I

CHARLES JERDAN.

Library

of the

University of Toronto

THE,

WO R K S

Of the* late 'REVEREND

Mr ROBERT' RICCALTOUNV

Minifter of the Gofpel at Jiobkirk.

IN THREE VOLUMES, NEVER BEFORE PRINTED.

VOLUME II.

CONTAINING

A treatife on the General Plan of R E v E L A T i o N,

A N D

The CHRISTIANLIFE; or, Differta tions on Galatians ii. 20.

EDINBURGH:

Printed by A. MURRAY & J. COCHRAN. For the AUTHOR'S SON.

Sold, at Edinburgh, by W. GRAY, J. DicKSON,and orher bookfel lers ; and at London, by E. & C. DILI, r, and A. J}£.LL.

M D C C L X X II.

CONTENTS.

A Treatife on the General Plan of REVELATION.

Chap. Pag*

1. Revelation founded on fafly I

2. Ignorance of abftrafl Nature. Igno

rance of Divine Nature, Power, or Works. Knowledge conveyed by 1-^ mages. The true Jlate of creature- dependence, 24

3 . Mans Original Jlate and circumftances, 44 5. The nature of the curfe, and the con dition of man by the fall \ Jlated, 6j

5. Sketch of difpenfations from the fall to

the coming of Chrift ; 'with a gene ral view of the character of Chrift^ 88

6. Chrijfs life and character further con-

ftdered, as an example , 113

7. View of Chr ift as a prpphet^ 13^

8. Adminiftration and dif charge ofChrijfs

office towards finners, 156

9. Conchiftons^ - 181

The

The CHRISTIAN LIFE; or, Differtations on Galatians ii. 20.

Introduction, 197

Diff. i. / am crucified 'with Chrift, 225

Di/f. 2. Neverthelefs I live: yet not /;

but Chrijl liveth in me, 308

Diffl 3. And the life which 1 now live

in thejlejh, I live by the faith

of the Son of God, 376

Dijf. 4. Who loved me, and gave him-

felffor me, 465

ERRATUM. Pag. 105. lin. $*for exerting, read exciting,

TREATISE

on the GENERAL PLAN of REVELATION,

CHAPTER!.

Revelation founded on Fa ft.

THE wifdom of the firft ages, for more than two thoufand years, confided in a manner entirely in the knowledge, or rather the belief, of certain fafts handed down from one generation to another. Upon thefe their fentiments, and confequeritly their affedlions and paffions, were formed : and thence the whole of their religion, and what is now called morality, the whole of their condudt^ both in relation to God and their neighbour, was regulated and directed.

It can hardly be imagined, that any

traditions, ^however authentic in their ori-

VoL.IL A gina!3

2 REVELATION founded Ch.L

ginal, could be conveyed through fuch hands as even the heft of men are, with out fome very materia/ alterations* And ac cordingly two provifions were made for their prefervtetion : JTrft, The longevity of the firft men, and the frequent familiar appearances of eel dftial beings to, and converfations with them ; to which may be added, the rites and obfervances of their religious worfhip, until the wife ^diredlor of all found it pro per to reduce them into writing, begun by Mofe$ Carried on from tinie to time by the prophets, and finifhed by Jefus Chrift ancf hts*apoftles; and, fecondly, A people feparated from the reft of mankind, and inverted with very diftinguifliing pri vileges, f^r t&isv,very end, to be witnefles for God, and tp pr^efervo in theiF purity thofe divine oracles, wlfcich were commit ted to them with fuch circumftances as eould leave no doubt of then; divine ori ginal, and the authority bji which they were eft?,blilhed? fuch as never attended any other fadls wh'atfoever ; and that na tion was fo wifely placed in the inidft of ths then habitable world, and the neighbour hood of *th6fe ftates' which had extended their trade and navigation fartheft, that

all

on FACT. 3

all the inhabitants of the earth had, or might have had, eafy accefs -to recover the truth of their traditions, however they might have been corrupted, or even alto gether loft.

In fact, ,we find that this was the way which the ancient Greeks took for acqui ring knowledge. Travelling was their beft courfe of education ; and their travels lay all one way. Egypt, and the neighbour hood of Canaan, were the places they fre quented ; and he who could give the bed Account of their traditions, was the wifeft man. And thence, we have good reafo^ to think, thefe veftiges of truth -were ta ken which are fo much admired in cient writings. Thus, however, went on, until a generation, of jne who, affuming the then modefb name of philofopherS) and fcorning to take any thing upon truft, would needs fall a-reafoning, as they called it, on facts greatly above their reach, and where they could have no data to fupport them. In confequence whereof, the principal facts were either rejedled as impoffible? or explained away into a confiftency with their own low and miftaken notions or imaginations. Thus, A 2, profeffing

4 REVELATION founded Ch.l.

profefling themfelves wife, they became fools ; and the knowledge of the true God, and of all the concerns of the fpiritual and eternal world, was in effedl totally loft ; infomuch that the very writings of Mo^ fes and the prophets were, by the genera lity of that people to whom they were committed, greatly perverted from their original intention, and made void by their foolifh traditions.

Such was the unhappy ftate of mankind when Jefus Chrift came into the world ; who, by himfelf, and his difciples, fo fully vindicated the original truth, that now, one would have thought, there was effec tual provifion made againft all corruptions and abufes for ever ; efpecially when thefe ilandards of facred truth came to be tranf- lated into vulgar tongues, and lodged in every hand. Thus, we are told, the pri mitive Chriftians, contenting themfelves with the fimplicity of faith, made it their fole bufinefs to improve the facfls which they believed; to form their hearts and lives upon them, into a converfation be coming the gofpel of Chrift, which com prehended them all, and fet them in their proper light,

But

on FACT. 5

But many ages had not pafled, until the fame fort of men treated the written revelation much in the fame manner as their predeceffbrs had done the traditional one ; and fetting out as they did, upon this very fallacious principle, That no man can believe what he does not underftand, or underftand any thing of which he has not clear and diftindl ideas, as the images we form of external objects are called, they found themfelves obliged, either flatly to deny, or explain away the mod mo~ mentous fadts, however ftrongly fupport- ed, on which Chriftianity, or indeed any religion, can (land. It is palpably certain, that we can have no idea at all, much lefs a clear and diftincfl one, of any thing, but what we can imagine, or form fome image of; and that cannot poffibly go a- ny further than material objedls, whate ver notions or conceptions we may form by defcription, or analogy and refem- blance ; and where thefe fail, there fliould be an end both of our knowledge and our faith, and a ftrong foundation laid for fetting ande all the numerous fingular facfls recorded in the holy fcriptures, and even that on which all religion refts, the

being

6 REVELATION fpunded Ch.I,

being of a God, who is the creator and proprietor of all things in heaven an4 earth.

Our modern philofophers indeed, ta king the advantage of that light which revelation has given, undertake boldly, not only to difcover the being of Goda but to make out a complete character of him in all his perfections, with all the et vidence of demonftration. And it muft be acknowledged, they have faid many plaufible things. But as the belief of fome being which is called God has been in the world ever fince there were men in i£, alj that is left for them is, to try,. what car) be faid for or againfl it. Thi^ if ,a quitQ diiferent thing from finding out a faft al together unknown ; a province that rea- fon was never made for ; and which in deed cannot poffibly be done, but by bring ing it fome how under our obfervation ; and that cannot be done, but either by bringing it within the reach of our per ceptive powers, or by the information of others : and when the mod momentous • facSts on which the proper evidence of the divine being and diftinguifhing character refts, are confidered, they will be found to

be

6n FACT. 7

be fuch as none but himfelf > could either know, or give information about.

I may not infift here on a* prefumption, which yet carries ftronger conviction a- gainft their pretenfions, than all their rea- fonings and demonftrations can ever do for them, viz. That the united attempts of all the very great men who had not accefs to the written record, could never bring, not to fay the world, but even any one of themfelves, to any tolerable know ledge of the true God. The higheft of their attainment was, to afcribe the tradi tional epithets* ctf Optimus Maximus, the fceft and greateft, to what they called God. But who or what that being was, or e- ven what true goodnefs and greatnefs are, neither they, nor any of their modern fucceflbrs, have ever b'een able to fay, without afluming a fa<5l which they could never have known, or imagined, unlefs they had been told of it, viz. that this a- niverfe, with all the fullnefs of it, was once nothing, and had no being until he gave it, and made every thing there to be what it is : A fa6t fo fingular in its na ture, and which required a kind of power fo infinitely above what is known to man,

and

t REVELATION founded Ch.I.

and which fo far furpafles all human ap- prehenfion, that there is no imaginable way by which fo much as a fufpicion of it could ever have entered into any one's head ; not could any proper information be given about it, but by the creator him- felf : and yet upon this fuppofition all their reafonings are founded which have any weight, or that can make any laft- ing impreffibnc

It is true, there have been very high pretenfions made to religion, and even de votion, on thefe principles ; not only by thofe who could know no better, but by thofe among ourfelves who certainly might. A noted late writer has given us what I think fo jufiT an account of this^ that I chufe to deliver it in his own words* " Philofophical devotion, like the enthu- ic fiafm of a poet, is the tranfitory effedl " of high fpirits, great leifure, a fine ge- " nius, and a habit of fludy and con- " templation. But, notwithftanding all " thefe circxunftances, an abftradled invi- " fible objeft, like that which natural re- ft ligion alone prefents us, cannot long " actuate the mind, or be of any great ic moment in life. To render the paflion

" of

on FACT. g

" of continuance, we muft find fome me- " thod of affe&irig the fenfes and imagi- " nation, and muft embrace fome liiftori- " cal as well as philofophical account of " the Divinity." Not one of a thotifand, I believe I may fay a million, of mankind, can be found capable of entering into the metaphyfical refinements they build on. The multitude muft live either by fenfe or faith ; and either continue quite ignorant of the Deity, or make out his character as they do that of men whom they never faw ; that is, by his works and ways : and if they have not a true hiftory of thefe, they will be fure to make one for them- felves, as fully appears by the grofs con ceits and foolifh legends of the acts of what they called their Gods, made and propagated not only in the Heathen, but fome other places of the world.

But however this difpofition may be ab- ufed, it is by no means to be reckoned among the corruptions, or even infirmities, of the human nature ; but the diftinguifhing charafteriftic of that conftitution our wife creator faw fit to aflign us, for anfwering the purpofes for which he defigned us in his world ; and which, accordingly, he

VOL. II. B initiates

io REVELATION founded Ch.L

initiates every one of us into, by the way in which we enter there ; where, incapable for a long time of judging or adding for our- felves, a great part of our lives muft ne- ceflarily be fpent in an implicit faith in, and dependence upon, thofe towhofecarewe are committed : nay, after all the obfervations we can make for ourfelves, even in the higheft flate of improvement, we would find ourfelves but very ill provided, even for living in a prefent world, were it not for the informations we receive from o- thers. But how mall we attain the know ledge of the invifible God, whom no man hath feeii or can fee ? And how can he ma- nifeft himfelf to us, but by fuch works and ways as we are capable of perceiving, and by which we may be enabled to form fome proper apprehenfions of his being and perfections ? A true and authentic hiftory of thefe rnuft therefore be the beft gift that can be made to creatures in our circumftances. Such a hiftory of God we have in the Bible ; and they -miftake it greatly who coniider it in any other light. Whatever accounts we have either of nations and kingdoms, or of particular men, were not deiigned to give us their hiftory, but

only

on FACT. IT

only fo much of it as was necefTary to fet God's ways with them in fiich a light, as that we might learn from thofe inftances, what to think of him^ and what we have to hope or fear from him in fimilar cir- cumftances. All the facts we have there recorded are not indeed of equal moment; but none of them may be deemed fuper- fluous. Some capital ones there are, with out which, God cannot be known at all. But others contribute to the more perfect knowledge of him, and all together make up a fyftem of perfect wifilom, and natu rally lead to the great difcovery of what all the philofophers and wife men, ancient and modern, have laboured in vain to find out, viz. where the true perfection and happinefs of mankind lies ; for thefe two can never fubfift feparately. But then it muft be adverted to, that none of thefe fads muft be taken feparately, and with out taking in the whole. Attempts of this kind have mifled many. There is not on ly a clofe connection, but fuch a beautiful order and dependence, that one facfl fup- ports and opens the mind to conceive an other, which by itfelf might have feemed abfolutely incredible. Of this there are B 2 numberlefs

12 REVELATION founded Ch.I.

numberlefs inftances, which I may not enter upon here ; fome will occur as we go along.

In the knowledge, belief, and proper improvement, of thefe fa6ls, the whole of Chriftianity confifts. A plain fimple thing, which needs no philofophy or human fcience to fupport its principles. There is not in the whole Bible one iingle inftance of that kind of reafoning. Much and ftrong reafoning we do indeed find there ; but all of a quite different kind. It is all employed, either in fupporting the truth of the fa£ts, or enforcing the proper confe- quences and improvement of them. And it had been mvich to be wifhed, that thofe who have employed themfelves in the great and laudable defign of opening the fcrip- tures, had guarded more carefully than has been generally done, againft thofe mixtures of human wifclom which we find fo frequently and flrongly cautioned againft by our Lord and his apoftles, by which the fimplicity and beauty of the truth as it is in Jefus have been at leaft greatly fullied and obfcured, Chriftianity moulded into the form of an human fcience, a wide door opened for number lefs unnecefTary, and many of them end-

lefs,

on FACT. 13

lefs, debates and controversies, the true fpirit of it loft in bitter contentions and divifions, and mens faith drawn off from the only foundation on which it can (land, the teftimony of God, to build on the gueffes or bold aflertions of the reafoners and difputers of this world.

And yet fuch is the tyranny of cuftom and received opinions, that many learned and good men have thought, that natural religion, as the philofophical is pretended very unjuftly to be, is the only foundation on which Chriftianity can ft and : for, fay they, how can we know any thing to be a divine revelation, or receive it as fuch, until we know there is a God ; nay, till we know fo much of his nature and per fections as ihall qualify us to judge, what is worthy of him, and what not ? With out this, we lie open to every impoftor or deluded enthufiaft who fhall take it into his head to pretend a divine commiffion, and his reveries may pals with us for di vine oracles.

Need I obferve, what is fo glaringly e- vident, that this is fo far from fending us to learn our knowledge of God from the fcriptures of truth, that thefe can be of

no

14 REVELATION founded Ch.I.

no ufe, until we are taught it by fome philofopher or other, on principles too not only different from, but in many in- fiances oppofite to, thofe we are taught in the Bible, and which mud be unlearned and renounced before one can become a Chriftian ? For however the worldly fane- tuary might be built and beautified with the fpoils of the Egyptians, the heavenly one admits of no fuch materials. We may not believe the Bible until we know that it is the word of God ; and it is cer tain no man ever will : but then, before we can be determined in this great point, we muft not only know that there is fome being we call God^ but we muft know the true God. Nor will even this be of any ufe to us, until we know certainly that this is his teftimony ; and there our faith is fuppofed to reft. But however we may be fuppofed to reft our belief of the par ticular fadls recorded there on the teftimo ny of God ; yet it is plain, that this belief is ultimately, and not very remotely, founded on what we learned before we could believe a word that is fpoken there. God, by the prophet Jeremy, gives a very different folution of this interefting que-

ftion.

on FACT. 15

flion. " He that hath a dream, let him " tell a dream ; and he that hath my word, " let him fpeak my word boldly : what " is the chaff to the wheat ? Is not my " word like a fire? like a hammer which " breaketh the rocks afunder?" Jer. xxiii. 28. 2 9, The Apoftle Paul, who fpake by the fame Spirit, fpeaks alfo the fame lan guage, and refolves the Chriflian faith, not into the ivifdom of <words, or human rea- foning, which he carefully avoided ; but into the demonftration of the Spirit, and of pofwer. But this is a kind of evidence that no man can perceive but he that feels it. Nor is that a fingular cafe : for the light of the fun, and the noife and variety of founds, to both which we find it com pared, are precifely of the fame kind; and as the great creator manifefts his glo ry to whom and in what meafure he plea- fes, he can with the greatefl eafe make them perceive and feel what the blind and deaf can have no notion of.

Certain it is, however, that in the whole Bible, from the beginning to the end of it, the queftion is never fo much as infi- nuated, Whether there is a God or not ? nor any fuch thing offered as philofophers call a

proof

i6 REVELATION founded Ch.I;

proof or a demonftration of it. But there is a much eafier and incomparably more effe&ual method taken for eftablifhing this momentous and fundamental truth. By manifesting himfelf, as he does$ in his works and ways, and thus ihowing what he is, he effectually afcertains the truth of his being, not only to the underflanding, as philofophers attempt to do, but to the confcience, the inward fenfe and feeling of men. The very firfl fentence of that divine record reveals a fadl which all the \tifdom of man could never have difco- vered, and which no philofopher will e- ver be able to demonftrate, even when it is known: "In the beginning God created " the heavens and the earth:" Afadl, with out which, all reafoning from the works of God mult go for nothing, as they mull do, until it is afcertained that they are really his. But when it is, we are provi ded with the moll fenfible documents of his eternal- power and godhead, fuch as mull fill every heart with reverence and adoration who really believes it.

The divine author knew perfectly how hard it is for creatures fuch as we are, to believe a fadl every way fo lingular, and

fo

on FACT. 17

fo infinitely above all the powers that we can have any notion of. For preventing what was thought a very plaufible notion, that creating was no more but reducing the cbnfufed heap of matter into that beautiful order in which we now find it, he tells us^ that after his creating the heavens and the earth, the matter remain ed ftill in the greateft confufion^ until it was, by degrees, which none but the crea tor himfelf could defcribe, reduced to re gularity and order. And, which made the wonderful work yet more wonderful, all was performed without either inftruments or means, but purely by an authoritative word, or a mere a<£l of his will.

T is muft fland an invincible argu ment, That the creation of all things de pends purely on the credit of divine tefti- mony, unlefs a fatisfying account can be given how fuch a hiftory of it could be made by man. And the more attempts are made this way, the more I am fatisfied will the evidence of it appear. By the cir- cumftances we have recorded of the crea tor's familiar intercourfe with the firft man, we have reafon to believe, he was ve ry thoroughly inftrudled in all he was ca-

VoL.II. C pable

i8 REVELATION founded Ch.L

pable of knowing about it. But, in the courfe of time, it came to be fo much ei ther forgotten or negle&ed, and the blind- nefs and folly of man become fo rampant, that not only the works of God, the powers of the heavens, but their own i- maginations and fancies were fet up to ri val the creator in his Deity and worfhip : A monftrous wickednefs in them ; but from which mankind reaped very great advantages, as it gave occafion to thofe numerous exertions of divine power, whereby God confounded the idolaters, and inftrudled his being the creator of heaven and earth, and thereby his deity and abfolute power, or, as the Apoftle ex- prefiesit," his eternal power and godhead." It would be of great ufe to obferve, what would take up too much room here, how the conteft was carried on with the apo- ftate world in general, and particular ly with the Ifraelitifh nation down to the captivity, with the ftrongeft means of conviction on one fide, and the mofl afto- nifhing perverfenefs on the other.

It was never difputed, that the creator of all things, if there was any fuch, was the true God ; and himfelf puts it on this

iffue :

on FACT. 19

iflue : " The gods who have not created " the heavens and the earth, {hall perifh 11 from the earth/' There is another pofi- tion laid down as indifputable, That he who has in his own hand all the power that is in the univerfe, muft be the creator, and the true God : and that all power in hea ven and earth are thus in the hand of God, he has inftrucfted by the moft pal pable and moft convincing evidence, do ing what none but the pofTeiTor of al mighty power could do, and fliewing fuch perfect knowledge of all things, as none but he who made all things could poflibly attain.

Thus he has fhown, in a manner that might be perceived even by the moft ftu- pid obfervers, that all the powers of what is called nature^ are fo abfolutely in his poffeffion, that he can controul them at pleafure, fufpend, and even invert them, for anfwering any purpofes for which he fees fit to employ them. We may not ftand particularly to obferve how effec tually this was done in the deftrucflion and reftoration of the earth at the general deluge; the definition of Sodom, and the other cities of that plain, which was C 2 like

20 REVELATION founded Ch.I.

like the garden of God; the aftonifhing plagues of Egypt; the opening a paffage for the Israelites through the Red fea; the pillar of fire and cloud ; giving them manna for food, and water out of the rock ; with all the wonders at Sinai ; flop ping the courfe of the fun ; or, what ar gues an equal, if not a fuperior exertion of power, the courfe of the light, as in the cafe of Jofhua, Hezekiah, and others ; Elijah's conteft with the priefts of Baal; and the more ordinary fire from heaven confuming the accepted facrifices. To which muft be added, all the miracles re corded hi the Old and New Teftaments, which (land as fo many fenfible documents of creating power.

But, the Ifraelitifli nation itfelf was the greateft miracle of all. From their firft fcparation from the nations in their father Abraham, down to the captivity; and, we may add, down to this very day; they were, and are, {landing monuments of the creator's power ; and that not only over inanimate matter, but over nations and kingdoms, the counfels, purpofes, and powers of men, even in thofe which are allowed to be their freeft and moft- deli berate

en FACT. 21

berate actions ; turning them and employ-* ing them fo as to anfwer his purpofes and intentions ; raifing up and cafting down at pleafure unto all the ends of the earth. The profperity and adverfity of that na tion exactly conform to the promifes and threatenings of their law ; the ftrengthen- ing the hands of their enemies, and de- ftroying them at pleafure ; and the num- beriefs inftances of his determining the hearts of men to ferve his purpofes, are all of them inftanees of the furprifing power of the great creator; and prove, that " the earth is the Lord's, and the ful- " nefs thereof:" for he giveth it, and all the kingdoms of it, to whpmfoever he will. And that none may imagine that thefe things come to pafs by what is called chance, or the common courfe of things, he before hand tells what he is to do, and thus fe- cures the honour of it entirely to himfelf; not to fay that in mod of thefe events the hand 'of God is fo vifible, that it cannot be miftaken.

There is yet another point which we find the creator himfelf appealing to as decifive in this cafe : it is his perfedl knowledge, not only of the prefent ftate

of

22 REVELATION founded Ch.I.

of things, but of all that is patted and forgotten among men, and of all that e- ver £hall be unto the end of time. In- ftances we have of both kinds in the fadls recorded by Mofes, and the many pro phecies which have been fulfilled, and many more which relate to events yet to fall out in their proper time. And thus we find him pleading againft the idols of the nations, and their thoughtlefs vo taries : " Bring forth your ftrong rea- fons, faith the God of Jacob. Let them bring forth, and fhew us what fliall happen : let them fhew the former things, that we may confider them. — Shew the things which are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods," If. xli. 21. 22. 23. This, it is evident, cannot be done but upon one of two fuppofitions ; either that all things are under his direction and difpofal, or that he hath fuch a perfect knowledge of them, that he can certainly fay what effedls will follow. In either cafe, fuch power and knowledge can belong to none but the creator.

At the fame time that we have this great foundation of all religion attefted bj fuch plain and palpable evidence, we

have

on FACT. 23

have another advantage: by having a power fo analogous and fimilar to that by which the worlds were created, brought under our obfervation, the belief of crea tion is greatly facilitated ; as it effectually removes that prejudice which is fome how become in a manner natural, againft believing any effedls of power to which we have never obferved any thing fimilar : and further, by unqueflioned inftances of fimilar powers, and very nearly of the fame kind, the mind is in an eafy, and almoft infenfible manner, led up to the jufteft notions of that God we profefs to worfhip, as a being efTentially poflHTed of perfect and abfolute power, not to be controlled by any, or all other powers put together. And thus, in that ancient Chri- flian creed bearing the name of the Apo- ftles, the article, / believe in God the Father almighty ^ ftands without any other addi tion but the ground on which it is belie ved, the maker of heaven and earth.

Our modern wife men, alarmed, as would feem, by the dreadful confequen- ces of abfolute power lodged in a weak fallible man, have raifed a horrible cry a- gainft afcribing it to God, and given it

names

24 IGNORANCE of Ch.IL

names -tohich I do not chufe to repeat. But had they advened to a very obvious truth, That all imperfedlion whatfoever is owing entirely to the want of power, they would eafily have feen, that perfedl or ab- folute power and abfolute perfection are but different words for the very fame thing. The diftindlion between what they call natural and moral perfections, what ever foundation it may have in created Conftitutions, can by no means apply to him in whom all perfections are equally eflential, however the weaknefs of our apprehenfions may lead us to conceive of them.

CHAP. It

Ignorance of AbJiraEl Nature, Ignorance of Divine Nature, Power, or JVorks. Know ledge conveyed by Images. The true Jlate of Creature-dependence.

UT after all, however ftrong the e~ vidences of this great truth are, and they are indeed the ftrongefl which crea tures of oiir kind are capable of receiving,

the

ABSTRACT NATURE, &c. 25

the thing itfelf remains an impenetrable myftery, how a world, fuch as this, could be brought into being^ when there were no materials either to work upon, or to work by : and yet more, that it mould be done by the bare word, or rather the bare will, of the creator. This is a fe- cret which imift for ever remain with him who is perfect in underftanding, 'and who alone can know the extent of his own power. And yet the eternity of the world, or even of the matter of which it confifts, would be ftill as inconceivable, and con- fequently as great, or rather a greater myftery, and therefore as hard to be be lieved : only with this difference, that the exiftence of the material world is more obvious than that of the invifible creator.

This naturally leads us into depths, if poflible, ftill greater, the impenetrable fe- crets of the divine being : He created the heavens and the earth j and that gave a beginning to them, and to what we call time, by which their duration or conti nuance in being is computed. But the creator himfelf then was : nay, infinitely beyond the utraoft diftance that can be i- . VOL. II. D magined,

26 IGNORANCE of Ch.IL

magined, he did exift. Accordingly it is faid of him, If. Ivii. 15. that " he inha- " biteth eternity/' and by the Apoftle, I Tim. vi. 1 6. ' He only hath immorta- " lity," which laft expreffion excludes, not only end of being, but all not-being. But who can reach the full import of theie words ? The diftinguiihing name by which he chofe to be known in the firft ages, JE HOVAH, is with good reafon thought to ex- prefs his very eflence ; and his anfwer to Mofes, when he wanted to know his name^ is a fort of paraphrafe of it ; which the Apo ftle John renders, He that is, and <was, and is to come. And thus it comes out, as if he had laid, I am he that is, or, he 'who is be ing : and that is fomething more than to fay, he is the fole proprietor and pofleflbr of being ; it imports, that being is his very effence. Much to the fame purpofe is the title we find him fo often affuming of, The Living God ; not only to diftinguifh himfelf from dead idols, but efpecially to fet himfelf forth to our faith, as the abfo- lute proprietor,and therefore the only fpring and fountain of life, as well as of being. And thus we" find our Lord giving it as

the

ABSTRACT NATURE, &c. 27

the diftinguiming character of the true God, " That he hath life in himfelf."

Thus we are provided in a fet of words, very important indeed, and full of in- ftrudlion, were they well underftood, and which we ufe as. freely as if we really did underftand them. Life and being are fuch familiar terms, that, I believe, there are not a few men in the world who would think themfelves greatly affronted, if there was fo much as a fufpicion infinuated, that they did not comprehend what they were fpeak- ing of. By this pittance of being and life which we find ourfelves one way or other in pofleffion of, we come to know fome- thing what it is to be, and to live. But thefe are only the effects and confequences of life and being ; and what they are in themfelves, and how even our own life and being are maintained and fupported, we know no more than the child which never had a thought : A ftrong prefumption, or rather a certain document, that all muft be refolved into the inexplicable and incom- prehenfible exertion of creating power. And if all continues a rnyftery there, fo; near home, how much more myfterious muft the effence and manner of fubfifting P 2 bq

28 IGNORANCE of Ch.II.

be in him who dwells in light inacceflible, which no man can approach unto.

The narrownefs and fhort extent of the human capacity might eafily be, and oft en has been, carried much farther, and inexplicable myfteries found, throughout the whole frame of even the material world ; and, what is nearefl us, oiir own frame and conftitution; info much that philofpphers to this day have never been able to fay what matter is, or what our, fouls are, or how they cpme to he united to thefe grofs bodies. It muft appear very odd, that men fhould with fuch confi dence deny the belief of myjleries^ or fuch things as they can make no account of, when they themfelves are without any fcruple ailenting to myfleries every day they live. But mofl ftrange it is, that a- ny who believe that the worlds were crea ted by the word of God, and the eternity and immenfity of his being, fhould yet boggle at the information given us con cerning the manner in which that incom- prehenfible being fubfifts, which has no- filing more of myflery, or lefs intelligi ble ; I mean, a trinity of diftindl agents

ABSTRACT NATURE, &c. 29

in the unity of the divine effence, fubfift- ing and a&ing in and by one another.

It can be no juft prejudice againft the firmeft belief of this, that we have nothing fimilar within the cqmpafs of our obfer- vation that we can image it by : for it is no more fingular than thefe other fadts which we have no doubt about, viz. the immenfity of the divine being, and crea ting power ; and is inftrudled precifely in the fame manner by facfls which fall ea- iily under our obfervation, and the record we have concerning them ; where we find Three, very expr.efsly diftinguimed from one another, dignified with all the divine names, titles, attributes, and honours, and all the works, not excepting creation itfelf, by which the only true God has chofen to diftinguifli himfelf, and make himfelf known to men. Or mall we be lieve, that a perfedlly wife and good be ing would lay fuch a faare for mifleading his creatures, and drawing them into 3, crime he has exprefTed fuch an abhorrence of, the fetting up other gods before him ?

But the main prejudice which has hacj the greateft fhare in biafling numbers a-

36 IGNORANCE of Ch.II.

gainil the belief of this my fiery, will, I apprehend, be found to arife from the im- perfedlion of our language, and the terms in which it is exprefled there. The word God, in our language, has no determinate fignification ; but, like the proper names of men, is made ufe of to denote that being whom we profefs to worfhip. Perfon again, in vulgar, and even philofophical language, denotes one individual agent. This makes it very hard to avoid apprehending three perfons as three gods. The Hebrews had greatly the advantage of us in this refpe<5l. They had a name, JEHOVAH, which deno minated the divine efTence, and is always fingular, and this JEHOVAH is always de clared to be one. But they had another name, which denoted the relation which he condefceiided to {land in to his creatures of mankind, and expreffeth the obligation he had taken upon himfelf to make good the promifes which he had made them, and which we know were to be fulfilled by the Word and Spirit, as well as by the Father : and this has conflantly a plural termination, Elahim ; not for want of a fingular term, which the author of it could never have been at a lofs for, and which it is not con ceivable

ABSTRACT NATURE, &c. 31

ceivable he would have chofen in his ad- drefles to a people fo prone to fall into i- dolatry and polytheifin as the old Ifraelites were, had it not been to exprefs an im portant truth, that though Jehovah the efTence is one, yet the Elahim are more than one.

But neither will it be found ftricflly true, that there is nothing in nature any way re- fembling this myftery ; though it fhould be enough to make it credible, that there is nothing found there that can warrant us to conclude it impoffible. This material fyftem, and the material powers and un- der-agents by which the order the wife creator has appointed is fupported and maintained, we have great reafon to be lieve, was defigned for a reprefentation of the fpiritual unfeen world, and of that (to us inconceivable) order by which all things are carried on there; upon this general principle, that what the fun is to the material, the fame God is to the fpiritual world. And upon this the whole of the defcriptive language we have of fpiritual and unfeen things, is in great meafure formed ; and by a very natural analogy, all our conceptions of thefe things are likewife formed. What Mofes

calls

$2 IGNORANCE of Ch.II.

calls by a name which we render expan- ftw, or firmament^ and which from him we learn is the matter of the material hea vens, moft perfect wifdorn has formed in to a moft ftupendous machine, by which all things throughout the fyftem are ma naged and carried on in their proper or der. We fee it, and very fenfibly feel it is fo in this earth of ours. We cannot fubfifl a moment without air to breathe in; and were the comprefliori it makes taken off, we know, by eafy experiments, how the earth itfelf muft be diffipated, and every thing diffolved into that ftate of cori- fufion in which the whole matter of the uni- verfe was originally created, when the earth was without form, and void, and dark- nefs was upon the face of the deep. Were it even poffible that air could fubfifl with out light, we certainly know it could an- fwer none of thdfe purpofes, nor produce thofe viciffitudes and changes which we find fo neceflary for adorning the earth, as it is every feafon, and for making it ufefiil to the inhabitants. We know as well, thait there can be no light but what iffues from, and is fent forth by the force of, fire, and that that cannot be fupported but by a flux of air continually ftreaming

into

ABSTRACT NATURE, &c. 33

into it ; and which is fo loft there, that no account can be made of it, but that it is refined there, and thrown out again in the form of light ; which again, by degrees, coalefces into fuch grumes as conftitute air. Thus this wonderful machine fupports it- felf and every thing elfe. The fun, or fire at its orb, is the great regulator, but operates only by the light it fends forth, and is fupported and maintained by the air which is formed out of it. The mat ter is the fame ; but their form and dif- tinft offices fenfibly diftinguim them ; and thus fubfift and a<5l in perfect union, in and by one another.

When we compare this, and the effects produced by this wonderful combination, with the accounts we have made, in lan guage formed upon it, of the nature and operations of the great creator, it will not be eafy for any one to avoid concluding, that in thefe material under- agents he de- figned to give us a fenfible image of him- felf, and the way in which he exerts his almighty power. Our God dwells in light inacceflibje, which no man can approach unto : and we are told exprefsly, that he is a confuming fire. His eternal Word L E manifefted

34 IGNORANC£ of Ch.IL

manifefted in the perfon of Jefus Chrift is almofl every where ftyled, The Light of the world \ and by him it is that every thing is done which the Father does. The original languages have but one name for the material air, and that eternal Spirit by whom the Father and the Word perform and finifh all their operations on the crea ture.

There can hardly be a greater and more dangerous imposition upon ourfelves and others, than the attempting to reduce thefe analogical defcriptions of fpiritual and unfeen things, by which only we can come at any conceptions of them at all, to fo many metaphors, fuch as the ma- flers of human eloquence ufe for embei- lifhing their difcourfes. So far from it, that they are not only different in kind, but very nearly oppofite to, and inconfift- ent with, one another. If both the terms of a metaphor are not perfedlly known, the brilliancy and force of it is entirely loft. Here it is juft the reverfe. What is meant to be difcovered in this way, is altogether unknown; neither can it be known any other way than by the image which reprefents it, and by which We

may

ABSTRACT NATURE, &c. 35

may be helped to form fuch conceptions as the imperfecflion of our conftitution can admit of; and we have proper direc tions given us how to avoid the abufe of fuch images, and forming unworthy no tions of what they were employed to re- prefent.

It is not at all needful, that the plain Chriftian fhould be perplexed with the many curious fpeculations and difputes which men of learning and leifure have raifed on this head of creation, and the confequences of it ; but there is one which muft by no means be neglected, viz. the nature and confequences of crea ture-dependence, as there is no one thing of more general ufe on every occafion throughout all the ftages of the Chriftian life. And were not our miilds fome how or other biafled and prepoireffed, we muft have been naturally led to think, that no thing can preferve a creature in life and being but the fame power that firft be- ftowed them. Indeed, being and life are none of thofe things that can be given a- way, but muft remain in the hand of the only proprietor: and yet fuch is the luft after independency, that many have per- E 2 fuaded

36 IGNORANCE of Ch.IL

fuaded themfelvesj that they cannot bfc difpofleffed, but by an exertion of power equal to that of creation ; nay, and that they cannot be juftly deprived of thefe, unlefs they forfeit them by fome crime or other. And it is on this flippery bottom that all the philofophers hopes are found-* ed. But they might have been better taught, had they condefcended to obferve, what cannot efcape the notice of the moft ignorant, and which the wife creator has fet as a check to our pride and felf-con* ceit, viz. that wife order he has fixed^ that no creature can fubfift in life but by thofe meaiis which he has ordained, and which he bleffes for that purpofe. We muft be very inadvertent, if we do not perceive^ that thofe upon which we fo fenfibly feel our dependence, and efpeciaL* ly the mechanifm of the heavens, are only the under-agents, or the inflruments by which the creator exerts that fupporting power, without which we cannot fuftain ourfelves for a moment.

This will appear yet more evident, when it is confidered, that the whole of creation is a matter of pure grace ; that is, of abfolute will and pleafure. The

word

ABSTRACT NATURE, &c. 3.7

word grace has been fome how* especially of late, fo appropriated to that merciful kindnefs manifefted to finners in Jefus Chrift, that fbme have thought it a fort of profanation to apply it to any thing elfe. But we have greatly better authority for extending it to every favour, or inftance of kindnefs, that the creator freely confers on any creature capable of obferving and be ing affedled with it ; and for fuch, we are well enough inftrudled to fay, the world was made. In its natural import, it ex- preffes not only the fpring and fountain of the divine beneficence, (for nothing can be called grace which is not fovereignly free), but likewife the fruit and effect of it ; that is, the putting forth fuch a mea- fure of power as makes good the intention or declaratipmof grace : I fay^ the decla ration and intention ; becaufe a gift freely given, withoiit any previous declaration, is juft as truly a grace or favour, as if it had been given in confequence of the moft Solemn promife. And thus it coincides with what is commonly called the bleffing of God, another common word, little un- derflood, I am afraid, or little minded. Mens bleffing one another is a kind of i-

mage

38 IGNORANCE of Ch.II.

mage of it. In its loweft fenfe, it is a fignification of great good-will and hearty kindnefs and affection. But .if it is not feconded with kind offices to the utmoft of one's power, all the good words will hardly be allowed to be indications of a kind intention. And where then can the excellency of the divine blefling lie, but in that divine power wt.ich actually con veys the bleffing ? and therefore they whom he condefcends to blefs, are blefled indeed. I believe there is not one man in his wits who will not readily acknowledge, that the confervation of the univerfe, and of every creature therein, is owing en tirely to the bleffing of God : and yet this acknowledgement, if it hath any meaning at all, plainly amounts to this, that every creature fubfifts by the fame grace of the creator, and confequently by the fame al mighty power, which gave it being at firfl. Hence then it muft follow, that if any creature attempts to live in any other way, he renounces his dependence, and the on ly way in which he can live.

And hence it muft follow of courfe, that as it was abfolutely free to the crea tor, whether he ihould make any crea tures

ABSTRACT NATURE, &c. 39

Hires at all, and as he was abfolute ma- fter and proprietor of his own grace ; fo he had a perfect right to deal out his fa vours in what meafure and degree he pleafed ; that is, to make what, and how many, kinds and orders of creatures he pleafed ; to affign each of them their pro per ftations, and the purpofes they were to anfwer there ; the term of their dura tion, and continuance in life and being, and the appropriated means (where he has been pleafed to appoint any means) for fupporting them during that period, I faid, where he has been pleafed to ap point any means ; becaufe, had he fo pleafed, he could eafily have fupported them by his almighty immediate power, without any created means, as he doth thofe happy fpirits who have accefs to be hold his glory. But where he has ap pointed means, if thefe are neglected, or if the creature takes it into his head to live fome other way, as by means which the creator has not bleffed for that purpoie, it is evident, that in either cafe fuch crea ture muft perifh. Thus every creature carries in its moft perfect exiftence fo much of his original nothingnefs, that it

muft

4° IGNORANCE of Ch.II.

muft argue either the greatefl ftupidity or perverfenefs ever to lofe fight of it.

As then it appears, that no creature is, or can poflibly be, the proprietor of its own being ; far lefs can it have any pro perty in any thing elfe. That muft reft in him of whom it muft be acknowled ged, that all things in heaven and earth are his. His, I fay, by the beft and moft perfedl right ; for he created them all, and for his pleafure they are, and were crea ted. He has allowed his creatures the ufc of fuch things as are fit for them, and that is all they need, or indeed are capa-* ble of enjoying. Whatever he puts into any one's hands, is either by way of loan, which he may refume when he pleafes, or is a truft committed to them, for which they muft give account. This indeed founds and fecures what is called property among men, but cannot affedl the right of the great proprietor.

Hence will appear, with great evidence, the fillinefs of thofe exceptions which have been raifed againft thofe exertions of this divine right we have recorded in the fa^- cred hiftory, which they in their great wifdom cannot reconcile to the rules of

propertv

ABSTRACT NATURE, &c. 41

property and juftice eftablifhed among men ; as if it was not lawful for the great pro prietor to do what he will with his own. And this will appear in a yet ftronger light, when it is considered, that no crea ture either hath, or ever can acquire, any rights at all, or any demands upon his creator, unlels by fome promife or grant of grace he condefcends to make himfelf debtor to them, and thus lays a proper foundation for their faith and hope. All -that the mod enlightened mere philofo- pher has to build on, is what is called the conrfe of nature^ i. e. the order the creator has eftablifhed in his world ; and a pre^ fumption, as falfe as it is groundlefs^ that things will continue to go on as they have done for the long courfe of time that is paft. But even allowing the truth of the -preiumption, there is nothing to be ex- pedled beyond a prefcnt life. Death puts an end to life ; and that, for any thing he can know, makes an end of the man.

This puts me in mind of another ne~ ceiTary confequence of creation, and the diftindlion the creator has made among . the feveral ranks and orders of his crea tures, viz. That he has with fuch perfect : VOL. II. F wifdora

42 IGNORANCE of Ch.II.

wifdom adjuftecl the conftitution of every one of them to the ilation and way of li ving which he has allotted them, that while they are perfectly pleafed with their prefent gratifications, they have no tafte or relifli for, nay they would be miferable if they were confined to the way in which greatly more perfect creatures live. We need but look around us to find inftances on every fide. Whatever improvements and advances toward perfection, in their own fphere, any of them are capable of ma king, (and fome are capable of vaftly great ones) ; or, on the contrary, into whatever bafenefs, through negligence, floth, and contra&ecl habits, any of them may fink below their own fpecies ; yet can none of them ever transform themfelves into ano ther fpecies, or get over the bounds which the creator has fet for keeping up the dif- tindion. Thus a plant, with all the im provements that can be made, can never become an animal, nor a brute animal be improved into a man ; and, 1 believe, no man was ever fo extravagant as to ima gine, that he could transform himfelf into an angel. The rant of fome enthufiaftic philofophers, that there needed no more

to

ABSTRACT NATURE, &c. 43

to make them angels, but di veiling them of thefe bodies in which they fuppofed themfelves imprifoned, was either mere raving, or owing to a topic which no phi- lofopher, as fuch, has any right to meddle with, Reaibn and revelation are very dif ferent.

But however limited every creature muft be to its appointed ftatioii, and way of living, it would be immenfely abfurd to imagine, that the creator himfelf is fo limited, that he may not, if he pleafes, take any fpecies of creatures, even the lowed and moft wor chiefs, or any indivi duals of the fame fpecies, and raife them to what degree of perfection and dignity he pleafes, and that without the leaft fha- dow of injuftice either to any other fpe cies, or to any individuals of the fame fpecies, left in their creation-date, or in that which they have chofen for them felves. To clamour or complain on fuch an occafion,' could not be more fooiifh, than it would have been, in the firft crea tion, for beafts to complain that they were not made men, or men that they were not made angels. Shall the creature fay

F 2 to

44 Man's ORIGINAL STATE Ch.lII.

.to the creator, Why haft thou made me thus ? And furely as little reafon could any have to fay in fuch a cafe, Why doft thou not promote me to fome higher fta- tion ? unlefs it had, what no creature e- ver had, or will have, fome good reafon to affign why he fliould do fo.

CHAP. III.

Mans Original State and Circumjlances.

Owever ufeful and inftruftive the contemplation of the material uni- verfe may be, and that ftupendous power which brought all things there into being, and eftablifhed them in that beautiful or der, which will always be more and more admired, the better it comes to be known and uncleritood ; yet it is in the creator's ways with man that our more peculiar concerns lie. The heavens do indeed de clare the glory of God, and the Ikies preach his handy- work ; all his creatures praife him, and proclaim the ftupendous wifdom and power of their great creator; and, did we underftand them well, we

would

and CIRCUMSTANCES. 45

would find as ftrong documents of his perfect goodnefs, an object worthy not only of all honour and adoration, but of the warmeft gratitude and love : but in the unhappy circumftances wherein all the children of Adam are found, the terrors of his majefty rather damp and difcou- rage, and thus mar, or rather deftroy, the fentiments we ought to entertain. His ways with man prefent him in a nearer and more interefting light, and afford us the means of a fuller and more perfect knowledge of his true character. The re cord he has made of thefe ways completes a fyftem of perfect knowledge and wif- dom, which we never could have had by any other means whatfoever.

After the moft circumftantial account of the creation of the heavens and the earth, we meet with a full account of the creation of man, and the circumftances in which he was then placed. And when we confider the order in which that great work of creation was carried on; from the lefs to the more noble creatures ; from dead matter to plants and trees, fifties, fowls, and terreftrial animals ; and how pone of them were brought into being

until

46 Man's ORIGINAL STATE Ch.III.

•until provifion was in all refpedts made for their comfortable fubfiflence ; it gives at once a high notion of the creator's wif- dom and goodnefs, and of the excellency of man, the laft, and therefore the finifh- ing piece of the creation ; which is juftly increafed by the peculiar folemnity with which it is introduced. " And God," the Elabim, " faid, Let us make man in our •" image, after our likenefs."

Great pains have been taken to explain away the natural and obvious fenfe which every candid reader muft have affixed to thefe words, viz. That there were at lead more than one concerned in the creation of man. For to whomfoever thefe words are fuppofed to be addrefTed, they muft be fuppofed likewife to be creators, and confequently divine agents, being thus included in that work which moft effec tually diftinguifhes God from the creature; and if that is communicated to creatures, there is nothing left to diftinguifh him from them, as there is no perfection or power that can be imagined fuperior to what is difplayed there. To fay nothing of the palpable abfurdity in fuppofing a creature poffefled of, and exerting, the

fame

and CIRCUMSTANCES.

fame power which brought it into to fpeak a world out of nothing, or even to make a man out of the duft of the earth. This is the peculiar work of thofe Elahim, who are JEHOVAH, the only pro prietor of being ; and who, we are well allured, will not give his glory to ano ther, not even to the mofh dignified of the creatures he hath made.

It has been found a matter of fome dif ficulty to adjufl the proper import of thefe words, " Let us make man in our image, " after our likenefs." It would be a piece of very fuperfluous nicety to go about making a diftinction between image and likenefs. The words import no more than fuch an image as mould bear fome likenefs to the origi nal ; and nothing can deferve the name of an image but what does fo. But befides the likenefs, the image mull be a defigned reprefentation : A prodigious honour this, and fuch as we find no other creature dig nified with. But the difficulty lies in find ing wherein this fimilitude and likenefs confift.

It has been reckoned abftird by the °-e- nerality of inquirers, to look for this in the human body ; and would certainly be fo,

if

48 Man's ORIGINAL STATE Ch.III.

if one was to look no further. They have therefore pitche^ upon the foul, which, by reafon of its fpiritual nature, may be thought to bear a nearer refemblance. And what the Apoftle fays of thofe who believe in Chrift, viz* that they are " re- " newed after the image of him 'that " created them, in knowledge, righteouf-

; nefs, and true holiiiefs," hath determi ned -them to look for it in thofe which are called the moral perfections of the foul. The Apoftle's defcription of the ftate of thofe who are renewed in Chrift, is cer tainly a very juft one; but it fuppofes they were men before they were thus re newed : and we find God himfelf decla ring, that man was made in his image when the corruption was as great as now.

They feein to come nearer the truth, who, along with the moral, take in what they call the natural perfections and powers of the mind, which ra: together are fuppofed to conftitute -TV an a rational being. But, after all, we are told that this fame image was made out of the duft of the earth, and to finifh it, • had the breath of life breathed into it. It muft therefore be the man,- and not any part of him fe-

parately

and CIRCUMSTANCES. 49

parately taken, who 'is this image ; the foul and body united, and conftitutingone agent, endued with certain adlive powers which cannot be exerted but in this con- jundlion. The moil refined and purely fpiritual-like actions, are performed, not only in the body, but by the afliflance of the corporeal organs ; as appears very e~ vidently in numberlefs obvious cafes, where the mind is difabled in its moft noble powers by the indifpofition of thefe organs, and their incapacity of perform ing their part.

It may merit confideration, whether this compounded agent, in whom we find three diftin<5l kinds of powers, and very like three diftin£t fyftems, united in fo clofe a manner that they never acl fepa- rately, viz. the perceptive^ by which all our knowledge enters ; by which I mean, not only the marvellous apparatus of the bodily fenfes, but thofe more wonderful organs by which we are fitted for taking in the information of fuch things as ne ver fell within the reach of our fenfes ; the rational, by which we are capable of improving the perceptions and informa tions we receive, to form our fentiments

VOL. II. 0 and

50 Man's ORIGINAL STATE Ch.III.

and affe&ions into a courfe of wifdom. and virtue ; and the executive, by which we exert fiich power as we have for ac- complifhing our purpofes and intentions : it merits confideration, I fay, whether this compound agent is not the faireft i- mage and beft reprefentation of the per- fe6l knowledge, wifdpm, and power, of him that made him, and even of the u- nion of three diftinft agents in the one effence of JEHOVAH.

Thefe however, we are fure, make out another further plan, on which the de- fcriptiye language is formed, by which the invifible God reprefents himfelf and his ways to man, viz. his perfect know ledge and underftanding, by our organs of perception, eyes, ears, &c.; his per fect wifdom, by our fcantling of wifdom, and even by our fentiments, affections, and paflions; and his almighty power, by arms, hands, and even fuch inftru- ments as we commonly ufe, or were in nfe at the time when thefe things were fpoken and written. And had he not condefcended to do fo, we could never have underftood his meaning. Thefe therefore are no metaphors, but images,

or

and CIRCUMSTANCES. 51

or models, which enable us, by a courfe of analogy quite natural to us, to form fuch conceptions of what is infinitely a- bove us as our prefent imperfection will admit of. I faid, by a courfe of analogy quite natural to us : for a very child, when it hears of any thing it has not feen, will afk firft, What it is ? But when that cannot be fatisfyingly anfwered, the next queftion is, What it is like ? or what doth it refemble ? And hence we fee what attention is neceflary, fo to adjufh the re- femblance, as that we may not be mifled to imagine, that the original is like the model, and that God is fuch an one as ourfelves.

I have taken no notice of thofe, who, for anfwering certain purpofes, place the image and likenefs of God in the dominion that was given man over the other creatures within his reach. For, befides that this was a fu- peradded gift after man was made, this could not be an image or likenefs of God, but of his fovereign dominion over all things. And yet even from this, and, which is more, from the kingdoms and great empires of the world, and their meafures of government, we find images G 2 taken

32 Man's ORIGINAL' STATE Ch. III.

taken to exprefs the fovereign dominion of God, and the righteous meafures of his government.

There is fomething in the mechanifm of the human body fo very curious, even in the partial view we can take of it, (and it would be much more fo could we difco- ver the fecret fprings by which the whole is managed), that ihould raife in us the mod affeding fentirrients : for indeed we are " fearfully and wonderfully made." But yet there is fomething in the human con- ititution, namely, the foul of man, which, however infinitely fhort of its maker, is in a manner as incomprehenfible, and of which we know nothing, but by the fame means which lead us to the knowledge of him, viz. its actings and operations. Of thefe indeed we are inwardly and imme diately confcious, while, at the fame time, we know nothing of the being or agent which produces them. Many fruitlefs at tempts have been made to bring this im penetrable fecret to light, and to fix the boundaries between matter and fpirit : but all the guefTes and refinements that have been made, leave us juft where every plain ,maia would have found himfelf

without

and CIRCUMSTANCES. 53

without them ; and terminate in this fim- ple conclusion, That the firft is dead, inert, and purely paffive ; the other, lively and adtive : A diftindion which anfwers all our purpofes with as much precifion, and without any of the inconceivable perplexi ties, that philofophical difquifitions are intangled with ; and there every plain Chriftian may fafely reft.

This adlive power is the fame principle which conftitutes what we call life ; which, we obferved before, is as great a myftery as creation itfelf, and refolves into the fame energy of divine power. The dif ferent degrees diftinguifh the different kinds of it, as it is found in the different orders of living creatures which fall un der our obfervation : and how many more there may be in the univerfe, who can take upon him to fay ? It would be a fruitlefs attempt to ftate the precife differ ence : but it is fo great, that were any of thefe creatures to pafs from one order to another, its former life muft be fuperfe- ded and put an end to, the fame which we call dying. Men are apt to imagine, that advancing from a lower to a higher kind of life and acftivity, is only an im provement on the life which they had be fore.

54 Man's ORIGINAL STATE Ch.III.

fore. And it may be fo, where there is no inconfiftency between the old and new way of living. But the difference would be very feniible in a degradation, fuch as a man being turned into a brute, or an animal into a tree or a ftone ; though there is nothing more real in the one change than in the other. We have a familiar in- ftance in thofe forts of worms which are produced by flies : A common thing, but very inftrudlive, if well improved.

To arrive at juft apprehenfions of our firft father's paradifiacal life, we mufl confider with fome attention every cir- cumftance we find recorded about it. Af ter his body was formed, God breathed into his noftrils the breath of life ; and the effeft of it was, that he became a li ving foul, or, more literally, a foul of lives. But it muft be remembered, that the word which is here rendered foul^ is always ufed to fignify the body, and often the dead body, of a man, both by Mofes and the other writers in that language. But however the terms may lead us no fur ther than that he was made a perfecft ani mal, yet we are fure, that there was a fpirit given him of a higher nature, and

which

and CIRCUMSTANCES. 55

which has been thought, juftly enough, to be implied in the plural form of the word which we render life. The brea thing into him, I need not obferve, gave rife to what has been called inspiration^ ex- preiling that inconceivable action of the eternal Spirit by which underftanding and every fpiritual gift is conveyed to man.

This fame infpiration, though not con fined to him alone, muft notwithftanding be allowed a fingular favour. An utter ft ranger in the new world, without know ing how either he or it came there ; ex perience or obfervation might to him have been a fure, but evidently a very flow way of acquiring even the moft neceffary know- ' ledge. His creator therefore condefcend- ed to be his teacher, and taught him in the only way in which a creature fo fi- tuated could be taught. He gathered into the compafs of one garden every creature he needed to know any thing about ; and by putting him upon giving them names, taught him the ufe of thofe words and that language in which he afterward con- verfed with him in a friendly and familiar manner ; an invention fo much above human fkill, that it is not at all likely

it

56 Man's ORIGINAL STATE Ch.IIL

it would ever have been carried much be yond the exclamations which naturally a- rife on the fenfations of pleafure and pain, and fuch affections and paflions as we find very clofely connected with them. What particular inftruAions he then gave him, we are not direcflly told ; but by the particular circumftances which we have recorded, he was fufficiently taught, that he who thus converfed with him had created all thefe things, and him among the reft, and that creature-dependency which fo naturally arifes from that rela tion. Thus we find him adling, not fo much as the man's fuperior, his lord and mafter, but as the fovereign proprietor of all : fo that the man could not have any right or title to any thing, not fo much as his neceflary food, but by virtue of a grant from his creator ; which we find he very formally made ; but with a referva- tion, which lliould be a continual memo rial to his creature, how he came by it, and of whom he held it. The dominion he gave him over the reft of the creatures carried the fame import. But the finilh- ing evidence of all was, the creation of the woman, which yet, no doubt for wife

reafons,

and CIRCUMSTANCES. 57

reafons, he was not permitted to be wit- nefs to. And thus we may fay of him in every view, what the Apoftle Paul fays of himfelf, " that it was by the grace of God *' he was what he was."

By the formation of Eve, and the Well ing which followed upon it, we have brought into our view a power, which might be deemed rather greater that crea tion itfelf, if any tiling could be fo. That was effected indeed by a bare word : He fpoke, and it was done by his immediate power. But here, by the word of the bleffing, there was power eftablifhed in the creature to convey being and life to a numberlefs fucceiTion of men. They were indeed but means and under -agents, through whom the divine power was to be exerted to fuch a vaft diftance of time. Thus every man is as really, though not fo immediately, the production of divine power, as the firft man was.

By this bleffing, Adam was fet at the head of mankind ; and all the life that e- ver was to be communicated to any o£ mankind, was fo lodged in his hand, that it could not be conveyed but through him ; and of this one blood all the fami-

YoL.II. H lies

58 Man's ORIGINAL STATE Ch.III.

lies of the earth were to be created. And as no life of any kind can ever rife higher than its original creature-flate, unlefs by a new interpoiition of creating power, which, I obferved, the creator might ex ert when and upon whom he pleafed ; it follows, that when this power is exerted, then, in the ftridleft propriety of fpeech, and without any fliado.w of a metaphor, a new creature is produced into being. Adam's paradifiacal ftate has been regarded as the perfection of the human nature, and the fall regretted as an irreparable lofs tQ mankind. It was certainly the higheft a- ny child of Adam can afpire to, when his ambition is indulged as far as it can carry his wiflies. Adam indeed had every thing that could make fuch a creature happy; all that the earth could afford agreeable, laid to his hand ; perfect innocence unal- layed by any thing that could mar his in ward peace ; and the friendfhip of his ma,- ker every day afcertained by frefh instances. But with all the advantages he enjoyed, many and great as they were ; yet, were it poffible for any of his pofterity to be re- flored to the. fame fituation,. he would, find himfelf greatly fhort of that perfect happinefs which he expected to find there ;

as

and CIRCUMSTANCES. 59

as will appear very plainly from the cir- cumftances in which. Adam was placed. I mention only fome of the moft obvious, which yet will fully fatisfy us, that his condition was not fuch as a wife man who knows any thing of Jefus Chrift would wilh to be found in.

What I chufe firft to take notice of, is the higheft part of his happinefs, the communion and intercourfes of friend- Ihip with his creator, which were all ma naged in a fenlible manner ; I mean, as men converfa with one another. This fome may reckon a fingular advantage, and a very high privilege, much to be wifhed for in our prefent ftate of diftance from God. But we mufl find ourfelves obliged to think otherwife, when we re- fledl, that he neither had, nor could have, in that way, any views of the glory of God, bat fuch as were vailed and darken ed by fenfible appearances, infinitely fhort of what the Apoftle calls feeing face toface, and knowing him even as <we are known, and even of that which now fhines in the face of Jefus Chrift, which every Chri- ftian has free accefs to. He was made for living IQ the ftate he was placed in, H 2, and

60 Man's ORIGINAL STATE Ch.IiT*

and for poffefting all the happinefs a man can enjoy in a prefent world. But it does not appear he was made for any higher {'cation, or more perfedt way of living; and we have no intimation of any reafoa he had to hope for it.

It has been, I know not how, in a man ner taken for granted, that after conti nuing for fome time under probation, (how long, none have pretended to fay, but fome time or other), he iliould have been tranfplanted into a ftate much like that, if not the very fame, which belie vers in Chrift have the well-founded pro- fpedl of. We may furely fay, that all this is mere gueffing, as there is not the lead fhaclow of any promife or grant of life, much lefs of fuch a life, found in the record, .lie necucd no grant of the life lie was in pofleffioa of. But even that he had no promife of being continued to him, except what was implied in the terms on \vhich he held it. But in the denunciation folemnly made to him, That in the day he mould eat of the fruit he ihould be fubjedled to death, there feems to be a plain enough intimation, that his prefent happinefs was not to be perpetual ;

as

and CIRCUMSTANCES. 61

as we are fure, by the event, it was never deiigned it fhould be.

The very poflibility of this, and the danger he muft have found himfelf in, of fuch (as muft have appeared to him) an irreparable lofs, at the fame time that it mould have put him ftrongly upon his guard, muft have been a great draw back upon his prefent enjoyments, how ever great they may be fuppofed to have been. The profpecl was dreadful. His creator gave him no fecurity againft it, as he could eafily have done, bat left it al together in his own hand ; and he could never be without fome degree of fear, that either he> or fome of his, might in cur the awful forfeiture.

This danger was greatly increafed by the natural imperfedlion of his conftitu- tion. With all the advantages he enjoy ed, he was fo clofely connected with the creature^ and in fuch dependence on ma terial objecls, both for the fupports and enjoyments of life, that they flood as it were between God and him, and every thing almoft he had from him came by them. This could have been no lofs to him fo long as thefe were kept in their proper

place,

62 Man's ORIGINAL STATE Ch.lII.

place, as the creatures of God, and abfo- lutely iri his hand : for thus they led him diredly to the creator, and flhould have ter minated all his acknowledgements there. But dill there was danger, and the event {hewed it to have been very great, that they might intercept that regard and at tention which was due only to him, whofe bleffing alone, that is, his power put forth by them, could make them good for any thing.

But nothing can more convincingly il- luftrate the imperfection and weaknefs of that ftate, than the event and iflue of it. We cannot fay precifely how foon, but very foon an end was put to all the per fection and happinefs the man was put in pofieffion of at his creation, and the para- difiacal ftate together : A fure evidence, that the creator never defigned it to be the permanent ftate of mankind, but an in troduction to that which he had determi ned to be fo, and which has taken place ever fince our firft father was driven out of paradife. But we have a ftronger one. We are fure there was another fort of life, and another way too of living upon God, defigned in his eternal counfels. Jefus

Chrift

and CIRCUMSTANCES, 63

Chrift was fet up from everlafting as the only mediator between God and man, through whom alone all his favours are conveyed to them, and another fort of ftation was deftgned in the eternal world, as much more excellent than paradife, as heaven is above the earth, and God better than the creature ; whereof the paradifia- cal ftate was only a faint fliadow.

This leads us to one good reafon for introducing what has been ever fince the ftate of mankind in that manner. Hereby we are provided in fomething of a model or fhadowy reprefentation of the happi- nefs of the unfeen, fp ritual, and eternal world, and the way of living there, fa different from what we are accuftomed to, in this our low ftate, viz. living on the ful- nefs and all-fufficiency of him who fur- nilhed out all the beauty and excellency of paradife, the height of all earthly happi- nefs. And thence we find the defcriptive language taken, by which that glorious and happy ftate is painted out to us, and upon which, with proper allowances for the immenfe odds between the earthly and heavenly paradife, we are directed to form our conceptions and apprehenfions

of

64 Man's ORIGINAL STATE Ch.IIL

of that otherwife inconceivable happinefs and glory.

There was likewife another great and gracious end anfwered by this way of in troducing the prefent flate of mankind ; a piece of inftrudlion very necefTary, but which we are very loath to receive ; viz. That life can never be fafely lodged in the hands of the moft perfedl mere man. A more advantageous iituation can hardly be imagined than Adam was placed in. He had all the gratifications and materials of pleafure the world could afford, greatly above what the moft finifhed epicure could ever have imagined, and was blefled at the fame time with a perfect friend, and the moft exalted friendlhip. His conftitu- tion fo good, and his confcience fo clear by his perfedl innocence, that nothing could, mar the moft perfecft enjoyment of all. He was made for his ftation, and his ftation for him, upon the meafures of perfecft wifdom. It was not by doing fome great or difficult thing that he held his poffef- fions, or indeed by doing any thing at all. He had no fuch law given him, as was afterward, when fin had entered ; no du ties, either of religion or morality injoin-

ed

and CIRCUMSTANCES. 65

ed him. He needed none, for he was a law to himfelf. He needed only follow the dictates and inclinations of his own perfect 'Conftitution, which would natu rally determine him to all thofe offices of love to his great friend and benefactor, which would of courfe have brought all other duties along with it. All that was required of him was a very fmail piece of forbearance, not to eat of the fruit of a certain tree which was pointed out to him. So that one might have thought he was fet beyond the reach of every temp tation. And fure eafier terms could not be devifed in his circumftances. But the temptation was admitted. He forfeited life by his tranfgreffion : and how foolifh muft it be in any of his pofterity to ima gine that life would be ftfer in their hands ?

But the Apoftle gives us yet a further and higher view of the creator's wifdom in this way of entering mankind into their prefeiit ftate. The firfl Adam was the figure, type, or reprefcntation of him who was to come, in whom all the hopes and all the happinefs of mankind arc cen tered, in whom all the counfels of God

VOL. II. I were

66 Man's ORIGINAL STATE Ch. III.

were laid, and by whom they are per formed and carried into execution, even Jefus Chrift, the defigned head of man*- kind, in relation to the fpiritual and e~ ternal world, as the firfl Adam was in re lation to this : and there is hardly any one among the many types and figures we have given us of him more inftrudlive, and which gives a more perfedl view of him, as we find the Apoftle improving it in his epiftles to the Romans and Corin thians ; which I will have occafion to con- lider more particularly when I come to fpeak of this glorious perfon. I only ob- ferve at prefent, that the firft Adam ftood at the head of mankind in the firft crea tion, and reprefented all his pofterity ; that he received life both for himfelf and them from the creator's hand; that he was conftituted the only channel of con veyance by which they could come to the pofleffion of life, or any of the powers belonging to it ; that accordingly he re-^ ceived the terms diredtly from his ma ker's hand on which it was to be held ; and in the iflue he failed in the perform ance, and thereby fubjeiled himfelf and all his pofterity to inevitable death, which

he

and CIRCUMSTANCES. 67

he tranfmitted to them along with that life which he conveyed.

CHAP. IV.

The nature of the Curfe, and the condition of man by the Fall, Jlated<

THis remarkable event, which I do not think deferves the epithet of an unhappy one, for fuch of mankind as improve it, has occafioned a great variety of curious fpeculations, and plans of the divine government, for juftifying the crea tor's proceedings in the meafures which he has taken for mankind, which I ap prehend the plain Chriftian needs give himfelf very little trouble about, as all of them, more or lefs diredtly, are founded upon a propofition (to which I will not give the name that I think it deferves}, viz. That fo foon as the noble rational creature was brought into being, God put off the character of creator, and af- fumed that of a righteous moral gover nor, by which he bound himfelf to pro ceed with him in the precife terms of I 2 reftoral

68 The nature of the CURSE, and Ch.IV.

redtcral juftice ; that is, by ftich fures as the kings of this earth are bound to obferve toward their fiibjecSts, who are pofTeffed of rights and property as well as the fovereign, and which he has no right to meddle with ; but, on the contrary, Hands bound by his place to be the guar* dian of. And thus the fovereign proprie tor of all things in heaven and earth muft be degraded into the rank of an earthly king, and that not an abfolute, but a li mited monarch, to favour the infolent pretenfions of a fet of precarious beings, who have neither right nor property, not fo much as in their own life and being, but what he is pleafed in mere fovereign grace to confer. And yet could a king be found among men perfectly wife, good, and powerful, it would unqueftionably be the intereft of his fubje&s to have him veiled with the mod abfolute and un controllable powers.

The different plans which the alTertors of this form of divine government have laid down for the meafure of the divine procedure, will be found to terminate much in the fame ifliie. Many have thought, that they might be beft account

ed

Man's condition by the FA L L . • 69

ed for on the plan of a covenant or cove nants, as occafion required, concerted on certain terms and conditions to be per formed by either party. The bafis of the whole they make that which they fuppofe to have been made with the firft man on condition of perfect obedience, and all after meafures founded in arid directed by it* Others reckoning this fort of conde- fcenfion below the majefty of the fove- reign, will have him to manage all as a righteous lawgiver, who prefcribes rules of duty to his fubjects, and is to reward or punifli them as they obferve or negle6l his commandments ; and thus reduce Chri- ftianity to a mere fyftem of laws, and fufpend the eternal ftate of mankind upon their good or bad behaviour, who muil expedl to be rewarded or punifhed accor ding to the meafures of juftice, with fuch mixtures of mercy, or abatements of ju- ilice, as the cafe of the fubjecl fliall need. The dangerous tendency of this laft- mentioned fcheme, the promoters of the covenant-plan greatly avail themfelves of. But the mod plaufible ground, and what they found mainly upon, is, the word in the Old-Teftament language, by which

God

70 The nature of the CURSE, and Ch.IV.

God hath chofen to exprefs his inftrument of government, and which our tranflators always render covenant. The word figni- fies generally all kinds of deeds, whereby rights of any fort are conferred, and is very frequently ufed for covenants or mu tual agreements between man and man. This might have been reckoned decifive, if the New-Teftament writers had not cleared up the difference. Where the He brews had but one word for all kind of deeds, the Greeks have two, <rwa™, and «&•««»»• The firft, as the word plainly imports, is ufed to fignify covenants or mutual agree ments, wherein two or more are engaged ; the other is never ufed but to denote the deed of one, a conftitution or eftabliihed order, a grant, or deed of gift ; and par ticularly a teftament) by which inheritan ces or legacies are conveyed. And who- foever will with any care and attention confider what in our tranflation are called God's covenants^ will find them all of this latter kind, either authoritative conftitu- tions, which thofe to whom they were gi ven were obliged to fubmit to, or grants and deeds of gift in their favour, which went always together, and conftituted at

once

Man's condition by the FALL. 71

once the rule of judgement for the fove- reign, and of duty for the fubjedt.

I obferved before, that Adam, in his primitive ftate, had no grant of life ; but he was put in pofTeffion of it, and had by fpecial grant dominion given him over all God's other creatures within his reach: and upon this was founded the commandment, and the punifhment in cafe of traiifgref- 11011. This was the fole conftitution, and enough for that mort period ; and we fee by the fequel how it was the rule on which judgement proceeded.

And here it may be proper to obferve, once for all, that the laws of God, or fuch conftitutions of any kind as he has feen fit to eftablilh, are not like thofe of weak fallible men, who cannot forefee the different events and cafes that may fall out, and therefore need often to be mitigated, difpenfed with, and even ab^ rogated, as the unforefeen alteration of cir- cumftances may require. All his orders are concerted on perfe6l wifdom and foreknowledge of all events that can pof- fibly happen ; and therefore can never be difpenfed with in any cafe, but muft be fulfille4 in every point : and where the

meaning

72 The nature of the CURSE, and Ch.IV,

meaning is clearly exprefled, he muft be a bold man who dare venture to explain it into a confiftency with any plan, how ever plaufible, he may have laid down.

In order therefore to attain any thing like proper conceptions of the great change which was made in the circumflances of mankind by our firft father's tranfgreffion, we muft, in the firft place, be fure of the right import and meaning of that denun ciation which produced it, and particu larly of that death which he certainly muft fall under upon his eating the forbidden fruit. Many have carried this fo far, as to extend it even to that which has been fince called eternal death, the punifliment we find denounced againft the defpifers or negledlers of Jefus Chrift and his great falvation ; therefore called eternal, becaufe there remains no poffibility of relief. O- thers flop as much fhort, confining it en tirely to the death of the body, and re ducing it to duft. There are only two ways on which we can certainly deter mine this important quefdon, viz. the judgement given upon the delinquents by the judge, who was the frarrier of the law, and therefore underftood it perfe6lly ; and,

our

Man's condition by the FALL. 73

pur own experience of what we either do, or may feel, in ourfelves, in this our prefent ftate, which was fixed and determined by that judgement. There has been a third way attempted, and much infifted on ; namely, reafoning upon the circumftances of the cafe, and the confequences which feem naturally to arife out of them. So far as thefe are found agreeable to, and fupported by the other two, we may con clude them juft ; otherwife no great de pendence can be had on them, however they may appear to our apprehenfions of things, which are at belt but a bad rule to judge by.

As death is allowed by^all to import an end put to life, and as the denunciation was peremptory, " In the day thou eateft thou " fhalt furely die ; " thou, and not ano- , ther, we muft conclude, that it could im port no lefs than the lofs of all that life he was then in pofTeffion of, which we may call the paradifiacal life, and no fur ther. It feems therefore incumbent on thofe who extend it to eternal death, to make it appear, that Adam in paradife was poffefTed of that kind of life which is Called eternal, the life which is/ in Chri.il:

VoL.il. K Jefus ;

74 The nature of the CURSE, and GhJV.

Jefus ; which I believe no body will fay, They build much on the nature and de merit of fin : and I would not willingly fay any thing that might be conftru&ed into the leaft tendency toward extenua ting the nature of that horrible evil ; but by the iffue of this firfl difpenfation, and feveral other inftances in the record, we muft conclude, that it belongs to the great fbvereign to affix what penalty he pleafes to his laws. The conclusions drawn from the nature of vindictive juftice, are rather too btild for man to make, without better authority than the record gives us. But there is one infuperable prejudice that at tends this fuppofition, That had eternal death been the. penalty, Adam himfelf at leaft muft have died eternally ; and if the denunciation given upon the tranfgreffion extends to all his pofterity, as appears by the event it did, not one of them could have been faved, without difpenfing with the unalterable divine conftitution, or fome how changing the tenor of it : An abfurdity which can never be admitted on any confideration whatfoever. That ori ginal life muft be deftroyed ; nor can the original law be fatisfied by any means

whatfoever

Man's condition by the FALL. 75

whatfoever until that is done : but when it is done, and that law thereby fulfilled, there is nothing to hinder the creator to raife whom he pleafes to eternal life.

There is no room for difputing what is called the natural death : but it appears by the judgement given upon the tranf- greffors, that the denunciation is not to be underftood in that precife fenfe which our tranflation gives to it, " That in the " day they mould eat they mould furely " die;" neither do the original words ne- cefTarily infer that conftrudion. Literally rendered, they run thus : " In dying thou " fhalt die." It is enough to fupport the truth of the denunciation, that from that day they mould be brought under the power of death, which the painful labour they were condemned to very naturally iffues in. But even in the fenfe our tranf lation gives, the threatening may be found punctually fulfilled : For in that very day there was a final end put to man's paradifiacal life ; he was driven out from that happy dwelling ; and the pittance of life that was left him was fup- ported in fuch a manner, and by fuch different means, that the degradation, e- K 2 ven

70 The nature of the CURSE, and Ch.lV,

ven in that view, muft have been mora than a metaphorical death, when com pared with the life which he formerly en- j yed.

This was indeed a very fenfible and af- fedling lofs which our firft parents fuftain- ed by their tranfgreffion, but not the only death which they fell under on that day. When we reflect on the nature of the crime, and the temptation which induced them to commit it, as l?ad as the negle6l of their creator's authority was, there will appear foniething in it greatly worfe. Their forbearance of that fruit was made the condition on which they held their lives. But it was made fo for a higher end than a bare trial of their loyalty td their fovereign : It was defigned to main tain a dutiful fenfe of their dependence on their creator, and that it was purely by his grace and fupporting power that they could live. The crime could not be committed, as indeed no 1m Can, but up on a latent periuafion, that there is more to be made by the creature than they had to expecfl from the creator. On this the temptation was founded, " Ye fhall be as u gods, to know good and evil;" and thus

Ihould

Man's condition by the FALL. 77

Should not need any longer to be obliged to him ; and that he knew this very well> and had forbidden it merely to keep them in dependence. Thus they were drawn to forfake the only way in which they could live, and to take up with another, where by it was impomble they could. And ha ving thus deferted, and being thereby cut off from the fountain of life, they muft have perimed infallibly, if there had not been a new way opened for their re lief.

This directs us into a further, and yet more dreadful, though not fo fenfible, view of that death the firft offenders were fubjedled to, as they were certainly pof- feffed of a greatly higher kind of life than that of a mere animal. Man was made indeed to take in all the pleafure the whole creation could give in its high- eft bloom of perfection : but he was made alfo for gratifications infinitely preferable, in the intercourfes of friendfhip which fobfifted between his creator and him. We need no more to prove a peculiar kind of life fuited to this happy fituation, than that he had a fpirit in his conftitu- tion, as well as a body. And created fpi-

rits

78 The nature of the CURSE, and Ch.IV.

rits can no more lublift without the con tinued influences of the divine Spirit, than animals can do without air, and the influences of the fun exerted and directed by it. It is by this Spirit that the divine power, which upholds all things, the ma terial world by metins, and the fpiritual directly and immediately, is exerted and put forth. \Vhen this Spirit is taken a- way, the communication between God and the creature is fo far broken off, that the man can no longer live a*s fpirits do ; it is the very death of the fpirit, and what effectually puts an end to the fpiritual life. But it will not follow, that the fpi rit mufl periih, or be reduced to its pri mitive nothing. Annihilation and death are two very different things. When the foul leaves the body, and its connection, with the material fyftem is broken off, the man is dead, though the body continues juft as it was before ; and even when it is diflblved into duft, there is not one atom annihilated. Muft it not be then reckon ed fufficient to denominate a fpirit dead, when its connection with the fpiritual fy- flem is fo far broken off, that it can no longer live as fpirits do, but is degraded

and

Man's condition by the FALL. 79

and funk into a mere implement for exalt ing the animal life in man, above the fame kind of life in his fellow-brutes, a mere flave and purveyor for the appetites and lufts of his fenfual part.

It were much for the intereft of men, in this world, as well as in the next, that this was not fo completely verified as it is by the experience of mankind, and by what is to be found in every child of Adam. We have it ftrongly attefted in the divine record, where we have them all declared naturally to be fuch thorough a- theifts, or fo without God in the world, that they neither receive, nor can fo much as know the things of God, for want of that fpiritual difcerning, which is the firft and moft natural exertion of fpiritual life, and on which all the other actings of that kino, of life are founded. But though we had no fuch teftimony, we needed not go fo far back as the way by which we come into the world, and the total ignorance which infancy and the firfh period of life are involved in, to be fully convinced of this fad truth, That all men are born a- theifts ; and that the far greateft part, after all the pains and inftru6lion they will admit of, are but very very little better. We need

only

8o The nature of the CURSE, and Ch.IV,

only look in to ourfelves, fcnd make a fe-* jrious effort to roufe our fpiritual powers, and try fairly what we can make of God, and of all the wonders of the unfeen fpiri tual world ; and the leaft we can conclude muft be, that we are in a ftate of abfolute banifhment from it, and cut off from "all correfpondence with it ; made for nothing but a prefent world, and incapable of li ving upon any thing but the things of a prefent world ; and the only ufe we put our fouls to is, to make provifion for the flefh to fulfil the lufts thereof.

It cannot be thought, however, that the fir ft delinquents, who had been taught and had feen fo much of God, could ever fink into a ftate of fuch brutal ignorance ; efpecially when, with all the difadvantages our ra tional and perceptive powers are loaded with, we retain ftill a very marvellous power, or what would be reckoned fuch, was it not fo common, that we can take in informations of fuch things as we ne ver faw, and make our advantage of them much in the fame manner as if we had feen them ourfelves. By virtue of this wonderful talent, the experimental knowledge our firft parents had acquired might be, as we know by the record it

certainly

Man's condition by the FALL. 81

certainly was, handed down to their po- flerity : and even to this day we know what great meafures of hearfay knowledge may be acquired, even of fpiritual and e- 'ternal things, by the informations we have in our hands ; and which ought to produce the fame effect in us which their experi mental knowledge did in them.

Their behaviour is very inftruiftive ; and though very Ihortly, yet is very natu rally defcribed. The firft thing we have obferved about them is, that the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. As nakednefs is often ufed in the record to exprefs the un happy ftate of a foul forfaken of God, it might be reafonably enough conftrucled in this fenfe, were it not for the way they took for relief againft the painful fenfe of it, which determines it to bodily naked nefs. But that does not lead us to ima gine, as fome have done, that they were formerly in fuch a ftate of childiih fim- plicity, that they could not diftinguifh between a naked and a cloathed body. The opening of their eyes argues no more, but that they were fo fhut during the working of the temptation, that they dicl VOL. II. L not

82 The nature of the CURSE, and Ch.IV.

not mind what they were doing; until, upon a reflection on their guilt, fear and fhame, its infeparable companions, feized them at once : unlefs we ihould think as fome, not without good appearance of reafon, have done, that during their inno cence, and frequent converfe with their maker, their whole bodies were cloathed with fuch a light as flione in the face of Mofes when he came down from conver- fing with God on Sinai.

But however that is, their remorfe ap pears to have been very ftrong. And it could not be otherwife, when they came to reflect on what they had loft, and how fhamefully it was loft, for a trifle, a thing of nothing! and efpecially when what they had to expecl was taken into the ac count. They durft not think of the crea tor; and the creature, which was now their only refource, could provide them no better than with a few leaves to cover their nakednefs, and a thicket to hide them from the all-feeing eye of their cre ator : A fure fign, that with all the know ledge they had of the creator, their no tions of him were not very fublime. And thus, as their only care appears to have

been-j

Man's condition by the FALL. 83

been, to keep out of God's fight, if he had not condefcended to look after them, they had never ventured to feek after him.

We need not infill any further on the judgement given on this occafion, by which the ftate of mankind was fixed ex- aftly as we now find it. The ground was curfed, that it mould not yield its flrength, even upon the moft laborious tillage ; in the fw'eat of their face they were to eat their bread ; thorns and thirties fprung fpontaneoufly out of the earth; and in the end man returns to the duft from which he was taken.

There is a peculiar unhappinefs attends, this ftation, where man has nothing left him to live upon but what he can pick up in a prefent world, and is fhut out from all correfpondence with his creator. Thence his fentiments come all to be formed upon the prefent ftate of things ; and the ra tional powers, which fliould have balanced the heart with thofc things which are not feen, have loft their influence ; and, upon the whole, fuch ftrong and inveterate ha bits are contracted, that perfect wifdom has declared it as impoflible for him to learn to do well, as it is for the Ethiopian

L 2 tQ

84 The nature of the CufcSE, and Ch.IV,

to change his fkin, and the leopard his fpots. The love of a prefent life, and a prefent world, is the ruling principle in the heart ; and where that is the cafe, we are well inftrudted to fay, the love of God can have no place ; and the poor creature can do nothing, but, dead as he is to God, bring forth a continued courfe of dead works, as the apoftle very emphatically and juftly calls all that is done by man, until the Spirit of life in Chrift recovers him into life, and plants the love of God in the heart.

Thus the man naturally goes on, with a mind fo blinded by the god of this world, that even the light of the glorious gofpel of Chrift, finning round about him, can have no accefs there : the courfe of the world, and the example of thofe about him, harden him more and more, until the wrath of God, revealed from heaven, againft all unrighteoufnefs and ungodli- nefs of men, gives the alarm. Guilt points it directly at him : and what fliould have driven him to his creator, where on ly relief can be had, viz. an evil confcience, or a confcioufnefs of guilt, prefents him in all the terrors of an enemy, and in flames

Man's condition by the FALL. 85

flames the heart to treat him as fuch. It firft reprefents him as one who will not be pleafed with the creature till he renounce all that is agreeable to his perverted tafte ; and then fo pure, fo holy, and fo juft, that it can never be imagined he will re gard fuch a wretch as the poor finner muft find himfelf to be. Hence the heart comes to be filled with fuch fears, jealoufies, and evil furmifings, as fofter a fecret enmi ty, fo ftrong, that it is the hardeft thing in the world to reconcile a finner's heart to God, and make him pleafed with him as he is. This enmity indeed dare not vent itfelf directly, but vents itfelf fufficiently in fecret wilhes, that God were not fo pure, fo holy, and fo irreconcileable to fin. It is this unhappy fpirit that has produced fo many attempts by thofe they call learned men, to reconcile the love of God and the love of the world ; and to contrive fuch ideas, as they call them, of God, as may be reconciled to the lufts and paflions of men ; that is, fuch a god as they want, and could be pleafed with.

This apparently unhappy condition, which mankind have been reduced to on occafion of their firft father's tranfgreflion,

has

86 The nature of the CURS E, and Ch. IV.

has opened the mouths of a certain fet of men, who would be thought greatly wifer than their neighbours, to utter the moil outrageous clamours againfl the juftice and equity of this way of proceeding; which they magifterially pronounce fo unworthy of God, that rather than be lieve it, they will chufe to believe that God has never fpoken to mankind at all, but left them to live and die in this deplorable condition without any remedy. For that men actually are found in this condition cannot be difputed. It muft therefore be found confiftent with all the divine perfec tions, that man mould be born into, and live in a prefent world as we fee he does : and when that is the cafe, one would think it a matter of no great moment, how or in what manner he was brought into it. Had it pleafed the creator to have entered man into this way of living, without ha ving ever heard of any better ftate any man was ever in ; nay, had he made them mere rational animals, to live and die as other animals do ; who durft have faid any thing againft it ? what ground then can a- ny man have to complain, that he took a

method

Man's condition by the FALL. 87

method fo inftrucflive, and fo full of good- nefs, as that was, to introduce it by ?

But after all, this is only a part, and the dark fide too, of the ftate which man kind were brought into by the lofs of the paradifiacal life. Mankind was not left a day in that melancholy fituation in which our firfh parents found themfelves upon their tranfgreffion. Their gracious creator fought them out, and, to their apprehen- fion, brought them into judgement. But judgement was given in fuch terms as per fectly relieved their fears of prefent death. And though it greatly abated their earthly happinefs, it opened a profpecT: infinitely more advantageous, in the promife of a feed by the woman, who was firft in the tranfgreflion, which mould bruife the fer- pent's head ; that is, as the Apoftle John explains it, " Ihould deftroy the works of " the devil," fin and death. And as we certainly know, that he was the old ferpent who deceived Eve in that form, in the curfe, denounced as it is in emblematical terms adapted to the ftate of that noxious reptile, we have a very ftrong defcription of the bafenefs of his nature, his way of living, and the work he was condemned to.

CHAP.

88

From the FALL to Ch. V.

CHAP. V.

Sketch of Difpenfations from the Fall to the coming of Chrijl; <with a general view of the character of Chrijl.

FRom the account we have of the man ner in which man was driven out of paradife, it appears rather to have been a work of mercy than of judgement. The fpeech it is introduced with, " Behold, the ; man is becbme as one of us," has more the air of compaflion, than of irony, as fome have conftrudled it. And if the following words are juftly rendered, it was an acfl of real kindnefs ; that the man might not fall again into the like fnare, and run into a new inflance of rebellion, by attempting to eat of the tree of life, that he might evade the fentence appoint ing him, to return to the dufl from which he was taken. For fecuring againft fuch a pernicious event, a guard of angels was fet, to keep him out.

But indeed the original words of Mofes will, without any violence done them,,

admit

the coming of CHRIST. 89

admit of a very different confirmation. It is well known, that the tree of life, from the beginning to the end of the record, is made ufe of to fignify what the tree which bore that name in paradife was but a fi gure or emblem of, viz. the great means which God hath chofen to convey eternal life to dead finners of mankind. It is ob- ferved by thofe fkilled in the language, that the particle which we render leftj and which gives the turn to the whole fentence, may be as properly rendered, fo as to put man in a poffibility of recovering life, as was done by the intimation already made in the ferpent's curfe. And what follows, of fetting up the cherubims on the eaft of the garden, feems, all things confidered^ to determine their intention to be, not to keep men from, but to guide them into, the way of the tree of life. This will ap pear more than probable, when we reflect on the purpofe which the cherubims an- fwered in the tabernacle and temple : They were appendages of the mercy-feat, and Jehovah inhabited them, or dwelt between them. It was, without all queftion, an emblematical exhibition of the God of grace dwelling among that people for whom Mofes VOL. It. M wrote.

QO From the FALL to Ch.V,

wrote, who, for any thing appears, had no other notion of cherubim. And when they were told of God's having placed them on the eaft of Eden, they could not help concluding, that he pitched on that as the place in which he chofe to manifeft himfelf, and where the worfhippers were to make their approaches to him : which is yet fur ther confirmed by this, that we find the face, or faces, of Jehovah, mentioned as fome place from whence Cain was, or at leaft was afraid of being driven out. What is added, of a flaming fword, in our tranflation, is only fire, and another word Which fignifies any weapon of {laughter; \vhich may pofiibly be a ihort hint of the inftitution of facrifice to be offered there. And I believe, upon the whole, it will be found very nearly to referable the prophet Ezekiel's fire infolding itfelf, in his vifion "of the glory of God in .the cherubim, ra ther than a flaming fword turning every way at one part of the garden, while all the reft was left open.

But however thad is, it cannot be thought

at they had no fuller information than

: Qiort hints we find in the record. The

>r whom Mofes wrote, needed no

more ;

the coining of CHRIST. 91

more ; as they were very fully inflrufted in all the matters of acceptable woriliip in the law, by the ftatutes and judgements which were given them. We have not fa much as any exprefs mention of any ap pointment of that very extraordinary piece of worfhip, viz. the offering facrifices, which yet could never have entered any other way, and carries its divine authority in its very appearance. For who could ever have imagined, that themedding a beaft's blood, ancl burning its fleili with fire, could be pleafing to the great fovereign and pro prietor of heaven and earth ? Yet we know it was practifed by wife and good men in the earlieft ages ; who would ne ver have affronted the God they worfhip- ped with fuch an abfurd fort of fervice, if they had not had his order, and feen further into the defign of it, than the later philofophers did, who ridiculed, and made it their bufinefs to expofe it. Abel facrificed, and his facrifice was accepted ; fo did Noah, Abraham, and others on record; and no doubt many more, who are not mentioned there. Nay, and we have good reafori to carry it higher ; as we find God himfelf making a covering for our firft pa-. M ' 2 rents

92 From the FALL to Ch. V.

rents of the fkins of beafts, which mufl have been killed, and could be killed for no other purpofe than facrifice, as the flefh of animals was no part of their food in that period.

We who know, that from the time we have any accounts of covenants and a- greements among men, they entered into them by facrifice, and how this was the way which God himfelf took when he en tered into what is called a covenant with the Ifraelitifh nation, are very naturally led to think, that the fame meafure was taken at the promulgation of the confti- tution of grace, and that grant of eter nal life which was then made to man kind in the feed of the woman. That there was fuch a grant then intimated to them, can admit of no doubt ; becaufe it was the only tenor by which they could hold their lives, and the only foundation they had to build their faith and their hope on. There was no difficulty in un- derftanding the import of a promife : but they muft have needed a great deal of in- ftru(5lion to make them underftand the na ture and ufe of a facrifice ; which indeed it is hardly poffible to make good fenfe of, but as it flood in connection 'with the pro-

the coming of CHRIST. 93

inifed feed, the great and complete facri- fice which God had in his perfect wifdom defignecl for putting away fin, fo as it Ihould be remembered no more, and to give mankind the flrongeft afTurances, not only of pardon, but of the fulfilment of every tittle contained in the grant, in the fullefl and mofl perfe<5l manner, which we fhall find occafion to confider more particularly afterward. This was fo effential, that we find the Apoftle de claring pofitively, " that without fhed- " ding of blood there was no remiflion." And thence it is very likely, that the grant or covenant ratified by the facri- fice, and the facrifice itfelf, came to be called by the fame name ; and the making of a covenant or deed in one's favour was exprefTed by cutting off a B^RZ'TH.

It was upon this feed then that the grant of eternal life, and all the promifes fubfervient to it, were founded. We hear nothing further about it, but what is im plied in what we are told of a time when men began to call upon, fay our tranfla- tors ; but the original and context deter mine the fenfe, that they began to be call- fd-fy, the name of JEHOVAH. For we

read

94 From the FALL to Ch.V.

read there of a divifion among mankind ; thofe who adhered to the inftituted wor- fliip, and thofe who forfook it; the fons of God joining in marriage with the daughters of men ; upon which fuch wic- kednefs enfuecl, as occafioried the deftruc- tion of the whole human race, excepting only eight perfons faved in the ark by fpe- cial divine grace. Noah found grace in, the eyes of JEHOVAH.

Noah was no fooner come out of the ark, than we find him building an altar, and offering facrifices of every clean beaft and fowl : A fure evidence that he had been accuftomed to it before ; and that even the diftincSlion between clean and unclean beafts was known long before Moles, and even before the flood ; a diftindion which no man had authority to make a- mong God's creatures. God, we are told, fmelled a fweet favour, or a favour of reft : A phrafe which we find often repeated in the law of Mofes on fuch occafions. What {hall we fay of this ? fhall we believe that the fmell of burnt flefh was fo pleafant to the Moft High ? No, furely. But what was reprefented by it, and the faith of the worfhipper in the promifed feed, were fo.

Accordingly

the coming of CHRIST, 95

Accordingly he was blefled ; the original bleffing was renewed to him, *and blood fet apart to make an atonement for the lives of men.

In the covenant which God then declared he hadinade with all fiefh, to fecure them againft fuch an univerfally deftrudlive de luge, we have an inftance, and a ftrong confirmation, of what I obferved of what is called God's covenant ; that it does by no means imply any agreement of parties, but is his own fingle deed, an authorita tive conftitution or grant which the crea ture is bound to believe and acquiefce in, which we find ftrongly and properly ex- prefled by laying hold on his covenant, or entering into it, precifely as he has laid it. This fame conftitution we are directed to as a model of the covenant or conftitution of grace, by the rainbow about the throne, reprefented in vifion to the Apoftle John in his Revelations.

It would feem, that by the time Abra ham was called, the apoftafy had again become Very general. The promife of the feed, which had been until that time left at large, was renewed to him, and limit ed to his family, in a very remarkable

manner.

96 From the FALL to Ch. V,

manner. The bleffing or promife of e- ternal life, and the promifed feed, had al ways gone together from the beginning. Whenever the feed fhould come, it was taken for granted, that the blefling was to come along with him. But the time of his coming was at a great diftance. To fupport therefore the faith of his people, and to give proof of his faithfulnefs, he condefcended to give Abraham two inter mediate grants ; tirft, of a fon ; and, fe- condly, of the land of Canaan to his feed ; both of them delayed fo long, and him- felf and his wife firft, and afterwards his feed, reduced to fuch circumftances, that nothing but almighty power could make them effectual. But by that power they were made effectual, and the faithfulnefs of God in making good his promifes, fo firmly eftablifhed, that no doubt could be made of what was yet behind. And here again we have another palpable inftance of God's covenant being a deed and confti- tution of his own, without any parties or mutual agreements.

The memory of this promifed feed was kept up in the Ifraelitiili nation, from the time efpecially that Mofes wrote fo particu larly

the coming of CHRIST. 97

larly of him, and the promife continued at large among them, until it was further li mited to the family of David ; by whom, and all the fucceeding prophets, he was fet forth in all the views he was defigned to anfwer; fometimes in the character of a fervant, in great affliction and diftr fs ; fornetimes in all the authority of a great prophet, and the facrednefs of a prieit; but moftly in the majefly of a great king, fuch as never was in the earth, to whom all the nations of the earth fhould wil lingly fubmit themfelves. In the wifdom of the great dire<5lor, the fpirit of prophe cy was withdrawn for a long time before his appearance ; and the poor creatures had got themfelves fo intoxicated with the hopes' of an univerfal monarchy, that when he came, they defpifed his mean worldly appearance, and thus fulfilled the prophecies concerning him^ and proved him to be the very feed in whom all the families of the earth mould be blefled. Thus the record leads on our views of the feed from the beginning of the world, and never lofes fight of him, until it knds us in the perfon of Jefus drift, the only one, who, by his miraculous birth, pro- VoL'.II. N pcrly

9 8 A general view of Ch.V,

perly merited that title. In him the whole record centers ; infomuch that we may fay with affurance, that there is not one iingle fadl there which does not one way or other tend to fet him forth to our faith; and therefore it juftly merits the title the Apoftle John gives it, " The re- " cord which God has made," or the te- ftimony which he has given, concerning his Son.

The great Apoftle Paul was fo fenfible of this, that when he came to declare the teftimony of God to the Corinthians, he determined to know nothing among them, but Jeius Chrift, and him cruci fied ; ' and accordingly counted all things but lofs and dung, in comparifon with that excellency there is in the know ledge of him. He gives it accordingly as the fum of Chriftianity, " to know him, cc and the power of his refurrecftion, and " the fellowfhip of his fufFerings; , being " made conformable unto him in his ic death." We are apt to extol the hap- pinefs of the people who had accefs to a perfonal knowledge of Jefus. The Apoftle Paul was of another mind. That was but knowing him after the flefh ; a thing he

valued

the charadter of CHRIST. 99,

valued very little. We have all that we could have known of him by fuch per- fonal acquaintance with the man Jefus, in, the accounts that are left us of all that he began to do and to fuffer, by four ear and eye witneffes, c.nd greatly more by his death, refurredlion, and the glory that followed : for his hiftory has this fingula- rity in it, that his life and death, which include the whole hiftory of other men, make but a fmall part of his. We are led back before the beginning of this world,, and forward, as much beyond the end of it, into that immenfe eternity which none but he who inhabits it can comprehend. And as we find the Apoftle pitching par ticularly upon his crofs, as what alone he chofe to boaft and glory in, it is there we fliall find the mod advantageous fituation for taking a diftindt view of him whom we are fo much concerned to know, and thence to gather his true character on fuch certain fadts as may be fafely depended upon. And thence fee what regards we owe him, and what we have to hope or to fear from him; that is, to form fuch fenti- ments of him as {hall at once regulate and influence our conduit and behaviour to- N 2 wards

lo© A general view of Ch.V.

wards him, in fuch an eafy and natural way as we are accuftomed to in iimilar cafes among men. For herein lies the ex cellency of the way that God has chofen, to difpenfe his grace, that it is fuited to the frame and conftitntion of the human nature with an exacftnefs which none could reach but the creator, who underftood it perfectly; which, by the way, is no con temptible evidence of its divine original.

I need fay nothing of the death of the crofs, which is fo. well known to have been the mod infamous, fhameful, and painful, that the utmoll ingenuity of hu man cruelty could invent ; a kind of death which none were fubje<5ted to but the very bafeft and vileft of mankind ; and yet his previous barbarous and cruel mockings, watchings, and fcourgings, greatly enhanced his fuflerings ; to all which we may add, another kind of fuf-, ferings, which was not fubje&edtolmman perception, viz. the weight and burden of the fins of the world, which he had taken upon himfelf, to piit them away.

Sucix a death as this muft very natural ly put a: man of common humanity to. what could be the crimes that defer-,

ved

the character of CHRIST. 101

ved to be expiated by fuch a horrible pu- nifhment ? But how muft he be furprifed to find, that he had paiTed the whole of his life in fuch perfed: innocence, as never another man did either before or after him ; that from his birth to his death, he never either did or faid a wrong^ thing ; inibmuch that his bittereft enemies, when challenged openly by him to convift him of any one lin, had nothing to anfwer ; and even thofe who, in the itrength of an ignorant mob, clamoured him to death, had nothing to charge him with, but his faying, (what their own MeiTiah muft have faid whenever he appeared among them), that he was the Son of God ?

But how much more furprifed muft any man of common reflection be, when he. comes to be informed, (as we are moft certainly informed), that he was a man of the moft tender compaffiqn, and the great- eft and moft difmterefted beneficence to mankind, which he never miffed an op portunity of exerting ; fo that none who ever applied to him were fent away with-, out their errand ; and in many inftances. he offered his afliftance, and gave relief,, without being afked, or any how applied

to

102 A general view of Ch.V.

to for it ; that he confecrated himfelf en tirely to the noble bufinefs of doing good night and day, without any the leaft ad vantage to himfelf; that, after all, the ve ry foxes, and birds of the air, were better provided in worldly accommodations ?

But the wonder muft rife above the higheft aftonifhment, to find what al mighty-like power he mewed forth on thefe occafions. He healed all manner of difeafes and ailments of every kind ; moft of which were incurable by the moft fkil- ful phyficians : he opened the ears of the deaf, gave eyes to fuch as were born blind, and limbs to the maimed : nay, he carried his power higher, and mowed fuch an abfolute command ever all the powers of nature, that even the winds and fcas, the moft boifterous of all, obey ed his orders ; and the devils themfelves were fo fubjecl to his authority, that they durft not fo much as enter into a few fwine without his leave and permiflion.

The manner in which all thefe things were done by him was yet, if any thing could be fo, more wonderful than the things themfelves : They were almoft all done without the intervention of any means,

but

the character of CHRIST. 102

<j

l>ut (as all things were firfl brought into being) by a bare word of command : and when at any time he made ufe of any thing like means, it was either a mere touch, or what in its nature feemed ra ther to threaten a contrary effecfl ; and on three feveral perfons he exerted a power which muft be acknowledged peculiar to the creator, viz. raifing the dead ; one of whom had been fo long buried, that his neareft relations concluded his body muft be putrified.

But his benefactions were not confined merely, or £ven chiefly, to the bodies of men ; his bufinefs lay efpecially in in- ftru&ing them in the things which con cerned the kingdom of God ; and in this great work he was abfolutely indefatiga ble. It is needlefs to mention particular inftances ; the gofpels are full of them. And there was fomething fo fingular in his manner of teaching, that even his common hearers were aftonifhed at it : " For he taught as one having authority, and not 6 as the fcribes," the learned expounders of the law. The very officers who were fent to apprehend him, could not help bearing witnefs, that never man fpake

like

104 A general view of Ch.V,

like that man ; and little wonder, when it comes to be known arid confidered who he really was,

Nicodemus's conclufion was evidently jrft, and the loweft that could be made from fuch fails as thefe$ viz. " That he •" was a teacher fent from God." The reafon he gave for it was convincingly good ; for afluredly " none could do the " works which he did, tinlefs God was " with him*" This gives every thing he afferted the weight and authority of a di vine oracle ; and the Jews conclufion was no lefs evidently falfe, viz. That his te ftimony was not true, becaufe " he tefti- •" fied of himfelf." Whereas indeed, tho' his teftimony had been fingle, yet being fupported by fuch miracles, it deferved all the regard that was due to a divine teftimony: And accordingly we find him oftener than once appealing to the works which he did, as a fufficient evidence and teftimony gi ven for the truth of all his pretenfions. But however that was abundantly fuffi*- cient, it was not xthe only w^ay by which God teftified concerning him. He teftified by John, whom all acknowledged to be a prophet : and he teftified yet more direilly by a voice from heaven, " This. is my be-

" loved

the character of CHRIST. 105

" loved Son, in whom I am well pleafed, " hear him." This gives the divine fano tion to every word he fpake, and verifies what he faid of himfelf, " He that recei- " veth me, receiveth him that fent me:" and it muft be the fame in the cafe of re- jedling him.

The great truth which himfelf fays he came into the world to bear witnefs to, was a very comprehensive one ; expreffed fhortly in this, That he was the very Chrift, the Meffiah, or anointed One, fo long promifed and prophefied of, whom the very people who oppofed him profeffed to be looking and waiting for. But there was another truth implied in that, which they could by no means bear the thoughts of, viz. that the true Meffiah was not at all fuch a perfon as they fondly expected. He was indeed to be a great king, infi-^ nitely greater than they could imagine : but his kingdom was not of this world ; and therefore, either all purely fpiritual, as it is during a prefent life in the hearts and fpirits of men ; or refer ved for a future ftate, and to be entered upon by the re- furre&ion of the body in the world to come. And thus we are led back to the

VOL. II, O accounts

ic6 A general view of Ch. V.

accounts we have given us of him by the Old-Teftament writers, which I cannot {land here to give any particular account of ; for this, in effe<5l, would be to tran- fcribe all thfct Mofes, and the prophets, and pfalms, have faid of him, from the firft mention of the feed of the woman, to what Malachi clofes with, " The Lord " fuddenly coming to his temple."

It will be proper however to obferve, that the leading character of the Meffiah, in which all that is teftified concerning him lies, is the feed of the woman bruifing the ferpei\t's head, and Abraham's feed, in whom all the families of the earth ihould be bleffed : and if we know what bleiTing is, and it was explained to Abra ham, we will need no more to lead us into proper conceptions of him ; for thus we find thebleffing (lands, " I am thy portion, " and exceeding great reward;" which comprehends infinitely more than any lan guage can exprefs ; the very fame that is fo often called eternal life in the New Tefla- ment. He is fet forth in a variety of cha- radters for anfwering the various neceffities of mankind. Mofes fpeaks of him as fo great a prophet, that whofbever did not

hear

the character of CHRIST. 107

hear him fhould be abfolutely deftroyed, and that without remedy. David fpeaks of him as a prieft of a very fingular and extraordinary kind; conftituted by the great fovereign of heaven and earth, a prieft after the order of Melchizedek; and conftituted with two very fingular cir- cumftances, that he was appointed a prieft for ever ; and appointed with the folemn oath of the unchangeable God, who ne ver does, nor can repent, of any conftitu- tion he hath made.

The reft of the prophets generally re- prefent him in two very different views ; fometimes in the condition of a fervant, in a low and mean eftate, defpifed and re jected of men, and even brought down to death and the grave : but moft frequently, in all the pompous glory of a mighty con queror, and an univerfal monarch ; and very often with fuch titles and royalties as can belong to none but the fovereign of theuniverfe; ^nay, frequently as Jehovah himfelf, the God of Ifrael. We find Je- fus fpeaking of himfelf precifely in the fame manner; as, " fent of the Father;" 1 receiving a commandment from the Fa- 6 ther, both what he flioxild fpeak, and O2 " what

ic8 A general view of Ch.V.

" what he fhould do;" that " he did " nothing of himfelf;" "did not feek " his own glory, nor did his own will;" but was entirely devoted to the will of him who fent him ; and, upon the whole, de clares himfelf entirely refigned to his dif- pofal. At the fame time he fpoke of him felf in fuch a manner, that the moft learn ed among the Jews concluded that he made himfelf God. This they inferred from his always fpeaking of God as his father, and himfelf as his fon. And in common fenfe their conflru6lion was right ; ' efpecially when we find him aifuming to himfelf e- very name, every title, and every work, by which God is diftinguifhed from the creature ; that he knew the fecrets of e- very heart, and needed no information a- bout even thofe who were the greateft ftrangers to him ; that he took upon him profeffedly to forgive fin ; that he pro- feffed to have life in himfelf, even as the Father had ; and that whatfoever the Fa ther did, he did alfo.

The Apoftle John, in his entrance up on the hiftory he has left us of him, folves the myftery, and makes all plain and con- fiftent. He tells us. there of a certain di vine

the chara&er of CHRIST. 109

vine perfon, whom he calls by a name which our tranflators render The Word; who, he fays, was in the beginning; which muft mean, before any thing was created; that " he was with God, and " that he himfelf was God;" " that by " him all things were made;" and left any fhould imagine that he himfelf was made, he adds, that " nothing that was " made," no created thing, " was made " without him." Another apoftle carries it further : That all things were not only created by him, but for him ; that by him all things confift, and that he up- holdeth all things by the word of his power. This eternal Word he fays was made flefh, or rather incarnate, and ta bernacled among men ; his glory was vail ed ; but not fo much that it might not be difcovered to be the glory of the only be gotten of the Father ; and fuch a fulnefs of grace and truth was in him, as could be no where lodged but in a divine perfon. This leads us to the true conftru6lion of a title often given in the earlieft ages to one who appeared in the form of a man, but at the fame time difcovered himfelf either by his words or adions to be Jeho vah,

no A general view of Ch.V.

vah, the God of Abraham, and the Ifraelitiih nation. Our tranflators render it always the angel of the Lord, the title commonly given to that order of creatures. Thefe are limply called angels, but I doubt if this title is ever given to any but that one diftinguifhed divine perfon. Literally rendered it is, the angel, that is, the raefTenger, he who is fent, or the agent Jehovah : A very fignificant defcription of that divine agent, whofe province it is to deal immediately and dire6lly with the creature, and particularly with man ; the one mediator between God and man ; the fame who has been, not without good ap pearance of reafon, thought defigned by two titles we find often mentioned, The Word, and, The Name of Jehovah, often with fuch adlions afcribed to him they be long to, as can be given to none but a di vine perfon.

This point was ftrongly difputed be tween Jefus and his difciples on one fide, and the Jewifh rulers on the other. The laft thought they had certainly gained their point when they had him crucified, buried, and a feal fet upon his grave. But it came out quite otherwife. He had faid before

his

the character of CHRIST. m

his death, what no creature could fay, " that he had power to lay down his life, " and power to take it up again ;" and had accordingly foretold that he would do fo ; adding withal, that no man had power to take his life from him ; and that certainly was what no mere man could fay. But the event juftified both, and confounded his oppofers : for he was declared to be the Son of God with power by his refur- re6lion from the dead ; a fa6l which was fo ftrongly attefted by great numbers who faw and knew him, that the truth of it could not be difputed.

There was another thing he promifed his difciples when he was going to leave them, infinitely above the higheft created power, and which none but God, the mofl high God, could perform. When they were overwhelmed with grief on what he had faid to them concerning his leaving them, he told them, that " he would fend " them another comforter; the Spirit of " truth;" the very Spirit of God. He fays indeed, " he would afk the Father,

and he would fend him ; " that was great ; but we find him in plain terms taking it upon himfelf. And in what an aftonifh-

ing

ii2 A general view of Ch.V.

ing manner this was fulfilled on the day of Pentecoft it is needlefs to fay, as we have it fo fully related: and there we have the ilrongeft and moft convincing e- vidence of the comfortable truth he afTerted to his difciples, Matth. xxviii. 18. " That " all power was given him in heaven and " in earth;" and " that the Father had ; fo loved him his Son, as to commit 11 " things into his hand."

By this fliort fketch of our Lord's hifto- ry, it will eafily appear, that no exception can be taken againft his proper and effen- tial Deity from any thing he has faid of his Father's being greater than him, or his a6l- ing in the character of hisfervant, directed and bound by his fupreme authority, &c. It might be fufficient to fay, that it was the man Jefus who fpoke thefe things : but it is fully taken off by the character in which he adled, as mediator between God and man; by which office he was bound to execute all the counfels and pur- pofes of grace, mercy, and. love, toman- kind ; and in this character, as God and jnan united in one perfon, to rule and go vern with all divine power and authority, during the prefeut ftate of things, untU

the

the character" of CH RIS T. 113.

the kingdom being given up unto the Fa ther, God fhall be all in all, and there ihall be no further occafion for fuch a dif- tindtion of divine characters, arid no room left for that which gave the Son that fubor- dination on which thefe exprefllons are founded.

CHAP. VI.

Chrl/Fs Life and Character further as an Example.

IHave taken no notice of the birth of this extraordinary perfon, and the way in which he entered himfelf among Adam's children. And that was indeed every way as extraordinary, whether we coniider the very mean and low cifcum- fiances wherein he appeared in the eye of the world, or the very grand ones in the eyes of all that were capable of obferving them. The manner of his conception by the power of the Moil High in the womb of a pure virgin, the heavenly powers ce lebrating his coming into the world, the wonderful ftar which intimated his birth Vet. II. P to

ii4 CHRIST confidered Ch.VL

to tlie remoteft Eaft, which were over looked by thofe who had the beft reafon to attend to them ; all thefe concurred to at- tefthis greatnefs in the lowed and moft con temptible outward circumftances ; though thefe laft, at the fame time, were every way as proper, as it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren the fons of Adam, in their loweft ftate of abafement, fin only excepted.

I need not obferve, that it is from the terms in which the angels deliver ed the intimation of his birth to the fhep- herds, as " glad tidings of great joy," that the name was taken which denomi nated the publifliing of thefe fame tidings to the world, viz. the gofppl, or good news concerning Jefus Chriit; and they muft have been fuch indeed to all who had heard of the feed in whom all the families of the earth fliould be bleflcd. But as we Gen tiles were aliens from the commonwealth of Ifrael, and ftrangers to the covenants of promife, we could not have known how good the news were, until we were * acquainted with his character, and how much the happinefs of mankind depended on him. Hence the word has been ex tended

as an EXAMPLE. 115

tended to take in the whole of what we are taught to believe concerning Chriit, and the ends and purpofes for which he came into the world. And thus the whole of that record which God has made con cerning his Son, is called the gofpel of ^Chrlft \ The angels fong contains the fubftance- of it ; the uniting of two things, which, to all created wifdom, muft have appeared abfolutely incompatible : u Glory to God " in the higheft, and on earth peace, and " good will towards men." The doubt which put even Solomon's faith to a (land, all things considered, was a very puzzling one, " Will God in very deed dwell with " men upon earth ? " and who could have refolved it in the affirmative, had it not been for the appearance of Jefus Chrift ? In his perfon God has condeicended to, unite himfelf to man in fuch a manner, as, even if we knew no more of him, muft give ground to expetit fome very great ad vantage from this iingular honour done our nature ; the neareft approach the cre ator can make to. the creature. But none durft have prefumed to carry their expec tations fo high as our Lord did in his laft prayer, where we find him improving it

P 2 tA

Ii6 CHRIST confidered Ch.VI.

to eftablim fuch an union between God and all who believe in him, as ftiall make them one in the Father and the Son. In this grand point all the counfels of God terminate ; and there the human nature is exalted to the higheft pitch of perfection and happinefs, far above what the moft fanguiiie advocates for the dignity of it could ever imagine.

The ftrft ftep that can be taken toward

this, muft be what our Lord fays is eternal

life, viz. " to know the only true God." The

beft defcription that can be made of an in-

vifible being muft labour under many de-

fecfts, and hardly make any impreffion on

creatures of oar make ; unlefs it be illuftra-

ted and confirmed by fenfible fadts. His e-

ternal power and Godhead are clearly feea

from the creation of the world, being un-

derftood by the things that he hath made ;

but what we have either to hope or fear.

from him needs further illuftration : and

upon the whole, we need to have fome

image or model to form our apprehenlions

upon. The old image given us in man is

fo greatly defaced, that it is in danger of

darkening inftead of illuftrating the divine

perfections. In Jefus Chrift we have a

complete one. He is the image of the in-

vifible

as an EXAMPLE. 117

srifible God, fo complete, that whofoever lias feen and known him, muft alfo fee and know the Father. It muft be f o ; for under that vail of human flefh which he affumed, God really dwelt ; and whatever he did or faid, the Father was always well pleafed with him : and it could not be o- therwife; for he neither did nor faid any thing, but what he had in commandment from the Father.

We need fay nothing of the fpecimens he gave of almighty creating power, which he mewed forth in the miracles which he wrought ; nor of perfedl knowledge and wifdom, that he could never be miftakeii in any of his meafures. Goodnefs is the attribute we are moft naturally interefted •in ; and there is not one more generally miftaken. Our indigence makes us conn*- f der beneficence as at leaft a neceflary in- ] gredient, if not the very effence of it, as -j if God could not be good unlefs he made! every creature as happy as he can. This' i at firft fight appears fuch an abfurdity, that no body will profefs it. But many are loath to allow, that a good God will fuffer any creature of his to be finally mi-- ferable. But fo far is perfect gopdnefa

from

Ii8 CHRIST confidered Ch.VI,

from fuch a tendency, that it is really the moft terrible character that can be, to a bad being; even more fo than juftice itfelf, which is only a certain modification of goodnefs. Perfeft goodnefs cannot bear evil, but muft root it out of his world, and abfolutely deflroy it. It is that very work of the devil the Son of God came to deflroy. And as there is no real evil in the world but fin, there are only two ways in. which it can be deftroyed : the firfl is, by ynaking a feparation between the finner and his fin, and thus deftroying fin, and faving the finner ; or where that is not ef fected, by deftroying the finner and fin, together. Now, it is the very bufinefs for which our Lord came into the world, to fave his people from their fins. But when men will not come to him that they may have life, he has declared plainly the judgement he will certainly give againft them, " even everlafting deftruction from *' the prefence of the Lord, and the glory " of his power."

It muft therefore be but a very fmall gleam of hope that can be gathered from this general view of the divine goodnefs. It is from the riches of fovereign grace,

mercy.

as an EXAMPLE. ng

mercy, and compaflion, that the hope of fuch creatures as we are, poor helplefs fin- ners, muft fpring. Thefe,are views of God which are no where to be had but in Je- fus Chrift ; and there they are all to be feen in their greateft perfection, fuch as not only gives hope, but the ftrongeft affu- rance in the mod defperate - like flate which a finner can poflibly be in. For when we look further into this his amiable image, we muft perceive the higheft benevolence, kindnefs, and good will to mankind; fuch a tendernefs of fympathy and compaflion, and fuch bountiful and difmterefted beneficence, as the world never had one inftance of ; e- ver ready to inftrucft the ignorant, to re lieve the miierable and wretched, and to heal every ailment of body or mind ; no cafe fo defperate as to exceed his power, nor any finner fo vile as to be below his notice. Seven devils, or even a legions pofTefling one perfon, did not hinder the finner's acceptance ; and the greatnefs of the fins which were forgiven, only made the finner to love him more.

All the cures he performed either on the fouls or bodies of men, with all their

endearing

126 CHRIST confidered Ch.VI;

endearing circumftances, which were very- many, are fo many pictures, if we may exprefs it fo, of the mind of Godi His marvellous love and kindnefs to mankind^ and his tender mercies, which have been for ever of old.

There was one thing further in the £ondu<5l of Jelus which deferves our par ticular notice, viz. the abfolute contempt which he fhowed of all thofe things which the world are fo madly fond of^ the rich es and honours, the power and glory, and all the pleafures and enjoyments of a pre- fent life. And this {hewed at once how con temptible all thefe things are in God's eye, and how much they are below the regard of a perfect man ; fo that our fondnefs for any the xnofl agreeable of them, inftead of being an accompllfnment, is a fure e- vidence of the degenerate bafenefs of a mind funk greatly below the ftandard al lotted by the creator.

This leads us forward to another inva luable advantage \ve have in the character of Tefus Chrift, viz a pattern of perfec tion, which we may fafeiy folldw, and th6 only one we may follow without excep tion. For there we fee how God himfelf

would

as all EXAMPLE. 121

would live, nay, and how he did live, when among men, in the perfon of Jefus Chrift. He not only brought life and im mortality into open light by his remrrec^- tion from the dead, but opened up, and went before, as the captain of falvation, in the way that leads to that eternal life, fetting an example that we may follow his fteps. And accordingly we find, that in all the directions he gave for entering into life, this was always the concluding part, Follow me. And thence he lays it down as a general rule, " If any man ferve me, " let him follow me ; and where I am5 " there mall alfo my fervant be." And the Apoftle John fpeaks the fame language : " He that faith he abideth in him, ought " himfelf alfo fo to walk, even as he " walked."

This is a matter of the utmoft import ance, and is not to be accompiifhed by obferving feme one or more pieces of His example, or to copy from thence this or the other virtue, as I have heard fome fpeak. The whole muft be taken toge ther ; and, as the Apoftle wifely directs, " the fame mind muft be in us that was ^ in Chrift Jeius;" and, as another advi-

VoL.lI. O fes,

122 CHRIST confidered Ch.VI,

fes, " Arm ouffelves with the fame mind " which was in him when he fuffered for " its in the fleih:" A large field, and which deferves to be very particularly confidered, as indeed it takes in the whole fyftem of practical Chriftianity. I can only point out a few generals, which will give fome no tion of the whole.

And here, in the firft place, if we mind to follow him, we miift fet out upon the fame principles of truth he did. We can not indeed propofe to attain fuch com- prehenfive views as he had of the fpiritual and eternal world; without which, it is impoflible to attain any right knowledge of the prefent one in which we live : but he has given us his mind concerning both the one and the other ; and if we dare be lieve his teftimony, we fliall fee both in the fame light in which he, who perfectly underftood them, did ; efpecially with the advantage which we have of his example, and the manner in which he treated both ; the contempt he always fhowed for a pre fent world, and the high regard he had to his heavenly Father, and the glory of the tinfeen eternal world. It is only by this teftijuony that we can know any thing of

tliefe

as an EXAMPLE. 123

thefe unfeen things, and exaftly as the ftrength of our faith or belief of this te- ftimony is, fuch will be our conformity to his views of thefe things.

But his was not a mere fpeculative knowledge of them, it was reduced into a fyftem of perfect wifclom. All his fen- timents were formed on his infallible views of truth, fo that he could never be miftaken ; and all his judgements, both of perfons and things, were equally infalli ble. This is fuch a perfedlion as no other man can pretend to. But all our fenti- ments, that is, our way of thinking and judging of things, muft be formed up on the fame ftandard ; to efteem and defpife, to love and hate, to hope and fear, &c. and of courfe to purfue and a- void every thing, juft as he did before us. Here our wifdom lies, and this is the only cure for our natural folly. He who fees things as he did, the truth, rea lity, and worth of eternal and unfeen things, and has his heart and affedtions formed upon them, muft entertain the fame contempt he had of all that a ipre- fent world has either to allure or frighten 'us with. Where-ever the love of God is

fo

124 CHRIST confidered Ch. VI.

! fo fhed abroad in the heart as to become

• the ruling principle, there the world lofes

its hold ; the light of his glory, as it fhines

in the face of Jefus Chrift, cads fhame and

difgrace on ail worldly glory.

There was one thing our Lord was moft remarkable in, and which makes a great part of the pattern he hath fet us ; I mean, his perfedt felf-denial, and abfolute reiignation to his heavenly Fa ther's will, and the moft perfect ac- quiefcence in it. Thus we find him al ways profeffing, that he came not into the world to do his own will, but the will of him that fent him. Nor did he e- ever feek his own glory, but his heavenly Father's ; arid to this great end the whole bufmefs of his life was devoted. The A- poftle fets this felf-denial and refignatioii in a very ftrong light, by the high rank which he held : For " though he was in the " form of God," and polTefled all the glory and blefTeclnefs which belong to fuch an ex alted ftation ; yet he willingly " made him- " felf of no reputation, was found in fa*- " fiiion as a man, took upon him the form *• of a fervant," and fubmitted to all the for- rowe and fufferings that could take place

without

as an EXAMPLE. 125

without fin. In conformity to this, he taught his difciples to fay in their prayers, " Thy " will be done;" and made it the firft ftep every one ftiould take who propofed to follow him, " To deny themfelves." I do but juft obferve how fhamefully this precept, or rather folemn certification, is commonly trifled away : when we prevail with ourfelves to renounce any trifling gratification, we give it the name of mor- tif cation andjelf-dental. But it is ourfelves we are called to deny ; and it is the ftelh, or old man, all that we are by Adam, which we are called to mortify, , refigning ourfelves entirely to the will and difpofal of our heavenly Father.

What our bleffed pattern adds in that certification he gave his hearers, deter mines the meaning of this part, and car ries the refignation recommended by his example to its proper height : he was o- bedient to the death, the death of the crofs ; and if we mean to follow him, we muft do as he did, deny ourfelves, and take up our crofs. It were to be wifhed that this was the only inftance where the fcripture-meaning is obfcured or mifta- feen, by applying to the wards the fenfe

which

126 CHRIST confidered Ch.VI.

which has been affixed to them in later times. We have, I know not how, affix ed the name of croffes to the little ruffles we meet with in common life ; and when we can any how fubmit without fretting and murmuring, we flatter ourfelves that we have fulflfted his command, and may pafs among his followers. But the words he ufes had no fuch meaning when he ut tered them. The crofs was the inftrument of death ; and to take up one's crofs, was to aft as convifted criminals did, fubmit- ting themfelves to the death awarded them : and as that is the cafe of every child of Adam, nothing lefs can be meant by it, than acknowledging the juftice of the fentence, and accordingly refigning and giving up the life which it flrikes at, (and that is unqueftionably all the life we have from the firft Adam), into the hands of juftice, to be deftroyed, and have a fi nal end put to it.

This is a very hard faying to the chil dren of Adam ; it is renouncing and gi ving up their all ; and which indeed is impoflible for man to do, but in the ftrength of that faith and hope through which our bleffed pattern endured the

crofs,

as an EXAMPLE, 127

crofs, and defpifed at once the fhame and the torment, becaufe he knew that it was in this way he was to enter into his glory. Jn this profpedl he chearfully refigned himfelf to a fcene of fufferings, fuch as no man, either before or after him, was or could be expofed to, having the curfe which fin had brought on all the children of Adam, the whole weight and burden of it, lying upon him ; and thus " being " made perfect through fufferings, he be- " came the author of eternal falvation to <c all them that obey him."

This leads us into a further, and, if poffible, a more interefting view of Jefus Ghrift ; as in him we have not only life and immortality fairly brought to light,but the foundations of faith and hope laid fo ftrong, that what feemed abfolutely im- poflible for man to do, becomes the eafieft and moft eligible thing in the world. The refigning and giving up the forfeited life we have from Adam into the hands of juftice, comes out to be no more but ex changing it for one, in all the views that can be taken of it, infinitely preferable ; as if a condemned criminal, by fubmitting to the fentence, fhould come to the pofleiTion

of

J2§ CHRIST confidered Ch.Vl.

of a rich inheritance ; which is the very comfortable view that the Apoftle gives us of this change : " We know^, that if our " earthly houfe of this tabernacle were " diiTolved, we have a building of God$ " a houfe not made with hands, eternal " in the heavens." And furely thofe who have fuch a profpecl, will be longing af ter that bleffed hope.

Among all the wife and graciotis pur-" pofes which were anfwered by fixing man kind in the ftate wherein they are now ifound, this is one of the moft gracious and beneficent, That every man mufl, if he has any reflexion at all, find himfelf in fuch circumftances, as that nothing but ahfolutely free grace can relieve him, and that it is abfolutely impoffible he can live any other way ; and it is really afto-* niihing, that any man of common fenfc could ever overlook fuch an obvious and important truth^ or entertain the leaft Iha* dow of hope on any other grounds.

It is as plain, that the moft high God muft be abfolute mailer of his own grace^ to give or to with-holdhis free favours, and to extend them to whom he pleafes, and in what manner, and by what means, he

pleafes.

as an EXAMPLE. 129.

pleafes. We need not, for Supporting or illuftrating this claim, fuppofe, that the creator took any advantage againft man kind from the tranfgrefTion of their firft parents ; much lefs that he acquired any new rights by their forfeiture. The cafe would have been juft the fame had they been all created in the ftate they are now in ; only we fhould have wanted that warning-piece, and the inftrudiion it gives us, how impoffible it is for a creature to live any other way, than by the mere grace of the creator.

The native and neceflary confequence of this is, that no creature can have any reafon to expect any additional favour whatsoever, or any higher flation in God's world, than that which he finds himfelf in, whether placed there by his creator, or which he himfelf hath chofen : I fay, which he himfelf hath chofen ; becaufe it is not only a poffible, but a very common cafe among men, to link themfelves, ei ther by indqlence, or fomething worfe, into a ftate greatly below that which the constitutional powers the creator gave them, might either have kept them in, or Vaifed them to. And furely no man will

VOL. II, R imagine^

130 CHRIST confidered Ch.VI,

imagine, that the creator is bound to re pair the wafte that the creature hath made. Nothing but a declaration from himfelf of what he will do by a fovereignly free pro mife, can w arrant any fuch expectation.

Such a promife^ or a declaration equi valent to a promife, we find has been in the world from the time that fin and death entered together. By what the Apoftle fays to Titus, we are warranted to take it greatly higher ; for he fays expref sly, that " God, who cannot lie, promifed that ve-» " ry eternal life which they had the hope " of, before the 'world began? And that was furely before Adam had finned, or was fo much as created : And it is evi-* dent, that there was none then to receive the promife, but he who was fet up from everlafting, the fame who appeared in due time in the perfon of jefus Chrift. The fame apoftle confirms it, and carries it yet further; for he fays to Timothy, and fays it as an acknowledged truth that no Chri- ftian in thofe days had any doubt about, that this grace was not only promifed, but actually given them in Chrift Jefus in that antemundane period.

Our Lord gives us the progrefs of this

promife,

as an EXAMPLE. 131

promife, in what he fays of it to his dif~ ciples under another notion, very com mon with him and his apoftles, the king dom of God, the kingdom of heaven, and often limply, the kingdom ; where, he fays, the fubjedls are all admitted to eat and drink at his table ; as much as to fay, they are abundantly provided out of his ful- nefs. This kingdom, he fays, the Father hath appointed to him. So our tranflators render it : but the word, in the original, Signifies the making a thing over ; " whether by free gift, or on certain terms or conditions, it does not fpecify. By this deed cf the Father, he has the pro perty vefted in himfelf, and full powers to convey it to whom he pleafes. And thus " it pleafed the Father, that in him all " fulnefs fhould dwell;" that is, all the grace that ever was to be mown to man kind.

Thus we have Jefus Chrift {landing at the head of mankind in the new crea tion, and in relation to the fpiritual and eternal world, juft as Adam flood in the firft creation, and in relation to this pre- fent world; and the truth, as it is in Jefus, will be found to anfwer the figure R 2 with

132 CHRIST confidered Ch.VL

with great exadlnefs. There was, and it was abfolutely neceflary there fhould be^ a very great odds between the two in ma ny refpects. The Apoftle gives us the principal ones : " The firft Adam was made a living foul, the fecond a quick ening fpirit ; the firft was of the earthj earthy j the fecond was the Lord from heaven." But in other refpe<5ls they a- grec with furprifing exa6tnefs ; which may reafonably determine us to think, that the firft creation, and the way in which men were brought into the world by that ori ginal conftitutioii, was defigned by divine wifdom to be a fort of fenfible image and reprefentation of the fpiritual, and there fore invifible, manner in which men are brought into the fpiritual and eternal world : and accordingly it is upon this plan that all the defcriptive accounts we have of it are formed.

By what we were juft now obferving from the Apoftle, and our Lord's own words, we find he received the grant of the king dom, or eternal life, from the Father's hand, and had it actually lodged in him, as our firft father had the life of all ma-n- kind lodged in him : and as there is ho

way

as an EXAMPLE. 133

way of entering among mankind in this world, but by deriving from Adam in the courfe of what is called natural generation, no more can any one have accefs to the fpiritual world, without deriving from Jefus Chrift in the courfe of regeneration, or by that new birth in which our Lord inftruclecl Nicodemus. Each of thefe lives referable the original from which they are drawn. Adam's children, all of them, bear the image of the earthy man, and their life is of the fame kind, neceflarily terminating in death. The children by the fecond birth, are all formed upon the heavenly man, from whom they derive their life. They all bear his image, and their life is, like the quickening Spirit from whom they derive it, fpiritual and eter nal.

But that which calls for our fpecial ob- fervation is this : Both received the terms by which their refpective lives were to be held, as they were the only two who, each in his feveral kind, had accefs to deal di rectly and immediately with God. The terms were very different, and fo was the event. Thofe given to the firfl man, were the eafieft that can well be imagined :

but

134 CHRIST confidered Ch.Vl,

but he did not fulfil them ; and by his tranfgreffion, entailed death on all his de- Icendents, along with that life which he conveys to them. " Thus by one man <c fin entered into the world, and death " by fin; and fo death hath pafled upon " all men, for that all have finned." And there fhould have been an end of all flefh, if the fovereign gift of grace had not prevented it.

The terms on which the kingdom, or e- ternal life, was granted to the Lord from heaven, the quickening Spirit, or as him felf exprefles it, the commandment 'which he received from the Father, which fome have, not improperly, called the laew of the Me~ diator, were indeed the hardefl that could be impofed upon any creature, and fuch as none but himfelf could have fulfilled. They are all fummed up in his obedience unto the death, even the death of the crofs ; A kind of death which was marked out by God himfelf many hundred- years be fore, and a curfe pronounced on him that was hanged on it. And yet it was not fimply fubmitting even to this death that could anfwer the purpofe; but a conti nued* finlefs obedience, and overcoming

that

as an EXAMPLE. 135

that very tempter who had feduced and ruined, as he thought, the firft of man kind. Accordingly we find, that he was led by the Spirit into the wildernefs to be tempted of the devil, with all the advan tage his hellilh malice could defire. And thus we are led forward to confider the feed of the woman, the feed of Abraham and David, the anointed chofen One, in that relation to mankind which he has chofen to ftand in ; and it concerns us much to know how he has acquitted him- felf in this great and important truft, that we may at once know how to apply to him, and give him the glory that is duq \\nto his name,

CHAP. VII.

Vuiv of Chrift as a Prieft.

BY what we were juft now obferving, we may fee the reafon of that title which we find often given to him, and which, in effecT:, he aflumes to himfelf, his Father's fervanf. The Prophet Ifaiah has given us his commimon in few, but

verv

136 View of CHRIST Ch.VII.

very comprehenfive words: " He, JEHO VAH, faid, It is a light thing that thou fhouldft be my fervant to raife up the tribes of Jacob, and to reftore the pre- ferved of Ifrael : I will alfd give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou " may ft be my falvation unto all the " ends of the earth." And hence the comfortable titles of Saviour and Redeemer take their rife, which exprefs the general defign and iffue of his whole miniftry, and which we mall meet with, after we have confidered, by what means, and ia what character, he carries on and acoom-> plifhes this great work.

I formerly obferved, how he is repre-? fented by Mofes and the prophets in three diftindl views ; as a prophet, prieft, and king ; all united in the one perfon of the Meffiah, or God's Anointed. There is one general character which comprehends them all, " Mediator between God and man," which has been, and yet may be mifta- ken, by applying the modern fenfe of that word, and making it the fame with a peace-maker, one whofe bufinefs it is to go between, and make up matters between two parties at variance. He is indeed both

the

as a PRIEST. 137

the peace-maker and the peace-keeper be tween God and man. But that is far from reaching either the import of the word, or the extent of his office. The word de notes a middle perfon ftanding between God and man, and managing the whole correfpondence between them : That as God never fpeaks to man, nor beftows a- ny'favours of any kind, but by him; fo no man can come to God, nor apply to him with acceptance, but by his means, " who is the way, the truth, and the life."

He is particularly defigned, " The Me- 1 diator of the Covenant ; " that is, of the conftitution of grace, or grant of life, that order which God has eftabliihed for dif- penfing his mercy and grace to perifhing iinners. Which defignatidn has by fome been thought fufficieiitly anfwered, if he has procured fuch a mitigation of the ori ginal law of perfection, and fucjh xgentle terms of acceptance, as men in our fitua- tion may come up to. But the laws of God admit of no mitigation, but muft be punctually and literally fulfilled, without any alteration or favourable conftruclion whatfoever : and, I think, we are hardly warranted to fay, that the Mediator ob-

VoL.II. S tained

138 View of CHRIST Ch.Vlt

tained even the covenant itfelf, the confti- tution or grant of grace, though it is by him the whole is made effe&ual : " For " all things are of God, who reconciles " mankind to himfelf by Jefus Chrifb;" who, in the whole of his miniftration, a&s precifely by the commandment he re ceived from the Father.

The true import of this title is expreffed by another, which is ufed but once in terms, but often, I might fay always, fuppofed and referred to, " T\\Q furety of the " covenant ;" which has been in a manner confined to one branch of his office, viz. his undertaking, in behalf of finners of mankind, to make out that obedience to the law in which they failed. But fuppo- iing this to be the cafe, that makes him only a furety for a party, which is a quite different tiling from being furety of the covenant, whofe bufinefs it is to fee all the parts and articles of it punctually ful filled, both the terms on which the grant flands, and the promifed bleflings con veyed, precifely as they ftand in the grant.

The Apoftle, in his epiftle to the He brews, ufes thefe two titles promifcuoufly, and explains them by what was .perfectly

well

as a PRIEST.

well underflood by thofe to whom he wrote, viz. the office and bufinefs of friefthood) which, as we are well inform ed, confiiled precifely in a6ling as media tors between God and the people, and fureties for the putting away of fin to the people ; but not at all as fureties for them any further than by performing the terms on which forgivenefs was promifed, viz. offering the appointed facrifices. And the whole of that epiftle, and all the reafon- ing there, clear and flrong as it is, (lands on this one proportion, That what the priefts were under the old covenant, or grant of the land of Canaan to the ifrael- itifh nation, that Jefus Chrift was in the new and better covenant, the grant of e- ternal life to all mankind who will receive him.

The account the Apoftle gives of the priefthood affords a very diftincS view of it : " Every high prieft taken from a- " mong men, is ordained for men in " things pertaining to God, (or rather " wherein they have to do with God), to " offer both gifts and facrifices for fin." And had not the wifdom of God inftitu- ted fuch an office among men, the me- S 2 diation

140 View of CHRIST Ch.VII.

diation and interceffion of Chrifl is fuch a fingular thing, that we fhould never have been able to form any tolerable * concep tions of it, or found words and language to fpeak about it. There is nothing like k either in the natural or moral world, but what has been copied from this ori-> ginal. Priefts and facrifices have been found in every nation ; and thence an i- mage, more or lefs perfedt, laid to our hands, by which we may attain more or lefs perfeft views of this very important fubjedl;. and the better we are acquainted with thefe emblems and figures, the more perfect will our views be of the truth, as> it is in Jefus.

We have therefore great reafon to be thankful for, what the wifdom of the world fo much defpifes, the very particu lar account we have of the inftitution of the priefthood, and the feveral kinds of facrifices, for anfwering the occafions an4 different cafes of the worfliippers ; the fe veral kinds of wafhings and purifications, from the feveral forts of defilement and pollution, which difqualifted them from joining with the congregation, and ap proaching the place of God's prefence;

which.

as a PRIEST.

which, in a very lively manner, reprefent at once the guilt and pollution of fin, and that fear and fhame with which they are naturally attended. In thefe confifts what the Apoftle very juftly terms an evil con- fcience^ which muft be fome how or other removed, and what he calls the confcience (or rather confcioufnefs] of fins, taken away, before any offender can acquire confidence enough to appear in the prefence of God ; which he never will do, until he is fure of finding acceptance.

This muft be the greateft diftrefs a crea ture can be in, whenever it is felt. But felt it never will be, until the finner knows what fin is, and the unhappinefs of being fliut out from God, and expofed to the inconceivable effects of his anger, and ir- reconcileable enmity againft fin ; which, it muft always be minded, is but the native tendency of his perfect goodnefs. And hence it was fo ordered in that wife con- ftitution, that no man could have the be nefit of the remedy provided, the facrifice which put away the fin, but he that was fenfible of the abfolute need of it ; for thus the order flood.

The offender muft bring the facrifice

to

1 4^ View of CHRIST Ch.VII,

to the prieft ; and that not of his own chilling, or what he thought befl and fit ted, but that which God had appointed in that particular cafe.

He mud make a free and full confeffion of his fin over the facrifice. This was often, if not always, accompanied with laying his hand on the head of the vidlim, which was the fign of its being fubftituted in his place, to bear that punifhment which he had deferved. And it is to be obferved, that no repentance, acknow ledgement, or eonfeffion, however fincere, could be accepted in any other manner.

The prieft, who, by his office, flood bound to receive the facrifice, took the fin upon himfelf, to put it away, by offering the victim in the manner appointed in the law. But if he failed in any point, the punifhment of that lay upon himfelf, and was not imputed to the offender from the time that the facrifice was taken off his hand.

But all this would have been but a {len der foundation for the faith and hope of a finner, had he been left there. The divine inftitution indeed promifecl much, as he *night thence be afllired, that there was

fome

as a PRIEST. 143

fbme great purpofe to be anfvvered by it. But had it not been for the promife an nexed to the facrifice, that the fin fliould. be forgiven, he muft have been left in great uncertainty about the event. But however ignorant he may be fuppofed to have been of the reafon of the inftitution, and however unpromifing-like the r.eans might appear, he might with great aiiu- ranee reft on the word of a faithful God • and therefore the bufmefs of the prieli did not end with the offering, until by the fprinkling of the blood he had made the atonement, and fecured the promifed bleffing.

The fervice of the great day of atonement, when the high prieft a6ted on behalf of the whole people, was the completelh re~ prefentation of Chrift's priefthood. I need not enter into particulars : it may fuffice to obferve, that the high pjieft at that- time only, entered into the moft holy place, prefented the blood with incenle, and came out, and blefied the people in the name of JEHOVAH.

There is one circumftance which w^ find the Apoftle takes particular notice of, ;tc That no man taketh this honour unto

" himfelf,

144 View of CHRIST Ch.VII.

" himfelf, but he that is called of Godj " as was Aaron." This is a material point, upon which the whole fuccefs of this miniftration depends. And indeed* until we are fecured in this, our expecta tions muft at beft be but wavering and uncertain. We are not left at an uncer tainty here. The Apoftle tells us, that " Chrift did not glorify himfelf, to be " made an high prieft;" but was inftalled with a folemnity fuch as never any other was, viz. with the oath of the Moll High 3 and that his priefthood was of an order^ too, greatly fuperior to that of Aaron, the prieft and the king being united in one perfon ; nay, that he was a king too of a peculiar kind; " King of righteoufnefs; " and King of peace:" for fo the Apoftle interprets the name and place of Melchi- zedek, who appears to have been marked out in the biftory for a figure of a per-" petual priefthood, without beginning or ending, without predeceffor or fucceflbr,

We are not told by the Pfalmift, whofe words are quoted by the Apoftle, when this oath was given : but it muft have been as ancient as the covenant or confti^ tution to which it belonged, and given at

the

as a PRIEST. .

the fame time that the terms of the grant were laid upon the Redeemer, and eternal life lodged in his hand. Nor is it any objection, that he did not enter upon the execution of his office until he came -in the flem. The all-wife God knew per fectly whom he had to deal with ; he had laid the burden on one who had ftrength to bear it, and was as faithful as he was able. He could fee at one glance from one end of time to another, and it .was the fame to him as if it had been done.

The high worth and dignity of the prieft promifes fair, and our expectations rnuft be greatly raifed when we confider his facrifice. The Apoftle fays, " he muft " have fomething to offer." Burnt offer ings of beafts, and fuch facrifices as the Mofaical priefls offered, were all rejected ; and indeed much below his dignity. *c Through the eternal Spirit he offered " himfelf without fpot unto the Father," and thus put away fin for ever by that one facrifice, and perfected for ever all thofe who are fanclified. The Apoftle's reafoning is ftrong and conclufive : " If " the blood of bulls, and of goats, and " the allies of an heifer fprinkling the VOL. II. T " unclean,

146 View of CHRIST Ch.VII,

" unclean,, fanctified unto the purifying " of the fleih ; haw much more fliall the " blood of the Son of God purge our " confciences from dead works to ferve " the living God?"

I need but juft obferve, that all the ex- prefiions we find made ufe of in the re cord to defcribe the nature and defign of his death and fuffering, fuch as, his dying and laying down his life for his people, giving his life a ranfom, redeeming them, by his blood, &c. ail of them appear but fo many equivalent terms, by which the cffe6l of his facrifice is explained and fet forth ; fo that there does not feem any ne- ceffity for a plain Chriftian's entering -into the many intricate debates which have been broached concerning the nature and effects of what is called Chrijfs fatufaclwn^ which can mean no more but his perfect fulfilment of the terms of life ; and when we know that the facrifice was accepted, we know all that we have any occafion for.

But however high our expectations may be juftly ,raifed by the views of fuch a prieft, and Iuch a facrifice, (and we may very firmly affure ourfelves that they will

anfwer

as a PRIEST.

anfwer all the purpofes for which iuch a miniftration was intended); yet until that is certainly known, we inuft ftill be at a lofs ; and we can know it no other way than the Old-Teftament worfhippers did, viz. by the declaration and promife annexed to the facrifice. So far as that goes, our faith and confidence in the fa crifice may, and ought to go, arid no fur ther. The Mofaical facrifices had. no more annexed to them but the forgiveneis of fin, and that anfwered their defign. Par don is the native intention of a facrifice. This is what the finner is moft anxious to obtain ; and with good reafon, not only as it relieves the prefent and moft fenfibly felt diftrefs, but as it is abfolutely necef- fary to open the way for, and to render the finner capable of, receiving all further favours and benefactions from the hand of God, who is fo eilentially good and holy, that he can have no dealings with. a linner in the way of grace, until tin is ta ken away.

But had the promife, or grant annexed

to this facrifice, ftopt there, we mull have

found ourfelves in no better circumftan-

ces than thofc who applied to die Molaic

T 2 v Sacrifices,

148 View of CHRIST Ch.VII,

facrifices, and could expedl no more but to be reftored to the poffeffion of the for feited life, and that without any fecurity againft falling again into the fame unhappy circumftances. Indeed it neither was nor could be the intention of our great high prieft, nor of him who appointed the fa-! crifice, to reftore any one to Adam's life, There was an irrevocable fenteiice given againft it ; the fame which goes fo often under the name of a curfe, and which ne-< ver leaves the fubjecfl it fattens on, until it has brought it to abfolute deftrucftion. •Adam's child mutt die. But then, in the virtue of this great facrifice, there comes along with the promife of pardon a free grant or deed of gift of what is infinitely better, even eternal life.

But there is one circumftance, in which It is not unlikely fome will imagine, that the Jews had greatly the advantage of us. They had the facrifice at hand, and it was no great journey to find the prieft, who, they knew, might not refufe to take their im off their hand : and an advantage it %vas, if it be a higher privilege to live by fenfe, than to live by faith ; which we indeed mvift do, if we propofe to make

any

as a PRIEST. 149

any thing of this facrifice, or to have any dealings with this great high prieft. And yet, after all, there was more of faith, even in their fervice, than every one will fufpedl. Faith was the very life and fpi- rit of it ; without which, it could not fublift. I do not mean only the neceffity there was of looking beyond the figure and ihadow, to the great high prieft and fa crifice reprefented thereby ; without which it was a mere carcafe, a dead image, which could profit no further than a pre- fent world, and the prefent perifhing life ; but even for that they had no fecurity but what arofe from the divine inftitution, and the promife of forgivenefs on the right offering of the facrifice ; for which, in moft cafes, they had no more but a . mere implicit faith in the fidelity of the prieft, whofe character very often afforded very little encouragement to truft him in a matter of fuch moment,

As our great high prieft, and his facri fice, his inftalment and fidelity, give vaft advantages to our faith ; fo in a fpecial manner doth the affurance we have of the acceptance of his facrifice. When the high prieft entered into the holieft with

the

150 View of CHRIST Ch.VII.

the blood of his facrifice, the firmer had no fecurity for his being accepted, but that he came out alive. Now " our high " prieft is not entered into the holy places " made with hands, but into heaven it- " felf, there to appear in the prefence of " God for us." It is true he is not come out again, as the Jewifh high prieft did. But hence arifeth our flrongeft aiTurance, that he has done the bufinefs effectually ; and by his one facrifice fo put away fin, that it fhall be remembered no more. So that he has nothing left him to do, but to difpenfe and give forth that life which is v now abfolutely lodged in his hand, until he comes again, once for all, to receive his people to himfelf, " that where he is, " there they may be alfo."

Thus we find all things (landing as in the record which the Apoftle John tells us God has made concerning his Son, or the teflimony he has given, viz. " That God " hath given to us eternal life, and that " this life is in his Son: fo that he that u hath the Son, hath life ; and he that hath " not the Son, hath not life." Which, whofoever believes not, he affures us, makes God a liar, becaufe he doth not

believe

as a PRIEST. 151

believe his teftimony. This, one fliould think, might fully determine what has wrought much difturbance among Chri- ftians, viz. who the us are to whom God is faid to have given eternal life. No body fure will doubt of his having given it to fuch as are really put in poiTeffion of it. All the doubt is, whether God has made fuch a deed of gift, fuch a grant of life, as every one who hears it is bound to be lieve, with fuch a finnnefs of faith, as {hall determine him to flee to it as a re fuge to lay hold on the hope fet before him there. And how can that be a que- ftion, when all who hear the gofpel are not only called, but commanded, under the moft terrible penalty, to believe in Je- fiiS Chrift, to put their truft in his facri- fice and interceflion, with the ftrongeft afTurances, that in this way they certainly fhall obtain pardon and eternal life ? But if the great high prieft and his facrifice are either defpifed or negledled, they furely can have no more to expecl, than the defpifers of Mofes's law, " to die without mercy." The Apoftle gives us the ftate of the old Ifraelites as a parallel cafe to thofe who live under the gofpel, and have the

teftimony

152 View of CHRIST Ch,VII.

teftimony of God declared to them : and indeed it is fo parallel, that it feems to have been made for the purpofe. The grant of the land of Canaan was given to Abraham, the father of that people, and in fuch terms, that God himfelf, who cannot lie, or miftake in wording it, fays, Gen. xv. 18. " Unto thy feed have I given " this land." He fent Mofes well attefted to conduct the people into it, with the ftrongeft afliirances, that he had taken it upon himfelf to put them in poffeffion ; and fliowed fuch figns and clifplays of al mighty power, as could leave no room to entertain any doubt of his being abun dantly able to do what he had promifed. And when it is further confidered, that he had given them a body of laws which could not be put in pradlice until they were in poiTeffion of the land for which thefe laws were calculated, who can doubt of their being bound to believe that God would, certainly perform what he had promifed ? But they did not believe it. And when there was nothing left them to do but to go forward, they would not, becaufe they did not find themfelves able to fight and conquer thofe who were in pofleffion ; and, in the event, only two of all the mul titude

as a PRIEST. 153

titude were permitted to enter in ; the car- cafles of the reft fell in the wildernefs, becaufe they believed not God, nor truft-? ed in his falvatio.n,

Our Lord himfelf gives us another cafe, which he has declared perfectly parallel, and therefore muft be depended on : "As " the brafen ferpent was lifted up in the ** wildernefs, fo fhall the Son of man be " lifted up, that whofoever believes on him, mould not perifh, but have ever^- lafting life." He compares the promife of eternal life, as it ftands annexed to the facrifice he has made of himfelf, to the promife of healing by the brafen ferpent ; and believing in him, to looking on that ; as the general call ftands directed by the prophet to all the ends of the earth to look unto him and be faved. Now, as none would look at the brafen ferpent with any expectation from it, but they who believed the promife, (and they certainly would) ; fo they who believe the promife of pardon and life annex ed to the facrifice of Chrift, will as cer tainly believe in him, and reft their hearts and their hopes there. In both cafes, there is equally free accefs for all [I. U to

154 View of CHRIST Ch.VII.

to whom the promife is fent. But if any of the bitten Ifraelites, on any confidera- tion, refufed or negledted to look, they perifhed without remedy. And who can complain, if the negledlers of Chrift and his lalvation perifh in the fame manner ? Will their unbelief or perverfenefs make void the faithful promife ? It (lands pre- cifely as it did, and as it does to thofe who believe. But if it is not believed, it can have no other effecl than if it had not been made.

There was one thing I obferved about the office of priefthood, which it may be proper to take in here, as it effeftually obviates every exception that can be made againft the gift of pardon and life in its utmoft extent, viz. That the prieft by his office was bound to receive every man that came with his facrifice, whatever he was, or however otherwife qualified or diftin- guifhed. Our great high prieft has de clared the fame concerning himfelf, That ** him that cometh to him," whofoever lie is, or whatfoever he hath done or not done, " he will in no wife caft out." Nay, and that he ftands bound by the commandment of the Father to give him

eternal

as a PRIEST. 155

eternal life. The gift indeed, by the very terms of the grant, and the only way in

hich life is dr can be conveyed to any of Adam's race, is fo confined to Jefus Chrift, that " he that hath the Son, hath life ; " and he that hath nbt the Son, hath not " life." But, at the fame time, all things are laid fo ready in him, that if any comes fliort of it, it muft be, as himfelf hath ftated it, " becaufe they will not " come to him that they may have life."

I have faid nothing of the feveral warn ings and purifications we find fo much and fo minutely infilled on in the law of Mofes. They were very neceflary under that difpenfation to keep up a dutiful fenfe of the purity and holinefs of that God with whom they had to do ; for this we find given as the reafon for what we fhould reckon the mofl trifling of them, " that " he, JEHOVAH, their God, was among " them, and that he was holy;" and, at the fame time, to keep them carefully up on their guard againft that abominable thing fin, the only real evil which he has declared his foul hates : and they anfwer the fame purpofes to us now. But we have one complete relief in the fountain U 2 which

156 Of CHRIST'S office Ch.VlIL

which is opened for fin and for all tin- cleannefs : " The blood of Jefus Chrift " cleanfeth from all fin." And thus the Apoftle John reprefents him as coming by water and blood, alluding probably to the blood and water which flowed from his heart pierced by the foldier's fpear. This does effectually what all the legal purifi cations were but fhadows of; it purgeth the confcience from dead works ; and in- ftead of that flavifh fear and dread which an evil confcience naturally produces, gives the vileft finner boldnefs and confi dence to enter into the holieft, by that new and living way which our great high prieft has confeCrated through the vail of his own fleih.

CHAP. VIII.

Adminijlratlon and dif charge of Chrifis office towards Sinners.

THE foundations of the Chriftian's faith ; and hope appear laid fo flrong in the facrifice of our great high prieft, and the full and comprehend ve promife of pardon

and

towards SINNERS. {57

afid life annexed to it, that one would think none who has any knowledge of it fhould need the Apoftle's exhortation, " to draw " near with a true heart, and in full af- " furance of faith and hope, when they " have their hearts fprinkled from an e- " vil confcience." And truly all the dif- couragements a ferious perfon can poffibly meet with are fo abundantly provided a- gainft in Jefus Chrift, that whatever diffi culties arife in the way of believing, muft flow from partial or miftaken views, ei ther of the prieft, or his facrifice, (and commonly both go together) ; or from miftaking the import and meaning of the grant and promife annexed to the facri fice.

I believe they may be all reduced to two; felt unworthinefs, and weaknefs; which commonly go together, and are the very fame which betrayed the old Ifrael- ites into their unbelief. The record is fo far from difcouraging a fenfe either of the one or of the other, that great pains are taken to flrike the feeling of them both, greatly deeper than any child of Adam would chufe. All the accounts we have given us of the ftate of mankind reprefent

them

158 Of CHRIST'S office Ch.VIII.

them not only as unworthy of any favour, and lefs than the leaft of all mercies, but as moft worthy of the fevereft punifhment the creator can inflid: upon an obftinate re bellious creature. Our powers are repre- fented every way as defective as our me rit ; fo far are we from being able to ful fil any law, even when we have brought it as low as can be done with any tole rable decency, and fubflituted what is called fincerity inftead of perfection, that we are aflured we cannot receive, nor even know the things of God ; and if fo, how can we either repent or reform to any pdrpofe? Our Lord hath affured us in exprefs terms, that faith is fo much the gift of God, that " no man can come to "' him unlefs the Father draw him :" nay, that without him, his beft difciples can do nothing. The Apoftle Paul, who was undoubtedly one of the moft eminent of them, fets his feal to this, acknowledging, that he and his fellow-apoftles were not fufficient of themfelves fo much as to think any thing as of themfelves : and what can be more expreffive of human weaknefs than this ?

But all this is no more than is abfolute-

towards SINNERS.

}y neceflary to bring man back to his right creature-ftate, his primitive no- thingnefs, that he may acknowledge him- felf debtor to the free fovereign grace of his creator, for all he either is, or hopes to be : A hard faying to the vain fons of A- dam ; but an abfolutely neceffary one ; and no more than every reafonable crea^ ture is bound to acknowledge, that the creator is abfolutely mafter of his own favours. This point the Apoftle carries as high as it can be : " It is not of him " that willeth, nor of him that runneth, f * but of God who fheweth mercy." And again, " He has mercy on whom he will " have mercy; and whom he will he hard- " eneth." And he takes notice of the only thing that ever has, or ever can be urged againft it, " Why doth he yet find fault?" Which he anfwers by another queftion : " Who art thou, O man ! who replied a- " gainftGod?" A