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Post by Admin on Jun 18, 2024 14:23:51 GMT -5
VI.Practical inferences. A superlative degree of praise and thankfulness
due to God for the revelation of the gospel. It is not discovered by the
creation. It is above the reach of natural reason. The heathen world is
entirely ignorant of it. It is pure grace that distinguishes one nation
from another, in sending the gospel. Evangelical knowledge deserves
our most serious study. The gospel exceeds all contemplative and
practical sciences. Contemplative in the greatness of its object, and
the certainty of its principle. Practical in the excellency of its end,
and the efficacy of the means.
I. WHAT a superlative degree of praise and thankfulness is due to
God, for revealing his eternal and compassionate counsel in order to
our salvation? The fall of man was so wounding and deadly, that only
an infinite understanding could find out the means for his recovery.
And if that mercy which moved the Lord to ordain the remedy, had
not discovered it, a thick cloud of despair had covered mankind,
being for ever unable to conceive the way of our redemption. It is a
mystery "which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath entered
into the heart of man to conceive." 1 Cor. 2. All human knowledge is
acquired by two sorts of faculties; the external and internal. Of the
first, sight and hearing are the most spiritual, and convey the
knowledge of the most worthy objects. They are the senses of
discipline, the other three are immersed in matter, and are incapable
to make such clear discoveries. Besides those impressions that are
made on the senses, we may form some ideas in the imagination;
upon which the mind reflecting may argue and discourse: thus far
the light and vigour of the understanding can only go. So that the
apostle declares, that the whole plot of the gospel was without the
compass of our most searching faculties. This will be evident by
considering,
1. There was no discovery of it in the creation: the voice of the
heavens instructs us concerning the being of God, but not in the
secrets of his will. The economy of man's redemption is the merciful
design of God, which hath no connexion with the existence of the
creatures, but depends only upon his good pleasure. It is as
impossible to read the divine decrees in the volume of the world, as
for the eye to discover a sound, which hath neither figure, colour, nor
visible motion. Besides, the glorious nature of God in three persons,
which is the foundation of this mysterious mercy, is not made known
by the visible frame of the universe. It is true, in all external works
the three persons are equally concerned: being of one essence, they
are of one efficacy; and the essential perfections of the Deity as they
concur, so they are evident in the production of all things. The first
motive is goodness, Rom. 1:20 that which orders and directs is
wisdom, that which executes is power. And the several ranks of
creatures, according to their state, reflect an honour on their author.
Things endued with life, declare him to be the fountain of life, and
intellectual creatures represent him to be the Father of lights. But the
personal being, as personal, operating nothing out of the divine
nature, there is no resemblance in the world that expresses the
distinction, propriety, and singularity of the persons, so as to
discover them to the human understanding. Those deeper mysteries
of the Deity are only made known by the word of God.
2. It is above the strain and reach of natural reason to attain to the
knowledge of it. There are seminal sparks of the "law in the heart of
man, Rom. 2:15 some common principles of piety, justice and
charity, without which the world would soon disband and fall into
confusion; but there is not the least presumption or conjecture of the
contrivance of the gospel. Though misery sharpens the mind, and
makes it more ingenious to find out ways of deliverance, yet here
reason was utterly at a loss. How could it ever enter into the thoughts
of the Israelites, that by erecting a brazen serpent on a pole, and
looking towards it, the wounds made by the fiery serpents should be
healed? And how could guilty man find out a way to satisfy infinite
justice by the sufferings of a Mediator, and to heal the wounded
spirit by believing on him? The most inquiring reason could never
have thought of the wonders of the incarnation, that a virgin should
conceive, and a God be born; nor of the death of the Prince of life,
and the resurrection, and ascension of the Lord of glory. We may see
how impossible it is for the natural understanding to discover the
mystery of redemption, when those that had the highest reputation
for wisdom were ignorant of the creation. The philosophers were
divided in nothing more, than in their account of the world's
original.* Some imagined it to proceed from water, others from fire;
some from order, others from confusion; some to be from eternity,
others in time. If the soul's eye be so weakened as not to see that
eternal power, which is so apparent in its effects, much less could it
pierce into the will, and free determinations of God, of which there is
not the least intimation or shadow in the things that are made. This
wisdom comes from above, and "was hidden from ages and
generations." Rom. 16:5. It is called the "mystery of Christ," Ephes.
3:4. He is the object, and revealer of it: the "mystery of faith," 1 Tim.
3:9 the discovery of which was by pure revelation: the "mystery of his
will," Ephes. 1:9 an inviolable secret, till he was pleased to make it
known. Were the human understanding as clear as it is corrupt, yet it
cannot, by the strength of discourse, arrive at the knowledge of it.
Supernatural revelation was necessary to discover it to the angels.
The thoughts of men are a secret, into which the Creator alone had
right to enter, 2 Chron. 6:30 it being his prerogative to search the
heart; the angels conjecture only, from the dispositions of men, from
outward circumstances, from the images in the fancy, and from
material impressions on the blood and spirits, what are the thoughts
of the heart: and much less can they discover the counsel of God
himself. The apostle tells us, Ephes. 3:10. "To principalities and
powers in heavenly places, by the church, the manifold wisdom of
God is made known." By the first coming of Christ, and the
conversion of the world, the depths of the divine wisdom were
opened, and there remains much undiscovered, which his second
coming shall gloriously make known. Before the first they
understood not the foundation; till the second, not the perfection of
our recovery. Briefly, the "spirit that searches the mysterious
counsels of God," 1 Cor. 2:10 is the alone intelligencer of heaven, that
reveals them to the world. And the more to incite us with sincere and
humble thankfulness to acknowledge this invaluable mercy, it will be
useful to reflect on the state of the heathen world, who are entirely
ignorant of this mystery.
The apostle describes the case of the Gentiles in such terms as argue
it to be extremely dangerous, if not desperate, Ephes. 2:12. "Their
understandings were darkened, being alienated from the life of God,
through the ignorance that is in them. They were without Christ,
aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenant
of the promise, without hope." They had no sense of their misery, no
expectation, nor desire of mercy. Not only the barbarous and savage,
but the polished and civilized nations are called ἄθεοι, being without
the knowledge of the true God, and of a Saviour. Philosophy never
made one believer. And as the want of a sovereign remedy exposes a
man that hath a mortal disease to certain ruin; so the single
ignorance of the gospel leaves men in a state of perdition. It is true,
where the faculties are not capable, or the object is not revealed, God
doth not impute the want of knowledge as a crime. But salvation is
obtained only by the covenant of grace, which is founded in the
satisfaction of the Redeemer. And it is by "the knowledge of him that
he justifies many," Isa. 53:11. God would have "all men saved by
coming to the knowledge of the truth," 1 Tim. 2:4. that is the doctrine
of the gospel, so called in respect to its excellency, being the most
profitable that ever was revealed. The infants of believers are saved
by special privilege, for the merits of Christ, without any
apprehension of him. But others, who are come to the use of reason,
are made partakers of blessedness by the knowledge of God in Christ.
"This is life eternal, to know thee to be the only true God, and Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent." John 17:3. The sun quickens some
creatures by its vital influences, which are buried in the caves of the
earth, and never see the light, but the Sun of Righteousness
illuminates all whom he saves. What degree of knowledge is
necessary of the dignity of his person, and the efficacy of his
mediation, I cannot determine: but that the heathens, who are
absolutely strangers to the holy means of our recovery, and do not
believe on God reconciled in the Son of his love, should partake of
saving mercy; I do not see any thing in the gospel (which is the
revelation of God's will concerning our salvation) upon which to
build a rational hope. Indeed, if any heathen were seriously penitent,
God is so merciful, that he would rather dispatch an angel from
heaven, saying, "deliver him from going down into the pit, I have
found a ransom;" or by some extraordinary way instruct him in the
necessary knowledge of our Saviour, than suffer him to perish. But
repentance as well as forgiveness is purchased and dispensed alone
by our Saviour, Acts 5:31. And that any receive this benefit, who are
entirely ignorant of the benefactor, we cannot tell. Now this should
raise our esteem of the discriminating favour of God to us.
What a flood of errors and miseries covered the earth, when the
"grace of God that brings salvation first appeared? The deluge was
universal, and so was the destruction. Those that were most
renowned for wisdom, the philosophers of Greece, and the orators of
Rome, were swallowed up, only the church of Christ is triumphant
over the merciless waters. When Noah, from the top of the mountain,
saw the sad remains of that dreadful inundation, what a lively sense
of joy possessed his breast? As misery is heightened, so happiness is
set off by comparison:* not that there is any regular content to see
the destruction of others; but the sense of our own preservation from
a common ruin, raises our joy to its highest elevation. The first work
of Noah, after his deliverance, was to build an altar, on which to offer
the sacrifices of thanksgiving to his preserver.† We should imitate his
example.
How many nations, unknown to our world, remain in the darkness
and shadow of death, now "the day-spring from on high hath visited
us?" This special favour calls for special thankfulness. Were there
any qualities in us to incline God to prefer us before others, it would
lessen our esteem of the benefit. But this distinguishing mercy is one
of those free acts of God, for which there is no reason in the objects
on which they are exercised. St. Austin calls it, profundum crucis. ‡
As the lowest part of the cross is under ground unseen, but the upper
part is exposed to sight: so the effects of the divine predestination,
the fruits of the cross, are visible, but the reasons are not within our
view. When "God divided the world," and chose Israel for his
heritage to receive the promise of the Messiah, and left the rest in
thick and disconsolate darkness, there was no apparent cause of this
inequality; for they all sprang from the same corrupt root, and
equally deserved a final rejection. There was no singular good in
them, nor transcendent evils in others. The unaccountable pleasure
of God was the sole motive of the different dispensation. Our Saviour
breaks forth in an ecstacy of joy, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and
prudent, and revealed them unto babes; even so, father, for so it
seemed good in thy sight." It is the prerogative of God to reveal the
secrets of the kingdom to whom he pleases. Mat. 13:11. It is an act of
pure grace, putting a difference between one nation and another,
with the same liberty; as in the creation of the same indigested
matter he formed the earth, the dregs of the universe, and the sun
and stars the ornaments of the heavens, and the glory of the visible
world. How can we reflect on our spiritual obligations to divine grace
without a rapture of soul? The corruption of nature was universal,
our ignorance as perverse, and our manners as profane as of other
nations, and we had been condemned to an eternal night, if the light
of life had not graciously shined upon us. This should warm our
hearts in affectionate acknowledgments to God, "who hath made
known to us the riches of the glory of this mystery, amongst the
Gentiles," Col. 1:26, 27. and with that revelation the concomitant
power of the spirit, to translate us "from the kingdom of darkness
into the kingdom of his dear Son." If the publication of the law by the
ministry of angels to the Israelites were such a privilege, that it is
reckoned their peculiar treasure: "he hath showed his statutes unto
Israel; he hath not dealt so with any nation." Psal. 147:19, 20. What is
the revelation of the gospel by the Son of God himself? For although
the law is obscured and defaced since the fell, yet there are some
ingrafted notions of it in the human nature, but there is not the least
suspicion of the gospel. The law discovers our misery, but the gospel
alone shows the way to be delivered from it. If an advantage so great
and so precious doth not touch our hearts; and in possessing it with
joy, if we are not sensible of the engagement the Father of mercies
hath laid upon us, we shall be the ungratefullest wretches in the
world.
II. This incomprehensible mystery is worthy of our most serious
thoughts and study, that we may arrive to a fuller knowledge of it.
And to incite us, it will be fit to consider those excellencies, which
will render it most desirable. Knowledge is a quality so eminent, that
it truly ennobles one spirit above another. As reason is the singular
ornament of the human nature, whereby it excels the brutes; so in
proportion, knowledge, which is the perfection of the understanding,
raises those who are possessors of it, above others that want it. The
testimony of Solomon confirms this, Eccles. 2:13. "Then I saw that
wisdom excels folly as far as light excelleth darkness." And according
to the nature and quality of knowledge, such is the advantage it
brings to us. Now the doctrine of the gospel excels the most noble
sciences, as well contemplative as practical: it excels the
contemplative in the sublimity of the object, and in the certainty of
its principle.
1. In the sublimity and greatness of the object: and it is no less than
the highest design of the eternal wisdom, the most glorious work of
the great God. In the creation his footsteps appear, in our
redemption his image: in the law his justice and holiness, but in the
gospel all his perfections shine forth in their brightest lustre. The
bare theory of this enriches the mind, and the contemplation of it
affects the soul, that is conversant about it, with the highest
admiration, and most sincere and lasting delight.
(1.) It affects the soul with the highest admiration. The strongest
spirits cannot comprehend its just greatness: the understanding
sinks under the weight of glory.* The apostle who had seen the light
of heaven, and had such knowledge as never any man before; yet
upon considering one part of the divine wisdom, breaks forth in
astonishment, "Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and
knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his decrees, and his ways
past finding out!" It is fit when we have spent the strength of our
minds in the consideration of this excelling object, and are at the end
of our subtilty, to supply the defects of our understandings with
admiration. As the psalmist expresses himself, "Lord, how wonderful
are thy thoughts to us-ward!" The angels adore this glorious mystery
with an humble reverence, 1 Pet. 1:12. The admiration that is caused
by it, is a principal delight of the mind: it is true the wonder that
proceeds from ignorance (when the cause of some visible effect is not
known) is the imperfection and torment of the spirit; but that which
ariseth from the knowledge of those things which are most above our
conception and our hope, is the highest advancement of our minds,
and brings the greatest satisfaction to the soul. Now the contrivance
of our redemption, was infinitely above the flight of reason, and our
expectation. "When the Lord turned the captivity of Sion, they were
as in a dream," Psal. 126:1. The way of accomplishing it was so
incredible, that it seemed rather the picture of fancy, than a real
deliverance. And there is far greater reason that the rescuing of us
from the powers of hell, and the restoring us to liberty and glory by
Christ, should raise our wonder. The gospel is called a marvellous
light, 1 Pet. 2:9. upon the account of the objects it discovers. But such
a perverse judgment is in men, that they neglect those things which
deserve the highest admiration, and spend their wonder on meaner
things. Art is more admired than nature: a counterfeit eye of crystal,
which hath neither sight nor motion, than the living eye, the sun of
the little world, that directs the whole man. And the effects of nature
are more admired, than the sublime and supernatural works of
grace. Yet these infinitely exceed the other. The world is the work of
God's hand, but the gospel is his plot, and the chiefest of all his ways.
What a combination of wonders is there in the great mystery of
godliness! That he who fills heaven and earth, should be confined to
the virgin's womb; that life should die, and being dead revive! that
mercy should triumph without any disparagement to justice! These
are miracles that transcend all that is done in nature. And this
appears by the judgment of God himself, who best knows the
excellency of his own works. For whereas upon the finishing the first
creation, he ordained the seventh day, that reasonable creatures
might more solemnly ascribe to him the glory of his attributes, which
are visible in the things that are made; he hath upon the completing
our redemption, by the raising of Christ from the dead, made the
first day sacred for his service and praise, there being the clearest
illustration of his perfections in that blessed work. God is more
pleased in the contemplation of the new world, than of the old. The
latter by its extraordinary magnificence hath lessened the dignity of
the former, as the greater light obscures the less. Therefore the
sabbath is changed into the Lord's-day. And what a just reproach is it
to man that he should be unobservant and unaffected with this
glorious mercy, wherein he may always find new cause of
admiration? "O Lord, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts how
deep! A brutish man knoweth not, neither doth a fool understand
this" Psal. 92:5, 6. The admiring of any other thing in comparison of
this mystery, is the effect of inconsideration, or infidelity.
(2.) It produces the most sincere and lasting pleasure. As the taste is
to meat, to allure us to feed for the support of our bodies; that is
delight to knowledge, to excite the mind to seek after it. But its vast
capacity can never be satisfied with the knowledge of inferior things.
The pleasure is more in the acquisition, than in the possession of it.
For the mind is diverted in the search, but having attained to that
knowledge which cannot fill the rational appetite, it is disgusted with
the fruits of its travel, and seeks some other object to relieve its
languor. From hence it is, that variety is the spring of delight, and
pleasure is the product of novelty. We find the pleasure of the first
taste in learning something new, is always most sensible. The most
elegant compositions, and excellent discourses, which ravished at the
first reading, yet repeated often, are nauseous and irksome. The
exercise of the mind on an object fully known, is unprofitable, and
therefore tedious. Whereas by turning the thoughts on something
else, it may acquire new knowledge. But the apostle tells that the
mystery of our redemption contains all the "treasures of wisdom and
knowledge," Col. 2. to signify their excellence, and abundance: the
"unsearchable riches of grace are laid up in it." There is infinite
variety, and perpetual matter for the inquiry of the most excellent
understanding: no created reason is able to reach its height, or sound
its depths: by the continual study, and increase in the knowledge of
it, the mind enjoys a persevering pleasure, that far exceeds the short
vehemence of sensual delights.
2. It excels other sciences in the certainty of its principle, which is
divine revelation. Human sciences are built upon uncertain maxims,
which being admitted with precipitation, and not confirmed by
sufficient experiments, the mind is satisfied with appearances,
instead of real certainty. And from hence it is, that upon severe
inquiry into matters of fact, those doctrines which were received in
one age, are discovered to be false in another. Modern philosophy
discards the ancient; but the doctrine of salvation is the "word of
truth," that came from heaven, and bears the characters and marks
of its divine descent. It is confirmed by the "demonstration of the
spirit, and of power." 1 Cor. 2:4. It is always the same, unchangeable
as God the author, and Christ the object of it, who is the same
"yesterday, to day, and for ever." Heb. 13. And the knowledge which
the sincere and enlightened mind hath of it is not uncertain opinion,
but a clear, solid and firm apprehension. It is a "contemplation of the
glory of God with open face." 2 Cor. 3:18. This appears by the effects
it produces in those that have received the true tincture of it in their
souls, they despise all things which carnal men admire, in
comparison of this inestimable treasure.
The doctrine of the gospel exceeds all practical sciences in the
excellency of its end, and the efficacy of the means to obtain it.
1. The end of it is, the supreme happiness of man: the restoring him
to the innocence and excellency of his first state. And the means are
appointed by infinite wisdom, so that the most insuperable obstacles
are removed: and these are the justice of God that condemns the
guilty, and that strong and obstinate aversion which is in corrupted
man from true felicity. Here is a Mediator revealed, who is "able to
save to the uttermost," Heb. 7:25. who hath quenched the wrath of
God by the blood of his divine sacrifice: who hath expiated sin by the
value of his death, and purifies the soul by the virtue of his life, that it
may consent to its own salvation. No less than a divine power could
perform this work. From hence the superlative excellency of
evangelical knowledge doth arise: all other knowledge is unprofitable
without it, and that alone can make us perfectly blessed; "this is life
eternal, to know thee, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." John
17:3. I will briefly consider how ineffectual all other knowledge is,
whether natural, political, or moral, to recover us from our misery.
(1.) The most exact insight into natural things leaves the mind blind
and poor, ignorant of happiness, and the way to it. Solomon, who
had an extraordinary measure of natural knowledge, and was able to
set a just price upon it, tells us, that the "increase of knowledge was
attended with proportionable degrees of sorrow." Eccles. 1. For the
more a man knows, the more he discerns the insufficiency of that
knowledge to supply his defects, and satisfy his desires. He was
therefore weary of his wisdom, as well as of his folly. The devils know
more than the profoundest philosophers; yet their knowledge doth
not alleviate their torments. It is not only insufficient to prevent
misery, but will more expose to it by enlarging the faculties, and
making them more capable of torment. It is the observation of St.
Ambrose, that when God discovered the creation of the world to
Moses, he did not inform him of the greatness of the heavens, the
number of the stars, their aspects and influences; whether they
derive their light from the sun, or have it inherent in their own
bodies; from whence eclipses are caused; how the rainbow is
painted; how the winds fly in the air, or the causes of the ebbing and
flowing of the sea: but so much as might be a foundation of faith and
obedience, and left the rest, quasi marcescentis sapientiæ vanitates,
as the vanities of perishing wisdom. (Ambros. p. 6. Hexam, c. 2.) The
most knowing philosopher, though encompassed with these sparks,
yet if ignorant of the Redeemer, shall lie down in sorrow for ever.
(2.) And as natural, so political knowledge, in order to the governing
of kingdoms and states, hath no power to confer happiness upon
man. It concerns not his main interest, it is terminated within the
compass of this short life, and provides not for death, and eternity.
The wisdom of the world is folly in a disguise, a specious ignorance,
which, although it may secure the temporal state, yet it leaves us
naked and exposed to spiritual enemies "who war against the soul."
And all the moral knowledge which is treasured up in the books of
the heathens, is insufficient to restore man to his original integrity
and felicity. Reason sees that man is ignorant, and guilty, mortal and
miserable; that he is transported with vain passions, and tormented
with accusations of conscience, but it could not redress these evils.
Corrupt nature is like an imperfect building that lies in rubbish, the
imperfection is visible, but not the way how to finish it: for through
the ignorance of the first design, every one follows his own fancy;
whereas when the architect comes to finish his own project, it
appears regular and beautiful. Thus the various directions of
philosophers to recover fallen man out of his ruins, and to raise him
to his first state, were vain. Some glimmerings they had, that the
happiness of the reasonable nature consisted in its union with God;
but in order to this, they propounded such means as were not only
ineffectual, but opposite. Such is the pride and folly of carnal
wisdom, that to bring God and man together, it advances man, and
depresses God. The Stoics ascribed to their wise man* those
prerogatives whereby he equalled their supreme god. They made him
the architect of his virtue and felicity, and to vie with Jupiter himself,
to be one of his peers. Others reduced the gods to live like men, and
men like beasts, by placing happiness in sensual pleasures. Thus,
instead of curing, they fomented the hereditary and principal
diseases of mankind, pride and concupiscence, which, at first, caused
the separation of man from God, and infinitely increase the distance
between them. For what sins are more contrary to the majesty and
purity of God than pride, which robs him of his honour; and carnal
lust, which turns a man into a beast? Besides, all their inventions to
expiate sin, to appease the Deity, and make him favourable, to calm
the conscience, were frivolous and unprofitable. And their most
generous principles, and accurate precepts, were short of that purity
and perfection wherewith moral duties are performed to God and
men. Briefly, they wasted their candle in vain, in searching for the
way to true happiness. But God who created man for the enjoyment
of himself, hath happily accomplished his eternal decree, by the work
of our redemption, wherein his own glory is most visible. And the
gospel which reveals this to us, humbles whom it justifies, and
comforts those that were condemned: it abases more than the law,
but without despair; and advances more than nature could, but
without presumption. The Mediator takes away the guilt of our old
sins, and our inclination to new sins: we are not only restored, but
exalted, made "heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ." Rom. 8:17. For
these reasons the apostle sets so high a value upon the heavenly
doctrine, that reveals a Saviour to the undone world. "He desired to
know nothing but Jesus Christ, and him crucified." 1 Cor. 2:2. He
despiseth all pharisaical and philosophical learning "in comparison
of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus." Phil. 3:8. Other
knowledge swells the mind, and increases the esteem of ourselves,
this gives us a sincere view of our state. It discovers our misery in its
causes, and the almighty mercy that saves us. Other knowledge
enlightens the understanding, without changing the heart, but this
inspires us with the love of God, with the hatred of sin, and makes us
truly better. In seeking after other knowledge, the mind is perplexed
by endless inquiries: here it is at rest, as the wavering needle is fixed
when turned to its beloved star. Ignorance of other things may be
without any real damage to us; for we may be directed by the skilful
how to preserve life and estate. But this knowledge is absolutely
necessary to justify, sanctify, and save us. All other knowledge is
useless at the hour of death, Isa. 53. then the richest stock of learning
is lost, the vessel being split wherein the treasure was laid; but this
pearl of inestimable price is both the ornament of our prosperity, and
the support of our adversity. A little ray of this is infinitely more
desirable, than the light of all human sciences in their lustre and
perfection.
And what an amazing folly is it, that men, who are possessed with an
earnest passion of knowing, should waste their time and strength in
searching after things, the knowledge of which cannot remove the
evils that oppress them, and be careless of the saving knowledge of
the gospel? Were there no other reason to diminish the esteem of
earthly knowledge, but the difficulty of its acquisition, that error
often surprises those who are searching after truth, this might check
our intemperate pursuit of it. Sin hath not only shortened our
understandings, but our lives, that we cannot arrive to the perfect
discovery of inferior objects. But suppose that one, by his vast mind,
should comprehend all created things, from the centre of the earth to
the circumference of the heavens, and were not savingly enlightened
in the mystery of our redemption, with all his knowledge he would be
a prey to satan, and increase the triumphs of hell. The historian
upbraids the Roman luxury, that with so much cost and hazard they
should send to foreign parts, for trees that were beautiful but barren,
and produced a shadow only without fruit.* With greater reason we
may wonder, that men should, with the expence of their precious
hours purchase barren curiosities, which are unprofitable to their
last end. How can a condemned criminal, who is in suspence
between life and death, attend to study the secrets of nature and art,
when all his thoughts are taken up how to prevent the execution of
the sentence? And it is no less than a prodigy of madness, that men,
who have but a short and uncertain space allowed them to escape the
wrath to come, should rack their brains in studying things
impertinent to salvation, and neglect the knowledge of a Redeemer.
Especially when there is so clear a revelation of him: "the
righteousness of faith doth not command us to ascend to the
heavens, or descend into the deep to make a discovery of it; but the
word is nigh us, that discovers the certain way to a happy
immortality." Rom. 10:6, 7. Seneca, a philosopher, and a courtier,
valued his being in the world only upon this account, that he might
contemplate the starry heaven. (Senec. pref. 1. nat. quæst.) He only
saw the visible beauty of the firmament, but was ignorant of the glory
within it, and of the way that leads to it; yet, to our shame, he speaks,
that the sight of it made him despise the earth, and without the
contemplation of the celestial bodies, he esteemed his continuance in
the world not the life of a man, but the toil of a beast.* But what
transports had he been in, if he had been acquainted with the
contrivance of our redemption, the admirable order of its parts, and
the beauty that results from the composition of the whole? "But we
that with open face may in the glass of the gospel behold the glory of
the Lord, turn away our eyes from it to vanity." 2 Cor. 3:18. Here the
complaint is more just, Ad sapientiam quis accedit? quis dignam
judicat nisi quam in transitu noverit? We content ourselves with
slight and transient glances, but do not seriously and fixedly consider
this blessed design of God, upon which the beginning of our
happiness in this, and the perfection of it in the next life is built. Let
us provoke ourselves by the example of the angels, who are not
concerned in this redemption as man is; for they continued in their
fidelity to their Creator, and were always happy in his favour; and
where there is no alienation between parties, reconcilement is
unnecessary; yet they are students with us in the same book, and
unite all their powers in the contemplation of this mystery: they are
represented stooping to pry into these secrets, 1 Pet. 1:12. to signify
their delight in what they know, and their desire to advance in the
knowledge of them. With what intention then should we study the
gospel, who are the subject and end of it!
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Post by Admin on Jun 18, 2024 14:25:42 GMT -5
VII. Practical inferences continued.
The simple speculation of the gospel not sufficient without a real
belief, and cordial acceptance. The reasons why the Jews and
Gentiles conspired in the contempt of it. How just it is to resign up
the understanding to revelation. God knows his own nature and will,
and cannot deceive us. We must believe the things that are clearly
revealed, though we do not understand the manner of their
existence: although they are attended with seeming contradictions.
No article of faith is really repugnant to reason. We must distinguish
between things incomprehensible and inconceivable. Between
corrupt and right reason. How reason if subservient to faith.
Humility and holiness qualify for the belief of the gospel-mysteries. A
naked belief of supernatural truths is unprofitable for salvation. An
effectual assent that prevails upon the will, and renders the whole
man obsequious, is due to the quality of the gospel-revelation.
THE simple speculation of this glorious mystery, will be of no profit
without a real belief of it, and a cordial acceptance of salvation, upon
the terms which the divine wisdom prescribes. The gospel requires
the obedience of the understanding, and of the will; unless it obtains
a full possession of the soul, there is no saving efficacy derived from
it. And such is the sublimity and purity of the object, that till reason
is sanctified and subdued, it cannot sincerely entertain it. I will
therefore distinctly consider the opposition which carnal reason hath
made against it; and show how just it is that the human
understanding should, with reverence, yield up itself to the word of
God, that reveals this great mystery to us.
The apostle tells us, 1 Cor. 1. That Jews and Gentiles conspired in the
contempt of the gospel. Reason cannot hear without great
astonishment, for the appearing contradiction between the terms,
that God should be made man, and the eternal die. The Jews
esteemed it an intolerable blasphemy, and without any process of
law were ready to stone the Lord Jesus, "that being a man, he should
make himself equal with God." John 10:33. And they upbraided him
in his sufferings that he could not save himself. "If he be the king of
Israel, let him come down from the cross, and we will believe on
him." Mat. 27:42. The Gentiles despised the gospel as an absurd ill contrived fable,
1 Cor. 1:23. For what in appearance is more
unbecoming God, and injurious to his perfections, than to take the
frail garment of flesh, to be torn and trampled on?* Their natural
knowledge of the Deity inclined them to think the incarnation
impossible. There is no resemblance of it in the whole compass of
nature. For natural union supposes the parts incomplete, and
capable of perfection by their joining together: but that a being
infinitely perfect should assume by personal union a nature inferior
to itself, the heathens looked on it as a fable, forged according to the
model of the fictions concerning Danae and Antiope. Orig. cont. Cels.
And the doctrine of our Saviour's death on the cross they rejected, as
an impiety contumelious to God. They judged it inconsistent with the
majesty and happiness of the Deity, to ascribe to him that which is
the punishment of the most guilty and miserable. In the account of
carnal reason, they thought more worthily of God by denying that of
him, which is only due to the worst of men. Celsus, (Orig. contra
Cels. lib. 1.) who, with as much subtilty as malice, urges all, that with
any appearance, could be objected against our Saviour, principally
insists on his poverty and sufferings, the meanness and misery of his
condition in the world. It was fit, saith he, "that the Son of God
should appear as the sun, which renders itself conspicuous by its
own light:" but the gospel having declared the word to be the Son of
God, relates, that he was a man of sorrows, that had no power to
defend himself, and was deserted by his Father and followers,
scourged with rods, and shamefully executed.* He could not
reconcile so many things that seemed utterly incompatible, as
sovereignty and servitude, innocence and punishment, the lowest of
human miseries, death, with the highest of divine honours,
adoration. Briefly, nothing was more contrary to flesh and blood,
than to believe that person to be the Redeemer of the world, who did
not rescue himself from his enemies; and to expect immortality from
him that was overcome by death. Now the causes of this infidelity
are,
1. The darkness of the mind, which is so corrupted by original
pravity, that it cannot behold heavenly mysteries in their proper
light, so as to acquiesce in the truth of them. "The natural man
receives not the things of the spirit of God; for they are foolishness to
him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually
discerned." 1 Cor. 2:14. The apostle takes notice of the disaffection of
the heart, and the incapacity of the mind, not prepared and
illustrated by grace, to embrace and discern spiritual things in their
verity and beauty. There is a great disproportion between the natural
understanding, though elevated and enlarged by secular learning,
and supernatural truth. For though the rational soul is a spirit, as it
is distinguished from corporeal beings; yet till it is purged from
error, and vicious affections, it can never discover the divinity of
things spiritual, so as to embrace them with certainty and delight. As
there must be a spirit of revelation to unveil the object, so of wisdom
to enlighten the eye, that it may be prepared for the reception of it.
As heaven is only seen by its own light, so Christ is by his own spirit.
Divine objects, and faith that discerns them, are of the same original,
and of the same quality. The natural understanding, as the effects
declare, is like the funeral lamps, which, by the ancients, were put
into sepulchres, to guard the ashes of their dead friends, which shine
so long as they are kept close, a thick moist vapour feeding them, and
repairing what was consumed: but, in opening the sepulchres, and
exposing them to the free air, they presently faint and expire. Thus
natural reason, whilst conversant in things below, and watching with
the dead; that is, in the phrase of the ancients, studying the books of
men who have left the world, it discovers something, although it
rather twilight than clear; but when it is brought from the narrow
sphere of things sensible, to contemplate the immensity of things
spiritual and supernatural, its light declines, and is turned into
darkness.
2. The pride of the human understanding, which disdains to stoop to
those great and heavenly mysteries.* It is observable, that those who
most excelled in natural wisdom, were the greatest despisers of
evangelical truths.† The proud wits of the world choose rather to be
masters of their own, than scholars to another. They made reason
their supreme rule, and philosophy their highest principle, and
would not believe what they could not comprehend. ‡ They
represented christians under scornful titles, as captives of a blind
belief, and derived their faith as the effect of folly; and rejected
revelation, the only means to convey the knowledge of divine
mysteries to them. They presumed by the light and strength of their
own reason and virtue to acquire felicity, and slighted the doctrine
that came from heaven, to discover a dear way thither, and divine
grace that was necessary to assist them. Therefore the apostle, by
way of upbraiding, enquires, 1 Cor. 1:19, 20. "Where is the wise man?
Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of the world? God hath
made the wisdom of the world foolishness." As those who are really
poor, and would appear rich in the pomp of their habits and
attendants, are made poor by that expence; so the philosophers, who
were destitute of true wisdom, and would appear wise in making
reason the judge of divine revelation, and the last resolution of all
things, by that false affectation of wisdom, became more foolish: by
all their disputes against the apparent absurdities of the christian
religion, they were brought into a more learned darkness.
3. The prejudice which arose from sensual lusts hindered the belief
of the gospel. As the carnal understanding rebels against the
sublimity of its doctrine, so the carnal appetite against the purity of
its precepts. And according to the dispositions of men from whence
they act, such light they desire to direct them in acting. The gospel is
a mystery of godliness, and those who are under the love of sin,
cherish an affected ignorance, lest the light should enflame
conscience, by representing to them the deadly guilt that cleaves to
sin, and thereby make it uneasy. This account our Saviour gives of
the infidelity of the world, John 3:19. "That men love darkness rather
than light, because their deeds are evil." And that this was the real
cause whatever was pretended, is clear, in that the Gentiles, who
opposed Christ, adored those impure deities, whose infamous lusts
were acknowledged by them. And with what colour then could they
reject our Redeemer because crucified? As if vice were not more
incompatible with the Deity, than sufferings.
Now, though reason, enslaved by prejudice, and corrupted by
passion, despises the gospel; yet when it is enlightened by faith, it
discovers such a wise economy in it, that, were it not true, it would
transcend the most noble created mind to invent it: it is so much
above our most excellent thoughts, that no human understanding
would ever attempt to feign it, with confidence of persuading the
world into a belief of it. How is it possible that it should be contrived
by natural reason, since no man can believe it sincerely when it is
revealed, without a supernatural faith? To confirm our belief of these
great and saving mysteries, I will show how just it is, that the
understanding should resign itself to divine revelation, which hath
made them known.
In order to this, we must consider,
(1.) There are some doctrines in the gospel, the understanding could
not discover; but when they are revealed, it hath a clear
apprehension of them upon a rational account, and sees the
characters of truth visibly stamped on their, forehead. As the
doctrine of satisfaction to divine justice, that pardon might be
dispensed to repenting sinners. For our natural conception of God
includes his infinite purity and justice; and when the design of the
gospel is made known, whereby he hath provided abundantly for the
honour of those attributes, so that he doth the greatest good without
encouraging the least evil, reason acquiesces and acknowledges This
I sought, but could not find. Now although the primary obligation, to
believe such doctrines, ariseth from revelation, yet being ratified by
reason, they are embraced with more clearness by the mind.
2.) There are some doctrines, which, as reason, by its light, could
not discover; so when they are made known, it cannot comprehend,
but they are by a clear necessary connexion joined with the other that
reason approves. As the mystery of the Trinity, and the incarnation
of the Son of God, which are the foundations of the whole work of
our redemption. The nature of God is repugnant to plurality, there
can but be one essence; and the nature of satisfaction requires a
distinction of persons: for he that suffers as guilty, must be
distinguished from the person of the judge that exacts satisfaction;
and no mere creature is able, by his obedient sufferings, to repair the
honour of God: so that a divine person assuming the nature of man,
was alone capable to make that satisfaction, which the gospel
propounds, and reason consents to. Now according to the distinction
of capacities in the Trinity, the Father required an honourable
reparation for the breach of the divine law, and the Son bore the
punishment in the sufferings of the human nature; that is peculiarly
his own. Besides, it is clear, that the doctrine of the Trinity, that is of
three glorious relations in the godhead, and of the incarnation, are
most firmly connected with all the parts of the christian religion, left
in the writings of the apostles, which, as they were confirmed by
miracles, the divine signatures of their certainty, so they contain
such authentic marks of their divinity, that right reason cannot reject
them.
(3.) Whereas there are three principles by which we apprehend
things, sense, reason and faith, these lights have their different
objects that must not be confounded. Sense is confined to things
material; reason considers things abstracted from matter; faith
regards the mysteries revealed from heaven: and these must not
transgress their order. Sense is an incompetent judge of things about
which reason is only conversant. It can only make a report of those
objects, which, by their natural characters are exposed to it. And
reason can only discourse of things within its sphere; supernatural
things which derive from revelation, and are purely the objects of
faith, are not within its territories and jurisdiction. Those superlative
mysteries exceed all our intellectual abilities.
It is true, the understanding is a rational faculty, and every act of it is
really, or in appearance, grounded on reason. But there is a wide
difference between the proving a doctrine by reason, and the giving a
reason why we believe the truth of it. For instance, we cannot prove
the Trinity by natural reason; and the subtilty of the schoolmen, who
affect to give some reason of all things, is here more prejudicial than
advantageous to the truth: for he that pretends to maintain a point
by reason, and is unsuccessful, doth weaken the credit which the
authority of revelation gives. And it is considerable, that the scripture
in delivering supernatural truths, produces God's authority as their
only proof, without using any other way of arguing: but although we
cannot demonstrate these mysteries by reason, yet we may give a
rational account why we believe them.
Is it not the highest reason to believe the discovery that God hath
made of himself, and his decrees? For he perfectly knows his own
nature and will; and it is impossible he should deceive us: this
natural principle is the foundation of faith. When God speaks, it
becomes man to hear with silence and submission. His naked word is
as certain as a demonstration.
And is it not most reasonable to believe, that the Deity cannot be
fully understood by us? The sun may more easily be included in a
spark of fire, than the infinite perfections of God be comprehended
by a finite mind. The angels who dwell so near the fountain of light,
cover their faces in a holy confusion, not being able to comprehend
him. How much less can man in this earthly state, distant from God,
and oppressed with a burthen of flesh? Now, from hence, it follows;
1st. That ignorance of the manner, how divine mysteries exist, is no
sufficient plea for infidelity, when the scripture reveals that they are.
For, reason that is limited and restrained, cannot frame a conception
that is commensurate to the essence and power of God. This will
appear more clearly by considering the mysterious excellencies of the
divine nature, the certainty of which we believe, but the manner we
cannot understand: as that his essence and attributes are the same,
without the least shadow of composition; yet his wisdom and power
are, to our apprehensions, distinct, and his mercy and justice in
some manner opposite.* That his essence is entire in all places, yet
not terminated in any. That he is above the heavens, and beneath the
earth, yet hath no relation of high or low, distant or near. That he
penetrates all substances, but is mixed with none. That he
understands, yet receives no ideas within himself; that he wills, yet
hath no motion that carries him out of himself. That in him time
hath no succession, that which is past is not gone, and that which is
future, is not to come. That he loves without passion, is angry
without disturbance, repents without change. These perfections are
above the capacity of reason fully to understand, yet essential to the
Deity. Here we must exalt faith, and abase reason. Thus in the
mystery of the incarnation, 1 Tim. 3:16. that two such distant natures
should compose one person, without the confusion of properties,
reason cannot reach unto, but it is clearly revealed in the word: John
1:14. here therefore we must obey, not inquire.
The obedience of faith is, to embrace an obscure truth with a firm
assent, upon the account of a divine testimony. If reason will not
assent to the revelation, till it understands the manner how divine
things are, it doth not obey it at all. The understanding then sincerely
submits, when it is inclined by those motives, which demonstrate
that such a belief is due to the authority of the revealer, and to the
quality of the object. To believe only in proportion to our narrow
conceptions, is to disparage the divine truth, and debase the divine
power. We cannot know what God can do; he is omnipotent, though
we are not omniscient; it is just we should humble our ignorance to
his wisdom, "And that every lofty imagination, and high thing that
exalts itself against the knowledge of God, should be cast down, and
every thought captivated into the obedience of Christ." 2 Cor. 10:5. It
is our wisdom to receive the great mysteries of the gospel in their
simplicity: for in attempting to give an exact and curious explication
of them, the understanding, as in an hedge of thorns, the more it
strives, the more it is wounded and entangled. "God's ways are far
above ours, and his thoughts above ours, as heaven is above the
earth." To reject what we cannot comprehend, is not only to sin
against faith, but against reason, which acknowledges itself finite,
and unable "to search out the Almighty to perfection." Job 11:7.
2dly. We are obliged to believe those mysteries that are plainly
delivered in scripture, notwithstanding those seeming contradictions
wherewith they may be charged. In the objects of sense, the
contrariety of appearances doth not lessen the certainty of things.
The stars, to our sight, seem but glittering sparks, yet they are
immense bodies. And it is one thing to be assured of a truth, another
to answer to all the difficulties that encounter it: a mean
understanding is capable of the first; the second is so difficult, that in
clear things the profoundest philosophers may not be able to untie
all the intricate and knotty objections which may be urged against
them. It is sufficient the belief of supernatural mysteries is built on
the veracity and power of God, this makes them prudently credible.
This resolves all doubts, and produces such a stability of spirit, as
nothing can shake. A sincere believer is assured, that all opposition
against revealed truths is fallacious, though he cannot discover the
fallacy. Now the transcendent mysteries of the christian religion, the
trinity of persons in the divine nature, the incarnation of the Son of
God, are clearly set down in the scripture. And although subtile and
obstinate opponents have used many guilty arts to dispirit and
enervate those texts by an inferior sense, and have racked them with
violence, to make them speak according to their prejudices, yet all is
vain, the evidence of truth is victorious. A heathen, who considers
not the gospel as a divine revelation, but merely as a doctrine
delivered in writings, and judges of its sense by natural light, will
acknowledge, that those things are delivered in it. And
notwithstanding those who usurp a sovereign authority to
themselves, to judge of divine mysteries according to their own
apprehensions, deny them as mere contradictions, yet they can never
conclude them impossible: for no certain argument can be alleged
against the being of a thing, without a clear knowledge of its nature:
now although we may understand the nature of man, we do not the
nature of God, the economy of the persons, and his power to unite
himself to a nature below him.
It is true, no article of faith is really repugnant to reason; for God is
the author of natural, as well as of supernatural light, and he cannot
contradict himself: they are emanations from him, and though
different, yet not destructive of each other. But we must distinguish
between those things that are above reason, and incomprehensible,
and things that are against reason, and utterly inconceivable; some
things are above reason, in regard of their transcendent excellency,
or distance from us; the divine essence, the eternal decrees, the
hypostatical union, are such high and glorious objects, that it is an
impossible enterprise to comprehend them: the intellectual eye is
dazzled with their overpowering light. We can have but an imperfect
knowledge of them: and there is no just cause of wonder that
supernatural revelation should speak incomprehensible things of
God. For he is a singular and admirable being, infinitely above the
ordinary course of nature. The maxims of philosophy are not to be
extended to him. We must adore what we cannot fully understand.
But those things are against reason, and utterly inconceivable, that
involve a contradiction, and have a natural repugnancy to our
understandings, which cannot conceive any thing that is formally
impossible: and there is no such doctrine in the christian religion.
We must distinguish between reason corrupted, and right reason.
Since the fall, the clearness of the human understanding is lost, and
the light that remains is eclipsed by the interposition of sensual lusts.
The carnal mind cannot out of ignorance, and will not from pride
and other malignant habits, receive things spiritual. And from hence
arise many suspicions and doubts, (concerning supernatural verities)
the shadows of darkened reason, and of dying faith. If any divine
mystery seems incredible, it is from the corruption of our reason, not
from reason itself; from its darkness, not its light. And as reason is
obliged to correct the errors of sense, when it is deceived either by
some vicious quality in the organ, or by the distance of the object, or
by the falseness of the medium, that corrupts the image in conveying
of it: so it is the office of faith to reform the judgment of reason,
when either from its own weakness, or the height of things spiritual,
it is mistaken about them. For this end supernatural revelation was
given, not to extinguish reason, but to redress it, and enrich it with
the discovery of heavenly things. Faith is called wisdom and
knowledge: it doth not quench the vigour of the faculty wherein it is
seated, but elevates it, and gives it a spiritual perception of those
things that are most distant from its commerce. It doth not lead us
through a mist to the inheritance of the saints in light. Faith is a
rational light: for,
1. It arises from the consideration of those arguments which
convince the mind, that the scripture is a divine revelation. "I know,"
saith the apostle, "whom I have believed." 2 Tim. 1:2. And we are
commanded "always to be ready to give an account of the hope that
is in us." 1 Pet. 3:15. Those that owe their Christianity merely to the
felicity of their birth, without a sight of that transcendent excellency
in our religion, which evidences that it came from heaven, are not
true believers. He that absolves an innocent person for favour,
without considering sufficient proofs offered, though his sentence be
just, is an unjust judge. And the eye that is clouded with a suffusion,
so that all things appear yellow to it, when it judges things to be
yellow that are so, yet it is erroneous; because its judgment proceeds
not from the quality of the object, but from the jaundice that
discolours the organs: so those who believe the doctrine of the
gospel, upon the account of its civil establishment in their country,
are not right believers, because they assent to the word of truth upon
a false principle. It is not judgment but chance, that inclines them to
embrace it. The Turks, upon the same reason, are zealous votaries of
Mahomet, as they are disciples of Christ.
2. Faith makes use of reason, to consider what doctrines are revealed
in the scripture, and to deduce those consequences which have a
clear connexion with supernatural principles. Thus reason is an
excellent instrument to distinguish those things which are of a divine
original, from what is spurious and counterfeit. For sometimes that
is pretended to be a mystery of religion, which is only the fruit of
fancy, and that is defended by the sacred respect of faith, that reason
ought not to violate, which is but a groundless imagination; so that
we remain in an error, by the sole apprehensions of falling into one,
as those that die for fear of death. The Bereans are commended for
their "searching the scriptures, whether the doctrines they heard"
were consentaneous to them. Acts 17:11. But it is a necessary duty,
that reason, how stiff soever, should fully comply with God, where it
appears reasonable that he hath spoken.
Briefly, The richest ornament of the creature is humility, and the
most excellent effect of it is the sense of the weakness of our
understanding. This is the temper of soul that prepares it for faith:
partly as it puts us on a serious consideration of those things which
are revealed to us in the word: infidelity proceeds from the want of
consideration, and nothing hinders that so much as pride: partly, as
it stops all curious inquiries into those things which are
unsearchable: and principally as it entitles to the promise, God will
instruct and give grace to the humble. The knowledge of heaven, as
well as the kingdom of heaven, is the inheritance of the poor in spirit.
A greater progress is made in the knowledge and belief of these
mysteries by humble prayer, than by the most anxious study. As at
court, an hour of favour is worth a year's attendance. Man cannot
acquire so much as God can give.
And as humility, so holiness prepares the soul for the receiving of
supernatural truths. The understanding is clarified by the
purification of the heart. It is not the difficulty, and obscurity of
things revealed, that is the real cause of infidelity, since men believe
other things upon far less evidence; but it is the prejudice of the
lower faculties that hinders them. When all affections to sin are
mortified, the soul is in the best disposition to receive divine
revelation. "He that doth the will of God, shall know whether the
doctrine of the gospel came from heaven." John 7:17.
The spirit of God is the alone instructor of the spirit of man in these
mysteries, so as to produce a saving belief of them. That knowledge is
more clear and satisfying, that we have by his teaching, than by our
own learning. The rational mind may discern the literal sense of the
propositions in the gospel, and may yield a naked assent to the truth
of them; but without supernatural irradiation by the Spirit of Life,
there can be no transforming and saving knowledge and belief of
them. And as the vast expansion of air that is about us, doth not
preserve life, but that part which we breathe in; so it is not the
compass of our knowledge and belief (though it were equal to the
whole revealed will of God) that is vital to the soul, but that which is
practised by us. The apostle saith, 1 Cor. 13:2. "though he had the
understanding of all mysteries, and all knowledge, and all faith; yet if
it were not joined with love," the principal obedience, "it were
unprofitable." There is the same difference between the speculative
knowledge of these mysteries, and that which is affectionate and
operative; as between the wearing of pearls for ornament, and the
taking of them as a cordial to revive the fainting spirits.
In short, such a belief is required, as prevails upon the will, and
draws the affections, and renders the whole man obsequious to the
gospel. For such a faith is alone answerable to the quality of the
revelation. The gospel is not a mere narrative, but a promise. Christ
is not represented only as an innocent person dying, but as the Son
of God dying to deliver men from sin, and the effects of it. The fallen
angels may understand and believe it without any affections, being
unconcerned in it: to them it is a naked history, but to men it is a
promise, and cannot be rightly conceived without the most ardent
affections. "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation,
that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners." 1 Tim. 1:15. It
is essentially good, as true; its sweetness and profit are equal to its
certainty: so that it commends itself to all our faculties.
There are severe and sad truths, which are attended with fearful
expectation, and the mind is averse from receiving them: as the law
which, like lightning, terrifies the soul with its amazing brightness:
and there are pleasant illusions which have no solid foundation: and
as truth doth not delight the mind, unless united to goodness, such
as is suitable to its palate; so goodness doth not affect the will unless
it be real. Now the doctrine of the gospel is as certain as the law, and
infinitely more comfortable than all the inventions of men. It is in the
knowledge of it alone that the sensible and considering soul enjoys
perfect satisfaction, and the most composed rest. It is evident, that
the understanding doth not behold these truths in their proper light,
when the will doth not embrace them. For the rational appetite
follows the last judgment of the mind. When the apostle had a
powerful conviction of "the excellency of the knowledge of Christ,"
Phil. 3. this made him so earnest to gain an interest in him. For this
reason, those who are only christians in title, "having a form of
godliness, and denying the power of it," are, in scripture language,
stiled infidels: it being impossible that those who truly and heartily
believe this great mystery of godliness, should remain ungodly. It is a
strong and effectual assent, that descends from the brain to the heart
and life, that denominates us true believers: so that when the death
of Christ is propounded as the cause of our reconciliation with God,
the wonder of the mystery doth not make it incredible; when as the
reason of the mortification of our lusts, the pleasures of sin do not
disguise its horror: when salvation is offered upon our accepting of
Christ for our Prince and Saviour, the soul is ravished with its
beauty, and chooses it for an everlasting portion.
To conclude, the doctrine of the gospel clearly discovers its divine
original: it is so reasonable in itself, and profitable to us, so sublime
and elevated above man, yet hath such an admirable agreement with
natural truths; it is so perfectly corresponding in all its parts, that
without affected obstinacy no man can reject it. And if after the open
revelation of it we are so stupid and wicked, as not to see its
superlative excellency, and not to receive it with the faith, love, and
obedience which is due to it; what contempt is this of that infinite
wisdom which contrived the astonishing way of our salvation? What
a reproach to the divine understanding, as if it had been employed
from eternity about a matter of no moment, and that deserves not
our serious consideration and acceptance? The neglect of it will justly
bring a more severe punishment than the hell of the uninstructed
heathens, who are strangers to supernatural mysteries.
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Post by Admin on Jun 18, 2024 14:30:22 GMT -5
VIII. The display of divine MERCY in redemption.
The mercy of God is represented with peculiar advantages above the
other attributes. It is eminently glorified in our redemption, in
respect of its freeness and greatness. The freeness of it amplified
from the consideration of the original and object of it. God is
perfectly happy in himself, and needs not the creature to preserve or
heighten his felicity. The glorious reward conferred upon our
Saviour, doth not prejudice the freeness of his love to man. There
was no tie upon God to save man. The object of mercy is man in his
lapsed state. It is illustrated by the consideration of what he is in
himself. No motives of love are in him. He is a rebel impotent and
obstinate. The freeness of mercy set forth by comparing him with the
fallen angels, who are left in perfect irremediable misery. Their first
state, fall, and punishment. The reasons why the wisdom of God
made no provisions for their recovery.
THOUGH all the divine attributes are equal as they are in God, (for
one infinite cannot exceed another) yet in their exercise and effects,
they shine with a different glory. And mercy is represented in
scripture with peculiar advantages above the rest. It is God's natural
offspring, he is styled "the Father of mercies." 2 Cor. 1:3. It is his dear
attribute, that which he places next to himself, he is proclaimed the
"Lord God gracious and merciful," Exod. 34:6. It is his delight,
"mercy pleases him." Mic. 7:18. It is his treasure, "he is rich in
mercy." Ephes. 2:4. It is his triumphant attribute, and the special
matter of his glory, "mercy rejoices over judgment." Jam. 2:13. Now
in the performance of our redemption, mercy is the predominant
attribute, that sets all the rest a working. The acts of his wisdom,
justice, and power were in order to the illustration of his mercy. And
if we duly consider that glorious work, we shall find in it all the
ingredients of the most sovereign mercy.
In discoursing of it, I shall principally consider two things, wherein
this attribute is eminently glorified.
The freeness, and the greatness of it. The freeness of this mercy will
appear by considering the original and object of it.
First. The original is God: and the notion of a Deity includes infinite
perfections, so that it necessarily follows that he hath no need of the
creature's service to preserve or heighten his felicity. "If thou be
righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine
hand?" Job 35:7. From eternity he was without external honour, yet
in that infinite duration he was perfectly joyful and happy. He is the
fountain of his own blessedness, the theatre of his own glory, the
glass of his own beauty. One drop increases the ocean, but to God a
million of worlds can add nothing. Every thing hath so much of
goodness as it derives from him. As there was no gain to him by the
creation, so there can be no loss by the annihilation of all things. The
world proceeded from his wisdom as the idea and exemplar, and
from his power as the efficient cause; and it so proceeds from him, as
to remain more perfectly in him. And as the possession of all things,
and the obedience of angels and men is of no advantage to God; so
the opposition of impenitent rebels cannot lessen his blessedness. "If
thou sinnest, what dost thou against him? or, if thy transgressions be
multiplied, what dost thou unto him?" Job 35:6. The sun suffers no
loss of his light by the darkness of the night, or an eclipse, but the
world loses its day: if intelligent beings do not esteem him for his
greatness, and love him for His goodness, it is no injury to him, but
their own infelicity. Were it for his interest, he could by one act of
power conquer the obstinacy of his fiercest enemies. If he require
subjection from his creatures, it is not that he may be happy, but
liberal, that his goodness may take its rise to reward them. Now this
is the special commendation of divine love, it doth not arise out of
indigency as created love, but out of fulness and redundancy. Our
Saviour tells us there is "none good but God," Mat. 19:17. not only in
respect of the perfection of that attribute, as it is in God in a
transcendent manner; but as to the effects of his goodness, which are
merely for the benefit of the receiver. He is only rich in mercy, to
whom nothing is wanting, or profitable. The most liberal monarch
doth not always give, for he stands in need of his subjects. And where
there is an expectation of service for the support of the giver, it is
traffic and no gift. Human affection is begotten, and nourished by
something without; but the love of God is from within: the misery of
the creature is the occasion, but the cause of it is from himself. And
how free was that love, that caused the infinitely blessed God to do so
much for our recovery, as if his felicity were imperfect without ours!
It doth not prejudice the freeness of redeeming mercy, that Christ's
personal glory was the reward of his sufferings.
It is true, that our Redeemer for the "joy that was set before him,
endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God." Heb. 12:2. But he was not first drawn to
the undertaking of that hard service by the interest of the reward. For
if we consider him in his divine nature, he was the second person in
the Trinity, equal to the first; he possessed all the supreme
excellencies of the Deity; and by assuming our nature, the only gain
he purchased to himself was to be capable of loss for the
accomplishing our salvation. Such was the "grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that being rich, yet for our sakes be became poor, that we
through his poverty might be made rich." 2 Cor. 8:9. And although
his human soul was encouraged by the glorious recompence the
Father promised, to make him King and Judge of the world; yet his
love to man was not kindled from that consideration, neither is it
lessened by his obtaining of it. For immediately upon the union of
the human nature to the Eternal Son, the highest honour was due to
him. When the first-begotten was brought into the world, it was said,
"Let all the angels of God worship him." Heb. 1:6. The sovereign
power in heaven and earth was his inheritance, annexed to the
dignity of his primogeniture: "the name above every name" was a
preferment due to his person: he voluntarily renounced his right for
a time, and appeared in the "form of a servant" upon our account,
that by humbling himself he might accomplish our salvation. He
entered into glory after a course of sufferings, because the economy
of our redemption so required; but his original title to it was by the
personal union. To illustrate this by a lower instance: the mother of
Moses was called to be his nurse by Pharaoh's daughter, with the
promise of a reward, as if she had no relation to him. Now the pure
love of a mother, not the gain of a nurse, was the motive that inclined
her to nourish him with her milk.* Thus the love of Christ was the
primary active cause that made him liberal to us of his blood; neither
did the just expectation of the reward take off from it.
The sum is this: the essence of love consists in desiring the good of
another without respect to ourselves; and love is so much the more
free, as the benefit we give to another is less profitable, or more
damageable to us. Now among men it is impossible that to a virtuous
benefactor there should not redound a double benefit.
(1.) From the eternal reward which God hath promised. And,
(2.) From the internal beauty of an honest action, which the
philosopher affirms, doth exceed any loss that can befal us. For if one
dies for his friend, yet he loves himself most, for he would not choose
to be less virtuous than his friend, and by dying for him he excels
him in virtue, which is more valuable than life it self. But to the Son
of God no such advantage could accrue; for being infinitely holy and
happy in his essence, there can be no addition to his felicity or
virtues by any external emanation from him. His love was for our
profit, not his own.
The freeness of God's mercy is evident by considering there was no
tie upon him to dispense it. Grace strictly taken differs from love: for
that may be a debt, and without injustice not denied. There are
inviolable obligations on children to love their parents; and duty
lessens desert: the performance of it doth not so much deserve
praise, as the neglect merits censure and reproof. But the love of God
to man is a pure, free, and liberal affection, no way due. "The grace of
God, and the gift by grace hath abounded unto many." Rom. 5:15.
The creation was an effusion of goodness, much more redemption.
"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power:
for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are, and
were created." Rev. 4:11. It is grace that gave being to the angels, with
all the prerogatives that adorn their natures: it is grace that
confirmed them in their original integrity. For God owes them
nothing, and they are nothing to him. It was grace that placed Adam
in paradise, and made him as a visible God in the lower world. And if
grace alone dispensed benefits to innocent creatures, much more to
those who are obnoxious to justice: the first was free, but this is
merciful. And this leads to the second consideration, which exalts
redeeming love.
Secondly. The object of it is man in his lapsed state. In this respect it
excels the goodness that prevented him at the beginning In the
creation as there was no object to invite, so nothing repugnant to
man's being and happiness: the dust of the earth did not merit such
an excellent condition as it received from the pure bounty of God;
but there was no moral unworthiness. But the grace of the gospel
hath a different object, the wretched and unworthy, and it produces
different operations, it is healing and medicinal, ransoming and
delivering, and hath a peculiar character among the divine attributes.
It is goodness that crowns the angels, but it is mercy, the sanctuary
of the guilty, and refuge of the miserable, that saves man. The
scripture hath consecrated the name of grace in a special manner, to
signify the most excellent and admirable favour of God in recovering
us from our justly deserved misery. We are "justified freely by his
grace," Rom. 3:24. "By grace we are saved." Eph. 2:5. "Grace and
truth is come by Jesus Christ." John 1:17. "It is the grace of God that
brings salvation." Tit. 2:11. And this is gloriously manifested towards
man in that,
1. Considered in himself he is altogether unworthy of it.
2. As compared with the fallen angels, who are left under perfect
irremediable misery.
First; man considered in himself is unworthy of the favour of God.
The usual motives of love are,
1. The goodness of things or persons. This is the proper allective of
the rational appetite: there is such a ravishing beauty in it, that it
powerfully calls from affection. When there is an union of amiable
qualities in a person, every one finds an attractive.
2. A conformity in disposition hath a mighty force to beget love.
Resemblance is the common principle of union in nature: social
plants thrive best when near together: sensitive creatures associate
with those of their kind. And love, which is an affectionate union and
voluntary band, proceeds from a similitude of wills and inclinations.
The harmony of tempers is the strongest and sweetest tie of friendship.
3. Love is an innocent and powerful charm to produce love: it is of
universal virtue, and known by all the world.* None are of such an
unnatural hardness, but they are softened and receive impression
from it. Now there are none of these inducements to incline God to
love man.
(1.) He was utterly destitute of moral goodness: as the exact
temperament of the body, so the order and beauty of the soul, was
spoiled by sin. Nothing remained but deformity and defilements. The
love of God makes us amiable, but did not find us so. Redemption is
a free favour, not excited by the worth of him that receives it, but the
grace of him that dispenses it; "Herein God commended his love to
us, that while we were sinners Christ died for us." Rom. 5:8. Our
goodness was not the motive of his love, but his love the original of
our goodness.
(2.) There is a fixed contrariety in the corrupted nature of man to the
holy nature and will of God: for which he is not only unworthy of his
love, but worthy of his wrath. We are opposite to him in our minds,
affections, and actions: a strong antipathy is seated in all our
faculties. How unqualified were we for his love? There is infinite
holiness in him, whereby he is eternally opposite to all sin, yet he
expressed infinite love to sinners in saving them from misery.
(3.) There was not the least spark of love in man to God:
notwithstanding his infinite beauty and bounty to us, Rom. 5:10. yet
we renewed acts of hostility against him every day. And it was the
worst kind of hostility arising from the hatred of God, Rom. 1:30. and
that for his holiness, his most amiable perfection: yet then in his love
he pitied us. The same favour bestowed on an enemy, is morally
more valuable than given to a friend. For it is love that puts a price
on benefits: and the more undeserved they are, the more they are
endeared by the affection that gives them. "Here is love, not that we
loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation
for our sins." 1 John 4:10. We were rebels against God, and at enmity
with the Prince of life, yet then he gave himself for us.
It will further appear that our salvation comes from pure favour, if
we consider man not only as a rebellious enemy to God, but impotent
and obstinate, without power to resist justice, and without affection
to desire mercy. Sometimes the interest of a prince may induce him
to spare the guilty, he may be compelled to pardon, whom he cannot
punish. The multitude is the greatest potentate. "The sons of Zerviah
were too strong for David:" and then it is not pity, but policy to
supend the judgment. But our condition is described by the apostle,
Rom. 5:6. "That when we were sinners, and without strength, then
Christ died for us." Man is a despicable creature, so weak that he
trembles at the appearance of a worm, and yet so wicked that he lifts
up his head against heaven. How unable is he to encounter with
offended omnipotence? How easily can God destroy him, when by
his sole word he made him? If he unclasps his hand that supports all
things, they will presently relapse into their first confusion. The
whole world of sinners was shut up, utterly unable to repel or avoid
his displeasure: and what amazing love is it to spare rebels that were
under his feet? "When a man finds his enemy, will he let him go well
away?" 1 Sam. 24:9. But God, when we were all at his mercy, spared
and saved us.
Besides, rebels sometimes solicit the favour of their prince by their
acknowledgments, their tears and supplications, the testimonies of
their repentance: but man persisted in his fierce enmity, and had the
weapons of defiance in his hands against his Creator; he trampled on
his laws, and despised his Deity; yet then the Lord of hosts became
the God of peace. In short, there was nothing to call forth the divine
compassion but our misery: the breach began on man's part, but
reconciliation on God's. Mercy opened his melting eye, and
prevented not only our desert, but our expectation and desires. The
design was laid from eternity. God foresaw our sin and our misery,
and appointed "a Saviour before the foundation of the world." 1 Pet.
1:20. It was the most early and pure love to provide a ransom for us
before we had a being; therefore we could not be deserving, nor
desirous of it; and after we were made, we deserved nothing but
damnation.
Again; The grace of God eminently appears in man's recovery, by
comparing his state with that of the fallen angels who are left under
misery: this is a special circumstance that magnifies the favour; and
to make it more sensible to us, it will be convenient briefly to
consider the first state of the angels, their fall, and their punishment.
God in creating the world, formed two natures capable of his image
and favour, to glorify and enjoy him, angels, and men; and placed
them in the principal parts of the universe, heaven and earth.
The angels were the eldest offspring of his love, the purest
productions of that supreme light: man in his best state was inferior
to them. A great number of them kept not their first state (Psal. 8:5.)
of integrity and felicity. Their sin is intimated in scripture; "Ordain
not a novice, lest being lifted up in pride, he fall into condemnation
of the devil," 1 Tim. 3:6. That is, lest he become guilty of that sin
which brought a severe sentence on the devil. The prince of darkness
was blinded with the lustre of his own excellencies, and attempted
upon the regalia of heaven, affecting an independent state. He
disavowed his benefactor, enriched with his benefits. And in the
same moment he with his companions in rebellion were banished
from heaven. "God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them
down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be
reserved unto judgment." 2 Pet. 2:4. Mercy did not interpose to avert
or suspend their judgment, but immediately they were expelled from
the divine presence. A solemn triumph in heaven followed: "A voice
came out of the throne, saying, praise our God all ye his servants:
and there was as it were the voice of mighty thunderings, saying,
hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigns." They are now the
most eminent examples of revenging wrath. Their present misery is
insupportable, and they expect worse. When our Saviour cast some
of them out of the possessed persons, they cried out, Mark 1. "Art
thou come to torment us before our time?" Miserimum est timere
cum speres nihil; it is the height of misery to have nothing to hope,
and something to fear. Their guilt is attended with despair; they are
in "everlasting chains;" he that "carries the keys of hell and death"
will never open their prison. If the sentence did admit a revocation
after a million of years, their torment would be nothing in
comparison of what it is: for the longest measure of time bears no
proportion to eternity; and hope would allay the sense of the present
sufferings with the prospect of future ease. But their judgment is
irreversible; they are under the "blackness of darkness for ever."
There is not the least glimpse of hope to allay their sorrows, no star light
to sweeten the horrors of their eternal night. They are servi
pœnæ, that can never be redeemed. It were a kind of pardon to them
to be capable of death: but God will never be so far reconciled, as to
annihilate them. "His anger shall be accomplished, and his fury rest
upon them." Ezek. 3:5. Immortality, the privilege of their nature,
infinitely increases their torment: for when the understanding by a
strong and active apprehension, hath a terrible and unbounded
prospect of the continuance of their sufferings, that what is
intolerable must be eternal, this inexpressibly exasperates their
misery: there wants a word beyond death to set it forth. This is the
condition of the sinning angels, and God might have dealt in as strict
justice with rebellious man. It is true, there are many reasons may be
assigned why the wisdom of God made no provision for their
recovery.
1. It was most decent that the first breach of the divine law should he
punished to secure obedience for the future. Prudent lawgivers are
severe against the first transgressors, the leaders in disobedience: he
that first presumed to break the sabbath, was by God's command put
to death. And Solomon the king of peace, punished the first attempt
upon his royalty with death, though in the person of his brother.
2. The malignity of their sin was in the highest degree: for such was
the clearness of the angelical understanding, that there was nothing
of ignorance and deceit to lessen the voluntariness of their sin: it was
no mistake, but malice: they fell in the light of heaven, and rendered
themselves incapable of mercy. As under the law, those who sinned
"with a high hand," Heb. 9:7. that is, not out of ignorance or
imbecility, to please their passions, but knowingly and proudly
despised the command, their presumption was inexpiable, no
sacrifice was appointed for it. And the gospel, though the declaration
of mercy, yet excepts those who sin the great transgression against
the Holy Ghost. Now of such a nature was the sin of the rebellious
angels, Phil. 3. it being a contemptuous violation of God's majesty,
and therefore unpardonable. Besides, they are wholly spiritual
beings, without any allay of flesh, and so fell to the utmost in evil,
there being nothing to suspend the entireness of their will: whereas
the human spirit is more slow by its union with the body. And that
which extremely aggravates their sin is, that it was committed in the
state of perfect happiness. They despised the full fruition of God: it
was therefore congruous to the divine wisdom, that their final
sentence should depend upon their first election: whereas man's
rebellion, though inconceivably great, was against a lower light and
loss grace dispensed to him.
3. They sinned without a tempter, and were not in the same capacity
with man to be restored by a Saviour. The devil is an original
proprietor in sin, it is of his own, John 8:44. Man was beguiled by
the serpent's subtilty: as he fell by another's malice, so he is
recovered by another's merit.
4. The angelical nature was not entirely lost: myriads of blessed
spirits still continue in the place of their innocency and glory, and for
ever ascribe to the great Creator that incommunicable honour, which
is due to him; and perfectly do his commandments, Psal 103. But all
mankind was lost in Adam, and no religion was left in the lower
world.
Now although in these and other respects it was most consistent with
the wisdom and justice of God, to conclude them under an
irrevocable doom, yet the principal cause that inclined him to save
man, was mere and perfect grace. The law made no distinction, but
awarded the same punishment; mercy alone made the difference:
and the reason of that is in himself. Millions of them fell sacrifices to
justice, and guilty man was spared: it is not for the excellency of our
natures, for man in his creation was lower than the angels; nor upon
the account of service, for they having more eminent endowments of
wisdom and power, might have brought greater honour to God; nor
for our innocence, for though not equally, yet we had highly offended
him, but it must be resolved "into that love which passeth
knowledge." It was the unaccountable pleasure of God that
"preferred babes before the wise and prudent," Mat. 11. and herein
grace is most glorious. "He in no wise took the nature of angels,"
though immortal spirits; he did not put forth his hand to help them,
and break the force of their fall; he did nothing for their relief, they
are under unallayed wrath: "but he took the seed of Abraham, and
plants a new colony of those who sprung from the earth, in the
heavenly country, to fill up vacant places of those apostate spirits.
This is just matter of our highest admiration, why the milder
attribute is exercised towards man, and the severer on them! Why
the vessels of clay are chosen, and the vessels of gold neglected! How
can we reflect upon it without the warmest affections to our
Redeemer! We shall never fully understand the riches of
distinguishing grace, till our Saviour shall be their judge, and receive
us into the kingdom of joy and glory, and condemn them to an
eternal separation from his presence.
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Post by Admin on Jun 18, 2024 14:44:42 GMT -5
IX. The subject continued.
The greatness of redeeming love discovered by considering the evils
from which we are freed. The servitude of sin, the tyranny of satan,
the bondage of the law, the empire of death. The measure of love is
proportionable to the degrees of our misery. No possible remedy for
us in nature. Our deliverance is complete. The divine love is
magnified in the means by which our Redemption is accomplished.
They are the incarnation and sufferings of the Son of God. Love is
manifested in the incarnation, upon the account of the essential
condition of the nature assumed, and its servile state. Christ took our
nature after it had lost its innocency. The most evident proof of God's
love is in the sufferings of Christ. The description of them with
respect to his soul and body. The sufferings of his soul set forth from
the causes of his grief; the disposition of Christ, and the design of
God in afflicting him. The sorrows of his forsaken state. All
comforting influences were suspended, but without prejudice to the
personal union, or the perfection of his grace, or the love of his
Father towards him. The death of the cross considered, with respect
to the ignominy and torment that concurred in it. The love of the
Father and of Christ amplified upon the account of his enduring it.
THE next circumstance to be considered in the divine mercy is the
degree of it: and this is described by the apostle in all the dimensions
which can signify its greatness. He prays for the Ephesians, Ephes.
3:18. "that they may be able to comprehend with all saints, the
breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the love of God in
Christ which passes knowledge." No language is sufficient to express
it: if our hearts were as large as the sand on the sea-shore, yet they
were too strait to comprehend it. But although we cannot arrive at
the perfect knowledge of this excellent love, yet it is our duty to study
it with the greatest application of mind; for our happiness depends
upon it; and so far we may understand as to enflame our hearts with
a superlative affection to God. And the full discovery which here we
desire, and search after, in the future state, shall be obtained by the
presence and light of our Redeemer. Now the greatness of the divine
love in our redemption appears,
I. By reflecting on the mighty evils from which we are freed.
II. The means by which our redemption is accomplished.
III. That excellent state to which we are advanced by our Redeemer.
I. If we reflect upon the horror of our natural state, it will exceedingly
heighten the mercy that delivered us. This I have in part opened
before, therefore I will be the shorter in describing it. Man by his
rebellion had forfeited God's favour, and the honour and happiness
he enjoyed in paradise; Psal. 49:20. And as there is no middle state
between sovereignty and misery, he that falls from the throne stops
not till he comes to the bottom; so when man fell from God and the
dignity of his innocent state, he became extremely miserable. He is
under the servitude of sin, the tyranny of satan, the bondage of the
law, and the empire of death.
1. Man is a captive to sin. He is fallen from the hand of his counsel,
under the power of his passions. Love, hatred, ambition, envy, fear,
sorrow, and all the other stinging affections (of which is true what
Solinus speaks of the several kinds of serpents in Africa, Quantus
nominum tantus mortium numerus) exercise a tyranny over him.
And if "no man can serve two mastes," as our Savious tells us, Mat.
6:24. how wretched is the slavery of man, whose passions are so
opposite, that in obeying one, he cannot escape the lash of many
imperious masters? He is possessed with a legion of impure lusts.
And as the demoniac in the gospel was sometimes cast into the fire,
and sometimes into the water; so is he hurried by the fury of contrary
passions. This servitude to sin is in all respects complete. For those
who serve, are either born servants, or bought with a price, or made
captives by force: and sin hath all these kinds of title to man. "He is
conceived and born in sin," Psal. 51. "He is sold under sin," Rom. 7.
"And sells himself to do evil." Isa. 28:15. As that which is sold passes
into the possession of the buyer, —— so the sinner exchanging
himself for the pleasures of sin, is under its power. Original sin took
possession of our nature, and actual sin of our lives. He is the servant
of corruption by yielding to it: "For of whom a man is overcome, of
the same he is brought in bondage." 2 Pet. 2:19. The condition of the
most wretched bondslave is more sweet and less servile than that of a
sinner. For the severest tyranny is exercised only upon the body, the
soul remains free in the midst of chains: slaves are called σώματα
bodies, Rev. 18:13. but the power of sin oppresses the soul, the most
noble part, and defaces the bright character of the Deity that was
stamped upon its visage. The worst slavery is terminated with this
present life, "In the grave the prisoners rest together, they hear not
the voice of the oppressor. The small and the great are there, and the
servant is free from his master." Job 3:18, 19. But there is no
exemption from this servitude by death, it extends itself to eternity.
2. Man since his fall is under the tyranny of satan, who is called the
god of this world, and is more absolute than all temporal princes, his
dominion being over the will. He overcame man in paradise, and by
the right of war rules over him. The soul is kept in his bondage by
subtile chains, of which the spiritual nature is capable. The
understanding is captivated by ignorance and errors; the will by
inordinate and dangerous lusts; the memory by the images of sinful
pleasures, those mortal visions which enchant the soul, and make it
not desirous of liberty. Never did cruel pirate so incompassionately
urge his slaves to ply their oars in charging, or flying from an enemy,
as satan incites those who are his captives "to do his will." 2 Tim.
2:26. And can there be a more afflicting calamity, than to be the
slaves of one's enemy, especially if base and cruel? This is the
condition of man, he is a captive to the devil, who was "a liar, and a
murderer from the beginning. He is under the rage of that bloody
tyrant, whose ambition was to render man as miserable as himself,
who in triumph upbraids him for his folly, and adds derision to his
cruelty.
3. Fallen man is under the curse and terror of the law. For being
guilty, he is justly exposed to the punishment threatened against
transgressors, without the allowance of repentance to obtain pardon.
And conscience, which is the echo of the law in his bosom, repeats
the dreadful sentence. This is an accuser which none can silence, a
judge that none can decline: and from hence it is that men all their
life are "subject to bondage," Heb. 2. being obnoxious to the wrath of
God, which the awakened conscience fearfully sets before them.
This complicated servitude of a sinner the scripture represents under
great variety of similitudes, that the defects of one may be supplied
by another. Every sinner is a servant, John 8:34. Now a servant by
flight may recover his liberty: but the sinner is a captive in chains 2
Tim. 2. ult. A captive may be freed by laying down a ransom; but the
sinner is deeply in debt: every debtor is not miserable by his own
fault, Mat. 18. it may be his infelicity, not his crime, that he is poor;
but the sinner is guilty of the highest offences, Isa. 1:6. A guilty
person may enjoy his health; but the sinner is sick of a deadly
disease, an incurable wound: he that is sick and wounded may send
for the physician in order to his recovery; but the sinner is in a deep
sleep, 2 Tim. 2:26. The apostle sets forth the conversion of a sinner
by the word ἀνανήφειν, which signifies an awakening out of sleep,
caused by the fumes of wine or strong liquor; which is an excellent
resemblance of the sinner's state, wherein the spiritual senses are
bound up, and the passions, as thick and malignant vapours, cloud
the mind, that it cannot reflect upon his miseries. He that is asleep
may awake; but the sinner is in a state of death, which implies not
only a cessation from all vital actions, but an absolute disability to
perform them. The understanding is disabled for any spiritual
perception, the will for any holy inclinations, the whole man is
disabled for the sense of his wretched state. This is the spiritual
death which justly exposes the sinner to death temporal and eternal.
4. Every man as descending from Adam, is born a sacrifice to death.
His condition in this world is so wretched and unworthy the original
excellency of his nature, that it deserves not the name of life: it is a
continual exercise of sinful actions dishonourble to God, and
damning to himself, and after the succession of a few years in the
defilements of sin, and the accidents of this frail state, in doing and
suffering evil, man comes to his fatal period, and falls into the
bottomless pit, the place of pollutions and horrors, of sin and
torments. It is there "that the wrath of God abides on him; and who
knows the power of his wrath? According to his fear, so is his wrath."
Psal. 90:12. Fear is an unbounded passion, and can extend itself to
the apprehension of such torments, which no finite power can inflict:
but the wrath of God exceeds the most jealous fears of the guilty
conscience. It proceeds from infinite justice, and is executed by
Almighty power, and contains eminently all kinds of evils. A lake of
flaming brimstone, and whatever is most dreadful to sense, is but an
imperfect allusion to represent it.
And how great is that love which pitied and rescued us from sin and
hell? This saving mercy is set out for its tenderness and vehemence
by the commotion of the bowels, at the sight of one in misery, Luke
1:78. especially the working of the mother, when any evil befals her
children: such an inward deep resentment of our distress was in the
Father of mercies. "When we were in our blood, he said unto us,
live," Ezek. 16:6. And that which further discovers the eminent
degree of his love in this; he might have been unconcerned with our
distress, and left us under despair of deliverance. There is a
compassion which ariseth from self-love, when the sight of another's
misery surprises us, and affects in such a manner as to disturb our
repose, and imbitter our joy, by considering our liableness to the
same troubles, and from hence we are inclined to help them. And
there is a compassion that proceeds from pure love to the miserable,
when the person that expresses it, is above all the assaults of evil,
and incapable of all affections that might lessen his felicity, and yet
applies himself to relieve the afflicted; and such was God's towards man.
If it had been a tolerable evil under which we were fallen, the mercy
that recovered us had been less: for benefits are valued by the
necessity of the receiver. But man was disinherited of paradise, an
heir of hell, his misery was inconceivably great. Now the measure of
God's love is proportionable to the misery from whence we are
redeemed. If there had been any possible remedy for us in nature,
our engagements had not been so great: but only he that created us
by his power, could restore us by his love. Briefly, it magnifies the
divine compassion, that our deliverance is full and entire. It had been
admirable favour to have mitigated our misery, but we have a perfect
redemption sweetened by the remembrance of those dreadful evils
that oppressed us. As the three Hebrew martyrs came unhurt out of
the fiery furnace, "The hair of their heads were not singed, nor their
coats changed, nor the smell of the fire passed on them," Dan. 3:27.
So the saints above have no marks of sin and misery remaining upon
them, not the "least spot or wrinkle" to blast their beauty, nor the
least trouble to diminish their blessedness; but for ever possess the
fulness of joy and glory, a pure and triumphant felicity.
II. The greatness of the divine love towards fallen man appears in the
means by which our redemption is accomplished. And those are the
incarnation and sufferings of the Son of God. The incarnation
manifests this love upon a double account.
1. In regard of the essential condition of the nature he assumed.
2. Its servile state and meanness.
1. The essential condition of the human nature assumed by our
Redeemer discovers his transcendent love to us. For what proportion
is there between God and man? Infinite and finite are not terms that
admit comparison, as greater and less; but are distant, as all and
nothing. The whole world before him, is "but as the drop of the
bucket that hath scarce weight to fall; and the small dust of the
balance, that is not of such moment as to turn the scales; it is as
nothing, and counted less than nothing, and vanity," Isa. 40:15, 17.
The Deity in its own nature includes independence and sovereignty.
To be a creature implies dependance and subjection. The angelical
nature is infinitely inferior to the divine, and man is lower than the
angels; yet "the word was made flesh." Add to this, he was not made
as Adam in the perfection of his nature, and beginning the first step
of his life in the full exercise of reason, and dominion over the
creatures, but he came into the world by the way of a natural birth,
and dependance upon a mortal creature. The eternal wisdom of the
Father stooped to a state of infancy, which is most distant from that
of wisdom, wherein though the life, yet the light of the reasonable
soul is not visible; and the mighty God, to a condition of indigence
and infirmity. The Lord of nature submitted to the laws of it.
Admirable love! wherein God seemed to forget his own greatness,
and the meanness of the creature. This is more endeared to us by
considering,
2. The servile state of the nature he assumed. An account of this we
have in the words of the apostle, Phil. 2:5, 6, 7, 8. "let this mind be in
you, which was also in Christ; who being in the form of God," that is,
enjoying the divine nature with all its glory eternally, and invariably.
As to be in the form of a king, signifies not only to be a king, but to
have all the conspicuous marks of royalty, the crown, sceptre, throne,
the guards and state of a king. Thus our Saviour possessed that glory
that is truely divine, before he took our nature, John 17:5. The angels
adored him in heaven, and by him "princes reigned on the earth."
Prov. 8:15. It is added, "he thought it no robbery to be equal with
God," Phil. 2:6. that is, being the essential image of the Father, he
had a rightful possession of all his perfections, yet "he made himself
of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was
made in the likeness of man:" this is a lower degree of
condescension, than the assuming the naked human nature. A
servant is not simply a man, there being many men of higher quality,
but a man in a low state. Now he that was in the form of God,
lessened himself into the form of a servant, that is, took the human
nature without honour, attended with its infirmities; so that by the
visible condition of his life, he was judged to be an ordinary person,
and not that under that meanness the Lord of angels had been
concealed. This will more distinctly be understood, if we consider the
lowness of his extraction, the poverty of his birth, and the tenour of
his life whilst he conversed with men. What nation was more
despicable in the esteem of the world than the Jews? yet of their
stock Christ disdained not to descend.* And among the Jews none
were more vilified than the Galileans, and in Galilee, Nazareth was a
contemptible village, and in Nazareth the family of Joseph was very
obscure, and to him our Saviour was nearly allied. His reputed father
was a carpenter, and his mother a poor virgin, that offered two
pigeons for her purification. He first breathed in a stable, and was
covered with poor swaddling clothes, who was master of heaven and
earth, and adorns all creatures with their glory. But love made him,
who is heir of all things, renounce the privilege of his supernatural
sonship. Inconceivable condescension! Therefore an angel was
dispatched from heaven, who appeared with a surprising miraculous
light, the visible character of his dignity, to prevent the scandal
which might arise from the meanness of his condition, and to assure
the shepherds that the babe which lay in the manger, was the
Redeemer of the world. Luke 2:12. The course of his life was a
preface, and preparative for the death of the cross. He had a just
right to all that glory, which a created nature personally united to the
Deity could receive. An eminent instance of it there was in his
transfiguration, when glory descended from heaven to encompass
him; that which was so short should have been continual, but he
presently returned to the lowness of his former condition. "The
fulness of the God-head dwelt in him bodily," yet in his humble state
he was voluntarily deprived of those admirable effects which should
proceed from that union. Strange separation between the Deity, and
the glory that results from it! God is light, and the Son is the
brightness of his Father's glory, yet in his pilgrimage upon the earth
he was always under a cloud. Astonishing miracle! transcending all
those in the compass of nature, yet the power of love effected it. He
was made not only "lower than the angels, but less than all men,"
Heb. 2. joining (oh amazing abasement!) the majesty of God, with
the meanness of "a worm." Psal. 22. The "high and lofty One," whom
the prophet saw "exalted on a high throne," Isa. 6. and all the powers
of heaven in a posture of reverence about him, "was despised and
rejected of men," Isa. 53. "they turned their eyes from him," not for
the lustre of his countenance, but for shame.
If the Lord had assumed our nature in its most honourable
condition, and appeared in its beauty, the condescension were
infinite: for although men are distinguished among themselves by
titles of honour, yet as two glow-worms that shine with an unequal
brightness in the night, are equally obscured by the light of the sun:
so all men, those that are advanced to the most eminent degree, as
well as the most abject and wretched, are in the same distance from
God. But "he emptied himself of all his glory," Phil. "He grew up as a
tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground, there was no form or
comeliness in him." Isa. 53:2. From his birth to the time of his
preaching he lived so privately, as to be only known under the quality
of the carpenter's son. There was a continual repression of that
inconceivable glory, that was due to him the first moment of his
appearing among men. In short, his despised condition was an
abasement not only of his divinity, but his humanity. And how
conspicuous was his love in this darkening condescension? "We
know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, he
became poor for our sakes." 2 Cor. 8:9. He did not assume that
which was due to the excellency of his nature, but what was
convenient for our redemption, which was to be accomplished by sufferings.
Where can be found an example of such love? Some have favorable
inclinations to help the distressed, and will express so much
compassion as is consistent with their state and quality: but if in
order to the relieving of the miserable, one must submit to what is
shameful, who hath an affection so strong and vehement as to
purchase his brother's redemption at the loss of his own honour? Yet
the Son of God descended from his throne, and put on our vile
mortality: he parted with his glory, that he might be qualified to part
with his life for our salvation. How doth this exalt his compassion to us!
Add further, he took our nature after it had lost its primitive
innocency. The natural distance between God and the creature is
infinite; the moral between God and the sinful creature, if possible, is
more than infinite: yet the mercy of our Redeemer overcame this
distance. What an ecstacy of love transported the Son of God so far
as to espouse our nature, after it was deprived and dishonoured with
sin? He was essential innocence and purity, yet "he came in the
similitude of sinful flesh," Rom. 8:3. which to outward view was not
different from what was really sinful. He was the holy Lawgiver, yet
he submitted to that law, which made him appear under the
character and disreputation of a sinner. He paid the bloody tribute of
the children of wrath, being circumcised as guilty of Adam's sin; and
he was baptised as guilty of his own.
2. The most evident and sensible proof of the greatness of God's love
to mankind, is in the sufferings of our Redeemer to obtain our
pardon. He is called in scripture, "a man of sorrows," Isa. 53. the title
signifies their number and quality. His whole life was a continual
passion: he suffered the contradiction of sinners, who by their
malicious calumnies obscured the lustre of his miracles and most
innocent actions: he endured the temptations of satan in the desert:
he was often in danger of his life: but all these were nothing in
comparison of his last sufferings. It is therefore said, that at the bare
apprehension of them, he "began to be sorrowful," as if he had never
felt any grief till then. His former afflictions were like scattered drops
of rain: but as in the deluge "all the fountains beneath, and all the
windows of heaven above were open;" so in our Saviour's last
sufferings, the anger of God, the cruelty of men, the fury of devils
broke out together against him. And that the degrees of his love may
be measured by those of his sufferings, it will be fit to consider them
with respect to his soul and his body. The gospel delivers to us the
relation of both.
First. Upon his entrance into the garden, he complains, "my soul is
exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." There were present only
Peter, James and John his happy favourites, who assured him of
their fidelity; there was no visible enemy to afflict him, yet his soul
was environed with sorrows. It is easy to conceive the injuries he
suffered from the rage of men, for they were terminated upon his
body; but how to understand his inward sufferings, the wounds of his
spirit, the cross to which his soul was nailed, is very difficult. Yet
these were inexpressibly greater, as the visible effects declare. The
anguish of his soul so affected his body, that his "sweat was as it were
great drops of blood," the miraculous evidence of his agony. The
terror was so dreadful, that the assistance of an angel could not calm
it. And if we consider the causes of his grief, the dispositions of
Christ, and the design of God in afflicting him, it will further appear
that no sorrow was ever like his. The causes were,
(1.) The evil of sin, which inconceivably exceeds all other: for the just
measure of an evil is taken from the good to which it is opposite, and
of which it deprives us. Now sin is formally opposite to the holy
nature and will of God, and meritoriously deprives of his blessed
presence for ever. Therefore God being the supreme good, sin is the
supreme evil. And grief being the resentment of an evil, that which is
proportioned to the evil of sin must be infinite. Now the Lord Christ
alone had perfect light to discover sin in its true horror, and perfect
zeal to hate it according to its nature: for, who can understand the
excellency of good, and the malignity of evil, but the author of the
one and the judge of the other? Who can fully conceive the guilt of
rebellion against God, but the Son of God, who is alone able to
comprehend his own majesty? On this account the grief of our
Redeemer exceeded all the sorrows of repenting sinners, from the
beginning of the world. For our knowledge is so imperfect, and our
zeal so remiss, that our grief for sin is much beneath what it is
worthy of: but sin was as hateful to Christ as it is in itself, and his
sorrow was equal to its evil.
(2.) The death he was to suffer, attended with all the curses of the
law, and the terrible marks of God's indignation. From hence it is
said, "he began to be sore amazed and to be very heavy," Mat. 14:34.
It is wonderful that the Son of God, who had perfect patience, and
the strength of the Deity to support him, who knew that his passion
should soon pass away, and that the issue should be his own glorious
resurrection, and the recovery of lapsed man, that he should be
shaken with fear and oppressed with sorrow at the first approaches
of it: how many of the martyrs have with an undisturbed courage
embraced a more cruel death? But to them it was disarmed; whereas
our Saviour encountered it with all its formidable pomp, with its
darts and poison.
3. The wrath of God was inflamed against him. For although he was
perfectly innocent, and more distant from sin than heaven is from
the earth, yet by the ordination of God, and his own consent being
made our sponsor, "the iniquity of us all was laid upon him." Isa. 53.
He suffered as deeply as if he had been guilty. Vindictive justice was
inexorable to his prayers and tears. Although he renewed his request
with the greatest ardency, as it is said by the Evangelist; "That being
in an agony, he prayed more earnestly," yet God would not spare
him. The Father of mercies saw his Son humbled in his presence
prostrate on the earth, yet deals with him in extreme severity. He
"was stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." And who is able to
conceive the weight of God's hand when he punishes sin according to
its desert? Who can understand the degrees of those sufferings when
God exacts satisfaction from one that was obliged, and able to make
it? How piercing were those sorrows whereby divine justice,
infinitely incensed, was to be appeased? Who knows the consequence
of those words, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" It is
impossible to comprehend, or represent that great and terrible
mystery. But thus much we may understand, that holiness and glory
being essential to the Deity, they are communicated to the
reasonable nature when united to it: but with this difference, that
holiness necessarily results from union with God: for sin being
infinitely repugnant to his nature, makes a separation between him
and the creature: but glory and joy are dispensed in a free and
arbitrary manner. This dereliction of our Saviour must be
understood with respect to the second, not the first communication.
In the extremity of his torments all his affections were innocent and
regular, being only raised to that degree, which the vehemency of the
object required. He expressed no murmur against God, nor anger
against his enemies. His faith, love, humility, patience were then in
their exaltation. But that glorious and unspeakable joy which in the
course of his life, the Deity conveyed to him, was then withdrawn. An
impetuous torrent of pure unmixed sorrows broke into his holy soul:
he felt no refreshing emanations, so that having lost the sense of
present joy, there remained in his soul only the hope of future joy.
And in that sad moment, his mind was so intent upon his sufferings,
that he seems to have been diverted from the actual consideration of
the glory that attended the issue of them.
Briefly, All comforting influences were suspended, but without
prejudice to the personal union, or the perfection of his grace, or to
the love of his Father toward him. His soul was liable to sorrows, as
his body to death. For the Deity is the principle of life as well as of
joy; and as the body of Christ was three days in the state of death,
and the hypostatical union remained entire; so his soul was left for a
time under the fearful impressions of wrath, yet was not separated
from the Godhead. And although he endured whatever was necessary
for the expiation of sin; yet all vicious evils, as blasphemy, hatred of
God, and any other which are not inflicted by the judge, but in
strictness are accidental to the punishment, and proceed from the
weakness or wickedness of the patient, he was not in the least guilty
of. Besides, when his Father appeared an enemy against him, at that
time he was infinitely pleased in his obedience. But with these
exceptions our blessed Lord suffered whatever was due to us.
The sorrows of his forsaken state were inexpressibly great; for
according to the degree and sense we have of happiness, such in
proportion is our grief for the loss of it. Now Christ had the fullest
enjoyment, and the highest valuation of God's favour His enjoyment
was raised above what the most glorious spirits are capable of: all his
faculties were pure and vigorous, never blunted with sin, and
intimately united to the Deity. How cutting then was it to his soul, to
be suspended from the perfect vision of God? To be divorced as it
were from himself, and to lose that paradise he always had within
him? If all the angels of light were at once deprived of their glory, the
loss were not equal to this dreadful eclipse of the Sun of
Righteousness: as if all the stars were extinguished, the darkness
would not be so terrible, as if the sun the fountain of light were put
out. Whatever his sufferings were in kind, yet in degree they were
answerable to the full and just desert of sin, and surpassed the power
of the human or angelical nature to endure. In short, his sorrows
were only equalled by that love which procured them.
And as the sufferings inflicted by the hand of God, so the evils he
endured from men, declare the infiniteness of our Redeemer's love to
us. For the further discovery of it, it is necessary to reflect upon his
death, which is set down by the apostle as the lowest degree of his
humiliation, in which the succession of all his bodily sufferings is
included, it being the complement of all. And if we consider the
quality of it, the goodness of our Redeemer, will be more visible in
his voluntary submission to it. Two circumstances make the kind of
death which is to be suffered, very terrible to us, ignominy and
torment; and they eminently concur in the death of the cross.
1. The greatest ignominy attended it, and that in the account of God
and men. As honour is in honorante, and depends upon the esteem
of others; so infamy consists in the judgment of others. Now in the
account of the world, every death inflicted for a crime is attended
with disgrace: but that receives its degrees from the manner of it. To
be executed privately is a favour, but to be made a spectacle to the
multitude, increases the dishonour of one that suffers. When death is
speedily inflicted, the sense of shame is presently passed; but to be
exposed to public view for many hours, as a malefactor, whilst the
beholders detest the crime, and abhor the punishment, is a heavy
aggravation of it. Beheading, which is suddenly dispatched by a
sword or military instrument, and therefore more honourable, was a
privilege: but to hang on the cross, was the most conspicuous mark
of the public justice and displeasure: a special infamy was
concomitant with it. Among the Jews, hanging on a tree was branded
with the curse: therefore God commanded that the "bodies of those
that were hanged on a tree should be taken down in the evening, that
the land might not be defiled with a curse." Deut. 21:23. And the
judgment of other nations was answerable:* for it was only inflicted
on the most infamous offenders, as fugitives, slaves, thieves, and
traitors, such whom the lowness of their quality, or the height of
their crimes rendered unworthy of any respect. Hence it is, that
Cicero* to aggravate the cruelty of Verres in crucifying a Roman
citizen, calls it a 'nameless wickedness.' No eloquence could express
the indignity.
2. The pain of that death was extreme. The hands and feet, those
parts wherein the complexion of the nerves meet, and are of an
exquisite sense, were nailed. Crucified persons suffered a slow death,
but quick torments: they felt themselves die. Therefore in pity the
soldiers broke their legs, to put a period to their misery. And to
complete their punishment, they were judged unworthy to enjoy the
privilege of the grave, repose in the bosom of the earth our common
mother, the last consolation of the dead, but were exposed as a prey
to birds and beasts.
Now the Son of God endured no gentler nor nobler death than that of
the cross. His pure and gracious hands, which were never stretched
out but to do good, were pierced; and those feet which bore the
Redeemer of the world, and for which the waters had a reverence,
were nailed. His body, the precious workmanship of the Holy Ghost,
the temple of the Deity, was destroyed. He that is the glory of heaven,
was made the scorn of the earth: the King of kings was crucified
between two thieves in Jerusalem, at their sacred feast, in the face of
the world. His naked body was exposed on the cross for three hours,
only covered with a veil of darkness. This was such a stupendous
submission of the Son of God, that his death astonished the universe
in another manner, than his birth and life, his resurrection and
ascension. Universal nature relented at his last sufferings. The sun
was struck with horror, and withdrew its light; it did not appear
crowned with beams, when the Creator was with thorns. The earth
trembled, and the rocks rent; the most insensible creatures
sympathized with him; and it is in this we have the most visible
instance of divine love to usThe scriptures distinctly represent the love of God in giving his Son,
and the love of Christ in giving himself to die for man, and both
require our deepest consideration.
The Father expressed such an excess of love, that our Saviour himself
speaks of it with admiration: "God so loved the world, that he gave
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him should not
perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16. If Abraham's resolution
to offer his Son, was in the judgment of God a convincing evidence of
his affection, Gen. 22:12. how much more is the actual sacrificing of
Christ the strongest proof of God's love to us? For God had a higher
title to Isaac than Abraham had: the Father of spirits hath a nearer
claim, than the fathers of flesh. Abraham's readiness to offer up his
son was obedience to a command, not his own choice; it was rather
an act of justice than love, by which he rendered to God what was his
own. But God "spared not his own Son" in whom he had an eternal
right: and he was not only free from obligation, but not sued to for
our salvation in that wonderful way. For what human or angelical
understanding could have conceived such a thought, that the Son of
God should die for our redemption? The most charitable spirits in
heaven had not a glimmering inclination towards this admirable way
of saving us. It had been an impious blasphemy to have desired it; so
that Christ is the most absolute gift of God to us. Besides, the love of
Abraham is to be measured by the reasons that might excite it; for
according to the amiableness of the object, so much greater is the
love that gives it. Many endearing circumstances made Isaac the joy
of his father: he was an only son, miraculously obtained, after many
prayers and long expectation of his parents, when natural vigour was
spent, and all hopes dead of having a surviving heir; he was in the
spring of his youth, and the root of all the promises, that in him a
progeny as numerous as the stars, and that the Messiah infinitely
more worthy than all the rest should come; yet at the best he was an
imperfect mortal creature, so that but a moderate affection was
regularly due to him. Whereas our Redeemer was not a mere man, or
an angel, but God's only begotten Son, which title signifies his unity
with him in his state and perfections; and according to the excellency
of his nature, such is his Father's love to him. St. John represents to
us that "God is love;" not charitable, and loving, that is too weak an
expression, but love itself. The divine nature is infinite essential love,
in which other perfections are included. And he produces the
strongest and most convincing testimony of it, John 4:9. "In this was
manifest the love of God to us, because that God sent his only
begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him." The
love of God in all temporal blessings, is but faint in the comparison
with the love that is expressed in our Redeemer. As much as the
Creator exceeds the creature, the gift of Christ is above the gift of the
whole world. "Herein is love," saith the apostle, that is the clearest
and highest expression of it that can be, "God sent his Son to be a
propitiation for our sins." The wisdom and power of God did not act
to the utmost of their efficacy in the creation, he could frame a more
glorious world; but the love of God in our strange salvation by Christ,
cannot in a higher degree be expressed. As the apostle, to set forth
how sacred and inviolable God's promise is, saith, Heb. 6:17. that
"because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself;" so when
he would give the most excellent testimony of his favour to mankind,
he gave his eternal Son, the heir of his love and blessedness. The
giving of heaven itself, with all its joys and glory, is not so perfect and
full a demonstration of the love of God, as the giving of his Son to die
for us.
It is an endearing circumstance of this love, that it warmed the heart
of God from eternity, and was never interrupted in that vast
duration. Great benefits that come from a sudden flush of affection,
are not so highly estimable, as when dispensed with judgment and
counsel: because they do not argue in the giver such a true valuation,
and fixed love of the person that receives them. The spring-tide may
be followed by as low an ebb; the benefactor may repent of his
favours as spent in vain: but our salvation by Christ is the product of
God's eternal thoughts, the fruit of love that ever remains. "He was
delivered by the determinate counsel, and foreknowledge of God," to
suffer for us, Acts 2:23. Before the world began, we were before the
eyes, nay in the heart of God. And yet the continuance of this love
through infinite ages passed, is less than the degree of it.
According to the rule of common esteem, a greater love was
expressed to wretched man, than to Christ himself: for we expend
things less valuable for those that are more precious; so that God in
giving him to die for us, declared that our salvation was more dear to
him than the life of his only Son. When no meaner ransom than the
blood royal of heaven could purchase our redemption, God delighted
in the expence of that sacred treasure for us. "It pleased the Lord to
bruise him." Isa. 53. Though the death of Christ absolutely
considered was the highest provocation of God's displeasure, and
brought the greatest guilt upon the Jews, for which "wrath came
upon them to the uttermost;" yet in respect of the end, namely the
salvation of men, it was the most grateful offering to him, "a sacrifice
of a sweet smelling savour." Ephes. 5:2. God repented that he made
man, but never that he redeemed him.
And as the love of the Father, so the love of Christ appears in a
superlative manner in dying for us. "Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friend." John 15:8. There is
no kind of love that exceeds the affection which is expressed in dying
for another: but there are divers degrees of it: and the highest is to
die for our enemies. The apostle saith, Rom. 5:7. "perhaps for a good
man some would dare to die." It is possible, gratitude may prevail
upon one who is under strong obligations, to die for his benefactor.
Or some may from a generous principle be willing with the loss of
their lives to preserve one, who is a general and public good. But this
is a rare, and almost incredible thing. It is recorded as a miraculous
instance of the power of love, that the two Sicilian philosophers,
Damon and Pithias, each had courage to die for his friend. For one of
them being condemned to die by the tyrant, and desiring to give the
last farewel to his family, his friend entered into prison as his surety
to die for him, if he did not return at the appointed time. And he
came to the amazement of all, that expected the issue of such a
hazardous caution. Yet in this example, there seems to be in the
second, such a confidence of the fidelity of the first, that he was
assured he should not die in being a pledge for him: and in the first it
was not mere friendship, or sense of the obligation, but the regard of
his own honour that made him rescue his friend from death. And if
love were the sole motive, yet the highest expression of it was to part
with a short life, which in a little time must have been resigned by
the order of nature. But the love of our Saviour was so pure and
great, there can be no resemblance, much less any parallel of it. For
he was perfectly holy, and so the privilege of immortality was due to
him, and his life was infinitely more precious than the lives of angels
and men, yet he laid it down, and submitted to a cursed death, and to
that which was infinitely more bitter, the wrath of God. And all this
for sinful men, who were under the just and heavy displeasure of the
Almighty. "He loved us, and gave himself for us." Gal. 2:20. If he had
only interposed as an advocate to speak for us, or only had acted for
our recovery, his love had been admirable; but he suffered for us. He
is not only our Mediator, but Redeemer; not only Redeemer, but
ransom.*
It was excellent goodness in David, when he saw the destruction of
his people, to offer himself and family as a sacrifice to avert the
wrath of God from them. But his pride was the cause of the
judgment, whereas our Redeemer was perfectly innocent, 2 Sam.
24:17. David interceded for his subjects, Christ for his enemies. He
received the arrows of the Almighty into his breast to shelter us. "He
bore our griefs, and carried our sorrows; he was wounded for our
transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of
our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed." Isa.
53:4, 5. Among the Romans the despotic power was so terrible, that
if a slave had attempted upon the life of his master, all the rest had
been crucified with the guilty person. But our gracious master died
for his slaves who had conspired against him. He shed his blood for
those who spilt his.
And the readiness of our Lord to save us, though by the sharpest
sufferings, magnifies his love. When the richest sacrifices under the
law were insufficient to take away sin, and no lower price than the
blood of God could obtain our pardon, upon his entering into the
world to execute that wonderful commission which cost him his life,
with what ardour of affection did he undertake it! "Lo I come to do
thy will, O God." Heb. 10:5, 6, 7. When Peter from carnal affection
looking with a more tender eye on his master's life than our
redemption, deprecated his sufferings, "master spare thyself;" he
who was incarnate goodness, and never quenched the smoking flax,
expresses the same indignation against him, "get thee behind me,
satan," as he did formerly against the devil tempting to worship him.
He esteemed him the worst adversary that would divert him from his
sufferings: he longed for the "baptism of his blood." And when death
was in his view, with all the circumstances of terror, and the supreme
Judge stood before him ready to inflict the just punishment of sin;
though the apprehension of it was so dreadful that he could scarce
live under it, yet he resolved to accomplish his work. Our salvation
was amiable to him in his agony. This is specially observed by the
Evangelist, John 13:1. "that Jesus having loved his own, he loved
them to the end." When the soldiers came to seize upon him, though
by one word he could have commanded legions of angels for his
rescue, yet he yielded up himself to their cruelty. It was not any
defect of power, but the strength of his love that made him to suffer.
He was willing to be crucified, that we might be glorified: our
redemption was sweeter to him, than death was bitter, by which it
was to be obtained. It was excellently said by Pherecides,* that God
transformed himself into love when he made the world: but with
greater reason it is said by the apostle, "God is love," when he
redeemed it. It was love that by a miraculous condescension took our
nature, accomplishing the desire of the mystical spouse, "let him kiss
me with the kisses of his mouth:" it was love that stooped to the form
of a servant, and led a poor despised life here below; it was love that
endured a death, neither easy nor honorable, but most unworthy of
the glory of the divine, and the innocency of the human nature. Love
chose to die on the cross, that we might live in heaven, rather than to
enjoy that blessedness, and leave mankind in misery.
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Post by Admin on Jun 18, 2024 14:51:04 GMT -5
X. The subject concluded.
Divine mercy is magnified in the excellency of the state to which man
is advanced. He is enriched with higher prerogatives, under a better
covenant, entitled to a more glorious reward than Adam at first
enjoyed. The human nature is personally united to the Son of God.
Believers are spiritually united to Christ. The gospel is a better
covenant than that of the law. It admits of repentance and
reconciliation after sin. It accepts of sincerity instead of perfection. It
affords supernatural assistance to believers, whereby they shall be
victorious over all opposition in their way to heaven. The difference
between the grace of the Creator and that of the Redeemer. The
stability of the New-Covenant is built on the love of God which is
unchangeable, and the operations of his spirit that are effectual. The
mutability and weakness of the human will, and the strength of
temptations shall not frustrate the merciful design of God in regard
of his elect. The glorious reward of the gospel exceeds the primitive
felicity of Adam, in the place of it, the highest heaven. Adam's life
was attended with innocent infirmities, from which the glorified life
is entirely exempt. The felicity of heaven exceeds the first, in the
manner, degrees, and continuance of the fruition.
THE third consideration, which makes the love of God so admirable
to lapsed man, is, the excellency of that state to which he is advanced
by the Redeemer. To be only exempted from death is a great favour:
the grace of a prince is eminent in releasing a condemned person
from the punishment of the law. This is sufficient for the mercy of
man, but not for the love of God: he pardons and prefers the guilty;
he rescues us from hell, and raises us to glory; he bestows eternity
upon those who were unworthy of life. The excellency of our
condition under the gospel will be set off, by comparing it with that
of innocent man in paradise. It is true, he was then in a state of
holiness and honour, and in perfect possession of that blessedness
which was suitable to his nature; yet in many respects our last state
transcends our first, and redeeming love exceeds creating.
If man had been only restored to his forfeited rights, to the
enjoyment of the same happiness which was lost, his first state were
most desirable; and it had been greater goodness to have preserved
him innocent, than to recover him from ruin. As he that preserves his
friend from falling into the hands of the enemy, by interposing
between him and danger, in the midst of the combat, delivers him in
a more noble manner, than by paying a ransom for him after many
days spent in woful captivity. And that physician is more excellent in
his art, who prevents diseases, and keeps the body in health and
vigour, than another that expels them by sharp remedies. But the
grace of the gospel hath so much mended our condition, that if it
were offered to our choice, either to enjoy the innocent state of
Adam, or the renewed by Christ, it were folly like that of our first
parents, to prefer the former before the latter. The jubilee of the law
restored to the same inheritance; but the jubilee of the gospel gives
us the investiture of that which is transcendently better than what we
at first possessed. Since "the day-spring from on high hath visited us
in tender mercy," we are enriched with higher prerogatives, and are
under a better covenant, and entitled to a more glorious reward, than
was due to man by the law of his creation.
First, the human nature is raised to a higher degree of honour, than
if man had continued in his innocent state.
1. By its intimate union with the Son of God. He assumed it as the fit
instrument of our redemption, and preferred it before the angelical,
which surpassed man's in his primitive state. "The fulness of the
Godhead dwells in our Redeemer bodily." Col. 2:9. From hence it is,
that the angels descended to pay him homage at his birth, and
attended his majesty in his disguise. The Son of man hath those titles
which are above the dignity of any mere creature; he is king of the
church, and judge of the world; he exercises divine power, and
receives divine praise. Briefly, the human nature in our Redeemer is
an associate with the divine; and being made a little lower than the
angels for a time, is now "advanced far above all principalities and
powers." Ephes. 1:21.
2. In all those who are partakers of grace and glory by the Lord Jesus.
Adam was the Son of God by creation, but to be joined to Christ as
our head by a union so intimate, that "he lives in us," and counts
himself incomplete without us, and by that union to be adopted into
the line of heaven, and thereby to have an interest in the "exceeding
great and precious promises" of the gospel; to be "constituted heirs
of God, and co-heirs with Christ," are such discoveries of the dignity
of our supernatural state, that the lowest believer is advanced above
Adam in all his honour. Nay, the angels, though superior to man in
the excellency of their nature, yet are accidentally lower by the
honour of our alliance: their king is our brother. And this relative
dignity which seems to eclipse their glory, might excite their envy:
but such an ingenuous goodness dwells in those pure and blessed
spirits, that they rejoice in our restoration and advancement.
To this I shall add, that as the Son of God hath a special relation to
man, so the most tender affections for him. To illustrate this by a
sensible instance: angels and men are two different nations in
language and customs, but under the same empire: and if a prince
that commands two nations should employ one for the safety and
prosperity of the other, it were an argument of special favour. Now
the angels are "sent forth to minister for them who are heirs of
salvation." Heb. 1:14. Besides, in two other things the peculiar
affection of the prince would be most evident to the nation.
(1.) If he put on their habit, and attire himself according to their
fashion.
(2.) If he fixed his residence among them. Now the Son of God was
clothed with our flesh, and "found in fashion as a man," and for ever
appears in it in heaven; and will at the last day invest our bodies with
glory like to his own. He now dwells in us by his spirit, and when our
warfare is accomplished, he shall in a special manner be present with
us in the eternal mansions. As God incarnate he conversed with men
on earth, and as such he will converse with them in heaven. There he
reigns as "the first-born in the midst of many brethren." Now all
these prerogatives are the fruits of our redemption.
And how great is that mercy which hath raised mankind more
glorious out of its ruins! The apostle breaks out with a heavenly
astonishment, 1 John 3:1. "Behold, what manner of love the father
hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!"
that we who are strangers and enemies, "children of wrath by
nature," should be dignified with the honourable and amiable title of
his sons! It was a rare and most merciful condescension in Pharaoh's
daughter, to rescue an innocent and forsaken infant from perishing
by the waters, and adopt him to be her son: but how much greater
kindness was it for God to save guilty and wretched man from eternal
flames, and to take him into his family? The ambition of the prodigal
rose no higher than to be a servant; what an inestimable favour is it
to make us children! When God would express the most dear and
peculiar affection to Solomon, he saith, 2 Sam. 7:14. "I will be his
father, and he shall be my son;" this was the highest honour he could
promise; and all believers are dignified with it. It is the same relation
that Christ hath: when he was going to heaven, he comforted his
disciples with these words, "I ascend to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God." There is indeed a diversity in the
foundation of it: Christ is a Son by nature, we are by mere favour; he
is by generation, we are by adoption. Briefly, "Jesus Christ hath
made us kings and priests unto God, and his Father:" these are the
highest offices upon earth, and were attended with the most
conspicuous honour; and the holy spirit chose those bright images,
to convey a clearer notice of the glory to which our Redeemer hath
raised us. Not only all the crowns and sceptres in the perishing world
are infinitely beneath this dignity, but the honour of our innocent
state was not equal to it.
Secondly, The gospel is a better covenant than that which was
established with man in his creation: and the excellency of it will
appear, by considering,
1. It is more beneficial, in that it admits repentance and
reconciliation after sin, and accepts of sincerity instead of perfection.
The apostle magnifies the office of Christ. Heb. 8:6. "By how much
he is a Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon
better promises. The comparison there, is, between the ministry of
the gospel, and the Mosaical economy. And the excellency of the
gospel is specified, in respect of those infinitely better promises that
are in it. The ceremonial law appointed sacrifices for sins of
ignorance and error, and to obtain legal impunity; but the gospel
upon the account of Christ's "all sufficient" sacrifice, offers full
pardon for all sins that are repented of and forsaken. Now with
greater reason the covenant of grace is to be preferred before the
covenant of works. For the law considered man as holy, and endued
with perfection of grace equal to whatsoever was commanded: it was
the measure of his ability as well as duty, and required exact
obedience, or threatened extreme misery. The least breach of it is
fatal: a single offence as certainly exposes to the curse, as if the whole
were violated. And in our lapsed state we are utterly disabled to
comply with its purity and perfection. But the gospel contains the
promises of mercy, and is in the "hands of a Mediator. The tenour of
it is, "That repentance and remission of sins be preached in the name
of Christ." Acts 2:38. "And if we judge ourselves, we shall not be
judged." 1 Cor. 11:31. It is not if we are innocent, for then none can be
exempt from condemnation: but if the convinced sinner erect a
tribunal in conscience, and strip sin of its disguise, to view its native
deformity; if he pronounce the sentence of the law against himself,
and glorify the justice of God which he cannot satisfy, and forsake
the sins which are the causes of his sorrow, he is qualified for
pardoning mercy.
Besides, the gospel doth not only apply pardon to us for all forsaken
sins, but provides a remedy for those infirmities to which the best are
incident. Whilst we are in this mortal state, we are exposed to
temptations from without, and have corruptions within that often
betray us: now to support our drooping spirits, our Redeemer sits in
heaven to plead for us, and perpetually renews the pardon that was
once purchased, to every contrite spirit, for those unavoidable
frailties which cleave to us here. The promise of grace is not made
void by the sudden surprises of passions. "If any man sin, we have an
Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 1 John 2:1.
The rigour of the law is mollified by his mediation with the Father: a
title of love and tenderness. God deals not with the severity of a
judge, but "he spares us as a man spares his own son that serves
him." Malachi 3.
And as he pardons us upon our repentance, so he accepts our hearty,
though mean services. Now the legal, that is, unsinning and complete
obedience cannot be performed; the evangelical, that is, the sincere,
though imperfect, is graciously received. God doth not require the
duties of a man by the measure of an angel. Unfeigned endeavours to
please him, unreserved respects to all his commands, single and holy
aims at his glory are rewarded. Briefly, although the law is continued
as a rule of living, yet not as the covenant of life. And what an
admirable exaltation of mercy is there in this new treaty of God with
sinners? It is true, the first covenant was "holy, just and good," but it
made no abatements of favour, and "it is now weak through the
flesh," Rom. 8:3. that is, the carnal corrupt nature is so strong and
impetuous, that the restraints of the law are ineffectual to stop its
desires, and therefore cannot bring man to that life that is promised,
by the performance of the condition required. But the gospel
provides an indulgence for relenting and returning sinners. This is
the language of God in that covenant, "I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more." Heb. 8:12.
2. The excellency of the evangelical covenant above the legal, is, in
that supernatural assistance which is conveyed by it to believers,
whereby they shall certainly be victorious over all opposition in their
way to heaven. It is true, Adam was endued with perfect holiness and
freedom, but he might entangle himself in the snares of sin and
death. The grace of the Creator given to him was always present, but
it depended on the natural use of his faculties, without the
interposing any extraordinary operation of God's spirit. The principle
of holiness was in himself, and it was subjected to his will: he had a
power to obey if he would, but not that actually determined his will,
for then he had persevered. But the grace of the Redeemer that flows
from Christ as our quickening head, and is conveyed to all his
members, inclines the will so powerfully that it is made subject to it.
"God works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure." Phil. 2:13.
The use of our faculties, and the exercise of grace, depend on the
good pleasure of God, who is unchangeable, and the operations of
the spirit which are prevailing and effectual. And upon these two the
stability of the new covenant is founded.
1st. On the love of God, who is as unchangeable in his will, as in his
nature. This love is the cause of election, from whence there can be
no separation. This gives Christ to believers, and believers to him;
"thine they were," saith our Saviour, "and thou gavest them me,"
John 17:6. which words signify not the common title God hath to all
by creation: for men thus universally considered, compose the world;
and our Saviour distinguishes those that are "given him from the
world," John 16:17. but that special right God hath in them by
election. And all those are given by the Father to Christ in their
effectual calling, (which is expressed by his "drawing them to the
Son") and are committed to his care, to lead them through a course
of obedience to glory. For them Christ absolutely prays as Mediator,
"Father, I will that those whom thou hast given me, be with me
where I am, and see my glory." John 17. And he is always heard in his
requests.
It is from hence that the apostle challenges all creatures in heaven
and earth, with that full and strong persuasion, that nothing could
separate between believers and their happiness, Rom. 8:38. "For I
am persuaded, that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." His
assurance is not built on the special prerogatives he had as an
apostle, not on his rapture to paradise, nor revelations, nor the
apparition of angels, for of these he makes no mention; but on that
which is common to all believers, the love of God declared in the
word, "and shed abroad in their hearts." And it is observable that the
apostle having spoken in his own person, changes the number, "I am
persuaded that nothing shall separate us," to associate with himself
in the partaking of that blessed privilege, all true believers, who have
an interest in the same love of God, the same promises of salvation,
and had felt the sanctifying work of the Spirit, the certain proof of
their election. For how is it possible that God should retract his
merciful purpose to save his people? He that chose them from
eternity before they could know him, and from pure love (there being
nothing in the creature to induce him) gave his Son to suffer death
for them, will he stop there, without bestowing that grace which may
render it effectual? What can change his affection? He that prevented
them in his mercy, when they were in their pollutions, will he leave
them after his image is engraven upon them? He that loved them so
as to unite them to Christ when they were strangers, will he hate
them when they are his members? No: his lovingkindness is
everlasting, and the covenant that is built on it, is more firm than the
pillars of heaven, and the foundations of the earth. This supported
David in his dying hours, 2 Sam. 23:5. that "God had made with him
an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure, for that was
all his salvation."
2dly. The new covenant is secured by the efficacy of divine and
supernatural grace. "This is the covenant that I will make with the
house of Israel, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their minds,
and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they
shall be to me a people." Heb. 8:10. The elect are enabled to perform
the conditions of the gospel, to which eternal life is promised. Our
"Redeemer blesses us in turning us from our iniquities." Acts 3:26.
And although the instability of the human spirit, by reason of
remaining corruptions, and those various temptations to which we
are liable, may excite our fear lest we should fall short of "the high
prize of our calling," yet the grace of the gospel secures true believers
against both.
1st. Whilst we are in the present state, our corruptions are not
perfectly healed, but there are some remains, which like a gangrene
threaten to seize on the vital parts, wherein the spiritual life is
seated. But the divine nature which is conveyed to all that are
spiritually descended from Christ, is active and powerful to resist all
carnal desires, and will prevail in the end. For if sin in its full vigour
could not control the efficacy of converting grace, how can the relics
of it, after grace hath taken possession, be strong enough to spoil it of
its conquest? There is a greater distance from death to life, than from
life to action. That omnipotent grace that visited us in the grave, and
restored life to the dead, can much more perpetuate it in the living.
That which was so powerful as to pluck the heart of stone out of the
breast, can preserve the heart of flesh.
It is true, the grace that is given to believers, in its own nature is a
perishing quality, as that which was bestowed on Adam. Not only the
slight superficial tincture in hypocrites will wear off, but that deep
impression of sanctifying grace in true believers, if it be not renewed,
would soon be defaced. But God hath promised to put his Spirit into
their hearts, "and to cause them to walk in his statutes, and they shall
keep his commandments." Ezek. 36:26. He is a living, reigning
principle in them, to which all their faculties are subordinate. The
Spirit infused grace at first, and enlivens it daily: he confirms their
faith, inflames their love, encourages their obedience, and refreshes
in their minds the ideas of that glory which is invisible and future. In
short, his influence cherishes the blessed beginnings of the spiritual
life. So that sincere grace, though weak in its degree, yet it is in a
state of progress till it come to perfection. The waters of the Spirit
have a cleansing virtue upon believers, till every spot be taken away,
and their purified souls ascend to heaven.
2dly. The grace of the Spirit shall make true christians finally
victorious over temptations to which they may be exposed. And those
are various: some are pleasant and insinuating, others are sharp and
furious, and are managed by the devil our subtile and industrious
enemy, to undermine, or by open battery to overthrow us. And how
difficult is it for the soul, whilst united to flesh, to resist the charms
of what is amiable, or to endure the assaults of what is terrible to
sense? But the renewed christian hath no reason to be affrighted
with disquieting fears, that any sinful temptation may come, which,
notwithstanding his watchfulness, may overcome him irrecoverably.
For,
(1.) Temptations are external, and have no power over our spirits but
what we give them. A voluntary resistance secures the victory to us.
And the apostle tells us, 1 John 4:4. "greater is he that is in believers,
than he that is in the world." God is stronger, not only in himself, but
as working in us, by the vigorous assistance of his grace to confirm
us, than the devil assisted with all the delights and terrors of the
world; and taking advantage of that remaining concupiscence which
is not entirely extinguished, is, to corrupt and destroy us.
(2.) All temptations in their degrees and continuance, are ordered by
God's providence. He is the president of the combat: none enter into
the lists but by his call: in all ages the promise shall be verified, "God
will not suffer his people to be tempted above what they are able." 1
Cor. 10:13. "They shall come off more than conquerors, through
Christ that loved them." Rom. 8:37. And as St. Austin observes;*
more powerful grace is necessary to fortify christians, in the midst of
all opposition, than Adam at first received. This is visible in the
glorious issue of the martyrs, "who loved not their lives unto the
death:" for Adam, when no person threatened him, nay against the
prohibition of God, abusing his liberty, did not abide in his
happiness, when it was most easy for him to avoid sin. But the
martyrs remained firm in the faith, not only under terrors, but
torments. And which is more admirable, in that Adam saw the
happiness present, which he should forfeit by his disobedience, and
the martyrs believed only the future glory they were to receive. This
proceeded only from God who was so merciful, as to make them
faithful. Briefly, unless there were a power above the divine, the elect
are secured from final apostasy. Our Saviour tells us, that his Father
"is greater than all, and none is able to pluck them out of his hand."
His invariable will and almighty power prevents their perishing.
Indeed if it were only by the strength of natural reason, or courage,
that we are to overcome temptations, some might be so violent as to
make the strongest to faint and fall away: but if the divine power be
the principle that supports us, it will make the weakest victorious.
For the grace of God makes us strong, and is not made weak by us.
From hence we may fully discover the advantage we have by the
gospel, above the terms of the natural covenant. Restoring mercy
hath bettered our condition: we have lost the integrity of the first,
and got the perfection of the second Adam: our salvation is put into a
stronger and safer hand. "I give," saith our Redeemer, John 10. "unto
my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any
pluck them out of my hand." That is an inviolable sanctuary, from
whence no believer can be taken. Christ is our friend, not only to the
altar, but now in the throne: our reconciliation is "ascribed to his
death," our conservation "to his life," Rom. 5:10. He that was created
in a state of nature could sin and die, but "he that is born of God
cannot sin unto death." 1 John 3:9. The new birth is unto eternal life.
In short, as the mercy of God is glorified in the whole work of our
salvation, so especially in the first and last grace it confers upon us.
In vocation that prevents us, and perseverance that crowns us:
according to the double change made in our state, translating us
from darkness to light, and from the imperfect light of grace, to the
full light of glory.
I have more particularly discoursed of this advantage by the new
covenant, in regard that the glory of God, and the comfort of true
christians is so much concerned in it. For if grace and freewill are put
in joint commission, so that the efficacy of it depends on the
mutability of the will, which may receive or reject it; the consequence
is visible, that (which is impious to suppose) the Son of God might
have died in vain. For that which is not effectual without a
contingent condition, must needs be as uncertain as the condition on
which it depends. So that although the wisdom of God so admirably
formed the design of our salvation, and there is such a connexion in
his counsels, yet all may be defeated by the mutability of man's
desires. And the most sincere christians would be always terrified
with perplexing jealousies; that notwithstanding their most serious
resolutions to continue in their duty, yet one day they may perish by
their apostasy. But the gospel assures us, that God will not reverse
his own eternal decrees, Isa. 53:11. And that the "Redeemer shall see
the travail of his soul, and be satisfied: and that believers are kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation."
3. There is an excellent manifestation of divine love, in the glorious
reward that is promised to believers, which far exceeds the primitive
felicity of man. Adam was under the covenant of nature, that
promised a reward suitable to his obedience and state. The manner
of declaring that covenant was natural.
(1.) External, by the discovery of God's attributes in his works, from
which it was easy for man to collect his duty and his reward.
(2) Internal, by his natural faculties. By the light of reason he
understood that so long as he continued in his original innocence,
the Creator who from pure goodness gave him his being, and all the
happiness which was concomitant with it, would certainly preserve
him in the perpetual enjoyment of it. But there was no promise of
heaven annexed to that covenant, without which Adam could attain
no knowledge, nor conceive any hopes of it. If there had been a
necessary connexion between his perfect obedience, and the life of
glory, it would have been revealed to him, to allure his will: for there
can be no desire of an unknown good. And whereas in the covenant
God principally and primarily regards the promise, and but
secondarily the threatening; the exercise of goodness being more
pleasing to him than of revenging justice; it is said, that God
expressly threatened death, but he made no promise of heaven: by
which it is evident it did not belong to that covenant. For it was
easier for man to understand the quality of the punishment that
attended sin, than to conceive of celestial happiness, of which he was
incapable in his animal state.
It is true, God might have bestowed heaven as an absolute gift upon
man, after a course of obedience; but it was not due by the condition
of the first covenant. A natural work can give no title to a
supernatural reward. Man's perseverance in his duty, according to
the original treaty, had been attended with immortal happiness upon
the earth; but the "blessed hope," Tit. 2:13. is only promised in the
gospel, and unspeakably transcends the felicity of nature in its
consummate state.
This reward is answerable to the invaluable treasure which was laid
down for it. The blood of the Son of God, as it is a ransom to redeem
us from misery, so it is a price to purchase glory for believers. 1 Tim.
2:6. It is called the "blood of the New Testament," Mat. 26:28.
because it conveys a title to the heavenly inheritance. Our impunity
is the effect of his satisfaction, our positive happiness of his
redundant merit. God was so well pleased with his perfect obedience,
which infinitely surpasses that of any mere creature, that he
promised to confer upon those who believe in him, all the glorious
qualities becoming the sons of God, and to make them associates
with him in his eternal kingdom. The complete happiness of the
redeemed, is the Redeemer's recompence, in which he is fully
satisfied for all his sufferings. Now the transcendent excellency of
this above the first state of man, will more distinctly appear, by
considering,
First. The place where it is enjoyed, and that is the heaven of
heavens. Adam was put into the terrestrial paradise, a place suitable
to his natural being, and abounding with all pleasing objects; but
they were such as creatures of a lower kind enjoyed with him. But
heaven is the element of angels, their native seat, who are the most
noble part of the creation. It is the true palace of God, entirely
separated from the impurities and imperfections, the alterations and
changes of the lower world; where he reigns in eternal peace. It is the
temple of the divine majesty, where his excellent glory is revealed in
the most conspicuous manner. "It is the habitation of his holiness,
the place where his honour dwells." It is the sacred mansion of light,
and joy, and glory. Paradise with all its pleasures was but a shadow
of it.
Secondly. The life of Adam was attended with innocent infirmities.
For the body being composed of the same principles with other
sensitive creatures, was in a perpetual flux, and liable to hunger, and
thirst, and weariness, and was to be repaired by food and sleep.
Adam was made a "living soul," 1 Cor. 15:45. therefore subject to
those inclinations and necessities which are purely animal. And
though whilst innocent, no disease could seize on him, yet he was
capable of hurtful impressions. Immortality was not the essential
property of man as compounded of soul and body, but conditional
upon his obedience, and consequent to his eating the fruit of the tree
of life. Gen. 3:22. Therefore man, after his sin, was expelled from
paradise, that he might not eat of it and live for ever. By which it
appears that eternal life in that happy state was not from the
temperament of the body, but to be preserved by the divine power in
the use of means. From hence it follows that Adam in his natural
state was not capable of the vision of God. Heaven is too pure an air
for him to have lived in. The glory of it is inconsistent with such a
tempered body. "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of
heaven." 1 Cor. 15:50. The faculties would be confounded with its
overcoming brightness. Till the sensitive powers are refined, and
exalted to that degree that they become spiritual, they cannot
converse with glorified objects. Now the bodies of the saints shall be
invested with celestial qualities. The natural shall be changed into a
spiritual body, and be preserved as the angels by the sole virtue of
the quickening spirit. The life above shall flourish in its full vigour,
without any other support, than the divine power that first created it.
As the body shall be spiritual, so truly immortal, and free from all
corruptive change; as the sun, which for so many ages hath shined
with an equal brightness to the world, and hath a durable fulness of
light in it. In this respect the "children of the resurrection," are equal
to the angels, Luke 20:36. who being pure spirits, do not marry to
perpetuate their kind, for they never die. And the glorified body shall
be clothed with a more divine beauty in the resurrection, than Adam
had in the creation. The glory of the second temple shall excel that of
the first. In short, the first "man was of the earth, earthy." 1 Cor.
15:47. and could derive but an earthly condition to his descendants:
but the Lord Christ is from heaven, and is the principle of an
heavenly and glorious life to all that are united to him.
Thirdly. The felicity of heaven exceeds the first, in the manner and
degrees of the fruition, and the continuance of it.
The vision of God in heaven is immediate. Adam was a spectator of
God's works, and his understanding being full of light, he clearly
discovered the divine attributes in their effects. The strokes of the
Creator's hand are engraven in all the parts of the universe. The
heavens, and earth, and all things in them, are evident testimonies of
the excellency of their author. The "invisible things of God from the
creation of the world are clearly seen." Rom. 1:20. And the
knowledge that shined in his soul, produced a transcendent esteem
of the Deity, in whom wisdom and power are united in their supreme
degree, and a superlative love and delight in him for his goodness.
Yet his sight of God was but "through a glass," an eclipsing medium.
For inferior beings are so imperfect, that they can give but a weak
resemblance of his infinite perfections. But the sight of God in
heaven, is called the "seeing of him as he is," 1 John 3:2. and signifies
the most clear and complete knowledge, which the rational soul
when purified and raised to its most perfect state can receive, and
outshines all the discoveries of God in the lower world. Adam had a
visible copy of his invisible beauty, but the saints in heaven see the
glorious original. He saw God in the reflection of the creature, but
the saints are under the direct beams of glory, and "see him face to
face." 1 Cor. 13:12. All the attributes appear in their full and brightest
lustre to them: wisdom, love, holiness, power, are manifested in their
exaltation. And the glorified soul, to qualify it for converse with God
in this intimate manner, hath a more excellent constitution than was
given to it in the creation. A new edge is put upon the faculties,
whereby they are fitted for those objects which are peculiar to
heaven. The intellectual eye is fortified for the immediate intuition of
God. Adam in paradise was absent from the Lord, in comparison of
the saints who encompass his throne, and are in the presence of his glory.
Besides, it is the peculiar excellency of the heavenly life, that the
saints every moment enjoy it without any allay, in the highest degree
of its perfection. The life of Adam was always in a circle of low and
mean functions of the animal nature, which being common to him
and beasts, the acts of it are not strictly human. But the spiritual life
in heaven is entirely freed from those servile necessities, and is spent
in the eternal performance of the most noble actions of which the
intelligent nature is capable. The saints do always contemplate,
admire, love, enjoy, and praise their everlasting benefactor. "God is
to them all in all."
In short, that which prefers the glory of heaven infinitely before the
first state of man, is the continuance of it for ever: it is an
unwithering and never fading glory. Adam was liable to temptations,
and capable of change, he fell in the garden of Eden, and was
sentenced to die. But heaven is the sanctuary of life and immortality;
it is inaccessible to any evil. The serpent that corrupted paradise with
its poison, cannot enter there. As there is no seed of corruption
within, so no cause of it without. Our Redeemer offered himself by
the eternal Spirit, and purchased an eternal inheritance for his
people. Their felicity is full and perpetual, without increase, for in the
first moment it is perfect and shall continue without declination. The
day of judgment is called the "last day:" for days, and weeks, and
months, and years, the revolutions which now measure time, shall
then be swallowed up in an unchangeable eternity. "The saints shall
be for ever with the Lord." 1 Thes. 4. And in all these respects, the
glory of the redeemed, as far exceeds the felicity of man in the
creation, as heaven, the bright seat of it, is above the fading beauty of
the terrestrial paradise.
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Post by Admin on Jun 18, 2024 16:58:27 GMT -5
[]XI. Practical inferences.
Practical inferences. Redeeming love deserves our highest
admiration, and humble acknowledgments. The illustration of it by
several considerations. God is infinitely amiable in himself, yet his
love is transient to the creature. It is admirable in creating and
preserving man, more in redeeming him, and that by the death of his
Son. The discovery of God's love in our redemption is the strongest
persuasive to repentance. The law is ineffectual to produce real
repentance. The common benefits of providence are insufficient to
cause faith and repentance in the guilty creature. The clear discovery
of pardoning mercy in the gospel can only remove our fears, and
induce us to return to God. The transcendent love of God should
kindle in us a reciprocal love to him. His excellencies and ordinary
bounty to mankind cannot prevail upon us to love him. His love to us
in Christ only conquers our hatred. Our love to him must be sincere
and superlative. The despising of saving mercy is the highest
provocation. It makes the condemnation of men most just, certain,
and heavy.
I. THIS redeeming love deserves our highest admiration, and most
humble acknowledgments. If we consider God aright, it may raise
our wonder, that he is pleased to bestow kindness upon any created
being. For in him is all that is excellent and amiable; and it is
essential to the Deity to have the perfect knowledge of himself, and
perfect love to himself. His love being proportioned to his
excellencies, the act is infinite, as the object: and the perfections of
the divine nature, being equal to his love, it is a just cause of
admiration that it is not confined to himself, but is transient and
goes forth to the creature. When David looked up to the heavens, and
saw the majesty of God written in characters of light, he admires that
love which first "made man a little lower than the angels, and
crowned him with glory and honour," Psal. 8. and that providential
care which is mindful of him, and visits him every moment. Such an
inconceivable distance there is between God and man, that it is
wonderful God will spend a thought upon us. "Lord, what is man that
thou takest knowledge of him? or the Son of man that thou makest
account of him? Man is like to vanity, his days are as a shadow that
passeth away." Psal. 144. His being in this world hath nothing firm,
or solid; it is like a shadow, that depends upon a cause that is in
perpetual motion, the light of the sun, and is always changing, till it
vanishes in the darkness of the night. But if we consider man in the
quality of a sinner, and what God hath wrought for his recovery, we
are overcome with amazement. All temporal favours are but foils to
this miraculous mercy, and unspeakably below the least instance of
it: without it all the privileges we enjoy above inferior creatures in
this life, will prove aggravations of our future misery. God saw us in
our degenerate state, destroyed by ourselves; and yet, O goodness,
truly divine! he loved us so far, as to make the way for our recovery.
High mountains were to be levelled, and great depths to be filled up,
before we could arrive at blessedness: all this hath been done by
mighty love. God laid the curse of the guilty upon the innocent, and
exposed his beloved Son to the sword of his justice, to turn the blow
from us. What astonishing goodness is it, that God who is the author
and end of all things, should become the means of our salvation? and
by the lowest abasement? What is so worthy of admiration as that
the eternal should become mortal, that being in the form of God, he
should take on him the form of a servant? that the judge of the world
should be condemned by the guilty? that he should leave his throne
in heaven to be nailed to the cross? that the prince of life should taste
of death? These are the great wonders which the Lord of love hath
performed, and all for sinful, miserable and unworthy man, who
deserved not the least drop of that sweat and blood he spent for him:
and without any advantage to himself, for what content can be added
to his felicity by a cursed creature? Infinite love! that is as admirable
as saving! "Love that passeth knowledge!" and is as much above our
comprehension as desert. In natural things, admiration is the effect
of ignorance, but here it is increased by knowledge. For the more we
understand the excellent greatness of God, and the vileness of man,
the more we shall be instructed to admire the glorious wonder of
saving mercy. A deliberate admiration springing from our most deep
thoughts, is part of the tribute and adoration we owe to God, who so
strangely saved us from the "wrath to come."
And the most humble acknowledgments are due for it. When David
told Mephibosheth, 2 Sam. 9:7, 8. that he should "eat bread with him
at his table continually; he bowed himself, and said, what is thy
servant, that thou shouldest look on such a dead dog as I am?" A
speech full of gratitude and humility; yet he was of a royal extraction,
though at that time in a low condition. With a far greater sense of our
unworthiness, we should reflect upon that condescending love, that
provides the "bread of God" for the food of our souls, without which
we had perished for want. David in that divine thanksgiving recorded
in the scripture, reflects upon his own meanness, and from that
magnifies the favour of God towards him. 2 Sam. 7:18. "Who am I, O
Lord God? and what is my house, that thou hast brought me
hitherto? And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord God, but
thou hast spoken of thy servant's house for a great while to come:
and is this the manner of man, O Lord God?" If such humble and
thankful acknowledgments were due for the sceptre of Israel, what is
for the crown of heaven? And that procured for us by the sufferings
of the Son of God? Briefly, goodness is the foundation of glory,
therefore the most solemn and affectionate praise is to be rendered
for transcendent goodness. The consent of heaven and earth, is, "in
ascribing blessing, and honour, and glory to him that sits on the
throne, and the Lamb for ever." Rev. 5:13.
II. The love of God discovered in our redemption, is the most
powerful persuasive to repentance. For the discovery of this we must
consider, that real repentance is the consequent of faith, and always
in proportion to it. Therefore the law which represents to us the
divine purity and justice, without any allay of mercy, can never work
true repentance in a sinner. When conscience is under the strong
conviction of guilt, and of God's justice as implacable, it causes a
dreadful flight from him, and a wretched neglect of means. Despair
hardens. The brightest discoveries of God in nature are not warm
enough to melt the frozen heart into the current of repentance. It is
true, the visible frame of the world, and the continual benefits of
providence, instruct men in those prime truths, the being and bounty
of God to those that serve him, and invite them to their duty. "God
never left himself without a witness in any age:" his goodness is
designed "to lead men to repentance." Acts 4:17. And the apostle
aggravates the obstinacy of men, that rendered that method entirely
fruitless. But the declaration of God's goodness in the gospel is
infinitely more clear and powerful, than the silent revelation by the
works of creation and providence. For although the patience and
general goodness of God offered some intimations that he is
placable, yet not a sufficient support for a guilty and jealous creature
to rely on. The natural notion of God's justice is so deeply rooted in
the human soul, that till he is pleased to proclaim an act of grace and
pardon, on the conditions of faith and repentance, it is hardly
possible that convinced sinners should apprehend him otherwise
than an enemy; and that all the common benefits they enjoy, are but
provisions allowed in the interval between the sentence pronounced
by the law, and the execution of it at death. Therefore God to
overcome our fears, and to melt us into a compliance, hath given in
the scripture the highest assurance of his willingness to receive all
relenting and returning sinners. He interposes the most solemn oath
to remove our suspicions. "As I live, saith the Lord, I delight not in
the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and
live." Ezek. 33:11. And have I any pleasure at all that the wicked
should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from
his ways and live?" Ezek. 18:23. The majesty and ardency of the
expressions testify the truth and vehemency of his desire, so far as
the excellency of his nature is capable to move our affections. And
the reason of it is clear; for the conversion of a sinner implies a
thorough change in the will and affections from sin to grace, and that
is infinitely pleasing to God's holiness, and the giving of life to the
converted is most suitable to his mercy. The angels who are infinitely
inferior to him in goodness, rejoice in the repentance and salvation
of men; much more doth God. There is an eminent difference
between his inclinations to exercise mercy, and justice. He uses
expressions of regret when he is constrained to punish. Psal. 81:13.
"O that my people had hearkened to me, and Israel had walked in my
ways! And how shall I give thee up Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee,
Israel? mine heart is turned within me." Hos. 11:8. As a merciful
judge, that pities the man, when he condemns the malefactor. But he
dispenses acts of grace with pleasure, "He pardons iniquity, and
passes by transgressions, because he delights in mercy." Mic. 7:18. It
is true, when sinners are finally obdurate, God is pleased in their
ruin, for the honour of his justice; yet it is not in such manner as in
their conversion and life, he doth not invite sinners to transgress,
that he may condemn them: he is not pleased when they give
occasion for the exercise of his anger. And above all, we have the
clearest and surest discovery of pardoning mercy in the death of
Christ. For what stronger evidence can there be of God's readiness to
pardon, than sending his Son into the world to be a sacrifice for sin,
that mercy without prejudice to his other perfections might upon our
repentance forgive us? And what more rational argument is there,
and more congruous to the breast of a man, to work in him a serious
grief and hearty detestation of sin, not only as a cursed thing, but as
it is contrary to the divine will, than the belief that God, in whose
power alone it is to pardon sinners, is most desirous to pardon them,
if they will return to obedience? The prodigal in his extreme distress
resolved to go to his Father with penitential acknowledgments and
submission: and, to use the words of a devout writer, his guilty
conscience as desperate, asked him, qua spe, with what hope? He
replied to himself, illa qua pater est. Ego perdidi quod erat filii; ille
quod patris est non amisit: though I have neglected the duty and lost
the confidence of a Son, he hath not lost the compassion of a Father.
That parable represents man in his degenerate forlorn state, and that
the divine goodness is the motive that prevails upon him to return to
his duty.
III. The transcendent love that God hath expressed in our
redemption by Christ, should kindle in us a reciprocal affection to
him. For what is more natural than that one flame should produce
another? "we love him, because he loved us first." The original of our
love to God is from the evidence of his to us: this alone can strongly
and sweetly draw the heart to him. It is true, the divine excellencies
as they deserve a superlative esteem, so the highest affection: but the
bare contemplation of them is ineffectual to fire the heart with a
zealous love to God. For man hath a diabolical seed in his corrupt
nature; he is inclined not only to sensuality, which is an implicit
hatred of God, (for an eager appetite to those things which God
forbids, and a fixed aversion to what he commands, are the natural
effects of hatred) but to malignity and direct hatred against God. "He
is an enemy in his mind through wicked works," Col. 1:21. and this
enmity ariseth from the consideration of God's justice, and the
effects of it. Man cannot sin and be happy, therefore he wishes there
were no God to whom he must be accountable. He is no more
wrought on by the divine perfections and beauties to love the Deity,
than a guilty person who resolvedly goes on to break the laws, can be
persuaded to love the judge, for his excellent knowledge, and his
inflexible integrity, who will certainly condemn him. Besides, the
great and abundant blessings, which God, as Creator and preserver,
bestows upon all, cannot prevail upon guilty creatures to love him.
Indeed the goodness that raised us from a state of nothing, is
unspeakably great, and lays an eternal obligation upon us. The whole
stock of our affections is due to him, for conferring upon us the
human nature, that is common to kings and the meanest beggar. All
the riches and dignity of the greatest prince, whereby he exceeds the
poorest wretch, compared to this benefit which they both share in,
have no more proportion than a farthing to an immense treasure.
The innumerable expressions of God's love to us every day should
infinitely endear him to us. For who is so inhuman as not to love his
parents, or his friend, who defended him from his deadly enemies, or
relieved him in his poverty, especially if the vein of his bounty be not
dried up, but always diffuses itself in new favours? If we love the
memory of that emperor, who reflecting upon one day that passed
without his bestowing some benefit, with grief said, diem perdidi, I
have lost a day! How much more should we love God who every
moment bestows innumerable blessings upon his creatures? But
sinful man hath contracted such an unnatural hardness, that he
receives no impressions from the renewed mercies of God. He
violates the principles of nature, and reason. For how unnatural is it,
not to love our benefactor, when the dull ox and the stupid ass serve
those that feed them? And how unreasonable when the publicans
return love for love! Now there is nothing that can perfectly
overcome our hatred, but the consideration of that love which hath
freed us from eternal misery: for the guilty creature will be always
suspicious, that notwithstanding the ordinary benefits of providence,
God is an enemy to it: and till man is convinced, that in loving God,
he must truly love himself, he will never sincerely affect him. This
was one great design of God in the way, as well as in the work of our
redemption, to gain our hearts entirely to himself. He saves us in the
most endearing and obliging manner. As David's affection declared
itself, "I will not serve the Lord with that which cost me nothing:" so
God would not save man with that which cost him nothing, but with
the dearest price hath purchased a title to our love. "God was in
Christ reconciling the world to himself," as well as through Christ
reconciling himself to the world. He hath propounded such
arguments for our love, so powerful, and sublime, that Adam in
innocence was unacquainted with. He sent down his own bowels to
testify his affection to us. And that should be the greatest
endearment of our love, which was the greatest evidence of his.
And if we consider the person of our Redeemer, what more worthy
object of our affection than Christ? and Christ enduring the most
terrible things, and at last dying with all the circumstances of
dishonour and pain, for love to man? If he had no attractive
excellencies, yet his cruel sufferings for us should make him
infinitely precious and dear to our souls. If by solemn regards we
contemplate him in the garden, amazed at the first approaches of
that cup mixed with all the ingredients of divine displeasure,
"sweating like drops of blood," under a weight of unspeakable
sorrow, and without the least relief of man, whose sins he then bore;
what kind of marble are our hearts if they do not tenderly relent at
this doleful spectacle? Can we stand by him "prostrate on the earth,
and offering up prayers and supplications with strong cries and
tears" (the effects of the travail of his soul) without the most
passionate sensibility? Can we see him contemned by impure worms,
abused in his sacred offices, spitefully represented as a mock king,
buffeted and flouted as a mock prophet, his sacred face defiled with
loathsome spittle, his back torn with sharp scourges, and all endured
with a victorious patience: can we behold this with an unconcerned
eye, without the mournings of holy love? Can we accompany him in
the dolorous way, and see him fainting and sinking under his heavy
cross, and not feel his sufferings? Can we ascend to mount Calvary,
and look on him hanging on the infamous tree in the midst of thieves
suffering the utmost fury of malicious enemies, and not be crucified
with him? Can we hear the astonishing complaint of his deserted
soul to the judge of all the world doing extreme right on him as our
surety, and not be overcome with grief and love? Shall not the warm
streams sadly running from his wounded head and hands and feet
melt our congealed affections? His pierced side discovers his heart,
the vital fountain opened to wash away our guilt, and shall our hearts
be untouched? His bloody undeserved death the precious ransom of
our souls makes him our life, and shall it not render him full of
loveliness to our inflamed thoughts? He is more amiable on the
cross, than in the throne: for there we see the clearest testimony, and
the most glorious triumph of his love. There he endured the anger of
heaven, and the scorn of the earth. There we might see joy saddened,
faith fearing, salvation suffering, and life dying.* Blessed Redeemer!
what couldest thou have done or suffered more, to quicken our dead
powers, and enflame our cold hearts toward thee? How can we
remember thy bleeding dying love without an ecstacy of affection? If
we are not more insensible than the rocks, it is impossible but we
must be touched and softened by it.
Suppose an angel by special delegation had been enabled to have
"trod satan under our feet," our obligations to him had been
inexpressible, and our love might have been intercepted from
ascending to our Creator. For salvation is a greater benefit, than the
mere giving to us our natural being. As the privation of felicity with
the actual misery that is joined with it, is infinitely worse than the
negation of being. Our Lord pronounced concerning Judas. Mat.
26:24. "It had been good for that man that he had never been born."
Redeeming goodness exceeds creating. Now the Son of God to
procure our highest love, alone wrought salvation for us.
And what admirable goodness is it, that puts a value upon our
affection, and accepts such a small return! Our most intent and
ardent love bears no more proportion to his, than a spark to the
element of fire. Besides, his love to us was pure, and without any
benefit to himself; but ours to him is profitable to our souls, for their
eternal advantage. Yet with this he is fully satisfied; when we love
him in the quality of a Saviour, we give him the glory of that he
designs most to be glorified in, that is, of his mercy to the miserable.
For this reason he instituted the sacrament of the supper, the
contrivance of his love, to refresh the memory of his death, and
quicken our fainting love to him. Now the love that our Saviour
requires must be.
1. Sincere and unfeigned. This declares itself by a care to please him
in all things. "If a man love me," saith our Saviour, "he will keep my
commandments." Obedience is the most natural and necessary
product of love. For love is the spring of action, and employs all the
faculties in the service of the person loved. The apostle expresses the
force of it by an emphatical word, συνέχει, 2 Cor. 5. "The love of
Christ constrains us:" it signifies to have one bound, and so much
under power that he cannot move without leave. As the inspired
prophets were carried by the spirit, and entirely acted by his
motions. Such an absolute empire had the love of Christ over him,
Acts 18:5. ruling all the inclinations of his heart, and actions of his
life. It is this alone makes obedience cheerful, and constant. For love
is seated in the will, and the obedience that proceeds from it, is out of
choice, and purely voluntary. "No commandment is grievous that is
performed from love." 1 John 5:3. And it makes obedience constant:
that which is forced from the impression of fear, is unstedfast; but
what is mixed with delight, is lasting.
2. Our love to Christ must be supreme exceeding that which is given
to all inferior objects. The most elevated and entire affection is due to
him who saves us from torments that are extreme and eternal, and
bestows upon us an inheritance immortal and undefiled. By the
offering of himself to divine justice he has obliged us "to present our
bodies a living sacrifice to God, which is our reasonable service;" life
itself and all the endearments of it, relations, estates are to be
disvalued, when set in comparison with him. Nay if (by an
impossible supposition) they could be separated, our Saviour should
be more dear to us than salvation. For he declared greater love in
giving himself for our ransom, than in giving heaven to be our
reward. When we love him in the highest degree we are capable of,
we have reason to mourn for the imperfection of it. In short, a
superlative love, as it is due to our Redeemer, so it is only accepted
by him. "He that loveth father or mother, son or daughter more than
him, is not worthy of him." Mat. 10:37. And he tells us in other places
that we must hate them, to show, that our love to him should so far
exceed the affection that is due to those relations, that in all
occasions where they divide from Christ, we should demean
ourselves as if we had only for them an indifference, and even an
aversion. Indeed the preferring of any thing before him, who is
altogether desirable in himself, and infinitely deserves our love, is
brutishly to undervalue him, and in effect not to love him. For in a
temptation where Christ and the beloved object are set in
competition; as a greater weight turns the scales, so the stronger
affection will cause a person to renounce Christ, for the possession of
what he loves better. It is the love of Christ reigning in the heart, that
is the only principle of perseverance.
IV. What an high provocation is it to despise redeeming mercy, and
to defeat that infinite goodness which hath been at such expence for
our recovery? The Son of God hath emptied all the treasures of his
love, to purchase deliverance for guilty and wretched captives; he
hath past through so many pains and thorns to come and offer it to
them; he solicits them to receive pardon and liberty, upon the
conditions of acceptance and amendment, which are absolutely
necessary to qualify them for felicity: now if they slight the benefit,
and renounce their redemption; if they sell themselves again under
the servitude of sin, and gratify the devil with a new conquest over
them; what a bloody cruelty is this to their own souls, and a vile
indignity to the Lord of glory? And are there any servile spirits so
charmed with their misery, and so in love with their chains, who will
stoop under their cruel captivity, to be reserved for eternal
punishment? Who can can believe it? But alas, examples are
numerous and ordinary: the most by a folly as prodigious as their
ingratitude, prefer their sins before their Saviour, and love that
which is the only just object of hatred, and hate him who is the most
worthy object of love. It is a most astonishing consideration, that
love should persuade Christ to die for men, and that they should
trample upon his blood, and choose rather to die by themselves, than
to live by him. That God should be so easy to forgive, and man so
hard to be forgiven. This is a sin of that transcendent height, that all
the abominations of Sodom and Gomorrah, are not equal to it. This
exasperates mercy, that dear and tender attribute; the only advocate
in God's bosom for us. This makes the judge irreconcilable. The
rejecting of life upon the gracious terms of the gospel, makes the
condemnation of men most just, certain, and heavy.
1. Most just: for when Christ hath performed what was necessary for
the expiation of sin, and hath opened the throne of grace, which was
before shut against us, and by this God hath declared how willing he
is to save sinners; if they are wilful to be damned, and frustrate the
blessed methods of grace, it is most equal they should inherit their
own choice: "they judge themselves unworthy of eternal life."
Conscience will justify the severest doom against them.
2. It makes their condemnation certain and final. The sentence of the
law is reversible by an appeal to an higher court; but that of the
gospel against the refusers of mercy will remain in its full force for
ever. "He that believes not, is condemned already." John 3:18. It is
some consolation to a malefactor, that the sentence is not
pronounced against him: but an unbeliever hath no respite. The
gospel assures the sincere believer, that "he shall enter into
condemnation, to prevent his fears of an after sentence; but it
denounces a present doom against those who reject it. "The wrath of
God abides on them." Obstinate infidelity sets beyond all possibility
of pardon: "there is no sacrifice for that sin." Salvation itself cannot
save the impenitent infidel: for he excludes the only means whereby
mercy is conveyed. How desperate then is the case of such a sinner?
To what sanctuary will he fly? All the other attributes condemn him,
holiness excites justice, and justice awakens power for his
destruction; and if mercy interpose not between him and ruin, he
must perish irrecoverably. "Whoever loves not the Lord Christ, is
Anathema Maranatha;" he is under an irrevocable curse, which the
Redeemer will confirm at his coming.
3. Wilful neglect of redeeming mercy aggravates the sentence, and
brings an extraordinary damnation upon sinners. Besides the doom
of the law which continues in its vigour against transgressors, the
gospel adds a more heavy one against the impenitent, "because he
believes not in the name of the only begotten Son of God." John 3:18.
Infidelity is an outrage not to a man or an angel, but to the eternal
Son. For the redemption of souls is reckoned as a part of his reward,
"he shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied." Isa. 53. Those
therefore who spurn at salvation, deny him the honour of his
sufferings; and are guilty of the defiance of his love, of the contempt
of his clemency, of the provocation of the most sensible and severe
attribute when it is incensed. This is to strike him at the heart, and to
kick against his bowels. This increases the anguish of his sufferings,
and imbitters the cup of his passion. This renews his sorrows, and
makes his wounds bleed afresh. Dreadful impiety! that exceeds the
guilt of the Jews; they once killed him being in his humble inglorious
state, but this is a daily crucifying him now glorified. Ungrateful
wretches! that refuse to bring glory to their Redeemer, and
blessedness to themselves:* that rather choose that the accuser
should triumph in their misery, than their Saviour rejoice in their
felicity. "This is the great condemnation, that Christ came into the
world" to save men from death, and they refuse the pardon. John
3:19. It is an aggravation of sin above what the devils are capable of;
for pardon was never offered to those rebellious spirits. In short, so
deadly a malignity there is in it, that it poisons the gospel itself, and
turns the sweetest mercy into the sorest judgment. The Sun of
Righteousness who is a reviving life to the penitent believer, is a
consuming fire to the obdurate. How much more tolerable had been
the condition of such sinners, if saving grace had never appeared
unto men, or they had never heard of it? For the degrees of wrath
shall be in proportion to the riches of neglected goodness. The
refusing life from Christ, makes us guilty of his death. And when he
shall come in his glory, and be visible to all that pierced him, what
vengeance will be the portion of those who despised the majesty of
his person, the mystery of his compassions and sufferings? Those
that lived and died in the darkness of heathenism, shall have a cooler
climate in hell, than those who neglected the great salvation.[/b][/font]
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