A Complete Body of Divinity
I shall conclude, on this point, with a few inferences.
1. God is omnipotent; that is, can do all things. It is true he cannot lie nor deny himself, for these are repugnant to his nature, and argue not power, but weakness and imperfection.
2. God's power never acts to its utmost extent. He can do more always than he either does or will do, Matthew 3:9. He can do all things possible; but he only does what he has decreed to he done, Matthew 26:53, 54.
3. Hence we may be confirmed in our belief of the resurrection. Some are ready to reckon it a thing impossible, that there can be a recollection of the dispersed particles of men's bodies when they are dissolved into dust, and scattered into the four winds. But if we consider the power of God, this will abundantly answer all that can be objected against this truth. Hence says the apostle, Acts 26:8. 'Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?' And says our Savior to the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection, 'You do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.' Almighty power can meet with no let or bar. Unless the particles of men's bodies could be scattered beyond the reach of Almighty power, and grinded so small as to escape the knowledge and care of God, this dispersion can make nothing against the faith and possibility of the resurrection.
4. Is God of infinite power? then all his promises shall be most certainly accomplished, whatever difficulties may be in the way thereof. For God is able to bring to pass whatever he has promised to his people. Therefore difficulty or improbability should never discourage or weaken our faith, because the power of God is infinite.
5. They are absolutely sure of salvation who are kept by the power of God; for God is able to keep them from falling, and his power is engaged for their preservation. They are surrounded with and enfolded in the arms of Omnipotence; their souls are in safe custody, being committed unto Christ, from whose hands none can pluck them.
6. We to those against whom the power of God is set; for 'they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, 2 Thessalonians 1:9. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Consider this, O you sinners, and flee from the wrath that is to come.
7. Abuse not the power of God, by limiting it, as Israel did in the wilderness, Psalm 78:19 by trusting to an arm of flesh, as too many are apt to do, more than to the God of power, Jeremiah 17:5 or by fearing the wrath of man, who can only kill the body, and not dreading the displeasure of Almighty God, Isaiah 51:12, 13.
8. Lastly, Improve the power of God by faith, depending upon it for the performance of all his gracious promises towards you and the church; for 'he can work, and who shall let it?' for strength to resist and vanquish, sin, Satan, and the world, saying, 'If God be for us, who can be against us?' and for grace to enable you to the performance of every commanded duty, saying with the apostle, 'I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me.'
Fourthly, The next communicable attribute of God that falls to be considered is holiness, which is the absolute purity of his nature, whereby he delights in whatever is agreeable to his holy will, and in the resemblance of it that is in the creatures. Or, it is the perfect rectitude and integrity of the divine essence, whereby in all that he does he acts like himself and for himself, delighting in whatever is agreeable to his will and nature, and abhorring whatever is contrary thereto. Hence he is said to be 'glorious in holiness,' Exodus. 15:11. And 'he is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look upon iniquity,' Habakkuk 1:13. And he is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in holiness. Hence the heavenly host proclaim, 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts,' Isaiah 6:3.
Now, God is,
(1.) Necessarily holy. Not only he will not, but he cannot look on iniquity. His holiness is not only an act of his will, but belongs to his essence.
(2.) He is essentially holy. Holiness is the essential glory of the divine nature; yes, it is his very essence. Holiness in men is an accessory quality and superadded gift, and is separable from the creature. But in God his essence and his holiness are the same. He could as soon cease to be God, as cease to be holy.
(3.) He is perfectly holy. The best saints on earth are but holy in part; there is still a mixture of sin in them while here. But, 'God is light, and in him is no darkness at all,' 1 John 1:5.
(4.) He is universally holy; holy in all that he is, in all that he has, and in all that he does. He is holy in his name, in his nature, in his word, and in his works.
(5.) He is originally holy. Angels and men are made holy; but God is holy of himself, and he is the original spring of all the holiness that is in the creatures
(6.) He is exemplarily holy. The holiness of God is the example and pattern of all the holiness that is in the creatures. Hence we are required to 'be holy as God is holy,' 1 Peter 1:16.
(7.) He is perpetually and unchangeably holy. The best men on earth may change to the worse; they may grow less holy than they are; but God is immutable in his holiness. He cannot grow more holy than he is, because he is infinitely holy, and his holiness is incapable of any addition. Nor can he grow less holy than he is, because then he would cease to be God.
The holiness of God is manifested and discovered,
1. In his word; and that both in the precepts and promises thereof, God manifested his hatred and detestation of sin even in a variety of sacrifices under the ceremonial law; and the occasional washings and sprinklings upon ceremonial defilements, which polluted only the body, were a clear proof, that everything that had a resemblance to evil was loathsome to God. All the legal sacrifices, washings, and purifications, were designed to express what an evil sin is, and how hateful and abominable it is to him. But the holiness of God is most remarkably expressed in the moral law. Hence the law is said to be holy, Romans 7:12. It is a true transcript of the holiness of God. And it is holy in its precepts. It requires an exact, perfect, and complete holiness in the whole man, in every faculty of the soul, and in every member of the body. It is holy in its prohibitions. It forbids and condemns all impurity and filthiness whatever. It discharges not only sinful words and actions, gross and atrocious crimes, and profane, blasphemous, and unprofitable speeches, but all sinful thoughts and irregular motions of the heart. Hence is that exhortation, Jeremiah 4:14. 'O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved: how long shall your vain thoughts lodge within you?' It is holy in its threatenings. All these have their fundamental root in the holiness of God, and are a branch of this essential perfection. All the terrible threatening annexed to the law are declarations of the holiness and purity of God, and of his infinite hatred and detestation of sin.
Again, the holiness of God appears in the promises of the word. They are called holy promises, Psalm 105:42 and they are designed to promote and encourage true holiness. Hence says the apostle, 2 Corinthians 7:1. 'Having these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord.' By them we are 'made partakers of a divine nature,' 2 Peter 1:4.
2. The holiness of God is manifested in his works. Hence the Psalmist says, 'The Lord is holy in all his works' Psalm 145:17. More particularly,
(1.) The divine holiness appears in the creation of man. Solomon tells us, Ecclesiastes 7:29 that 'God made man upright;' and Moses says, that he was 'made after the image of God,' Genesis 1:27. Now, the image of God in man consists chiefly in holiness. Therefore the new man is said to be 'created after God in righteousness and true holiness,' Ephesians 4:24. Adam was made with a perfection of grace. There was an entire and universal rectitude in all its faculties, disposing them to their proper operations. There was no disorder among his affections, but a perfect agreement between the flesh and the spirit; and they both joined in the service of God. He fully obeyed the first and great command, of loving the Lord with all his soul and strength, and his love to other things was regulated by his love to God. When Adam dropped from the creating finger of God, he had knowledge in his understanding, sanctity in his will, and rectitude in his affections. There was such a harmony among all his faculties, that his members yielded to his affections, his affections to his will, his will obeyed his reason, and his reason was subject to the law of God. Here then was a display of the divine purity.
(2.) In the works of Providence; Particularly in his judicial proceedings against sinners for the violation of his holy and righteous laws. All the fearful judgments which have been poured down upon sinners, spring from God's holiness and hatred of sin. All the dreadful storms and tempests in the world are blown up by it. All diseases and sicknesses, wars, pestilence, plagues, and famines, are designed to vindicate God's holiness and hatred of sin. And therefore, when God had smitten the two sons of Aaron for offering strange fire, he says, 'I will be sanctified in them that draw near me, and before all the congregation I will be glorified,' Leviticus 10:3. He glorified himself in declaring by that act, before all the people, that he is a holy God, that cannot endure sin and disobedience. More particularly,
[1.] God's holiness and hatred of sin is clearly manifested in his punishing the angels that sinned. It is said, 2 Peter 2:4. '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.' Neither their mighty numbers, nor the nobility of their natures, could incline their offended Sovereign to spare them; they were immediately turned out of Heaven, and expelled from the divine presence. Their case is hopeless and helpless; no mercy will ever be shown to one of them, being under the blackness of darkness forever.
[2.] In the punishment threatened and inflicted on man for his first apostasy from God. Man in his first state was the friend and favorite of Heaven; by his extraction and descent he was the Son of God, a little lower than the angels; consecrated and crowned for the service of his Maker, and appointed as king over the inferior world; he was placed in paradise, the garden of God, and admitted to fellowship and communion with him. But sin has divested him of ail his dignity and glory. By his rebellion against his Creator, he made a forfeiture of his dominion, and so lost the obedience of the sensible creatures, and the service of the insensible. He was thrust out of paradise, banished from the presence of God, and debarred from fellowship and communion with him. God immediately sentenced him and all his posterity to misery, death, and ruin. This is a clear demonstration of the infinite purity and holiness of God. But blessed be God, for Jesus Christ, the second Adam, who has restored that which the first Adam took away.
[3.] In executing terrible and strange judgments upon sinners. It was for sin that God drowned the old world with a deluge of water, rained Hell out of Heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and made the earth open her mouth, and swallow up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. It was for sin that God brought terrible destroying, judgments upon Jerusalem. All calamities and judgments spring from this bitter root, as sword, pestilence, distempers of body, perplexities of mind, poverty, reproach, and disgrace, and whatever is grievous and afflictive to men. All this shows how hateful sin is to God.
[4.] In punishing sins seemingly small with great and heavy judgments. A multitude of angels were sent down to Hell for an aspiring thought, as some think. Uzzah, a good man, was struck dead in a moment for touching the ark; yes, fifty thousand Beth-shemites were smitten dead for looking into it. We are apt to entertain slight thoughts of many sins: but God has set forth some as examples of his hatred and abhorrence of sins seemingly small, for a warning to others, and a testimony and demonstration of his exact holiness.
[5.] In bringing heavy afflictions on his own people for sin. Even the sins of believers in Christ do sometimes cost them very dear. He will not suffer them to pass without correction for their transgressions. Though they are exempted from everlasting torments in Hell, yet they are not spared from the furnace of affliction here on earth. We have instances of this in David, Solomon, Jonah, and other saints. Yes, sometimes God in this life, punishes sin more severely in his own people than in other men. Moses was excluded from the land of Canaan but for speaking unadvisedly with his lips, though many greater sinners were suffered to enter in. Such severity towards his own people is a plain demonstration, that God hates sin as sin, and not because the worst men commit it.
[6.] In sentencing so many of Adam's posterity to everlasting torments for sin. That an infinitely good God, who is goodness itself, and delights in mercy, should adjudge so many of his own creatures to the everlasting pains and torments of Hell, must proceed from his infinite holiness, on account of something infinitely detested and abhorred by him.
3. The holiness of God appears in our redemption by Jesus Christ. Here his love to holiness and his hatred of sin is most conspicuous. All the demonstrations that ever God gave of his hatred of sin were nothing in comparison of this. Neither all the vials of wrath and judgment which God has poured out since the world began, nor the naming furnace of a sinner's conscience, nor the groans and roarings of the damned in Hell, nor that irreversible sentence pronounced against the fallen angels, do afford such a demonstration of the divine holiness, and hatred of sin, as the death and sufferings of the blessed Redeemer. This will appear, if you consider,
(1.) The great dignity and excellency of his person. He was the eternal and only begotten Son of God, the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person. Yet he must descend from the throne of his majesty, divest himself of his robes of insupportable light, take upon him the form of a servant, become a curse, and bleed to death for sin. Did ever sin appear so hateful to God as here? To demonstrate God's infinite holiness, and hatred of sin, he would have the most glorious and most excellent person in Heaven and earth to suffer for it. He would have his own Son to die on a disgraceful cross, and be exposed to the terrible flames of divine wrath, rather than sin should live, and his holiness remain forever disparaged by the violations of his law.
(2.) How dear he was to his Father. He was his only begotten Son, he had not another; the only darling and the chief delight of his soul, who had lain in his bosom from all eternity. Yet as dear as he was to God, he would not and could not spare him, when he stood charged with his people's sins. For says the apostle, Romans 8:32. 'God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.' As he spared him not in a way of free bounty, giving him freely as a ransom for their souls! so he spared him not in a way of vindictive justice, but exacted the utmost mite of satisfaction from him for their sins.
(3.) The greatness of his sufferings. Indeed the extremity of his sufferings cannot be expressed. Insensible nature, as if it had been capable of understanding and affection, was disordered in its whole frame at his death. The sun forsook his shining, and clothed the whole heavens in black; so that the air was dark at noon-day, as if it had been midnight. The earth shook and trembled, the rocks were rent asunder, and universal nature shrank. Christ suffered all that wrath which was due to the elect for their sins. His sufferings were equivalent to those of the damned. He suffered a punishment of loss: for all the comforting influences of the Spirit were suspended for a time. The divine nature kept back all its joys from the human nature of Christ, in the time of his greatest sufferings. We deserved to have been separated from God forever; and therefore our Redeemer was deserted for a time. There was a suspension of all joy and comfort from his soul, when he needed it most. This was most afflicting and cutting to him, who had never seen a frown in his Father's face before. It made him cry out with a lamentable accent, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' Again, he suffered a punishment of sense, and that with respect to both his body and soul. The elect had forfeited both soul and body to divine vengeance; and therefore Christ suffered in both. The sufferings of his body were indeed terrible. It was filled with exquisite torture and pain. His hands and his feet, the most sensible parts were pierced with nails. His body was distended with such pains and torments as when all the parts are out of joint. Hence it is said of him, Psalm 22:14, 15. 'I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of my affections, my strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and you have brought me unto the dust of death.' Now, thus did the Son of God suffer. His pure and blessed hands, which were never stretched out but to do good, were pierced and rent asunder: and those feet which bore the Redeemer of the world, and for which the very waters had a reverence, were nailed to a tree. His body which was the precious workmanship of the Holy Spirit, and the temple of the Deity was destroyed. But his bodily sufferings were but the body of his sufferings. It was the sufferings of his soul that was the soul of his sufferings. No tongue can tell you what he endured here. When all the comforting influences of the Spirit were suspended, then an impetuous torrent of unmixed sorrows broke into his soul. O what agonies and conflicts, what sharp encounters, and distresses did he meet with from the wrath of God that was poured out upon him! He bore the wrath of an angry God, pure wrath without any alloy or mixture, and all that wrath which was due to the elect through all eternity for their innumerable sins. Sin was so hateful to God, that nothing could expiate it, or satisfy for it, but the death and bitter agonies of his dear Son.
(4.) Consider the cause of his sufferings. It was not for any sin of his own, for he had none, being holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. They were made his only by a voluntary susception, by taking his people's sins upon him. And though they were only imputed to him, yet God would not spare him. So that there is nothing wherein the divine holiness and hatred of sin is so manifest as in the sufferings of his own dear Son. This was a greater demonstration thereof than if all men and angels had suffered for it eternally in hell-fire.
IT remains now to shut up this point with a few inferences.
1. Hence see the great evil of sin. It strikes against the divine holiness, which is the peculiar glory of the Deity; so that it is not only contrary to our own interest, but to the very nature of God. All sin aims in general at the being of God, but especially at the holiness of his being. There are some sins that strike more directly against one divine perfection, and some against another; but all sins agree together in their enmity against the holiness of God. Hence, when Sennacherib's sin is aggravated, the Holy Spirit takes the rise from this perfection, 2 Kings 19:22. 'Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? and against whom have you exalted your voice, and lifted up your eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.' God cannot but hate that which is directly opposite to the glory of his nature, and the luster and varnish of all his other perfections. Now, what an horrid evil must that be which is so contrary to the holy nature of God, and which is infinitely detested and abhorred by him?
2. Hence see the excellency of true gospel-holiness. Holiness is the glory and beauty of God, and the glory of the heavenly angels; and therefore it must be the glory of men and women, that which makes them truly glorious. In this respect the king's daughter is said to be all glorious within. The church is glorious, because she is holy. Hence Christ sanctifies and cleanses it, that he may present it to himself a glorious church, Ephesians 5:25, 26. Holiness is the image of God in the rational creature. The more holy one is, the more like is he to God. This is our chief excellency. Man's original glory and happiness consisted in this; and the excellency of angels above devils lies in this. Holiness has a self-evidencing excellency in it. There is such a beauty and majesty in it, as commands an acknowledgment of it from the consciences of all sorts of knowing men.
3. God can have no gracious communion with unholy sinners: 'For what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion has light with darkness?' 2 Corinthians 6:14. It is simply impossible that an infinitely holy God should embrace vile polluted sinners that are not washed from their filthiness. They can have no fellowship with him here or hereafter. God will not give impure sinners one good look; for 'he is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity,' Habakkuk 1:13. All communion is founded on union, and union upon likeness. But what likeness is there between a holy God and vile polluted creatures? Therefore they can never expect to have any communion with him, unless they be made clean. Hence they are directed to this, in order to their communion with God, Jam. 4:8. 'Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.' 2 Corinthians 6:17, 18. 'Come out from among them, and be you separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.'
4. The best of saints, who have attained the highest degrees, and made the greatest improvements in holiness and purity, may be ashamed in the presence of an infinitely holy God; for they are far short of that holiness which God requires, and all the purity they have attained is sadly tinctured with impurity. It had this effect upon the evangelical prophet, when he had a vision of the holy God. Isaiah 6:5. 'Woe is me,' says he, 'for I am undone, because I am of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.'
5. Despisers of holiness are despisers of God. For holiness is the glory of God, and that in which he delights above all things. For men, therefore, to despise holiness in the saints, and to make a mock of their holy lives and practices, is a high contempt of the holy God, who will highly resent such a great indignity done him.
6. There is no access to God without a Mediator. 'For our God is a consuming fire,' Hebrews 12:29, and our sin has made us as stubble fully dry. He is infinitely pure and holy, and we are vile filthy creatures; so that it is quite impossible for us to have any access to him, or communion with him, on our own account. We have all reason to cry out, as 1 Samuel 6:20. 'Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?' There is no standing before him without a Mediator. The spots and blemishes of our best duties cannot be hidden from the eyes of his holiness. He cannot accept of a righteousness lower than that which bears some suitableness to the holiness of his nature: but even our highest obedience and best righteousness does not in any degree suit the divine holiness: and therefore it cannot challenge any acceptance with God. The righteousness of Christ, being the righteousness of God, a perfect and unspotted righteousness, is that wherein alone the holiness of God can acquiesce, and is the foundation of all access to God, and communion with him.
7. Is God infinitely and necessarily holy, so that he cannot but hate sin? then how admirable is the patience of God towards this land, and the generation wherein we live? How much sin and wickedness abounds among us? Alas! all kinds of sin woefully prevail at this day among all ranks and degrees of persons, high and low, rich and poor, noble and ignoble; all have corrupted their way. Sins of a heinous nature are to be found among us, such as bid God defiance; horrid blasphemies, hideous oaths, vile adulteries, cruel oppressions, contempt of religion, and gross profanation of the Lord's day. Add to all these, ingratitude, worldliness, pride, and self-conceit among such as are more eminent for a profession of religion. All these are committed under a clear gospel-light, after signal mercies and deliverances, against the most solemn covenant engagements, personal and national, and against manifold rebukes and warnings from the word and providence of God. And alas! how are these sins increased and multiplied? Who can compute the number of the sins which one profane wretch is guilty of? But what are these to the sins of a whole city? and what are the sins of a whole city to the sins of the whole nation? Who can compute the number of the sins which Scotland is guilty of in one day? But what are these to the sins which have been committed for a great many years past? Ah! we are a people deeply laden with iniquity. O what matter of admiration is here, that God bears so long with us! His holiness and purity renders his patience the more astonishing. O the riches of his forbearance towards us! Admire it and adore it, and praise and bless him for it; and beware of abusing it, by taking liberty to go on in sin, because of it. Such an amazing patience, if abused, will render our judgment the more severe.
8. Lastly, Be exhorted to make a suitable improvement of the holiness of God, by fleeing to Jesus Christ, whose perfect righteousness alone can make you acceptable to God, and whose Spirit can sanctify and cleanse you; by giving thanks at the remembrance of the divine holiness, by proclaiming the glory thereof; and by studying holiness in all manner of life and conversation.
Fifthly, The next communicable attribute of God that falls under our consideration is his justice, which is the perfect rectitude of his nature, whereby he is infinitely righteous and equal, both in himself, and in all his dealings with his creatures, Deuteronomy 32:4. 'Just and right is he.' God is just to himself in acting in all things agreeable to his nature and perfections. All his actions are such as become such a pure and holy being as he is. He cannot do anything that is contrary to the perfection of his nature: he cannot lie nor deny himself. He is just to himself in maintaining his own glory, and his divine rights and prerogatives; for he will not give his glory to another. And he is just towards his creatures in all his dealings with them, particularly with man. Here God may be considered,
1. As a sovereign Lord; and,
2. As supreme governor and Judge of the world.
(1.) As sovereign Lord. And so he has a right to do with his own what he will. He may order and dispose of all the creatures according to his pleasure, Daniel 4:35. We are all in his hand as clay in the hand of the potter. He has a sovereign and absolute right to use and dispose of us according to his own pleasure, to set bounds to our habitation, carve out our lot in the world, and set us high or low, in prosperity or adversity, as he pleases. It is so also, as to his dispensations of grace. He may give grace to whom he will, and withhold it from whom he will; and what he wills in that matter is just and right, because he wills it.
(2.) As supreme Governor and Judge of the world. And so he is just in governing his rational creatures in a way agreeable to their nature, according to a law which he has given them. His justice in this character is either legislative or executive.
(1.) There is a legislative justice, which is that whereby he gives most just and righteous laws to his creatures, commanding and forbidding what is fit for them in right reason to do and forbear. 'For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our king, the Lord is our lawgiver,' Isaiah 33:22. Man being a reasonable creature, capable of moral government, therefore, that God might rule him according to his nature, he has given him a law, confirmed by promises of reward, to draw him by hope, and by threatenings of punishment to deter him by fear. Hence Moses tells the Israelites, that he had 'set before them life and good, and death and evil' Deuteronomy 30:15 and that he had 'set before them life and death, blessing and cursing,' verse 19.
(2.) There is God's executive justice, called also by some his judicial justice, by others his distributive justice. In this respect he is just in giving every one his due, and in rendering unto all men according to their works, without respect of persons. This executive justice of God is either remunerative or afflictive.
(1.) There is a remunerative or rewarding justice. God is just in rewarding the righteous. Psalm 58:11. 'Truly there is a reward for the righteous.' The saints shall not serve him for nothing. Though they may be losers for him, yet they shall not be losers by him, Hebrews 6:10. 'God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love.' He bountifully rewards his people's obedience, and their diligence and faithfulness in his service. Hence David says, Psalm 18:20. 'The Lord rewards me according to my righteousness.' Sometimes he rewards them with temporal blessings: for godliness has the promise of this life, as well as that which is to come. Sometimes Providence does notably interpose, and load obedience with blessings here in the world, to the conviction of all beholders, so that men are constrained to say, 'Truly there is a reward for the righteous.' But however he do as to outward things, yet he rewards his people with inward blessings. There are fresh supplies and influences of grace, near and intimate communion with him, sweet manifestations of his favor and love, intimations of peace and pardon, and joy and peace in believing, etc. Even 'in keeping his commandments there is great reward,' Psalm 19:11. And he rewards them with eternal blessings, 2 Thessalonians 1:7. Now, this reward is not of debt but of grace. It does not imply any merit, but is free and gratuitous. It is not because they deserve it, but because Christ has merited it, and God has graciously promised it.
(2.) There is an afflictive justice. God is just in all the afflictions and troubles which he brings upon his creatures; because he always punishes sinners by a law. The violations of his holy and righteous laws make them obnoxious to his judgments. Sometimes God sends afflictions upon people to chastise and correct them for their sins. Now, all the troubles of believers are of this kind: for as many as he loves, he rebukes and chastens. Some of their afflictions are intended to reduce them from their strayings. Hence says David, 'Before I was afflicted I went astray,' and, 'It was good for me that I was afflicted.' Indeed God chooses some in the furnace of affliction. The hot furnace is God's work-house wherein he sometimes forms vessels of honor. Manasseh is an eminent instance of this. Many that were never serious before, are brought to consider their ways in their affliction. Sometimes God takes vengeance on wicked men for their sins and disobedience to his laws: and this is called vindictive justice, Romans 3:5, 6 which is essential to the nature of God, and is not merely an effect of his will. He cannot let sin go unpunished. He not only will not, but he cannot acquit the wicked. But more of this afterwards.
The justice of God is manifested and discovered,
1. In the temporal judgments which he brings upon sinners even in this life. The saints own this, Nehemiah 9:33. 'You are just in all that is brought upon us.' The end and design of all God's judgments is to witness to the world, that he is a just and righteous God. All the fearful plagues and terrible judgments which God has brought upon the world, proclaim and manifest his justice.
2. In sentencing so many of Adam's posterity to everlasting pains and torments for sin, according to that dreadful sentence which shall be pronounced at the last day, Matthew. 25:41. 'Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.' If you could descend into the bottomless pit, and view the pains and torments of Hell, and hear the terrible shrieks and roarings of the damned wallowing in these sulphurous flames, you could not shun to cry out, O the severity of divine justice! Though they are the works of God's own hands, and roar and cry under their torments, yet they cannot obtain any mitigation of their pains, nay, not so much as one drop of water to cool their tongues. That an infinitely good and gracious God, that delights in mercy, should thus torment so many of his own creatures, O how incorruptible must his justice be!
3. In the death and sufferings of Christ. God gave his beloved Son to the death for this end, that it might be known what a just and righteous God he is. So the apostle shows us, Romans 3:25. 'Whom God has set forth to be a atoning sacrifice , through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness,' etc. He set him forth in garments rolled in blood, to declare his justice and righteousness to the world. After man turned rebel, and apostatized from God, there was no way to keep up the credit and honor of divine justice, but either a strict execution of the law's sentence, or a full satisfaction. The execution would have destroyed the whole race of Adam. Therefore Christ stepped in, and made a sufficient satisfaction by his death and sufferings, that so God might exercise his mercy without prejudice to his justice. Thus the blood of the Son of God must be shed for sin, to let the world see that he is a just and righteous God. The justice of God could and would be satisfied with no less. Hence it is said, Romans 8:32. 'God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up to the death for us all.' If forbearance might have been expected from any, surely it might from God, who is full of pity and tender mercy: yet God in this case spared him not. If one might have expected sparing mercy and abatement from any, surely Christ might most of all expect it from his own Father; yet God spared not his own Son. Sparing mercy is the lowest degree of mercy; yet it was denied to Christ, when he stood in the room of the elect. God abated him not a minute of the time appointed for his sufferings, nor one degree of the wrath which he was to bear. Nay, though in the garden, when Christ fell on the ground, and put up that lamentable and pitiful cry, 'Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me;' yet no abatement was granted to him. The Father of mercies saw his dear Son humbled in his presence, and yet dealt with him in extreme severity. The sword of justice was in a manner asleep before, in all the terrible judgments which had been executed on the world, but now it must be awakened and roused up to pierce the heart of the blessed Redeemer. Hence it is said, Zechariah 13:7. 'Awake O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, says the Lord of hosts: smite the shepherd.' If divine justice had descended from Heaven in a visible form, and hanged up millions of sinners in chains of wrath, it had not been such a demonstration of the wrath of God, and his hatred of sin, as the death and sufferings of his own Son. When we hear that God exposed his own Son to the utmost severity of wrath and vengeance, may we not justly cry out O the infinite evil of sin! O the inflexible severity of divine justice! It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
4. The justice of God will be clearly manifested at the great day. God has reared up many trophies already to the honor of his power and justice out of the ruins of his most insolent enemies: but then will be the most solemn triumph of divine justice. The apostle tells us, Acts 17:31 that 'he has appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he has ordained: whereof he has given assurance unto all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.' On that awful day the justice and righteousness of God shall be clearly revealed, therefore it is called 'the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God,' Romans 2:5. The equity of God's dealings and dispensations is not now so fully seen: but all will be open and manifest on that day. Then he will liberally reward the righteous, and severely punish the wicked.
5. God's justice will shine forever in the torments of the damned in Hell. The smoke of their furnace, their yellings and roarings, will proclaim through eternity the inexorable justice and severity of God. It is not enough for the satisfaction of his justice to deprive them of Heaven and happiness; but he will inflict the most tormenting punishment upon sense and conscience in Hell. For as both soul and body were guilty in this life, the one as the guide, the other as the instrument of sin, so it is but just and equal that they should both feel the penal effects of it hereafter. Sinners shall then be tormented in that wherein they most delighted: they shall then be invested with those objects which will cause the most dolorous perceptions in their sensitive faculties. The lake of fire and brimstone, the blackness of darkness, forever, are words of a terrible signification. But no words can fully express the terrible ingredients of their misery. Their punishment will be in proportion to the glory of God's majesty that is provoked, and the extent of his power. And as the soul was the principal, and the body but an accessary in the works of sin; so its capacious faculties shall be far more tormented than the limited faculties of the outward senses. The fiery attributes of God shall be transmitted through the glass of conscience, and concentered upon damned spirits. The fire without will not be so tormenting as the fire within them. Then all the tormenting passions will be inflamed. What rancor, reluctance, and rage, will there be against the just power that sentenced them to Hell! what impatience and indignation against themselves for their willful and inexcusable sins, the just cause of it! how will they curse their creation, and wish their utter extinction as the final remedy of their misery! But all their ardent wishes will be in vain. For the guilt of sin will never be expiated, nor God so far reconciled as to annihilate them. As long as there is justice in Heaven, or fire in Hell, as long as God and eternity shall continue, they must suffer those torments which the strength and patience of an angel cannot bear one hour. The justice of God will blaze forth forever in the agonies and torments of the damned.
It may not be improper here to take notice of, and answer some objections that are made against the divine justice.
Objection 1. If God be infinitely just and righteous, how stands it with his justice that insolent despisers of his majesty and laws should prosper in the world? This was observed by the saints long ago; see Psalm 73:5, 6, 7, 12; and has proved a stumbling-block to some of God's own children, and has seen apt to make them question his justice; see Job 21:7–14. Jeremiah 12:1, 2. But in answer, consider,
1. That the wicked may be sometimes instruments to do God's work. Though they do not design and intend his glory, yet they may be instrumental in promoting it. Thus Cyrus was instrumental for the building of God's temple at Jerusalem. Now there is some kind of justice in it that such persons should have a temporal reward. God is pleased to suffer those to prosper under whose wings his own people are sheltered. He will not be in any man's debt. Nebuchadnezzar did some service for God, and the Lord rewarded him for it by granting him an enlargement of greatness, Ezekiel 29:18, 19, 20.
2. God does not always let the wicked prosper in their sin. There are some whom he punishes openly, that his justice may be observed by all. Hence the Psalmist says, 'The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands,' Psalm 9:16. Sometimes their prosperity is but short lived, and they are suddenly cast down, as the Psalmist remarks, Psalm 73:18, 19, 20. His justice is Been striking men dead sometimes in the very act of sin; as in the case of Zimri and Cozbi, Pharaoh, Sennacherib, etc.
3. God suffers men to go on in sin and prosper, that he may render them the more inexcusable. This goodness and forbearance should lead them to repentance; and when it does not, it aggravates their sin, and makes them the more inexcusable, when he comes to reckon with them. Hence it is said of Jezebel, 'I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not,' Revelation 2:21. God spins out his mercies toward sinners; and if they do not repent and amend, his patience will be a witness against them, and his justice will be more cleared in their condemnation.
4. If God let the wicked prosper for a while, the vial of his wrath is all that while filling up, his sword is whetting and though he forbear them for a time, yet long-suffering is not forgiveness. The longer it be before he give the blow, it will be the heavier when it comes. The last scene of justice is coming, when the wicked shall be turned into Hell, and all the nations that forget God. There is a day of wrath approaching, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Then he will glorify his justice in taking vengeance on them for all their sins. God has an eternity in which he will punish the wicked. Divine justice may be as a lion asleep for a time: but at last this lion will awake, and roar upon the sinner. Their long continued prosperity will heighten their eternal condemnation. There are many sinners in Hell who lived in great pomp and prosperity in the world, and are now roaring under the terrible lashes of inexorable justice. Thus you may see that the prosperity of the wicked is consistent enough with the justice of God.
Objection 2. God's own people oft-times suffer great afflictions in the world; they are persecuted and oppressed, and meet with a variety of troubles, Psalm 73:14. How stands this with the justice of God?
Ans. 1. The ways of God's judgments, though they are sometimes secret, yet they are never unjust. God does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. There are culpable causes in them from which their afflictions spring. They have their spots and blemishes as well as others. Though they may be free from gross and atrocious crimes, yet they are guilty of much pride and passion, censoriousness, worldliness, etc. And the sins of God's people are more provoking in his sight than the sins of other men. And God will not suffer them to pass without correction, Amos 3:2. 'You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for your iniquities.' This justifies God in all the evils that befall them.
2. All the trials and sufferings of the godly are designed to refine and purify them, to promote their spiritual and eternal good, Hebrews 12:10. Nothing proclaims God's faithfulness more than his taking such a course with them as may make them better. Hence says David, Psalm 119:75. 'I know, O Lord, that your judgments are right, and that you in faithfulness have afflicted me.' Though they are sometimes pinched with wants, and meet with various outward troubles, yet even these are the accomplishments of a gracious promise, and are ordered for their good. It is to chastise them for their sin, and quicken them to repentance and mortification, to try and exercise their faith and patience, their sincerity and love to God, to wean their hearts from the world, and to promote their growth in grace.
3. It is no injustice in God to inflict a lesser punishment to prevent a greater. The best of God's children have that in them which is meritorious of Hell; and does God any wrong to them when he uses only the rod, when they deserved the scorpion? An earthly parent will not be reckoned cruel or unjust, if he only correct his children who deserved to be disinherited. When God corrects his children, he only puts wormwood into their cup, whereas he might fill it up with fire and brimstone. Under the greatest pressure, they have just cause rather to admire his mercy, than to complain of his justice. So did the afflicted church, 'It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed.'
Objection 3. If God be infinitely just, how could he transfer the punishment from the guilty? This is the objection of the Socinians against Christ's suffering for the sins of the elect. It is a violation of justice, say they, to transfer the punishment from one to another. How then could the righteous God punish his innocent Son for our sins?
I answer to this in general, That in some cases it is not unjust to punish the innocent for the guilty. For though an innocent person cannot suffer as innocent without injustice, yet he may voluntarily contract an obligation which will expose him to deserved sufferings. The innocent may suffer for the guilty, when he has power to dispose of his own life, and puts himself freely and voluntarily under an obligation to suffer, and is admitted to suffer by him who has power to punish, and when no detriment, but rather an advantage, accrues to the public thereby. In these circumstances, justice has nothing to say against the punishing of an innocent person in the room of the guilty. Now, there is a concurrence of all these in the case in hand. For,
1. Christ had absolute power to dispose of himself. One reason why a man is not allowed to lay down his life for another is, because his life is not at his own disposal. But Christ was absolute lord of his own life, and had power to keep it or lay it down as he pleased. So he declares, John 10:18. 'No man takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself: I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.'
2. He freely consented to suffer for his people, and to undergo the punishment that they deserved. To compel an innocent person to suffer for the offences of another, may he an injury. But in this case there was no constraint: for Christ most willingly offered himself: yes, he was not only willing, but most earnest and desirous to suffer and die in our room, Luke 12:50. 'I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened until it be accomplished?'
3. The Father admitted him as our Surety, and was well content that his sufferings should stand for ours, and that we thereupon should be absolved and discharged. It was the Father's will that Christ should undertake this work. Hence it is said, Psalm 40:8. 'I delight to do your will, O my God.' And the Father loved Christ, because he so cheerfully consented to it, John 10:17. 'Therefore does my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.'
4. There was no detriment to the public by Christ's death; but, on the contrary, many advantages redounded to it thereby. One reason why an innocent man cannot suffer for a malefactor is, because the community would lose a good man, and might suffer by the sparing of an ill member, and the innocent sufferer cannot have his life restored again being once lost. But in this case all things are quite otherwise: for Christ laid down his life, but so as to take it up again. He rose again on the third day, and death was swallowed up of victory. And those for whom he suffered were reclaimed, effectually changed, and made serviceable to God and man. So that here there was no injury done to any party by Christ's sufferings, though an innocent person. Not to them for whom he died; for they have inexpressible benefit thereby: he is made to them wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Not to the person suffering: for he was perfectly willing, and suffered nothing without his own consent. Not to God: for he himself found out the ransom, and admitted Christ as our Surety. Not to anything concerned in the government of God: for by the death of Christ all the ends of God's government were secured. His honor was hereby vindicated, the authority of his law preserved, and his subjects, by such an instance of severity on his own Son, were deterred from violating it. So that there is no injustice to any in God's punishing Christ in his people's stead.
Objection 4. How is it consistent with the justice of God to punish temporary sins with eternal torments in Hell? Some think it hard, and scarcely consistent with infinite justice, to inflict eternal punishment for sins committed in a little time. But to clear the justice of God in this, consider,
1. That eternal punishment is agreeable to the sanction of the law. The wisdom of God required, that the penalty threatened upon the transgressor should be in its own nature so dreadful and terrible, that the fear of it might conquer and over-rule all the allurements and temptations to sin. If it had not been so, it would have reflected upon the wisdom of the Lawgiver, as if he had been defective, in not binding his subjects firmly enough to their duty, and the ends of government would not have been obtained. And therefore the first and second death was threatened to Adam in case of disobedience. And fear, as a watchful sentinel, was placed in his breast, that no guilty thought or irregular desire should enter in to break the tables of the law deposited there. So that eternal death is due to sinners by the sanction of the law.
2. The righteousness of God in punishing the wicked forever in Hell will appear, if you consider that God by his infallible promise assures us, that all who sincerely serve and obey him shall be rewarded with everlasting happiness. They shall receive a blessedness most worthy of God to bestow, a blessedness that far surmounts our most comprehensive thoughts and imaginations. For eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man to conceive, what God has prepared for them that love him. Now, if everlasting felicity be despised and rejected, nothing remains but endless misery to be the sinner's portion. The consequence is infallible: For if sin, with an eternal Hell in its retinue be chosen and embraced, it is most just and equal that the rational creature should inherit the fruit of its own choice. What can be more just and reasonable, than that those who are the slaves of the devil, and maintain his party here in the world, should have their recompense with him forever hereafter? Nothing can be more just, than that those who now say to the Almighty, Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of your ways, should receive that dreadful sentence at last, Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire.
3. The punishment of the damned must be eternal, because of the immense guilt and infinite evil of sin. It is owned by common reason, that there ought to be a proportion between the quality of the offence and the degree of the punishment. Justice takes the scales into its hand before it takes the sword. It is a rule in all sorts of judicature, that the degrees of an offence arise according to the degrees of dignity in the person offended. Now, the majesty of God is truly infinite, against whom sin is committed; and consequently the guilt of sin exceeds our boundless thoughts. One act of sin is rebellion against God, and includes in it the contempt of his majesty, the contradiction of his holiness, which is his peculiar glory, the denial of his omniscience and omnipresence, as if he were confined to the heavens, and busied in regulating the harmonious order of the stars, and did not observe what is done here below. And there is in it a defiance of his eternal power, and a provoking him to jealousy, as if we were stronger than he. O, what a dishonor is it to the God of glory, that proud dust should flee in his face, and control his authority! What a horrid provocation is it to the Most High, that the reasonable creature, that is naturally and necessarily a subject, should despise the divine law and Lawgiver? From this it appears that sin is an infinite evil. There is in it a concurrence of impiety, ingratitude, perfidiousness, and whatever may enhance a crime to an excess of wickedness. Now, sin being an infinite evil, the punishment of it must also be infinite; and because a creature is not able to bear a punishment infinite in degree, by reason of its finite and limited nature, therefore it must be infinite in its duration. And for this cause the punishment of the damned shall never have an end. The almighty power of God will continue them in their being, but they will curse and blaspheme that support, which shall be given them only to perpetuate their torments; and ten thousand times wish that God would destroy them once for all, and that they might forever shrink away into nothing. But that will never be granted to them. No; they shall not have so much as the comfort of dying, nor shall they escape the vengeance of God by annihilation.
4. Their punishment must be eternal: for they will remain forever unqualified for the least favor. The damned are not changed in Hell, but continue their hatred and blasphemies against God. The seeds of this are in obstinate sinners here in the world, who are styled haters of God: but in the damned this hatred is direct and explicit; the fever is heightened into a phrenzy. The glorious and ever-blessed God is the object of their curses and eternal aversion. Our Lord tells us, that in Hell there is weeping and gnashing of teeth,' that is, extreme sorrow and extreme fury. Despair and rage are the proper passions of lost souls. For when the guilty sufferers are so weak, that they cannot by patience endure their torments, nor by strength resist the power that inflicts them, and withal are wicked and stubborn, they are enraged and irritated by their misery, and foam out blasphemies against the righteous Judge. We may apply to this purpose what is said of the worshipers of the beast, Revelation 16:10, 11. 'They gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of Heaven, because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.' The torment and blasphemies of these impenitent idolaters are a true representation of the state of the damned. Now, as they will always sin; so they must always suffer. On these accounts, then, it is agreeable to the wisdom and justice of God that their pains and torments be eternal.
But now it is time to shut up this point with a few inferences.
1. It is inconsistent with the nature of God to let sin go unpunished; or, vindictive justice is essential to God. To clear this, consider,
(1.) This is evident from the light of nature. For that God is just, is strongly and deeply stamped upon the minds of the children of men. Hence, when the barbarians saw the viper fasten upon Paul's hand, they cried out that vengeance pursued him as a murderer, Acts 28:4. The very instinct of nature told them, that there was a connection between guilt and punishment. To deny God to be just, is to offer violence to the principles of nature, to put a lie upon those notions which are born with and impressed upon our reason. It is to condemn conscience as a cheat, and all the terrors thereof as a false alarm. In a word, it is to eradicate all religion, and to open a flood-gate to all wickedness and impiety.
(2.) This appears from scripture assertions and examples.
[1.] Consider scripture examples and declarations, such as Revelation 16:5. 'You are righteous, O Lord, because you have judged, Romans 2:5.—'The righteous judgment of God' 2 Thessalonians 1:6. 'It is a righteous thing with God to recompense with tribulation,' Hebrews 2:2. 'Every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward,' Hebrews 12:29. 'Our God is a consuming fire,' Romans 1:32. 'Knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death.' Compare Genesis 18:25. 'Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?'
[2.] Think upon scripture-examples, with respect to this matter. The angels, the flower and glory of the creation, the first-born of intelligent beings, when they revolted from their Maker, were doomed and cast into Hell, where they lie reserved in chains of darkness unto the judgment of the last day. Our first parents, and in them all their posterity, because of their apostasy, were sentenced to death and misery. The old world, except eight persons, were swept off the face of the earth, by a devouring deluge, on account of their impiety. Sodom and Gomorrah were by fire from Heaven consumed to ashes, because of their vile impurity. The Egyptians sunk under multiplied plagues, because they hardened themselves against the Lord, and would not let Israel go. Yes, the Israelites themselves met with many severe judgments in the wilderness, in Canaan, and in Babylon, because they rebelled against the Lord their God. In a word, this people at last, for murdering the Messiah, and rejecting the gospel, were destroyed with a great destruction at the siege of Jerusalem, where eleven thousand perished by sword, famine, and pestilence, and very near a hundred thousand more were carried away captive.
(3.) This appears from the nature of God, which carries in it the utmost detestation of sin; and this necessarily produces punishment. 'Upon the wicked God will rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest,' Psalm 11:6. Now the reason of all this holy severity is given in the very next verse, 'For the righteous Lord loves righteousness.' His holy nature prompts him to love righteousness, and consequently to hate and punish all unrighteousness.
(4.) It is evident from the nature of sin. What is sin but the offering of the highest indignity to the infinite and Supreme Being, the Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor of mankind? It is an affronting of all his perfections, a reflection upon his wisdom, a contempt of his power, an insult to his holiness, a disparagement of his goodness, and an open defiance to his truth and faithfulness. If then sin be such an evil, an evil infinitely worse than we are capable to represent it, how can any imagine that God will forbear or neglect to punish such who obstinately live and die in the practice of it?
(5.) This will appear, if you consider God as a Governor and Lawgiver. For his authority as such can never be preserved and maintained, if there be a universal impunity of criminal offences. Rebellion against Heaven would spread far and wide, devils and wicked men would grow absolutely unruly, the Divine Majesty and dominion would become contemptible, and his glorious sovereignty would be rendered vile and despicable, if bold offenders were not severely checked and punished for their enormities.
(6.) Consider, that if vindictive justice be not essential to God, it will be very hard, if not impossible, to give any tolerable account of the death and sufferings of Christ.
1. Is God infinitely just? Then there is a judgment to come. The justice of God requires that men should reap according to what they have sown; that it should be well with the righteous, and ill with the wicked. But it is not apparently so now in this present world. Here things are out of course; sin is rampant, and runs with a rapid violence. Many times the most guilty sinners are not punished in the present life; they not only escape the justice of men, but are under no conspicuous marks of the justice of God. As sinners prosper and flourish, so saints are wronged and oppressed. They are often cast in a right cause, and can meet with no justice on the earth; yes, the best men are often in the worst condition, and merely upon account of their goodness. They are borne down and oppressed, because they do not make resistance; and are loaded with sufferings many times, because they bear them with patience. And the reason of these dispensations is, because now is the time of God's patience and of our trial. Therefore there must be a day wherein the justice of God shall be made manifest. Then he will set all things right. He will crown the righteous, and condemn the wicked. Then God shall have the glory of his justice, and his righteousness shall be openly vindicated. At the last day God's sword shall be drawn against offenders, and his justice shall be revealed before all the world. At that day all mouths shall be stopped, and God's justice shall be fully vindicated from air the cavils and clamors of unjust men.
2. This lets us see how unlike to God many men are. Some have no justice at all. Though their place and office oblige them to it, they neither fear God nor regard man. Many times they pervert justice, they decree unrighteous decrees, Isaiah 10:1. Many are unjust in their dealings; they trick, cheat, and defraud their neighbors; sometimes in using false weights, the balances of deceit are in their hands, Hosea 12:7. Some hold the Bible in one hand, and false weights in the other; they cozen, defraud, and cheat, under a specious profession of religion. Some adulterate their commodities; their wine is mixed with water, Isaiah 1:22. They mix bad grain with good, and yet sell it for pure grain. There are many ways by which men deceive and impose upon their neighbors. All which show what a rare commodity justice is among them. But remember this is very unlike God. For he is the just and right one; he is righteous in all his ways. That man cannot possibly be godly who is not just. We are commanded to imitate him in all his imitable perfections. Though he does not bid you be omnipotent, yet you ought to be just.
3. Is God infinitely just? Then we must not expostulate with or demand a reason of his actions. He has not only authority on his side, but justice and equity. In all his dispensations towards men, however afflictive they be, he is just and righteous. He lays judgment to the line, and righteousness to the plummet, Isaiah 28:17. It is below him to give an account to us of any of his proceedings. The plumb-line of our reason is too short to fathom the great depths of God's justice: for his judgments are unsearchable, and his ways past finding out, Romans 11:33. We are to, adore his justice, where we cannot see the reason of it. God's justice has often been wronged, but never did wrong to any. How unreasonable, then, is it for men to expostulate with and dispute against God?
4. Is God infinitely just? Then the salvation of sinners who have believed in Christ is most secure, and they need not doubt of pardon and acceptance. 'God is faithful and just to forgive them their sins,' 1 John 1:9. God has promised it, and he will not break his word; yes, he stands bound in justice to do it; for Christ has satisfied his justice for all your sins who are believers, so that it has nothing to crave of you. It does not stand with the justice of God to exact the same debt from you. Your Redeemer did not only satisfy justice, but also merited the exercise of it on your behalf. Hence it is that God is bound in justice to justify you upon your believing on Christ; for he is just, and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus, Romans 3:26. So that the thoughts even of divine justice, which are terrible to others, may be comfortable to believers.
5. Is God infinitely just? Then the destruction of wicked and impenitent sinners is infallibly certain. For the just God will by no means acquit the guilty. His justice, which is essential to him, cannot but take vengeance on you.
6. Lastly, However severely the Lord deals with us, he neither does nor can do us any wrong; and therefore we should lay our hand on our mouth, Lamentations 3:39. 'Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?'
Sixthly, The goodness of God is the next communicable attribute that falls to be considered. The divine goodness is that essential property whereby he is altogether good in himself, and the author of all good to his creatures: You are good, and do good, says the Psalmist, Psalm 119:68. There is a twofold goodness of God; his absolute and his relative goodness.
1. There is an absolute goodness of God. This is that whereby he is conceived to be good in himself, without any relation to his creatures. God is thus good because his nature is infinitely perfect.
2. There is his relative goodness, by which we are to understand his bounty and benignity. As all fullness dwells in him, so he has a strong inclination to let it out to his people on all occasions. The whole earth is full of his goodness, Psalm 33:5.
The goodness of God is manifested,
1. In creation. There is no other perfection of the divine nature so eminently visible in the whole book of the creatures as this is. His goodness was the cause that he made anything, and his wisdom was the cause that he made everything in order and harmony. Here the goodness of God shines with a glorious luster. All the varieties of the creatures which he has made are so many beams and apparitions of his goodness. It was great goodness to communicate being to some things without himself, and to extract such a multitude of things from the depths of nothing, and to give life and breath to some of these creatures. Divine goodness formed their natures, beautified and adorned them with their several ornaments and perfections, whereby everything was enabled to act for the good of the common world. Every creature has a character of divine goodness upon it. The whole world is a map to represent, and a herald to proclaim, this amiable perfection of God. But the goodness of God is manifested especially in the creation of man. He raised him from the dust by his almighty power, and placed him in a more sublime condition, and endued him with choicer prerogatives, than the rest of the creatures. What is man's soul and body but like a cabinet curiously carved, with a rich and precious gem inclosed in it! God has made him an abridgment of the whole creation: the links of the two worlds, Heaven and earth, are united in him. He communicates with the earth in the dust of his body, and he participates with the heavens in the crystal of his soul. He has the life of angels in his reason, and that of animals in his sense. Further, the divine goodness is manifested in making man after his image, in furnishing the world with so many creatures for his use, in giving him dominion over the works of his hands, and making him lord of this lower world.
2. In our redemption by Jesus Christ. O what astonishing goodness was it for the great and glorious God to give his only begotten Son to the death for such vile rebels and enemies as we all are by nature! The goodness of God, under the name of his love, is rendered as the only cause of our redemption by Christ, John 3:16. 'God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.' This is an inexpressible so, a so that all the angels of Heaven cannot analyze. None can conceive or understand the boundless extent and dimensions of it. God gave Christ for us to commend his love, and set it off with an admirable luster. 'God commended his love towards us (says the apostle), in that while we were yet enemies, Christ died for us.' O what an expensive goodness and love was this! Our redemption cost God more than what was laid out on the whole creation. 'The redemption of the soul is precious,' says the Psalmist. 'We are not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.' Here God parted with his richest jewel, and with the eternal delight of his soul. This cost Christ dear. The Sun of righteousness behooved to be eclipsed, and must veil the beams of his divine glory. He made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, and was found in the likeness of sinful flesh. He did not appear in worldly pomp and magnificence, attended with a splendid retinue, and faring deliciously, but in a mean and low condition, without a settled dwelling-place, and was exposed to poverty and reproach. He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. The last scene of his life was most painful. Upon the very apprehension of his last sufferings it is said, 'he began to be sorrowful,' as if he had been a stranger to grief until then. He endured with unparalleled patience all that wrath and misery that his people deserved to have suffered forever in Hell. O what a dreadful deluge of wrath and fiery indignation fell from Heaven upon our ark, of which that of Noah was only but a type! He was bruised and ground to powder as it were in his agony in the garden. O how did his innocent soul boil under the fire of divine wrath! His blood brake through every pore of the vessel, by the extremity of that flame. God spared not his own Son, but dealt with him in extreme severity. He paid the utmost mite of satisfaction for his people's sins that justice could demand. O what admirable love and goodness is manifested here!
3. In his providential conduct and government. Here we must distinguish a twofold goodness of God, common and special.
(1.) There is God's common goodness, which is common to all the creatures. 'God is good to all,' says the Psalmist. All the creatures taste of his goodness. He preserves them in their beings, continues the species of all things, concurs with them in their distinct offices, and quickens the womb of nature. 'O Lord, you preserve man and beast,' says David. He visits us every day and makes us feel the effects of his goodness, in 'giving us rain and fruitful seasons,' and filling our hearts with food and gladness. He waters the ground with his showers, and every day shines with new beams of his goodness.
(2.) There is a special goodness of God to his own people, whom he privileges with spiritual and saving blessings. His goodness to them is truly wonderful, in pardoning their iniquities, healing their spiritual diseases, sanctifying their natures, hearing and answering their prayers, bearing with their infirmities, accepting their imperfect services, supporting them under and delivering them from temptations, solving their doubts, directing and guiding them in their difficulties.
4. The goodness of God will he most signally manifested at the last day. It is laid up in Heaven, Psalm 31:19. O who can tell how great goodness is laid up there? In Heaven they shall have draughts of his goodness, even as much as they can hold. There God will be all in all to them, and communicate himself to them immediately, without the intervention of ordinances.
I shall conclude with a few inferences.
1. God is a merciful God, and delights in mercy, 'His tender mercies are over all his works,' Psalm 145:9. There can be no case so bad as to be above or beyond the reach of mercy, to such as come to him in his own way, Isaiah 55:7 seeing his goodness is infinite. The difference between the goodness and mercy of God is, that mercy respects only the miserable, but goodness extends to the happy also.
Objection But how is the severity of God against the wicked, and the godly too, consistent with that infinite goodness?
Ans. It is the property of goodness to hate and punish sin. Hence the Lord said to Moses, Exodus. 33:19. 'I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.' Compare chapter 34:7. 'Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty.' The afflictions of the godly are the effect of the divine goodness, and effect goodness in them. Hence says the apostle, Hebrews 12:6. 'Whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives.' And says the psalmist, Psalm 119:71. 'It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn your statutes.'
2. God can fully satisfy the desire of the soul, and in him it may rest with delight and delight. He is all-sufficient in and to himself, and all his creatures. And this bountiful God should be the center of our affections, desires, and joys. We should be restless and uneasy until we find him, and earnestly long for the rich manifestations of his love and grace.
3. This doctrine of the divine goodness should strongly recommend to us those hard lessons prescribed by our Lord, and which he urges upon his followers from the consideration of his own goodness and beneficence, Matthew 5:44, 45. 'Love your enemies,' etc.
4. Abuse not the divine goodness. This is a great evil, and it is very frequent and common. It began in the first ages of the world, yes, it commenced a few minutes after the creation, and it continues to this very day. O abuse not the goodness of God, by forgetting his benefits, murmuring and repining at your lot and situation in the world, or by taking liberty to sin because of his goodness.
5. Seek not your happiness in created things and enjoyments, but in an ever-bountiful God, who is the spring and source of all goodness and mercy, and who can fully satisfy all the desires of an immortal soul.
Seventhly, The last communicable attribute of God to be taken notice of is his truth, which is that perfection of his nature whereby he is faithful, and free from all falsehood. Hence he is called 'the God that cannot lie,' Titus 1:2. He is true in himself, Deuteronomy 32:4. 'A God of truth, and without iniquity.' Now God is true,
1. In his works both of creation and providence; and that both in his common and more ordinary works of providence, in preserving and governing the creatures; and extraordinary ones, such as the glorious work of redemption, his great and miraculous operations, and the wonderful preservations of and deliverances granted to his church and people when exposed to the greatest dangers. God is true in all these; as Psalm 111:7, 8, 'The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure. They stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.' Psalm 25:10. 'All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth.' It is a part of the church's song, Revelation 15:3. 'Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are your ways, you King of saints. Revelation 16:7. 'Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments.' All God's works are true and real things, not chimeras or appearances. He executes true judgments, grants true deliverances, works true miracles; his mercies are true mercies, and his comforts are true comforts. He does not deceive or delude his people with vain shows and appearances.
2. In his word. His word is most pure truth. 'Your word is truth,' says our Savior, John 17:17. And,
(1.) God is true in all the doctrines which he has revealed. There is no flaw nor corruption in any of them. They are all the true form of sound words. And especially he is true in the doctrines of the gospel. Hence we read of the 'truth of the gospel,' Galatians 2:5; and the gospel is called 'the word of truth,' Ephesians 1:13. Some of the doctrines revealed there are above the reach of human reason, as the doctrines of the glorious and adorable Trinity, the union of the two natures in the person of Christ, and the mystical union between him and believers. But though they cannot be comprehended by reason, they are not contrary to it.
(2.) In the historical narratives which he has recorded in his word, as those of the creation, the fall of man, the drowning of the old world with the deluge, the incarnation of Christ, the many miracles which he wrought, his life and bloody death, etc. In these and other historical relations which we have in the Word of God, there is no lie nor mistake at all. Hence Luke says, in his preface to his history, chapter 1:3, 4. 'It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto you in order, most excellent Theophilus, that you might know the certainty of those things wherein you have been instructed.'
(3.) In his prophetic predictions. None of them fail or come short of their accomplishment, but are all fulfilled in their season. A man may foretell such things as depend on natural causes, as rain and snow, heat and cold, the eclipses of the sun and moon, etc. But things are foretold in the scriptures which are merely contingent, depending upon the free grace of God, or the free will of man, as the rejecting of the Jews, the calling of the Gentiles, etc. None of its predictions have fallen to the ground. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but his words shall not pass away. The Lord tells the prophet, 'The vision is for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie,' Habakkuk 2:3. And after divers prophetic predictions, it is said, Revelation 22:6. 'These sayings are faithful and true.'
(4.) In his commands. All his commands are faithful, and his law is truth. All his precepts which he has given us are counterparts of his own heart, real copies of his approving will. The matter of them is exactly consonant to his holiness, and most acceptable and well-pleasing in his sight. God approves of all that he commands: so that his precepts are a true and perfect rule of holiness, without any flaw or defect.
(5.) In his threatenings. They are always accomplished in their season; not one of them shall fail. Says the Lord to the Jews, by the prophet, Zechariah 1:6. 'Did not my word take hold of your fathers?' And the apostle Paul tells us, Romans 2:2. 'We are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.' It is true, indeed, some threatenings are conditional, and to be understood with the exception of repentance; so that sincere repentance and reformation prevent the execution of them; as is clear in the case of Nineveh, and from Jeremiah 18:7, 8. 'At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it: if that nation against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.' But divine threatenings will surely be executed upon impenitent and incorrigible sinners.
(6.) In his promises. All the promises are yes and amen, that is, there shall be an infallible accomplishment of them. Therefore promised blessings are called sure mercies, Isaiah 55:3. And the gospel, which is the compendium of all the promises, is often called the word of truth. God's people have found the truth of the promises many times in their comfortable experience. Says Joshua to the Israelites, Joshua 23:14. 'You know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing has failed thereof.' Joshua was now about to die, and therefore could not be supposed to feign and dissemble; and he appeals to their own consciences, 'You know,' etc. And Solomon speaks to the same purpose, 1 Kings 8:56. 'Blessed be the Lord, that has given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there has not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant.' All the promises which he has made to his people shall have their accomplishment in due time. Now, the truth of God is most frequently taken in this sense in scripture, and in this his faithfulness does peculiarly consist. And,
[1.] This truth and faithfulness of God shines with peculiar luster in accomplishing the many promises recorded in the holy scriptures; such as that made to Abraham concerning his seed, that, after their sojourning in a strange land four hundred and thirty years, they should come out again with great substance; which was punctually fulfilled, as Moses tells us, Exodus. 12:41. 'And it came to pass, at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the self-same day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.' Such also was the accomplishment of the promise relating to the return of the Israelites from the Babylonish captivity after seventy years. No length of time nor distance of place can wear the remembrance of his promise from the divine mind. 'He remembered his holy promise,' says the Psalmist, 'and Abraham his servant,' Psalm 105:42.
[2.] In accomplishing the promises concerning the Messiah. So it is said, Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ; grace in regard of our pardon, and truth in regard of the promise of God. This appears in performing the promise of Christ's incarnation after so many revolutions of time, and many expectations of his coming, and many contrary appearances, and long stay of four thousand years after the first promise. After all this, God made good his word, by sending his Son into the world.—It appears in performing the promise of his death and sufferings. God passed his word to the church, that his Son should suffer death and the wrath of God for elect sinners. And having once passed his word for this, he would not spare him. Rather than God should break his word, his own dear Son must suffer a painful, shameful, and cursed death in his body, and the wrath of God in his innocent soul.—It appears in performing the promise of his resurrection from the dead. God had said, he would not leave his soul in Hell. [the state of the dead], nor suffer his holy One to see corruption. This prophecy and promise was accordingly fulfilled: for he was raised from the dead in solemn triumph. Angels attended his resurrection, and the earth trembled and shook, as a sign of triumph and a token of victory; by which Christ intimated to the whole world, that he had overcome death in his own dominions, and lifted up his head as a glorious conqueror over all his enemies. It was promised that he should rise from the dead on the third day; and this was made good to a tittle.
(3.) In fulfilling his promises, when great difficulties and seeming improbabilities lay in the way of their accomplishment. Thus God promised to give Abraham a son, and he made it good, though Sarah was barren, and both Abraham and she were past age. Again, he brought back the captives from Babylon, though the thing seemed most improbable, and many great difficulties lay in the way. Difficulties are for men, not for God. 'Is anything too hard for Jehovah?' Genesis 18:14. See Zechariah 8:6. He is not tied to the road of human probabilities. He will turn nature upside-down, rather than not be as good as his word.
(4.) In fulfilling promises to his people, when their hopes and expectations have been given up. See instances, Ezekiel 37:11. Isaiah 49:14. There may be much unbelief in good men, their faith may be sorely staggered. Yet God is faithful and true. Men may question his promise, but God cannot deny himself, 2 Timothy 2:13.
(5.) God's truth and faithfulness in keeping promise is confirmed by testimonies given to it by the saints in all ages. They have all set to their seal that God is true. They have all borne witness for God, and attested his unspotted faithfulness to the generations that were to come. See instances, Deuteronomy 7:9. Joshua 23:14. 1 Kings 8:56. Psalm 146:6. All learned men are for experiments: now, the saints in all ages have made experiments upon God's word of promise, and have always found him to be true and faithful. 'The word of the Lord is tried,' says the Psalmist. None that relied on his promise were ever disappointed.
We may here also take a short view of the grounds of God's faithfulness. There are divers glorious attributes and perfections of the divine nature, upon which his truth and faithfulness in keeping promise is built, as so many strong and unshaken pillars. As,
1. His perfect knowledge of all things past. His knowledge is called 'a book of remembrance,' Malachi 3:16 to signify the continual presence of all things past before him. Men do often break their word, because they forget their promise; but forgetfulness cannot befall a God of infinite knowledge. He will ever be mindful of his covenant, and remember his holy covenant and promises, as the Psalmist speaks.
2. His immutability. Though men in making promises may have a real purpose to perform them, yet they may afterwards change their mind. But God is always firm to his purpose, and cannot change his mind, because of his unchangeable nature. Malachi 3:6. Jam. 1:17. Again men are often inconsiderate in making promises, and do often meet with what they did not foresee, but all events are eternally foreseen by God. So all his promises are made with infinite wisdom and judgment. To this purpose is that promise, Hosea 2:19. 'I will betroth you unto me forever, yes, I will betroth you unto me in righteousness and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies.'
3. His power. Whatever he has promised to his people, he is able to perform it. Sometimes men falsify their promise, and cannot make good their word through a defect of power. But God never out-promised himself. He can do whatever he pleased to do. It is said, Psalm 135:6. 'Whatever the Lord pleased, that did he in Heaven and in earth,' etc. Yes, all things are possible with God. This was the foundation of Abraham's faith, which kept it from staggering at the thoughts of the improbabilities which lay in the way of the accomplishment of the promises, Romans 4:21. In the case of civil debts, many a man cannot keep his promise, because others break to him. But though the whole creation should break, God is as able as ever. Hence the prophet says, Habakkuk 3:17, 18. 'Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.' Believers in Christ can never be undone, though the whole creation should disband and go into ruin.
4. His holiness. Some men are so wicked and malicious, that though they can yet they will not keep their word. But it is not so with God. He cannot be charged with any wickedness; for there is no unrighteousness in him, Psalm 92:15 by reason of the perfect holiness of his nature. It is impossible for him to lie. The deceitfulness and treachery that is to be found in men, flows from the corruption that is lodged in their hearts: but the divine nature is infinitely pure and holy. 'God is not a man, that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent; has he said, and shall he not do it? or has he spoken, and shall he not make it good?' Numbers 23:19.
5. His justice and righteousness. A man by virtue of a promise has a right to the thing promised; so that it is his due; and justice requires to give every one his due. So God by his promise makes himself a debtor, and his justice obliges him to pay. Hence it is said, 1 John 1:9. 'God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.' He is faithful to pardon, as he has promised it; and faithful in keeping promise, because he is just. Though it was his goodness and mercy to make the promise, yet his justice binds him to make it good. It is true, when God makes himself a debtor by his promise, it is indeed a debt of grace; yet it is a debt which it is just for God to pay. Therefore his word of promise is called 'the word of his righteousness,' Psalm 119:123.
6. The glory and honor of his name may give us full assurance of his faithfulness in making good his promises. He does all things for his own glory; and therefore, wherever you find a promise, the honor of God is given as security for the performance of it. Hence his people plead this as a mighty argument to work for them. So Joshua, chapter 7:9. 'What will you do unto your great name?' q. d. 'O Lord, your honor is a thousand times more valuable than our lives. It is of little importance what become of us. But, O! it is of infinite importance that the glory of your name be secured, and your faithfulness kept pure and unspotted in the world.' We find Moses pleading to the same purpose, Exodus. 32:11, 12. 'Lord why does your wrath wax hot against your people, which you have brought forth out of the land of Egypt, with great power, and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against your people;' q. d. 'It will be sad enough for the hands of the Egyptians to fall upon your people; but infinitely worse for the tongues of the Egyptians to fall upon your name.' In a word, the glory of all God's attributes is engaged for the performance of his promises, especially his faithfulness and power. Now, these are strong pillars upon which God's truth and faithfulness in keeping promise is built. He can as soon cease to be omniscient, unchangeable, omnipotent, infinitely just and holy, as he can cease to be true and faithful. He can as soon divest himself of his glory, and draw an eternal veil over all the shining perfections and excellencies of his nature, as cease to be faithful and true.
But it is high time to finish this subject.
Inference. 1. Is God infinitely true? Then all hypocrisy and dissimulation, all falsehood and dishonesty, all lying, cheating, and double-dealing, is most hateful to God, is most opposite to his holy nature, and flows from the devil and our lusts, as father and mother to them, John 8:44.
2. This lets us see what a sure foundation we have for our faith in believing the truth of what is revealed in the holy scriptures; for they are the word of the God of truth, the Word of God that cannot lie. The truth of God is an immoveable rock, upon which we may safely venture our salvation. The public faith of Heaven is engaged for the happiness of believers; and can they ever have better security? The whole earth hangs upon the Word of God's power; and shall not our faith hang upon the Word of God's truth? There is nothing else we can rest upon, but the truth and faithfulness of God. We cannot trust in an arm of flesh, for this will fail us in the time of our need; nor can we trust in our own hearts, for the Spirit of God tells us that he who does so is a fool. All other things are sandy foundations, which cannot abide the storm and trial: but the truth of God is an immoveable rock that cannot be shaken.
3. Hence we see that the reformed Protestant religion is the only true religion that is in the world, because it is built upon the infallible truth and veracity of God. We have reason to be thankful to God, that it is not built upon such sandy foundations as human unwritten traditions, or any human testimony whatever. It is built upon the God of truth, and not upon fallible men. We admit the testimony of the church as an help to our faith, but not as the ground and foundation of it. The precious truths which we believe, we receive them not upon the testimony of the churches, Popes, or councils, but upon the testimony of the God of truth that cannot lie. But the Popish religion has no sure foundation. The faith of Papists is built upon the testimony of men; so that their religion has no more certainty in it, than these men have of infallibility.
4. Hence we may see matter of dreadful terror to all the wicked; for all the threatenings and curses of the law of a faithful God stand in full force against them, and will at last overwhelm them with rapid fury, if they do not fly to the mercy and grace of God, as manifested in Jesus Christ, who by his obedience unto death satisfied all the demands of law and justice, in the room of all who will take the benefit of his undertaking. Though in their atheistical unbelief they may bless themselves, saying, that they shall have peace, though they walk in the imagination of their hearts, to add drunkenness unto thirst; yet the Lord will not spare them, but the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will smoke against them, and all the curses that are written in his holy book shall light upon them; yes his wrathful vengeance, like an overflowing scourge, shall sweep them off the sinful stage of time into the depths of the devouring pit, where is nothing but weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth.
5. Lastly, Imitate God in this his adorable perfection, by 'speaking the truth in love,' Ephesians 4:15. Let the strictest rules of truth and sincerity be observed by you in all your dealings and fellowship with men. Lay aside all lying, falsehood, and dissimulation, all equivocations and secret reservations in your words and promises, and speak the truth every man with his neighbor.
Thus we have given you a short description of what God is. Imperfect it is, and imperfect it must be, seeing he is incomprehensible. Do you study to believe what is taught you of God, and apply to him, through the Son of his love, for further discoveries of his glorious perfections and excellencies; and at length you shall see him as he is, having a more enlarged and extensive knowledge of him, his nature and ways; though even then you will not be able to comprehend him. For it was a wise and judicious answer of one that was asked, What God is? that if he knew that fully, he should be a God himself. And indeed that being which we can comprehend, cannot be God, because he is infinite. O study God and you will increase in the knowledge of him.
OF THE UNITY OF GOD
DEUTERONOMY 6:4.—Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD.
1 CORINTHIANS 8:4.—We know that there is none other God but one.
COMPARE JEREMIAH 10:10.—But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God.
WE have, in several preceding discourses, been endeavoring a little to explain the description of God that is given in our shorter Catechism, agreeable to the holy scriptures; and although it has been very imperfect, seeing it is but little of God we can know here; yet I hope what has been said upon it will tend to your instruction, and establishment in the faith, I now proceed to the next question, relating to the unity of God; which we have very clearly and strongly confirmed by the three passages of scripture which I have read.
In the first of these texts there are two things which we are taught to believe concerning God.
(1.) That he is JEHOVAH, a being infinitely and eternally perfect, self-existent, and self-sufficient.
(2.) That he is the one only God. Let us therefore have no other, nor desire to have any other. Some have thought that in this text there is a plain intimation of the Trinity of Persons in the unity of the Godhead; for here the name of God is thrice mentioned, and yet all declared to be but one. Happy they who have this one Lord for their God; for they have but one master to please, and but one benefactor to seek to.
In the second text the unity of God is also clearly asserted: There is none other God but one.
The third text presents us with a very amiable representation of God.
(1.) As the true God. He is not a counterfeit and a mere pretender to divinity, as idols are; but he is really what he has revealed himself to be. He is one upon whom we may depend, and in whom and by whom we cannot be deceived.
(2.) As the living God. He is life itself, has life in himself, and is the fountain of life to all the creatures. The gods of the heathen are dead things, worthless and useless; but ours is the living God and has immortality.
From the three passages of scripture compared together, the following doctrine natively arises, namely,
DOCTRINE. 'There is but one only, the living and true God.'
In discoursing this point, I shall show,
I. Why God is called the living God.
II. Why he is called the true God.
III. That there is but one God.
IV. Deduce some inferences.
I. I am to show why God is called the living God.
1. He is called the living God, in opposition to, and to distinguish him from dead idols, Psalm 115:4, 5, 6. 1 Thessalonians 1:9. These were but dead and lifeless things, stocks and stones, silver and gold, which the heathen nations did worship, neglecting the God that made the heavens and the earth. In this respect these idols were viler than the matter of which they were made, as the tree when in the ground had some life, but they had none.
2. Because God is the fountain of life, having all life in himself, John 5:26, and giving life to all things else. All life is in him and from him.
(1.) Natural life, Acts 17:28. 'For in him we live.' 1 Timothy 6:13. 'Who quickens all things.'
(2.) Spiritual life, Ephesians 2:1. 'You has he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.'
(3.) Eternal life, Colossians 3:4. 'Christ is our life.' His giving of these to the creatures proves that they are in him, though in a more eminent way; for nothing can give what it has not.
II. I proceed to show why he is called the true God.
He is so called to distinguish him from all false or fictitious gods. Hence the apostle speaks of the Thessalonians having 'turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God,' 1 Thessalonians 1:9. And says the prophet, Jeremiah 10:11. 'The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.' The heathens, besides their worship of dead idols, worshiped also living creatures, Deuteronomy 32:17. 'They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up.' They were only gods in their blinded opinion and foolish fancy, not in reality; no more than the picture of a man, mistaken for a man, is a true man.
There is a twofold truth.
(1.) Of fidelity or faithfulness. Thus God is true, that is, faithful, as was before explained. But that is not the truth here meant.
(2.) A truth of essence, whereby a thing really is, and does not exist in opinion only. Thus the greatest liar is a true man; that is, he is really a man. It is in this sense that truth is attributed to God here. And the meaning is, that there is a true God, and but one true God. That there is a true God, or that truly and really there is a God, may be clearly demonstrated against atheists, by the light of nature, seeing they refuse scripture-testimony.
1. The works of creation and providence declare that there is a God. The heavens, earth, sea, air, and all that in them is, evidently proclaim their Maker to be divine. Look to the Heaven, and behold how it is adorned with sun, moon, and stars. How wisely are these heavenly bodies situated with respect to us! Were they nearer, they would scorch and burn up the earth; were they placed at a greater distance, the earth would be bound with perpetual frost, and so be quite barren. How regularly do these heavenly bodies move, making night and day, summer and winter, in so orderly a manner, that these revolutions have never once ceased! If we consider the earth, we shall find it hang as a ball or globe in the air, yet its foundation immoveable, though hung upon nothing. How is it adorned with trees, flowers, corns, etc. and all things necessary for the use of man and beast! And what an instance of divine wisdom is it, that all things are not found in every place, that so commerce between man and man may be advanced, and correspondence be established between different and distant nations, in the reciprocal exchange of the commodities peculiar to each country! Are there not in these the brightest traces of order and symmetry, that point out a God as the former and preserver of them all? But let us look to man, that abridgement of the world, where the prints of a Divine Being appear in the brightest colors. The composition of his body, and the powers of his soul, may convince you of the existence of a Deity. For who but a God could unite such different substances, an immaterial spirit with an earthly body? who could distinguish so many parts, assign to them their situation, form, and temperature, with an absolute fitness for those uses to which they serve? Well may we say with the apostle, Acts 17:27, 28. 'He is not far from every one of us; for in him we live, and move, and have our being.' We may find him in the activity of our hands, in the beauty of our eyes, and in the vivacity of our senses. And to look inward, who has endued the soul with such distinct and admirable faculties; the understanding, which exercises an empire over all things, compounds the most disagreeing, and divides the most intimate, by the lowest effects ascends to the highest cause; the will, which with such vigor pursues that which we esteem amiable and good, and recoils with aversion from that which we judge paining and evil; the memory, which preserves fresh and lively images of those things which are committed to its charge? Certainly then there is a God who made us.
As these things have a being, it leads us to the being of a God: for these things cannot be eternal; for then their being would be a necessary being, and so not capable of alteration or destruction. If they had a beginning, they had it from another: then that must either have had it from itself, or another, and so on until we come to the first cause, which is God. For nothing can give itself a being, because so it should be and not be at one and the same time. And the order speaks out infinite wisdom that has so ruled and disposed all; or else it must be attributed to chance; which is far more absurd than to say that a most beautiful fabric was made by the fortuitous concourse of stones, timber, lime, etc. which is shocking to common sense.
2. Conscience tells men there is a God. It may be observed how it stirs up to duty, though the powers of the world would forbid it under the highest pains; it comforts a man after duty is performed, though he be persecuted for it. It condemns and stings a man for sin, even for secret sins unknown to any in the world, and that even where there is no hazard at all from that quarter. These are terrors that no are can pluck up, nor any force quell; and when men are going out of the world, are most lively and pungent, even when their judgment is most clear, and free from the clouds and the prejudices of passions. How could these things be, if there were not a God, who by an omnipotent hand has planted conscience in their bosoms, as his own viceregent, that stings them when none sees them? Athiests may, with as much hope of success, attempt to pull the sun, moon, and stars out of Heaven, as to eradicate these innate impressions of a Supreme Divine Being.
3. The universal and perpetual consent of all nations in this matter, evinces that there is a God. That must needs be a natural truth, that in all ages, all nations, however different in all other things, have yet held that there is a God, so that they would rather worship anything than not have some God. Go back to ancient times; ask your fathers and they will tell you, your forefathers and your most ancient ancestors, and they will declare unto you, both that there is a God, and what he did in their days, and in the old times before them. Nay, inquire of the nations round about you, Spain and Turkey, the barbarous Tartars, the wild Africans, and the ignorant Americans, and they will all with one mouth confess this undeniable truth, That there is a God. This is a universal dictate of nature, spread as far and wide as reason and mankind are on the face of the earth. Some were called atheists among the heathens, not because they owned no God, but because they disowned their false gods. And if their have been any speculative atheists, that is, such who have been at all times thoroughly persuaded that that there is no Supreme Divine Being, they have been still looked on as monsters of men, and prodigies in nature, which have been universally abhorred as pests of society, and enemies to mankind. But the truth is, whatever advances men may make towards atheism in their depraved judgments, yet it is absolutely impossible to get the notion of a Deity rooted quite out of the soul.
Let not the athiest (if such a creature can possibly exist in a human form) pretend, that this universal belief of a divine existence which has obtained in the world, is the product of a successful political device, contrived by its crafty governors to keep it in awe and subjection to themselves. For as this is nothing but a cunning insinuation to support the worst of causes, so it is absolutely unaccountable how this device should be so prevalent as to gain ground in the consciences of men, and exercise such an uncontrollable empire over them. Is it possible that a few crafty men should so impose upon all the world, and they should never be, and, for anything can be seen, shall never be able to free themselves from the fraud?
4. Lastly, Will you consider the multitude of miracles which have occurred in the world. If these wonders of nature which we call miracles be nothing else but a mere lie and forgery, how comes the world to be so generally imposed on? How comes not only the Jewish but the Christian religion to be confirmed and ratified in such a firm manner as they have been among men? But if it be true that nature's bonds are sometimes broken, that the ordinary methods of things and actions are crossed, and turned quite another way; if ever the sun stood still, or the angels were seen on an embassy from Heaven; if ever God appeared in a flaming bush, and talked with man from the clouds; if ever sin was punished with a shower of fire and brimstone from Heaven; in a word, if ever diseases were cured by a touch, and the dead raised to life by prayer: I say, if all these things be true, then answer me, Who is so able and so bold thus to transgress all the laws and bands of nature? Certainly it can be no other than God.
III. I come now to show that there is but one God. There are gods many, and lords many, in title and the opinion of men; but there is only one true God, having no fellow or competitor. This great and important truth I shall endeavor to confirm, both from scripture and reason.
1. The scripture is very express and pointed on this head: Deuteronomy 6:4. 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.' 'Isaiah 44:6. 'I am the first, and the last, and besides me there is no God.' Mark 12:32. 'There is one God, and there is none other but he.' Consult also the following passages, which clearly establish this article, namely, 1 Samuel 2:2. Psalm 18:31. Isaiah 46:9. 1 Corinthians 8:4, 6.
2. This truth is clear from reason.
(1.) There can be but one First Cause, which has its being of itself, and gave being to all other things, and on which all other beings depend, and that is God: for one such is sufficient for the production, preservation, and government of all things: and therefore more are superfluous, for there is no need of them at all. Certainly he who made the world can preserve, govern, and guide it, without the assistance of any other God; for if he needed any assistance, he were not God himself, an infinitely perfect and all-sufficient being. And whatever power, wisdom, or other requisite perfections can be imagined to be in many gods, for making, preserving, and governing the world, all these are in one infinitely-perfect being. Therefore it is useless to feign many, seeing one is sufficient.
(2.) There can be but one infinite being, and therefore there is but one God. Two infinites imply a contradiction. Seeing God fills Heaven and earth with his presence, and is infinite in all the perfections and excellencies of his nature, there can be no place for another infinite to exist.
(3.) There can be but one Independent Being, and therefore but one God.
[1.] There can be but one independent in being: for if there were more gods, either one of them would be the cause and author of being to the rest, and then that one would be the only God: or none of them would be the cause and author of being to the rest, and so none of them would be God; because none of them would be independent, or the fountain of being to all.
[2.] There can be but one independent in working. For if there were more independent beings, then in those things wherein they will and act freely, they might will and act contrary things, and so oppose and hinder one another: so that being equal in power, nothing would be done by either of them. Yes, though we should suppose a plurality of gods agreeing in all things, yet seeing their mutual consent and agreement would be necessary to every action, it plainly appears, that each of them would necessarily depend on the rest in his operations; and so none of them would be God, because not absolutely independent.
(4.) There can be but one Omnipotent. For if there were two omnipotent beings, then the one is able to do whatever he will, and yet the other is able to resist and hinder him. And if the one cannot hinder the other, then that other is not omnipotent. Again, we must conceive two such beings, either as agreeing, and so the one would be superfluous; or as disagreeing, and so all would be brought to confusion, or nothing would be done at all; for that which the one would do, the other would oppose and hinder; just like a ship with two pilots of equal power, where the one would be ever cross to the other; when the one would sail, the other would cast anchor. Here would be a continual confusion, and the ship must needs perish. The order and harmony of the world, the constant and uniform government of all things, is a plain argument, that there is but one only Omnipotent being that rules all.
(5.) The supposition of a plurality of gods is destructive to all true religion. For if there were more than one God, we would be obliged to worship and serve more than one. But this it is impossible for us to do; as will plainly appear, if you consider what divine worship and service is. Religious worship and adoration must be performed with the whole man. This is what the divine eminence and excellency requires, that we love him with all our heart, soul and strength, and serve him with all the powers and faculties of our souls, and members of our bodies; and that our whole man, time, strength, and all we have, be entirely devoted to him alone. But this cannot be done to a plurality of gods. For in serving and worshiping a plurality, our hearts and strength, our time and talents, would be divided among them. To this purpose our Lord argues, Matthew. 6:24. 'No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.' Mammon is thought to be an idol, which the heathens reckoned to be the God of money and riches. Now, says Christ, you cannot serve them both; if you would have the Lord for your God, and serve him, you must renounce mammon. We cannot serve two gods or masters: if but one require our whole time and strength, we cannot serve the other.
6. If there might be more gods than one, nothing would hinder why there might not be one, or two, or three millions of them. No argument can be brought for a plurality of gods, suppose two or three, but what a man might, by purity of reason, make use of forever so many. Hence it is, that when men have once begun to imagine a plurality of gods, they have been endless in such fancies and imaginations. To this purpose is that charge against the Jews, who in this conformed themselves very much to the nations round about them, 'According to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah,' Jeremiah 2:28. Varro reckons up three hundred gods whom the heathens worshiped, and Hesiod reckons about three thousand of them. Indeed, if we once begin to imagine more gods than one, where shall we make an end? So that the opinion or conception of a plurality of gods is most ridiculous and irrational.
And this should be observed against those who pretend, that the Father is the most high God, and that there is no most high God but one, yet that there is another true God, namely, Christ, who in very deed, as to them, is but a mere man; yet they pretend he is the true God. Christ is God, and the true and most high God. But, in opposition to them, consider that to be a man and to be a God are opposite, and cannot be said of one in respect of one nature, Jeremiah 31:3. Acts 14:15. Jeremiah 10:11.
I shall now shut up this subject with a few inferences.
1. Woe to atheists, then, whether they be such in heart or life; for their case is dreadful and desperate: and they shall sooner or later feel the heaviest strokes of the vengeance of that God whom they impiously deny, whether in opinion or by works. To dissuade from this fearful wickedness, consider,
(1.) That atheism is most irrational. It is great folly; and therefore the Psalmist says, Psalm 14:1. 'The fool has said in his heart, There is no God.' It is contrary to the stream of universal reason; contrary to the natural dictates of the atheist's own soul; and contrary to the testimony of every creature. The atheist has as many arguments against him as there are creatures in Heaven and earth. Besides, it is most unreasonable for any man to hazard himself on this bottom in the denial of a God. May he not reason thus with himself, what if there be a God, for anything that I know? then what a dreadful case will I be in when I find it so? If there be a God, and I fear and serve him, I gain a blessed and glorious eternity; but if there be no God, I lose nothing but my sordid lusts, by believing that there is one. Now, ought not reasonable creatures to argue thus with themselves? What a doleful meeting will there be between the God who is denied, and the atheist that denies him! He will meet with fearful reproaches on God's part, and with dreadful terrors on his own: all that he gains is but a liberty to sin here, and a certainty to suffer for it hereafter, if he be in an error, as undoubtedly he is.
(2.) Atheism is most impious. What horrid impiety is it for men to deny their Creator a being, without whose goodness they could have had none themselves? Nay, every atheist is a Deicide, a killer of God as much as in him lies. He aims at the destruction of his very being. The atheist says upon the matter, that God is unworthy of a being, and that it were well if the world were rid of him.
(3.) Atheism is of pernicious consequence both to others and to the atheist himself. To others: for
(1.) It would root out the foundation of government, and demolish all order among men. The being of God is the great guard of the world: for it is the sense of a Deity, upon which all civil order in cities and kingdoms is founded. Without this, there is no tie upon the consciences of men to restrain them from the most atrocious impieties and villainies. A city of atheists would be a heap of confusion. There could be no traffic nor commerce, if all the sacred bonds of it in the consciences of men were thus snapped asunder by denying the existence of God.
(2.) It is introductive of all evil into the world. If you take away God, you take away conscience, and thereby all rules of good and evil. And how could any laws be made, when the measure and standard of them is removed? for all good laws are founded upon the dictates of conscience and reason, and upon common sentiments in human nature, which spring from a sense of God. So that if the foundation be destroyed, the whole superstructure must needs tumble down. A man might be a thief, a murderer, and an adulterer, and yet in a strict sense not be an offender. The worst of actions could not be evil, if a man were a God to himself. Where there is no sense of God, the bars are removed, and the flood gates of all impiety rush in upon mankind. The whole earth would be filled with violence, and all flesh would corrupt their way.
Again, atheism is pernicious to the atheist himself, who denies the being of God, or endeavors to erase all notions of the Deity out of his mind. What can he gain by this but a sordid pleasure, unworthy of a reasonable nature? And suppose there were no God, what can he lose but his fleshly lusts, by believing there is one? By believing and confessing a God, a man ventures no loss; but by denying him, he runs the most desperate hazard if there be one. For this exposes him to the most dreadful wrath and vengeance of God. If there be a hotter receptacle in Hell than another, it will be reserved for the atheist, who strikes and fights against God's very being.
(4.) Atheists are worse than heathens: for they worshiped many gods, but these worship none at all. They preserved some notion of God in the world, but these would banish him from both Heaven and earth. They degraded him, but these would destroy him. Yes, they are worse than the very devils: for the devils are under the dread of this truth, That God is. It is said they 'believe and tremble,' Jam. 2:19. It is impossible for them to be atheists in opinion; for they feel there is a God by that sense of his wrath that torments them. There may be atheists in the church, but there are none in Hell. Thus atheism is a most dreadful evil, most carefully to be guarded against.
Inference. 2. Seeing there is one only the living and true God, we owe the most perfect and unlimited obedience to his will. We are to obey the will of his command with readiness and alacrity; and submit to the will of his providence with the utmost cheerfulness, without fretting or murmuring.
Inference. 3. Is God one? then his children should live in unity, that they may be one as he is one. They should study to be one in judgment and opinion, one in affection, and one in practice. We should all live as the family of one God, carefully avoiding divisions, and whatever may tend to interrupt the communion of saints.
Inference. 4. Seeing God is one, he should be the center of our affections, love, fear, delight, joy, etc. Deuteronomy 6:4, 5. 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.'
I shall conclude all with a few directions.
1. Beware of such opinions as tend to atheism, and aim at the undermining of this supreme truth, that God is. There are many opinions which have a woeful tendency this way. Such is that of denying the immortality of the soul. This is a stroke at a distance at the very being of God, who is the Supreme Spirit. There is an order among spirits; first, the souls of men, then angels, and then God. Now, these degrees of spirits are, as it were, a rail and fence about the sense we have of the being and majesty of God. And such as deny the immortality of the soul, strike at a distance at the eternity and existence of the Deity.
Another opinion is, that men of all religions shall be saved; so that it is no matter what religion a man be of, if he walk according to the principles of it, and be of a sober moral life. In these latter times some are grown weary of the Christian religion, and by an excess of charity betray their faith, and plead for the salvation of heathens, Turks, and infidels. But you should remember, that, as there is but one God, and one heavenly Jerusalem, so there is but one faith, and one way by which men can come to the enjoyment of God there. Such libertine principles have a manifest tendency to shake people loose of all religion. To make many doors to Heaven, as one says, is to widen the gates of Hell.
Another opinion tending to atheism is, the denying of God's providence in the government of the world. Some make him an idle spectator of what is done here below, asserting that he is contented with his own blessedness and glory, and that whatever is without him is neither in his thoughts nor care. Many think that this world is but as a great clock or machine, which was set a-going at first by God, and afterwards left to its own motion. But if you exempt anything from the dominion of providence, then you will soon run into all manner of libertinism. If Satan and wicked men may do what they will, and God be only a looker-on, and not concerned with human affairs, then you may worship the devil, lest he hurt you, and fear men though God be propitious to you.
2. Beware of indulging sin. When you take a liberty to sin, and gratify your vile and sordid lusts, you will hate the law that forbids it; and this will lead you to a hatred of the Lawgiver; and hatred of God strikes against his very being. When once you allow yourselves an indulgence to sin, you will be apt to think, O that there were no God to punish me for my crimes! and would gladly persuade yourselves that there is none; and will think it your only game to do what you can to root out the notions of God in your own minds, for your own quiet, that so you may wallow in sin without remorse.
3. Prize and study the holy scriptures, for they show clearly that there is a God. There are more clear marks and characters of a Deity stamped upon the holy scriptures than upon all the works of nature. Therefore converse much with them. By this means was Junius converted from atheism. His father perceiving him to be so atheistical, caused lay a Bible in every room, so that in whatever room he entered, a Bible haunted him; and he imagined it upbraided him thus: 'Will you not read me, atheist? will you not read me?' Whereupon he read it, and was thereby converted. I say then, study the holy scriptures, and in doing so, learn to submit your reason to divine revelation. For some men, neglecting the scriptures, and going forth in the pride of their own understandings, have at last disputed themselves into flat atheism.
4. Study God in the creatures as well as in the scriptures. The creatures were all made to be heralds of the divine glory, and his glorious being and perfections appear evidently in them. Hence says the Psalmist, Psalm 19:1–4. 'The heavens declare the glory of God? and the firmament shows his handy-work, day unto day utters speech, and night unto night shows knowledge. There is no speech, nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world: in them has he set a tabernacle for the sun.' The world is sometimes compared to a book, and sometimes to a preacher. The universe is like a great printed book, wherein God sets forth himself to our view; and the great diversity of creatures which are in it, are so many letters, out of which we may spell his name. And they all preach loudly unto us the glorious being and excellencies of God. And therefore the apostle tells us, Romans 1:20, 'The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.' In the book of the creatures God has written a part of the excellency of his name; and you should learn to read God wherever he has made himself legible to you.
5. Lastly, You who are yet sinners, lying in your natural state of sin and misery, come unto God in Christ, and receive him as your God by faith, and so you will be preserved from atheism. And you who are believers in Christ, be often viewing God in your own experiences of him. Have you not often found God in the strengthening, reviving, and refreshing influences of his grace upon your souls? Have you not had sweet manifestations of his love? Have you not had frequent refreshing tastes of his goodness, in pardoning your iniquities, hearing and answering your prayers, supplying your wants, and feasting your souls? The reviewing of such experiences will be a mighty preservative against atheism. Can you doubt of his being, when you have been so often revived, refreshed, and supported by him? The secret touches of God upon your hearts, and your inward converses with him, are to you a clearer evidence of the being of God, than all the works of nature.
OF THE HOLY TRINITY
1 JOHN 5:7.—For there are three that bear record in Heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.
IN the 5th verse of this chapter, John lays down a fundamental article of the Christian faith, That Jesus is the Son of God; and brings in the witnesses of this truth, verse 7 and 8. The text condescends on the divine heavenly witnesses. Where, consider,
1. Their number, three, namely, three persons.
2. Their names, the Father, the Word, that is, the Son, so called, because he reveals the Father's mind, and the Holy Spirit. And here is noted the order of their subsisting also.
3. The majesty and glory of these witnesses; they are in Heaven, manifesting their glory there, and from it have borne record; which should make the inhabitants of the world to believe their testimony.
4. Their act: They bear record to this truth.
5. Their unity: They are one, one God; not only one in consent and agreement, but one thing, one substance, one essence.
The doctrine evidently arising from the words is,
DOCTRINE. 'There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.'
In discoursing from this doctrine, I shall,
I. Explain the terms mentioned in the doctrine, the Godhead, and a person.
II. Show that there are three persons in the Godhead.
III. Prove that these three are distinct persons.
IV. Demonstrate that these three persons are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.
V. Evince the weight and importance of this article of the Christian faith.
VI. Lastly, Deduce a few inferences.
I. I am to explain the terms mentioned in the doctrine, the Godhead, and a person.
1. By the Godhead is meant the nature or essence of God, Acts 17:29, even as by manhood is understood the nature of man. Now the Godhead is but one, there being but one God.
2. A divine person, or a person in the Godhead, is the Godhead distinguished by personal properties, Hebrews 1:3, where Christ the Son of God is called 'the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person.' For consider the Godhead as the fountain or principle of the Deity, so it is the first person; consider it as begotten of the Father, it is the second; and as proceeding from the Father and the Son, it is the third person.
II. Our next business is to show that there are three persons in the Godhead. This is confirmed by the scriptures both of the Old and New Testament.
1. The Old Testament plainly holds forth a plurality of persons in the Godhead, Genesis 1:26. 'God said, let us make man in our own image, after our likeness.' Chapter 3:22. 'And the Lord God said, Behold the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.' This cannot be understood of angels: for man is said to be created after the image of God, but never after the image of angels; and the temptation was, 'You shall be as gods,' not as angels. Nor must it be conceived, that God speaks so after the manner of kings; for that way of speaking is used rather to note modesty than royalty. But when God speaks so as to discover most of his royalty, he speaks in the singular number, as in the giving of the law, 'I am the Lord your God.' This trinity of persons is also not obscurely mentioned in Psalm 33:6. 'By the Word of the Lord, or JEHOVAH, were the heavens made; and all the host of them, by the breath, or Spirit, of his mouth.' Here is mention made of Jehovah the Word and the Spirit, as jointly acting in the work of creation. Accordingly we find, that 'all things were made by the Word,' John 1:3 and that 'the Spirit garnished the heavens,' Job 26:13. Nay, a Trinity of persons is mentioned, Isaiah 63 where, be-besides that the Lord, or Jehovah, is three times spoken of, verse 7 we read, of 'the angel of his presence,' which denotes two persons, and 'his Spirit,' verse 9, 10. So that it evidently appears, that the doctrine of the Trinity was revealed under the Old Testament.
2. The New Testament most plainly teaches this doctrine.
(1.) I begin with the text, where it is expressly asserted, There are three that bear record, etc. Here are three witnesses, and therefore three persons. Not three names of one person: for if a person have ever so many names, he is still but one witness. Not three Gods, but one.
(2.) In the baptism of Christ, Matthew. 3:16, 17 mention is made of the Father speaking in an audible voice, the Son in the human nature baptized by John, and the Holy Spirit appearing in the shape of a dove; plainly importing three divine persons.
(3.) This appears from our baptism, Matthew. 28:8, 19. 'Go you and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.' Observe the words, in the name, not names; which denotes, that these three are one God: and yet they are distinctly reckoned three in number, and so are three distinct persons.
(4.) It appears from the apostolic blessing, where all blessings are sought from the three persons distinctly mentioned, 2 Corinthians 13:14. 'The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.'
III. That these three are distinct persons, (for though they cannot be divided, yet they are distinguished), is evident. For the Son is distinct from the Father 'being the express image of his person,' Hebrews 1:2; and in John 8:17, 18 he reckons his Father one witness and himself another. And that the Holy Spirit is distinct from both, appears from John 14:16, 17. 'I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever: even the Spirit of truth.' And the text is plain for the distinction of all the three. Now, they are distinguished by their order of subsisting, and their incommunicable personal properties. In respect of the order of subsistence, the Father is the first person, as the fountain of the Deity, having the foundation of personal subsistence in himself; the Son is the second person, and has the foundation of personal subsistence from the Father; and the Holy Spirit is the third person, as having the foundation of personal subsistence from the Father and the Son. And so for their personal properties,
1. It is the personal property of the Father to beget the Son, Hebrews 1:5, 6, 8. 'Unto which of the angels said he at any time, You are my Son, this day have I begotten you? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son. And again, when he brings in the first begotten into the world he says, And let all the angels of God worship him.—But unto the Son he says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom.' This cannot be ascribed either to the Son or Holy Spirit.
2. It is the property of the Son to be begotten of the Father, John 1:14, 18. 'We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. No man has seen God at any time: the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.'
3. The property of the Holy Spirit is to proceed from the Father and the Son, John 15:26. 'When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, eyen the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, he shall testify of me.' In Galatians 4:6 he is called 'the Spirit of the Son;' and in Romans 8:9. 'the Spirit of Christ.' He is said to 'receive all things from Christ,' John 16:14, 15; to be 'sent by him,' John 15:26.: and to be 'sent by the Father in Christ's name,' John 14:26. All this plainly implies, that the Holy Spirit proceeds both from the Father and the Son. This generation of the Son and Holy Spirit was from all eternity. For as God is from everlasting to everlasting, so must this generation and procession be: and to deny it, would be to deny the supreme and eternal Godhead of all the three glorious persons.
IV. I proceed to show, that these three persons are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. To this end consider,
1. How express the text is, These three are one. When the apostle speaks of the unity of the earthly witnesses, verse 8 he says, they 'agree in one,' acting in unity of consent or agreement only. But the heavenly witnesses are one, namely, in nature or essence. They are not only of a like nature or substance, but one and the same substance; and if so, they are and must be equal in all essential perfections, as power and glory.
2. There is but one true God, as was before proved, and there can be but one true God. Now, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are each of them the true God; and therefore they are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. And this I shall prove by scripture testimony.
First, That the Father is true God, none that acknowledge a God do deny. Divine worship and attributes are ascribed to him. But,
Secondly, That the Son is true God, appears if you consider,
1. The scriptures expressly calls him God, Romans 9:5. John 1:1. Acts 20:28; 'the true God' 1 John 5:20; 'the great God,' Titus 2:13; the 'mighty God, Isaiah 9:6. 'Jehovah or Lord,' Malachi 3:1. which is a name proper to the true God only, Psalm 83 ult.
2. The attributes of God, which are one and the same with God himself, are ascribed to him; as eternity, Micah 5:2. 'Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting; independence and omnipotence, Revelation 1:8.—'The Almighty;' omnipresence, John 3:13 where he is said to be 'in Heaven,' when bodily on earth; and Matthew. 28:20. 'Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world:' omniscience, John 21:17. 'Lord you know all things,' says Peter to him; and unchangeableness, Hebrews 1:11, 12. 'They shall perish, but you remain: and they all shall wax old as does a garment; and as a vesture shall you fold them up, and they shall be changed: but you are the same, and your years shall not fail.'
3. The works proper and peculiar to God are ascribed to him; as creation, John 1:3. 'All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.' Conservation of all things, Hebrews 1:3.—'upholding all things by the word of his power,' Raising the dead by his own power, and at his own pleasure, John 5:21, 26. 'The Son quickens whom he will.' The Father 'has given to the Son to have life in himself.' The saving of sinners, Hosea 1:7.—'I will save them by the Lord their God.' Compare chapter 13:4. 'in me is your help.' Yes, whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.
4. Divine worship is due to him, and therefore he is true God, Matthew. 4:10. The angels are commanded to 'worship him,' Hebrews 1:8. All must give the same honor to him as to the Father, John 5:23. We must have faith in him, and they are blessed that believe in him, Psalm 2:12 compare Jeremiah 17:5. We are to pray to him, Acts 7:58; and we are baptized in his name, Matthew. 28:19. Nay, he is expressly said to be 'equal with the Father,' Philippians 2:6 and 'one with him.' John 10:30. Now, seeing God will 'not give his glory to another,' Isaiah 48:11 because he is true and cannot lie, and he is just, it follows, that though Christ be a distinct person, yet he is not a distinct God from his Father, but one God with him, the same in substance equal in power and glory. And it is no contradiction to this doctrine when Christ says, 'My Father is greater than I,' John 14:28; for he is not speaking there of his nature as God, but of his mediatory office; and hence he is called the Father's 'servant,' Isaiah 42:1.
Thirdly, That the Holy Spirit is true God, or a divine person, appears, if you consider,
1. The scripture expressly calls him God, Acts 5:3, 4. 1 Corinthians 3:16. Isaiah 6:9 compared with Acts 28:25, 26. 2 Samuel 23:2, 3. He is called 'Jehovah, or the Lord,' Numbers 12:6 compare 2 Peter 1:21.
2. Divine attributes are ascribed to him; as omnipotence, he 'works all in all,' 1 Corinthians 12:6, 9, 10, 11; omnipresence, Psalm 139:7; and omniscience, 1 Corinthians 2:10.
3. Works peculiar to God are ascribed to him; as creation, Psalm 33:6; conservation, Psalm 104:30; working miracles, Matthew 12:28; raising the dead, Romans 8:11; inspiring the prophets, 2 Timothy 3:16 compare 2 Peter 1:21.
4. Divine worship is due to him. We are baptized in his name, Matthew. 28:19; we are to pray to him, 2 Corinthians 13:14. Acts 4:23, 25 compare 2 Samuel 23:2, 3.
Hence it appears,
1. That the Godhead is not divided, but that each of the three persons has the one whole Godhead, or divine nature.
2. That it is sinful to imagine any inequality among the three divine persons, or to think one of them more honorable than another, seeing they are all one God.
V. I proceed to consider the weight and importance of this article. It is a fundamental article, the belief whereof is necessary to salvation. For those that are 'without God,' Ephesians 2:12 and 'have not the Father,' cannot be saved; but 'whoever denies the Son, the same has not the Father,' 1 John 2:23. Those that are none of Christ's cannot be saved; but 'he who has not the Spirit, is none of his,' Romans 8:9. None receive the Spirit but those that know him. John 14:17. This mystery of the Trinity is so interwoven with the whole of religion, that their can neither be any true faith, right worship, or obedience without it. For take away this doctrine, and the object of faith, worship, and obedience is changed; seeing the object of these declared in the scripture, is the three persons in the Godhead; and the scriptures know no other God. Where is faith, if this be taken away? John 17:3. 'This is life eternal, that they might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.' Here it is to be observed, that our Lord does not call the Father only the true God, exclusive of the other persons of the Trinity; but that he (including the other persons who all exist in the same one undivided essence) is the only true God, in opposition to idols, falsely called gods. 1 John 2:23. 'Whoever denies the Son, the same has not the Father.' There is no more true worship or fellowship with God in it: 'For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father,' Ephesians 2:18. And there is no more obedience without it, John 15:23. 'He who hates me,' says Christ, 'hates my Father also.' John 5:23, 'He who honors not the Son, honors not the Father which has sent him.' We are debtors to the Spirit, to live after the Spirit, and are bound by baptism to the obedience of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
I shall conclude with a few inferences.
1. How much ought we to prize divine revelation, wherein we have a discovery of this incomprehensible mystery! This is a truth which nature's light could never have found out. It is above reason, though not contrary to it; for reason, though it could never have brought it to light, yet when it is discovered, it must needs yield to it; for as the judgment of sense must be corrected by reason, so the judgment of reason by faith.
2. See here that God whom you are to take for your God, to love, trust in, worship and obey, even the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is that God who offers himself to you in the gospel, and whom you are to take for your God in Christ. This is that Father who elected a select company of sinners unto salvation; this is that Son that redeemed them unto God by his blood; and this is that Spirit that renews and sanctifies them, making them meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.
3. Lastly, Take this Father for your Father, who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; and be obedient children, if you would be reckoned of his seed. Receive the Son, and slight him not. Give your consent to the gospel-offer, seeing it is your Maker that offers to be your husband. And grieve not the Holy Spirit, lest you be found fighters against God.
OF THE DECREES OF GOD
EPHESIANS 1:11.—According to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his own will.
THE apostle here gives an instance of the sovereign freedom of divine grace through Jesus Christ in the believing Jews.
1. There is here the high privilege they were advanced to, a right to the heavenly inheritance, which had been forfeited by the sin of man.
2. Through whom they had obtained it, in him; by virtue of the merits, the obedience and satisfaction of Christ.
3. Why they obtained it, while others had not. Not that they were more worthy than others, but because they were predestined, elected, or fore-ordained to salvation, and all the means of it.
4. There is the certainty of the efficacy of predestination. It is according to his purpose; that is, his firm purpose and peremptory decree to bring such things to pass. And this certainly in particular is evinced by a general truth, Who works all things according to the counsel of his own will. Wherein we may notice.
(1.) God's effectual operation, he works. The word signifies to work powerfully and efficaciously, so as to overcome all contrary resistance, and all difficulties in the way; which is exactly God's way of working. And this working takes place in the works of creation and providence.
(2.) The manner how God works. The plan and scheme according to which his works are framed, is the counsel of his will. His will is his decree and intention; and it is called the counsel of his will, to denote the wisdom of his decrees, his most wise and free determination therein. As God's decree is an act of his will, and so most free, considered in relation to the creatures; so his decree and will are never without counsel; he wills or decree things to be done with the greatest reason and judgment, most wisely as well as freely.
(3.) The object of his working after this manner, all things. This cannot be restricted to the blessings which the apostle had been speaking of immediately before, but must be understood of all things whatever, and of all their motions and actions as such; which therefore are the object of God's decrees.
The text plainly affords this doctrine, namely,
DOCTRINE. 'God has fore-ordained, according to the counsel of his own will, whatever comes to pass.'
Here I shall,
I. Explain the nature of a decree.
II. Consider the object of God's decrees.
III. Speak of the end of his decrees.
IV. Touch at their properties.
V. Make improvement.
I. I am to explain the nature of a decree. The text calls it a purpose, a will. For God to decree is to purpose and fore-ordain, to will and appoint that a thing shall be or not be. And such decrees must needs be granted, seeing God is absolutely perfect, and therefore nothing can come to pass without his will; seeing there is an absolute and necessary dependence of all things and persons on God as the first cause. But there is a vast difference between the decrees of God and men; whereof this is the principal: Men's purposes or decrees are distinct from themselves, but the decrees of God are not distinct from himself. God's decrees are nothing else but God himself, who is one simple act; and they are many only in respect of their objects, not as they are in God; even as the one heat of the sun melts wax and hardens clay. To say otherwise is to derogate from the absolute simplicity of God, and to make him a compound being. It is also to derogate from his infinite perfection; for whatever is added to anything argues a want, which is made up by the accession of that thing, and so introduces a change; but God is absolutely unchangeable. Neither could God's decrees be eternal, if it were not so; for there is nothing eternal but God.
II. I proceed to consider the object of God's decrees. This is whatever comes to pass. He works all things, says the text. God has decreed whatever comes to pass; and nothing comes to pass but what he has decreed to come to pass. We may consider the extent of the divine decree under the three following heads.
1. God has decreed the creation of all things that have a being.
2. He has decreed to rule and govern the creatures which he was to make.
3. He has decreed the eternal state of all his rational creatures.
First, God decreed to rear up this stately fabric of the world, the heavens and the earth, the sea and the land, with all the great variety of creatures which inhabit them. There are myriads of holy angels in Heaven, cherubim and seraphim, thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, angels and archangels. There are many shining luminaries in the firmament, the sun, and the moon, and innumerable glittering stars. There is a great variety of creatures on the earth, animals, plants, trees, and minerals, with various forms, shapes, colors, smells, virtues, and qualities. The sea is inhabited by many creatures, Psalm 104:25. Now, God decreed to make all these things, Revelation 4:11. 'You have created all things.'
Secondly, God has decreed the government of all his creatures. He preserves and upholds them in their beings, and he guides and governs them in all their motions and actions. He is not only the general spring and origin of all the motions and actions of the creatures, but he appoints and orders them all immediately.
1. He has decreed all their motions and actions: 'For (says the apostle) of him, and through him, and to him, are all things.' Romans 11 ult. This is clear from God's knowing all these things before they come to pass; which knowledge of them must needs be in the decree, upon which the coming to pass of all things depends.
Not only good things, but evil things fall within the compass of his holy decree. Evils of punishment are truly good, being the execution of justice, as it is good in a magistrate to punish evildoers. God owns himself to be the author of these evils, Amos 3:6. 'Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord has not done it?' And yet he has decreed the effecting of these. As for the evils of sin, these also fall within the compass of the decree of God, as is clear in the case of crucifying Christ, Acts 2:23. 'Him (says the apostle to the Jews) being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.' And says the apostle, Acts 4:27, 28. 'For of a truth against your holy child Jesus, whom you have anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatever your hand and your counsel determined before to be done.' This appears also in the case of Pharaoh refusing to let Israel go, and pursuing them when they had gone, whose heart God hardened, Exodus. 14:4; and in the sin of Joseph's brethren in selling him into Egypt; of which Joseph says, Genesis 45:8. 'So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God.' It is true, God decreed not the effecting of sin, for then he should have been the author of it, but he decreed the permission of sin. And though sin in itself is evil, yet God's permitting it is good, seeing he can bring good out of it; and it is just in him to permit it, where he is not bound to hinder it. Yet this is not a naked permission, whereby the thing may either come to pass or not, but such as infers a certainty of the event, so that in respect of the event the sin cannot but come to pass. Hence our Lord says, Matthew. 18:7. 'Woe unto the world because of offences;. for it must needs be that offences come.' And says the apostle, 1 Corinthians 11:19. 'There must be heresies among you.' See also Acts 4:27, 28 forfeited.
2. And not only necessary things, as the burning of the fire, but the most free acts of the creature, and the most casual things, fall under the divine decree. Free acts, as Proverbs 20:1. 'The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turns it wherever he will.' To this purpose are the foresaid instances of the Jews, Pharaoh, and Joseph's brethren.—The most casual, as in the case of the casual slaughter mentioned, Exodus. 21:12, 13, and Deuteronomy 19:3 where mention is made of the Lord's delivering the person slain into the hands of the slayer, though he had no intention to slay him. Such also is the case of lots, Proverbs 16:33. 'The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.' This holds also in the case of sparrows, and the hairs of the head falling, which cannot be done without God, Matthew. 10:29, 30. And thus not only great things, but small things fall within the compass of the divine decree.
But more especially let us consider God's decrees with respect to the government of rational creatures. This we may take up in the following particulars.
1. God has decreed what kingdoms and monarchies should be on the earth, what princes and potentates should rule and govern them, and whether their government should be mild or tyrannical; how long each kingdom should continue, when they should have peace and when war, when prosperity and adversity. We find wonderful discoveries made to Daniel with respect to these things.
2. God has decreed everything relating to the lot and condition of particular persons.
(1.) He has decreed the time and place of their birth, whether it should be under the law or gospel, in a land of light or darkness; whether among the savage Indians in America, or among the more polite and civilized people of Europe; whether among Muhammadans, Papists, or Protestants. All this was decreed by the Lord, who 'has made of one blood all nations of men, to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation,' Acts 17:26.
(2.) He has decreed every man's lot and condition, whether it shall be high or low, rich or poor, noble or ignoble, learned or unlearned. He has determined the trade and employment they should follow, the particular business they should betake themselves to. Many times God's providence over-rules men's purposes and designs, for fulfilling his own counsels. Matters are sometimes strangely wheeled about, so that not what we or our parents designed, but what God has purposed shall take place. Amos was meanly employed at first, but God designed him for a more honorable calling: he was taken from the office of a herdsman, and gatherer of sycamore fruit, and invested with a commission to prophesy to the people of Israel, Amos 7:14, 15. David followed the ewes, and it is like never raised his thoughts to higher things in the days of his youth; but God made him the royal shepherd of a better flock, Psalm 78:70, 71. The most part of the apostles were fishermen; but Christ called them to a more high and eminent station, even to be extraordinary officers in his church, and fishers of men.
(3.) God has decreed what relations men shall have in the world. Their wives and children are appointed for them. Hence said Abraham's servant, Genesis 24:44. 'Let the same be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master's son.' That such a woman rather than any other, should be wife, to such a man, is by the appointment of Heaven. Men's children are also decreed by God. Hence said Eve, Genesis 4:24. 'God has appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.' And says the Psalmist, Psalm 127:3. 'Lo children are the heritage of the Lord.' God determines the numbers and names of every man's children.
(4.) All the comforts of men's lives are under the divine appointment, both those temporal and spiritual. Hence says the prophet, Isaiah 26:1. 'We have a strong city: salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.'
(5.) All men's afflictions are determined by a decree of Heaven, Micah 6:9. 'Hear you the rod, and who has appointed it.' Such are public calamities and distresses, as war, famine and pestilence, all bodily pains and sickness, poverties and pinching straits, and whatever is grievous and afflictive to men. None of these spring out of the dust, or come by chance. The kind and nature of people's troubles, their measure and degree, time and season, continuance and duration, and all the circumstances of them, are determined, and weighed in the scale of his eternal counsel. Hence says the apostle, 1 Thessalonians 3:3. 'No man should be moved by these afflictions: for you yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.'
(6.) The time of every man's life in the world is appointed. Hence says Job, chapter 7:1. 'Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?' And says the same great man, chapter 14:5. 'His days are determined: and the number of his months are with you, you have appointed his bounds that he cannot pass.' The term of our life is fixed and limited, our days are determined, and our months numbered. Hence David prays, Psalm 39:4. 'Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am.' Our days are measured; they are as the days of an hireling. As the hireling has a set time to work in, so every man and woman has an appointed time for acting and working in this world. We are all pilgrims and strangers on the earth, and in a little time we must go hence and be no more. We are here like men upon a stage to act our parts, and in a short time we must retire within the curtain of death, and others will come in our room. Our glass is continually running, and the day and hour in which it will run out is settled and fixed by the order of Heaven. We find in scripture that God has often foretold the precise term of particular men's lives. He set a hundred and twenty years to those who lived in the old world before the flood came upon them, Genesis 6:3. He foretold the time of Moses' life, of that of Jeroboam's son, of that of Ahaziah king of Israel, and of many others. All this was from his own decree and counsel.
Thirdly, God has determined the eternal state of all his rational creatures, both men and angels. Our Confession of Faith tells us, agreeably to scripture, chapter 3 are. 3 that 'by the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory some men and angels are predestined unto everlasting life, and others are fore-ordained to everlasting death.' More particularly,
1. We read of the elect angels, 1 Timothy 5:21. The perseverance and standing of the holy angels in the state of their primitive integrity, and their confirmation therein, was determined by the purpose of God. In the morning of the creation Heaven shined with innumerable glittering stars, the angels of light, of whom a vast number are, by their rebellion against God, become wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Now, the good angels are in a supernatural state, without the least danger of change, or any separation from the blessed presence of God in glory, flowing from the continual irradiations of divine grace, which preserves their minds from errors, and their wills from irregular desires; and consequently they cannot sin, nor forfeit their felicity.
It was by an eternal decree of God, that he passed by the angels that fell, and doomed them to everlasting misery. The apostle tells us, 2 Peter 2:4 that 'God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to Hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved into judgment.' And says Jude, verse 6. 'The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day.' Mercy did not interpose to avert or suspend their judgment; but immediately they were expelled from the Divine Presence. Their present misery is insupportable, and worse awaits them. Their judgment is irreversible; they are under the blackness of darkness for over. They have not the least glimpse of hope to allay their sorrows, and no star-light to sweeten the horrors of their eternal night. It were a kind of mercy to them to be capable of death; but God will never be so far reconciled to them as to annihilate them. Immortality, which is the privilege of their nature, infinitely increases their torment.
2. God has likewise appointed the final and eternal state of men and women. It is said, Romans 9:21, 22, 23. 'Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory?'
(1.) He has elected some to everlasting life by an irreversible decree, Romans 8:29, 30. 'For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestine to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestine, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.' Ephesians 1:4. 'According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.' 2 Thessalonians 2:13. (God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation.' From eternity God elected some from among the lost posterity of Adam to everlasting life and glory, according to the good pleasure of his own will. Therefore all is referred by our Savior to the good pleasure of God, Matthew. 11:25, 26. And all the means for accomplishing the ends of election are likewise of divine appointment; particularly the redemption of ruined sinners by the death and sufferings of Christ: 'He has chosen us in Christ,' Ephesians 1:4. The Father did first, in the order of nature, chose Christ to the Mediatory office, and as the chief corner-stone to bear up the whole building; whence he is called God's elect, Isaiah 42:1. And then he chose a company of lost sinners to be saved by and through Christ; and therefore he is said to predestine them to be conformed to the image of his Son.
(2.) God has passed by the rest of mankind, according to the unsearchable counsel of his own will, whereby he extends or with-holds mercy as he pleases, for the glory of his sovereign power over his creatures, and has ordained them to dishonor and wrath for their sins, to the praise of his glorious justice. Hence Christ is said to be 'a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence to them that stumble at the word being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed,' 1 Peter 2:8. 'The foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, The Lord knows them that are his. And, Let every one that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold, and of silver, but also of wood, and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor,' 2 Timothy 2:19, 20. In Jude, verse 4 we read of 'ungodly men, who were before of old ordained to condemnation.' And in Romans 9:22, 23 we read of 'vessels of mercy, which God had afore prepared unto glory: and of vessels of wrath fitted for destruction.'
III. I come to consider the end of God's decrees. And this is no other than his own glory. Every rational agent acts for an end; and God being the most perfect agent, and his glory the highest end, there can be no doubt but all his decrees are directed to that end. 'For—to him are all things,' Romans 11:36. 'That we should be to the praise of his glory,' Ephesians 1:12. In all, he aims at his glory: and seeing he aims at it, he gets it even from the most sinful actions he has decreed to permit. Either the glory of his mercy or of his justice he draws therefrom. Infinite wisdom directs all to the end intended. More particularly,
1. This was God's end in the creation of the world. The divine perfections are admirably glorified here, not only in regard of the greatness of the effect, which comprehends the heavens and the earth, and all things therein; but in regard of the marvelous way of its production. For he made the vast universe without the concurrence of any material cause; he brought it forth from the womb of nothing by an act of his efficacious will. And as he began the creation by proceeding from nothing to real existence, so in forming the other parts he drew them from infirm and indisposed matter, as from a second nothing, that all his creatures might bear the signatures of infinite power. Thus he commanded light to arise out of darkness, and sensible creatures from an insensible element. The luster of the divine glory appears eminently here. Hence says David, Psalm 19:1. 'The heavens declare the glory of God.' They declare and manifest to the world the attributes and perfections of their great Creator, even in his infinite wisdom, goodness, and power. All the creatures have some prints of God stamped upon them, whereby they loudly proclaim and show to the world his wisdom and goodness in framing them. Hence says Paul, Romans 1:20. 'The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead.'
2. The glory of God was his chief end and design in making men and angels. The rest of the creatures glorified God in an objective way, as they are evidences and manifestations of his infinite wisdom, goodness, and power. But this higher rank of beings are endued with rational faculties, and so are capable to glorify God actively. Hence it is said, Proverbs 16:4. 'The Lord has made all things for himself.' If all things were made for him, then man and angels especially, who are the master-pieces of the whole creation. We have our rise and being from the pure fountain of God's infinite power and goodness; and therefore we ought to run towards that again, until we empty all our faculties and excellencies into that same ocean of divine goodness.
3. This is likewise the end of election and predestination. For 'he has predestined us unto the adoption of children, to the praise of the glory of his grace.' That some are ordained to eternal life, and others passed by, and suffered to perish eternally in their sin, is for the manifestation of the infinite perfections and excellencies of God. The glory and beauty of the divine attributes is displayed here with a shining luster; as his sovereign authority and dominion over all his creatures to dispose of them to what ends and purposes he pleases; his knowledge and omniscience, in beholding all things past, present, and to come; his vindictive justice, in ordaining punishments to men, as a just retribution for sin; and his omnipotence, in making good his word, and putting all his threatenings in execution. The glory of his goodness shines likewise here, in making choice of any, when all most justly deserved to be rejected. And his mercy shines here with an amiable luster, in receiving and admitting all who believe in Jesus into his favor.
4. This was the end that God proposed in that great and astonishing work of redemption. In our redemption by Christ we have the fullest, clearest, and most delightful manifestation of the glory of God that ever was or shall be in this life. All the declarations and manifestations that we have of Mb glory in the works of creation and common providence, are but dim and obscure in comparison with what is here. Indeed the glory of his wisdom, power, and goodness, is clearly manifested in the works of creation. But the glory of his mercy and love had lain under an eternal eclipse without a Redeemer. God had in several ages of the world pitched upon particular seasons to manifest and discover one or other particular property of his nature. Thus his justice was declared in his drowning the old world with a deluge of water, and burning Sodom with fire from Heaven. His truth and power were clearly manifested in freeing the Israelites from the Egyptian chains, and bringing them out from that miserable bondage. His truth was there illustriously displayed in performing a promise which had lain dormant for the space of 430 years, and his power in quelling his implacable enemies by the meanest of his creatures. Again, the glory of one attribute is more seen in one work than in another: in some things there is more of his goodness, in other things more of his wisdom is seen, and in others more of his power. 'But in the work of redemption all his perfections and excellencies shine forth in their greatest glory. And this is the end that God proposed in their conversion and regeneration. Hence it is said, Isaiah 43:21. 'This people have I formed for myself, they shall show forth my praise.' Sinners are adopted into God's family, and made a royal priesthood on this very design,' 1 Peter 2:9.
IV. I come now to consider the properties of God's decrees.
1. They are eternal. God makes no decrees in time, but they were all from eternity. So the decree of election is said to have been 'before the foundation of the world,' Ephesians 1:4. Yes whatever he does in time, was decreed by him, seeing it was known to him before time, Acts 15:18. 'Known unto God are all his works from the beginning.' And this foreknowledge is founded on the decree. If the divine decrees were not eternal, God would not be most perfect and unchangeable, but, like weak man, should take new counsels, and would be unable to tell everything that were to come to pass.
2. They are most wise, 'according to the counsel of his will.' God cannot properly deliberate or take counsel, as men do; for he sees all things together and at once. And thus his decrees are made with perfect judgment, and laid in the depth of wisdom, Romans 11:33. 'O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God I how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!' So that nothing is determined that could have been better determined.
3. They are most free, according to the counsel of his own will; depending on no other, but all flowing from the mere pleasure of his own will, Romans 11:34. 'For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?' Whatever he decree to work without himself, is from his free choice. So his decrees are all absolute, and there are none of them conditional. He has made no decrees suspended on any condition without himself. Neither has he decreed anything because he saw it would come to pass, or as that which would come to pass on such or such conditions; for then they should be no more according to the counsel of his will, but the creature's will. For God's decrees being eternal, cannot depend upon a condition which is temporal. They are the determinate counsels of God, but a conditional decree determines nothing. Such conditional decrees are inconsistent with the infinite wisdom of God, and are in men only the effects of weakness; and they are inconsistent with the independency of God, making them depend on the creature.
4. They are unchangeable. They are the unalterable laws of Heaven. God's decrees are constant; and he by no means alters his purpose, as men do, Psalm 33:11. 'The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.' Hence they are compared to mountains of brass, Zechariah 6:1. As nothing can escape his first view, so nothing can be added to his knowledge. Hence Balaam said,' God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man, that he should repent: has he said, and shall he not do it? or has he spoken, and shall he not make it good?' Numbers 23:19. The decree of election is irreversible: The foundation of God, (says the apostle), stands sure, having this seal, The Lord knows them that are his,' 2 Timothy 2:19.
5. They are most holy and pure. For as the sun darts its beams upon a dunghill, and yet is no way defiled by it; so God decrees the permission of sin, as above explained, yet is not the author of sin: 1 John 1:5. 'God is light, and in him is no darkness at all,' Jam. 1:13, 17. 'God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts he any man. With him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.'
6. Lastly, They are effectual; that is, whatever God decrees comes to pass infallibly, Isaiah 46:10. 'My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.' He cannot fall short of what he has determined. Yet the liberty of second causes is not hereby taken away; for the decree of God offers no violence to the creature's will; as appears from the free and unforced actings of Joseph's brethren, Pharaoh, the Jews that crucified Christ, etc. Nor does it take away the contingency of second causes, either in themselves or as to us, as appears by the lot cast into the lap. Nay they are thereby established, because he has efficaciously foreordained that such effects shall follow on such causes.
Before proceeding to the application of this doctrine, it may not be improper to answer some objections which are brought against the doctrine of the divine decrees.
1. It is objected by some, that if all things that come to pass in time be appointed of God by an irreversible decree, then this seems to make God the author of sin, as if he had ordained that horrid and hateful evil to come into the world, which is so dishonorable to himself, and so destructive to the children of men. In answer to this, you must know,
1. That all sinful actions fall under the divine decree. Though sin itself flows from transgressing the law, yet the futurition of it is from the decree of God. No such thing could ever have been in the world, if it had not been determined by the eternal counsel of Heaven for a holy and just end. This is plainly asserted by the apostle Peter, with respect to the greatest villainy that was ever committed on the earth, namely, the death and sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, at the hands of sinful men, Acts 2:23 forfeited. And the church gives this account of it, Acts 4:27, 28. 'For of a truth against your holy child Jesus, whom you have anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatever your hand, and your counsel determined before to be done.' There was never such an atrocious crime or higher act of wickedness committed, than the murdering of the Lord of glory. And yet it appears from these texts of scripture, that, in this bloody and horrid scene, wicked men did no more than God's hand and counsel determined before to be done.
2. That the decree of God is properly distinguished into that which is effective, and that which is permissive.
(1.) His effective decree respects all the good that comes to pass, whether it be moral or natural goodness. All the actions and motions of the creatures have a natural goodness in them; and even sinful actions considered abstractly from any irregularity, obliquity, or deformity cleaving to them, have a natural goodness in them, so far as they are actions: they have a goodness of being considered purely and simply as actions. Now, God has decreed to effect all these, yes even sinful actions considered purely as natural. For he is the first and universal cause of all things, the fountain and original of all good. And it is said with respect to the oppressions of the church by wicked men, Psalm 115:3. 'Our God is in the heavens; he has done whatever he pleased.'
(2.) His permissive decree does only respect the irregularity and depravity that is in sinful actions. God decreed to permit the same, or he determined it to be, himself permitting it. Hence it is said, Acts 14:16. 'In times past he suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.' And God does nothing in time, but what he did from eternity decree to do. So that the futurition of sin is from the decree of God. God determined that it should be. He did not decree to have any efficiency in sin, considered as such; but he willed that it should be done, himself permitting it. The counsel of God did not determine to do it, but that it should be done.
3. God decreed the permission of sin for great and glorious ends. It is true, sin in its own nature has no tendency to any good end. If it end in any good, it is from the overruling providence of God, and that infinite divine skill that can bring good out of evil, as well as light out of darkness. Now, the great and glorious end for which God decreed the after-being of sin, is his own glory: and the ends subordinate thereunto are not a few. Particularly, God decreed the futurition of sin,
(1.) That he might have occasion of glorifying his infinite wisdom, love, and grace in the redemption and salvation of a company of lost sinners through the death and sufferings of his own dear Son.
(2.) That his patience and long suffering in bearing with and forbearing sinners, might be magnified, admired, and adored.
(3.) That he might be honored and glorified by the faith and repentance of his people, and their walking humbly with him.
(4.) That his justice might be illustriously displayed and glorified in the eternal damnation of reprobate sinners for their own sins and abominations, sin being the cause of their damnation, though not of their reprobation. Thus God decreed the futurition of sin for these holy and wise ends, that he might glorify his wisdom in bringing good out of so great an evil, and a greater good than the evil he decreed to permit.
4. The decree of God about the permission of sin does not infringe the liberty of man's will. For sin does not follow the decree by a necessity of co-action or compulsion, which indeed would destroy human liberty; but by a necessity of infallibility, which is very consistent with it. It is sufficient unto human liberty, or the freedom of man's will, that a man act without all constraint, and out of choice. Now, this is not taken away by the decree. Men sin as freely as if there were no decree, and yet as infallibly as if there were no liberty. And men sin, not to fulfill God's decree, which is hidden from them, but to serve and gratify their vile lusts and corrupt affections.
Objection 2. If God has determined the precise number of every man's days by an unalterable decree, then the use of means for the preservation of our health and lives is altogether unnecessary; for nothing can frustrate the divine decree. We will certainly live as long as God has appointed us, whether we use any means or not. And therefore when we are hungry, we need not eat and drink; and when we are sick, we need not take physic, or use any medicines.
In answer to this, you must know, that as God has decreed the end, so he has decreed the means that are proper for attaining that end; so that these two must not be separated. Though God has decreed how long we shall live, yet seeing it is his ordinary way to work by means, and he has commanded and enjoined the use of them to men, therefore it is still our duty to use lawful means for preserving our life and health, and to wait on God in the due use of them, referring the event to his wise determination. In Paul's dangerous voyage to Rome, an angel of the Lord assured him, that God had given him all that sailed with him in the ship; and Paul assured them from the Lord, that there should be no loss of any of their lives: yet when some were about to flee out of the ship, he says to the centurion who had the command, 'Except these abide in the ship, you cannot be saved,' Acts 27:31. And he exhorted them to take some meat after their long abstinence, telling them, that it was for their health. From which it plainly appears, that as God had decreed to save their lives, so he had decreed to save them in the due use of ordinary means; so that they were to use means for the preservation of their life and health. And when Hezekiah was recovered from a mortal disease, and received a promise from God that he should have fifteen years added to his days, and the promise was confirmed by a sign, the miraculous going back of the sun, he did not neglect or cast off the use of means: but, as was prescribed by the prophet, he applied a bunch of dried figs to his sore, and used still his ordinary diet. Therefore it is gross ignorance and madness in men to reason so against God's decrees. The Lord, by an unchangeable counsel and purpose, has decreed and set down all things, and how they shall come to pass; and therefore it is a wrong way of arguing for people to say, If God has determined how long I shall live, then I shall not die sooner, though I never eat or drink.
Objection 3. If God has determined the eternal state and condition of men, whether they shall be happy or miserable forever, then it is in vain to repent and believe, or use any means for their own safety. For if God has elected them to salvation, they shall certainly be saved, whether they use any means or not; and if they are not elected to everlasting life, all that they can possibly do will be to no purpose at all, for they shall never be saved by it.
For answer to this, you must know,
1. That God's decree of election is a great secret, which we ought not to pry into. It is simply impossible for men to know whether they are elected or not, before they believe. Indeed, if a man were certain that he is not elected to eternal life, it would be another case: but as it is not certain that you are elected, so it is not certain that you are not elected. You have no means to know either the one or the other certainly, until you get saving faith. Until then the Lord reserves it in his own breast, as a secret which we are not to pry into. For it is said, Deuteronomy 29:29. 'Secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto as and to our children, that we may do all the things of his law.' Here the Lord shows what belongs to him and what belongs to us, and that we should mind our duty, and not busy and perplex ourselves about impertinences. Whether men be elected or not elected, is a secret that God never discloses to an unbeliever; but that we should believe on Christ is no secret. This is a duty clearly revealed and enjoined by the gospel.
2. It is our duty to look to God's commands, and not to his decrees; to our own duty, and not to his purposes. The decrees of God are a vast ocean, into which many possibly have curiously pried to their own horror and despair; but few or none have ever pried into them to their own profit and satisfaction. Our election is not written in particular in the Word of God; but our duty is plainly set down there. If men conscientiously perform their duty, this is the way to come to the knowledge of their election. Men therefore should not question whether they be elected or not, but first believe on Christ, and endeavor diligently to work out their own salvation; and if their works be good, and their obedience true, thereby they will come to a certain knowledge that they were elected and set apart to everlasting life.
3. As God elects to the end, so he elects also to the means. Now, faith and obedience are the means and way to salvation; and therefore, if you be elected to salvation, you are also elected to faith and obedience. See what is said to this purpose, 2 Thessalonians 2:13. 'God has chosen you to salvation,' there is the end; 'through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth,' there is the means which lead to that end. Both are decreed by God. If therefore you heartily and sincerely believe and obey, then your election to salvation stands firm and sure. Nay, further, the scriptures make election to be terminated as well in obedience as salvation. So 1 Peter 1:2. 'Elect (says the apostle) unto obedience, through sanctification of the Spirit.' In the former place it was, 'elect to salvation through sanctification;' but here it is, elect to obedience through sanctification;' to denote unto us, that none are elected unto salvation but those that are elected unto obedience. And therefore it is unreasonable, yes, it is contradictory to say, if I am elected, I shall be saved, whether I believe and obey or not; for none are elected to salvation but through faith and obedience.
4. Men do not pry into the decrees of God in other things, but do what they know to be incumbent upon them as their duty. And certainly it is as unreasonable here. When you are dangerously sick, and the physician tells you, that unless you take such and such medicines, your case is desperate; you do not use to reason thus, Then if God has decreed my recovery, I will certainly be restored to my health, whether I take that course of physic or not; but you presently fall in with the advice given you, and make use of the means prescribed for your health. And will you not do so here? you are dangerously sick and mortally wounded with sin, and God commands you to flee to Christ the only physician that can cure you, and cast yourselves upon him, and you shall certainly be saved. But O, says the sinner, if I knew that God had decreed my salvation, I would venture on Christ; but until once I know this, I must not believe: O how unreasonable is unbelief! The devil's suggestions make poor creatures act as if they were entirely distracted and out of their wits. This is just as if an Israelite stung with the fiery serpents should have said, If I knew that the Lord had decreed my cure, I would look upon the brazen serpent, and if he has decreed it, I will certainly recover whether I look to it or not. If all the stung Israelites had been thus resolved, it is likely they had all perished. Or this is as if one pursued by the avenger of blood, should have set himself down in the way to the city of refuge, where he should have been flying for his life, and said, If God has decreed my escape, then I will be safe whether I run to the city of refuge or not; but if he has not decreed it, then it is in vain for me to go thither. Now, would not men count this a willful casting away of his life, with a careless neglect of that provision which God has made to save it? Was it not sufficient that a way was made for his escape, and a way feasible enough, the city of refuge being always open? Thus the arms of Christ are always open to receive and embrace poor humbled perishing sinners fleeing to him for help. And will men destroy themselves by suffering Satan to entangle them with a needless, impertinent, and unreasonable scruple? In other cases, if there be no way but one, and any encouraging probability to draw men into it, they run into it without delay, not perplexing and discouraging themselves with the decrees of God. Now, this is your case, O sinner; Christ is the way, the truth, and the life; there is no other by whom you can be saved; flee to him then as for your life; and let not Satan hinder you, by diverting you to impossibilities and impertinences. Comply with the call and offer of the gospel. This is present and pertinent duty, and trouble not yourself about the secrets of God.
I conclude all with a few inferences.
1. Has God decreed all things that come to pass? Then there is nothing that falls out by chance, nor are we to ascribe what we meet with either to good or ill luck and fortune. There are many events in the world which men look upon as mere accidents, yet all these come by the counsel and appointment of Heaven. Solomon tells us, Proverbs 16:33 that 'the lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is from the Lord.' However casual and fortuitous things may he with respect to us, yet they are all determined and directed by the Lord. When that man drew a bow at a venture, 1 Kings 22:34 it was merely accidental with respect to him, yet it was God that guided the motion of the arrow so as to smite the king of Israel rather than any other man. Nothing then comes to pass, however casual and uncertain it may seem to be, but what was decreed by God.
2. Hence we see God's certain knowledge of all things that happen in the world, seeing his knowledge is founded on his decree. As he sees all things possible in the glass of his own power, so he sees all things to come in the glass of his own will; of his effecting will, if he has decreed to produce them; and of his permitting will, if he has decreed to suffer them. Hence his declaration of things to come is founded on his appointing them, Isaiah 44:7. 'Who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming and shall come? let them show unto them.' He foreknows the most necessary things according to the course of nature, because he decreed that such effects should proceed from and necessarily follow such and such causes: and he knows all future contingents, all things which shall fall out by chance, and the most free actions of rational creatures, because he decreed that such things should come to pass contingently or freely, according to the nature of second causes. So that what is casual or contingent with respect to us, is certain and necessary in regard of God.
3. Whoever be the instruments of any good to us, of whatever sort, we must look above them, and eye the hand and counsel of God in it, which is the first spring, and be duly thankful to God for it. And whatever evil of crosses or afflictions befalls us, we must look above the instruments of it to God. Affliction does not rise out of the dust or come to men by chance; but it is the Lord that sends it, and we should own and reverence his hand in it. So did David in the day of his extreme distress. 2 Samuel 16:11. 'Let him alone, and let him curse; for the Lord has bidden him.' We should be patient under whatever distress befalls us, considering that God is our party, Job 2:10. 'Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?' This would be a happy means to still our quarreling at adverse dispensations. Hence David says, 'I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because you did it,' Psalm 39:9.
4. See here the evil of murmuring and complaining at our lot in the world. How apt are you to quarrel with God, as if he were in the wrong when his dealings with you are not according to your own desires and wishes? You demand a reason, and call God to an account, Why am I thus? why so much afflicted and distressed? why so long afflicted? and why such an affliction rather than another? why am I so poor and another so rich? Thus your hearts rise up against God. But you should remember, that this is to defame the counsels of infinite wisdom, as if God had not ordered your affairs wisely enough in his eternal counsel. We find the Lord reproving Job for this, chapter 40:2. 'shall he who contends with the Lord instruct him?' When you murmur and repine under cross and afflictive dispensations, this is a presuming to instruct God how to deal with you, and to reprove him as if he were in the wrong. Yes, there is a kind of implicit blasphemy in it, as if you had more wisdom and justice to dispose of your lot, and to carve out your own portion in the world. This is upon the matter the language of such a disposition, Had I been on God's counsel, I had ordered this matter better; things had not been with me as now they are. O presume not to correct the infinite wisdom of God, seeing he has decreed all things most wisely and judiciously.
5. There is no reason for people to excuse their sins and falls, from the doctrine of the divine decrees. Wicked men, when they commit some villainy or atrocious crime, are apt to plead thus for their excuse, Who can help it? God would have it so; it was appointed for me before I was born, so that I could not avoid it. This is a horrid abuse of the divine decrees, as if they did constrain men to sin: Whereas the decree is an immanent act of God, and so can have no influence, physical or moral upon the wills of men, but leaves them to the liberty and free choice of their own hearts; and what sinners do, they do most freely and of choice. It is a horrid and detestable wickedness to cast the blame of your sin upon God's decree. This is to charge your villainy upon him, as if he were the author of it. It is great folly to cast your sins upon Satan who tempted you, or upon your neighbor who provoked you; but it is a far greater sin, nay horrid blasphemy, to cast it upon God himself. A greater affront than this cannot be offered to the infinite holiness of God.
6. Lastly, Let the people of God comfort themselves in all cases by this doctrine of the divine decrees; and, amidst whatever befalls them, rest quietly and submissively in the bosom of God, considering that whatever comes or can come to pass, proceeds from the decree of their gracious friend and reconciled Father, who knows what is best for them, and will make all things work together for their good. O what a sweet and pleasant life would you have under the heaviest pressures of affliction, and what heavenly serenity and tranquility of mind would you enjoy, would you cheerfully acquiesce in the good will and pleasure of God, and embrace every dispensation, how sharp soever it may be, because it is determined and appointed for you by the eternal counsel of his will!
OF THE WORK OF CREATION
HEBREWS 11:3.—Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
HAVING discoursed to you of the decrees of God, whereby he has fore-ordained whatever comes to pass, I come now to treat of the execution of these decrees. That question, 'How does God execute his decrees?' being only an introduction to what follows, it is needless to insist on it. Only you must know, that for God to execute his decrees, is to bring to pass what he has decreed. Now, what God from all eternity decreed is brought to pass in the works of creation and providence. Nothing falls out in either of these but what was decreed; nor does it fall out in any other way than as it was decreed. The decrees of God are as it were the scheme, draught and pattern of the house; and the works of creation and providence are the house, built in every point conformable to the draught.
In the text we have an answer to that question, 'What is the work of creation?' Wherein, we may consider,
1. What we understand about it.
(1.) The making of the world; it was framed, and had a beginning, not being from eternity.
(2.) The author and efficient cause of it, God.
(3.) What God made, the worlds; all things, Heaven, earth, sea, air, etc. and all the inhabitants thereof, angels, men, cattle, birds, fishes, etc.
(4.) How they were made, by the Word of God, that word of power which spoke all things, into being. Or it may denote Jesus Christ, who is called the Word of God, and by whom God made the worlds.
(5.) Whereof they were made. This is declared negatively, Things which are seen were not made of things which do appear, that is, not of pre-existent matter, but of nothing. By things that are seen may be understood visible corporeal things; and if these were made of nothing, much more things that are not seen. But I rather understand it of all things which are seen to have a being; for that word relates to the eyes of the understanding, as well as of the body.
2. How we understand this creation of the world, through faith. Not that we can understand nothing of the creation by the light of nature; for the eternity of the world is contrary to reason as well as faith; but we have the full and certain knowledge of this work of creation in the particular circumstances of it, through faith assenting to divine revelation, and no other way.
In speaking to this work of creation I shall show,
I. What we are to understand by creation.
II. That the world was made, or had a beginning.
III. Who made it.
IV. What God made.
V. Whereof all things were made.
VI. How they were made.
VII. In what space of time they were made.
VIII. For what end God made all things.
IX. In what case or condition he made them.
X. Deduce some inferences from the whole.
I. I am to show what we are to understand by creation, or what it is to create.
1. It is not to be taken here in a large sense, as sometimes it is used in scripture, for any production of things wherein second causes have their instrumentality; as when it is said, Psalm 104:30. 'You send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the earth.' Where the meaning is, you send forth your quickening power, which produces life in the creatures from time to time: for the Psalmist speaks not here of the first creation, but of the continued and repeated production of living creatures, in which the divine power is the principal agent. But,
2. We are to take it strictly, for the production of things out of nothing, or the giving a being to things which had none before. And here you must know, that there is a twofold creation, one immediate, and the other mediate.
(1.) There is an immediate creation; as when things are brought forth out of pure nothing, where there was no pre-existent matter to work upon. Thus the heavens, the earth, the waters, and all the materials of inferior bodies, were made of nothing; and the souls of men are still produced from the womb of nothing by God's creative power, and infused into their bodies immediately by him, when they are fully organized to receive them.
(2.) There is a secondary and mediate creation, which is the making things of pre-existing matter, but of such as is naturally unfit and altogether indisposed for such productions, and which could never by any power of second causes be brought into such a form. Thus all beasts, cattle, and creeping things, and the body of man, were at first made of the earth, and the dust of the ground; and the body of the first woman was made of a rib taken out of the man. Now, this was a creation as well as the former; because, though there was matter here to work upon, yet it could never have been reduced into such a form without the efficacy of Almighty power. We have an account of both these in the history of the creation. It is said, Genesis 1:1. 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth;' I. e, he made that mighty mass of matter out of nothing, which was at first a rude and undigested lump; for the earth was without form, and the heavens without light. And then by that same omnipotent power he reduced it into that beautiful order and disposition wherein it now appears to our view.
II. I go on to show that the world was made, that it had a beginning and was not eternal. This the scripture plainly testifies, Genesis 1:1 above quoted. And this reason itself teaches: for whatever is eternal, the being of it is necessary, and it is subject to no alteration. But we see this is not the case with the world; for it is daily undergoing alterations.
III. I am next to show who made the world, and gave it a beginning. That was God and he only, Genesis 1:1. 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.' This will evidently appear from the following particulars.
1. The world could not make itself; for this would imply a horrid contradiction, namely, that the world was before it was; for the cause must always be before its effect. That which is not in being, can have no production; for nothing can act before it exists. As nothing has no existence, so it has no operation. There must therefore be something of real existence, to give a being to those things that are; and every second cause must be an effect of some other before it be a cause. To be and not to be at the same time, is a manifest contradiction, which would infallibly take place if anything made itself. That which makes is always before that which is made, as is obvious to the most illiterate peasant. If the world were a creator, it must be before itself as a creature.
2. The production of the world could not be by chance. It was indeed the extravagant fancy of some ancient philosophers, that the original of the world was from a fortuitous concourse of atoms, which were in perpetual motion in an immense space, until at last a sufficient number of them met in such a happy conjunction as formed the universe in the beautiful order in which we now behold it. But it is amazingly strange how such a wild opinion, which can never he reconciled with reason, could ever find any entertainment in a human mind. Can any man rationally conceive, that a confused rout of atoms, of diverse natures and forms, and some so far distant from others, should ever meet in such a fortunate manner, as to form an entire world, so vast in the bigness, so distinct in the order, so united in the diversities of natures, so regular in the variety of changes, and so beautiful in the whole composure? Such an extravagant fancy as this can only possess the thoughts of a disordered brain.
3. God created all things, the world, and all the creatures that belong to it. He attributes this work to himself, as one of the peculiar glories of his Deity, exclusive of all the creatures. So we read, Isaiah 44:24. 'I am the Lord that makes all things; that stretches forth the heavens alone; that spreads abroad the earth by myself.' Chapter 45:12. 'I have made the earth, and created man upon it; I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.' Chapter 40:12, 13. 'Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? and meted out Heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor has taught him? Job 9:8. 'Which alone spreads out the heavens, and treads upon the waves of the sea.' These are magnificent descriptions of the creating power of God, and exceed everything of the kind that has been attempted by the pens of the greatest sages of antiquity.—By this operation God is distinguished from all the false gods and fictitious deities which the blinded nations adored, and shows himself to be the true God. Jeremiah 10:11, 12. 'The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by his discretion.' Psalm 96:5. 'All the gods of the nations are idols: but the Lord made the heavens.' Isaiah 37:19. 'You are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: you have made Heaven and earth.' None could make the world but God, because creation is a work of infinite power, and could not be produced by any finite cause: For the distance between being and not being is truly infinite, which could not be removed by any finite agent, or the activity of all finite agents united.
This work of creation is common to all the three persons in the adorable Trinity. The Father is described in scripture as the Creator, 1 Corinthians 8:6.—'The Father, of whom are all things.' The same prerogative belongs to the Son, John 1:3. 'All things were made by him (the Word, the Son); and without him was not anything made that was made.' The same honor belongs to the Holy Spirit, as Job 26:13. 'By his Spirit he has garnished the heavens.' Chapter 33:4. 'The Spirit of God has made me (says Elihu), and the breath of the Almighty has given me life.' All the three persons are one God; God is the Creator; and therefore all the external works and acts of the one God must be common to the three persons. Hence, when the work of creation is ascribed to the Father, neither the Son nor the Holy Spirit are excluded; but because, as the Father is the fountain of the Deity, so he is the fountain of divine works. The Father created from himself by the Son and the Spirit; the Son from the Father by the Spirit; and the Spirit from the Father and the Son; the manner or order of their working being according to the order of their subsisting. The matter may be conceived thus: All the three persons being one God, possessed of the same infinite perfections; the Father, the first in subsistence, willed the work of creation to be done by his authority: 'He spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.'—In respect of immediate operation, it peculiarly belonged to the Son. For 'the Father created all things by Jesus Christ,' Ephesians 3:9. And we are told, that 'all things were made by him,' John 3:3. This work in regard of disposition and ornament, does peculiarly belong to the Holy Spirit. So it is said, Genesis 1:2. 'The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters,' to garnish and adorn the world, after the matter of it was formed. Thus it is also said, Job 26:13 above cited, 'By his Spirit he has garnished the heavens.'
IV. Our next province is to show what God made. All things whatever, besides God, were created, Revelation 4:11. 'You have created all things; and for your pleasure they are and were created.' Colossians 1:16. 'By him were all things created.' The evil of sin is no positive being, it being but a defect or want, and therefore is not reckoned among the things which God made, but owes its existence to the will of fallen angels and men. Devils being angels, are God's creatures; but God did not make them evil, or devils, but they made themselves so.
Those things that were made in the beginning were most properly created of God; but whatever is or will be produced in the world, is still made by God, not only in respect that the matter whereof they are made was created by him, but because he is the first cause of all things, without whom second causes could produce nothing; and whatever power one creature has of producing another, is from God. Hence Elihu says, as above cited, 'The Spirit of God has made me;' though he was produced by the operation of second causes. And it is worth while to consider what David says on this head, Psalm 139:13–16. This clearly appears from the impotency of the creature to produce anything according to nature, when God denies his concurrence. Hence we have a chain of causes described, Hosea 2:21, 22 where God is the first cause, and acts the same part in all other operations wherein creatures are concerned: 'I will hear, says the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth, and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and they shall hear Jezreel.' If it be asked, then, what did God make? I answer, he made everything that has a being, this stately structure of the universe, and that vast variety of creatures that are in it, sin only excepted, which he permitted should take place, but had no hand in the effecting of it as such.
V. I proceed to show of what all things were made. Of nothing; which does not denote any matter of which they were formed, but the term from which God brought them; when they had no being he gave them one. There was no pre-existent matter to make them of, nothing at all to work upon: for he 'made all things both visible and invisible,' Colossians 1:16. Romans 11:36. If then he made all things, he must needs have made them of nothing, unless he would say there was, besides God, something before there was anything, which is a palpable contradiction. To create is properly to make a thing of nothing, to make a thing have an existence that had none before. Thus were the heavens and the earth made of nothing simply; that is, they began to exist, which they never did before. This is what is called immediate creation, as I showed on the first head. But there is a mediate creation, as I also noticed, which is a producing of things from matter altogether unfit for the work, and which could never be disposed, but by an almighty power to be such a thing? Thus man's body was created of the dust, and this itself was created of nothing, and was utterly unfit for producing such a work without a superior agency.
VI. The sixth head is to show, how all things were made of nothing. By the Word of God's power. It was the infinite power of God that gave them a being; which power was exerted in his word, not a word properly spoken, but an act of his will commanding them to be, Genesis 1:3. God said, 'Let there be light and there was light,' Psalm 33:6, 9, 'By the word of the Lord were the heavens made. He spoke and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.' By his powerful word he called them from nothing to being, Romans 4:17. 'God calls those things which be not as though they were.' This is a notable evidence of infinite power, which with so great easiness as the speaking of a word, could raise up this glorious fabric of the world. An heathen philosopher considered this as a striking instance of the sublime, peculiar to the books of the Jewish legislator.
VII. Our next business is to show in what space of time the world was created. It was not done in a moment, but in the space of six days, as is clear from the narrative of Moses. It was as easy for God to have done it in one moment as in six days. But this method he took, that we might have that wisdom, goodness, and power that appeared in the work, distinctly before our eyes, and be stirred up to a particular and distinct consideration of these works, for commemoration of which a seventh day is appointed a sabbath of rest.
But although God did not make all things in one moment, yet we are to believe, that every particular work was done in a moment, seeing it was done by a word, or an act of the divine will, Psalm 33:9 forfeited. No sooner was the divine will intimated, than the thing willed instantly took place.
In the space of these six days the angels were created; and it is not to be thought that they were brought into being before that period; for the scripture expressly asserts, that all things were created in that space, Exodus. 20:11. And though Moses, Genesis 1 makes no express mention of the angels, yet, Genesis 2:1 he shows that they were created in one of these six days, as he mentions the host of the heavens and the earth; and it is certain, that in the host of Heaven the angels are included, 1 Kings 22:19 where Micaiah the prophet says, 'I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of Heaven (which can be no other than the angels) standing by him.'
The works of the first day were,
(1.) The highest Heaven, the seat of the blessed, and that with the angels its inhabitants, who in Job 38:4–7 under the designation of 'morning stars and sons of God,' are said to have 'sang together, and shouted for joy,' when the foundations of the earth were laid, as being then made.
(2.) The earth, that is, the mass of earth and water, which Moses says was without form and void; that is, without that beauty and order which it afterwards received, and destitute of inhabitants, and without furniture and use.
(3.) The light, which was afterwards gathered together, and distributed into the body of the sun and stars.
The works of the second day were the firmament; that is, that expansion or vast space which extends itself from the surface of the earth to the utmost extremity of the visible heavens, which verse 8. is called Heaven, that is, the ærial heavens, the habitation of birds and birds, through which they wing their way. This vast extension is called the firmament, because it is fixed in its proper place, without which it cannot be removed without force and violence. Another work of this day was the dividing of the waters above the firmament, that is, the clouds, from the waters as yet mixed with the earth, which were afterwards gathered together into seas, rivers, lakes, fountains, etc.
On the third day, the lower waters were gathered into certain hollow places, which formed the sea; and the dry land appeared, adorned with plants, trees, and herbs, which continue to be produced to this day.
On the fourth day, the sun, moon, and stars were made, to enlighten the world, and render it a beautiful place, which otherwise would have been an uncomfortable dungeon, and to distinguish the four seasons of the year.
On the fifth day, the fishes and birds were made.
On the sixth day, all sorts of beasts, tame and wild, and creeping things were produced out of the earth; and last of all, man, male and female.
It is probable that the world was created in autumn, that season of the year in which generally things are brought to perfection for the use of man and beast. But this not being an article of faith, we need not insist upon it.
VIII. I come now to show for what end God made all things. It was for his own glory, Proverbs 16:4. 'The Lord has made all things for himself,' Romans 11:36. 'For of him, and through him, and to him are all things.' And there are these three attributes of God that especially shine forth in this work of creation, namely, his wisdom, power, and goodness.
1. His wisdom eminently appears,
(1.) In that after the heavens and their inhabitants were created, those things that have only being and not life, then those that have being and life, but not sense, then those that have being, life, and sense, but not reason, and last of all, man, having being, life, sense, and reason, were successively formed. 'O Lord, how manifold are your works! in wisdom have you made them all.'
(2.) In his appointing of everything to its proper use, by the law of creation, Genesis 1. Hence the wisdom of God is celebrated in that work, Jeremiah 10:12.' He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by his discretion.'
2. The power of God appeared,
(1.) In creating all things by a word, which instantly produced the effect intended.
(2.) In that he created plants, herbs, and trees, before the sun, moon, and stars, which now naturally are the causes of the earth's producing its fruits; as also light before them, for discovering their beauty and verdure.
3. His goodness appears, in that he first prepared the place before he brought in the inhabitants, first provided the food before the living creatures were made, and adorned and fitted all for the use of man, before he formed him.
IX. If it is asked, 'In what state were all things made? I answer, They were all very 'good,' Genesis 1:31. The goodness of the creature consists in its fitness for the use for which it was made. In this respect everything answered exactly the end of its creation. Again, the goodness of things is their perfection; and so everything was made agreeable to the idea thereof that was formed in the divine mind. There was not the least blemish or defect in the work; but everything was beautiful, as it was the effect of infinite wisdom as well as almighty power. And God being the end of all, even natural things tend to him.
(1.) Declaring his glory in an objective way, Psalm 19:1.
(2.) Stirring us up to seek him, and behold him as our chief good and portion, Acts 17:26, 27. Romans 1:20.
(3.) Sustaining our life, and serving man, that he might serve God, for which he was made very fit, in regard of the rich endowments of his mind, all pure, holy, and upright, 1 Corinthians 10:31. All the sin and misery that is now in the world, by which its beauty is greatly marred, its goodness defaced, and disorder and irregularity so universally prevail, proceeded from Satan, and man's yielding to his temptations.
I shall shut up this subject with a few inferences.
1. God is a most glorious being, infinitely lovely and desirable, possessed of every perfection and excellency. He made all things, and bestowed upon them all the perfections and amiable qualities with which they are invested. So that there is no perfection in any of the creatures which is not in him in an eminent way, Psalm 94:9. 'He who planted the ear, shall he not hear? he who formed the eye, shall he not see?' Whatever excellency and beauty is in the creatures, is all from him; and sure it must be most excellent in the fountain.
2. God's glory should be our chief end. And seeing whatever we have is from him, it should be used and employed for him: For 'all things were created by him and for him,' Colossians 1:16. Have we a tongue? It should be employed for him, to show forth his praise; hands? they should do and work for him; life? it should be employed in his service; talents and abilities? they should be laid out for promoting his interest and honor; and, upon a proper call, we should be ready to suffer for him.
3. God is our Sovereign Lord Proprietor, and may do in us, on us, and by us, what he will: Romans 9:20, 21. 'Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why have you made me thus? Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?' There is no reason to murmur and fret under the cross, or any afflicting dispensations, that he exercises us with. Should he destroy that being that he gave us, to whom would he do wrong? As he gave it us freely, he may take it away, without any impeachment of his goodness and justice. May not God do with his own what he will?
4. We should use all the creatures we make use of with an eye to God, and due thankfulness to him, the giver; employing them for our use, and in our service, soberly and wisely, with hearts full of gratitude to our Divine Benefactor; considering they stand related to God as their Creator, and are the workmanship of his own hands. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving, 1 Timothy 4:4. They are not to be used to his dishonor, or the feeding of our base lusts and irregular appetites, but to fit us for and strengthen us in the performance of our duty to him.
5. There is no case so desperate, but faith may get sure footing with respect to it in the power and Word of God. Let the people of God be ever so low, they can never be lower than when they were not at all. Hence the Lord says, Isaiah 65:18. 'Be glad and rejoice,' etc. He spoke a word and so the creature was made at first; and it will cost him but a word to make it over again. Hence Christ is called 'the beginning of the creation of God,' Revelation 3:14. O seek to be new-made by him; that old things may pass away, and all things become new.
6. Give away yourselves to God through Jesus Christ, making an hearty, a cheerful, and an entire dedication and surrender of your souls and bodies, and all that you are and have, to him as your God and Father, resolving to serve and obey him all the days of your life: that as he made you for his glory, you may in some measure answer the end of your creation, which is to show forth his praise. Serve not sin or Satan any longer. God made you upright and holy; but Satan unmade you, stripping you of your highest glory and ornament. Relinquish his service, which is the basest drudgery and slavery, and will land all that are employed in it in Hell at last: and engage in the service of God in Christ, which is truly honorable and glorious, and will be crowned with an everlasting reward in the other world: for where he is, there shall his servants also be.
7. Lastly, This doctrine affords a ground of love, peace, justice and mercy between men, which should be carefully cultivated by all that would desire to be with God forever. For says the prophet, Malachi 2:10. 'Have we not all one Father? has not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?' The consideration of being created by God, should be a powerful inducement to us to practice all the duties we owe to one another as men and Christians.
OF THE CREATION OF MAN
GENESIS 1:27.—So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him: male and female created he them.
HAVING discoursed of the creation of all things out of nothing, and exhibited some of the displays of the admirable wisdom, power, and goodness of God apparent therein, I come now to speak of the creation of man, the masterpiece of the lower creation. In the text we have an answer to that question, 'How did God create man?' God only spoke the word and then the other creatures were produced: but being to create man, he called a council of the Trinity for that end: whereby the excellency of man above the other creatures, who is a compend of the world, is clearly demonstrated. Here we have the execution of that council, So God created man, etc. For, as says Seneca, a heathen moralist, man is not a work huddled over in a haste, and done without great forethought and consideration; for man is the greatest and most stupendous work of God, even of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As the sacred historian had said before of the Creator, 'Let us make man in our image,' etc. so it is not for nothing that he repeats the act of creating three times in this verse; in which also the US in the former verse is restrained to God; so that the plurality there spoken of is not God and angels, but the three persons, one God; for it was not angels, but God that created man. Man here signifies man and woman, male and female, Adam and Eve. Wherefore they are called him and them; for as they were originally one, God having made two of one by creation; so they two were made one again by marriage. And they were both made in one day, Genesis 1:26–31; and that in the image of God, which is twice repeated; the import whereof seems to be, that man was made very like God. Whereas there is but a shadow and vestige of him in the inferior creatures, as we may read the name and perfections of God in the least herb of the field; man was made so to represent God in his moral perfections as to imitate his virtues. Two things are here to be considered,
I. God's making man male and female.
II. His making man after his image.
I. Let us consider God's making man, male and female; that is, man and woman.
First, Adam was the male, and Eve the female. These were the common parents of all mankind, and there was no man in the world, before Adam. He is expressly called 'the first man,' 1 Corinthians 15:5 and Eve 'the mother of all living,' Genesis 3:20. And hence it is said 'God has made of one blood all nations of men,' Acts 17:26.
Secondly, Man consists of a soul and body, which being united constitute man; that is, man or woman. Here I shall consider, 1. The body; and, 2. The soul.
1. The body of the man. Man's body is a piece of most rare and curious workmanship, plainly indicating its divine Maker. In it there is a variety of members, none of them superfluous, but all adapted to the use assigned them by the wise Creator. The man's body, as Moses tells us, was formed of the dust of the ground, Genesis 2:7. Hence he was called Adam, which signifies red earth; of which sort of virgin-earth man's body seems to have been made. The word rendered dust, signifies not dust simply, (says Zanchius), but clay, which is earth and water. This may teach us humility, and repress our pride, and particularly glorying in beauty or any external advantages of person, seeing we are sprung of no higher original than the earth upon which we tread; especially seeing, as we derived our first being from it, we must return to it again, there to abide until the resurrection-day.
2. The woman's body was formed of the man's, Genesis 2:21, 22 of a rib of the man's side, but not a bare rib, but flesh on it, verse 23 which was taken out of his side while he was in a deep sleep, into which God cast him; so that he felt no pain. And it is not improbable, that in that deep sleep God revealed to him what he himself afterwards declares concerning Eve, and marriage in general, verse 23, 24. Whether Adam had more ribs than other men, is not determined. If he had, it was not superfluous to him as the origin of mankind, though it might be as a private person; and therefore Eve being made of it, there was no more use for it. If he had not more ribs than other men, yet he sustained no loss thereby, which was otherwise made up, verse 21 either by a new rib, or hardening the flesh to the use of a rib. In this the wisdom of God does illustriously appear.
(1.) The woman's body was made of nobler matter than the man's, to be some ballast to the man's excellency in respect of his gender, that he might not despise but honor her. The word rendered made, Genesis 2:22 is in the Hebrew built. He made the man, but he built the woman, as a stately palace, or house, where all mankind draw their first breath.
(2.) It was made of the man's body, to teach men to love their wives as their own flesh.
(3.) It was not made out of man's head, to show her that she is not to be her husband's mistress, nor usurp authority over him, 1 Timothy 2:12; nor out of his feet, to show him that she is not to be his slave, to be trampled on by him; but out of his side, near his heart, to show him that she must be treated as his companion, loved, nourished, and cherished by him.
(4.) Lastly, The mystery of the church drawing her life out of Christ's sleeping the sleep of death on the cross, Ephesians 5 seems to have been here intended and shadowed forth.
The bodies of both our first parents were far more beautiful, handsome, and graceful than our bodies are now. We are begot of men, but they were the immediate workmanship of God. The author being more excellent, the workmanship must be so too. And so Adam signifies to be ruddy, and to shine, Lamentations 4:7. So that to Eve in particular may justly be applied the following lines of a celebrated poet:
A woman loveliest of the lovely kind,
In body perfect, and complete in mind.
Secondly, The soul of man was of an original far different from that of his body. Moses gives us this account of it, Genesis 2:7. 'The Lord God—breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.' The Lord inspired him with a living reasonable soul, which presently appeared by his breathing at his nostrils; whereas before he was only a fair lifeless body. And this different account of man's soul and body clearly holds forth, that it was not fetched out of any power in the matter of his body, but was created of nothing. For this inspiration plainly implies that something was infused into it, which was not in it before, and did not originally inhere in it. Thus was the soul both of the man and the woman created; for that both were created with rational souls, is taught in our text, where they are said to be made after God's image; and Moses leaves us to gather the manner of the creation of the woman's soul from that of Adam's. Concerning the soul of man, three things are specially to be known.
1. That it is an incorporeal or spiritual substance, different from the body. It is called a spirit, Zechariah 12:1. And Stephen prays, Acts 7:59. 'Lord Jesus, receive my Spirit. Compare Luke 24:39 where our Lord says concerning his body after his resurrection from the dead, 'Handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me have.'
2. As the souls of Adam and Eve were immediately created of God, so the souls of all their posterity are immediately formed by God, and proceed not from their parents by generation or any other way: but God infusea the soul created by him of nothing, into the body formed in the womb when it is fitly organized to receive it. And yet a man may properly be said to beget a man, though he only begets the body, as well as to kill a man, though he can only kill the body. This is plain from that express scripture-testimony, Zechariah 12:1.—'that forms the spirit of man within him.' So, Hebrews 12:9. God is held forth as 'The Father of spirits,' in opposition to men as 'the fathers of our flesh;' which must needs be by immediate creation: for otherwise he is the Father of our flesh too, Ecclesiastes 12:7. 'Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.' He gave the body too, but the soul in such a manner as he gave not the body.
3. Hence the soul is immortal, being a spirit, and dies not with the body, Ecclesiastes 12:7 just cited. Being immaterial, not consisting of parts, it cannot be dissolved. Men can kill the body, but not the soul; and therefore it does not die with the body, being invulnerable, and unsusceptive of external injuries, Matthew. 10:28 and 22:32. Neither does it sleep until the resurrection, as some have foolishly supposed. Our Lord told the thief on the cross, that that very day he (that is, his soul) should be with him in paradise, not to sleep, but to be actively employed in exercises peculiar to the heavenly state. And certain it is that the apostle Paul had no such thought, when he said, Philippians 1:23. 'I am in a strait between two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.' If his soul was to sleep and doze in indolence and inactivity after his death, he had never preferred the dissolution of his body, and the advantage of being with Christ, to his continuing in his mortal state, in which he was most usefully employed.
Thirdly, Why did God make man male and female?
1. That man might have a meet help, Genesis 2:18; and this was the meet help for the comfort of life, (however uncomfortable sin has now made it); otherwise God had given Adam a friend and not a wife. Hence the endearments of conjugal society, when discreetly and properly entered into and cultivated, are found, even in our present imperfect state, far preferable to those arising from the strictest and closest friendships among men.
2. For the lawful propagation of mankind, Genesis 1:27, 28 that there might be a godly seed, Malachi 2:15 and for a remedy against all inordinate lusts and libidinous desires.
II. Let us now consider God's making man after his own image.
Here I shall show, 1. Who was created after God's image; and 2. Wherein this image consisted.
First, I am to show who was created after the image of God. It was both the man and the woman, as is clear from the text. In this respect, indeed, there was one thing wherein the man excelled the woman, which is taken notice of by the apostle, 1 Corinthians 11:7. 'He is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man.' Not but that the woman is the image of God in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, as well as the man: but the man is the image of God in respect of that authority which he has over his wife, who is the glory of man in respect of her subjection to him. So that what we say of the man as to his being created after the divine image, must be understood of the woman too.
Secondly, I will show wherein the image of God, in which our first parents were made, consisted. Abstracting from the spirituality of their souls, and the erect and graceful posture of their bodies, peculiar to rational animals alone, which are but a faint shadow of the image of God, (if they can with any propriety be called a shadow of it at all), this image does principally at least shine in the soul, and those glorious qualities with which man was endued, that is, both the man and the woman.
1. The image of God, after which man was created, consisted in knowledge, Colossians 1:10. He was created wise: Not that he knew all things, for that is proper to the omniscient Being alone; but he was ignorant of nothing that he was obliged to know; he had all the knowledge that was necessary for life and godliness. He had clear and distinct apprehensions of God, his nature and perfections, far superior to any knowledge of that kind that can now be acquired by the most diligent and the most labored researches of human industry. And we can hardly suppose that he was ignorant of the great mystery of the Trinity, considered abstractly; as it was most certainly the second person who appeared to and conversed with him. This knowledge or wisdom of man appeared in his knowledge of the miraculous formation of Eve, whose nature and duty, as well as his own towards her, he declares; which he could not know but by a prophetic spirit. The primitive pair had God's law written on their hearts, Romans 2:15 even that same law which was afterwards written on tables of stone, and promulgated from mount Sinai. It was concreated with them; so that no sooner were they man and woman, than they were knowing and intelligent creatures, endued with all the knowledge necessary for their upright state. Adam's giving names to the beasts, and those such as were expressive of their natures, Genesis 2:19 was a great evidence of his knowledge of nature. Thus his knowledge reached from the sun, that glorious fountain of light, to the meanest glow-worm that shines in the hedge. And that God gave them dominion over the earth and all the inferior creatures, is an evidence that they were endued with the knowledge of managing civil affairs, which a wise man will manage with discretion.
2. The image of God consisted in righteousness, Ephesians 4:24. There was a perfect conformity in his will to the will of God. He was endued with a disposition to every good thing, Ecclesiastes 7:29. 'God made man upright.' His will was straight with God's will, not bending to the right or left hand, without any irregular bias or inclination. And he had full power and ability to fulfill the whole law of God. As, in respect of knowledge, he perfectly knew the whole extent of his duty, so he was created with sufficient powers for the due performance thereof.
3. It consisted in holiness, Ephesians 4:24. Man's affections were pure and holy, without being tinctured with any vicious appetite. They were regular and orderly, free from all disorder and distemper. They were set on lawful objects, and that in a right manner, loving what God loved, and hating what he hated; loving and delighting in God with all his heart, strength, soul, and mind. Yet all this happy disposition was mutable, he was not confirmed therein, nor set beyond the reach of falling therefrom, as the event has mournfully showed.
This is that image of God wherein man was created, consisting in original righteousness, where his reason was naturally subject to God, his will to his reason, and his affections to his will, and consequently all duly subordinated to God, and directed to him, without any propensity or inclination to evil. A signal of this was, that both our first parents were naked, and yet were not ashamed, nor susceptive of shame.
That man was created in this condition, wise, altogether righteous, and holy, is not only clear from the above-cited scriptures, but is also agreeable to reason; which suggests, that nothing impure or imperfect, nothing having any vicious tendency or inclination, could proceed out of the hands of a holy God, who cannot be the author of evil. Man was created after the image of God; and in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, the scripture shows us, the image of God consists. Moreover, God made all very good, Genesis 1:31. Man's goodness consists in these excellent qualities; and without these he would not have been fit for the end of his creation. How was it possible for him to have exercised the dominion he was invested with over the creatures, or served his Creator in the manner that became him without such endowments? Hence I infer,
(1.) That man was not created in pure naturals, that is, with bare faculties, neither good nor evil. For 'God made man upright,' Ecclesiastes 7:29.
(2.) That there was not naturally in man a combat between the flesh and the spirit, between reason and appetite; no inclination to sin, no lustings of the flesh, or the inferior faculties of the soul. For this corrupt will or inclination is sin properly and truly, as the apostle shows, Romans 7:7 and the fountain of all sin. And to say, that these dispositions were in man at his original formation, makes God indeed the author of sin; seeing he made (as they falsely pretend) man of such matter as is necessarily accompanied with this corrupt will and depraved inclination. For says the apostle, 'All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world,' 1 John 2:16.
(3.) That original righteousness was natural to man, and not supernatural in the primitive state. Natural it was, in so far as it was concreated with him, and was necessary to the perfection of man as he came out of the creating hands of God; and was not added to be as a bridle to his natural inclinations to evil, whereof he had none.
(4.) That Adam had the same spiritual strength in innocency with which now the regenerate do believe in Christ; having a power to do whatever God should command, and to believe whatever he should reveal.
4. The image of God consisted consequently at least in dominion over the inferior creatures, whereby he had a right to dispose of them according to his pleasure, Genesis 1:26, 27; which was a resemblance of the supreme dominion of God over the creatures, though not absolute and unlimited, but dependent on God. This was evidenced by the beasts being brought to Adam, in token of their subjection to him, and his imposing names on them expressive of their natures and properties.
The image of God seated in man's spiritual and immortal soul, endued with understanding, will, and affections, shone forth also in his body, which had a wonderful beauty in it, and such an admirable context of parts, adapted to their several uses and ends, as showed it was intended for an immortal duration. There was no blemish, defect, nor disease, to be found in him. He was not liable to any attack by gout or gravel, or any tormenting pain. All the humours of his body were in a just temperament and disposition, calculated to prevent any distemper which might tend to the dissolution of that excellent constitution. His senses were all quick and lively, able to perform with vigor and delight their several operations. He was immortal in this state; and not subject to the attacks of death. Though his body was composed of jarring elements, which had a natural tendency to dissolution, yet the soul was endued with such virtue as to embalm the body, and preserve it from the least degree of corruption. The tree of life was the sacramental pledge of man's immortality. The erect figure of his body looking towards Heaven, and the majesty that is in his countenance, showed man to be the chief of the works of God in this lower world.
I shall shut up all with a few inferences.
1. Ah! how are we fallen from Heaven! What a lamentable change has sin brought on man! It has defaced the moral image of God, with which man's soul was beautifully decorated in his primitive state, and rent in pieces that pleasant picture of himself which God set up in this lower world. This stately fabric lies now in ruins, and calls us to lament over its ruins with weeping eyes and grieved hearts. Now there is ignorance in the mind, instead of that knowledge of God and divine things, with which it was richly furnished in its primitive state. The understanding, that as a lamp or candle shone brightly, is now enveloped with darkness. The will, that was exactly conformable to the will of God, and naturally disposed to comply with every intimation thereof, is now filled with irregularity, enmity, and rebellion against God and his law. The affections that were all regular, holy, and pure, are now disordered and distempered, placed upon and eagerly bent towards improper and sinful objects, loving and doting upon what men should hate, hating what they should love, rejoicing in what they ought to mourn for, glorying in what is shameful, abhorring the chief good, and desiring what is ruinous to them. All the members of the body that were subordinated to the upright mind, and entirely at its command, are now in rebellion, and mislead and enslave the mind and superior faculties. And the creatures that were man's humble servants, ready to execute his commands, are now risen up against him, and the least of them having a commission, would prove more than a match for him. Nay, it is with difficulty and much pains that any of them are brought to engage in his service. Ah! how dismal is man's case! The crown is fallen from our head: Woe unto us that we have sinned. Let us weep and mourn over our ruined state, and never rest until we get it repaired by faith in the Lord Jesus, the great Repairer of this spiritual breach.
2. How lovely are knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, wherein the image of God consists! They shine with a dazzling brightness, and should charm and captivate our minds. But, alas! by nature we are blind, and see not their beauty and excellency. O! let us endeavor, through grace, to put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of our minds, putting on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Try if this blessed change has passed upon you, if you be now light in the Lord, be disposed to do his will, and are holy in heart and life. Study righteousness and holiness if you would be like God. And beware of ignorance, unrighteousness, and impurity, which proceed from Satan, and make you so unlike a righteous and holy God.