Part 4
and sanction of it ! Either man must suffer, or the holy law be expunged, and for ever out of date. And is it not better man should eternally smart under his crime, than any dishonourable reflections of unrighteousness be cast upon the law, and of folly and want of foresight upon the lawgiver ?
Not to punish would be to approve the devil's lie, and justify the creature's revolt ; it would be a condemnation of thy own law as unrighteous, and a sentencing thy own wisdom as imprudent. Better man should for ever bear the punishment of his offence, than God bear the dishonour of his attri butes ; better man should be miserable, than God should be unrighteous, unwise, false, and tamely bear the denial of his sovereignty. But what ad vantage would it be to gratify mercy by pardoning the malefactor ? Besides the irreparable dishonour to the law, the falsifying thy veracity in not exe cuting the denounced threatening, he would receive encouragement by such a grace to spurn more at thy sovereignty, and oppose thy holiness by run ning on in a course of sin with hopes of impunity. If the creature be restored, it cannot be expected that he that hath fared so well, after the breach of it, should bo very careful of a future observance ; his easy re-ad mission would abet him in the repetition of his offence, and thou shalt soon find him cast off all moral dependence on thee. Shall he be restored with out any condition or covenant ? He is a creature not to be governed with'
54 CHAENOCK'S WOKKS. [Eon. XYI. 27.
out a law, and a law is not to be enacted without a penalty. What future regard will he have to thy precept, or what fear will he have of thy threat
ening, if his crime be so lightly passed over ? Is it the stability of thy word ? What reason will he have to give credit to that which he hath found already disregarded by thyself? Thy truth in future threatenings will be of no force with him who hath experienced thy laying it aside in the former. It is necessary therefore that the rebellious creature should be punished, for the preservation of the honour of the law and the honour of the lawgiver, with all those perfections that are united in the composure of it.
Secondly, Mercy doth not want a plea. It is true, indeed, the sin of man wants not its aggravations : he hath slighted thy goodness, and accepted thy
enemy as his counsellor ; but it was not a pure act of his own, as the devil's revolt was. He had a tempter, and the devil had none ; he had, I acknow ledge, an understanding to know thy will, and a power to obey it, yet it was mutable, and had a capacity to fall. It was no difficult task that was set him, nor a hard yoke that was laid upon [him] ; yet he had a brutish part, as well as a rational, and sense as well as soul, whereas the fallen angel was a pure intellectual spirit. Did God create the world to suffer an eternal dishonour, in letting himself be outwitted by Satan, and his work wrested out of his hands ? Shall the work of eternal counsel presently sink into irreparable
destruction, and the honour of an Almighty and wise work be lost in the ruin of the creature ? This would seem contrary to the nature of thy good ness, to make man only to render him miserable ; to design him in his crea tion for the service of the devil, and not for the service of his Creator. What else could be the issue, if the chief work of thy hand, defaced presently after the erecting, should for ever remain in this marred condition ; what can be expected upon the continuance of his misery, but a perpetual hatred and enmity of thy creature ? Did God in creation design his being hated, or his being loved by his creature ? Shall God make a holy law, and have no obe dience to that law from that creature whom it was made to govern ? Shall the curious workmanship of God, and the excellent engravings of the law of nature in his heart, be so soon defaced, and remain in that blotted condition for ever ? This fall thou couldst not but in the treasures of thy infinite knowledge foresee ; why hadst thou goodness then to create him in an in tegrity, if thou wouldst not have mercy to pity him in misery ? Shall thy
enemy for ever trample upon the honour of thy work, and triumph over the glory of God, and applaud himself in the success of his subtilty ? Shall thy creature only passively glorify thee as an avenger, and not actively as a compassionater ? Am not I a perfection of thy nature as well as justice ? Shall justice engross all, and I never come into view ? It is resolved
already, that the fallen angels shall be no subjects for me to exercise myself upon, and I have now less reason than before to plead for them. They fell with a full consent of will, without any motion from another ; and, not content with their own apostasy, they envy thee, and thy glory upon earth, as well as in heaven, and have drawn into their party the best part of the creation
below. Shall Satan plunge the whole creation in the same irreparable ruin with himself? If the creature be restored, will he contract a boldness in sin by impunity ? Hast thou not a grace to render him ingenuous in obe dience, as well as a compassion to recover him from misery ? What will hinder, but that such a grace, which hath established the standing angels, may establish this recovered creature ? If I am utterly excluded from exer
cising myself on men, as I have been from devils, a whole species is lost ; nay, I can never expect to appear upon the stage. If thou wilt quite ruin him by justice, and create another world, and another man, if he stand, thy
ROM; XVI. 27.] GOD'S WISDOM. 55
bounty will be eminent ; yet there is no room for mercy to act upon unless, by the commission of sin, he exposeth himself to misery ; and if sin enter into another world, I have little hopes to be heard then if I am rejected now.
Worlds will be perpetually created by goodness, wisdom, and power ; sin entering into these worlds, will be perpetually punished by justice ; and mercy, which is a perfection of thy nature, will for ever be commanded silence, and lie wrapt up in an eternal darkness. Take occasion now, there fore, to expose me to the knowledge of thy creature, since, without misery, mercy can never set foot into the world.
Mercy pleads, if man be ruined, the creation is in vain ; justice pleads, if man be not sentenced, the law is in vain ; truth backs justice, and grace abets mercy. What shall be done in this seeming contradiction ? Mercy is not manifested, if man be not pardoned ; justice will complain, if man be not punished.
Thirdly, An expedient is found out by the wisdom of God to answer these demands, and adjust the differences between them. The wisdom of God answers, I will satisfy your pleas. The pleas of justice shall be satisfied in punishing, and the pleas of mercy shall be received in pardoning. Justice shall not complain for want of punishment, nor mercy for want of compassion. I will have an infinite sacrifice to content justice, and the virtue and fruit of that sacrifice shall delight mercy. Here shall justice have punishment to accept, and mercy shall have pardon to bestow. The rights of both are preserved, and the demands of both amicably accorded in punish ment and pardon, by transferring the punishment of our crimes upon a surety, exacting a recompence from his blood by justice, and conferring life and salvation upon us by mercy, without the expense of one drop of our own. Thus is justice satisfied in its severities, and mercy in its indulgences. The riches of grace are twisted with the terrors of wrath. The bowels of mercy are wound about the flaming sword of justice, and the sword of justice protects and secures the bowels of mercy. Thus is God righteous without being cruel, and merciful without being unjust ; his righteousness inviolable, and the world recoverable. Thus is a resplendent mercy brought forth in the midst of all the curses, confusions, and wrath threatened to the offender.
Thus is the admirable temperament found out by the wisdom of God, his
justice is honoured in the sufferings of man's surety, and his mercy is honoured in the application of the propitiation to the offender. Rom.
iii. 24, 25, ' Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ ; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that
are past, through the forbearance of God.1 Had we in our persons been sacrifices to justice, mercy had for ever been unknown ; had we been solely fostered by mercy, justice had for ever been secluded ; had we, being guilty, been absolved, mercy might have rejoiced, and justice might have com plained ; had we been solely punished, justice would have triumphed, and mercy grieved. But by this medium of redemption, neither hath ground of complaint. Justice hath nothing to charge when the punishment is inflicted, mercy hath whereof to boast when the surety is accepted. The debt of the sinner is transferred upon the surety, that the merit of the surety may be conferred upon the sinner ; so that God now deals with our sins in a way of consuming justice, and with our persons in a way of relieving mercy. It is highly better and more glorious than if the claim of one had been granted,
with the exclusion of the demand of the other. It had then been either an unrighteous mercy or a merciless justice, it is now a righteous mercy and a
merciful justice.
56 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ron. XVI. 27.
Secondly, The wisdom of God appears in the subject or person wherein these were accorded, the second person in the blessed Trinity. There was a
congruity in the Son's undertaking and effecting it rather than any other person, according to the order of the persons, and the several functions of the persons, as represented in Scripture. The Father, after creation, is the lawgiver, and presents man with the image of his own holiness, and the way
to his creatures' happiness ; but after the fall, man was too impotent to perform the law, and too polluted to enjoy a felicity. Redemption was then necessary ; not that it was necessary for God to redeem man, but it was
necessary for man's happiness that he should be recovered. To this the second person is appointed, that by communion with him, man might derive a happiness, and be brought again to God. But since man was blind in his understanding, and an enemy in his will to God, there must be the exert ing of a virtue to enlighten his mind, and bend his will to understand, and accept of this redemption. And this work is assigned to the third person, the Holy Ghost.
First, It was not congruous that the Father should assume human nature, and suffer in it for the redemption of man. He was first in order ; he was the lawgiver, and therefore to be the judge. As lawgiver, it was not con
venient he should stand in stead of the law-breaker ; and as a judge, it was as little convenient he should be reputed a malefactor. That he who had made a law against sin, denounced a penalty upon the commission of sin, and whose part it was actually to punish the sinner, should become sin for the wilful transgressor of this law, he being the rector, how could he be an advocate and intercessor to himself? How could he be the judge and the sacrifice? A judge, and yet a mediator to himself? If he had been the sacrifice, there must be some person to examine the validity of it, and pro nounce the sentence of acceptance. Was it agreeable that the Son should sit upon a throne of judgment, and the Father stand at the bar and be responsible to the Son ; that the Son should be in the place of a governor, and the Father in the place of the criminal; that the Father should be bruised by the Son, as the Son was by the Father, Isa. liii. 10; that the
Son should awaken a sword against the Father, as the Father did against the Son, Zech. xiii. 7; that the Father should be sent by the Son, as the Son was by the Father? Mai. ii. 1. The order of the persons in the blessed Trinity had been inverted and disturbed. Had the Father been sent, he had not been first in order ; the sender is before the person sent. As the Father begets, and the Son is begotten, John i. 14, so the Father sends, and the Son is sent. He whose order is to send cannot properly send himself.
Secondly, Nor was it congruous that the Spirit should be sent upon this affair. If the Holy Ghost had been sent to redeem us, and the Son to apply that redemption to us, the order of the persons had also been inverted : the Spirit then, who was third in order, had been second in operation. The Son would then have received of the Spirit, as the Spirit doth now of Christ, and shews unto us, John xvi. 14. As the Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son, so the proper function and operation of it was in order after the operations of the Father and the Son. Had the Spirit been sent to redeem us, and the Son sent by the Father and the Spirit to apply that redemption to us, the Son in his acts had proceeded from [the Father and the Spirit ; the Spirit, as sender, had been in order before the Son : whereas
the Spirit is called ' the Spirit of Christ,' as sent by Christ from the Father, Gal. iv. 6, John xv. 26 ; but as the order of the works, so the order of the persons is preserved in their several operations. Creation, and a law to govern the creature, precedes redemption. Nothing, or that which hath no
ROM. -XVI. 27. j GOD'S WISDOM. 57
being, is not capable of a redeemed being. Redemption supposeth the existence and the misery of a person redeemed. As creation precedes redemption, so redemption precedes the application of it. As redemption supposeth the being of the creature, so application of redemption supposeth the efficacy of redemption. According to the order of these works is the order of the operations of the three persons. Creation belongs to the Father, the first person ; redemption, the second work, is the function of the Son, the second person ; application, the third work, is the office of the Holy Ghost, the third person.* The Father orders it, the Son acts it, the Holy Ghost applies it. He purifies our souls to understand, believe, and love these mysteries. He forms Christ in the womb of the soul, as he did the body of Christ in the womb of the Virgin. As the Spirit of God moved upon the waters, to garnish and adorn the world, after the matter of it was formed, Gen. i. 2, so he moves upon the heart, to supple it to a compliance with Christ, and draws the lineaments of the new creation in the soul, after
the foundation is laid.
The Son pays the price that was due from us to God, and the Spirit is the earnest of the promises of life and glory purchased by the merit of that death. It is to be observed that the Father, under the dispensation of the law, proposed the commands, with the promises and threatenings, to the understandings of men ; and Christ, under the dispensation of grace, when he was upon the earth, proposeth the gospel as the means of salvation, exhorts to faith as the condition of salvation ; but it was neither the function of the one or the other to display such an efficacy in the understanding and will, to make men believe and obey, and therefore there were such few con versions in the time of Christ by his miracles. But this work was reserved for the fuller and brighter appearance of the Spirit, whose office it was to convince the world of the necessity of a Redeemer, because of their lost condition ; of the person of the Redeemer, the Son of God ; of the sufficiency and efficacy of redemption, because of his righteousness and acceptation by the Father. The wisdom of God is seen in preparing and presenting the objects, and then in making impression of them upon the subjects he intends. And thus is the order of the three persons preserved.
Thirdly, The second person had the greatest congruity to this work. He by whom God created the world was most conveniently employed in restoring the defaced world : who more fit to recover it from its lapsed state than he that had erected it in its primitive state ? Heb. i. 2. He was the light of men in creation, John i. 4, and therefore it was most reasonable he should be the light of men in redemption. Who fitter to reform the divine image than he that first formed it ? Who fitter to speak for us to God, than he who was the Word ? John i. i. Who could better intercede with the Father than he who was the only begotten and beloved Son ? Who so fit to redeem the forfeited inheritance as the heir of all things ? Who fitter and better to prevail for us to have the right of children than he that possessed it by nature ? We fell from being the sons of God, and who fitter to introduce us into an adopted state, than the Son of God ? Herein was an expression of the richer grace, because the first sin was immediately against the wisdom
of God, by an ambitious affectation of a wisdom equal to God, that that person, who was the wisdom of God, should be made a sacrifice for the ex piation of the sin against wisdom.
Thirdly, The wisdom of God is seen in the two natures of Christ, whereby this redemption was accomplished. The union of the two natures was the foundation of the union of God and the fallen creature.
* Amyraut, Moral, torn. v. p. 478-480.
58 CHAENOCK'S WORKS. [Ron. XVI. 27.
First, The union itself is admirable : the word is made flesh, John i. 14. One equal with God, in the form of a servant, Phil. ii. 7. When the apostle speaks of ' God manifested in the flesh,' he speaks ' the wisdom of God in a mystery,' 1 Tim. iii. 16. That which is incomprehensible to the angels, which they never imagined before it was revealed, which perhaps they never knew till they beheld it. I am sure, under the law the figures of the cherubims were placed in the sanctuary with their faces looking towards the propitiatory, in a perpetual posture of contemplation and admiration, Exod. xxxvii. 9, to which the apostle alludes, 1 Pet. i. 12.
Mysterious is the wisdom of God to unite finite and infinite, almightiness and weakness, immortality and mortality, immutability with a thing subject to change ; to have a nature from eternity, and yet a nature subject to the revolutions of time ; a nature to make a law, and a nature to be subjected to the law ; to be God blessed for ever in the bosom of his Father, and an infant exposed to calamities from the womb of his mother : terms seeming most distant from union, most incapable of conjunction, to shake hands together, to be most intimately conjoined ; glory and vileness, fulness and emptiness, heaven and earth ; the creature with the Creator ; he that made all things, in one person with a nature that is made ; Immanuel, God and man in one ; that which is most spiritual to partake of that which is carnal flesh and blood, Heb. ii. 14 ; one with the Father in his Godhead, one with us in his manhood ; the Godhead to be in him in the fullest perfection, and the manhood in the greatest purity ; the creature one with the Creator, and the Creator one with the creature. Thus is the incomprehensible wisdom of
God declared in the Word being made flesh.
Secondly, In the manner of this union. A union of two natures, yet no
natural union. It transcends all the unions visible among creatures ;* it is not like the union of stones in a building, or of two pieces of timber fastened together, which touch one another only in their superficies and outside, without any intimacy with one another. By such a kind of union, God would not be man : the Word could not so be made flesh ; nor is it union of parts to the whole, as the members and the body ; the members are parts, the body is the whole ; for the whole results from the parts, and depends upon the parts ; but Christ being God, is independent upon anything. The parts are in order of nature before the whole, but nothing can be in order of nature before God. Nor is it as the union of two liquors, as when wine and water are mixed together, for they are so incorporated, as not to be distinguished from one another ; no man can tell which particle is wine, and which is water. But the properties of the divine nature are distinguishable from the properties of the human. Nor is it as the union of the soul and body, so as that the Deity is the form of the humanity, as the soul is the form of the body ; for as the soul is but a part of the man, so the divinity would be then but a part of the humanity ; and as a form, or the soul, is in a state of imperfection without that which it is to inform ; so the divinity of Christ would have been imperfect till it had assumed the humanity ; and so the perfection of an eternal Deity would have depended on a creature of time.
This union of two natures in Christ is incomprehensible ; and it is a mys tery we cannot arrive to the top of, how the divine nature, which is the same with that of the Father and the Holy Ghost, should be united to the human nature, without its being said that the Father and the Holy Ghost were united to the flesh ; but the Scripture doth not encourage any such notion : it speaks only of the Word, the person of the Word being made flesh ; and
in his being made flesh, distinguisheth him from the Father, as ' the only
* Savana, Triump. Crucis, lib. iii. cap. vii. p. 211.
ROM. -XVI. 27.] GOD'S WISDOM. 59
begotten of the Father,' John i. 14. The person of the Son was the term of this union.
1st, This union doth not confound the properties of the Deity, and those of the humanity. They remain distinct and entire in each other. The Deity is not changed into flesh, nor the flesh transformed into God. They are distinct and yet united ; they are conjoined, and yet unmixed ; the dues of either nature are preserved. It is impossible that the majesty of the divinity can receive an alteration. It is as impossible that the meanness of the humanity can receive the impressions of the Deity, so as to be changed into it ; and a creature be metamorphosed into the Creator, and temporary flesh become eternal, and finite mount up into infinity. As the soul and body are united, and make one person, yet the soul is not changed into the perfections of the body, nor the body into the perfections of the soul. There is a change made in the humanity by being advanced to a more excellent union, but not in the Deity ; as a change is made in the air, when it is enlightened by the sun, not in the sun, which communicates that brightness
to the air. Athanasias makes the burning bush to be a type of Christ's incarnation, Exod. iii. 2, the fire signifying the divine nature, and the bush the human. The bush is a branch springing up from the earth, and the fire descends from heaven ; as the bush was united to the fire, yet was not hurt by the flame, nor converted into fire, there remained a difference between the bush and the fire, yet the properties of the fire shined in the bush, so that the whole bush seemed to be on fire. So in the incarnation of Christ, the human nature is not swallowed up by the divine, nor changed into it, nor confounded with it ; but so united, that the properties of both remain firm, two are so become one that they remain two still. One person in two natures, containing the glorious perfections of the divine, and the weaknesses of the human. The fulness of the Deity dwells bodily in Christ, Col. ii. 9.
2dly, The divine nature is united to every part of the humanity, the whole divinity to the whole humanity ; so that no part but may be said to be the member of God, as well as the blood is said to be the blood of God, Acts xx. 28. By the same reason it may be said, the hand of God, the eye of God, the arm of God. As God is infinitely present everywhere, so as to be excluded from no place, so is the Deity hypostatically every where in the humanity, not excluded from any part of it, as the light of the sun in every part of the air, as a sparkling splendour in every part of the diamond. Therefore it is concluded by all that acknowledge the deity of Christ, that when his soul was separated from the body, the deity, re mained united both to soul and body, as light doth in every part of a broken crystal.
Sdly, Therefore perpetually united : Col. ii. 9, The ' fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily.' It dwells in him, not lodges in him as a traveller in an inn, it resides in him as a fixed habitation. As God describes the perpetuity of his presence in the ark by his habitation or dwelling in it, Exod. xxix. 45, so doth the apostle the inseparable duration of the Deity in the humanity, and the indissoluble union of the humanity with the Deity. It was united on earth, it remains united in heaven. It was not an image or an apparition, as the tongues wherein the Spirit came upon the apostle were a temporary representation, not a thing united perpetually to the person of the Holy Ghost.
<ithly, It was a personal union. It was not an union of persons, though .it was a personal union. So Davenant expounds, Col. ii. 9, Christ did
not take the person of man, but the nature of man, into subsistence with
60 CHAKNOCK'S WOBKS. [RoM. XVI. 27.
himself. The body and soul of Christ were not united in themselves, had no subsistence in themselves, till they were united to the person of the Son of God. If the person of a man were united to him, the human nature would have been the nature of the person so united to him, and not the nature of the Son of God : Heb. ii. 14, 16, ' Forasmuch then as the children are par takers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.' He took flesh and blood to be his own nature,
perpetually to subsist in the person of the Aoyos, which must be by a per sonal union, or no way ; the deity united to the humanity, and both natures to be one person. This is the mysterious and manifold wisdom of God.
Thirdly, The end of this union. 1st, He was hereby fitted to be mediator. He hath something like to man, and something like to God. If he were in all things only like to man, he would be at a distance from God. If he were in all things only like to
God, he would be at a distance from man. He is a true mediator between mortal sinners and the immortal righteous one. He was near to us by the infirmities of our nature, and near to God by the perfections of the divine ; as near to God in his nature, as to us in ours ; as near to us in our nature as he is to God in the divine. Nothing that belongs to the Deity, but he possesses ; nothing that belongs to the human nature, but he is clothed with.
He had both the nature which had offended, and that nature which was offended ; a nature to please God, and] a nature to pleasure us ; a nature whereby he experimentally knew the excellency of God, which was injured, and understood the glory due to him, and consequently the greatness of the offence, which was to be measured by the dignity of his person, and a nature whereby he might be sensible of the miseries contracted by, and endure the calamities due to, the offender, that he might both have compas sion on him, and make due satisfaction for him. He had two distinct
natures, capable of the affections and sentiments of the two personshe was to accord ; he was a just judge of the rights of the one, and the demerit of
the other.* He could not have this full and perfect understanding, if he
did not possess the perfections of the one, and the qualities of the other. The one fitted him for ' things appertaining to God,' Heb. v. 1, and the other furnished him with a sense of the ' infirmities of man,' Heb. iv. 15.
2dly, He was hereby fitted for the working out the happiness of man. A divine nature to communicate to man, and a human nature to carry up to God.
1st, He had a nature whereby to suffer for us, and a nature whereby to be meritorious in those sufferings ; a nature to make him capable to bear the penalty, and a nature to make his sufferings sufficient for all that em braced him ; a nature capable to be exposed to the flames of divine wrath, and another nature uncapable to be crushed by the weight, or consumed by the heat of it : a human nature to suffer, and stand a sacrifice in the stead of man ; a divine nature to sanctify these sufferings, and fill the nostrils of God with a sweet savour, and thereby atone his wrath ; the one to bear the stroke due to us, and the other to add merit to his sufferings for us. Had he not been man, he could not have filled our place in suffering ; and could he otherwise have suffered, his sufferings had not been applicable to us ; and had he not been God, his sufferings had not been meritoriously and fruitfully applicable. Had not his blood been the blood of God, it had been
* Gomb. de relig. p. 42.
BOM. XVI. 27.] GOD'S WISDOM. 61
of as little advantage as the blood of an ordinary man, or the blood of the legal sacrifices, Heb. ix. 12. Nothing less than God could have satisfied God for the injury done by man. Nothing less than God could have counter vailed the torments due to the offending creature. Nothing less than God
could have rescued us out of the hands of the jailor, too powerful for us.
2dly, He had therefore a nature to be compassionate to us, and victorious for us ; a nature sensibly to compassionate us, and another nature to render those compassions effectual for our relief; he had the compassions
of our nature to pity us, and the patience of the divine nature to bear with us. He hath the affections of c, man to us, and the power of a God for us ; a nature to discern the devil for us, and another nature to be sensible of the working of the devil in us, and against us. If he had been only God, he would not have had an experimental sense of our misery ; and if he had been only man, he could not have vanquished our enemies. Had he been only God, he could not have died ; and had he been only man, he could not have conquered death.
8dly, A nature efficaciously to instruct us. As man, he was to instruct us sensibly ; as God, he was to instruct us infallibly. A nature whereby he might converse with us, and a nature whereby he might influence us in those converses. A human mouth to minister instructions to man, and a
divine power to imprint it with efficacy.
4thly, A nature to be a pattern to us. A pattern of grace as man, as Adam was to have been to his posterity. A divine nature shining in the human, the image of the invisible God in the glass of our flesh, that he might be a perfect copy for our imitation: Col. i. 15, 'The image of the invisible God, and the first-born of every creature' in conjunction.* The virtues of the Deity are sweetened and tempered by the union with the humanity, as the beams of the sun are by shining through a coloured glass, which condescends more to the weakness of our eye.
Thus the perfections of the invisible God, breaking through the first-born
of every creature, glittering in Christ's created state, became more sensible for contemplation by our mind, and more imitable for conformity in our practice.
5thly, A nature to be a ground of confidence in our approach to God. A nature wherein we may behold him, and wherein we may approach to him ; a nature for our comfort, and a nature for our confidence. Had he been only man, he had been too feeble to assure us; and had he been only God, he had been too high to attract us ; but now we are allured by his human nature, and assured by his divine, in our drawing near to heaven. Com munion with God was desired by us, but our guilt stifled our hopes, and the infinite excellency of the divine nature would have damped our hopes of speeding ; but since these two natures, so far distant, are met in a marriageknot, we have a ground of hope, nay, an earnest that the Creator and believ ing creature shall meet and converse together.
And since our sins are expiated by the death of the human nature in conjunction with the divine, our guilt, upon believing, shall not hinder us from this comfortable approach. Had he been only man, he could not have assured us an approach to God ; had he been only God, his justice would not have admitted us to approach to him ; he had been too terrible for guilty persons, and too holy for polluted persons to come near to him ; but by being made man, his justice is tempered; and by his being God and man, his mercy is insured. A human nature he had, one with us, that we might be related to God as one with him.
* Amyraut, Moral, torn. v. p468, 469.
62 CHAENOCK'S WOKKS. [Ron. XVI. 27.
Gthly, A nature to derive all good to us. Had he not been man, we had had no share or part in him ; a satisfaction by him had not been imputed to us. If he were not God, he could not communicate to us divine graces and eternal happiness, he could not have had power to convey so great a good to us had he been only man ; and he could not have done it, according to the rule of inflexible righteousness, had he been only God. As man, he is the way of conveyance ; as God, he is the spring of conveyance. From this grace of union, and the grace of unction, we find rivers of waters flow
ing to ' make glad the city of God.' Believers are his branches, and draw sap from him as he is their root in his human nature, and have an endless duration of it from his divine. Had he not been man, he had not been in a state to obey the law ; had he not been God as well as man, his obedience could not have been valuable to be imputed to us.
How should this mystery be studied by us, which would afford us both admiration and content ! admiration in the incomprehensibleness of it, con tentment in the fitness of the mediator. By this wisdom of God we receive the props of our faith, and the fruits of joy and peace. Wisdom consists in choosing fit means, and conducting them in such a method as may reach with good success the variety of marks which are aimed at. Thus hath the wisdom of God set forth a mediator suited to our wants, fitted for our supplies, and ordered so the whole affair by the union of these two natures in the person of the Redeemer, that there could be no disappointment by all the bustle hell and hellish instruments could raise against it.
Fourthly, The wisdom of God is seen in this way of redemption, in vindi cating the honour and righteousness of the law, both as to precept and penalty. The first and irreversible design of the law was obedience ; the penalty of the law had only entrance upon transgression ; obedience was the design, and the penalty was added to enforce the observation of the precept : Gen.
ii. 17, ' Thou shalt not eat,' there is the precept; 'In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt die,' there is the penalty. Obedience was our debt to the law as creatures, punishment was due from the law to us as sinners. We were bound to endure the penalty for our first transgression, but the penalty did not cancel the bond of future obedience. The penalty had not been incurred without transgressing the precept, yet the precept was not abrogated by enduring the penalty. Since man so soon revolted, and by his revolt fell under the threatening, the justice of the law had been
honoured by man's sufferings, but the holiness and equity of the law had been honoured by man's obedience. The wisdom of God finds out a medium to satisfy both : the justice of the law is preserved in the execution of the penalty, and the holiness of the law is honoured in the observance of the precept.
The life of our Saviour is a conformity to the precept, and his death is a conformity to the penalty ; the precepts are exactly performed, and the curse punctually executed, by a voluntary observing the one, and a voluntary under going the other. It is obeyed as if it had not been transgressed, and executed as if it had not been obeyed.
It became the wisdom, justice, and holiness of God, as the rector of the world, to exact it, Heb. ii. 10; and it became the holiness of the mediator to fulfil all the righteousness of the law, Rom. viii. 3, Mat. iii. 15. And thus the honour of the law was vindicated in all the parts of it. The trans gression of the law was condemned in the flesh of the Redeemer, and the righteousness of the law was fulfilled in his person ; and both these acts of obedience, being counted as one righteousness, and imputed to the believing sinner, rendered him a subject to the law, both in. its preceptive and mina-
EOM. XVI. 27.] GOD'S WISDOM. 68
tory part. By Adam's sinful acting we were made sinners, and by Christ's righteous acting we are made righteous : Rom. v. 19, ' As by one man's dis obedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous.' The law was obeyed by him, that ' the righteousness of it might be fulfilled in us,' Rom. viii. 4. It is not fulfilled in us, or in our actions, by inherency, but fulfilled in us by imputation of that righteous ness which was exactly fulfilled by another. As he died for us, and rose again for us, so he lived for us. The commands of the law were as well observed for us, as the threatenings of the law were endured for us. This justification of a sinner, with the preservation of the holiness of the law in
truth, in the inward parts, in sincerity of intention as well as the conformity in action, is the wisdom of God, the gospel wisdom which David desires to know : Ps. li. 6, ' Thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom ;' or, as some render it, ' the hidden things of wisdom.' Not an inherent wisdom in the acknow ledgments of his sin, which he had confessed before, but the wisdom of God in providing a medicine, so as to keep up the holiness of the law in the observance of it in truth, and the averting the judgment due to the sinner. In and by this way, methodised by the wisdom of God, all doubts and troubles are discharged. Naturally, if we take a view of the law to behold its holiness and justice, and then of our hearts, to see the contrariety in them to the command, and the pollution repugnant to its holiness, and after this cast our eyes upward and behold a flaming sword edged with curses and wrath, is there any matter but that of terror afforded by any of these ? But when we behold in the life of Christ a conformity to the mandatory part of the law, and in the cross of Christ a sustaining the minatory part of the law, this wisdom of God gives a well-grounded and rational dismiss to all the horrors that can seize upon us.
Fifthly, The wisdom of God in redemption is visible in manifesting two contrary affections at the same time, and in one act : the greatest hatred of sin, and the greatest love to the sinner. In this way he punishes the sin without ruining the sinner, and repairs the ruins of the sinner without indulging the sin. Here is eternal love and eternal hatred ; a condemning the sin to what it merited, and an advancing the sinner to what he could not expect. Herein is the choicest love and the deepest hatred manifest ; an implacableness against the sin, and a placableness to the sinner. His hatred of sin hath been discovered in other ways : in punishing the devil without remedy ; sentencing man to an expulsion from paradise, though seduced by another ; in accursing the serpent, an irrational creature, though but a misguided instrument. The whole tenor of his threatenings declare his loathing of sin, and the sprinklings of his judgments in the world, and the horrible expectations of terrified consciences, confirm it. But what are all these testimonies to the highest evidence that can possibly be given, in the sheath ing the sword of his wrath in the heart of his Son ! If a father should order his son to take a mean garb below his dignity, order him to be dragged to prison, seem to throw off all affection of a father for the severity of a judge, condemn his son to a horrible death, be a spectator of his bleeding
condition, withhold his hand from assuaging his misery, regard it rather with joy than sorrow, give him a bitter cup to drink, and stand by to see him drink it off to the bottom, dregs and all, and flash frowns in his face all the while, and this not for any fault of his own, but the rebellion of some
subjects he undertook for, and that the offenders might have a pardon sealed by the blood of the son, the sufferer, all this would evidence his detestation
of the rebellion, and his affection to the rebels ; his hatred to their crime,
64 CHABNOCK'S WORKS. [Ron. XYI. 27.
and his love to their welfare. This did God do : he delivered Christ up for our offences, Rom. viii. 32 ; the Father gave him the cup, John xviii. 18 ; the Lord bruised him with pleasure, Isa. liii. 10, and that for sin. He transferred upon the shoulders of his Son the pain we had merited, that the criminal might be restored to the place he had forfeited. He hates the sin so as to condemn it for ever, and wrap it up in the curse he had threatened, and loves the sinner believing and repenting, so as to mount him to an expectation of a happiness exceeding the first state both in glory and per petuity. Instead of an earthly paradise, lays the foundation of an heavenly mansion, brings forth a weight of glory from a weight of misery, separates the comfortable light of the sun from the scorching heat we had deserved
at his hands. Thus hath God's hatred of sin been manifested. He is at an eternal defiance with sin, yet nearer in alliance with the sinner than he was
before the revolt; as if man's miserable fall had endeared him to the Judge. This is the wisdom and prudence of grace wherein God hath abounded, Eph. i. 8 ; a wisdom in twisting the happy restoration of the broken amity with an everlasting curse upon that which made the breach, both upon sin the cause, and upon Satan the seducer to it. Thus is hatred and love in their highest glory manifested together : hatred to sin, in the death of Christ, more than if the torments of hell had been undergone by the sinner ; and love to the sinner, more than if he had, by an absolute and simple bounty, bestowed upon him the possession of heaven ; because the gift of his Son for such an end is a greater token of his boundless affections than a reinstating man in paradise. Thus is the wisdom of God seen in redemp tion ; consuming the sin, and recovering the sinner.
Sixthly, The wisdom of God is evident in overturning the devil's empire by the nature he had vanquished, and by ways quite contrary to what that malicious spirit could imagine. The devil, indeed, read his own doom in the first promise, and found his ruin resolved upon by the means of the seed
of the woman, but by what seed was not so easily known to him ;* and the methods whereby it was to be brought about was a mystery kept secret from the malicious devils, since it was not discovered to the obedient angels. He might know from Isaiah liii. that the Redeemer was assured to divide the spoil with the strong, rescue a part of the lost creation out of his hands ; and that this was to be effected by making his soul an offering for sin. But could he imagine which way his soul was to be made such an offering ? He shrewdly suspected Christ, just after his inauguration into his office by bap tism, to be the Son of God ; but did he ever dream that the Messiah, by dying as a reputed malefactor, should be a sacrifice for the expiation of the sin the devil had introduced by his subtilty ? Did he ever imagine a cross should dispossess him of his crown, and that dying groans should wrest the victory out of his hands ?
He was conquered by that nature he had cast headlong into ruin. A woman, by his subtilty, was the occasion of our death ; and woman, by the conduct of the only wise God, brings forth the author of our life and the conqueror of our enemies. The flesh of the old Adam had infected us, and the flesh of the new Adam cures us : 1 Cor. xv. 21, 'By man came death ; by man also came the resurrection from the dead.' We are killed by the old Adam, and raised by the new ; as among the Israelites, a fiery serpent gave the wound, and a brazen serpent administers the cure. The nature that was deceived bruiseth the deceiver, and razeth up the foundations of
* And indeed the heathen oracles, managed by the devils, declared that they were not long to hold their sceptre in the world, but the Hebrew child should vanquish them.
ROM. XVI. 27.] GOD'S WISDOM. 65
his kingdom. Satan is defeated by the counsels he took to secure his pos
session, and loses the victory by the same means whereby he thought to preserve it.
His tempting the Jews to the sin of crucifying the Son of God, had a contrary success to his tempting Adam to eat of the tree. The first death he brought upon Adam ruined us, and the death he brought by his instru ments upon the second Adam restored us. By a tree, if one may so say, he had triumphed over the world, and by the fruit of a tree, one hanging upon a tree, he is discharged of his power over us : Heb. ii. 14, ' Through death he destroyed him that had the power of death.' And thus the devil ruins his own kingdom while he thinks to confirm and enlarge it, and is defeated by his own policy, whereby he thought to continue the world under his chains, and deprive the Creator of the world of his purposed honour. What deeper counsel could he resolve upon for his own security, than to be instrumental in the death of him who was God, the terror of the devil him self, and to bring the Redeemer of the world to expire with disgrace in the sight of a multitude of men ! Thus did the wisdom of God shine forth in restoring us by methods seemingly repugnant to the end he aimed at, and above the suspicion of a subtle devil, whom he intended to baffle.
Could he imagine that we should be healed by stripes, quickened by death, purified by blood, crowned by a cross, advanced to the highest honour ty the lowest humility, comforted by sorrows, glorified by disgrace, absolved by condemnation, and made rich by poverty ? That the sweetest honey should at once spring out of the belly of a dead lion, the lion of the tribe of Judah, and out of the bosom of the living God ? How wonderful is this wisdom of God ! That the seed of the woman, born of a mean virgin, brought forth in a stable, spending his days in affliction, misery, and poverty, without any
pomp and splendour, passing some time in a carpenter's shop, Mark vi. 6, with carpenter's tools, and afterwards exposed to a horrible and disgraceful death, should by this way pull down the gates of hell, subvert the kingdom of the devil, and be the hammer to break in pieces that power which he had so long exercised over the world ! Thus became he the author of our life, by being bound for a while in the chains of death, and arrived to a princi pality over the most malicious powers by being a prisoner for us, and the anvil of their rage and fury.
Seventhly, The wisdom of God appears in giving us this way the surest ground of comfort, and the strongest incentive to obedience. The rebel is reconciled, and the rebellion shamed ; God is propitiated and the sinner sancti fied, by the same blood. What can more contribute to our comfort and con
fidence than God's richest gift to us ? What can more inflame our love to him than our recovery from death by the oblation of his Son to misery and death for us ? It doth as much engage our duty as secure our happiness. It presents God glorious and gracious, and therefore every way fit to be trusted in regard of the interest of his own glory in it, and in regard of the effusions of his grace by it. It renders the creature obliged in the highest manner, and so awakens his industry to the strictest and noblest obedience. Nothing so effectual as a crucified Christ to wean us from sin and stifle all motions of despair, a means, in regard of the justice signalised in it, to make man to hate the sin which had ruined him, and a means, in regard of the
love expressed, to make him delight in that law he had violated. 2 Cor.
v. 14, 15, ' The love of Christ,' and therefore the love of God expressed in
it, ' constrains us no longer to live to ourselves.'
1st, It is a ground of the highest comfort and confidence in God. Since he hath given such an evidence of his impartial truth to his threaten-
VOL. II. E
66 CHABNOCK'S WORKS. [Ron. XVI. 27.
ing for the honour of his justice, we need not question but he will be as punctual to his promise for the honour of his mercy. It is a ground of confidence in God, since he hath redeemed us in such a way as glorifies the steadiness of his veracity, as well as the severity of his justice ; we may well trust him for the performance of his promise, since we have experience of the execution of his threatening ; his merciful truth will as much engage him to accomplish the one, as his just truth did to inflict the other. The goodness which shone forth in weaker rays in the creation, breaks out with
stronger beams in redemption. And the mercy which before the appearance of Christ was manifested in some small rivulets, diffuseth himself like a boundless ocean. That God that was our creator is our redeemer, the
' repairer of our breaches, and the restorer of our paths to dwell in,' and the plenteous redemption from all iniquity, manifested in the incarnation and passion of the Son of God, is much more a ground of hope in the Lord than
it was in the past ages, when it could not be said, ' The Lord hath,' but
' the Lord shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities,' Ps. cxxx. 8. It is a full warrant to cast ourselves into his arms.
2dly, An incentive to obedience. 1st, The commands of the gospel require the obedience of the creature. There is not one precept in the gospel which interferes with any rule in the
law, but strengthens it, and represents it in its true exactness. The heat to scorch us is allayed, but the light to direct us is not extinguished. Not the least allowance to any sin is granted, not the least affection to any sin is indulged. The law is tempered by the gospel, but not nulled and cast out
of doors by it ; it enacts that none but those that are sanctified shall be glorified ; that there must be grace here, if we expect glory hereafter ; that
we must not presume to expect an admittance to the vision of God's face, unless our souls be clothed with a robe of holiness, Heb. xii. 14 ; it requires an obedience to the whole law in our intention and purpose, and an endeavour to observe it in our actions ; it promotes the honour of God, and ordains an universal charity among men ; it reveals the whole counsel of God, and furnisheth men with the holiest laws.
2dly, It presents to us the exactest pattern for our obedience. The redeeming person is not only a propitiation for the sin, but a pattern to the sinner, 1 Peter ii. 21. The conscience of man, after the fall of Adam, approved of the reason of the law, but by the corruption of nature man had no strength to perform the law. The possibility of keeping the law by human nature is evidenced by the appearance and life of the Redeemer, and an assurance given that it shall be advanced to such a state as to be able to observe it. We aspire to it in this life, and have hopes to attain it in a future. And while we are here, the actor of our redemption is the copy for our imitation. The pattern to imitate is greater than the law to be ruled by. What a lustre did his virtues cast about the world ! How attractive are his graces ! With what high examples for all duties hath he furnished us out of the copy of his life !
Sdly, It presents us with the strongest motives to obedience. Titus
ii. 11, 12, ' The grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness.' What chains bind faster and closer than love ? Here is love to our nature, in his incar nation ; love to us through enemies, in his death and passion ; encourage ments to obedience by the proffers of pardon for former rebellions. By the disobedience of man God introduceth his redeeming grace, and engageth his creature to more ingenuous and excellent returns than his innocent state could oblige him to. In his created state he had goodness to move him, he hath the same goodness now to oblige him as a creature, and a greater
BOM. XVI. 27.] GOD'S WISDOM. 67
love and mercy to oblige him as a repaired creature; and the terror of justice is taken off, which might envenom his heart as a criminal. In his revolted state, he had misery to discourage him; in his redeemed state, he hath love to attract him. Without such a way. black despair had seized upon the creature exposed to a remediless misery, and God would have had no returns of love from the best of his earthly works ; but if any spark of ingenuity be left, they will be excited by the efficacy of this argument.
This willingness of God to receive returning sinners is manifested in the highest degree, and the willingness of a sinner to return to him in duty hath the strongest engagements. He hath done as much to encourage our obedience as to illustrate his glory. We cannot conceive what could be done greater for the salvation of our souls, and consequently what could have been done more to enforce our observance. We have a Redeeemer, as man to copy it to us, and as God to perfect us in it. It would make the heart of
any to tremble, to wound him that hath provided such a salve for our sores, and to make grace a warrant for rebellion, motives capable to form rocks into a flexibleness. Thus is the wisdom of God seen in giving us a ground of the surest confidence, and furnishing us with incentives to the greatest obedience, by the horrors of wrath, death, and sufferings of our Saviour.
Eighthly, The wisdom of God is apparent in the condition he hath settled for the enjoying the fruits of redemption ; and this is faith, a wise and reasonable condition, and the concomitants of it.
1st, In that it is suited to man's lapsed state, and God's glory. Inno cence is not required here ; that had been a condition impossible in its own nature after the fall. The rejecting of mercy is now only condemning where mercy is proposed. Had the condition of perfection in works been required, it had rather been a condemnation than redemption. Works are not
demanded, whereby the creature might 'ascribe anything to himself, but a condition which continues in man a sense of his apostasy, abates all aspir ing pride, and makes the reward of grace, not of debt ; a condition whereby mercy is owned, and the creature emptied ; flesh silenced in the dust, and God set upon his throne of grace and authority ; the creature brought to the lowest debasement, and divine glory raised to the highest pitch. The creature is brought to acknowledge mercy, and seal to justice, to own the holiness of God in the hatred of sin, the justice of God in the punishment of
sin, and the mercy of God in the pardoning of sin; a condition that despoils nature of all its pretended excellency ; beats down the glory of man at the foot of God, 1 Cor. i. 29, 81. It subjects the reason and will of man to the wisdom and authority of God ; it brings the creature to an unreserved submission and entire resignation. God is made the sovereign cause of all ;
the creature continued in his emptiness, and reduced to a greater depen dence upon God than by a creation ; depending upon him for a constant influx, for an entire happiness : a condition that renders God glorious in the creature, and the fallen creature happy in God ; God glorious in his condescension to man, and man happy in his emptiness before God.
Faith is made the condition of man's recovery, that ' the lofty looks of man might be humbled, and the haughtiness of man be pulled down,' Isa. ii. 11. That every towering imagination might be levelled, 2 Cor. x. 5. Man must have all from without doors ; he must not live upon himself, but
upon another's allowance. He must stand to the provision of God, and be a perpetual suitor at his gates.
2<%, A condition opposite to that which was the cause of the fall. We fell from God by an unbelief of the threatening, he recovers us by a
belief of the promise ; by unbelief we laid the foundation of God's dishonour,.
68 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [RoM. XVI. 27.
by faith therefore God exalts the glory of his free grace. We lost ourselves by a desire of self-dependence, and our return is ordered by a way of selfemptiness. It is reasonable we should be restored in a way contrary to that whereby we fell. We sinned by a refusal of cleaving to God ; it is a part of divine wisdom to restore us in a denial of our own righteousness and
strength.* Man having sinned by pride, the wisdom of God humbles him (saith one) at the very root of the tree of knowledge, and makes him deny his own understanding, and submit to faith, or else for ever to lose his desired felicity.
Sdly, It is a condition suited to the common sentiment and custom of the world. There is more of belief than reason in the world ; all instructors
and masters in sciences and arts require first a belief in their disciples, and a resignation of their understandings and wills to them. And it is the wis dom of God to require that of man, which his own reason makes him sub mit to another, which is his fellow-creature. He therefore that quarrels with the condition of faith must quarrel with all the world, since belief is the be ginning of all knowledge ; f yea, and most of the knowledge in the world may rather come under the title of belief than of knowledge, for what we think we know this day we may find from others such arguments as may stagger our knowledge, and make us doubt of that we thought ourselves certain of before ; nay, sometimes we change our opinions ourselves, with out any instructor, and see a reason to entertain an opinion quite contrary to what we had before ; and, if we found a general judgment of others to vote against what we think we know, it would make us give the less credit to ourselves and our sentiments. All knowledge in the world is only a belief, depending upon the testimony or arguings of others ; for, indeed, it may be
said of all men, as in Job, chap. viii. 9, ' We are but of yesterday, and know nothing.' Since therefore belief is so universal a thing in the world, the wisdom of God requires that of us which every man must count reasonable, or render himself utterly ignorant of anything ; it is a condition that is common to all religions. All religions are founded upon a belief ; unless men did believe future things, they would not hope nor fear. A belief and resignation was required in all the idolatries in the world, so that God re quires nothing but what an universal custom of the world gives its suffrage to the reasonableness of ; indeed, justifying faith is not suited to the senti ments of men, but that faith which must precede justifying, a belief of the doctrine, though not comprehended by reason, is common to the custom of the world.J It is no less madness not to submit our reason to faith, than not to regulate our fancies by reason.
4thly, This condition of faith and repentance is suited to the con sciences of men. The law of nature teaches us that we are bound to believe every revelation from God, when it is made known to us ; and not only to assent to it as true, but embrace it as good. This nature dictates that we are as much obliged to believe God, because of his truth, as to love
him because of his goodness. Every man's reason tells him he cannot obey a precept, nor depend upon a promise, unless be believes both the one and
the other ; no man's conscience but will inform him, upon hearing the reve lation of God, concerning his excellent contrivance of redemption, and the way to enjoy it, that it is very reasonable he should strip off all affections to sin, lie down in sorrow, and bewail what he hath done amiss against so tender a God. Can you expect that any man that promises you a great honour or a rich donative, should demand less of you than to trust his word, bear an affection to him, and return him kindness ? Can any less be ex-
* Laud against Fisher, p. 5. t Bradward. p. 28. } Janeway, p. 83.
ROM. XVI. 27.] GOD'S WISDOM. 69
pected by a prince than obedience from a pardoned subject, and a redeemed captive ? If you have injured any man in his body, estate, reputation, would you not count it a reasonable condition for thejpartaking of his clemency and forgiveness, to express a hearty sorrow for it, and a resolution not to fall into the like crime again ? Such are the conditions of the gospel, suited to the consciences of men.
5thly, The wisdom of God appears in that this condition was only likely to attain the end. There are but two common heads appointed by God, Adam and Christ : by one we are made a living soul, by the other a quick ening spirit ; by the one we are made sinners, by the other we are made righteous. Adam fell as a head, and all his members, his whole issue and posterity, fell with him, because they proceeded from him by natural gene ration ; but since the second Adam cannot be our head by natural genera tion, there must be some other way of ingrafting us in him, and uniting us to him as our head, which must be moral and spiritual. This cannot ration ally be conceived to be by any other way than what is suitable to a reason able creature, and therefore must be by an act of the will, consent, and acceptance, and owning the terms settled for an admission to that union ; and this is that we properly call faith, and therefore called a ' receiving of him,' John i. 12.
1st, Now this condition of enjoying the fruits of redemption could not be a bare knowledge, for that is but only an act of the understanding, and doth not in itself include the act of the will, and so would have united only one faculty to him, not the whole soul ; but faith is an act both of the under standing and will too, and principally of the will, which doth presuppose an act of the understanding, for there cannot be a persuasion in the will with out a proposition from the understanding. The understanding must be convinced of the truth and goodness of a thing before the will can be per suaded to make any motion towards it, and therefore all the promises, invi tations, and proffers are suited to the understanding and will : to the understanding in regard of knowledge, to the will in regard of appetite ; to the understanding as true, to the will as good ; to the understanding as practical and influencing the will.
2dly, Nor could it be an entire obedience. That, as was said before, would have made the creature have some matter of boasting, and this was
not suitable to the condition he was sunk into by the fall ; besides, man's nature being corrupted, was rendered uncapable to obey, and unable to have one thought of a due obedience, 2 Cor. iii. 5.
When man turned from God, and upon that was turned out of paradise, his return was impossible ; by any strength of his own ; his nature was as much corrupted as his reentrance into paradise was prohibited. That covenant, whereby he stood in the garden, required a perfection of action and intention in the observance of all the commands of God ; but his fall had cracked his ability to recover happiness by the terms and condition of an entire obedience. Yet man being a person governable by a law, and cap able of happiness by a covenant, if God would restore him, and enter into a covenant with him, we must suppose it to have some condition, as all covenants have. That condition could not be works, because man's nature