Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

ated good in the beginning, and in themselves are good still. Not the fault, but the perversion and subjection of the creature, are here complained of. A beauty, variety, and order in the works of God, are still discernible, sufficient to fill an attentive and enlightened mind with wonder, love, and praise; though it must be allowed, that sin has not only alienated our hearts, and disabled our faculties, so that we cannot rightly contemplate God and his works, but has likewise occasioned a considerable alteration in the visible state of things. One instance is expressly specified, Gen. iii. 16.

The positive cause is ascribed to Him who has subjected the same. These words may bear three different senses, in agreement with the current doctrine of the Scripture. The prime author of the mischief was Satan. Full of malice and enmity against God and his creatures, he attempted to bring evil into this lower world, and was permitted to succeed; the Lord purposing to over-rule it to his own glory. But for a season, the work of the devil has been to introduce and maintain a sad scene of vanity and misery. Our first father Adam was the direct and immediate cause of the entrance of sin and vanity into the creation. He was created upright, and all things good about him but he listened to Satan, and sinned, and by his sin

:

Brought death into the world, and all our woe;

for we were concerned in his transgression, as he was our head, both in nature and law. But we may refer the Him to God; and this seems best to suit the apostle's design here. God, the righteous Judge, subjected the creature to vanity, as the just consequence and desert of man's disobedience. But he has subjected it in hope; with a reserve in fa

vour of his own people, by which, though they are liable to trouble, they are secured from the penal desert of sin, and the vanity of the creature is by his wisdom over-ruled to wise and gracious purposes. The earth, and all in it, was made for the sake of man: for his sin it was first cursed, and afterwards destroyed by water; and sin at last shall set it on fire. But God who is rich in mercy appointed a people to himself out of the fallen race. For their sakes, and as a theatre whereon to display the wonders of his providence and grace, it was renewed after the flood, and still continues; but not in its `original state; there are marks of the evil of sin, and of God's displeasure against it, wherever we turn our eyes. This truth is witnessed to by every thing without us, and within us. But there shall be a deliverance to those who fear him; and by his word and Spirit, he teaches them to receive instruction and benefit even from this root of bitterness. Even now they are the sons of God; but it doth not yet appear what they will be when he shall appear, and be admired in all them that be- lieve. Then they shall be manifested, and then the creature also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption.

How blind, then, are they who expect happiness from the creature, which is itself subject to vanity, and who are meanly content with the present state of things? It is because they are estranged from God, have no sense of his excellency, no regard for his glory, no knowledge of their own proper good! They are farther removed from the desires they ought to have, in their present circumstances, than the brute creation, or the very ground they walk on; for all things but man have an instinct or natural principle to answer the end for which they were appointed. Fire and hail, wind and storm, fulfil the word of God, though

we poor mortals dare to disobey it. But if the secret voice of the whole creation desires the consummation of all things, surely they who have the light of God's word and Spirit will look forward, and long for that glorious day. Amen, Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

I am,

&c.

LETTER XXX.

On the Right Use of the Law.

Dear Sir,

You

OU desire my thoughts on 1 Tim. i. 8. "We "know the law is good, if a man use it lawful“ly,” and I willingly comply. I do not mean to

send you a sermon on the text; yet a little attention to method may not be improper upon this subject, though in a letter to a friend. Ignorance of the nature and design of the law is at the bottom of most religious mistakes. This is the root of self-righteousness, the grand reason why the gospel of Christ is no more regarded, and the cause of that uncertainty and inconsistence in many, who, though they profess themselves teachers, understand not what they say, nor whereof they affirm. If we previously state what is meant by the law, and by what means we know the law to be good, I think it will from these premises be easy to conclude what it is to use the law lawfully.

The law, in many passages of the Old Testament, signifies the whole revelation of the will of God, as in Psalm i. 2. and xix. 7. But the law, in a strict sense, is contradistinguished from the gospel. Thus the apostle considers it at large in his epistles to the

Romans and Galatians. I think it evident, that, in the passage you have proposed, the apostle is speaking of the law of Moses. But to have a clearer view of the subject, it may be proper to look back to a more early period.

The law of God, then, in the largest sense, is that rule, or prescribed course, which he has appointed for his creatures, according to their several natures and capacities, that they may answer the end for which he has created them. Thus it comprehends the inanimate creation. The wind or storm fulfil his word, or law. He hath appointed the moon for its seasons; and the sun knoweth its going down, or going forth, and performs all its revolutions according to its Maker's pleasure. If we could suppose the sun was an intelligent being, and should refuse to shine, or should wander from the station in which God had placed it, it would then be a transgressor of the law. But there is no such disorder in the natural world. The law of God in this sense, or what many choose to call the law of nature, is no other than the impression of God's power, whereby all things continue and act according to his will from the beginning: for " he "spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it "stood fast."

The animals, destitute of reason, are likewise under a law; that is, God has given them instincts according to their several kinds, for their support and preservation, to which they invariably conform. A wisdom unspeakably superior to all the contrivance of man disposes their concernments, and is visible in the structure of a bird's-nest, or the economy of a bee-hive. But this wisdom is restrained within narrow limits; they act without any remote design, and are incapable either of good or evil in a moral sense.

When God created man, he taught him more

than the beasts of the earth, and made him wiser than the fowls of heaven. He formed him for himself, breathed into him a spirit immortal and incapable of dissolution, gave him a capacity not to be satisfied with any creature-good, endued him with an understanding, will, and affections, which qualified him for the knowledge and service of his Maker, and a life of communion with him. The law of God, therefore, concerning man, is that rule of disposition and conduct to which a creature so constituted ought to conform; so that the end of his creation might be answered, and the wisdom of God be manifested in him and by him. Man's continuance in this regular and happy state was not necessary as it is in the creatures, who having no rational faculties have properly no choice, but act under the immediate agency of divine power. As man was capable of continuing in the state in which he was created, so he was capable of forsaking it. He did so, and sinned, by eating the forbidden fruit. We are not to suppose that this prohibition was the whole of the law of Adam, so that if he had abstained from the tree of knowledge, he might in other respects have done (as we say) what he pleased. This injunction was the test of his obedience: and while he regarded it, he could have no desire contrary to holiness, because his nature was hely. But when he broke through it, he broke through the whole law, and stood guilty of idolatry, blasphemy, rebellion, and murder. The divine light in his soul was extinguished, the image of God defaced; he became like Satan, whom he had obeyed, and lost his power to keep that law which was connected with his happiness. Yet still the law remained in force: the blessed God could not lose his right to that reverence, love, and obedience, which must always be due to him from his intelligent creatures. Thus Adam became a trans

« EdellinenJatka »