality annexed, upon which account the will may reject
it; so any particular evil may be so disguised by the false lustre of
goodness, as to incline the will to receive it. This is clearly verified in
Adam's fall. For a specious object was conveyed through the
unguarded sense to his fancy, and from that to his understanding,
which, by a vicious carelessness, neglecting to consider the danger,
or judging that the excellency of the end did out-weigh the evil of the
means, commended it to the will, and that resolved to embrace it. It
is evident therefore, that the action which resulted from the direction
of the mind, and the choice of the will, was absolutely free.
Besides, as the regret that is mixed with an action, is a certain
character that the person is under constraint; so the delight that
attends it is a clear evidence that he is free. When the appetite is
drawn by the lure of pleasure, Jam. 1:14 the more violent, the more
voluntary is its motion. Now the representations of the forbidden
fruit were under the notion of pleasure. The woman saw the "fruit
was good for food, that is, pleasurable to the palate, and "pleasant to
the eyes, and to be desired to make one wise." Gen. 3:6. That is, to
increase knowledge, which is the pleasure of the mind, and these
allectives draw her into the snare. Adam with complacency received
the temptation, and by the enticement of satan, committed adultery
with the creature, from whence the cursed race of sin and miseries
proceed.
Suppose the devil had so disguised the temptation, that
notwithstanding all circumspection and care, Adam could not have
discovered its evil; his invincible ignorance had rendered the action
involuntary: but Adam was conscious of his own action, there was
light in his mind to discern the evil, and strength in his will to decline
it. For the manner of the defection, whether it was from affected
ignorance, or secure neglect, or transport of passion, it doth not
excuse: the action itself was of that moment, and the supreme
Lawgiver so worthy of reverence, that it should have awakened all
the powers of his soul to beware of that which was rebellion against
God, and ruin to himself.
Or suppose he had been tried by torments, whose extremity and
continuance had vehemently oppressed his nature; this had only
lessened the guilt, the action had still been voluntary: for no external
force can compel the will to choose any thing but under the notion of
comparative goodness, Job 36:21. Now to choose sin rather than
pains, and to prefer ease before obedience, is highly dishonourable to
God, whose glory ought to be infinitely more valuable to us than life,
and all its endearments. And though sharp pains, by composing the
body, make the soul unfit for its highest and noblest operations, so
that it cannot perform the acts of virtue with delight and freedom;
yet then it may abstain from evil. But this was not Adam's case: the
devil had no power over him (as over Job, who felt the extremity of
his rage, and yet came off more than conqueror) to disturb his
felicity, he prevailed by a simple suasion. Briefly, though Adam had
strength sufficient to repel all the powers of darkness, yet he was
vanquished by the assault of a single temptation. Now that man so
richly furnished with all the perfections of the mind, and the
excellent virtues of which origninal righteousness was composed;
that endued with knowledge to foresee the incomparable evil that
would redound to himself, and the universal to his posterity by his
disobedience; that being so well tempered in his constitution, that all
his appetites were subject to reason; that notwithstanding these
preservatives, he should be deceived by the false persuasion of an
erring mind, and overcome by carnal concupiscence, as the evil
effects of it will not cease to the end of the world, nor the just wonder
how it was possible to happen: these are the circumstances which
derive a crimson-guilt to his rebellious sin, and render it above
measure sinful.
This will more fully appear in the dreadful effects that ensued. By his
disobedience he lost original righteousness, and made a deadly
forfeiture of felicity.
1. He lost original righteousness: for that so depended on the human
faculties, that the actual violation of the law was presently attended
with the privation of it. Besides, the nature of his sin contained an
entire forsaking of God, as envious of his happiness, and a
conversion to the creature as the supreme good. And whatever is
desired as the last end perfective of man, virtually includes all
subordinate ends, and regulates all means for obtaining it. So that
that being changed, a universal change of moral qualities in Adam
necessarily followed. Instead of the rectitude and excellent holiness
of the soul, succeeded a permanent viciousness and corruption. Now
holiness may be considered in the notion of purity and beauty, or of
dominion and liberty, in opposition to which sin is represented in
scripture by foul deformity and servitude.
(1.) His soul degenerated from its purity; the faculties remained, but
the moral perfections were lost, wherein the brightness of God's
image was most conspicuous. The holy wisdom of his mind, the
divine love, that sanctified his will, the spiritual power, to obey God,
were totally quenched. How is man disfigured by his fall! How is he
transformed, in an instant, from the image of God into the image of
the devil! He is defiled with the filthiness of flesh and spirit; he is
ashamed at the sight of his own nakedness that reproached him for
his crime; but the most shameful was that of the soul: the one might
be covered with leaves, the other nothing could conceal. To see a face
of exquisite beauty devoured by a cancer, how doth it move
compassion? But were the natural eye heightened, to that clearness
and perspicacity, as to discover the deformity which sin hath brought
upon the soul, how would it strike us with grief, horror and aversion?
(2.) He was deprived of his dominion and liberty: the understanding
was so wounded by the violence of the fall, that not only its light is
much impaired, but its power is so weakened, as to the lower
faculties, that those, which according to the order of nature, should
obey, have cast off its just authority, and usurp the government. The
will hath lost its true freedom, whereby it was enlarged to the extent
and amplitude of the divine will, in loving whatsoever was pleasing
to God, and is contracted to mean and base objects. What a furious
disorder is in the affections? The restraint of reason to check their
violent course, provokes them to swell higher, and to be more
impetuous; and the more they are gratified, the more insolent and
outrageous they grow.
The senses, whose office is to be intelligencers of the soul, to make
discovery, and to give a naked report, without disturbing the higher
faculties, they sometimes mistake disguised enemies for friends; and
sometimes by a false alarm move the lower appetites, and fill the soul
with disorder and confusion, that the voice of reason cannot be
heard. By the irritation of grief, the insinuation of pleasure, or some
other perturbation, the soul is captivated and wounded through the
senses. In short, when man turned rebel to God, he became a slave to
all the creatures. By their primitive institution they were appointed
to be subservient to the glory of God, and the use of man, to be
motives of love and obedience to the Creator: but sin hath corrupted
and changed them into so many instruments of vice, they "are made
subject to vanity." Rom. 8:20. And man is so far sunk into the dregs
of servitude, that he is subject to them. For by forsaking God, the
supreme object of love, with as much injustice as folly, and choosing
the creature in his stead, he becomes a servant to the meanest thing
upon which he places an inordinate affection.
Briefly, man, who by his creation was the Son of God, is made a slave
to satan that damned spirit and most cursed creature. Deplorable
degradation! and worthy of the deepest shame and sorrow.
2. Man lost his felicity. Besides the trouble that sin hath in its own
nature, which I have touched on before, there is a consequent guilt
and torment attends it. Adam whilst obedient enjoyed peace with
God, a sweet serenity of mind, a divine calm in the conscience, and
full satisfaction in himself. But after his sin, he trembled at God's
voice, and was tormented at his presence. "I heard thy voice, and was
afraid," saith guilty Adam, Gen. 3:10. He looked on God as angry,
and armed against him, ready to execute the severe sentence.
Conscience began an early hell within him: paradise with all its
pleasures could not secure him from that sting in his breast, and that
sharpened by the hand of God. What confusion of thoughts, what a
combat of passions was he in? When the temptation which deceived
him vanished, and his spirit recovered out of the surprise, and took a
clear view of his guilt in its true horror, what indignation did it kindle
in his breast? How did shame, sorrow, revenge, despair, those secret
executioners, torment his spirit? The intelligent nature, his peculiar
excellency above the brutes, armed misery against him, and put a
keener edge to it: 1. by reflecting upon the foolish exchange he made
of God himself for the fruit of a tree; that so slender a temptation
should cheat him of his blessedness. His present misery is
aggravated by the sad comparison of it with his primitive felicity.
Nothing remains of his first innocence, but the vexatious regret of
having lost it. 2. By the foresight of the death he deserved. The
conscience of his crimes racked his soul with the certain and fearful
expectation of judgment.
Besides the inward torment of his mind, he was exposed to all
miseries from without. Sin having made a breach into the world, the
whole army of evils entered with it; the curse extends itself to the
whole creation. For the world being made for man, the place of his
residence, in his punishment it hath felt the effects of God's
displeasure. The whole course of nature is set on fire. Whereas a
general peace and amicable correspondence were established
between heaven and earth, whilst all were united in subjection to the
Creator: sin that broke the first union between God and man, hath
ruined the second. As in a state when one part of the subjects fall
from their obedience, the rest which are constant in their duty, break
with the rebels, and make war upon them till they return to their
allegiance: so universal nature was armed against rebellious man,
and had destroyed him without the merciful interposition of God.
The angels with flaming swords expelled him from paradise. The
beasts who were all innocent, whilst man remained innocent,
espouse God's interest, and are ready to revenge the quarrel of their
Creator. The insensible creation which at first was altogether
beneficial to man, is become hurtful. The heavens sometimes are
hardened as brass in a long and obstinate serenity: sometimes are
dissolved in a deluge of rain: the earth is barren, and unfaithful to
the sower, "it brings forth thorns and thistles" instead of bread. Gen.
3:17, 18. In short, man is an enemy to man. When there were but two
brothers to divide the world, the one stained his hands in the blood
of the other. And since the progeny of Adam is increased into vast
societies, all the disasters of the world, as famine, pestilence, deluges,
the fury of beasts have not been so destructive of mankind, as the
sole malignity of man against those that partake of the human
nature.*
To conclude, who can make a list of the evils to which the body is
liable by the disagreeing elements that compose it? The fatal seeds of
corruption are bred in itself. It is a prey to all diseases, from the
torturing stone to the dying consumption. It feels the strokes of
death a thousand times before it can die once. At last, life is
swallowed up of death. And if death were a deliverance from
miseries, it would lessen its terror, but it is the consummation of all.
The first death transmits to the second. As the body dies by the soul's
forsaking it, so the soul, by sepation from God, its true life, dies to its
well being and happiness for ever
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Post by Admin on Jun 18, 2024 13:42:51 GMT -5
III. All mankind involved in the fall.
All mankind is involved in Adam's guilt, and under the penal
consequences that follow upon it. Adam, the natural and moral
principle of mankind. An hereditary corruption is transmitted to all
that are propagated from him. The account the scripture gives of the
conveyance of it. It is an innate habit. It is universal. Corrupt nature
contains the seeds of all sins, though they do not shoot forth
together. It is voluntary and culpable. The permission of the fall is
suitable to the wisdom, holiness, and goodness of God. The
imputation of Adam's sin to his posterity is consistent with God's
justice.
THE rebellion of the first man against the great Creator was a sin of
universal efficacy, that derives a guilt and stain to mankind in all
ages of the world. The account the scripture gives of it, is grounded
on the relation which all men have to Adam, as their natural and
moral principle.
1. Their natural. God created one man in the beginning, from whom
all others derive their beings: and that the unity might be the more
entire, he formed of him that aid which was necessary for the
communicating his kind to the world. "He made of one blood all
nations of men, to dwell on the face of the earth." Acts 17:26. And as
the whole race of mankind was virtually in Adam's loins, so it was
presumed to give virtual consent to what he did. When he broke, all
suffered shipwreck, that were contained in him as their natural
original. The angels were created immediately and distinctly, without
dependance upon one another, as to their original; therefore when a
great number revolted from God, the rest were not complicated in
their sin and ruin. But when the universal progenitor of men sinned,
there was a conspiracy of all the sons of Adam in that rebellion, and
not one subject left in his obedience.
2. He was the moral principle of mankind. In the first treaty between
God and man, Adam was considered not as a single person, but as
caput gentis, and contracted for all his descendants by ordinary
generation. His person was the fountain of theirs, and his will the
representative of theirs. From hence his vast progeny became a party
in the covenant, and had a title to the benefits contained in it upon
his obedience, and was liable to the curse upon his violation of it.
Upon this ground the apostle institutes a parallel between Adam and
Christ, Rom. 5:19. "That as by one man's disobedience, many were
made sinners, so by the obedience of one, many were made
righteous." As Christ in his death on the cross did not suffer as a
private person, but as a surety and sponsor representing the whole
church; according to the testimony of scripture, "If one died for all,
then all were dead," 2 Cor. 5:14 so the first "Adam, who was the
figure of him that was to come," Rom. 5:14 in his disobedience was
esteemed a public person representing the whole race of mankind;
and by a just law it was not restrained to himself, but is the sin of the
common nature. Adam broke the first link in the chain, whereby
mankind was united to God, and all the other parts which depended
upon it are necessarily separated from him. From hence the scripture
saith, that "by nature we are children of wrath," Ephes. 2:3 that is,
liable to punishment, and that hath relation to guilt.
And of this we have convincing experience in the common evils
which afflict mankind, before the commission of any actual sin. The
cries of infants who are only eloquent to grief, but dumb to all things
else, discover that miseries attend them. The tears which are born
with their eyes, signify they are come into a state of sorrow. How
many troops of deadly diseases are ready to seize on them
immediately after their entrance into the world? which are the
apparent effects of God's displeasure, and therefore argue man to be
guilty of some great crime from his birth.* The ignorance of this
made the heathens accuse nature, and blaspheme God under that
mask, as less kind and indulgent to man than to the creatures below
him. They are not under so hard a law of coming into the world. They
are presently instructed to swim, to fly, to run for their preservation.
They are clothed by nature, and their habits grow in proportion with
their bodies, some with feathers, some with wool, others with scales,
which are both habit and armour: but man who is alone sensible of
shame, is born naked, and though of a more delicate temper, is more
exposed to injuries by distempered seasons, and utterly unable to
repel or avoid the evils that encompass him. Now the account the
scripture gives of original sin silences all these complaints. Man is a
transgressor from the womb; and how can he expect a favourable
reception into the empire of an offended God? Briefly, sometimes
death enters into the retirements of nature, and changes the womb
into a grave; which proves, that as soon as we partake of the human
nature, we are guilty of the sin that is common to it; "for the wages of
sin is death." Rom. 6:23. Adam, in his innocent state, had the
privilege of immortality, but by him "sin entered into the world, and
death by sin, and so death passed upon all men," Rom. 5:12, 14, 17 as
a just sentence upon the guilty, for that all men have sinned.
2. An hereditary corruption is transmitted to all that naturally
descend from him. If Adam had continued in his obedience, the
spiritual as well as the natural life had been conveyed to his children;
but, for his rebellion he lost his primitive rectitude, and contracted
an universal corruption; which he derives to all his posterity. And as
in a disease there is a defect of health, and a distemper of the
humours that affects the body; so in the depravation of nature, there
is not the mere want of holiness, but a strong proclivity to sin. This
privation of original righteousness, considered as a sin, is naturally
from Adam, the principle of lapsed and corrupt nature: but, as a
punishment, it is meritoriously from him, and falls under the
ordination of divine justice. Man cast it away, and God righteously
refuses to restore it. It is a solicitous impertinency, to inquire nicely
about the manner of conveying this universal corruption. For the
bare knowledge of it is ineffectual to the cure. And what greater folly
than to make our own evils the object of simple speculation? I shall
consider only that general account of it which is set down in the
scripture.
It is the universal and unchangeable law of nature, that every thing
produce its like, not only in regard of the same nature, that is
propagated from one individual to another, without a change of the
species, but in respect of the qualities with which that nature is
eminently affected. This is visible in the several Kinds of creatures in
the world, they all preserve the nature of the principle from whence
they are derived, and retain the vein of their original, the quality of
their extraction. Thus our Saviour tells us, Mat. 7:18 that "the fruit
partakes of the rottenness of the tree:" and "whatever is born of the
flesh, is flesh" John. 3:6. The title of flesh doth not signify the
material part of our humanity, but the corruption of sin with which
the whole nature is infected. This is evident by the description the
apostle gives of it; "that the flesh is not subject to the law of God,"
Rom. 8:7 and that which aggravates the evil is, that it cannot be.
Sinful corruption is expressed by this title, partly in regard it is
transmitted by the way of carnal propagation; "Behold, I was shapen
in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." Psal. 51:5. And
partly in regard it is exercised by the carnal members. This
corruption is a poison so subtle, that it pierces into all the powers of
the soul; so contagious, that it infects all the actions; so obstinate,
that only omnipotent grace can heal it. More particularly,
1. It is an innate habit, not merely acquired by imitation. The root of
bitterness is planted in the human nature, and produces its fruits in
the various seasons of life. No age is free from its working; "Every
imagination of the thoughts of man's heart is only evil, and
continually evil." Gen. 6:5. We see this verified in children, when the
most early acts of their reason, and the first instances of their
apprehension are in sin. If we ascend higher, and consider man in his
infant state, the vicious inclinations which appear in the cradle, the
violent motions of anger which disturbs sucklings, their endeavour to
exercise a weak revenge on those that displease them, convince us
that the corruption is natural, and proceeds from an infected
original.
2. As it is natural, so universal. "Who can bring a clean thing out of
an unclean?" Job 14:14. That is, how can a righteous person be born
of a sinner? The answer is peremptory, Not one. The fountain was
poisoned in Adam, and all the streams partake of the infection. All
that are derived from him in a natural way, and have a relation to
him as their common father, are sharers in this depravation. What
difference soever there is in their climates, colours, and external
conditions of life, yet the blood from whence they spring taints them
all.
3. Corrupt nature is pregnant with the seeds of all sin, though they do
not shoot forth together: and for this several accounts may be given.
1. Though all sins agree in their cause and end, yet some are contrary
in their exercise. 2. The human spirit is not capable of many passions
in their height at the same time; and it is the art of our spiritual
enemies to suit their temptations to the capacity of man. 3. As the
same poison produces different effects in different bodies, according
to those various humours which are predominant in them; so the
same corruption of nature works variously according to the different
tempers of men. For though the conception of sin depends
immediately upon the soul, yet to the bringing of it forth the
concurrence of the external faculties is requisite. Thus a voluptuary
who is restrained from the gross acts of sensuality by a disease, or
age, may be as vicious in his desires, as another who follows the
pernicious swing of his appetite, having a vigorous complexion.
Briefly, the variety of circumstances by which the inward corruption
is excited and drawn forth, makes a great difference as to the open
and visible acts of it. Thus an ambitious person who uses clemency to
accomplish his design, would exercise cruelty if it were necessary to
his end.
It is true, some are really more temperate, and exempted from the
tyranny of the flesh than others. Cicero was more virtuous than
Catiline, and Socrates than Aristophanes: but these are privileged
persons, in whom the efficacy of divine providence either by forming
them in the womb, or in their education, or by conducting them in
their mature age, hath corrected the malignity of nature. "All men
have sinned, and come short of the glory of God's image;" Rom. 3:23.
And that sin breaks not forth so outrageously in some as in others,
the restraint is from an higher principle than common and corrupt
nature.
4. This corruption though natural, yet it is voluntary and culpable.
1. In some respects it is voluntary: 1. in its principle and cause, the
will of Adam that orignally was ours. All habits receive their
character from those acts by which they are produced; and as the
disobedience of Adam was voluntary, so is the depravation that
sprung from it.
2. It is inherent in the will. If Adam had derived a
leprosy to all men, it were an involuntary evil; because the diseases of
the body are foreign to the soul: but when the corruption invades the
internal faculties, it is denominated from the subject wherein it is
seated.
3. It is voluntary in its effects, the numberless actual sins
proceeding from it: and if the acts that freely flow from this
corruption are voluntary, the principle must be of the same nature.
2. It is culpable. The formality of sin consists in its opposition to the
law, according to the definition of the apostle, "sin is a transgression
of the law." Now the law requires an entire rectitude in all the
faculties. It condemns corrupt inclinations, the originals as well as
the acts of sin. Besides, concupiscence was not inherent in the
human nature in its creation, but was contracted by the fall. The soul
is stripped of its native righteousness and holiness, and invested with
contrary qualities. There is as great a difference between the
corruption of the soul in its degenerate state, and its primitive purity,
as between the loathsomeness of a carcass, and the beauty of a living
body. Sad change! and to be lamented with tears of confusion.
That the sin of Adam should be so fatal to all his posterity, is the
most difficult part in the whole order of divine providence. Nothing
more offends carnal reason, which forms many specious objections
against it. I will briefly consider them.
Since God saw that Adam would not resist the temptation, and that
upon his fall the whole race of mankind, which he supported as the
foundation, would sink into ruin, why did he not confirm him against
it? Was it not within his power, and more, suitable to his wisdom,
holiness and goodness?
To this I answer,
1. The divine power could have preserved man in his integrity, either
by laying a restraint on the apostate angels, that they should never
have made an attempt upon him; or by keeping the understanding
waking and vigilant to discover the danger of the temptation, and by
fortifying the will, and rendering it impenetrable to the fiery darts of
satan, without any prejudice to its freedom. For that doth not consist
in an absolute indifference, but in a judicious and deliberate choice;
so that when the soul is not led by a blind instinct, nor forced by a
foreign power, but embraces what it knows and approves, it then
enjoys the most true liberty.* Thus, in the glorified spirits above, by
the full and constant light of the mind, the will is indeclinably fixed
upon its supreme good, and this is its crown and perfection.
2. It was most suitable to the divine wisdom, to leave man to stand or
fall by his own choice; 1. To discover the necessary dependance of all
second causes upon the first. No creature is absolutely impeccable,
but the most perfect is liable to imperfection. He that is essentially, is
only unchangeably good. Infinite goodness alone excludes all
possibility of receiving corruption. The fall of angels and man
convinces us, that there is one sole Being immutably pure and holy,
on whom all depend, and without whose influence they cannot be, or
must be eternally miserable.
2. It was very fit that Adam should be first in a state of trial, before be
was confirmed in his happiness. The reason of it is clear, he was left
to his own judgment and election, that obedience might be his
choice, and in the performance of it he might acquire a title to the
reward. A determinating virtue over him had crossed the end of his
creation, which was to glorify God in such a free manner. Therefore
in paradise there were amiable objects to allure the lower faculties,
before they were disordered by him. The forbidden fruit had beauty
to invite the eye, and sweetness to delight the palate. And if upon the
competition of the sensual with the intellectual good, he had rejected
the one and chose the other, he had been raised to an unchangeable
state; his innocence had been crowned with perseverance. As the
angels who continued in their duty, when the rest revolted, are
finally established in their integrity and felicity. And the apostle gives
us an account of this order, when he tells us, 1 Cor. 15:46. "That was
first which was natural, then that which is spiritual and
supernatural." Man was created in a state of perfection, but it was
natural, therefore mutable; the confirming of him immediately had
been grace, which belongs to a more excellent dispensation. Now to
bring man from not being to a supernatural state, without trial of the
middle state of nature, was not so congruous to the divine wisdom.
3. The permission of the fall doth not reflect on the divine purity; for,
1. Man was made upright; he had no inward corruption to betray
him; there was antidote enough in his nature to expel the strongest
temptation.
2. God was not bound to hinder the commission of sin: it is a true
maxim, that in debitis causa deficiens efficit moraliter: but God is not
only free from subjection to a law, as having no superior, but was
under no voluntary obligation by promise to prevent the fall.
3. Neither doth that first act of sin reflect on God's unspotted
providence which suffered it, as if sin were in any degree allowed by
him. The holy law which God gave to direct man, the terrible
threatening annexed to warn him, declare his irreconcilable hatred
against sin. He permits innumerable sins every day, yet be is as
jealous of the honour of his holiness now, as in the beginning. It is
the worst impiety for the sinner to "think God like himself," Psal.
50:21 as if he took complacency in sin, because he is silent for a time,
and suffers the commission of it. In the next state he will fully
vindicate his glory, and convince the whole world of his eternal
aversion to sin, by inflicting on sinners the most dreadful and
durable torments.
3. The goodness of God is not disparaged by permitting the fall: this
appears by considering,
1. That God bestowed on man an excellent being, and a happiness
that might satisfy his nature, considered as human, or holy. But he
perverted the favours of God to his dishonour, and this doth not
lessen the goodness that gave them. It is unreasonable to judge of the
value of a benefit, by the ungrateful abuse of the receiver, and not
from its own nature. It is a chosen misery that is come upon man,
and not to be imputed to any defect of the divine goodness.
2. God is infinitely good, notwithstanding the entrance of sin and
misery into the world. We must distinguish between natural and
voluntary agents. Natural agents have no power to suspend their
acts, but are entirely determined, and their operations are ad
extremum virium, to the utmost of their efficacy. If there were
infinite degrees of heat, there would be no cold, it being overcome by
the force of its contrary. But God is a wise and free agent, and as he is
infinite in goodness; so the exercise of it is voluntary, and only so far
as he pleases.
3. God is an omnipotent good, and it is his peculiar glory to bring
good out of evil, that by the opposition and lustre of contraries his
goodness might be the more conspicuous. To speak strictly, sin is the
only evil in the world; for all the rest which appear so to our fancies
and appetites, are either absolutely good, or upon the supposal of
sin, viz. either for the reformation of sinners, or for the ruin of the
obstinate. Now the evil of sin God permitted as a fit occasion for the
more glorious discovery of his attributes, in sending his Son into the
world to repair his image which was defaced, and to raise man from
an earthly to celestial happiness.
The substance of which is this, That it is an
impious folly to imagine that God was either defective in wisdom, not
to know what was the best state for man in his creation; or defective
in goodness, that knowing it, he would not confer it upon him; or
defective in power, that willing, he was unable to make him better.
There is another objection vehemently urged, that the imputation of
Adam's sin to all his posterity, who were not existent at that time,
and did not give their personal consent to the treaty between God
and him, is inconsistent with justice. To this I answer:
1. The terms of the first covenant are such, that the common reason
of mankind cannot justly refuse. For suppose all the progeny of
Adam had appeared with him before their Creator, and this had been
propounded, that God would make an agreement with their common
father on their behalf, that if he continued in his obedience, they
should enjoy a happy immortality; if he declined from it, they should
be deprived of blessedness: what shadow of exception can be formed
against this proposal? For God who is the master of his own favours,
and gives them upon what terms he pleases, might upon their refusal
have justly annihilated them. The command was equal, and his
obedience for all was as easy, as that of every particular person for
himself.
Besides, Adam was as much concerned to observe the conditions of
the covenant, for securing his own interest, as theirs, and after a
short time of trial they should be confirmed in their blessedness. By
all which it is apparent how reasonable the conditions of the original
agreement between God and man are.
2. God hath a power over our wills superior to that we ourselves
have. If God offers a covenant to the creature, the terms being equal,
it becomes a law, and consent is due as an act of obedience. And if a
community may appoint one of their number to be their
representative, to transact affairs of the greatest moment, and
according to his management, the benefit, or damage, shall accrue to
them, because be is reckoned to perform the wills of them all; may
not God, who hath a supreme dominion over us, constitute Adam the
representative of mankind (Vid. Ward de peccat. Origin) and unite
the consent of all in his general will, so that as he fulfilled or
neglected his duty, they should be happy or miserable? This
consideration alone, that the first covenant was ordered by God, may
perfectly satisfy all inquiries. As Salvian having confessed his
ignorance in the reason of some dispositions of providence, silences
all objections with this;)
Neither is this a mere extrinsic argument, as authority usually is,
because there is an intrinsic reason of this authority, the absolute
rectitude and justice of God's nature, "who is righteous in all his
ways, and holy in all his works." Psal. 145:17.
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Post by Admin on Jun 18, 2024 13:44:30 GMT -5
IV. Man's inability to recover himself.
The impossibility of man's recovery by his natural power. He cannot
regain his primitive holiness. The understanding and will the
superior faculties are depraved. The mind is ignorant and insensible
of our corruption. The will is more depraved than the mind. It
embraces only sensual good. Carnal objects are wounding to the
conscience, and unsatisfying to the affections, yet the will eagerly
pursues them. The moral impotence, that ariseth from a perverse
disposition of the will, is culpable. Neither the beauty nor the reward
of holiness can prevail upon the unrenewed will. Guilty man cannot
recover the favour of God. He is unable to make satisfaction to
justice. He is incapable of real repentance, which might qualify him
for pardon.
WHEN Adam was expelled from paradise, the entrance was guarded
by a flaming sword; to signify, that all hopes of return by the way of
nature, are cut off for ever. He lost his right, and could not recover it
by power. The chiefest ornaments of paradise are the image and
favour of God, of which he is justly deprived: and there is no
possibility for him to regain them. What can he expect from his own
reason, that betrayed him to ruin? If it did not support him when he
stood, how can it raise him when he is fallen? If there were a power
in lapsed man to restore himself, it would exceed the original power
he had to will and obey: it being infinitely more difficult for a dead
man to rise, than for a living man to put forth vital actions.
For the clearer opening of this point, concerning man's absolute
disability to recover his primitive state, I will distinctly consider it,
with respect to the image and favour of God, upon which his
blessedness depends.
1. He cannot recover his primitive holiness. This will appear by
considering, that whatsoever is corrupted in its noble parts, can
never restore itself; the power of an external agent is requisite for the
recovering of its integrity. This is verified by innumerable instances,
in things artificial and natural. If a clock be disordered by a fall, the
workman must mend it, before it can be useful. If wine that is rich
and generous, declines by the loss of spirits, it can never be revived
without a new supply. In the human body, where there is a more
noble form, and more powerful to redress any evil that may happen
to the parts; if a gangrene seize on any member, nothing can resist its
course but the application of outward means; it cannot be cured by
the internal principles of its constitution. And proportionally in
moral agents, when the faculties which are the principles of action
are corrupted, it is impossible, without the virtue of a divine cause,
they should ever be restored to their original rectitude. As the image
of God was at first imprinted on the human nature by creation,
(Ephes. 4:24) so the renewed image is wrought in him by the same
creating power. This will be more evident, by considering, that
inward and deep depravation of the understanding and will, the two
superior faculties which command the rest.
1. The understanding hath lost the right apprehension of things. As
sin began in the darkness of the mind, so one of its worst effects is,
the increasing that darkness which can only be dispelled by a
supernatural light. Now what the eye is to the body, that is the mind
for the directing the will, and conducting the life. "And if the light
that is in us be darkness, how great is that darkness." Mat. 6:23. How
irregular and dangerous must our motions be? Not only the lower
part of the soul is under a dreadful disorder; but the "spirit of the
mind," the divinest part, is depraved with ignorance and error.
Ephes. 4:23. The light of reason is not pure; but as the sun, when
with its beams, it sends down pestilential influences, and corrupts
the air in the enlightening it, so the carnal mind corrupts the whole
man, by representing good as evil, and evil as good. The "wisdom of
the flesh is enmity against God." And the apostle describes the state
of the Gentile world, Ephes. 4:11. "That their understandings were
darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the
ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts."
The corruption of their manners proceeded from their minds. For all
virtues are directed by reason in their exercise, so that if the
understanding be darkened, all virtuous operations cease.
Besides, corrupt man being without light and life, can neither
discern, nor feel his misery; the carnal mind is insensible of its
infirmity, ignorant of its ignorance, and suffers under the incurable
extremes of being blind, and imagining that it is very clear-sighted.
More particularly, the reasons why the carnal mind hath not a due
sense of sinful corruption, are,
1. Because it is natural, and cleaves to the principles of our being,
from the birth and conception, and natural things do not affect us.
2. It is confirmed by custom, which is a second nature, and hath a
strange power to stupify conscience, and render it insensible. As the
historian observed concerning the Roman soldiers, that by constant
use their arms were no more a burthen to them than their natural
members.
3. In the transition from the infant state, to the age of discerning,
man is incapable of observing his native corruption: since at first he
acts evilly, and is in constant conversation with sinners, who bring
vice into his acquaintance; and, by making it familiar, lessen the
horror and aversion from it. Besides, those corrupt and numerous
examples wherewith he is encompassed, call forth his sinful
inclinations, which, as they are heightened by repeated acts, and
become more strong and obstinate, so less sensible to him. And by
this we may understand, how irrcoverable man is by his own reason.
The first step to our cure is begun in the knowledge of our disease,
and this discovery is made by the understanding, when it is seeing
and vigilant, not when it is blind. A disease in the body is perceived
by the mind; but when the soul is the affected part, and the rectitude
of reason is lost, there is no remaining principle to give notice of it.
And as that disease is most dangerous which strikes at the life, and is
without pain, for pain is not the chief evil, but supposes it, it is the
spur of nature urging us to seek for cure: so the corruption of the
understanding is very fatal to man; for although he labours under
many pernicious lusts, which, in the issue, will prove deadly, yet he is
insensible of them, and from thence follows a carelessness and
contempt of the means for his recovery.
2. The corruption of the will is more incurable than that of the mind.
For it is full not only of impotence, but contrariety to what is
spiritually good. There are some weak strictures of truth in lapsed
man, but they die in the brain, and are powerless and ineffectual as
to the will, which rushes into the embraces of worldly objects. This
the universal experience of mankind, since the fall, doth evidently
prove, and the account of it is in the following considerations.
1. There is a strong inclination in man to happiness. This desire is
born and brought up with him, and is common to all that partake of
the reasonable nature. From the prince to the poorest wretch; from
the most knowing to the meanest in understanding, every one
desires to be happy: as the great flames and the little sparks of fire,
all naturally ascend to their sphere.
2. The constituting of any thing to be our happiness, is the first and
universal maxim, from whence all moral consequences are derived.
It is the rule of our desires, and the end of our actions. As in natural
things, the principles of their production operate according to their
quality, so in moral things, the end is as powerful to form the soul for
its operations in order to it. Therefore as all desire to be happy, so
they apply themselves to those means, which appear to be
convenient for the obtaining of it.
3. Every one frames a happiness according to his temper. The
apprehensions of it are answerable to the dispositions of the person.
For felicity is the pleasure which arises from the harmonious
agreement between the object and the appetite.* Now man by his
original and contracted corruption is altogether carnal, he inherits
the serpents curse to creep on the earth, he cleaves to defiling and
debasing objects, and is only qualified for sensual satisfactions. The
soul is incarnated, and it shapes a happiness to itself, in the
enjoyment of those things which are delicious to the senses. The
shadow of felicity is pursued with equal ardour, as that which is real
and substantial. The supreme part of man, the understanding, is
employed to serve the lower faculties, reason is used to make him
more ingenious and luxurious in sensuality: so much more brutish
than the brutes is he become, when besides that part which is so by
its natural condition, the most noble part is made so by unnatural
choice and corruption. From hence the apostle gives an universal
character of men in their corrupt state, Tit. 3:3. "That they are foolish
and disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures." This
pursuit of sensual pleasure is the service of a slave, which hath no
other law of his life but the will of his master. The servitude is divers,
but all are slaves; the chains are not the same, some are more
glittering, but not less weighty, and every one is deprived of true
liberty.
But the bondage is so pleasing, that corrupted man prefers it before
spiritual and real freedom. Sensual lusts blind the understanding,
and bind the will so, that he is unable, because unwilling, to rescue
himself. He is deluded with the false appearance of liberty, and
imagines that to live according to rule is a slavish confinement. As if
the horse were free, because his rider allows him a full career in a
pleasant road, when the bridle is in his mouth, and he is under its
imperious check at pleasure: or a galley-slave were free, because the
vessel wherein he rows with so much toil, roams over the vast ocean.
And whereas there are two considerations which are proper to
convince man that the full and unconfined enjoyment of worldly
things cannot make him happy, because they are wounding to the
conscience, and unsatisfying to the affections; yet these are
ineffectual to take him off from an eager pursuit of them. I will
particularly consider this, to show how unable man, in his lapsed
condition, is to disentangle himself from miserable vanities, and
consequently to recover his lost holiness.
1. Sensual pleasures are wounding to the conscience. There is a secret
acknowledgment in every man's breast of a superior power, to whom
he must give an account; and though conscience be much impaired
in its integrity, yet sometimes it recoils upon the sinner by the
foulness of his actions, and its testimony brings such terror, as makes
sin very unpleasant. The poet tells us, that of all the torments of hell,
the most cruel, and that which exceeds the rest, is,
Nocte dieque suum gestare in pectore testem.
And how can the sinner delight freely in that which vexes and frets
the most vital and tender part? He cannot enjoy his charming lusts
without guilt, nor embrace them without the reluctancy of a
contradicting principle within him. As the fear of poison will imbitter
the sweetest cup, so the purest pleasures are allayed with afflicting
apprehensions of the future, and the presage of judgment to come.
Now man, in his sensual state, tries always to disarm conscience, that
he may please the lower appetites without regret. I will instance in
the principal.
1. He uses many pleas and pretexts to justify or extenuate the evil,
and, if possible, to satisfy carnality and conscience too. Self-love,
which is the eloquent advocate of sense, puts a varnish upon sin, to
take off from its horrid appearance; and endeavours not only to
colour the object, but to corrupt the eye by a disguising tincture, that
the sight of things may not be according to truth, but the desire. Thus
the heathens allowed intemperance, uncleanness, and other
infamous vices, as innocent gratifications of nature. Now if the
principles in man are poisoned, so that evil is esteemed good, he then
lives in the quiet practice of sin without reflection or remorse. There
is no sting remains to awaken him out of security. But if he cannot so
far bribe conscience, as to make it silent, or favourable to that which
delights the sense, if he cannot escape its internal condemnation, the
next method is by a strong diversion to lessen the trouble.
2. When the carnal mind sees nothing within but what torments, and
finds an intolerable pain in conversing with itself, it runs abroad, and
uses all the arts of oblivion to lose the remembrance of its true state.
As Cain, to drown the voice of conscience, fell a building cities; and
Saul, to dispel his melancholy, called for music. The business and
pleasures of this life are dangerous amusements to divert the soul, by
the representation of what is profitable or pleasant, from considering
the moral qualities of good and evil. Thus conscience, like an
intermitting pulse, ceases for a while. Miserable consolation! which
doth not remove, but conceal the evil till it be past remedy. But if
conscience, notwithstanding all these evasions, still pursues a sinner,
and, at times, something disturbs his reason and his rest, yet he will
not part with carnal pleasures. For being only acquainted with those
things that affect the senses, and having no relish of that happiness
which is sublime and supernatural, if he part with them, he is
deprived of all delight, which is to him a state more intolerable than
that wherein there is a mixture of delight and torment. From hence it
appears that the interposition of conscience, though with a flaming
sword, between man carnal, and his beloved objects, is not effectual
to restrain him.
2. All worldly things are unsatisfying to the affections. There are
three considerations which depreciate and lessen the value of any
good.
1. The shortness of its duration.
2. If it brings only a slight pleasure.
3. If that pleasure be attended with torments.
All which are contrary to the essential properties of the supreme
good, which is perpetual, and sincere, without the least mixture of
evil, and produces the highest delight to the soul. Now all these
concur to vilify wordly things: 1. They are short in their duration, Isa.
40:6, 7. Not only the voice of heaven, but of the earth declares this,
"that all flesh is grass, and the glory of it as the flower of the grass." 1
Pet. 1:24, 25. Life, the foundation of all temporal enjoyments, is but a
span:* the longest liver can measure in a thought the space of time
between his infant state and the present hour: how long soever, it
seems as short to him as the twinkling of an eye. And all the glory of
the flesh, as titles, treasures, delights, are as the flower of the grass,
which is the most tender amongst vegetables, and so weak a
subsistence, that a little breath of wind, the hand of an infant, the
teeth of a worm can destroy it. "The pleasures of sin (under which
secular greatness and wealth are comprehended) are but for a
season." Heb. 11:25. They are so short-lived, that they expire in the
birth, and die whilst they are tasted. Again; they bring only a slight
pleasure, being disproportionable to the desires of the soul. They are
confined to the senses, wherein the beasts are more accurate than
man, but cannot reach to the upper and more comprehensive
faculties. Eccles. 1. Nay, they cannot satisfy the greedy senses, much
less quiet the spiritual and immortal appetite. What the poet speaks
with astonishment of Alexander's insatiable ambition,
Æstuat infelix angusto limite mundi,
That the whole world seemed to him as a narrow prison, wherein he
was miserable, and as it were suffocated, is true of every one. If the
world was seated in the heart of man, it can no more satisfy it, than
the picture of a feast can fill the stomach. Besides, vexation is added
to the vanity of worldly things. And that either because the vehement
delights of sense corrupt the temperament of the body, in which the
vital complexion consists, and expose it to those sharp diseases, that
it may be said without an hyperbole, that a thousand pleasures are
not equal to one hour's pain that attends them: or, because of the
inward torture of the mind, arising from the sense of guilt and folly,
which is the anticipation of hell itself, the beginning of eternal
sorrows.
Now these things are not obscure articles of faith, nor abstracted
doctrines, to be considered only by refined reason, but are manifest
and clear as the light, and verified by continual experience: it is
therefore strange to amazement, that man should search after
happiness in these things where he knows it is not to be found, and
court real infelicity under a deceitful appearance, when the fallacy is
transparent. Who from a principle of reason would choose for his
happiness a real good, which after a little time he should be deprived
of for ever? or a slight good for ever? as the sight of a picture, or the
hearing of music. Yet thus unreasonable is man in his corrupt state,
whose soul is truly immortal, and capable of infinite blessedness, yet
he chooses those delights which are neither satisfying nor lasting.
And because the human understanding from time to time is
convinced of the vanity of all sublunary things, therefore to lessen
the vexation which arises from disappointment, and that the appetite
may not be taken off from them, corrupted man tries,
1. By variety of objects to preserve uniformity in delight. The most
pleasing, if confined to them, grow nauseous and insipid; after the
expiring of a few moments there remains nothing but satiety and
sickly resentments; and then changes are the remedies, to take off
the weariness of one pleasure by another. The human soul is under a
perpetual instability of restless desires, it despises what it enjoys,
and values what is new, as if novelty and goodness were the same in
all temporal things. And as the birds remain in the air by constant
motion, without which they would quickly fall to the earth as other
heavy bodies, there being nothing solid to support them; so the spirit
of man, by many unquiet agitations and continual changes, subsists
for a time, till at last it falls into discontent and despair, the centre of
corrupt nature.
2. When present things are unsatisfactory, he entertains himself with
hope: for that being terminated on a future object, which is of a
double nature, the mind attends to those arguments which produce a
pleasant belief, to find that in several objects, which it cannot in any
single one, and to make up in number, what is wanting in measure,
whereas the present is manifest, and takes away all liberty of
thinking. Upon this ground sensual pleasure is more expectation
than fruition: for hope by a marvellous enchantment, not only makes
that which is future present, but representing in one view that which
cannot be enjoyed but in the intervals of time; it unites all the
successive parts in one point, so that what is divided and lessened in
the fruition, which is always gradual, is offered at once and entire.
Thus man carnal, deceived by the imperfect light of fancy, and the
false glass of hope, chooses a fictitious felicity. "Man walks in a vain
show." Psal. 3:6. His original error hath produced this in its own
image. And although the complacency he takes in sensual objects, is
like the joy of a distracted person, the issue of folly and illusion, and
experience discovers the deceit that is in them; as smelling to an
artificial rose undeceives the eye; yet he will embrace his error. Man
is in a voluntary dream, which represents to him the world as his
happiness, and when he is awakened, he dreams again, choosing to
be deceived with delight rather than to discover the truth without it.
This is set forth by the prophet, Isa. 57:10. "Thou art wearied in the
greatness of thy way, yet saidst thou not, there is no hope:" that is,
thou art tired in the chase of satisfaction from one thing to another,
yet thou wouldest not give over, but still pursuest those shadows
which can never be brought nearer to thee. And the true reason of it
is, that in the human nature, there is an intense and continual desire
of pleasure, without which life itself hath no satisfaction. For life
consisting in the operations of the soul, either the external of the
senses, or the internal of the mind, it is sweetened by those delights
which are suitable to them. So that if all pleasant operations cease,
without possibility of returning, death is more desirable than life.
And in the corrupt state there is so strict an alliance between the
flesh and spirit, that there is but one appetite between them, and that
is of the flesh.
All the designs and endeavours of the carnal man are by fit means to
obtain satisfaction to his senses: as if the contentment of the flesh
and the happiness of the soul were the same thing; or as if the soul
were to die with the body, and with both, all hopes and fears, all joys
and sorrows were at an end. The flesh is now grown absolute, and
hath acquired a perfect empire, and taken a full possession of all the
faculties. For this reason the apostle tells us, Rom. 8:7, 8. "They that
are in the flesh, cannot please God. And the carnal will is enmity
against God, it is not subject, neither can it be." It is ensnared in the
cords of concupiscence, and cannot recover itself from its foolish
bondage. But that doth not lessen the guilt; which will appear by
considering there is a twofold impotence.
1. There is a natural impotence which protects from the severity of
justice. No man is bound to stop the sun in its course, or to remove
mountains: for the human nature was never endued with faculties to
do those things. They are inculpably without our power. Now the law
enjoins nothing but what man had in his creation an original power
to perform.
2. There is a moral impotence, which arises from a perverse
disposition of the will, and is joined with a delight in sin, and a
strong aversion from the holy commands of God; and the more deep
and inveterate this is, the more worthy it is of punishment. Aristotle
asserts, Ethic 3. That those who contract invincible habits by custom,
are inexcusable, though they cannot abstain from evil. For since
liberty consists in doing what one wills, this impossibility doth not
destroy liberty; the depravation of the faculties doth not hinder their
voluntary operations. The understanding conceives, the will chooses,
the appetite desires freely. A distracted person that kills, is not guilty
of murder, and therefore secure from the sentence of the law. For his
understanding being distempered by the disorder of the images in
his fancy, it doth not judge aright, so that the action is involuntary,
and therefore not culpable. But there is a vast difference between the
causes of distraction, and those which induce a carnal man to sin.
The first are seated in the distemper of the brain, over which the will
hath no power: whereas there should be a regular subjection of the
lower appetite to the will enlightened and directed by the mind. The
will itself is corrupted and brought into captivity by things pleasing
to the lower faculties: it cannot disentangle itself, but its impotence
lies in its obstinacy. This is the meaning of St. Peter, speaking
concerning unclean persons, "that their eyes are full of adultery, and
they cannot cease from sin." It is from their fault alone that they are
without power. Therefore the scripture represents man to be ἀθενὴς
and ἀσεβὴς, weak, but wicked. His disability to supernatural good
arises from an inordinate affection to that which is sensual. So that it
is so far from excusing, that it renders inexcusable, being voluntary
and vicious. And in this the diseases of the body are different from
those of the soul. In the first the desire of healing is ineffectual,
through want of knowledge or power to apply the sovereign
remedies: whereas in the second, the sincere desire of their cure is
sufficient, for the diseases are corrupt desires.
The natural man is wholly led by sense, by fancy, and the passions,
and he esteems it his infelicity to be otherwise; as the degenerous
slave, who was displeased with a jubilee, and refused liberty.
Servitude is his sensuality. He is not only in love with the unworthy
object, but with the vicious affection, and abhors the cure of it. As
one in the poet that was so delighted in his pleasant madness, that he
was offended at his recovery;
\
This is acknowledged by St. Austin in his confessions, where he
describes the strife between conviction and corruption in his soul. He
tells us in the conflict between reason and lust, that he had recourse
to God, and his prayer was, Da mihi cantinentiam, sed noli modo, he
desired chastity, but not too soon, he was afraid that God should
hear his petition, it being more bitter than death to change his
custom. This is the general sense, though not the general discourse of
men. As the sick person desired his physician to remove his fever,
but not his thirst, which made his drink very pleasing to him: so
man, in his sensual state, would fain be freed from the æstuations of
conscience, but he cherishes those carnal desires which give a high
taste to objects suitable to them. From hence it appears, that though
in the corrupt nature there is no liberty of indifference to good and
evil, yet there is a liberty of delight in evil; and though the will in its
natural capacity may choose good, yet it is morally determined by its
love to evil.*
In short, there is so much power not to sin as is sufficient to sin; that
is, that the forbidden action be free, and so become a sin. Which
strange combination of liberty and necessity is excellently expressed
by St. Bernard;* "That the soul which fell by its own choice, cannot
recover itself, is from the corruption of the will, which, overcome by
the vicious love of the body, rejects the love of righteousness; so that,
in a manner, as strange as evil, the will being corrupted with sin,
makes a necessity to its self, yet so, the necessity being voluntary,
doth not excuse the will, nor the will being pleasantly and powerfully
allured, exclude necessity." The law therefore remains in its full
force, and God is righteous in the commanding and condemning
sinners. From all that hath been discoursed, it is evident, how
impossible it is for corrupt man to recover his lost holiness: for there
are only two motives to induce the reasonable creature to seek after
it.
1. Its beauty and loveliness.
2. The reward that attends it. And both these arguments are
ineffectual to work upon him.
1. The beauty of holiness, which excels all other created perfections,
it being a conformity to the most glorious attribute of the Deity, doth
not allure him: for, unusquisque ut affectus est ita judicat; man
understands according to his affections. The renewed mind can only
see the essential and intimate beauty of holiness. Now in fallen man
the clearness of the discerning power is lost. As the natural eye, till it
is purged from vicious qualities, cannot look on things that are bright
and sublime, and if it hath been long in darkness, it suffers by the
most pleasing object the light: so the internal eye of the mind, that it
may see the lively lustre of holiness, it must be cleansed from the
filthiness of carnal affections, and having been so long under thick
darkness, it must be strengthened, before it can sustain the
brightness of things spiritual. Till it be prepared, it can see nothing
amiable and desirable in the image of God.
2. The reward of holiness hath no attractive power on the carnal will;
because it is future and spiritual.
(1.) It is future, and therefore the conceptions of it are very dark and
imperfect: the soul is sunk down into the senses, and they are short sighted
and cannot look beyond what is present to the next life. And
as the images of things are weakened and confused proportionably to
their distance, and make a fainter impression upon the faculty; so the
representation of heaven and blessedness as a happiness to come
hereafter, and therefore remote, doth but coldly affect the will. A
present vanity, in the judgment of the carnal soul, outweighs the
most glorious futurity. Till there be taken from before its eyes (in
Tertullian's language*) the thick curtain of the visible world, it
cannot discern the difference between them, nor value the reward for
its excellency and duration.
(2.) It is spiritual, and there must be a divine disposition of the soul
before it is capable of it. "The pure in heart can only see the pure
God." Mat. 5:8. The felicity above is that which "eye hath not seen,
nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to
conceive." 1 Cor. 2:9. Now the carnal man is only affected with gross
and corporeal things. The certainty, immensity, and immortality of
the heavenly reward doth not prevail with him to seek after it. He
hath no palate for spiritual pleasures, it is viciated by luscious
vanities, and cannot relish rational joys. Till the temper of the soul be
altered, the bread of angels is distasteful to it. For the appetite is
according to the disposition of the stomach, and when that is
corrupted, it longs for things hurtful, and rejects wholesome food. If
a carnal man were translated to heaven, where the love of God
reigns, and where the brightest and sweetest discoveries of his glory
appear, he would not find paradise in heaven itself. For delight arises
not merely from the excellency of the object, but from the
proportionableness to the faculty. Though God is an infinite good in
himself, yet if he is not conceived as the supreme good to man, he
cannot make him happy.
Suppose some slight convictions to be in the mind, that happiness
consists in the enjoyment of God, yet this being offered upon the
terms of quitting all sensual lusts, the carnal man esteems the
condition impossible, and therefore is discouraged from using any
endeavours to obtain it. For to excite hope, it is not sufficient to
propose a reward that is real and excellent, but that is attainable. For
although hope hath its tendency to a difficult good, as its proper
object, and the difficulty is so far from discouraging, that it quickens
the soul, and draws forth all the active powers, by rendering it
greater in our esteem; yet when the difficulty is excessive, and
confines upon impossibility, it dejects the soul, and inclines it to
despair. Thus when the condition of obtaining some good is
necessary, but insufferable, it takes off from all endeavours in order
to it.
To consider it in a temporal case, will make it more clear. As one that
labours under a dropsy, and is vexed with an intolerable and
insatiable thirst, if a physician should assure him of cure upon
condition he would abstain from drinking, he could not conceive any
real hope of being healed, judging it impossible to resist the
importunity of his drought; he therefore neglects the means, he
drinks and dies. Thus the corrupt heart of man, that is under a
perpetual thirst of carnal pleasures, and is more inflamed by the
satisfaction it receives, judges it an insuperable condition to part
with them for the acquiring of spiritual happiness: and this sensual
and sottish despair causes a total neglect of the means. It is thus
expressed by the Israelites, when God commanded them to return
from the evil of their ways in order to their happiness, and they said,
"there is no hope, but we will walk after our own devices, and we will
every one do the imagination of his evil heart." Abstinere nequeo.
Grot. Jer. 18:12. They were slaves to their domineering appetites, and
resolved to make no trial about that they judged impossible. Briefly,
in fallen man there is something predominant, which he values
above the favour and fruition of God, and that is the world. As in the
parable, where happiness is set forth under the familiar
representation of a feast, those who were invited to it, excuse
themselves by such reasons as clearly discover that some amiable
lust charmed them so strongly, that in the competition it was
preferred before heaven. "One saith, I have bought a piece of ground,
and I must needs go see it; and another, I have bought a yoke of
oxen, and I must go to prove them; and a third, I have married a
wife, and cannot come." Luke 14:18. The objects of their passions are
different, but they all produce the same effect, the rejection of
happiness. The sum of all is this, that as man fell from his obedience,
and lost the image of God, by seeking perfection and satisfaction,
that is, happiness in the creature; so he can never return to his
obedience, and acknowledge God as his supreme Lord, till he
chooses him for his happiness. And this he can never entirely do, till
he is born again, and hath a new principle of life that may change the
complexion of the soul, and qualify it for those delights which are
sublime and spiritual.
Secondly. Fallen man can never recover the favour of God; and this is
evident upon a double account.
1. He is not able to make satisfaction to God's justice for the
dishonor brought to him.
2. He is incapable of real repentance, which might qualify him for
pardon.
First, He is unable to satisfy justice for his offence, either by exact
obedience for the future, or by enduring the punishment that is due
to sin.
1. Supposing that man could perform exact obedience after his fall,
yet that could not be satisfaction. It is essential to satisfaction, that
the action by which it is made, be in the power of the person that
satisfies. A servant, as a servant, cannot make satisfaction for an
injury done to his Lord, for whatsoever service he performs was due
before the offence, and is not properly a restitution, because it is not
of his own. Now the complete obedience of the creature is due to
God. He is the Lord of all our actions, and whatever man doth is but
the payment of the original debt. The law requires a perpetual
reverence of the Lawgiver, and express obedience to his will in all
things. So that it is impossible that the highest respect to it
afterwards, should compensate for the least violation of it.
Besides, to make satisfaction for a fault, it is necessary the offender
do some voluntary act, that may be as honourable to the person, and
as much above what he was before obliged to, as the contempt was
dishonourable, and below that which was due. Unless God receive
that which is as estimable in the nature of obedience, as the injury he
received is in the nature of contempt, there can be no satisfaction.
Now there is a greater dishonour brought to God by the commission
of one sin, than there is honour by the perfect obedience of all the
angels: for, in their obedience, God is preferred by the creature,
before things infinitely beneath him, which is but a small honour;
but by one sin he is disvalued in the comparison, which is infinite
contempt.
2. Man cannot make satisfaction by suffering. For the punishment
must be equal to the offence, which derives its guilt from the dignity
of the person offended, and the indignity of the offender. Now God is
the universal king, his justice is infinite, which man hath injured, and
his glory, which man hath obscured; and man is finite. And what
proportion is there between finite and infinite? How can a worthless
rebel, that is hateful to God, expiate the offence of so excellent a
majesty? If he sacrifice himself, he can never appease the divine
displeasure; for what doth he offer but a lump of rebellion and
ingratitude? He can make no other satisfaction but that of the devils,
which continues for ever, and is not completed.
Secondly. Fallen man, considered only in his corrupt and miserable
state, is incapable of real repentance, which is a necessary condition
to qualify him for pardon. For whereas repentance includes an
ingenuous sorrow for sin past, and a sincere forsaking of it, he is
utterly indisposed for both.
1. He cannot be ingenuously sorrowful for his offence. It is true,
when the circumstances are changed, that which was pleasing will
cause trouble of spirit; as when a malefactor suffers for his crimes, he
reflects upon his actions with sorrow. But this, hath no moral worth
in it: for it is a forced act, (Λύπη κατὰ θεόν 2 Cor. 7:10) proceeding
from a violent principle, and is consistent with as great a love to sin
as he had before, and is entirely terminated on himself. But that grief
which is divine, and is accompanied with a change in heart and life,
respects the stain more than the punishment of sin; and arises from
love to God, who is disobeyed and dishonoured by it: now it is not
conceivable, that the guilty creature can love God, whilst he looks on
him as an irreconcilable enemy. Distrust of the favour of a person,
which is a degree of fear, is attended with coldness of affection: a
strong fear, which still intimates an uncertainty in the event, inclines
to hatred: but when fear is turned into despair, it causeth direct
hatred. An instance of this we have in the devils, who curse the
fountain of blessedness. If the evil be past remedy, the sense of it is
attended with rage, and transports of blasphemy against God
himself. A despairing sinner begins in this life the gnashing of teeth
against his judge, and kindles the fire that shall torment him for ever.
Rev. 16:21.
It is for this reason the scripture propounds the goodness of God, as
the most powerful "persuasive to lead men to repentance." Rom. 2:4.
There can be no kindly relentings without filial affection, and that is
always tempered with the expectation of favour. Without hope of
pardon all other motives are ineffectual to melt the heart.
Now the first covenant obliged man to obedience or punishment: it
required innocence, and did not accept of repentance. The final voice
of the law is, do, or die. Guilty man cannot look on God with comfort
under the notion of a holy Creator, that delights to view his own
resemblance in the innocent creature, nor of a compassionate father
that spares an offending son, but apprehends him to be an inexorable
judge, who hath right and power to avenge the disobedience. He can
find no expedient for his deliverance, nor conceive how mercy can
save him without the violation of justice, an attribute as essential to
the divine nature as mercy. And what can induce him to make an
humble confession of his fault, when he expects nothing but an
irrevocable doom? An instance of this we have in Adam, who being
under the conviction of his sin, and apprehension that God would be
severe, did not solicit for mercy, but endeavoured to transfer the guilt
on God himself. "The woman thou gavest me, she gave me of the
tree, and I did eat." Gen. 3:12. As if she had been designed for a
snare, and not to be an aid in his innocent state.
2. A sincere resolution to forsake sin is built on the hopes of mercy.
Till the reasonable creature knows that heaven is open to repentance,
to his second and better thoughts, he is irreclaimable. He that never
hopes to receive any good, will continue in doing evil. Despair of
mercy causeth a despising of the law. The apostate angels, who are
without the reserves of pardon, are confirmed in their rebellion: their
guilt is mixed with fury, they persist in their war against God, though
they know the issue will be deadly to them. And had there not been
an early revelation of mercy to Adam, he had been incorrigibly
wicked as the devils. For despair had inflamed his hatred against
God, which is of all the passions the most incurable. Those vicious
affections that depend on the humours of the body which are
mutable, alter with them: but hatred is seated in the superior part of
the soul, which is of a spiritual nature, and diabolical in obstinacy.
In short, When the reasonable creature is guilty and vicious, and
knows that God is just and holy, and that he will be severe in
revenging all disobedience, he hath no care nor desire to reform
himself. He will not lay a restraint on his pleasing appetites, when he
expects no recompence: he esteems it lost labour to abstain: and all
his design is, to allay and sweeten the fear of future evils by present
enjoyments. When he is scorched with the apprehensions of wrath to
come, he plunges himself into sensual excesses for some relief. He
resolves to make his best of sin for a time: according to the principle
of the epicures, "Let us eat and drink while we may, to morrow we
shall die." 1 Cor. 15.
The sum of all is this, that an unrelenting and unreformed sinner is
incapable of pardon; for unless God should renounce his own nature,
and deny his deity, he cannot receive him to favour. And it is
inconceivable how the rational creature once lapsed, should ever be
encouraged to repentance without the expectation of mercy: and
there being an inseparable alliance between the integrity and felicity
of man by the terms of the first covenant, the one failing, he could
not entertain the least degree of hope concerning the other. By all
which it appears, he is under an invincible necessity of sinning and
suffering for ever; his misery is complete and desperate
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Post by Admin on Jun 18, 2024 14:05:57 GMT -5
V. The display of divine WISDOM in redemption
Of the divine wisdom in the contrivance of man's redemption.
Understanding agents propound an end, and choose means for the
obtaining it. The end of God is of the highest consequence, his own
glory and man's recovery, The difficulty of accomplishing it. The
means are proportionable. The divine wisdom glorified in taking
occasion from the sin and fall of man to bring glory to God, and to
raise man to a more excellent state. It appears in ordaining such a
Mediator, as was fit to reconcile God to man, and man to God. It is
discovered in the designation of the second person to be our Saviour.
And making the remedy to have a proportion to the cause of our
ruin. It is visible in the manner whereby our redemption is
accomplished. And in the ordaining such contemptible means to
produce such glorious effects. And laying the design of the gospel, so
as to provide for the comfort, and promote the holiness of man.
GOD by his infallible prescience (to which all things are eternally
present) viewing the fall of Adam, and that all mankind lay bleeding
in him, out of deep compassion to his creature, and that the devil
might not be finally victorious over him, in his council decreed the
recovery of man from his languishing and miserable state. The
design and the means are most worthy of God, and in both his
wisdom appears.
This will be made visible, by considering, that all understanding
agents first propound an end, and then choose the means for the
obtaining of it. And the more perfect the understanding is, the more
excellent is the end it designs, and the more fit and convenient are
the means it makes use of for the acquiring it. Now, when God,
whose understanding is infinite, (and, in comparison of whom, the
most prudent and advised are but as dark shadows) when he
determines to work, especially in a most glorious manner, the end
and the means are equally admirable.
First. The end is of the highest consequence. Were it some low
inconsiderable thing, it were unworthy of one thought of God for the
effecting it. To be curious in contriving how to accomplish that which
is of no importance, exposes to a just imputation of folly: but when
the most excellent good is the end, and the difficulties which hinder
the obtaining of it are insuperable to a finite understanding, it then
becomes the "only wise God" (1 Tim. 1:17) to discover the divinity of
his wisdom, in making a way where he finds none. And such was the
end of God in the work of our redemption: this was declared by the
angels, who were sent ambassadors extraordinary to bring tidings of
peace to the world. "They praised God, saying, glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men." Luke 2:13, 14.
The supreme end is his own glory; and, in order to it, the salvation of
man hath the nature and respect of a medium.
The subordinate is the recovery of the world from its lapsed and
wretched state.
1. The supreme end is the glory of God. This signifies principally his
internal and essential glory: and that consists in the perfections of
his nature, which can never be fully conceived by the angels, but
overwhelm, by their excellent greatness all created understandings.
But the glory that results from God's works is properly intended in
the present argument, and implies,
2. The manifestation whereby he is pleased to represent himself in
the exercise of his attributes. As the divine nature is the primary and
complete object of his love, so he takes delight in those actions
wherein the image and brightness of his own virtues appear. Now in
all the works of God there is an evidence of his excellencies. But as
some stars shine with a different glory, so there are some noble
effects, wherein the divine attributes are so conspicuous, that in
comparison with them, the rest of God's works are but obscure
expressions of his greatness. The principal are creation and
redemption, "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the
firmament his handy-work." Psal. 19:1. And when God surveyed the
whole creation, and "saw all that which he made was good," Gen. 1 he
ordained a sabbath, to signify the content and satisfaction he had in
the discovery of his eternal perfections therein.
But especially his glory is most resplendent in the work of
redemption, wherein more of the divine attributes are exercised than
in the creation, and in a more glorious manner. It is here that
wisdom, goodness, justice, holiness and power, are united in their
highest degree and exaltation. Upon this account the apostle useth
that expression, 1 Tim. 1:11 "the glorious gospel of the blessed God:"
it being the clearest revelation of his excellent attributes, the
unspotted mirror wherein the great and wonderful effects of the
Deity are set forth. τὰ μεγαλεῖα του Θεου. Acts 2:11.
3. The praise and thanksgiving that ariseth from the discovery of his
perfections by reasonable creatures, who consider and acknowledge
them. When there is a solemn veneration of his excellencies, and the
most ardent affections to him for the communication of his
goodness. Thus in God's account, "whoso offers praise, glorifies
him." Psal. 50:23. An eminent example of this in set down in Job.
38:7 when at the birth of the world, "the morning stars sang
together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." And at its new
birth, they descend and make his praise glorious in a triumphant
song. It will be the eternal exercise of the saints in heaven, Psal. 66:2
where they more fully understand the mystery of our redemption,
and consider every circumstance that may add a lustre to it, to
ascribe "blessing, honour, glory and power to him that sits on the
throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." Rev. 5:13.
Secondly. The subordinate end is the restoring of man: and this is
inviolably joined with the other. It is expressed by "peace on earth,
and good will towards men." Sin hath broke that sacred alliance
which was between God and man: and exposed him to his just
displeasure. A misery inconceivable. And what is more becoming
God, who is the Father of mercies, than to glorify his dear attribute,
"God is love," 1 John 4:9 and that which in a peculiar manner
characterizes his nature, by the salvation of the miserable? What is
more honourable to him, than by his almighty mercy to raise so
many monuments from the dust, wherein his goodness may live and
reign for ever? Now for the accomplishing of these excellent ends,
the divine wisdom pitched upon those means which were most fit
and congruous, which I shall distinctly consider.
The misery of fallen man consisted in the corruption of his nature by
sin, and the punishment that ensues: and his happiness is in the
restoring him to his primitive holiness, and in reconciliation to God,
and the full fruition of him. The way to effect this was beyond the
compass of any finite understanding.
That God, who is rich in goodness, should be favourable to the angels
who serve him in perfect purity, we may easily conceive; for though
they do not merit his favour, yet they never provoked his anger. And
it is impossible but that he should love the image of his holiness
wherever it shines.
Or suppose an innocent creature in misery, the divine mercy would
speedily excite his power to rescue it: for God is love to all his
creatures, as such, till some extrinsical cause intervenes, which God
hates more than he loves the creature, and that is sin; which alone
stops the effusion of goodness, and opens a wide passage for wrath to
fall upon the guilty. But how to save the creature that is undone by its
own choice, and is as sinful as miserable, will pose the wisdom of the
world. Heaven itself seemed to be divided. Mercy inclined to save,
but justice interposed for satisfaction. Mercy regarded man with
respect to his misery, and the pleas of it are, shall the Almighty build
to ruin? Shall the most excellent creature in the lower world perish,
the fault not being solely his? Shall the enemy triumph for ever, and
raise his trophies from the works of the Most High? Shall the
reasonable creature lose the fruition of God, and God the subjection
and service of the creature, and all mankind be made in vain? Justice
considered man as guilty of a transcendent crime, and it is its nature
to render to every one what is due; now "the wages of sin is death,"
and shall not the judge of the world do right? All the other attributes
seemed to be attendants on justice. The wisdom of God enforced its
plea, it being most indecent that sin which provokes the execution
should procure the abrogation of the law; this would encourage the
commission of sin without fear. The majesty of God was concerned,
for it was not becoming his excellent greatness to treat with defiled
dust, and to offer pardon to a presumptuous rebel immediately after
his offence, and before he made supplication to his judge. The
holiness of God did quicken his justice to execute the threatening,
"for he is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity." Habak. 1. As
goodness is the essential object of his will, which he loves
unchangeably wherever it is, so is sin the eternal object of his hatred,
and where it is found in the love of it, renders the subject odious to
him. "He will not take the wicked by the hand." Job. 8:20 * The law
of contrariety forbids purity and pollution to mix together. And the
veracity of God required the inflicting the punishment. For the law
being a declaration of God's will, according to which he would
dispense rewards and punishments, either it must be executed upon
the offender, or if extraordinarily dispensed with, it must be upon
such terms, as the honour of God's truth may be preserved. This
seeming conflict was between the attributes.
The sublimest spirits in heaven were at a loss how to unravel the
difficulty, and to find out the miraculous way to reconcile infinite
mercy with inflexible justice; how to satisfy the demands of the one,
and the requests of the other. God was to overcome himself before he
restored man. In this exigence his mercy excited his wisdom to
interpose as an arbiter, which, in the treasure of its
incomprehensible light, found out an admirable expedient to save
man, without prejudice to his other perfections: that was by
constituting a mediator both able and willing, between the guilty
creature and himself: that by transferring the punishment on the
surety, he might punish sin, and pardon the sinner. And here, the
more severe and rigorous justice is, the more admirable is the mercy
that saves. In the same stupendous sacrifice he declared his respect
to justice, and his delight in mercy. The two principal relations of our
Redeemer are, the one of a gift from God to man, the other of an
oblation for men to God. By the one, God satisfies his infinite love to
man, and, by the other, satisfies his infinite justice for man. Neither
is it unbecoming God to condescend in accepting the returning
sinner, when a Mediator of infinite dignity intercedes for favour. The
divine majesty is not lessened, when "God is in Christ reconciling the
world unto himself." 2 Cor. 5. Neither is the sanctity of God
disparaged by his clemency to sinners, for the Redeemer is the
principle and pattern of holiness to all that are saved. The same grace
that inclined God to send his Son to die for us, gives his spirit to live
in us, that we may be revived and renewed according to his image,
and by conformity to God be prepared for communion with him.
Here is a sweet concurrence of all the attributes, "Mercy and truth
are met together, righteousness and peace kiss each other." Psal.
85:10. Who can count up this heap of wonders? Who can unfold all
the treasures of this mysterious love? The tongue of an angel cannot
explicate it according to its dignity: it is the fairest copy of the divine
wisdom, the consummation of all God's counsels, wherein all the
attributes are displayed in their brightest lustre: it is here "the
manifold wisdom of God appears." Ephes. 3:10. The angels of light
bend themselves with extraordinary application of mind, and ardent
affections to study the rich and unsearchable variety that is in it, 1
Pet. 1:12 παρακύψαι an allusion "to the posture of the cherubims
looking into the ark." Only the same understanding comprehends it
which contrived it. But as one that views the ocean, though he can
not see its bounds or bottom, yet he sees so much as to know that
that vast collection of waters is far greater than what is within the
compass of his short sight: so though we cannot understand all the
depths of that immense wisdom, which ordered the way of our
salvation, yet we may discover so much, as to know with the apostle,
that it surpasses knowledge, Eph. 3. He that is the brightness of his
Father's glory, and the light of the world, so illuminate our dark
understandings, that we may conceive aright of this great mystery.
The first thing that offers itself to consideration, is, the compass of
the divine wisdom, in taking occasion from the sin and fall of man to
bring more glory to God, and to raise him to a more excellent state.
Sin, in its own nature, hath no tendency to good, it is not an apt
medium, hath no proper efficacy to promote the glory of God: so far
is it from a direct contributing to it, that, on the contrary, it is the
most real dishonour to him. But as a black ground in a picture,
which, in itself, only defiles, when placed by art, sets off the brighter
colours, and heightens their beauty;* so the evil of sin, which,
considered absolutely, obscures the glory to God, yet, by the
overruling disposition of his providence, it serves to illustrate his
name, and, to make it more glorious in the esteem of reasonable
creatures. Without the sin of man there had been no place for the
most perfect exercise of his goodness. O fœlix culpa quæ tantum &
talem meruit habere Redemptorem.† Happy fault, not in itself, but
by the wise and merciful counsel of God, to be repaired in a way so
advantageous, that the salvation of the earth is the wonder of heaven,
the redemption of man ravishes the angels.
The glory of God is more visible in the recovery of lapsed man, than
if the law had been obeyed, or executed. If Adam had persevered in
his duty, the reward had been from grace, for owing himself to God,
he could receive nothing but as a gift from his bounty; so that
goodness only had then been exercised, and not in his highest and
most obliging acts, which are to save the guilty and miserable; for
innocence is incapable of mercy. If the sentence had been inflicted,
justice had been honoured with a solemn sacrifice; but mercy, the
sweet, tender, and indulgent attribute had never appeared. But now
the wisdom of God is eminent in the accord of both these attributes.
God is equally glorious, as equally God, in preserving the authority of
his law by an act of justice upon our surety, as in the exercise of
mercy by remitting the punishment to the offender.
And it is no less honourable to God's wisdom to restore man with
infinite advantage. It is a mystery in nature, that the corruption of
one thing is the generation of another; it is more mysterious in grace,
that the fall of man should occasion his more noble restitution.
Innocence was not his last end, his supreme felicity transcends the
first. The holiness of Adam was perfect, but mutable: but holiness in
the redeemed, though in a less degree, shall be victorious over all
temptations: for they are joined to the heavenly Adam in a strict and
inviolable union. And those graces are acted by them, for the exercise
of which there were no objects and occasions in innocence; 1 Pet.
2:20 as compassion to the miserable, forgiveness of injuries,
fortitude and patience; all which, as they are a most lively
resemblance of the divine perfections, 1 Pet. 4:14 so an excellent
ornament to the soul, and infinitely endear it to God. And the
happiness of our renewed state exceeds our primitive felicity.
Whether we consider the nature of it, it is wholly spiritual; or the
place of it, heaven the sanctuary of life and immortality; or the
constitution of the body, which shall be clothed with celestial
qualities: but this will be particularly discussed in its proper place.
These are the effects of infinite wisdom, to the production of which
sin affords no casualty, but hath merely an accidental respect. As the
apostle interprets the words of David, Rom. 3:4. "Against thee only
have I sinned, that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and
overcome when thou judgest." Which doth not respect the intention
of David, but the event only. The greater his injustice was in the
commission, the more clear would God's justice be in the
condemnation of his sin.
2. The wisdom of God appeared in ordaining such a Mediator, who
was qualified to reconcile God to man, and man to God. The first and
most admirable article in the mystery of godliness, and the
foundation of all the rest is, that "God is manifest in the flesh." 1 Tim.
3:16. The middle must equally touch the extremes. A mediator must
be capable of the sentiments and affections of both the parties he will
reconcile. He must be a just esteemer of the rights and injuries of the
one and the other, and have a common interest in both. The Son of
God assuming the human nature, perfectly possesses these qualities,
he hath zeal for God, and compassion for man. He hath taken
pledges of heaven and earth; the supreme nature in heaven, and the
most excellent on the earth, to make the hostility cease between
them. He is Immanuel by nature and office. And if no less than an
inspired wisdom could devise how to frame the earthly tabernacle,
Exod. 36 wherein God dwelt in a shadow and typical manner, what
wisdom was requisite to frame the human nature of Christ, wherein
the "Deity was really to dwell?" John 1.
Now to discover more clearly the divine wisdom, in uniting the two
natures in Christ, to qualify him for his office, Colos. 1 it is requisite
to consider, that the office of mediator hath three charges annexed to
it; the priestly, which respects God; the prophetical and kingly, which
regard men. These have a respect to the evils which oppress fallen
man; and they are guilt, ignorance, sin, and death. Man was capitally
guilty of the breach of God's law, and under the tyranny of his lusts,
in the issue liable to death.
The Redeemer is made to him wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. These benefits are dispensed by him in his threefold
office; as a priest he expiates sin, as a prophet he instructs the
church, as a king he regulates the lives of his subjects, delivers them
from their enemies, and makes them happy. Now the divine and
human nature are requisite for the performance of all these. For
nothing is effectual to an end, but what is proportionable and
commensurate thereunto; and to proportion excesses as well as
defects, are opposite. This will appear by taking a distinct view of the
several offices of our mediator.
1. The priestly office hath two parts.
1. To make expiation for sin.
2. Intercession for sinners.
Now for the making expiation for sin, there was a necessary
concurrence of the two natures in our Redeemer. He must be man;
for the Deity was not capable of those submissions and sufferings
which were requisite to expiate sin. And he must be man, that the
sinning nature might suffer, and thereby acquire a title to the
satisfaction that is made. The meritorious imputation of Christ's
sufferings to man, is grounded on the union between them, which is
as well natural in his partaking of flesh and blood, as moral in the
consent of their wills. As the apostle observes, Heb. 2:11. "That he
who sanctifies, and they that are sanctified are all one:" so he that
suffers, and they for whom he suffers, must have communion in the
same nature. For this reason, God having resolved never to dispense
mercy to the fallen angels, the Redeemer did not assume the
angelical nature, but the seed of Abraham.
And as the human nature was necessary to qualify him for sufferings,
and to make them suitable, so the divine was to make them
sufficient. The lower nature considered in itself, could make no
satisfaction: the dignity of the divine person makes a temporal
punishment to be of an infinite value in God's account. Besides, the
human nature had sunk under the weight of wrath, if the Deity had
not been personally present to support it. Briefly, to perform the first
part of his office, he must suffer, yet be impassable; die, yet be
immortal; and undergo the wrath of God, to deliver man from it.*
2. To make intercession for us, it was requisite that he should
partake of both natures, that he might have credit with God, and
compassion to man. The Son hath a prevailing interest in the Father,
as he testifies, "I know thou hearest me always," John 11:42. A
privilege which neither Abraham, Moses, nor any other who were the
most favoured saints, enjoyed. And, as man, he was fit for passion
and compassion. The human nature is the proper subject of feeling
pity, especially when it hath felt misery. God is capable of love, not in
strictness of compassion. For sympathy proceeds from an
experimental sense of what one hath suffered, and the sight of the
like affliction in others, revives the affections which were felt in that
state, and inclines to pity. The apostle offers this to believers as the
ground of comfort, that he who took our nature, and felt our griefs,
intercedes for us. "For we have not an High-Priest that cannot be
touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all things
tempted as we are, yet without sin, Heb. 4:15 that with an humble
confidence we may come to the "throne of grace." He hath drunk
deepest of the cup of sorrows, that he may be an all-sufficient
comforter to those that mourn. He hath such tender bowels, we may
trust him to solicit our salvation. In short, it is the great support of
our faith, that "we have access to the Father by the Son," Ephes. 2:18
and present all our requests by a Mediator so worthy and so dear to
him, and by one who left the joys of heaven, that by enduring
affliction on earth, his heart might be made tunable to the hearts of
the afflicted.
Secondly. For the discharge of the prophetical office, it was necessary
the Mediator should be God and man.
1. He must be God, that he might deliver his counsels with more
authority and efficacy than any mere creature could. He must be a
teacher sent from heaven that reveals to us the will of God
concerning the way thither, and the certainty and excellency of that
state. Now Christ is the original of all wisdom; it is not said the word
of the Lord came to him, as to the prophets; he is the fountain of all
sacred knowledge. The Son came from the "bosom of the Father,"
John 1:18 the seat of his counsels and compassions, to reveal those
secrets which were concealed from the angels, in that light which is
inaccessible. And it is God alone can teach the heart, and convince
the conscience, so as to produce a saving belief of the heavenly
doctrine, and a delight in the discovery, and a resolution to follow it
wherever it directs.
It was fit he should be man, that he might be familiarly conversant
with us, and convey the counsels of God in such a way as man could
receive. All saving truth comes from God, and it follows, by just
consequence, that the nearer he is to us, the better we are like to be
instructed. Now there are two things which render sinful man
incapable of immediate converse with God.
1. The infirmity of his nature.
2. The guilt that cleaves to him.
First. The infirmity of man's nature cannot endure the glory of God's
appearance. When the law was delivered on Mount Sinai, the
Israelites were under great terrors at the sights and prodigies which
accompanied the divine presence, and they desired that God would
speak to them no more in his "majesty and greatness, lest they
should die." Deut. 5:25. There is such a disproportion between our
meanness and his excellencies, that Daniel, though a favourite of
heaven, yet his comeliness was turned into corruption at the sight of
a vision. Dan. 10:17. And the beloved disciple "fell down as dead at
the appearance of Christ in his glory." Rev. 1:17. When the eye gazes
on the sun, it is more tormented with the brightness than pleased
with the beauty of it; but when the beams are transmitted through a
coloured medium, they are more temperate and sweetened to the
sight. The eternal word shining in his full glory, the more bright, the
less visible is he to mortal eyes; but the incarnate word is eclipsed
and allayed by "a veil of flesh," Heb. 10:20 and so made accessible to
us. God, out of a tender respect to our frailty and fears, promised to
"raise up a prophet clothed in our nature," Deut. 18:15 that we might
comfortably and quietly receive his instructions.
2. Guilt makes us fearful of his presence. The approach of God
awakens the conscience, which is his spy in our bosoms, and causes a
dreadful apparition of sin in its view. When one beam of Christ's
divinity broke forth in the miraculous draught of fishes; Peter cries
out, "depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." Luke 5:8.
Holiness armed with terror strikes a sinner into consternation. Now
when the mind is shaken with a storm of fear, it cannot calmly attend
to the counsels of wisdom. But the Son of God appearing in our
nature, to expiate sin, and appease divine justice, we are encouraged
to draw near to him, and sit at his feet, to hear the "words of eternal
life." Thus God complied with our necessity, that with a freer
dispensation we might receive the counsels of our Saviour.
3. He is qualified for the kingly office, by the union of the two natures
in him. He must be God to conquer satan, and convert the world. As
eminent an act of power was necessary to redeem, as to create. For
although the supreme Judge was to be satisfied by humble
sufferings, yet satan, who usurped the right of God (for man had no
power (John 12:20) to alienate himself) was to be subdued: having
no just title, he was to be cast out by power. Luke 11:38. And no less
than the divine power could accomplish our victorious rescue from
him. In his love he pitied us, and "his holy arm got him the victory."
Isa. 63:9. He is the author of "eternal salvation," Heb. 7:23 which no
inferior agent could ever accomplish. It is God alone "can overcome
death," and him that had "the power of death," and bring us safely to
felicity.
Besides, our king must be man, that by the excellency of his example,
he might lead us in the way of life. The most rational method to
reform the world, is, not only to enact laws to be the rule of virtuous
actions, but for lawgivers to make virtue honourable and imitable by
their own practice. And to encourage us in the holy war against our
enemies visible and invisible, it was congruous that the prince of our
salvation should take the human nature, and submit to the
inconveniences of our warfaring state. As kings, when they design a
glorious conquest, go forth in person, and willingly endure the
hardships of a military condition, to animate their armies. The
apostle tells us, Heb. 2:10 that it "became him, for whom are all
things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to
make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." God,
the great designer of all things, foreseeing the sufferings which the
godly would be exposed in the world, ordained it as most convenient,
that the author of their deliverance, should, by sufferings, obtain the
reward, that, by his example, he might strengthen and deliver those
that suffer to the end. Again, the Son of God entered into our family,
and is not "ashamed to call us brethren." Heb. 2:11. To make his
sceptre amiable to us, be exerciseth his dominion with a natural and
sensible touch of pity, he pardons our failings, and puts a value on
our sincere though mean services, as an honour done to him. Briefly,
in him there is a combination of power and love; the power of the
Deity with the tenderness and clemency of the human nature. "He is
the mighty God, and prince of peace." Isa. 6:9. "He is a king just and
powerful against our enemies, but mild and gentle to his people."
Zec. 9. He is willing to remove from us all the evils we cannot endure,
our sins and sorrows; and able to convey to us all the blessings we
are capable to enjoy. In all his glory he remembers that he is our
Saviour. At the day of judgment (Tit. 2:13) when he shall come with a
train of mighty angels, he will be as tender of man, as when he
suffered on the cross. And from hence we may discover the
excellency of God's contrivance in uniting the divine and human
nature in our Redeemer, that he might have ability and affection to
qualify him for that great and blessed work.
Thirdly. The divine wisdom appears in the designation of the person.
For God resolving to save man in a way that is honourable to his
justice, it was expedient a person in the blessed Trinity should be put
into a state of subjection, to endure the punishment due to sin; but it
was not convenient the Father should: for,
1. He must then have been sent into the world, which is incongruous
to the relations that are between those glorious persons. For as they
subsist in a certain order, so their operations are according to the
manner of their subsistence. The Father is from himself, and the first
motions in all things are ascribed to him; the Son is from the Father,
and all his actions take their rise from him. "The Son can do nothing
of himself, but what he seeth the Father do." John 5:19. The effecting
our redemption is referred to the Father's will as the supreme cause:
our Saviour, upon his entrance into the world, to undertake that,
work, declares, "I come to do thy will, O God." Heb. 10:7. Upon this
account the apostle addresses his thanks to the Father as the first
agent in our salvation, Col. 1:12 which is not to lessen the glory of the
Son and spirit, but to signify, that in the accomplishment of it, their
working follows their being.
2. It was not fit that the Father should be incarnate, for he must then
have sustained the part of a criminal, and appeared in that quality
before the supreme Judge: but this was not consonant to the order
among the persons. For although they are of equal majesty, being
one God, yet the Father is the first person, and to him belongs most
congruously to be the guardian of the laws and rights of heaven, to
exact satisfaction for offences, and to receive intercessions for the
pardon of the penitent.
3. Neither was it fit that the third person should undertake that work.
For besides the sacrifice of propitiation, it was necessary the divine
power should be exerted, to enlighten the minds, and incline the
wills of men to receive the Redeemer, that the benefits of his death
might be applied to them.* Now the Redeemer is considered as the
object, and the Holy Spirit as the disposer of the faculty to receive it.
And in the natural order of things, the object must exist before the
operation of the faculty upon it. There must be light before the eye
can see. So in the disposition of the causes of our salvation, the
Redeemer must be ordained, and salvation purchased, before the
divine power is put forth to enable the soul to receive it; and
accordingly it is the office of the Spirit, who is the "power of God,"
Luke 1:35 and by whom the Father and the Son execute all things, to
render effectual the redemption procured by the Son.
Briefly, the mission of the persons is according to their principle. The
Father sends the Son to require salvation for us, John 3:17 the Son
sends the Spirit to apply it. John 16:7. Thus there is no disturbing of
their sacred order; more particularly in appointing the Son to
assume the human nature, and to restore lapsed man, the wisdom of
God is evident: for, by that,
1. The properties of the sacred persons are preserved entire: the same
title is appropriated to both natures in our Mediator. His state on
earth corresponds with his state in heaven. He is the only Son from
eternity, and the first born in time: and the honour due to the eternal
and divine, and to the temporal but supernatural sonship, is
attributed to him.
2. To unite the glorious titles of Creator and Redeemer in the same
person. The Father made "the world by the Son." Heb. 1:2. By this
title he had an original propriety in man, which could not be
extinguished: though we had forfeited our right in him, he did not
lose his right in us. Our contract with satan could not nullify it. Now
it was consonant that the Son, should be employed to recover his
own, that the Creator in the beginning should be the Redeemer in the
fulness of time.
3. Who could more fitly restore us to favour, and the right of
children, than the only begotten and only beloved Son, who is the
singular and everlasting object of his Father's delight? Our relation
to God is an imitation and expression of Christ's. He is a son by
nature, a servant by condescension, we are servants by nature, and
sons by grace and favour. Eph. 1:5. Our adoption into the line of
heaven is by the purchase of his blood. The eternal Son "took flesh,
and was made under the law, that we might receive the adoption of
sons." Rom. 8:29. Who was more fit to repair the image of God in
man, and beautify his nature, that was defiled with sin, than the Son
who is "the express image of his Father's person," Heb. 1:3 and
brightness and beauty itself? Who can better communicate the divine
counsels to us, than the Eternal Word
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Post by Admin on Jun 18, 2024 14:17:05 GMT -5
4. The wisdom of God appears in making the remedy to have a
proportion to the cause of our ruin; that as we fell in Adam our
representative, 1 Cor. 15:22 so we are raised by Christ, the head of
our recovery. The apostle makes the comparison between the first
and second Adam; Rom. 5:18, 19. "Therefore as by the offence of one,
judgment came upon all to condemnation, even so by the
righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men to the
justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were
made sinners, so by the obedience of one many shall be made
righteous."* They are considered as causes of contrary effects. The
effects are sin and righteousness, condemnation and justification. As
the disobedience of the first Adam is meritoriously imputed to all his
natural posterity, and brings death upon all; so the righteousness of
the second is meritoriously imputed to all his spiritual progeny, to
obtain life fop them. The carnal Adam having lost original
righteousness, derives a corrupt nature to all that descend from him.
And the spiritual having by his obedience purchased divine grace for
us, (that being the price without which so rich a treasure as holiness
could not be obtained) conveys a vital efficacy to renew his people.
The same spirit of holiness which anointed our Redeemer, does
quicken all his race, that as "they have borne the image of the earthly,
they may bear the image of the heavenly Adam." 1 Cor. 15:49.
5. The divine wisdom is visible in the manner whereby our
redemption is accomplished; that is, by the humiliation of the Son of
God. By this he did counterwork the sin of angels and man.* Pride is
the poison of every sin, for in every one the creature prefers his
pleasure, and sets up his will above God's: but it was the special sin
of Adam. The devil would have levelled heaven by an unpardonable
usurpation; he said, "I will be like the Most High:" and man infected
with his breath, (you shall be like God) became sick of the same
disease. Now Christ that by the quality of the remedy he might cure
our disease in its source and cause, applied to our pride an
unspeakable humility.
Man was guilty of the highest robbery in affecting to be equal with
God, and the eternal Son, who was "in the form of God, and equal to
him" in majesty and authority, Phil. 2:6 without sacrilege or
usurpation, he emptied himself by assuming the human nature in its
servile state. "The Word was made flesh," John 1:14 the meanest part
is specified, to signify the greatness, of his abasement. There is such
an infinite distance between God and flesh, that the condescension is
as admirable as the contrivance. So great was the malignity of our
pride, for the cure of which such a profound humility was requisite.
By this he destroyed the first "work of the devil." 1 John 3:8
6. The wisdom of God appears in ordaining such contemptible, and
in appearance, opposite means, to accomplish such glorious effects.
The way is as wonderful as the work. That Christ by dying on the
cross, a reputed malefactor, should be made our eternal
righteousness; that descending to the grave, he should bring up the
lost world to life and immortality, is so incredible to our narrow
understandings, that he saves us, and astonishes us at once. And in
nothing it is more visible, "that the thoughts of God are as far above
our thoughts, and his ways above our ways, as heaven is above the
earth." Isa. 55:8. It is a secret in physic to compound the most noble
remedies of things destructive to nature, and thereby make one
death victorious over another: but that eternal life should spring
from death, glory from ignominy, blessedness from a curse, is so
repugnant to human sense, that to render the belief of it easy, it was
foretold by many prophecies, that when it came to pass, it might be
looked on as the effect of God's eternal counsel. The apostle tells us, 1
Cor. 1:23 that "Christ crucified was to the Jews a stumbling-block,
and to the Gentiles foolishness." The grand Sophies of the world
esteemed it absurd and unreasonable to believe, that he who was
exposed to sufferings, could save others: but those who are called,
discover that the doctrine of salvation, by the cross of Christ, which
the world counted folly, ver. 24 is the great "wisdom of God," and
most convenient for his end. A double reason is given of this method.
1. Because the heathen world did not find and own God in the way of
nature. "For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom
knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching, to save
them that believe." 2 Cor. 1:21. The frame of the world is called the
wisdom of God; the name of the cause is given to the effect, in regard
the divine wisdom is so clearly discovered there, as if it had taken a
visible form, and presented itself to the view of men. But those who
professed themselves wise, did not acknowledge the Creator: for
some conceited the world to be eternal, others that it was the product
of chance, Rom. 1:22 and became guilty of the most absolute
contradiction to reason. For who can believe that one who is blind
from his birth, and by consequence perfectly ignorant of all colours,
and of the art of painting, should take a bundle of pencils into his
hand, and dipping them in colours mixed and corrupted, paint a
great battle with that perfection in the design, propriety in the
colours, distinction in the habits and countenances, as if it were not
represented but present to the spectators? Who ever saw a temple, or
palace, or any regular building, spring from the stony bowels of a
mountain? Yet some famous philosophers "became thus vain in their
imaginations," Rom. 1:21 fancying, that the world proceeded from
the casual concourse of atoms. And the rest of them neglected to
know God so far as they might, and to honour him so far as they
knew. They debased the Deity by unworthy conceptions of his
nature, and by performing such acts of worship, as were not fit for a
rational spirit to offer, nor for the pure majesty of heaven to receive.
Besides, they ascribed his name, attributes, and honour to creatures:
not only the lights of heaven, and the secret powers which they
supposed did govern them; not only kings, and great men, who were,
by their authority, raised above others, but the most despicable
things in nature, beasts and birds were the objects of their adoration.
"They changed the glory of the incorruptible God, into an image
made like to a corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts,
and creeping things." Rom. 1:23. A sin so foul, that it betrayed them
to brutish blindness, and to the most infamous lusts, natural and
unnatural. Now since the most clear and open discovery of God's
wisdom was ineffectual to reclaim the world, he was pleased to
change his method. They neglected him appearing in his majesty,
and he now comes clothed with infirmities: and since by natural light
they would not see God the Creator, he is imperceptible to the light
of nature as Redeemer: the discovery of him depends on revelation.
The wisdom of God in making the world is evident to every eye, but
the gospel is "wisdom in a mystery." 1 Cor. 2:7. The Deity was
conspicuous in the creation, but concealed under a veil of flesh when
he wrought our redemption. He was more easily discovered when
invisible, than when visible: he created the world by power, but
restored it by sufferings.
2. That the honour of all might solely redound to him. "God hath
chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and the
weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty; and
base things of the world, and things which are despised God hath
chosen; yea, and things that are not, to bring to nought things that
are, that no flesh should glory in his presence." 1 Cor. 1:27, 28, 29.
Thus Moses, the redeemer of Israel, was an infant exposed to the
mercy of the waters, drawn forth from an ark of bulrushes, and not
employed whilst he lived in the splendour of the court, but when
banished as a criminal, and deprived of all power. And our Redeemer
took not on him the nature of angels, equal to satan in power, but
took part of flesh and blood,* the more signally to triumph over that
proud spirit in the human nature which was inferior to his, and had
been vanquished by him in paradise. Therefore he did not
immediately exercise omnipotent power to destroy him, but
managed our weakness and infirmity to foil the roaring lion. He did
not enter into the combat in the glory of his Deity, but disguised
under the human nature, which was subject to mortality. And thus
the devil is overcome in the same manner as he first got the victory:
for as the whole race of man was captivated by him in Adam the
representative; so believers are victorious over him as the tempter
and tormentor, by the conquest that Christ their representative
obtained in the wilderness, and on the cross. And as our ruin was
effected by the subtilty of satan, so our recovery is wrought by the
wisdom of God; who takes "the wise in their own craftiness." 1 Cor. 1.
The devil excited Judas by avarice, the Jews by malice, and Pilate
from reason of state, to accomplish the death of Christ; and he then
seemed to be victorious. Now what was more honourable to the
Prince of our salvation, than the turning the enemy's point upon his
own breast, and by "dying, to overcome him that had the power of
death?" Heb. 2:14. This was signified in the first promise of the
gospel, where the salvation of man is inclosed in the curse of the
serpent, that is, the devil clothed with that figure, "it shall bruise thy
head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Gen. 3:15. That is, the Son of
God should, by suffering in our flesh, overcome the enemy of
mankind, and rescue innumerable captives from his tyranny: here
the events are most contrary to the probability of their cause. And
what is more worthy of God, than to obtain his ends in such a
manner, as the glory of all may be in solidum ascribed to him?
7. The divine wisdom appears, in laying the design of the gospel in
such a manner, as to provide for the comfort, and promote the
holiness of man. This is God's signature upon all heavenly doctrines,
which distinguishes them from carnal inventions; they have a direct
tendency to promote his glory, and the real benefit of the rational
creature: thus the way of salvation by Jesus Christ, is most fit as to
reconcile God to man by securing his honour, so to reconcile man to
God by encouraging his hope. Till this be effected, he can never be
happy in communion with God: for that is nothing else but the
reciprocal exercise of love between God and the soul. Now nothing
can represent God as amiable to a guilty creature but his inclination
to pardon. Whilst there are apprehensions of inexorable severity,
there will be hard thoughts burning in the breast against God: till the
soul is released from terrors it can never truly love him. To
extinguish our hatred, he must conquer our fears, and this he hath
done by giving us the most undoubted and convincing evidence of his
affections.
1. By contracting the most intimate alliance with mankind. In this
God is not only lovely, but love, 1 John 4:8, 9 and his love is not only
visible to our understandings, but to our senses: the divine nature in
Christ is joined to the human, in an union that is not typical or
temporary, but real and permanent. "The Word was made flesh."
John 1. "And in him dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Col. 1.
Now as love is an affection of union, so the strictest union is an
evidence of the greatest love. The Son of God took the seed of
Abraham, Heb. 2 the original element of our nature, that our interest
in him might be more clear and certain. He stooped from the height
of his glory to our low embraces, that we might with more confidence
lay hold on his mercy.
2. By providing complete satisfaction to offended justice. The guilty
convinced creature is restless and inquisitive after a way "to escape
the wrath to come." For being under the apprehension that God is an
incensed judge, it is very sensible of the greatness and nearness of
the danger, there being nothing between it and eternal torments, but
a thin veil of flesh. Now an abundant satisfaction is made, that most
effectually expiates and abolishes the guilt of sin: that is a temporary
act, but of infinite evil, being committed against an infinite object;
the death of Christ was a temporary passion, but of infinite value, in
respect of the subject; the honour of the law is fully repaired, so that
God is justly merciful, and dispenses "pardon to the glory of his
righteousness. He hath set forth his Son to be a propitiation through
faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness, that he might be just,
and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus." Rom. 3:25. And what
stronger security can be given, that God is ready to pardon man,
upon his accepting the terms of the gospel, than the giving his Son to
be our atonement? If the stream swell so high as to overflow the
banks, will it stop in a descending valley? Hath he, with so dear an
expence, satisfied his justice, and will he deny his mercy to relenting
and returning sinners? This argument is powerful enough to
overcome the most obstinate infidelity.
3. By the unspeakable gift of his Son, he assures our hopes of heaven,
which is a reward so great and glorious, that our guilty hearts are apt
to suspect we shall never enjoy it. We are secure of his faithfulness,
having his infallible promise; and of his goodness, having such a
pledge in our hands. As the apostle argues, Rom. 8:22. "If he hath
given us his Son, will he not with him give us all things?" Will he give
us the tree of life, and not permit us to eat of its fruit? Is it
conceivable, that having laid the foundation of our happiness in the
death of his Son, an act, to which his tender affection seemed so
repugnant, that he will not perform the rest, which he can do by the
mere signification of his will? It is an excellent encouragement St.
Austin propounds from hence; Securus esto accepturum te vitam
ipsius, qui pignus habes mortis ipsius, &c. Be assured thou shalt
partake of his life, who hast the pledge of it in his death. He hath
performed more than he promised. It is more incredible, that the
eternal should die, than that a mortal creature should live for ever.
In short; since no mortal eye can discover the heavenly glory, to
convince us of the reality of the invisible state, and to support our
departing souls in their passage through the dark and terrible valley,
our Saviour rose from the grave, ascended in our nature to heaven,
and is the model of our happiness: he is at the right hand of God to
dispense life and immortality to all that believe on him. And what
can be more comfortable to us, than the assurance of that
blessedness, which, as it eclipses all the glory of the world, so it
makes death itself desirable in order to the enjoyment of it.
2. As the comfort, so the holiness of man is most promoted in this
way of our redemption. Suppose we had been recovered upon easier
terms, the evil of sin would have been lessened in our esteem; (we
are apt to judge of the danger of a disease from the difficulty of its
cure) hunger is reputed a small trouble, (although if it be not
satisfied it will prove deadly) because a small price will procure what
may remove it; and the mercy that saves us, had not appeared so
great. He that falls into a pit, and is drawn forth by an easy pull of the
hand, doth not think himself greatly obliged to the person that
helped him, though if he had remained there he must have perished.
But when the Son of God had suffered for us, more than ever one
friend suffered for another, or a father for a son, or than the strength
and patience of an angel can endure; who would not be struck with
horror at the thoughts of that poison which required such a dreadful
cure? And the benefit we receive in so costly a way, is justly
magnified by us. Now what is more apt to inflame our love to God,
than the admirable expression of his love to us, in that with the most
precious blood he ransomed us from hell? How doth it endear
obedience, that God hath sacrificed his Son, to keep us from acts of
hostility? So that the grace of the gospel is so far from indulging sin,
that it gives the most deadly wound to it. Especially when the tenor
of the new covenant is, that the condemned creature, in order to
receive pardon, and the benefits that are purchased, must receive the
benefactor, with the most entire consent, for his Prince and Saviour.
The law of faith requires us to submit to his sceptre, as well as to
depend upon his sacrifice. The gospel is a conditional act of oblivion,
that none may venture to sin upon confidence of pardon.
And since the occasion of the fall was from a conceit, that man could
better his estate by complying with the tempter, and obtain a more
desirable happiness in the creature, than in the favour of God: his
recovery is by revealing to him wherein true blessedness consists;
and giving him an assurance that he may obtain it. For man will
never subject himself to God as his highest Lord, till he looks on him
as his last end, and sovereign good. Now the gospel offers to us the
most effectual means, to convince man of the folly of his choice, in
making the creature his happiness. For, the Son of God, who was heir
of all things, during his continuance in the world, was in the
perpetual exercise of self-denial. He lived a despised life, and died an
ignominious death, to discover to us, that as the miseries of this life
cannot make us truly miserable, so the prosperities of it cannot make
us truly happy. Besides, how is it possible that the wretched
enjoyment of this world, should be the blessedness for which he
spent his sweat, his tears, his blood? The rich price he laid down doth
most powerfully convince us, that our felicity is infinitely more
valuable than all earthly things, and can be no less than the fruition
of God himself. Thus the divine wisdom hath so ordered the way of
our salvation, that as mercy and justice in God, so holiness arid
comfort may be perfectly united in the reasonable creature.
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