The Love of God to a Lost World, Demonstrated by the Incarnation and Death of Christ
“l,vor God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Sou, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
John iii, 16.
These words form a part of that most interesting and important conversation which our Lord held with a Jewish ruler, called N-icodemus; who came to him by night, in order to get information on a subject of the utmost consequence to the peace and salvation of his soul. The subject was one generally acknowledged in the Jewish creed; but by most, it was generally perverted or misunderstood. It was, in its spirit, no less than this: — Of what nature is that change which must pass upon the heart of man, in order to fit him for the kingdom of heaven; and by what means can that change be effected? That this was the abject of this ruler’s inquiiy, is evident from our Lord’s»answer; for, when he had addressed him with “Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God,” (which he founded on the evidence of his miraculous works,) “for no man can do these miracles which thou doest, except God be with him; Jesus answered and said, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,” or from above, “he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus, astonished that this most important business should be put on such an issue, and not clearly understanding lhe figure used by our Lord, cries out, •’ How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be* born?”
* I placed the original here, because it is frequently referred to in the discourse,
a2 LOVE OF GOD TO A LOST WORLD.
Our Lord, now finding that his attention was deeply fixed, and all the feelings of his self interest strongly excited, enters into an explanation of the.figure he had used; and, referring to the Jewish mode of admitting proselytes by baptism, shows, that as the change is of a spiritual nature, it must be accompanied by a spiritual agent: and to accomplish such a change, the washing the body with water should be used only as a means, and considered as a type; and to illustrate his own meaning adds, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the’ kingdom of God.” Urging at the same time, the utter insufficiency of means, if separated from the end; for, “that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit:” as if he had said, Earthly or human agency can produce no other than earthly or human results; they can neither effect, nor be substitutes, for moral and spiritual changes: as they begin with the flesh, so they must terminate there; and nothing less than a celestial energy can produce such a spiritual and moral change in the soul, as shall be sufficient to qualify it for the enjoyment of the kingdom of God.
Finding the astonishment of Nicodemus to increase* as he was totally ignorant both of the spiritual Agent who was to accomplish the change, and the manner in which it must be performed; he farther illustrates his meaning, and the nature of the work, by a most appropriate simile, drawn from the wind, and the effects which it produces; “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again: the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” As if He had said, Though the manner in which this new birth is effected by the Divine Spirit, be incomprehensible to thee, thou must not, on this ground, suppose it to be impossible: the wind bloweth in a variety of directions ; — thou hearest it§ sound, perceivest its operafiop, by the motion of the trees, &c, and feelest it on thy own body; but thou canst not discern the air itself; thou only know est that it exists by the effects which it produces; so is every one that is born of the Spirit; the effects are as discernible and as sensible as those of the wind; but itself thou canst not see.
As the Jewish teacher was still slow of heart to understand, supposing, with the rest of his countrymen, that salvation was to be procured by an exact observance of rites, commands, and ordinances, spiritual agents and spiritual changes being entirely out of the question; our Lord deservedly chides him, who, while he professed to be “a guide of the blind, a light of them that are in darkness, and an instructer of babes,” should be ignorant of a doctrine so essentially necessary to his own salvation and that of others; and then takes occasion to enter at large into the subject, and to show that his salvation, and that of a whole lost world, must be effected, not by circumcision, washings, or sacrificial rites, but by the pure mercy of God; and that the Person whom he considered in no other light than that of “a teacher come from God,” was the “Son of man,” the promised Messiah, God’s “only begotten Son;” whom, in His infinite love to perishing man, He had now sent into the world to become an expiatory victim for the sin of the world; that they who believe in Him should receive remission of sins, and that spiritual change which would not only prevent them from perishing, but entitle them to eternal life.
Having thus introduced the passage before us, we may collect from it the following particulars: —
1. The world, the whole human race, was in a ruinous condemned state, in danger of perishing everlastingly; and without power to rescue itself from the impending destruction.
2. God, through the impulse of His own infinite love and innate goodness, provided for its rescue and salvation by giving his only begotten Son to die for it.
3. Prom this it appears, that the sacrifice of Jesus was the only means by which the redemption of man could be effected; and, that it is absolutely sufficient to accomplish this gracious design: for it would have been inconsistent with the wisdom of God to have appointed a sacrifice greater in itself, or less in its merit, than the positive necessities of the case required.
4. That sin must be an inconceivable evil, and possess an indescribable malignity, when it required no less a sacrifice to make atonement for it, than that offered by God, manifested in the flesh.
5. We learn that no man is saved through this sacrifice but he who believes: i. e. who credits what God has spoken concerning Christ, His sacrifice, the end for which it was offered, and the way in which it is to be applied, in order to its becoming effectual.
6. That those who believe receive a double benefit,: viz. 1. They are exempted from eternal perdition i — That they should not perish. 2. They are brought to eterndl glory :■ — That they should have everlasting life. And this doublebenefit proves, 1. That man is guilty, and therefore expo-* sed to punishment. 2. That he is impure, and therefore nnfit for glory.
1. The words of the text plainly imply, that what our Lord terms the*world here, was in danger of everlasting perdition. But, to understand His meaning fully, it wifl be necessary to examine the import of the word.
The term world o xotfo?, has several acceptations in Scripture, which are, however, reducible to one grand ideal meaning: — 1. It signifies the whole mundane fabric, or system of our universe; the visible heavens and earth; the whole solar or planetary system. And, as the original term signifies to adorn, ornament, or beautifully arrange any thing, it was with great propriety applied to the heavens and all their host, and the earth and its fulness to express in some measure, the beautiful order, harmony splendour, and perfection of the whole, as a work highly worthy of that infinite wisdom which had planned it; of the power by which the plan was executed; and of the goodness whichproposed, by this creation, the most beneficent ends.
It is worthy of remark, that the splendid ornamenting and plaiting of the hair; and the decoration of their persons with gold and splendid apparel, to which the women of higher rank, both among the Greeks and Romans, were extravagantly attached, is termed by St. Peter, 1 Epist. ch. iii, ver. 3, xotffAof, the same word in the text, which literally means world; but, very properly in this place rendered by our translators, adorning: — Whose adorning,. wjtffMs let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel. The ancient statues, where the Roman and Grecian head dress is represented with- the almost endless variety and involutions of plaiting, &c, fully justify the application of the term in the place just quoted; and may at once lead the mind to the original application of the word, when used to express that infinitely complex, and harmoniously arranged svstem of the universe, which when completed, and surveyed by the eye of infinite wisdom, was found such as to merit the approbation of the all-perfect Creator. And God saw every thing that he had wade, and behold it was very good, Gen. i, 31.
It is scarcely necessary to observe, that the greatest men since the foundation of the earth, have acknowledged themselves instructed, delighted, astonished, and lost, in contemplating the skill and economy of the great Creator, in the order, variety, harmony, and perfection, of the visible creation.
2. Sometimes the word is restrained in its meaning, and is used to express merely the habitable globe, or that part which was immersed in the waters of the deluge, 2 Pet. iii, 6, as this is that part of the universe in which human beings are more particularly interested.
3. As in this creation God has provided an abundant
S$ LOVE OF GOD TO A LOST WORLD.
supply for the wants of all creatures, which He deals out
in the course of His providence, in the most beautiful and
impressive order; not only by the vicissitude of the annual
seasons, but also by that endless variety of properties in
the vegetable world, by which all its productions are
adapted to the necessities and state of animal nature;
and come to their perfection at different times, so as to
afford the means of nourishment in continual and regular
succession; therefore the term is used not only to express
a sufficiency of earthly goods, or worldly possessions, Matt.
xvi, 26, but also abundance, or vast profusion; and this is
the meaning of the word in that remarkable passage of
James, chap, iii, 6, the tongue is o xotfjxos r»]g a&xias, a vast
system, a profusion, or abundance of iniquity: and, from
the same ideal meaning, it carries with it sometimes the
notion of a promiscuous crowd or multitude; as in John
xii, 19, The Pharisees said, Perceive ye how ye prevail
nothing i behold the world, o xoapos (a vast crowd) is gone
after him. This particular meaning- of the original is
preserved in the French phrase tout le monde, “all the
world;” for all, or the majority of the people in that place.
4. As God seemed, for nearly two thousand years, to have concentrated his regards among the Jewish people and to have, taken into His especial care the land of Canaan, as if He had no other people, and no other country to care for; hence the term became applied to that land which God promised. to Abraham, Rom. iv, 13. For the promise that he should be the heir, tou xooou of the world, i. e. the promise that he and his posterity should inherit the land of Canaan; which was given them by God’s free bounty, and not as any reward for legal observances, or moral obedience.
5. By an easy transition it became applied to those who inhabited that land; namely, the Jews: who seemed for so long a time to be God’s only people, His whole world. In this sense it is frequently used by St. John hi his gospel, see chap. xiv, 30, where Satan seems to be
LOVE OF GOD TO A LOST WORLD. gy
intended as the prince or ruler oithis world; i. e. of the Jews; their wickedness being at that time so great and desperate. See also chap, i, 10; vii, 7; xii, 17; xv, 18, 19; xvi, 33; where the Jews, or inhabitants of the promised Land, then called Judea, seem to be particularly intended.
6. When we consider the beautiful order of the tabernacle and temple service, and the whole of the Jewish ritual, as appointed by God; which, although it was not the substance, was a well denned and very expressive “shadow of good things to come;” which the Jews, abusing from its proper signification, vainly trusted in for salvation, we need not wonder that the term xotffwf, world, was applied to it in its original meaning; as in Gal. iv, 3; 2<roixs»a tou xotffAou, the elements of the world; the types, shadows, and ceremonies, of the Jewish religion: which xoCfAos, world, the apostle says, chap, vi, 14, “was crucified to him,” and “he to it,1* as he no longer expected salvation by the “deeds of the law,” or the observance of its rites and ceremonies, but by faith in Christ, who was the “end of the law for justification to all that believed,” Rom. x, 4. The same term is used in the same sense, Col. ii, 8, 20.
7. It means the Gentiles, or nations of the earth, as distinguished from the Jews, they being the great multitude, or mass of men called by our Lord, Luke xii, 30, <ra s&vri tou xotffi-ou, “the nations of the world.” And in this sense St. Paul uses the word, Rom. xi, 11, 12: “Have they “(the Jews)” stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles. Now, if the fall of them be the riches of the world,” tfXouros xotffjoou, “and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness V In which quotation “the riches of the world,” in the first clause of verse 12, is explained by “the riches of the Gentiles,” in the latter clause of the same verse. And the xaaXXay*y xotf(*ou, “the reconciling of the world,” ver. IS, manifestly implies the opening the door of salvatkpn to the Gentiles, that they might be “reconciled to God,” and made heirs with the believing Jews, according to the hope of an endless life. It seems to be used in the same sense, 1 Cor. i, 20, 21. “Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For, after that, in the wisdom of God, the world, by wisdom, knew not God, it pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe,” i. e. the Gentiles, with all their boasted wisdom and philosophy, could not attain to any correct notions even of the great First Cause of all things; as their writings, yet on record, abundantly confirm.
8. In 1 Cor. xi, 32, it seems to signify all the disobedient and unbelieving, both of Jews and Gentiles, who finally reject the counsel of God against themselves; “We are chastened-that we should not be condemned with the world:” though here, perhaps, the approaching desolation of the Jews may be principally intended.
9. Lastly, as the word is applied, in its primitive and original meaning, to the whole system of Nature, and particularly to the earth and its fulness; by a very easy metonymy, the container being put for the contained, it means all the inhabitants of the earth; all nations, classes, and kindreds of mtmkind; the whole human race: this is its meaning in the text, and in the verse immediately following. “God so loved,” ™ xptfpov, “the world,” the whole human race, “that he gave his only begotten Son,” &c: “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him, might be saved.” And again, chap, vi, 33, “The bread of God is he who cometh down from heaven, and giveth life Unto the World;” i. e. as God has made a plentiful provision by the manna from heaven, for all the Israelites in the wilderness; and by the productions of the earth, for the nourishment and support of- all human beings: so, by the incarnation and death of his Son Jesus Christ He has made a full, perfect, and sufficient atonement sacrifice, and oblation, for the “sins of the whole world,” and for the salvation of all men: see also chap, xiv, 31, and xvii, 24. The same apostle uses the term in this same sense, 1 Epist. ii, 2: “He is the propitiation,” iXatffu>S, “the atoning sacrifice, for our sins,” apostles and believing Jews; “and not for ours only, but also” e oXou xotffjwv, “for the whole of the world,” Gentiles as well as Jews; all the descendants of Adam. Where, let it be observed, that the apostles does not say that He died for any select part of the inhabitants of the earth, or for “some out of every nation, tribe, and kindred,” but for all mankind: and the attempt to limit the meaning of the expression here, or that in the Text, is a violent outrage against the plain grammatical meaning of God’s word, and the infinite benevolence of His nature. In short, the assertion in the Text is the same, in spirit and design, with this most solemn declaration — “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live,” Ezdk. xxxiii, 11. And with the following, “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved, and come unto the knowledge of the truth,” 1 Tim. ii, 3, 4. And “He is the Saviour of all men, specially of those who believe,” 1 Tim. iv, 10, for “he gave his life a ransom for all,” ib. ii, 6, and therefore He is the one or only Mediator between God and man, ver. 5; the two grand parties in this business, the Offended and the offenders, the Judge and the criminals.
These are the plain and forcible declarations of Scripture; and we shall, on a farther examination of this subject, have the most satisfactory evidence that the streams are precisely of the same nature with the Fountain which produced them; or, in other terms, that the nature of God proclaims the same sentiment which is expressed by the letter of His word.
It will, no doubt, be observed, that, in all the acceptations of the term world, which I have collected and examined in the preceding quotations, I have not produced that for which so many good people have contended, viz. the elect world; meaning, according to those who use this term, “a certain number of persons chosen in Christ to eternal life, out of all the nations of the earth; all others being passed by, reprobated, or left to perish in their sins, without atonement or Saviour.” I must confess I have not produced this meaning, because I did not find it; and, after all my most careful researches, it appears to me that neither the term nor the thing is found in the oracles of God; and it has ever been a matter of astonishment to me that any soul of man, partaking at all of the Divine nature, or knowing any thing of ftie ineffable love and goodness of God, should have ever indulged the sentiment; or have laboured to prove that the God whose name is Mercy, and whose nature is Love, and who hateth nothing that he hath made, should, notwithstanding, have a sovereign, irrespective, eternal love to a. few of the fallen human race; together with a sovereign, ^revocable, and eternal hatred, to the great mass of mankind: according to which, the salvation of the former, and the perdition of the latter, have been, from all eternity, absolutely and irrevocably fixed, pre-ordained, and decreed!
I have met with these sentiments. I have seen and heard them maintained with great acrimony. I have seen them sometimes opposed in the same spirit. I looked on it, received instruction, was grieved, and passed on with
-Tantcene animis ccdestibus irce 2
In heavenly minds can such affections dwell!
That the whole human race needed this interposition of God’s infinite love is evident; for the Scriptures have unequivocally declared that all have sinned; all have corrupted their way; they are all gone astray, and altogether become abominable; they are fallen from the image of God, righteousness and true holiness; and ar
LOVE OF GOD TO A LOST WORLD. vi
inwardly corrupt, and outwardly defiled. This doctrine stands in no need of proof ‘: — man is not what God made him; were the Scriptures silent on the subject, all reason and common sense would at once declare that it is impossible that the infinitely perfect God could make a morajly imperfect, much less a corrupt and sinful being. Yet God is the maker of man; and He tells us that He made him in His own image, and in His own likeness: it follows then, that man has fallen from that state of holiness and perfection in which he was created. And that this fall took place in the head and root of human nature, before any of the generations of men were propagated on the earth, is evident, not only from the declaration of God Himself in His word: but also from this strong and commanding fact, that there never was yet discover®! a nation or tribe of holy or righteous men jn any part of the world: nor is there a record that any such nation or people was ever known! This is a truly surprising circumstance; and a most absolute proof that not only all mankind are now fallen and sinful, but have ever been in the same state; and that this fall must have taken place previously to the propagation of mankind; for had it not taken place in our first parents before they began to propagate and people the earth; the heads of families and their successors, who might have been born previously to such fall, could not have partaken of their contagion; and consequently must have been the progenitors of nations doing righteousness, loving God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength; and their neighbour as themselves. But no such nation exists; no such nation ever did exist. Thus we find that universal experience and knowledge agree with and confirm the account given in the book of Genesis of the fall of man. The root being corrupted, the fruit also must be corrupt: the fountain being poisoned, the streams must be impure. All men coming into the world in the way of natural generation, must be precisely the same with him from whom they derive their being: — the body, soul, and spirit, of all the descendants of Adam must partake of his moral imperfections; for it is an inflexible and invariable law in nature, that like shall produce its like. We, therefore, seeing this total corruption of human nature, no longer hope to gather grapes off thorns, or figs off thistles.
Experience not only confirms the great but tremendous truth, that all mankind are fallen from the image of God; but it shows us that man has naturally a propensity to do evil, and none to do good; yea, to do evil, when it is most demonstrably to his own hurt; — that the great principles of self ‘love and self interest, weigh nothing against the sinful propensities of his mind; that he is continually and confessedly running to his own ruin; and has, of himself no por or influence by which he can correct, restrain, or destroy, the viciousness of his own nature. In short, that he lieth in the wicked one, with an unavailing wish, yet without any efficient power, to rise : — Understanding, judgment, and reason, those so much boasted, strong and commanding powers of the soul, which should regulate all the inferior faculties, are themselves so fallen, enfeebled, darkened, and corrupted, as to spiritual good, that they see not how to command, and feel not how to perform: there is, therefore, no hope that the man can raise himself from his fall, and replace himself in a state of moral rectitude; for the very principles by which he should rise, are themselves equally fallen with all the rest. Wishing and willing are all that he can exercise; but these, through want of moral energy, are totally inefficient: God has inspired him with the desire to be saved; and this alone places him in a salvable state. There is[ therefore, in the human soul no self reviviscent power; no innate principle which may develope itself, expand, and arise: all is infirm; all is wretched, diseased, and helpless. This view of the wretched state of mankind led one of the primitive fathers to consider the whole human race as one great diseased man, lying helpless, stretched out over the whole inhabited globe, from east to west, from north to south; to heal whom, the omnipotent Physician descended from heaven.
II. This leads me to consider God through the impulse of his own infinite love and innate goodness, providing for the rescue and salvation of the world, by giving His only begotten Son to die for it: — God so loved the world.
It is here asserted, that the love of God was the spring and source of human redemption: and when we consider the fallen, degraded, and corrupt state of the human race, we may rest satisfied, that there it must originate, or nowhere. Man could have no claim on the holiness or justice of his Maker, because he had swerved from his allegiance, and broken his law; nor can we conceive that any other attribute of the Divine nature could be excited in his behalf.
Yet even here is a difficulty; and one of no ordinary magnitude: — how could even this love be moved towards man? According to the best notions we can form of love, it never exists but in a conviction of some real or fancied excellence or amiableness in its object. Excellence may be esteemed for its own sake: beauty and amiableness may be desired on our own account. Love, properly speaking, is composed of desire and esteem: desire to possess, on account of the beauty or amiableness of the object; esteem for the person on account of mental excellence. On tracing the operation of this passion or affection carefully, we shall find that the desire to possess is scarcely ever,’ if at all, excited for mere mental excellence; and that esteem is scarcely ever formed for mere corporeal accomplishments.
The old and the deformed may be esteemed, if they have mental excellencies: and the young and the beautiful may be desired, though they have none. But where there is neither beauty nor excellence, love is never excited.
We may lay it down as an indisputable truth that God never acts without an infinite reason to justify his conduct. He must ever have a suitable motive to induce him to act; and a proper object to justify the motive. He can never act from caprice or partiality, because He acts from infinite intelligence, and can never be influenced by self interest. What motive, therefore, could induce him to place his love upon man? For what could He desire him? For what would he esteem him 1 Here is the difficulty which no kind of assertions can solve. The common assertion, He did because he would — will never satisfy the inquiring mind; and may be as well applied to acts of vindictive justice as to acts of mere mercy; and thus the mind will be left under the full empire of doubt relative to the conduct of God in matters of the most solemn importance, in which its own accountableness and highest interests are particularly concerned; and on which it cannot be too circumstantially informed.
On this inquiry the infinite disparity between God and man will ever present itself to the view — the perfections and independence of the Creator; and the worthlessness and wickedness of the creature. In deep astonishment we may ask with one of old, “What is man that thou shouldest magnify him 1 and that thou shouldesf set thine heart upon him ?.” Job vii, 17. In a word, what 19 the apparent reason why God hath so loved the world?
Strange as it may appear, I am led to conclude that we shall not get a satisfactory answer to this question without having recourse to the creation of man. I will lay down as an axiom, what I think will not be disputed, and what cannot be successfully controverted, that man is the creature of God’s love. Let us figure to ourselves, for we may innocently do it, the state of the Divine nature, previously to the formation of the human being. Infinitely happy, because infinitely perfect and self sufficient, the Supreme Being could feel no wants; to Him
nothing was wanting, nothing needful. As the good man is satisfied from himself from the contemplation of his conscious rectitude; so, comparing infinitely great with small things, the Divine mind was supremely satisfied with the possessions and contemplation of its own unlimited excellencies From unmixed, unsullied goodness; sprang all the endlessly varied attributes, perfections, and excellencies, of the. Divine nature; or rather in this principle all are founded, and) of this each is an especial modification. Benevolence is, however, an affection inseparable from goodness. God the all-sufficient knew, that He could, in a certain way, communicate influences from His own perfections; but the being must resemble Himself, to which the communication could be made. His benevolence, therefore, to communicate and diffuse His own infinite happiness, we may naturally suppose, led Him to form the purpose of creating intelligent beings, to whom such communication could be made. He, therefore, in the exuberance of His eternal goodness, projected the creation of man, whom He formed in His own image, that he might be capable of those communications. Here, then, was a motive worthy of eternal goodness, the desire to communicate its own blessedness; and here was an object worthy of the Divine wisdom and power, the making an intelligent creature, a transcript of His own eternity, O’hSkd ayn meati melohim, Psa. viii, 5, just less than God and endowing him with powers and faculties of the most extraordinary and comprehensive nature. I do not found these observations on the supposition of certain excellencies possessed by man previously to his fall: I found them on what he is now. I found them on his vast and comprehensive understanding; on his astonishing powers of ratiocination; on the extent and endless variety of his imagination or inventive faculty: and I see the proof and exercise of these in his invention of arts and sciences. Though fallen from God, morally degraded and depraved, he has not lost his natural powers: he is yet capable of the most exalted degrees of knowledge in all natural things; and his knowledge is pmoer.
Let us take a cursory view of what he has done, and of what he is capable: — He has numbered the stars of heaven; he has demonstrated the planetary revolutions, and the laws by which they are governed; he has accounted for every apparent anomaly in the various affections of the heavenly bodies; he has measured their distances, determined their solid contents, and weighed the sun!
His researches into the three kingdoms of nature, the animal, vegetable, and mineral, are, for their variety, correctness, and importance, of the highest consideration. The laws of matter, of organized and unorganized beings, and those chemical principles by which all the operations of nature are conducted, have been investigated by him with the utmost success. He has shown the father of the rain, and who has begotten the drops of dew; he has accounted for the formation of the snow, the hail stones, and the ice; and demonstrated the laws by which the tempest and tornado are governed; he has taken the thunder from the clouds; and he plays with the lightnings of heaven!
He has invented those grand subsidiaries of life, the lever, the screw, the wedge, the inclined plane, and the pulley; and by these means multiplied his power beyond conception: he has invented the telescope, and by this instrument has brought the hosts of heaven almost into contact with the earth. By his engines he has acquired a sort of omnipotency over inert matter; and produced effects, which, to the uninstructed mind, present all the appearance of supernatural agency. By his mental energy he has sprung up into illimitable space; and has seen and described those worlds which an infinite skill has planned, and an infinite benevolence sustains. He has proceeded to all describable and assignable limits, and has conceived the, most astonishing relations and affections of space, place, and vacuity; and yet, at all those limits, he has felt himself unlimited; and still can imagine the possibility of worlds and beings, natural and intellectual, in endless variety, beyond the whole. Here is a most extraordinary power — describe all known or conjectured beings, and he can imagine more — point out all the good that even God has promised, and he can desire still greater enjoyments!
After having made the boldest excursions to the heavens, he has. dared even to the heaven of heavens; and demonstrated the being and attributes of God, not only by proofs drawn from His works, but by arguments a priori, from which all created nature is necessarily excluded? These are among the boldest efforts of the human mind.
What has man not done! And of what is he not capable! To such powers and energies, what limits can be assigned? Do not all his acts show that he is fearfully and wonderfully made? And if such be the shadow, what was the substance! If such is fallen man, what was he before his fall! And what is the necessary conclusion from the whole? It is this: the creature in question was made for God’; and nothing less than God can satisfy his infinite desires. His being and his powers give the fullest proof that the saying of the wise man is perfectly correct: “God created man to be immortal; and made him to be an image of his own eternity,” Wisd. ii, 23.
“But is not this overrating human excellence, and enduing man with a dignity and perfection little consistent with the doctrine of the fall?” — I answer, No. I have appealed to facts, and facts within the knowledge of all men: and such facts as amply support all the reasoning which has been founded upon them. But, after all these proofs of natural excellence, we have ten thousand others of his internal moral depravity, and alienation from the Divine life. The general tenor of his moral conduct is an infraction of the laws of* his Creator. While lord of the lower world, he is a slave to the vilest and most degrading passions: he loves not his Maker; and is hostile and oppressive to his fellows. In a word, he is as fearfully and wonderfully vile, as he was fearfully and wonderfully made: and all this shows most forcibly that he stands guilty before God; and is in danger of perishing everlastingly.
Now, in these two things, the physical and intellectual greatness of man, and his moral depravity and baseness, lies the reason of human redemption. As he is guilty, polluted, and morally incapable of helping himself, he stands in need of a Redeemer, to save him from everlasting destruction. As he is one of the noblest works of God; that in which He has “manifested His skill, power, and goodness, in the most singular manner; he is worthy to be redeemed. “For it was not proper,” as St. Athanasius observes, “that those should perish who were once partakers of the image of God.” To save such a creature from such a final destruction of the end for which he was created, was an object worthy the interposition even of God Himself. He knew the powers with which He had endued him; and He loves every work of His hand in proportion to the degree of impression it bears of His own excellence. Though man has sinned, and has become universally depraved; yet, he has lost none of his essential faculties — they still remain: and the grandeur of the ruins shows the unrivalled excellence and perfection of the original building. God cannot forsake the work of His hands: and he still beholds him as radically the noblest of His creatures. And as the attention of God must be fixed on each of His works in proportion to its excellency, and the greatness of the design for which He had formed it; man as the most noble of His creatures, and made for the highest ends, must be the object of His peculiar regards. Of no creature but man is it said, that it was made in the image and likeness of God. Neither the thrones, dominions, principalities, powers! cherubim, seraphim, archangels, or angels, have shared this honour. It is possible, that only one order of created beings could be thus formed. And is it not on this account, that Jesus took not upon Him the nature of the angels, but the seed oi Abraham; him with whom the covenant of redemption was made for Jews and Gentiles? Now, in this superior excellence of the human nature, do we not find a solution of the difficulty, why God passed by angels to redeem man: and why, He so loved the human race, as to send His only begotten Son into the world to die for its redemption?
III. From this it appears that the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus was the only means by which the world could be redeemed.
Before I enter particularly into the discussion of this point, it will be necessary to speak something of Him who is the Author of this redemption; and who is here called God’s only begotten Son. When we examine the oracles of God relative to the Person and character of this Divine being, we shall find that they speak of Him as God, and clothe Him with every attribute essential to the supreme and eternal Deity. I shall quote a few of their sayings without any particular reference: — “He was in the beginning with God; he was God, and all things were made by him and for him, and without him was nothing made that was made; and he is before all things, and by him do all things consist.” He was God manifest in the flesh: for that Word which was God, was made flesh, and tabernacled among us; and in that flesh dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. These are only a few of the sayings of the inspired writers relative to this subject: but they are, full and conclusive; they are oracles from heaven, and have no delusive meaning; and any one of them is sufficient to prove the point. “But did His conduct among men justify this high character V Yes; most amply. From the first impression made by the reported miracles of Christ, Nicodemus could say, “No man can do the miracles which thou dost, except God be with him” And every reasonable man, on the same evidence, would draw the same inference. But we certainly can go much farther, when we find Him by His own authority and power, without the invocation of any foreign help, with a word, or a touch, and in a moment, restoring sight to the blind; speech to the dumb; hearing to the deaf; and health to the diseased; cleansing the lepers, and raising the dead. These are works which could only be effected by the omnipotence of God. This is incontestable. Therefore, while the cleansing of the lepers, and the feeding to the full so many thousands of men and women, with five barley loaves and two small fishes, stand upon such irrefragable testimony as that contained in the four Evangelists, Jesus Christ must appear, in the eye of unbiassed reason, as the Author of nature, the true and only Potentate, the almighty and everlasting God: howsoever obscured He may seem to be, by dwelling in flesh.
In the text He is entitled Tiov aurov tov powysvit), his only begotten Son. It is of some moment to understand the proper meaning of this expression. The term has two general acceptations in Scripture: — it signifies, 1. The only child in a family. 2. The most beloved, or him who is dearest to his parents, though there may be other children in the family. In this sense it answers to the Hebrew vrr yackid, the beloved one, or only one; or what we translate darling, Psa. xxii, 20, “Deliver my darling, twit yechidati, from the power of the dog;” which is by the Septuagint rendered rrjv /aovovg on, my only begotten. In Psa. xxv, 16, we translate the same Hebrew term vrr yachid, “desolate;” but the Septuagint render it povoysvys, only begotten. The same term is translated in the same way, Psa. xxxv, 17, ‘« Rescue — my darling, vrvrv yechidati, from the lions;” Septuagint cwroxarceaVpv — arfoXsovrov <r*]v tKovoyewov,” Rescue my first
born from the lions.” It is used in the same sense by the Apocryphal writers. So in the Wisdom of Solomon chap, vii, 22, “For wisdom, which is the worker of all things taught me; for in her is an understanding spirit, holy, one holy, fwvoyevijs, only begotten. — See the margin, It is in the second of the two senses that it is taken in the text; and answers to dear, highly prized, well or best beloved. — See Matt, hi, 17, “This is my beloved Son” Coloss. i, 13, “He hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” &c. The proper import of the phrase in the text is expressed by St. Mark, ch. xii, 6, “Having yet one Son, his well beloved, he sent him also last unto them” — £va u«ov sxwv «yflw*Fov. This speaks of the same thing as the text does; and sva viov ayairov, the one beloved Son, is exactly the same as tov uiov tov |*ovoysvr), the only begotten Son. Now our blessed Lord is called so as to His human nature, because of the peculiarity of His generation. No human being was ever produced in the same way — in this respect He is the only begotten Son of God. The angel Gabriel, sent from God, thus announces his conception and birth to the Virgin Mary, v The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore, also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God,” Luke i, 35. I have elsewhere demonstrated, by an argument that can never be overthrown, that this is spoken only of the human nature of Christ; for as to His Divine nature, that being properly and essentially God, cannot be either begotten or produced; much less eternally begotten, which, however explained, is in perfect opposition to reason and common sense; and, as far as a sentiment Can be so, is destructive of the eternal and essential Deity of Jesus. By not attending to the proper meaning of only begotten Son, some of the fathers, as well as some of the moderns have fallen into strange absurdities. So Gregory Nyssen begins his fifth oration, In Christi Resurrectionem, with these words, evcpywdupev <fyjxspov <rov jxovoyevnj ©gov. Let us celebrate to day the only begotten God! This is speaking out — but he was probably not aware of the dangerous tendency of such un guarded expressions. It would be easy to multiply quotations more exceptionable, and more dangerous, on this head from many of those primitive fathers who are reputed orthodox: this, however, must be deferred to a future opportunity. But, as the salvation of the whole human race stands or falls with the proper, essential, underived Deity of Jesus Christ, we must take heed lest, while we profess to hold the thing, we destroy the foundation on which it rests.
But it is not in this or such like insulated terms that we are to seek the dignity and Godhead of the Redeemer of mankind. We must have recourse to such scriptures as those which I have already produced: — and we must not confound the Godhead with the manhood: — we must carefully distinguish the two natures in Christ, the Divine and human. As man, he laboured fainted, hungered, was thirsty; ate, drank, slept, suffered, and died. As God, He created all things, governs all, worked the most stupendous miracles; is omniscient, omnipresent, and is the Judge as well as the Maker of the whole human race. As God and man, combined in one Person, He suffered for man; died for man; rose again for man; causes repentance and remission of sins to be preached in the world, in His name; forgives iniquity; dispenses the gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost; is Mediator between God and man; and the sole Head and Governor of His church.
He was man that he might suffer and die for the offences of man; for justice and reason both required that the nature that sinned should suffer for the sin. But He was God, that the suffering might be stamped with an infinite value; and thus, instead of merely suffering on account of sin, might be a sufficient sacrifice and atonement for the sin of the world. Were Jesus to be considered merely as man, then it is evident that his sufferings and death could be no atonement for sin, because they could have no merit. If He be considered merely as God, then he could neither suffer nor die; and, consequently, man must be unredeemed; for without shedding of blood there is no remission: but if we consider Him as God-man, we see Him capable of suffering; and find that the purgation of our sins was by the merit of the blood which He shed in His passion and death. Thus, as one has said, “He was man that he might have blood to shed; and God, that when shed, it might be of infinite value.” But while we distinguish the two natures in Jesus Christ, we must not suppose that the sacred writers always express these two natures by distinct and appropriate names •. — The names given to our blessed Lord are used indifferently to express His whole nature: Jesus, Christ, Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, Son of Man, Son of God, beloved Son, only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour, &c, &c, are all repeatedly and indiscriminately used to designate His whole person as God and man, in reference to the great work of human salvation, which, from its nature, could not be accomplished but by such a union.
All who are taught of God use these terms in the same way. When we speak of Jesus Christ, we do not mean the man, Christ Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary; nor Him who is the fulness of the Godhead bodily: but we mean both; the great God, even our Saviour, Jesus Christ, “who, for us men, and our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnated by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.” In this sense I invariably use these terms, when the contrary is not specified.
IV From all this we may be clearly convinced that sin must be an inconceivable evil, and possesses an indescribable malignity, when it required no less a sacrifice to make atonement for it than that offered by God, manifested in the flesh.
It is said in the text that God gave this glorious Personage, through His love to the world. Now, it is most
104 LOVE 0F G03tp T0 A LOST W0RLDevident from the Scriptures, that this giving implies the intention df God, that He should be considered as a sacrificial offering, and die for the sins of mankind. This our Lord Himself clearly expresses: “The Son of man came — to give his life a ransom for many,” Matt, xx, 28. “I lay down my life for the sheep,” John x, 15. And that this was a sacrificial and atoning death, we find, because without it neither repentance nor remission of sins could be effectually preached in the world. Thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead — that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations. And in His institution of the Eucharist, He says, that the cup represents the “blood of the new covenant, which was shed for the remission of sins,” Matt, xxvi, 27, 28; Luke xxiv, 46, 47. And, because God gave Him for this very purpose, therefore is He called “the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world,” John i, 29. And, on this account, it is said that, “we were’not redeemed with corruptible things — but with the precious blood,” tijmw oilman, the valuable blood “df Christ, as a’lamb without blemish and without spot;” who verily “was foreordained before the foundation of the world, 1 Pet. i, 18-20. And “he gave himself a ransom for all,” 1 Tim. ii, 6. And St. Paul expressly says, that “the great God, even our Saviour Jesus Christ, gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity,” Tit. ii, 13, 14. So that this giving evidently means a sacrificial offering; a giving up life unto death; and this was the very design of God in sending His Son into the world.
And from what is said of this in the Scriptures we learn that such an offering and sacrifice was indispensably necessary: for had it not been so, God would not have required it; and that He did require it, is most clearly and explicitly revealed. The Mosaic institutions deri ved their authority and origin from God. In them He required that the lives of certain animals should be offered at His altar, as a redemption price for the lives of transgressors: and yet in thse “sacrifices, offerings, burnt-offerings,” and “sacrifice” for sin, which were offered according to this” very “law,” He “took no pleasure,” because it “was not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin.” — See Psa. xl, 6-8, collated with Heb. x, 4-7. Nor had these any significance nor could have any effect, but as they referred to the sacrificial offering of the life of our blessed Lord, who was that Lamb of God, (that One which God alone could provide,) that could “take away the sin of the world;” and which was, in the purpose of God, “slain from thefoundation of the world,” Rev. xiii, 8. And, therefore, the apostle justly argues, that the law, in these sacrificial rites, was only the “shadow of the good to come, and not the very image” or substance “of the things;” and, consequently, “could not make the comers thereunto perfect;” could neither pardon nor purify them, Heb. x, 1. The whole sacrificial system being little more than a continual remembrance of the demerit and destructive nature of sin; and of the utter impossibility that any human means could be effectual to remove its guilt and deserved punishment; and therefore, the incarnation, passion, and death, of the Lord Jesus, were intended in God’s infinite counsel, and provided by indescribable love, to do what the law could not perform; — “God so loved the world.” From this view of the subject I am led to contend: —
1. That this sacrifice was indispensably necessary, else God had not required it.
2. That nothing less, or of inferior worth, could have answered the end, else God would have required and provided that; for it would be derogatory to His wisdom to require or provide less than was necessary fully to accomplish His design; for thus the effect could either not be produced; or if produced, be brought about with such a penury of means as would little comport with the dignity and sufficiency of the Divine plenitude; and would leave endless place for doubt in the human breast, whether such scanty means could be considered sufficient to accomplish so great an end,
1. It would be equally inconsistent with God’s wisdom, as well as with His justice, to require more than what was absolutely necessary; as this would imply, 1. A needless display of means to accomplish an end, which, when, produced, could not justify the means employed. 2. It would imply an unjust exaction of more payment than the sum of the debt, and thus be an impeachment of the Divine equity.
2. It appears jrom the nature of this sacrifice, that could it be conceivecLpe&nbfo that a greater sacrifice had been necessary, yet, it must appear impossible that such a one could have been provided: for a greater than God manifested in the flesh, could not have been produced; for God Himself could furnish nothing greater than the Almighty’s Fellow, Zech. xiii, 7 “Awake, Oh sword, against my shepherd, and smite the man that is my Fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts. Smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.” See Matt, xxvi, 3 1, where these words are quoted by our Lord, as referring to His sacrificial death: and see John x, 30, where the same sentiment is delivered in the words, “I and the Father are one,” syw xai o iia<r»jp sv eCfjLsv. Thus, God gave the greatest gift His eternal plenitude could provide: and beyond which Heaven itself had nothing more valuable or glorious to impart.
3. As every thing that God does is of infinite worth and value, and must be sufficient to accomplish the endiov which it was designed; we may, therefore, safely conclude, that “the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross for our redemption, was a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world; for, such a sacrifice God did require, as we have already seen; and it was for this very purpose that He did require it, viz. that they who ’ believe in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life.’” And as there is in it such a fulness of merit, it must excite the strongest confidence in them who flee to lay hold on the hope set before them in the gospel.
4. As nothing less than this infinitely meritorious sacrifice could have been sufficient for the redemption of the world, we see in it the destructive nature of sin, and its (any thing but) infinite demerit. If we look on sin in itself, our minds get soon bounded in their views, by particular acts of transgression, of which we can scarcely perceive the turpitude and demerit; as we neither consider the principle whence they have proceeded, the carnal mind which is enmity against God; nor the nature and dignity of that God against whom they are committed. But when we consider the infinite dignity of Jesus, whose passion and death were required to make atonement for sin, then we shall see it as exceeding sinful, x*&’ wrep€oX*iv, that its vitiosity and turpitude are beyond all comparison and description, Rom. vii, 13.
5. We not only see the exceeding sinfulness of sin in the grandeur of the sacrifice required for its expiation; but we see also, in the dignity of the redeeming nature, the dignity of the nature to be redeemed. Had the human nature been inferior to the angelic nature, the sacrifice of an angel or archangel might have been deemed sufficient to make an atonement for the sin of man: though even this could not have possessed infinite merit; and, therefore, even allowing the inferiority of the nature of man, must have been in many important respects inefficient But so radically great and excellent was the human nature, that nothing less than the incarnation of God could be sufficient: and by this means this being who was made in the Divine image, and in the most intimate union with God, was restored to this image; and consequently to the same union. But as I have spoken particularly on this subject already, see p. 1 5, f need not extend the argument any farther here.
V. But we must not suppose that because such an infinitely meritorious sacrifice has been offered for the salvation of the human race, that therefore they must necessarily be saved, merely because the offering has been made. Our Lord guards us against this error by showing us in the text that the gift of God’s love becomes effectual to the salvation of them only who believe: “that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Now, as what the law speaks, it speaks to them who are under the law; so, what the gospel speaks, it speaks to them who are under the gospel: i. e. who live in a Christian country, and have the opportunity of reading and hearing the word of life. As those who sin under the law, shall be judged by the law; so those who sin under the gospel, shall be judged by the gospel. The text, therefore, does not relate to those heathen countries to which the word of this salvation has not yet been sent.
But what is that believing to which this salvation is annexed? I need not discuss this subject here at large, having already treated it in the most circumstantial manner in a discourse on Acts xvi, 30, intitled Salvation by Faith. It is enough to state, in general terms, that believing here implies giving credit to what God has spoken concerning Christ, His sacrifice, the end for which it was offered, and the way in which it is to be applied in order to its becoming effectual.
1. It does appear to me that it is absolutely necessary to believe the proper and essential Godhead of Christ in order to be convinced that the sacrifice which has been offered is a sufficient sacrifice. Nothing less than a sacrifice of infinite merit can atone for the offences of the whole world; and purchase for mankind an eternal glory; and if Jesus be not properly, essentially and eternally God, He has not offered, He could not bffer such a sacrifice. The sacred writers are nervous and pointed on this subject, as we have already seen:
LOVE OF GOD TO A LOST WORLD. jqcj
nor can I see that any sinner, deeply convinced of his fallen guilty state, can rely on the merit of His sacrifice for salvation, unless he have a plenary conviction of this most glorious and momentous truth. As eternal glory must be of infinite value; if it be purchased by Christ, or be given as the consequence of His meritorious death, then that death must be of infinite merit; or else it could not procure what is of infinite value. So that, could we even suppose the possibility of the pardon of sin without such a merit, we could not possibly believe that eternal glory could be procured without it. It must be granted, if Christ be but a mere man, as some think; or the highest and first of all the creatures of God, as others suppose; let his actions and suffering be whatever they may, they are only the obedience and sufferings of an originated and limited being; and cannot possess infinite and eternal merit: but the contrary has, I hope, been satisfactorily proved.
2. It is necessary to believe that His sufferings were not accidental, or the mere consequence of Jewish malice, and His own inflexible integrity. Jesus was not a martyr, but a sacrifice. Before Jews or their malice existed, His sacrificial death was designed, because it was absolutely necessary; therefore is He called, “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Here is no martyr’ dom, no fortuitous suffering; here is nothing less than a sacrificial offering.
3. It is necessary to believe, to be fully persuaded, that He died for our offences, and rose again for our justification; that this was the very end or object of His incarnation, passion, and death. That He died for every human soul, for all who are partakers of the same nature which He has assumed; that the merit and benefits of His death must necessarily extend to all mankind, because He has assumed that nature which is common to all: — nor could the merit of His death be limited to any particular part, nation, tribe, or individuals, of the vast human jlO LOVE OF GOD TO A LOST WORLD.
family. It is not the nature of a particular nation, tribe, family, or individual, which He has assumed, but the nature of the whole human race: and “God has made of one blood all the nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth,” that all these might be redeemed with one blood; for He is the Kinsman of the whole. The merit of His death must, therefore, extend to every man, unless we can find individuals or families that have not sprung from that stock of which He became incarnated, His death must be infinitely meritorious, and extend in its benefits to all who are partakers of the same nature, because He was God, manifested in the flesh: and to contract or limit that merit, that it should apply only to a few or even to any multitude short of the whole human race, is one of those things which is impossible to God Himself, because it involves a moral contradiction. He could no more limit the merit of that death, than He could limit His own eternity, or contract that love which induced Him to undertake the redemption of a lost world.
4. We must believe that the way in which God saves man by Christ, is the way of faith. No human works can here avail; for were they ever so pure and perfect, they could not possess infinite merit, because their subject is a limited creature. Nor can any kind of sufferings be more available. I have proved elsewhere, that as sufferings are the effects either near or remote, of sin; consequently, they cannot destroy their cause. They can. be no other in all points of view than the miseries of a limited and imperfect creature; and, consequently, cannot have that merit requisite to atone for offences against the Majesty of heaven; or procure for their patient, much less for the whole world, an infinite and eternal weight of glory.
Faith alone, therefore, is left, as the means by which the purchased blessings are applied. Although God is just, yet he can be the Justifier of him that believeth in
LOVE OF GOD TO A LOST WORLD. j j j
Jesus; of him that believes on and trusts to the infinitely meritorious death of the Son of His love. For God never can act without a reason, and such a reason as can amply justify His acting. The death of Christ for man is a sufficient reason why God should forgive the man who reposes all his trust and confidence in Him. And this very thing is a sufficient reason for God’s act, and for marisfaitk.
I dwell the more particularly on the necessity of considering Christ’s death as a meritorious sacrifice, and the necessity of believing in it as such; in order to distinguish the true orthodox or scriptural faith in Christ, from that of Arianism. This latter doctrine, of which most who speak and write seem deplorably ignorant, is built ostensibly on the incomparable merit of Jesus Christ. This is not the Arianism which is spoken of by many of the fathers; for they are continually confounding the doctrine imputed to Arius, with that held by multitudes who professed to be his followers; whose doctrine appears to be, in many respects, nearly the same with what is now called Socinianism. The Arianism which I refer to is that of the present day, which is founded in the following scale of intellectual entities and perfections; and which the doctrine of metaphysics has been called in to accredit and support. “The principal things,” says a late author, “relating to incorporeal essences or spirits, taught us by Revelation, are the following:
1st. That God Himself is a Spirit; and infinitely the most perfect of all others; whose high dignity and singular majesty we call the Godhead or Deity.
2d. That next to God there is another being, originally a pure spiritual essence, which in time assumed thereunto a corporeal substance or body, of a most excellent and superlative nature, who therefore is called the Son of God, or next to Him in dignity.
3d. We are informed also, that in the third degree of the scale of spiritual essences is one of a peculiar nature; j 12 LOVE OF GOD TO A LOST WORLD.
having a near relation to the other two; and, from his office, has the name of Holy Ghost, as being the sanctifier
of men.
4th. At an immense remove from these we find a fourth class of incorporeal substances, called angels by us, but by the heathens, demons, genii, &c, concerning which we read of various denominations, numbers and subordi* nations; which latter is called the hierarchy of angels, and is usually reckoned threefold, viz. The first hierarchy contains the three most honorary orders, called seraphims, cherubims, and thrones; the second hierarchy consists of three intermediate orders, called dominions, virtues, and powers; the third hierarchy contains the three lowest orders, called principalities, archangels, and angels” — ‘Martin’s Philology article Metaphysics, p. 180.
This scheme is formed on the philosophical principle of the graduated scale of intelligences, and of entities in general; which maintains that there is no chasm or break from God, the Fountain of being, to the lowest inorganized particle of matter, or atom: and that all proceed from the indivisible particle of inert matter, through different forms of Organized being, up to animal life; and through different degrees of animal life up to intellectual; and through various degrees of intellectual life up to God, Matter being more perfect as it approaches to, or arises from inertness, to organization; organization being more or less perfect as it approaches to, or recedes from vitality; vitality, being more or less perfect as it approaches to, or recedes from intellectual existence; and intellectual existence, being more or less perfect, as it approaches to, or recedes from the Ens Entium, or God. This Scheme also supposes, that all orders of created beings are connected by certain links which partake of the nature of the beings in the ascending and descending scale :~e. g. animals and vegetables are linked together by the polype, or plant animal; fowls and reptiles, by the bat; fishes and beasts, by the hippopotamus; quadrupeds and
LOVE OF GOD TO A LOST WORLD.. j j ...
man, by the ouran-outang; and man and angels, by men of extraordinary powers, such as Plato among the ancients, and Sir Isaac Newton among the moderns.
This graduated scale of entities is highly illustrative of the manifold wisdom of God; and to it I have no objection, provided the holy and adorable Trinity be left out of the question. From the lowest particle of matter, up to God, the scale may be accurate enough: but when it attempts to graduate the Sacred Persons in the Holy Trinity, saying, as in the preceding extract, that the Son of God is next in dignity to God; that “the Holy Ghost is the third degree in spiritual essences, having a near relation to the other two;” we are not only to receive such assertions with caution, but to reject them in toto, as being utterly repugnant to divine revelation, in which the preceding system says they are taught.
Revelation most certainly teaches us that there are Persons in the Holy Trinity, Matt, iii, 16, 17; but it no where teaches us that there is any inequality among those Persons: for, “In this Trinity none is afore or after other; none is greater or less than another: for, although there be one person of -the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost, yet the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one; the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal; for, the whole Three Persons are co-eternal together, and co-equal.” Thus far the Athanasian creed is consistent with itself and with the Sacred Oracles; and is in point blank dpposed to the Aria’n system, already produced; and to all refinements on that system of origination, begetting, proceeding, &c: though, in other places, in contradiction to the above, it countenances those spurious doctrines.*
But I have intimated above that this doctrine is intend-
* This creed, far from being a work of Athanasius, to whom it does not appear to have been attributed before the seventh century, is probably not the work of any Greek Father. All the ancient copies of it are in Latin; and the Greek copies are evidently translated from them, and are of no
ed to oppose all sacrificial merit in the passion and death of Christ, while it allows Him a moral merit, in consequence of which God gives the covenant of salvation to the Gentiles; and pardons, sanctifies, and saves, all who believe the Christian revelation, and lead a holy life. This is specious, but radically unsolid. Its imposing aspect has deceived many, as it seems to magnify the Lord Jesus, while it strips Him of every kind of merit, but that which He has as a righteous and holy man. This is by no means the view which the Sacred Scrip* tures give us of the merit of Christ, in His passion and death: and appears to me both defective and dangerous.
This scheme has got its best support, and highest colouring, from Dr. J. Taylor, whom I have often quoted in another place, with deserved approbation and delight; but whom I must refer to here with widely opposite feelings. From his Introduction to the Apostolic Writings, I collect the following extracts; which contain, at least, the fair outlines of his scheme.
“God,” says he, “grounded the extraordinary favours enjoyed by the Israelites, on Abraham’s faith and obedience; and selected them out of respect to the piety and virtue of their aficestors.” — Page 4.
“Jesus Christ, having assumed a human body, exhibited a pattern of the most perfect obedience, even unto death; in firm adherence to the truth He taught: and. in consequence of this, He is a pattern of reward, by being raised from the dead; and having a commission to raise all mankind: and to put all into the possession of eternal life who shall, in the last day, be found virtuous and holy.” — lb. p. 25.
“The blood of Christ is the perfect obedience and goodness of Christ: nor is the blood of Christ to be conantiquity. The Benedictines have proved that it is not the work of Athanasius; and think it was written in France. They have entered it at the end of their edition, among the spuria. When, where, or by whom it was written, no man knows.
LOVE OF GOD TO A LOST WORLD. i j 5
sidered only in relation to our Lord’s death and sufferings; as if mere death or suffering were, in itself, of such a nature as to be pleasing or acceptable to God. But His blood implies a character; and it is His blood, as He is a Lamb without spot and blemish, 1 Pet. i, 19; that is, as He is perfectly holy, which is of so great value in the sight of God. His blood is the same as his offering himself without spot to God,” Heb. x, 14. — lb. p. 44.
“What Christ did was neither to incline God to be gracious, nor to disengage Him from any counter obligations, arising from law or justice, or what the sinner’s case might deserve; but what Christ did and suffered was a proper and wise expedient, a pit ground and method of granting mercy to the world.” — lb. p. 47.
“When I say, Christ’s love and obedience is a just foundation of the Divine grace, I know not how to explain myself better than by the following instance: — there have been masters willing, now and then, to grant a relaxation from study, or even to remit deserved punishment, in case any one boy, in behalf of the whole school, or of the offender, would compose and present a distich, or copy of Latin verses: and one may say that the kind verse maker purchased the favour in both cases; or that his learning, ingenuity, industry, goodness, and compliance, with the governor’s will and pleasure, was a just ground or foundation of the pardon and refreshment; or a proper reason of granting them.” — lb. p. 49, note.
“Agreeably to this scheme Abraham is proposed as a bright example of obedience and reward; and his obedience is given as the reason of conferring blessings upon his posterity: and particularly of having the Messiah, the Redeemer, and greatest blessings of mankind, descend from him.” — lb. p. 50.
From all this most exceptionable, most meagre, and inefficient scheme of salvation, we gather that, as God called Abraham from his Gentilism, revealed to him the knowledge of His name and nature, and made him emi-I iq LOVE OF GOD TO A LOST WORLD.
nent for piety and probity, that He might constitute him the head of a numerous posterity, whom He could bless, protect, and save, in the most extraordinary manner, on account of the rewardable righteousness and merit of their progenitor: so, He has sent Jesus Christ to enlighten and instruct the whole world, Jews and Gentiles; a Person, who in every respect did the will of God, and was obedient to the Divine will, even unto death; and who, therefore, like “the kind verse maker,” in the preceding illustrative instance, (which appears to have been made for the purpose,) may be said to have purchased the favour of God for the offending world; so that His supereminent goodness and compliance with the will of the Supreme Governor, is a just ground and foundation of pardon and salvation to the world, and a proper reason for granting them!
This is a sort of rewardable moral merit, in reference to the world, just similar to that of Abraham, in behalf of the Jewish people; from which every idea of sacrificial merit and atonement is excluded. On this ground the martyred Isaiah, and the massacred Baptist, might have afforded to the benevolence of God a sufficient ground and proper reason for the remission of the sins of men: for, as the life of one man is as much, personally considered, as the life of another; and obedience unto death, as much marked the conduct of the evangelical prophet of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, and the holy Baptist, as that of our blessed Lord, if divested of His Godhead and Eternity, as this scheme supposes; might not they, or any of them, have been as complete a ground why God should forgive the sins of the world, as the obedient life and death of Christ? Again, if Abraham’s merit could extend to the whole Jewish race, why not to the Gentiles, m whose behalf chiefly the covenant was made? for it was made with him, while yet uncircumcised; and the pledge on God’s part was, that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. Now, if this will hold good on the above reasoning, what need was there of the miraculous conception, the agony and bloody sweat, the cross and passion, the death and burial, the glorious resurrection and ascension, of the blessed Jesus? Why such an extraordinary expenditure of means and energies: why such an apparatus of prophecy, legal ordinances, sacrificial institutions, and miraculous interpositions; to keep in view the Divine purpose; to commemorate the facts by which it was prefigured; preserve the regal line from which the promised Seed was to issue; and finally, to exhibit it to the world; if so much less, so indescribably less, might have accomplished the purpose? Was not all this
“Just like an ocean into tempest toss’d,
To waft a feather or to drown a. fly?”
But to see more fully the utter inefncacy of this pretendedly sufficient moral merit, let us hear what our Lord says in the text: “God gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish.” Was any thing like this ever addressed to the Jews, in reference to Abraham? Were they ever promised remission of sins, provided they believed on this friend of God? Were they ever commanded to believe on him at all? Were they not ever led to consider that their sacrifices, where the life-blood of the animal was poured out in behalf of the offerer, were the grand cause of the remission of deserved punishment, and the forgiveness of sin? Did they not know that without shedding of blood there was no remission; and that the sacrificial code was the essential part of the Jewish system? And do not we see, from the concurrent testimony both of the Old and New covenants, that all these sacrifices typified the offering of the life of Jesus Christ upon the cross, by which He obtained eternal redemption for us; so that he who believeth on him, as having *’ died for his offences, and risen again for his justification, is freely justified from all things, from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses V
S|8 LOVE OF GOD TO A LOST WORLD.
I contend, therefore, that this one circumstance, the command to believe on Christ crucified for the remission of sins, even leaving His Godhead entirely out of the ques-, tion, utterly destroys the pretended parallelism between Abraham and Jesus; and completely saps, subverts, and ruins this splendid edifice. It is to that faith which credits, trusts to, and relies upon, the meritorious blood (*-«**’” a»ftar») of our Lord Jesus, which He sweat in the garden, and poured out upon the cross, as a full atonement and sacrifice for sin, that pardon and eternal glory are promised; and promised not on account of the merit of the faith, but the merit of the Sacrifice, which faith has apprehended.
VI. This brings me to the last thing proposed, viz, That they who thus believe receive a double benefit: — 1. They are exempted from eternal perdition : — -That they should not perish. 2. They are brought to eternal glory: — That they should have everlasting life.
I have stated, that this double benefit proves: — 1. That man is guilty; and, therefore, exposed to punishment and perdition. 2. That he is unholy; and, therefore, unfit for glory.
1. That they should not perish, iva pj cMroXurai. Though we generally connect the idea of eternal destruction with the word perish, and use it to signify to run into decay, or ruin; to be cut off, to be killed, to die, and to be annihilated; yet, the literal meaning of the word is very simple; it is compounded of per, by or through; and eo, I go; and signifies no more than passing out of sight. So, in Isa. lvii, 1, “The righteous perisheth,” Justus periit Thus it signifies to be removed by death; to pass out of sight into the invisible world, or paradise of God.
The original word is compounded of a*o intensive, and oXXujw or oXXuw, to destroy, to kill, to lose: hence, the word cmtoXXujm signifies to be utterly lost; not implying any ex* tinction of being, but the rendering that being useless; totally defeating the end and purpose of life. As God
LOVE OF GOD TO A LOST WORLD. j j c,
created man for Himself, and to be finally happy with Himself; and he cannot be united to Him unless he be holy; he that sins and neglects the means of his recovery, loses the end of his living; he also passes by from the sight of men: he goes into the invisible world; but it is the blackness of darkness for ever. He is not annihilated: even his body rises in the great day; but his resurrection is to shame and everlasting contempt. He goes to hell, the place of the perdition of ungodly men; and there, “his worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” This is what the Scripture means by perdition, or perishing: this is the portion of the sinner who dies unsaved; and it was to prevent this, that Jesus Christ shed His sacrificial blood. As man is a sinner, he is in danger of this perdition; for this is the punishment which the Divine just-* ice has awarded to transgression: and from this punishment he who, with a penitent heart, believes, as before described, on the Son of God, is truly justified from all things; and shall not thus perish. This is the first part of the benefit..
But, Secondly, he is to have eternal life. His being will not only be continued, but his vfEhh-being shall be secured: he shall be fitted for, and received into glory. This is called everlasting life, §w*iv aiwviov, the life that always lives, q. d. asi wv, it is always in being. In a word, it is eternal; for, as the design of God was to unite men eternally to Himself, and He is the Author and Source of life; consequently, he who is made holy, and is thus united to God, ever lives in and by this eternal life. This is a life that cannot perish; a life that can never know decay.
2. Thus we see — 1. That as man is guilty, he needs that pardon which preserves from the punishment of perdition. 2. As he is impure and unholy in his nature, he needs to be washed, to be cleansed from all unrighteousness, and made a partaker of the Divine nature; have the very thoughts of his heart cleansed by the inspiration
22Q LOVE OF GOD TO A LOST WORLD.
of the Holy Spirit, that he may be fit to dwell with God for ever and ever. His being sanctified throughout body, soul, and spirit, prepares him for this state; and this is the; second part of the double benefit which he receives by believing on Christ Jesus.
3. This double benefit comprises the two grand doc« trines relative to salvation* which enter almost into every Christian’s creed: —
1. Justification, or the pardon of sin; through which we are no longer obnoxious to punishment, and, therefore, saved from perdition.
2. Sanctification, or the purification of the soul from all unrighteousness, by which it is prepared for eternal glory. Without justification, or pardon, it must perish: without sanctification, or holiness, it cannot see God,
The first of these great works is usually attributed to the shedding of Christ ’s blood, Acts xx, 28;^lom. v, 9. See also Eph. i, 7; Coloss. i, 14; Heb. ix, 12:’ the second to the infusion of His Spirit, 2 Thess. ii, 13; 1 Pet. i, 2; Rom. xv, 1 6. But this very Spirit comes through Christ; and is, therefore, called the Spirit of Christ, and the gift of Christ, John xv, 26; xvi, 7; and comes from the Father in the name of Christ, John xiv, 16, 26. And His gifts and graces were to be communicated in consequence of Christ’s final triumph, John vii, 39; Acts ii, 33; Eph. iv, 8.
Now we must not suppose that these two blessings are so necessarily connected, that one must follow the other. Justification, or Pardon of sin, implies no more in itself than the removal of that guilt and condemnation which exposed the sinner to eternal perdition. This, in itself, gives no right to eternal glory.
Sanctification, or complete holiness, is a meetness for glory; but neither does it give any right to heaven. Pardon of sin, as an act of God’s mercy, does not imply the purification of the soul: the first removes the guilt, the second takes away the disposition that led to those
LOVE OF GOD TO A LOST WORLD. 12j
acts of transgression by which this guilt had been contracted.
Who supposes that the king, when through his royal prerogative and clemency he pardons a man who has been capitally convicted of forgery, takes as fully away the covetous principle which led him to commit the act, as by his pardon he takes away his liability to the punishment of the gallows? I produce this instance merely to show, that pardon and holiness are not so necessarily connected, as that one must imply the other. Yet there is every reason to believe, and genuine experience in Divine things confirms it, that in the act of justification, when the Spirit of God, the Spirit of holiness, is givenjto bear witness with our spirits that we are the children of God; all the outlines of the Divine image, are drawn upon the soul: and it is the work of the Holy Spirit, in our sanctification to touch off, and Jill up, all those outlines, till every feature of the Divine likeness is filled up and perfected. Therefore, no believer should ever rest till he find the whole body of sin and death destroyed; and till the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made him free from the law of sin and death.
I have said that neither justification, nor sanctification, gives a right to glory. Mere innocence is not entitled to reward; and mere meetness, for a thing or place, is no proof of right to possession. The fact is, that the right top that glory comes merely by Jesus Christ, and is the effect of His infinite merit: and here the excellence and perfection of that merit appear. The merit must be infinite that can rescue the soul from deserved endless punishment; the merit must be infinite that can give a man a title to eternal glory. Now, the text states, that an exemption from endless torments, and a title to, and meetness for, eternal glory, comes by Christ, as the gift of God’s love. And, as to be saved from eternal perdition is of infinite value to an immortal soul, and as the enjoyment of God, in His own heavens, throughout eternity, is of infinite worth, and both these are attributed to Christ’s giving Himself for.us; therefore, Christ’s merit must be i%finite and it could not be so, were He not properly and essentially God. Thus we are led back to the point from which we set out; and the postulates on the premises amount to demonstration in the conclusion, We were obliged to commence with the Deity of Christ; as most obviously nothing less could have been adequate to the work which was given Him to do: and the work which He has done, an.d the blessings which He has acquired, demonstrate His infinite merit, and thus prove the point of His essential Divinity.
J have only one word to add to what has already been said; and that shall refer to the incomprehensibility of that love which induced God to give His Son for the redemption of the world. God so loved the world, says the text, ourwijycMrtjtfsv 6 ©eos: no description of this love is here attempted; its length, breadth, depth, and height, are like the nature of that God in whom it resides; all indescribable, because all incomprehensible. To the same subject the apostle recurs, 1 Epist. iii, 1,” Behold what manner of love, “tffawxrj Mayo/iew,” the Father hath bestowed upon us!” in the 6utw, so, of the gospel, and the tfoTav, what manner, of the epistle, God has put an eternity of meaning; and has Mt a subject for everlasting contemplation, wonder, and praise, to angels and men: for, though not directly interested in the subject, yet these things the angels desire to look into. And to see them in all their relations, connexions, and endlessly continued results, would be sufficient to constitute a heaven of heavens to all beatified spirits, were there no other subjects relative to creation, providence, and the economy of grace, to be investigated in a future state.
I shall now conclude with the principles with which I commenced. From the text, and the reasonings on it, it appears evident; —
1. That the world, the whole human race, was in a ruinous condemned state, in danger of perishing ’ everlast-LOVE OP GOD TO A LOST WORLD. i
ingly; and without ‘power to rescue itself from the impending destruction.
2. That God, through the impulse of His own infinite love and innate goodness, provided for its rescue and salvation, by giving His only begotten Son, to die for it.
3. That the sacrificial death of Jesus was the only means by which the redemption of the world could have been effected; and, such is the nature of this Sacrifice, that it is absolutely sufficient to accomplish this gracious design; nothing greater could be given, and nothing less could have been availing.
4. That sin is an inconceivable evil, and possesses an indescribable malignity, when it required no less a sacrifice to make atonement for it than that offered by God manifested in the flesh.
5. That no man is saved through this Sacrifice but he who believes; i. e. who credits what God has spoken concerning this Christ / His sacrifice; the end for which it was offered; and the way in which it is to be applied in order to its becoming effectual.
6. That they who believe secure a double benefit: — 1. They are exempted from eternal perdition — that they should not perish, — 2. They are brought to eternal glory — that they should have everlasting life: this double benefit proving, — 1. That man is guilty, is exposed to punishment, and needs pardon, — 2. That man is impure and unholy; and, therefore, unfit for the glory of God, — 3. That the merit must be infinite which procured for a fallen world such ineffable privileges, — and, 4. That man owes to God his Creator, to God his Redeemer, and, to God his Sanctifier, tfre utmost gratitude, the most affectionate obedience, and unbounded praises, throughout eternity.
Therefore, ‘To Him who hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father, to Him be glory and dominion, for ever and ever — Amen!”
Millbrook, March 28, 1818.