Subject: That ’tis God’s manner to make men sensible of their misery and unworthiness, before he appears in his mercy and love to them.
In
the preceding part of the chapter is threatened the destruction of Ephraim.
Ephraim, in the prophets, generally means the ten tribes, or the kingdom
of Israel, as distinguished from the kingdom of Judah. When we read of
Ephraim and Judah in the prophets, thereby is meant the whole people of
Israel of the twelve tribes, as in verse 12 of this chapter, “Therefore
will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.”
By Judah is meant the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, which were under
the king of Judah, and by Ephraim is meant the ten tribes under the king
of Israel. Ephraim is put for the whole kingdom of Israel, because Samaria,
the seat of the kingdom, the royal city, was in that tribe. In the verse
immediately preceding the text it is declared in what a terrible manner
God was about to deal with Ephraim. (Hos. 5:14) “For I will be unto Ephraim
as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah; I, even I, will tear
and go away, and none shall rescue him.” In the text God declares how he
would deal with them after he had torn as a lion, etc. And here,
First,
God declares how he would withdraw from them. “I will go and return to
my place;” when I have torn as a lion. I will go away; I will leave them
in that condition. I will depart from them, and they shall see no more
of me.
Second,
what God will wait for in them before he returns to them to show them mercy.
There are three things here signified.
1.
That they should be sensible of their guilt. “Till they acknowledge their
offense.” It is in the original, “till they become guilty.” That is, till
they become guilty in their own eyes, till they are sensible of their guilt;
in the same sense as the same expression is used in Rom. 3:19, “That every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God:”
that is, become guilty in their own eyes.
2.
That they would be sensible of their misery, implied in the expression,
“in their affliction they shall seek me.” Their calamity was brought upon
them, before God had torn them, and left them. But in their pride and perverseness,
they were not well sensible of their own miserable condition, as this prophet
observes in Hos. 7:9.
3.
That they should be sensible of their need of God’s help, which is implied
in their seeking God’s face, and seeking him early, that is, with great
care and earnestness. Before, they would not seek God. They were not sensible
of their helplessness, as we learn in the verse but one preceding the text.
“When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then went Ephraim
to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb.” But as we are there told, he
could not heal him, nor cure his wound. And notwithstanding all the help
he could afford, God wounded him, tore him as a young lion, and as he declares,
would leave him, and he should cease going to any other, and should be
sensible that no other could heal, and accordingly come to him for healing.
Doctrine.
That it is God’s manner to make men sensible of their misery and unworthiness,
before he appears in his mercy and love to them.
I.
That it is ordinarily thus with respect to the bestowment of great and
signal mercies.
II.
That it is particularly so with respect to revealing his love and mercy
to their souls.
III.
That they are made sensible of the desert of their sin.
I.
This is God’s ordinary way before great and signal expressions of his mercy
and favor. He very commonly so orders it in his providence, and so influences
men by his Spirit, that they are brought to see their miserable condition
as they are in themselves, and to despair of help from themselves, or from
an arm of flesh, before he appears for them, and also makes them sensible
of their sin, and their unworthiness of God’s help. This appears from the
account which the Scriptures give us of God’s dealings with his people.
Joseph, before his great advancement in Egypt, must lie in the dungeon
to humble him, and prepare him for such honor and prosperity. The children
of Jacob, before Joseph reveals himself to them, and they receive that
joy, and honor, and prosperity, which were consequent thereupon, pass through
a train of difficulties and anxieties, till at last they are reduced to
distress, and are brought to reflect upon their guilt, and to say, that
they were verily guilty concerning their brother. God humbled them in his
providence, and then an end was put to all their difficulties, and their
sorrow was turned into joy upon Joseph’s revealing himself to them. Jacob,
before he hears the joyful news of Joseph’s being yet alive, must be brought
into great distress at the parting with Benjamin, and supposed loss of
Simeon. He was reduced to great straits in his mind. He says in Gen. 42:36,
“All these things are against me.” But soon after this he had these gladsome
tidings brought to him, “Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all
the land of Egypt.” And to confirm it, he sees the wagons and the noble
presents, which Joseph sent to him, so that he was now brought to say,
“It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive. I will go and see him before
I die.” And so with the children of Israel in Egypt. Their bondage must
wax more and more extreme. Their bondage had been very extreme. But yet
Pharaoh gives commandment that more work should be laid upon them, and
the task-masters tell them they must get their straw where they can find
it, and nothing of their work should be diminished. And quickly upon this
was their deliverance. So when the children of Israel were brought to the
Red sea, the Egyptians pursued them, and were just at their heels, and
they were reduced to the utmost distress. They see that they must assuredly
perish, unless God work a miracle for them, for they were shut up on all
sides: the Red sea was before them, and the army of the Egyptians encompassing
them round behind. And they cried unto the Lord. And then God wonderfully
appeared for their help, and made them pass through the Red sea, and put
songs of deliverance into their mouths.
So
before God brought the children of Israel into Canaan, he led them about
in a great and terrible wilderness through a train of difficulties and
temptations for forty years, that he might teach them their dependence
on him, and the sinfulness of their own hearts. Deu. 32:10, “He found him
in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about,
he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.” God brought them
into those trials and difficulties in the wilderness to humble them, and
let them see what was in their hearts, that they might be convinced of
their own perverseness by the many discoveries of it under those temptations,
and so that they might be sensible that it was not for their righteousness
that God made them his people, and gave them Canaan, seeing it was so evident
that they were a stiff-necked people. Deu. 8:2, 3, “And thou shalt remember
all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness,
to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether
thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee and suffered
thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither
did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live
by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the
Lord doth man live.” And Deu. 8:15-17, “Who led thee through that great
and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and
drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of
the rock of flint; who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy
fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee,
to do thee good at thy latter end; and thou say in thine heart, My power
and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth.” And so we have examples
of this from time to time in the history of the Judges. When Israel revolted,
God gave them into the hands of their enemies. He let them continue in
their hands, till they were reduced to great distress, and saw that they
were in a helpless condition, and were brought to reflect on themselves,
and to cry unto the Lord. And then God raised them up a deliverer. And
when they cried unto God, he would not deliver them till he had humbled
them, and brought them to own their unworthiness, and to own that they
were in God’s hands. Judges 10 beginning with the 10th verse, “And the
children of Israel cried unto the Lord, saying, We have sinned against
thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Balaam. And
the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Did not I deliver you from the
Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from
the Philistines? The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites,
did oppress you; and ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand.
Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods; wherefore I will deliver
you no more, Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver
you in the time of your tribulation. And the children of Israel said unto
the Lord, We have sinned; do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto
thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day. And they put away the strange
gods from among them, and served the Lord; and his soul was grieved for
the misery of Israel.” And this is the method in which God declared from
the beginning he would proceed with his people. Lev. 26:40, etc. “If they
shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their
trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked
contrary unto me; and that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have
brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised
hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity;
then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with
Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember
the land. The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths,
while she lieth desolate without them; and they shall accept the punishment
of their iniquity; because, even because they despised my judgments, and
because their soul abhorred my statutes. And yet for all that, when they
be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will
I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them;
for I am the Lord their God. But I will for their sakes remember the covenant
of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the
sight of the heathen, that I might be their God.” It is God’s manner, when
he will bestow signal blessings in answer to prayer, to make men seek them
and pray for them with a sense of sin and misery. As 1 Kin. 8:38, 39, “What
prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people
Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread
forth his hands toward this house; then hear thou in heaven, thy dwelling-place,
and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose
heart thou knowest; for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all
the children of men.” By knowing the plague of their own hearts is meant
both their sin and misery. Being sensible of their misery is included,
as is evident from the manner of expressing the same petition of Solomon’s
prayer, as it is related in 2 Chr. 6:29, “Then what prayer or supplication
soever shall be made of any man, or of all thy people Israel, when every
man shall know his own sore and his own grief.” By which is probably meant
his misery and his sin, which is the foundation of it. Paul gives us an
account how God brought him to have despair in himself before a great deliverance,
which he experienced. 2 Cor. 1:9, 10, “But we had the sentence of death
in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God, which
raiseth the dead; who delivered us from so great a death.” How did Christ
humble the woman of Canaan, or bring her to the exercise and expression
of a sense of her own unworthiness before he answered her, and healed her
daughter! When she continued to cry, after he answered her not a word,
and seemed to take no notice of her, and his disciples desired him to send
her away, and when she continued crying after him, he gave a very humbling
answer, saying, “It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast
it to dogs.” And when she took it well, as owning that being called a dog
was not too bad, and owning that she was therefore unworthy of children’s
bread, she only sought the crumbs, then Christ answered her request. And
the experience of God’s people in all ages corresponds with those examples.
It is God’s usual method before remarkable discoveries of his mercy and
love to them, especially by spiritual mercies, in a special manner to humble
them, and make them sensible of their misery and helplessness in themselves,
and of their vileness and unworthiness, either by some remarkably humbling
dispensation of his providence or influence of his Spirit.
We
are come now,
II.
To show particularly that it is God’s manner to make men sensible of their
misery and unworthiness before he reveals his saving love and mercy to
their souls. The mercy of God, which he shows to a sinner when he brings
him home to the Lord Jesus Christ, is the greatest and most wonderful exhibition
of mercy and love, of which men are ever the subjects. There are other
things, in which God greatly expresses his mercy and goodness to men, many
temporal favors. The mercies already mentioned, which God bestowed upon
his people of old: his advancing Joseph in Egypt, his deliverance of the
children of Israel out of Egypt, his leading them through the Red sea on
dry land, his bringing them into Canaan, and driving out the heathen from
before them, his delivering them from time to time from the hands of their
enemies, were great mercies. But they were not equal to this of his people
from under the guilt and dominion of sin. Several of them were typical
of this, and as God would thus prepare men for the bestowment of those
less mercies by making them sensible of their guilt and misery, so especially
will he so do, before he makes known to them this great love of his in
Jesus Christ. When God designs to show mercy to sinners, it is his manner
thus to begin with them.
He
first brings them to reflect upon themselves, and consider and be sensible
what they are, and what condition they are in. What has already been said
proves this. There is a harmony between God’s dispensations. And as we
see that this is God’s manner of dealing with men when he gives them other
great and remarkable mercies and manifestations of his favor, it is a confirmation
that it is his method of proceeding with the souls of men, when about to
reveal his mercy and love to them in Jesus Christ.
First,
God makes men consider and be sensible of what sin they are guilty. Before,
it may be, they were very regardless of this. They went on sinning, and
never reflected upon what they did. [They] never considered or regarded
what or how many sins they committed. They saw no cause why they should
trouble their minds about it. But when God convinces them, he brings them
to reflect upon themselves. He sets their sins in order before their eyes.
He brings their old sins to their minds, so that they are fresh in their
memory — things which they had almost forgotten. And many things, which
they used to regard as light offenses, which were not wont to be a burden
to their consciences, nor to appear worthy to be taken notice of, they
are now made to reflect upon. Thus they discover of what a multitude of
transgressions they have been guilty, which they have heaped up till they
are grown up to heaven. There are some sins especially, of which they have
been guilty, which are ever before them, so that they cannot get them out
of their minds. Sometimes when men are under conviction, their sins follow
them, and haunt them like a specter. God makes them sensible of the sin
of their hearts, how corrupt and depraved their hearts are. And there are
two ways in which he does this. One is by setting before them the sins
of their lives. They are so set in order before them, they appear so many
and so aggravated, that they are convinced what a fountain of corruption
there is in their hearts. Their sinful natures appear by their sinful lives.
There is sin enough, which every man has committed, to convince him, that
he is sold under sin, that his heart is full of nothing but corruption,
if God by his Spirit leads him rightly to consider it.
Another
way which God sometimes makes use of, is to leave men to such internal
workings of corruption under the temptations which they have in their terrors
and fears of hell, as shows them what a corrupt and wicked heart they have.
God sometimes brings this good out of this evil, to make men see the corruption
of their nature by the workings of it under temptations, which they have
in their terrors about damnation. God leads them through the wilderness
to prove them, and let them know what is in their hearts, as he did the
children of Israel, as we have already observed. By means of the trials
which the children of Israel had in the wilderness, they might be made
sensible what a murmuring, perverse, rebellious, unfaithful, and idolatrous
people they were. So God sometimes makes sinners sensible what wicked hearts
they have, by their experience of the exercises of corruption, while they
are under convictions. Not that this will in the least excuse men for allowing
such workings of corruption in their hearts, because God sometimes leaves
men to be wicked, that he may afterwards turn it to their good, when he
in infinite wisdom sees meet so to do. We must not go and be wicked on
purpose that we may get good by it. It will be very absurd, as well as
horridly presumptuous, for us so to do. Though God sometimes in his sovereign
mercy makes those workings of corruption, and a spirit of opposition and
enmity against God, a means of showing them the vileness of their own hearts,
and so to turn to their good. So God oftentimes is provoked thereby utterly
to withdraw and forsake them, after the example of those murmurers, whose
carcasses fell in the wilderness, of whom God sware in his wrath that they
should never enter into his rest. And they who allow themselves therein,
are the most likely so to provoke God. But it is God’s manner to show men
the plague of their own hearts by some means or other, before he reveals
his redeeming love to their souls. While sinners are unconvinced, sin lies
hid. They take no notice of it. But God makes the law effectual to bring
men’s own sins of heart and life to be reflected on, and observed. Rom.
7:9, “I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came,
sin revived.” Then sin appeared and came to light, which was not before
observed. Joseph’s revealing himself to his brethren, is probably typical
of Christ’s revealing himself to the soul of a sinner, making known himself
in his love, and in his near relation of a brother, and a redeemer of his
soul. But before Joseph revealed himself to them, they were made to reflect
upon themselves, and say, “we are verily guilty.”
Second,
God convinces sinners of the dreadful danger they are in by reason of their
sin. Having their sins set before them, God makes them sensible of the
relation which their sin has to misery. And here are two things of which
they are convinced about their danger.
1.
God makes them sensible that his displeasure is very dreadful. Before they
heard often about the anger of God, and the fierceness of his wrath, but
they were not moved by it. But now they are made sensible that it is a
dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. They are made
in some measure sensible of the dreadfulness of hell. They are led with
fixedness of impression to think what a dismal thing it will be to have
God an enraged enemy, setting to work the misery of a soul, and how dismal
it will be to dwell in such torment forever without hope. Isa. 33:14 “The
sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites.
Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell
with everlasting burnings?” Other sinners are told of hell, but convinced
sinners often have hell, as it were, in their view. Their being impressed
with a sense of the dreadfulness of its misery, is the cause why it works
upon their imagination oftentimes, and it will seem as though they saw
the dismal flames of hell; as though they saw God in implacable wrath exerting
his fury upon them; as though they heard the cries and shrieks of the damned.
2.
They are made in some measure sensible of the connection there is between
their sins and that wrath, or how their sin and guilt exposes them to that
wrath, of the dreadfulness of which they have such lively apprehensions,
and so fear takes hold of them. They are afraid that will be their portion.
And they are sensible that they are in a miserable and doleful condition
by reason of sin. Many things in the Scriptures make it evident that this
is God’s method. The account we have of our first parents confirms it.
They had a sense of guilt and danger, before Christ was revealed to them.
They were guilty, and were afraid of God’s wrath, and ran and hid themselves.
They were terribly afraid when they heard God coming. And doubtless their
sense of their guilt and fear, when they were brought before God, and were
called to an account, and God asked them what they had done, and whether
they had eaten of that tree, whereof he commanded them that they should
not eat, prepared them for a discovery of mercy. God made them sensible
of their guilt and danger before he revealed to them the covenant of grace.
And it is probable that their reflecting upon what God said about the seed
of the woman bruising the serpent’s head, soon wrought faith: that it was
not long before the discovery God made of a merciful design towards them
was a means of true consolation and hope to them. Joseph’s brethren were
brought into great distress for fear of their lives before Joseph revealed
himself to them. Those who were converted by Peter’s sermon were first
pricked in their hearts in a sense of their guilt and their danger. Acts
2:37. And Paul, before he had his first comfort, trembled, and was astonished.
Acts 9:6. And continued three days and three nights, and neither ate nor
drank, which expressed his great distress. The jailer, before he was converted,
was in terror. He called for a light, and sprang in and came trembling,
and fell down before Paul and Silas. Acts 16:29, 30. Christ’s invitation
is made more especially to the weary and heavy laden, which doubtless has
respect, at least partly, to laboring and being weary with a sense of guilt
and danger. We read when David was in the cave, that everyone who was in
distress, was gathered unto him. 1 Sam. 22:1. This doubtless was written
as typifying Jesus Christ, and the referring of those who were in fear
and distress unto him. The expression of flying for refuge, by which coming
to Christ is signified, implies that before they come, they are in fear
of some evil. They apprehend themselves in danger, and this fear gives
wings to their feet. Pro. 18:10, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower.”
The voice of God to a sinner, when he gives him true comfort, is a still
small voice. But this voice is preceded by a strong wind, and a terrible
earthquake, and fire, as it was in Horeb when Elijah was there. 1 Kin.
19:11, 12, “And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind
rent the mountains and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the
Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord
was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord
was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.”
Another
thing in the Scriptures, which seems to evince this, is the frequent comparison
made between the church spiritually bringing forth Christ, and a woman
in travail, in pain to be delivered. John 16:21 and Rev. 12:2. The conversion
of a sinner is represented by the same thing. It is bringing forth Christ
in the heart. Paul speaks of men’s regeneration as of Christ being brought
forth in them. Gal. 4:19. And therefore Christ calls believers his mother.
Mat. 12:49, 50, “And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples,
and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the
will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister,
and mother.”
III.
They are made sensible of the desert of their sin: that their sin deserves
that wrath of God to which it exposes them. They are not only sensible
of the dreadfulness of God’s wrath, how fearful a thing it would be to
fall into the hands of the living God, and to sustain the eternal expressions
of his fierce anger, as well as of the connection between their sins and
this wrath, and how their sins expose them to it, but God is also wont,
before he comforts them, to show them that their sins deserve this wrath.
By a clear discovery of the connection between their sin and God’s wrath,
they are sensible of their danger of hell, of which many are in a measure
sensible, who are wholly insensible of their desert of hell. The threatenings
of the law make them afraid indeed, that God will punish sins. Yet they
have no thorough apprehension of their desert of the punishment threatened,
and therefore many, who are afraid, murmur against God. They charge him
foolishly with being hard and cruel. But it is God’s manner before he speaks
peace to them, and reveals his redeeming love and mercy in Jesus Christ,
to make them sensible that they also deserve it. Thus Mat. 18:24-26, “And
when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which owed him ten
thousand talents. But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded
him to be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had, and payment
to be made. The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying,
Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the lord of
that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him
the debt.” Very commonly when men are first made sensible of their danger,
their mouths are open against God and his dealings, that is, their hearts
are full of murmurings. But it is God’s manner before he comforts and reveals
his mercy and love to them, to stop their mouths, and make them acknowledge
their guilt, or their desert of the threatened punishment. Rom. 3:19, 20,
“Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who
are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may
become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law there shall
no flesh be justified in his sight; for by the law is the knowledge of
sin.” God would convince men of their guilt before he reveals a pardon
to them. Now a man cannot be said to be thoroughly sensible of his guilt,
till he is sensible that he deserves hell. A man must be sensible that
he is guilty of death, or guilty of damnation, to use the scriptural mode
of expression, before God will reveal to him his freedom from damnation.
A sense of guilt consists in two things — in a sense of sin, and in a sense
of the relation which sin has to punishment. Now the relation which sin
has to punishment, is also twofold. First, the connection which
it has with punishment, by which it exposes to it, and brings it. Secondly,
its desert of punishment. When a man is truly convinced of his desert of
the punishment to which his sin exposes him, then he may be said to be
thoroughly sensible of his guilt. Then he is become guilty, in the sense
of our text, and in the sense of Rom. 3:20.
Inquiry.
How is it that a sinner is made sensible of his desert of God’s wrath?
A natural man may have a sense of this, though not the same sense which
a person may have after conversion, because a natural man cannot have a
true sight of sin, and of the evil of it. A man cannot truly know the evil
of sin against God, except it be by a discovery of his glory and excellence.
Then he will be sensible how great an evil it is to sin against him. Yet
it cannot be denied that natural men are capable of a conviction of their
desert of hell, or that their consciences may be convinced of it without
a sight of God’s glory. The consciences of wicked men will also be convinced
of the justice of their sentence and of their punishment at the day of
judgment, and doubtless will echo to the sentence of the Judge, and condemn
them to the same punishment. Here, therefore, we would inquire how it is
that a natural man may be made sensible of this. First, we shall
show what is the principle assisted. Second, how it is assisted.
And third, what are the chief external means which are used in order
to this.
First,
what principle in man is assisted in convincing him of his desert of eternal
punishment? No new principle is infused. Natural men have only natural
principles, and therefore all that is done by the Spirit of God before
regeneration is by assisting natural principles. To observe, therefore,
in answer to this inquiry,
That
the principle, which is assisted in making natural men sensible of their
desert of wrath, is natural conscience. Though man has lost a principle
of love to God, and all spiritual principles, by the fall, yet natural
conscience remains. Now there are two things, which are the proper work
of natural conscience. One is to give man a sense of right and wrong. A
natural man has no sense of the beauty and amiability of virtue, or of
the turpitude and odiousness of vice. But yet every man has that naturally
within, which testifies to him that some things are right, and others wrong.
Thus if a man steals, or commits murder, there is something within, which
tells him that he has done wrong. He knows that he has not done right.
Rom. 2:14, 15, “For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature
the things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto
themselves; which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their
conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing,
or else excusing, one another.” And the other work of natural conscience
is to suggest the relation there is between right and wrong, and a retribution.
Man has that in him, which suggests to him, when he has done ill, a relation
between that ill and punishment. If a man has done that which his conscience
tells him is wrong, is unjust, his conscience tells him that he deserves
to be punished for it. Thus natural conscience has a twofold power; a teaching
or accusing, and a condemning power. The Spirit of God, therefore, assists
natural conscience the more thoroughly to do this, its work, and so convinces
a man of sin. Conscience naturally suggests, when he has done a known evil,
that he deserves punishment, and being assisted to its work thoroughly,
a man is convinced that he deserves eternal punishment. Though natural
conscience does remain in the man since the fall, yet it greatly needs
assistance in order to its work. It is greatly hindered in doing its work
by sin. Everything in man, which is part of his perfection, is hindered
and impaired by sin. A faculty of reason remains since the fall, but it
is greatly impaired and blinded. So natural conscience remains, but sin,
in a great degree, stupefies it, and hinders it in its work. Now when God
convinces a sinner, he assists his conscience against the stupefaction
of sin, and helps it to do its work more freely and fully. The Spirit of
God works immediately upon men’s consciences. In conviction their consciences
are awakened. They are convinced in their consciences. Their consciences
smite them and condemn them.
Second,
it may be inquired how God assists natural conscience so as to convince
the sinner of his desert of hell? I answer,
1.
In general, it is by light. The whole work of God is carried on in the
heart of man from his first convictions to his conversion by light. It
is by discoveries which are made to his soul. But by what light is it,
that a sinner is made sensible that be deserves God’s wrath? It is some
discovery that he has, which makes him sensible of the heinousness of disobeying
and casting contempt upon God. The light which gives evangelical humiliation,
and which makes man sensible of the hateful and odious nature of sin, is
a discovery of God’s glory and excellence and grace. But what is it which
a natural man sees of God, which makes him sensible that sin against God
deserves his wrath. For he sees nothing of the excellence and loveliness
of God’s glory and grace? I answer,
2.
Particularly, it seems to be a discovery of God’s awful and terrible greatness.
Natural men cannot see anything of God’s loveliness, his amiable and glorious
grace, or anything which should attract their love, but they may see his
terrible greatness to excite their terror. Wicked men in another world,
though they do not see his loveliness and grace, yet they see his awful
greatness, and that makes them sensible of the heinousness of sin. The
damned in hell are sensible of the heinousness of their sin. Their consciences
declare it to them. And they are made sensible of it by what they see of
the awful greatness of that Being, against whom they have sinned. And wicked
men in this world are capable of being made sensible of the heinousness
of sin the same way. If a wicked soul is capable while wicked of receiving
the discoveries of God’s terrible majesty in another world, it is capable
of it in this. God may, if he pleases, make wicked men sensible of the
same thing here. And in this way natural men may be so made sensible of
the heinousness of sin, as to be convinced that they deserve hell, as is
evident in that it is by this very means, that wicked men will be made
sensible of the justice of their punishment in another world, and at the
day of judgment. For then the wicked will see so much of the awful greatness
of God, the Judge, that it will convince their consciences what a heinous
thing it was in them to disobey and contemn such a God, and will convince
them that they therefore deserve his wrath. Which shows that wicked men
are capable of being convinced in the same way. A wicked man, while a wicked
man, is capable of hearing the thunders, and seeing the devouring fire,
of mount Sinai, that is, he is capable of being made sensible of that terrible
majesty and greatness of God, which was discovered at the giving of the
law. But this brings me to the
Third,
thing, viz. the principal outward means, which the Spirit of God
makes use of in this work of convincing men of their desert of hell. And
that is the law. The Spirit of God in all his work upon the souls
of men, works by his Word. And in this whole work of conviction of sin,
that part of the word is principally made use of; viz. the Law.
It is the law which makes men sensible of their sin; and it is the law,
attended with its awful threatenings and curses, which gives a sense of
the awful greatness, the authority, the power, the jealousy of God. Wicked
men are made sensible of the tremendous greatness of God, as it were, in
the same manner in which the children of Israel were, viz. by the
thunders, and earthquake, and devouring fire, and sound of the trumpet,
and terrible voice at mount Sinai. All the people who were in the camp
trembled, and they said, “Let not God speak with us, lest we die.” So that
it is the law, which God makes use of in assisting the natural conscience
to do its work. Gal. 3:24, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring
us to Christ.” It is the law which God makes use of, to make men sensible
of their guilt, and to stop their mouths. Rom. 3:19, “Now we know that
whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before
God.” It is the law, which kills men as to trusting in their own righteousness.
“For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin
revived, and I died.” Gal. 2:19, “For I through the law am dead to the
law.” Conviction, which precedes conversion, is of sin and misery. But
men are not thoroughly sensible of their sin or guilt, till they are sensible
they deserve hell; nor thoroughly sensible of their misery, till they are
sensible they are helpless.
Fourth,
it is God’s manner to make men sensible of their helplessness in their
own strength. It is usual with sinners, when they are first made sensible
of their danger of hell, to attempt by their own strength to save themselves.
They in some measure see their danger, and endeavor to work out their own
deliverance. They are striving to make themselves better. They strive to
convert themselves, to work their hearts into a believing frame, and to
exercise a saving trust in Christ. Having heard that if ever they believe,
they must put their trust in Christ, and in him alone, for salvation, they
think they will trust in Christ and cast their souls upon him. And this
they endeavor to do in their own strength. This is very common with persons
upon a sick bed, when they are afraid that they shall die and go to hell,
and are told that they must put their trust in Christ alone for salvation.
They attempt to do it in their own strength. So sinners will be striving
without a sense of their insufficiency in themselves to bring their own
hearts to love God, and to choose him for their portion, and to repent
of their sins. Or they strive to make themselves better, that so God may
be more willing to convert them and give them his grace, and enable them
to believe in Christ, and love God, and repent of their sins. But before
God appears to them as their help and deliverance, it is his manner to
make them sensible that they are utterly helpless in themselves. They are
brought to despair of help from themselves. There is a death to all their
hopes from themselves. Rom. 7:9. Before God opens the prison doors, he
makes them see that they are shut up, that they are close prisoners, and
that there is no way in which they can escape. Christ tells us in Isa.
61:1 that he was sent to bind up the broken-hearted, and to proclaim liberty
to captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Christ
was sent to open the prison to them that are not only really, but sensibly,
bound. Gal. 3:23, “But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut
up unto the faith, that should afterwards be revealed.” God makes men sensible
that they are in a forlorn condition, that they are wretched, and miserable,
and blind, and naked, before he comforts them. Christ tells us in John
9:39, “For judgment I am come into the world, that they which see not,
might see; and that they which see, might be made blind;” meaning, partly
at least, by those that see, those who think they see: having respect to
the Pharisees, who were proud of their knowledge, and by the blind, those
who are sensibly blind. This is emblematically represented by Saul’s blindness
before his first comfort. He was blind till Ananias came to him to open
his eyes, probably designed to intimate to us that before God opens the
eyes of men in conversion, he makes them sensibly blind. God brings men
to this despair in their own strength in these ways.
1.
God oftentimes makes use of men’s own experience to convince them that
they are helpless in themselves. When they first set out in seeking salvation,
it may be they thought it an easy thing to be converted. They thought they
should presently bring themselves to repent of their sins, and believe
in Christ, and accordingly they strove in their own strength with hopes
of success. But they were disappointed. And so God suffers them to go on
striving to open their own eyes, and mend their own hearts. But they find
no success. They have been striving to see for a long time, yet they are
as blind as ever; and can see nothing. It is all Egyptian darkness. They
have been striving to make themselves better; but they are bad as ever.
They have often striven to do something which is good, to be in the exercise
of good affections, which should be acceptable to God, but they have no
success. And it seems to them, that instead of growing better, they grow
worse and worse. Their hearts are fuller of wicked thoughts than they were
at first. They see no more likelihood of their conversion than there was
at first. So God suffers them to strive in their own strength, till they
are discouraged, and despair of helping themselves. The prodigal son first
strove to fill his belly with the husks which the swine did eat. But when
he despaired of being helped in that way, then he came to himself, and
entertained thoughts of returning to his father’s house.
2.
God sometimes, by a particular assistance of the understanding, enables
men to see so much of their own hearts, as at once causes them to despair
of helping themselves. He sometimes convinces them by their own trials,
suffering them to try a long time to effect their own salvation, until
they are discouraged. But God, if he pleases, can convince men without
such endeavors of their own, and sometimes he does so, as must be the case
in many sudden conversions, of which the instances are not unfrequent.
By revealing to them their own hearts, he sometimes enables them to perceive
that they are so remote from the exercise of love to God, of faith, and
of every other Christian grace, as well as from the possession of the least
degree of spiritual light, that they despair of ever bringing themselves
to it. They perceive that within their souls all is darkness as darkness
itself, and as the shadow of death, and that it is too much for them to
cause light. They find themselves dead to anything good, and therefore
despair of bringing themselves to the performance of gracious acts. Thus
we have shown that it is God’s ordinary manner, before he reveals his redeeming
mercy to the souls of men, to make them sensible of their sinfulness and
danger, of their desert of the divine wrath, and of their utter helplessness
in themselves. This we have shown to be most accordant with the Holy Scriptures,
as well as with God’s method of dealing with mankind in other things. And
we have shown in an imperfect manner how, and by what means, it is that
God thus convinces men. This work is what Christ speaks of, as one part
of the work of the Holy Ghost, John 16:8, “When he is come, he will convince
the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” It is God’s manner
to convince men of sin, before he convinces them of righteousness.
I
come now to show the reasons of the doctrine.
The
propriety of such a method of proceeding is very obvious. How agreeable
to the divine wisdom does it seem that the sinner should be brought to
such a conviction of his danger and misery, as to perceive his utter incapacity
to help himself by any strength or contrivance of his own, and his entire
unworthiness of God’s help, and desert of his wrath. That he should be
brought to acknowledge that God, in the exercise of his holy sovereignty,
may with perfect justice deal thus with him before he appears in his pardoning
mercy and love as his helper and friend. A man who is converted is successively
in two exceedingly different states: first, a very miserable, wretched
state of condemnation, and then in a blessed condition, a state of justification.
How agreeable, therefore, does it seem to the divine wisdom, that such
a man should be conscious of this: first, of his miserable, condemned state,
and then of his happy state; that, as he is really first guilty, and under
a deep desert of hell, before he is really pardoned and admitted to God’s
favor, so he should first be conscious that he is guilty, and under such
a desert of hell, before he is conscious of being the object of pardoning
and redeeming mercy and grace. But the propriety of God’s thus dealing
with the souls of men will appear perhaps better by considering the following
reasons:
1.
It is the will of God that the discoveries of his terrible majesty, and
awful holiness and justice, should accompany the discoveries of his grace
and love, in order that he may give to his creatures worthy and just apprehensions
of himself. It is the glory of God that these attributes are united in
the divine nature, that as he is a being of infinite mercy and love and
grace, so he is a being of infinite and tremendous majesty, and awful holiness
and justice. The perfect and harmonious union of these attributes in the
divine nature, is what constitutes the chief part of their glory. God’s
awful and terrible attributes, and his mild and gentle attributes, reflect
glory one on the other, and the exercise of the one is in perfect consistency
and harmony with that of the other. If there were the exercise of the mild
and gentle attributes without the other, [and] if there were love and mercy
and grace in inconsistency with God’s authority and justice and infinite
hatred of sin, it would be no glory. If God’s love and grace did not harmonize
with his justice and the honor of his majesty, far from being an honor,
they would be a dishonor to God. Therefore as God designs to glorify himself
when he makes discoveries of the one, he will also make discoveries of
the other. When he makes discoveries of his love and grace, it shall appear
that they harmonize with those other attributes. Otherwise his true glory
would not be discovered. If men were sensible of the love of God without
a sense of those other attributes, they would be exposed to have improper
and unworthy apprehensions of God, as though he were gracious to sinners
in such a manner as did not become a Being of infinite majesty and infinite
hatred of sin. And as it would expose to unworthy apprehensions of God,
so it would expose the soul in some respects to behave unsuitably towards
God. There would not be a due reverence blended with love and joy. Such
discoveries of love, without answerable discoveries of awful greatness,
would dispose the soul to come with an undue boldness to God. The very
nature and design of the gospel show that this is the will of God, that
those who have the discoveries of his love, should also have the discoveries
of those other attributes. For this was the very end of Christ’s laying
down his life, and coming into the world, to render the glory of God’s
authority, holiness, and justice, consistent with his grace in pardoning
and justifying sinners, that while God thus manifested his mercy, we might
not conceive any unworthy thoughts of him with respect to those other attributes.
Seeing, therefore, that this is the very end of Christ’s coming into the
world, we may conclude that those who are actually redeemed by Christ,
and have a true discovery of Christ made to their souls, have a discovery
of God’s terribleness and justice to prepare them for the discovery of
his love and mercy. God, of old, before the death and suffering of Christ
were so fully revealed, was ever careful that the discoveries of both should
be together, so that men might not apprehend God’s mercy in pardoning sin
and receiving sinners, to the disparagement of his justice. When God proclaimed
his name to Moses, in answer to his desire that he might see God’s glory,
he indeed proclaimed his mercy: “The Lord, the Lord God, gracious and merciful,
long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin.” (Exo. 34:6, 7) But he
did not stop here, but also proclaimed his holy justice and vengeance:
“and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children unto the third
and fourth generation.” (Exo. 34:7) Thus they are joined together again
in the fourth commandment. “For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the
third and fourth generation of them that hate me.” (Exo. 20:5) Thus we
find them joined together in passages too numerous to be mentioned. When
God was about to speak to Elijah in Horeb, he was first prepared for such
a familiar conversing with God by awful manifestations of the divine majesty.
First there was a wind, which rent the rocks, and then an earthquake, and
then a devouring fire. 1 Kin. 19:11, 12. God is careful even in heaven,
where the discoveries of his love and grace are given in such an exalted
degree, also to provide means for a proportional sense of his terribleness,
and the dreadfulness of his displeasure, by their beholding it in the miseries
and torments of the damned, at the same time that they enjoy his love.
Even the man Christ Jesus was first made sensible of the wrath of God,
before his exaltation to that transcendent height of enjoyment of the Father’s
love. And this is one reason that God gives sinners a sense of his wrath
against their sins, and of his justice, before he gives them the discoveries
of his redeeming love.
2.
Unless a man be thus convinced of his sin and misery before God makes him
sensible of his redeeming love and mercy, he cannot be sensible of that
love and mercy as it is, viz. that it is free and sovereign. When
God reveals his redeeming grace to men, and makes them truly sensible of
it, he would make them sensible of it as it is. God’s grace and love towards
sinners is in itself very wonderful, as it redeems from dreadful wrath.
But men cannot be sensible of this until they perceive in some adequate
degree how dreadful the wrath of God is. God’s redeeming grace and love
in Christ is free and sovereign, as it is altogether without any worthiness
in those who are the objects of it. But men cannot be sensible of this,
until they are sensible of their own unworthiness. The grace of God in
Christ is glorious and wonderful, as it is not only as the objects of it
are without worthiness, but as they deserve the everlasting wrath and displeasure
of God. But they cannot be sensible of this until they are made sensible
that they deserve God’s eternal wrath. The grace of God in Christ is wonderful,
as it saves and redeems from so many and so great sins, and from the punishment
they have deserved. But sinners cannot be sensible of this till they are
in some measure sensible of their sinfulness, and brought to reflect upon
the sins of their lives, and to see the wickedness of their hearts. It
is the glory of God’s grace in Christ, that it is so free and sovereign.
And doubtless it is the will of God, that when he reveals his grace to
the soul, it should be seen in its proper glory, though not perfectly.
When men see the glory of God’s grace aright, they see it as free and unmerited,
and contrary to the demerit of their sins. All who have a spiritual understanding
of the grace of God in Christ, have a perception of the glory of that grace.
But the glory of the divine grace appears chiefly in its being bestowed
on the sinner when he is in a condition so exceedingly miserable and necessitous.
In order, therefore, that the sinner may be sensible of this glory, he
must first be sensible of the greatness of his misery, and then of the
greatness of the divine mercy. The heart of man is not prepared to receive
the mercy of God in Christ, as free and unmerited, till he is sensible
of his own demerit. Indeed the soul is not capable of receiving a revelation
or discovery of the redeeming grace of God in Christ, as redeeming grace,
without being convinced of sin and misery. He must see his sin and misery
before he can see the grace of God in redeeming him from that sin and misery.
3.
Until the sinner is convinced of his sin and misery, he is not prepared
to receive the redeeming mercy and grace of God, as through a Mediator,
because he does not see his need of a Mediator till he sees his sin and
misery. If there were, on the part of God, any exercise of absolute and
immediate mercy towards sinners bestowed without any satisfaction or purchase,
the soul might possibly see that without a conviction of its sin and misery.
But there is not. All God’s mercy to sinners is through a Savior. The redeeming
mercy and grace of God is mercy and grace in Christ. And when God discovers
his mercy to the soul, he will discover it as mercy in a Savior; and it
is his will that the mercy should be received as in and through a Savior,
with a full consciousness of its being through his righteousness and satisfaction.
It is the will of God, that as all the spiritual comforts which his people
receive are in and through Christ, so they should be sensible that they
receive them through Christ, and that they can receive them in no other
way. It is the will of God that his people should have their eyes directed
to Christ, and should depend upon him for mercy and favor, [so] that whenever
they receive comforts through his purchase, they should receive them as
from him. And that because God would glorify his Son as Mediator, as the
glory of man’s salvation belongs to Christ, so it is the will of God that
all the people of Christ, all who are saved by him, should receive their
salvation as of him, and should attribute the glory of it to him. None
who will not give the glory of salvation to Christ, should have the benefit
of it. Upon this account God insists upon it, and it is absolutely necessary,
that a sinner’s conviction of his sin, and misery, and helplessness in
himself, should precede or accompany the revelation of the redeeming love
and grace of God. I shall also mention two other ends which are hereby
attained.
4.
By this means the redeeming mercy and love of God are more highly prized
and rejoiced in, when discovered. By the previous discoveries of danger,
misery, and helplessness, and desert of wrath, the heart is prepared to
embrace a discovery of mercy. When the soul stands trembling at the brink
of the pit, and despairs of any help from itself, it is prepared joyfully
to receive tidings of deliverance. If God is pleased at such a time to
make the soul hear his still small voice, his call to himself and to a
Savior, the soul is prepared to give it a joyful reception. The gospel
then, if it be heard spiritually, will be glad tidings indeed, the most
joyful which the sinner ever heard. The love of God and of Christ to the
world, and to him in particular, will be admired, and Christ will be most
precious. To remember what danger he was in, what seas surrounded him,
and then to reflect how safe be now is in Christ, and how sufficient Christ
is to defend him and to answer all his wants, will cause the greater exultation
of soul. God, in this method of dealing with the souls of his elect, consults
their happiness, as well as his own glory. And it increases happiness,
to be made sensible of their misery and unworthiness, before God comforts
them. For their comfort, when they receive it, is so much the sweeter.
5.
The heart is more prepared and disposed to praise God for it. This follows
from the reasons already mentioned: As they are hereby made sensible how
free and sovereign the mercy of God is towards them and how great his grace
in saving them, and as they more highly prize the mercy and love of God
made known to them, all will dispose them to magnify the name of God, to
exalt the love of God the Father in giving his Son to them, and to exalt
Jesus Christ by their praise, who laid down his life for them to redeem
them from all iniquity. They are ready to say, “How miserable should I
have been, had not God had pity upon me, and provided me a Savior! In what
a miserable condition should I have been, had not Christ loved me, and
given himself for me! I must have endured that dreadful wrath of God; I
must have suffered the punishment which I had deserved by all that great
sin and wickedness of which I have been guilty.”
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's Jonathan Edwards Collection by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
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