CHRIST THE EMINENT COUNSELOR
Isaiah 9:6.
His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.[i]
DOCTRINE.
Christ, above all other Persons that ever did or will appear in the world, is the most eminent Counselor.[ii]
[I] Our Lord Jesus Christ does eminently sustain the character of a teacher. [He is] so prophesied of frequently in the Old Testament, so spoken of in the New Testament. He came a light into the world [John 1:5]. [He was] put into the world, not only to be our Redeemer, but to be our Counselor. [He is] come to counsel us in these two things:
First. The way of our duty: how to answer our great end, avoid moral evil, [and] obtain moral good.
Second. The way to our happiness.
II. He has the most eminent qualifications, the greatest wisdom. Luke 11:49, "infinite understanding." [He] perfectly knows God, perfectly knows us, knows our nature, the state of our understanding [and] how to accommodate himself.
[He knows] all our circumstances, what we need. [he has] fidelity. Rev. 3:7, "he that is holy, he that is true"; v.14, "the Amen, the faithful and true witness." [He has] kindness.
[He is] able to teach in the most effectual manner, has our understanding in his hands [and] our hearts in his hands.
[He is] qualified by the state of his person as God-man. As God, he has infinite dignity and authority. As man, [he is] near to us, qualified to deal with us in our own way. [And so] we have advantage for the nearer access to him.
His awful majesty need not terrify us. Job. 33:6-7, "Behold, I am according to thy wish in God's stead: I also am formed out of the clay. Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee." He don't speak to us now with such a voice, as God did from Mt. Sinai.
He has[iii] transcendent humility and meekness, as well as infinite majesty. [These ..] as it were to soften and sweeten those awful attributes, [and to] assuage and embolden [us].
[He is] qualified both by his divine and human virtues: infinite majesty, and humility and meekness.
Second. He came into the world to counsel, as in the greatest affair. The affair of our eternal salvation, that is the greatest affair, [and] most important. Men need counsel in many important affairs, greatly concerning their welfare. The most difficult affair [is salvation] when men are sensibly brought into the greatest difficulties in soul concerns. That great affair of our eternal salvation was wholly committed to Christ. Therefore, [he is] invested with a threefold office: priest to procure, [prophet to exhort, and king to rule].
Third. He has appeared in circumstances, tending the most to confirm and enforce his counsels. His original circumstances [were], a state of great honor and glory. [He] knows the happiness [of heaven, and] came down from heaven to teach us.
The character he appeared in: our Redeemer.
The state he appeared in here: a state with mankind. By his humiliation he had appearance of our nature and circumstances, [our] difficulties. He himself, being tempted, knows how to succor by his counsels. [He] has been in circumstances of great suffering, greater than any other, sufferings we have deserved and are exposed to: so that he knew both the happiness [of heaven] and the misery [of the earth], and now is in a state of exceeding glory. [He] has received the reward, has experience of it, [and] counsels us from heaven. [He] went to this reward in a way of doing those things that he counsels us to.
Fourth.[iv] [Christ] has done the most to enforce his counsels, [by] his going through such a course of labors and sufferings for us. The things that he has done, have in a remarkable manner shown his sense of the importance of his counsels; have tended to assure us of his fidelity and kindness.
[Christ has assured us] of his kindness, by what he has done. He has set us an example of those things to which he counsels us. He is gone to glory in the way that he counseled us to walk in.
[By the] great things he has done, [Christ does] tend greatly to engage our attention, to impress our minds with deep affection. Not only the things that he did while on earth, but the things thereby done: the benefits bestowed on such as have followed his counsels, the misery brought on many that have refused.
Fifth. Christ is the Counselor of counselors. [He is the counselor of] prophets, wise men, [and] great men, Prov. 8:14-16, "Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength. By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth." [He is the counselor of] apostles, [and] of ministers.
Sixth. He is the most universal Counselor in all cases. He is the author of our understandings, the governor of the world.
Seventh. The counsels he has actually given, are the most excellent that even were delivered to mankind. The precepts of the Christian religion are far the most excellent, far exceeding the sayings [of] philosophers, the counsels of the wisest politicians, most wise, perfect, free from all error. [The] practices directed to [by Christ are] most amiable, most profitable. The Bible, that contains these counsels, is a summary of the most excellent wisdom, a light shining in a dark world.
Eighth. By his counsels, he universally defeats the counsels of the most crafty of his enemies. Job 12:16-17, "With him is strength and wisdom: the deceived and the deceiver are his. He leadeth counselors away spoiled, and maketh the judges fools." I Cor. 1:19, etc., "For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent."
Ninth. The way in which he counsels, is the most effectual. Job 36:22, "Behold, God exalteth by his power: who teacheth like him?" Not only by external exhibition but by internal influence. He has immediate access to the souls of men; has their understanding in his hands, their hearts in his hands. [He] can cause light to shine into the heart. Job. 28:12, "But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?" Prov. 2:6, "For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding." Isa. 42:16, "And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them."
APPLICATION.
Hence, how greatly persons are to blame who neglect their Bibles.
Use [of] Exhortation.
First. To those who are concerned to obtain salvation, hearken to the counsels which Christ hath given in that affair. Men that are concerned [for salvation], are wont to often [seek counsel], sometimes have gone a great way to some eminent divine. But [they] need not go far: the Word is nigh. Never will be any better counsels given.
I shall here mention some of the principal counsels and directions Christ gave in this great affair when he was on earth.
1. To seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, Matt. 6:33, Luke 12:31. [By this is] signified two things:
(1) As to the degree. [Seek the kingdom of God] more than worldly things; comparatively neglect them. As you may see in the context.
(2) In order of time. Luke 9[:59-60],[v] "[And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and] bury my father. [Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God]."
2. "Count the cost," Luke 14:28, etc. This implies [ that you should sit down first, and count the cost, whether you have sufficient to finish it].
3. That we should renounce and comparatively hate other things for the sake [of (Matt. 10:37)]. This is the counsel Christ gave to those that follow [him. Matt. 13:44, etc., "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field."[vi] Not only seek more, but renounce [the world] utterly, sell all. [You] cannot serve God and mammon, Matt. 6:24. [A man should] renonounce his life. Matt. 10:39, "He that findeth his life [shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it]." Luke 14:26, "[If any man come to me, and] hate not his father, [and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple]"; [v.] 33, "[So likewise, whosoever he be of you that] forsaketh not all [that he hath, he cannot be my disciple]." [Sp the] counsel given to the rich young man. Luke 18:22, "sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me."
[This] should be the one thing we do: one thing is needful.
4. As it were to renounce ourselves, deny ourselves. Matt. 16:24, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Luke. 9:23, cut off right hands. Matt. 5:29, etc., "And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell." Matt. 18:8, "[Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire]."
5. "Strive to enter into the strait gate," Luke. 13:24, "The word "strive" agonizes the [hypocrites].
6. Improve the means of grace, which God has appointed. "Search the Scripture," John 5:39. Luke 16[:29], Hear "Moses and the prophets."[vii]
7. [Do not] make to ourselves [friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, Luke 16:9. Luke 12:33-34, "Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." [See] Matt. 25.
8. To watch as servants in the night, that wait for the coming of their Lord. Luke 12:35-39,
Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through."
Matt. 24:42, etc., "Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come"; [ch.] 25:13, "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh." [Do not be like the] foolish virgins [Matt. 25].
9. To persevere in praying and seeking, against all discouragements and opposition. Luke 11:5, etc., "And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth." Luke 18, at the beginning, "[And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint]." Luke 21:36, [On] the woman of Canaan.
10. Receive the kingdom of God as a little child. Mark 10:15, "Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein." [This is the] same taught in Christ's discourse on occasion of what he had said to the young man, in the same chapter, vv. 25, etc.
11. Not only to hear the precepts of Christ directing to a Christian conduct in the world, but do them, Matt. 7.
Second Exhortation. To those who are under soul exercises, to go to Christ for counsel. Is. 50:3-4, "I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned." [He is the] good shepherd. [He is] come to seek and to serve that which was lost. See Luke 15:3, etc.
]Appendix: Extended Application[
Here I would apply[viii] [myself] in particular to those members of the college in this place, who are expecting this week to receive the honor of the society.
The doctrine that has been now insisted on is, in a peculiar manner, proper for your consideration who are now in your youth, and who have here had so much expended upon you in your education, to fit you for public service in the world, and who are now going forth into the world from under the immediate care and inspection of those who have heretofore been your instructors and guides. You especially stand in need of a counselor, and in a very peculiar manner at such a juncture, perhaps beyond all others that ever happened in the course of your lives.
You are now in your youth, an age wherein persons do especially need counsel, in order to their being steered clear of the many snares by which persons are exposed to ruin, especially at that age. You are now going from under the care of such as have been heretofore your faithful guides and counselors, of whose constant and direction inspection you have had the benefit.
But miserable will you be, if henceforward you should be left to yourselves, without any counselor or guide.
Especially when it is considered that you are going forth into a world that is like a great wilderness, full of pits and drought, and fiery flying serpents, full of those snares, which prove the ruin of the greater part of mankind.
And your need of a counselor [is] beyond others, in that you have been educated for public business, business of greater importance than the greater part of mankind. And most of you have probably have been designed for the great and arduous and sacred work of the gospel ministry.
If you are wise and considerate persons, sensible of your own darkness and weakness, it will be natural for you, under your present circumstances, to say in your hearts, "What shall I do for a wise and faithful guide? To whom shall I repair for counsel to direct my steps, and regulate my conduct in the world?"
You have now heard of the great Counselor, the most eminent and excellent guide that ever was, or ever will be.
I now, therefore, being however unworthy one of the messengers of this great Shepherd and leader of mankind, and being in his providence brought to this place, and called to speak at this time in his name: I would now advise you to repair to this great Counselor, and let all your heart and soul look to him, and adhere to him as your guide, to lead you in every step of your conduct in the world.
Don't rest any of you without an interest in him, and good and clear evidence that this glorious Counselor and light of the world is your Lord, your shepherd, your light and salvation. Persons in your circumstances in a special manner will be miserable, if you are aliens and strangers, children of darkness, sheep without a shepherd, without Christ, and so without God in the world.
Sorrow filled the hearts of the eleven disciples when
Christ was about to leave ‘em as to his human presence; and indeed, they would
have been miserable and comfortless, if Christ had forsaken them as to his
spiritual and gracious presence. But he told them he would not leave ‘em
comfortless; he would come to ‘em by his Spirit, and be in them and dwell with
them forever, as in the 14th chap. of John, which might well support
them, and fill them with unspeakable comfort.
Happy indeed will you [be] if, now you are going forth into the world, he who is the light of the world takes up his abode in your heart, arises as a blessed daystar there, a constant living fountain of light in your soul, to enlighten you in all your way through this dark work, to be your light in the dark valley of the shadow of death, and to be your light in that world, where the saints shall not stand in need of the light of the sun, because the glory of God and the Lamb is their everlasting light, that [will] never set and never be clouded or eclipsed. Unless you are savingly instructed and enlightened by Christ, all the learning you have got in the seminary of learning in this place, and all the knowledge that ever you are like to obtain will prove in vain to you, in vain as to your own happinessl; instead of that, it will but aggravate your guilt here and eternal misery hereafter, and it will probably be in vain as to any real usefulness to the world of mankind. Your talents and capacities will be the greater, but your disposition not the better, but probably the worse. And if it should be so, your greater talents will in effect be only greater advantages in your hands to do mischief in the world.
Thus it often, and perhaps commonly, proves with those that have learning and superior knowledge without a principle of true virtue, especially in the work of the ministry.
There is no business in the world wherein men stand in such great and manifold necessity of Christ as their teacher, as that last mentioned; without this, men are in the utmost danger of eternally ruining themselves and others that are led by ‘em. When the blind leads the blind, nothing else can be expected than that both [go astray]. What can be thought of that is a grosser absurdity, than a man set to be a light to the souls of men, an instrument of their saving illumination, who is himself a child of darkness and under the power of the prince of darkness, never yet turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God.
Ministers are set to be counselors of others in the affair of their eternal [salvation]; ‘tis their very business and office. How greatly therefore does it concern such as are designed for that work, to look to the great Counselor of souls and Counselor of counselors, and as such the counselor of ministers, and see to it that their own hearts are under the influence of his light and grace; and not only to see to it that they have true grace, but earnestly to seek that they may be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus, and may have eminent degrees of divine light in their souls from this fountain, that they may be fit to be set in eminent station in Christ's church, as lights to others, and held as stars in Christ's right hand, and may indeed be burning and shining lights, among many other things. This may well be one affecting consideration, and tending to enforce the advice I now give you, that, as you are now going from under the care of your former guides and teachers who have the care of the college, so you are now going one from another, who have long been one another's companions in study and the exercises of this seminary, and as we may suppose, have contracted a mutual, peculiar friendship one to another. You probably will now no more live together and be united in this world in the manner [that you have been]; your mutual friendship therefore should engage you all, with one accord, to seek that you may all travel through the world in such ways that at last you may meet [in] the world above, as members of a more glorious and happy society. And if ever this be the course you must take in order to it, [it] must be to follow Christ as your guide and counselor.
Consider the time will soon come, when you will have run your race, your journey through the world will be finished. Your names are now inscribed in the catalogue of the graduates of this seminary of learning. But how soon will the time come when the names of one and another of you will be noted with an asterisk, as a signification of death. And you know not whose names shall first be thus marked, but the time will soon come when all your names will appear with this mark annexed to ‘em. And often remember the time when you must all appear at once before the judgment seat. How happy [will you be] if [you] all [then] meet.
[But if you do not], how dreadful. O, then, hearken while you have opportunity, while life continues, to the counsels given you this day, and hearken to the voice of the good Shepherd and great Counselor of souls at all times; give earnest heed to his counsels, lest at any time you should let them slip.
Lastly, I would apply the exhortation to the students in general, who are members of this seminary of learning, and to those who are instructed in the grammar school in this place. Let me beseech you, dear children and youth, as you would regard the interest of your precious and immortal souls, to hearken to the advice of that great Counselor which you have learnt, and whose advice in many of the more important articles of it has been set before you this day.
Seek first the kingdom of God, now set down and count the cost, strive to enter [the kingdom of God]. Improve the means of grace, be much in reading the holy Scriptures, sell all [for Christ]. If your right hand [offends, cut it off]. Be constant and immovable.
"Remember now your Creator in the days [of your youth]." [Eccl. 12:1]
The voice of this great Counselor in Scripture is especially directed to young persons. Prov. [7:24].
You are peculiarly obliged to attend, who are devoted by your parents to learning to that end, that you might obtain the most valuable knowledge and wisdom.
You have now left your parents.
Now is your most precious opportunity. This is your forming time. ‘Tis likely that as you now improve your time and opportunities while under education, so [‘tis the best time to seek the kingdom of God].
It has generally been observed.
Thus it has been to my observation, who have long been in the work of the ministry.
This should be regarded by you as the most important consideration. If you duly considered and was properly sensible, not all the pleasure and glory of the world, or of millions of worlds, would not tempt you to neglect.
[You] act a most foolish part, as though you were devoid of reason.
[You] act as though you were your own enemies.
If you are wise, you will be wise for yourselves, but if you scorn and condemn instruction [Prov. 21:11].
[i] MS = + July MARCH. 1749 1752.
[ii] MS = "* next p. but one (n)."
[iii] MS = ‘ has of"
[iv] MS = number deleted.
[v] MS = "later end."
[vi]
MS = "Luke. 16."
[vii] KJV They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
[viii] Note: [with this leaf begins part of the application this Exhortation in parti- preached only the 2nd time, at commencement.]
God's All-Sufficiency for the Supply of Our Wants
In this thanksgiving-day sermon, Edwards turns what would appear to be an expected sort of message for such an occasion-God's bounty toward humankind-into a meditation on the wonders of creation. The sermon seems to have had its immediate inspiration in an effort to explain how God "orders" rain to fall on a drought-stricken land. This question irresistibly leads Edwards to explore the interconnected workings of the cosmos. In doing so, and in keeping with his deliberately "modest" literary style, he hides a great deal of learning in his statements, particularly his exposure to the works of scholars such as John Ray and Thomas Burnet, who were interested in demonstrating how God's wisdom is evident in nature.1
Edwards also demonstrates his concurrence with a preeminent theological assumption of the eighteenth century by assuming that the laws of nature and the laws of reason are one. There is a universal harmony, he maintains, created and supervised by God, that exists between all things for the benefit of humankind. This sermon therefore reflects Edwards' interest in natural philosophy, evident in such early writings as "Of Being," "Of Atoms," and "The Mind."2 Yet Edwards distinguishes himself from other evangelical apologists in the debate against natural theology by his dispositional ontology. A universal harmony prevails because God, who is omnipotent and consonant, communicates himself in the manifold aspects of creation. Edwards states that God's "fullness of power" is such that, "let things be great or small, they are all one to his power." Herein Edwards imparts his personal vision of the magnificence of God.
Psalm 90:12
by Jonathan Edwards, preached 1728
So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.
The shortness of the life of man, were it not that there is another never-ending life to succeed, would be enough quite to discourage and dishearten us. And it is a wonder that those who either do not believe a future state or live, after such a manner that they wish there was none, can find any rest or quiet in such unbelief. For, however great our worldly prosperity is, while we enjoy it, yet, if were sure of enjoying it no longer than while we live in this world, and then expected to be turned to nothing. And so perfectly forever to be deprived of these, and all other enjoyments to take an eternal leave both of our prosperity, and our beings, one would think be enough to damp and discourage the hearts in the midst of the greatest prosperity.
Therefore, these considerations were very disheartening to the wiser and more considerate heathen, who had no revelation of any future life after the death of the body. This was also matter of difficulty and stumbling to holy men under the Old Testament, when life and immortality were not so clearly brought to light. It was afterwards by Jesus Christ, and they had not such a plain revelation of the happiness of heaven as they have now. This made David to cry out of the vanity of man Ps. 39:5 and 6, Behold thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine Age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity. Surely every man walketh in a vain show surely they are disquieted in vain he heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them. And again in the 11th verse surely every man is vanity.
This made Job say Job 7:6, My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and again Job 9:25 and 26, Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away they see no good. They are passed away as the swift ships: as the eagle hasteth to the prey.
See also what the wise man says upon it Eccles 3:18 and 19, I said in my heart concerning the estate of the sons of men that God might manifest them that they may that they themselves are beasts. For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no Preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
So Moses in this Psalm speaks much in the same manner in the 5th & 6th verses, Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as sheep: in the morning they are like grass that groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down and withereth. And again in the 9th & 10th verses, For all our days are passed away in the wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
The occasion of this prayer of Moses might be the many troubles that the children of Israel met with in Egypt, while in their bondage. Or else in the wilderness, where they wandered forty years, and were all wasted away, and never saw the Land of Promise. From the very first they had been in an unsettled state and condition. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob had no settled habitation. They called their life a pilgrimage, and then the children of Jacob went down into Egypt, and there they had no habitation of their own but were strangers and bondmen in a land that was not theirs. Therefore Moses says, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. We have had no dwelling place of our own from the first rise of our nation but thou hast taken such care of us that thou hast been as a dwelling place to us. Though, we pass through so many changes yet thou remains the same forever, as in the second verse, Before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting thou art God. Then he goes on to complain of their frailty and the shortness of their lives, and of many afflictions that they were filled, with to the verse of our text, and in that after reflecting thus upon the frailty and vanity of human life. He prays that God would make them so sensible of it, that they may make a wise improvement of it.
Here, observe, (1) one, the principal thing here requested by Moses is wisdom. (2) Two, the manner of attaining it, by applying our hearts to it for wisdom must be gotten in a way of diligent search, we can never expect to be wise while we are slothful. Prov 2: 2-5, So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.
(3) Three, the means by which he prays that they may be excited thus to apply their hearts to wisdom by being taught how to number their days that is by giving them a right sense of the shortness and uncertainty, frailty and vanity of life.
Doctrine.
That our time here is so short and uncertain.
That we had great need wisely to improve it, is a matter of great importance that men should be made sensible of their frailty. In handling this doctrine we shall,
But I. Our life here is very short. The more any person has an extensive
sense and understanding of things, the more sensible he will be of the
shortness of man's life, the more he considers his own nature and the nature of
other things. The work that he was made for, the business he has to do, and
that eternity, which is coming the greater conviction and more sensible
impression. He is like to have of the shortness and vanity of the present life
are enough to make one cry out with the Psalmist Ps 39:5, Mine age is as
nothing before thee: verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity.
The time of man's life is but a little while.
1. The time of man's life is but a little while. The life of man is very short, if we consider what man is. God has given man a nature superior to all the rest of the creatures here below. He has given him understanding and reason, which makes one man as in dignity of nature to outweigh all irrational creatures on earth put together. But yet, there are a great many other things of longer continuance than man. Some of the brute creatures are said to be an hundred years. There are many trees that will live down several generations of men, one after another.
However, superior man's
nature is to the nature of other things here below, yet in this he has no
preeminence. He dies as they do Ps 49:12, Man being in honour abideth not:
he is like the beasts that perish. That is though man is in honor be of a
more honorable and excellent nature than other creatures. Yet, in this he is
like the beasts that he quickly dies as they do. Solomon also takes notice of
man's being like the beasts, in that respect Eccles 3:18 [and 19] I said in
my heart concerning the state of the sons of men, that God might manifest them,
that they may see that they themselves are beasts. For that which befalleth the
sons of men befalleth the beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one
dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they all have one breath; so that a man hath no
preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. This is a good argument for
the immortality of the soul the shortness of mans life confirms that this is
not all his whole continuance. It seems very rational that seeing God has
created man in his own image, and so much above the rest of creatures that he
would not make him of so short a duration a shorter than some of the
inferior creatures as he would be if there were an end of man when he died.
2. Man's life is very short, if we consider what it once was. Man has been a frail mortal dying creature ever since the fall but yet, we see by the account we have in sacred history how much longer the life of man once was than it is now. Above 13 [thirteen] times as long a man is a very old man nowadays at the age, when man formerly used to be in the bloom of youth. But yet, then man was but a fading flower.
God threatened Adam that in
the day he eat of the forbidden fruit he should surely die. That is
interpreting of it with respect to temporal death. His body should immediately
have the principles of corruption and death begotten in it. And should be under
such decays that death should that day be begun in it, and should in a short
time after he perfected in the dissolution of soul and body. But yet, he lived
above nine hundred years after. Without doubt in those times, if they
had been told that in future times the age of man was to be but threescore
years and ten, they would have accounted a very short life.
Jacob lived near twice so long as the age of men now is. Yet, he tells Pharaoh that the days of the years of his pilgrimage had been but few, Gen 47:9. [It] is probable that Job lived three times so long as the present age of man. We read that after the end of his troubles, he lived and hundred and forty years. Yet, hear what he says Job 9:25 and 26, Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good. They are passed away as the swift ships: as the eagle hasteth to the prey. And, what then is our life of seventy years, or if we live till fourscore, we may well say as Moses in this Psalm at the 10[th] v[erse], its soon cut off and we fly away . But there is, but one out of many that arrives to seventy. What then is our life [?]. [I]t is but as a vapor that continues for a little while, and then vanishes away, James 4:14.
2. 3.Our present life is very
short. Considering the work we have to do. The work we have to do is a work of
the greatest concern imaginable. A work of the greatest necessity; our
everlasting welfare depends upon it. [I]t is a work also attended with a great
deal of difficulty. Such is the opposition of our hearts to it. So many are the
clogs and hindrances from a sinful nature, and from the world, and the devil
that its a difficult thing to get through with it. There is need not only of
diligence but also of violence to perform it.
And as the work, we have to do here is a work of greatest concern and of great difficulty, so we have much of it to do. We have got to mortify every one of our lusts to war against them, and get the victory over them, and its no little thing to do that for our lusts are very many. (and) They are very powerful and inveterate in their enmity against its exceeding difficult thing thoroughly to mortify our lust. Our lusts are like some sorts of serpents. Its a difficult thing to kill [th]em. They [wi]ll live after many blows. He that subdues his own corruptions does a greater piece of work,than he that takes a city,[1] Prov. 16:32.
We have also many other enemies to war against. We have to overcome the world with all its snares and enticements, and to get the victory over the devil and his Angels.
Men, while they continue in sin, make a great deal of work for themselves. They make work for repentance all that they do, while they go on in sin. They have got to undo again before they die. They have been going down the hill ever since they were born, and they have got to go quite back again up the hill. They have been going down stream hitherto. They must go quite back against wind and tide. [I]t is no small piece of work to prepare for death and an appearance before the tribunal of God to give an account to that strict and All-seeing Judge. If it be said that these things are indeed difficult in themselves, yet with God's assistance they may be made easy to this. I answer, that God has not given us any encouragement that we shall have his assistance in any other way, than in a way of diligence and striving and doing our utmost.
4. Our present life is very
short. If we consider how long the future life is. In comparison of that [I]t
is but as a moment as a mere point as nothing after we have lived, ma a
milion times over, as long as the present that life will be but beginning and
no nearer to an end. Our present life is in order to prepare for that life.
These few days are what a whole eternity depends upon. As it is well or ill
improved, this life will appear to us as a very little thing, when we come into
the eternal world. It will appear as a transient moment as nothing. We shall
see the truth then of those expressions of Scripture, where our life is
resembled to the grass; to a flower of the field; to a shadow; to a vapor; to a
watch of the night; a tale that is told, and other such comparisons. Thus our
life at longest is but very short. His frame and state is such that it is daily
liable to dissolution, so as to render it very uncertain.
II. Our present life is very uncertain. We have supposed hitherto that the life of man is continued till persons grow old. When we represented the shortness of it but how sudden does it continue so long. How few be there that reach to seventy, death mows down all ages, indifferently. Many die that are middle-aged persons, and a great many die in youth, and many die in childhood. Some just come into the world open their eyes, and see the light, and close their eyes again, and go into the land of darkness. Go strait from the womb to the tomb. The arrows of death fly thick every where, and fly unseen, and men keep dropping continually from the beginning to the end of the race, and there be but few that hold out to the end before they fall by some of these Arrows. Those that do, can say that thousands have fallen by their side and ten thousand at their right hand, and yet they have escaped. And there but few that arrive to old age but what can say that the arrows of death several time came very near them, and they but very narrowly escaped.
The experience of all the world in all ages abundantly teaches that there is no security against death. That men very often fall when they think they are most safe particularly.
1. No particular constitution. Being of a healthy constitution is no security from the stroke of death. This experience teaches how often have we seen, such go down to the gates of death. How often does death loosen, rend the vitals of the strongest stoutest men, Job 21:23-25, One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet. His breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow. And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure. Sometimes, weakly persons hold out to old age, and healthy men's natures are dissolved, and their strong bodies are rotted in the grave. And sometimes, those die that never eat with pleasure. Death seems to be very indifferent to either strong or weak.
No particular age. 2. No particular age. Being young is no security age this also universal experience teaches. There cannot be need of anything to convince the reason that it is. So, men only need to be put in mind of it, and to be affected by the consideration of it, Job 36:14, They die in youth and their life is among the unclean. And [Job] 15:31-33, Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence. It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green. He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive.
3. Men's Righteousness is no security. Because they live according to the rules of justice, and [w]rong no man, and strictly observe the Sabbath, and duties of divine worship. We cannot by our strictness and righteousness oblige God to spare us. Indeed, true holiness, and an interest in the grace of God does effectually secure from the evil of death, from its sting, its bad consequences, and does secure also from death it self. Till God sees [i]t is the fittest, and best time, best for us, and most for his own Glory. But our own righteousness can give us no certainty that we shall not soon die, Eccles. 9:2[a], All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked.
4. The unwillingness of others to part with us. Our being dear to friends is no security against death, if we are never so dear to them. They cannot save or defend us, when the time appointed comes we must go. How many friends so ever stand weeping around us, Ps. 49:7-9, None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him; (for the redemption of their souls is precious, and it ceaseth forever:) That he should live [for ever], and not see corruption. Eccles 12:5 [b], [because] man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets. The love and tenderness of parents or children or brethren or being beloved by our neighbors and acquaintances, wont save at the hour of death.
The need that others stand in of our
5. Our being Useful. Persons wont save us. [I]t is a vain thought to imagine that we are secure from death, because we do good in our generation; because we are charitable and useful to our neighbors, or because we are in public place and are useful to the commonwealth, or because are useful in the church, and do much for the advancement of Gods kingdom, and the interest of religion. God can spare us; he has no need of us to advance his kingdom; he can easily do that without us. Mans wickedness will no secure Eccles 8:8
6. Death wont stay for us because we are unprepared. It wont stay till we can get prepared. But when the time appointed comes, we must go notwithstanding all our shrieking and hanging back. When the midnight cry was made that the bridegroom was coming, they that were ready went in with him to the marriage. He did not stay till the foolish virgins could go, and bring some oil to put in their vessels but while they to were gone to buy the door was shut.
III. We are come to give the reasons why we had need wisely to improve this short and uncertain life. Though what we have said already, is reason sufficient but its shortness and uncertainty should engage us thus to improve it for these Reason[s]:
1. Because this is the only opportunity for that great work, which we have to do we have said something of the greatness and difficulty and necessity of that work, which we have to do. And this is the only opportunity we have to do it in. If our life should slip away, and the work should be unfinished, and we should be found not to have made our peace with God, nor obtained an interest in Jesus Christ, what will become of us [?] We shall be undone forever, without hope. We shall never have another time of trial; never have another offer of mercy.
2. A whole eternity depends upon the good or ill improvement of this short life. [I]t is not a hundred years or a thousand, but an infinity of duration; an everlasting state of happiness or misery. If our life be but forty years long, that is all the time we shall have to make provision for endless ages, and if it be but twenty years or less an eternity depends upon it. That word eternity, if we did but know what was meant by it, is enough to awaken all the Powers of our soul. And put us upon the utmost diligence that we may be ready for it when it comes.
Application.
1. Use. Of reproof. To those, who don't wisely improve their time, who are guilty of such folly and madness that notwithstanding the shortness and great uncertainty of their time, yet misspend it. Here a [three] 3 sorts of persons that are reproved by the doctrine.
1. Those that spend their time slothfully. Who take but little or no care what they do in this short and changeable life. Let slip their precious moments and do nothing in them such as are of an indolent, careless, [and] slothful disposition. That squander away their time in doing nothing or doing no thing to any purpose.
Time is given to such in vain, they had as good be without the part of their short life, which they spend slothfully or wish it, and better far if they never had it, they would not have it to answer. For but now God lays it to their charge, and will call them to an account how they have improved it, and they had better never have the talent committed to them than bury it in the earth. When they have it for every minute of misspent time is what will require of them. Our time is short of itself but such as those make their time much shorter for all the time that is spent in negligence is as if they had it not. Such do as it were die while they live for all that time that is not improved, has as good be given to death as life. No other time should be reckoned into a man's life that, which improved to some good purpose because all the rest is lost. Such as spend a great deal of their time in company keeping, may be reckoned among those they will see themselves some time or other that its an unprofitable way of spending their time and not merely unprofitable but a course that exposes to abundance of temptation and sin a way that tends to the souls ruin and that without doubt has been the ruin of many souls.
2. Such [as] spend all their short life in pursuing after things that will be of no account to them, as soon as that short life is at an end. Such as these do also greatly misspend their lives. A man that spends the whole day in laboring hard for that would be of no profit to him at night nor never afterwards would be counted an unwise and unprofitable laborer. And certainly, for the same reason may he be so accounted that spends his whole life in laboring for that that will be no profit to him when his life is ended. When his labor is at an end, there is an end of the profit too. There are no fruits of his labors for him to enjoy, when he has done his work; [k]no[w] the good of his labor vanishes as soon as his labor it self ceases. His works does not follow him. If he has got a great deal of money or lands, he leaves it all behind him. For him that providence pleases to dispose it to, he has been moiling and toiling all his life time, and when he has done, he is sent away as naked as he was born. If he had spent some of that time in seeking God's favor, and in religious duties he might carried away the profit of it with him. He might have obtained something that would have stayed by him forever. But now, notwithstanding all the pains he has taken to make himself rich in this world, his soul goes away quite naked into the world of spirits.
3. Those who spend their time viciously, there are many, such as those who fill up their lives with the service of sin and their lusts. Some spend away their time in drinking; others with vain companions; others in the pursuit of other lusts, and indeed all natural men do spend their lives in sin. They do not spend their lives in doing nothing, but in doing evil in treasuring up misery to themselves when they come to die. In throwing fuel upon the fire that awaits them. You that do thus, if you continuing so doing it, would be well for you, if your lives were shorter than they are. Yea, if you had never been born.
2. Use to exhort all to a wise improvement of the present life. Do not sleep away nor sin away these precious moments. Let us improve the light of the sun while we enjoy it. For we know not how soon it may be eclipsed and hid from us. Joh. 12:35, Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come [upon you:] work whole the day last [Joh. 9:4b] for the night cometh, when no man can work.
There is so much reason in arguments of this nature that one would wonder they do not take with every one. [I]t is such plain and evident reason that [I]t is [a] great folly and stupidity, when one has an eternal heaven and hell before them, one or t[he] other of, which they must dwell in according as they improve the present life. Nevertheless, to neglect it, and take little care about it that it is a wonder every one is not convinced.
Especially, when we are so often put in mind of these things are told of [th]em and have [th]em urged and pressed upon us, and not only hear about death but frequently see instances of it. Stand about [around?] the beds of dying persons and follow them to their graves. [I]t is a wonder that persons can hear and see so much, and think so little, and take so little care of themselves. Hear what God says to you, Deut 32:29, O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! Why should men need so much urging to take care that their [they] may be saved from going to hell. Whose concern is it more than their own [?] Why should men be so set on their own ruin, Ezech. 18:31, [For] why will ye, die O house of Israel?
Here, consider 1. That it is not all your time that you are under advantages to do your great work in [?] If you should live to be old, it would not be the whole time that you would have advantage to work in some part of it is spent in childhood. Great part of it spent in sleep, and then part of it is spent under the infirmities of old age. If a man has never done his great work till then, he is under but very poor advantage to do it then.
2. Consider how much of your life has been already misproved and lost. There are many that have spent great part of their time already in sin. That time that is past cannot be recovered. [I]t is gone forever. [I]t is no longer your[s]. So that there is so much time as you have spent in sin; cut off from your short life that must not be reckoned. Therefore, with how much greater diligence ought you improve the remainder? You do not know how short the remainder is. It may be, you have spent the greatest part of your time already in the service of Satan. You have all that you have done hitherto, to undo and to begin anew. Therefore, you had need [to] set about your great concern immediately, and with the utmost degree of diligence.
3. If you do not improve your time. to the best advantage, [i]t is uncertain whither ever you will finish your work before you die. God gives encouragement them that what they can, but not to those who are slothful and negligent. It depends upon his will and pleasure, whether or no[t] your labors shall be bles[sed]. Therefore, [i]t is the best way to do your utmost, and then there is great encouragement. If not it is very uncertain, whether God wont have you to perish forever.
[Directions]
We shall give two or three directions for the wise improvement of time and conclude.
1. Chiefly, mind spiritual things and bent so careful about earthly things, as to be diverted from the affairs of your soul. Remember that religion is your main concern. That you came into the world for, and that, which alone will stand you instead when you go out of the world. Make that, therefore, your main business; your chief pursuit, and subject all other affairs to it, and take great care that you do not suffer your mind to be so much taken up with [the] care and thought about your worldly concerns, as to be taken-off from the one thing needful. You must learn to trust in that promise, Math 6:33, [But] Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
2. Improve your short life after that manner, as you can be assured you shall approve of when you come to die. Live so, that you may not have your own folly and sottish negligence to cry out at that time. Consider now in season how it would be if you should be taken with some mortal distemper, and you should be given over by physicians. Consider what sort of improvement of time you should most approve of then. How should you wish you had lived[?] What sort of practices should you wish you had let alone, and what things should you wish you had practiced that you have neglected. Why go and do those same things[?] That is the way to have peace in your latter end. And do not admit of any thing as an excuse for the doing or neglecting this or that, that you should not think a good excuse at such a time.
3. Live every day as much according to the rules of Gods Word, as if you were assured it was your last. If this rule were observed, almost all sorts of men would live very differently, from what they now do. They do abundance of things, day after day that dare not do if they knew they should die tomorrow.
The observing of this rule is the way not to be afraid of death. And to meet that king of terrors without when the time of departure was at hand. Trembling and to be able to say as the apostle did, when the time of his departure was at hand, 2 Tim. 4:7 and 8, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, [I have kept the faith:] Henceforth there is Laid up for me a crown of righteousness [which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.]
[1] and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city (KJV).
Yale
Daily News
News'
View: A community mourns
The
apparent killing of Annie Le MED ’13 is a tragedy that words cannot describe.
Published
Monday, September 14, 2009
After
10 Amistad St. morphed from an anonymous research laboratory to a media
campground, after missing-person posters were plastered on campus and
billboards hung above local highways, after the breathless television news
reports and endless searches with bloodhounds, University President Richard Levin
said the only thing that could be said: “This is as bad as it gets.”
Levin
spoke softly on the telephone from his Woodbridge Hall office as reporters
assembled outside on Saturday for a briefing from law enforcement officials.
Twenty-four hours later, the authorities found a body in the Amistad Street
building, presumed to be that of missing graduate student Annie Le MED ’13.
It
was news that this campus spent four days hoping not to hear, collectively
holding its breath, hoping maybe, just somehow, this was a misunderstanding, a
miscommunication, that Le would turn up safe and sound.
Instead,
last night, the president stood on the first step of Woodbridge Hall, a folded
sheet of paper in his hand, the same reporters gathered once again. Again, he
spoke softly, pausing between words, shaking ever so slightly.
“Now,”
he concluded, “is a time for compassion, for condolences and for coming
together as a community.”
Afterward,
Levin said that meeting with Le’s family was one of the hardest things he has
ever had to do. The coming days and weeks will be no more bearable, especially
for those in the medical school community, and especially many times over for
Le’s family and friends. This is not something any person, any family, any
community should have to go through. This is not something that should happen,
at Yale or elsewhere.
There
will be second-guessing — about whether the administration should have alerted
the community sooner about Le’s disappearance, or why it took so long to find
what is presumed to be her body, or whether steps should be taken to increase
surveillance in Yale’s most sprawling facilities. We can only hope that Yale
will become a safer place from the lessons learned in this tragic case, that
something positive can come out of this horror.
The
Rev. Jonathan Edwards once gave a sermon after the sudden death of a young
person in his community. The death, he said, shows “what need you have to be
determined concerning your hope, as it shows you how liable you are, suddenly
and with but little warning, to be snatched out of the world.”
And
so it befell Annie Le. A 24-year-old woman with endless promise is presumed
dead, her body found on the day she was to marry. Most frightening is the fact
that Le may have been killed by someone who walks among us, considering the
basement of 10 Amistad St. is only accessible with a Yale keycard.
It
is a tragedy, an unthinkable one, and nothing more can be said.
The
authorities have refused to comment on what might have led to last week’s
tragedy. Yale officials say more details will come out in the following days
and that they have learned lessons from the botched investigation into the
murder of Suzanne Jovin ’99. We all hope so.
But
right now, the speculation that will fill dining halls and cable news shows
over the days and weeks to come is of no gain. Rather, today, we mourn, for that
is all we can do.
PSALM
78:25
Man did eat angels’
food.
The Psalmist is here setting forth
the great ingratitude of the children of Israel in the wilderness, in that they
still went on to provoke God, notwithstanding the great things that he did for
them.
In
this place, he is speaking of God’s feeding of them with manna. God’s wonderful
mercy to that evil congregation in so feeding of them, appeared in the
miraculous manner of it, and it was a very miraculous thing that a congregation
of about a million souls should be so fed and supported for many years with
bread from heaven. V. 23, “Though he had commanded
the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, and had rained down
manna upon them.”
And nextly, God’s great mercy to
them herein appeared in the excellency of this food. It is here called “the
corn of heaven” and “angels food.” In another place viz. in the 105 psalm,
v. 40, it is called “the bread of heaven.”
The Psalmist speaks of it as a
wonderful mercy and honor which God conferred on [them], that they should eat
such food, which was angels’ food, as though they were advanced to a like
privilege and happiness with the angels. That doubtless must be excellent bread
indeed, which is the food of angels of heaven.
But
then here the question is, How could this be angels’ food? Surely, the angels
don’t eat such food as the children of Israel did in the wilderness. That manna
was a material thing. Angels are pure spirits, and their food is no material
substance.
What Christ says of that manna in the wilderness unfolds the matter, John 6:31-33. The Jews say to Christ, “Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” The place that the Jews quote is either this, he “gave them of the corn of heaven, men did eat angels’ food [Ps. 78:24]”; or that in the 105th psalm, 40th verse”, he “satisfied them with the bread of heaven.” But see the answer that Christ makes to ‘em: “Then Jesus said to them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world”, and in the 35th verse. “I am the bread of life”, and again in the 48th-51st verses, “I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever."
So that the children of Israel in the wilderness did eat that which was typically angels’ food. The excellency of the bread which the Psalmist here speaks of was not any exquisite pleasantness to the taste, or excellent quality of nourishing and strengthening the body: but it was a typical excellency. Manna was angels’ food in the same sense as the bread and wine in the sacrament is Christ’s body and blood; that is, it represents it. Manna represented Christ with his benefits, which is the true bread from heaven, and is indeed angels’ food. The congregation of Israel continued[i] and represented the church of Christ, and their living on manna in the wilderness represented the church living upon Christ, which does therein live upon angels’ food.
DOCTRINE.
Those that spiritually partake
of Christ, they eat angels’ food.
I. We would explain what it is to
feed on Christ. And,
II. Show how they that do so do eat
angels’ food.
I. Explain [what it is to feed on
Christ.] Men do partake of and feed upon Christ in two senses: either in having
the possession and enjoyment of the person of Christ, or in partaking of the
benefits which he purchased.
First. Men do partake of, or feed on
Christ, in receiving blessedness in the person of Christ. Believers have
blessedness in the person as they choose happiness, and are happy in the glory
and divine beauty of the person of Christ, and in the love of Christ.
1. They have life and blessedness
in the beholding the excellencies and beauty of Christ’s person. They
spiritually do behold the glory of the person of Christ; they see his divine
excellency, whereby he is fairer than the sons of men, and ’tis the life of
their souls.
The
believer, as to spiritual life, lives by the viewing of the beauty of Jesus
Christ, as the body lives by food. As the body is refreshed by food, so when
the believer sees the divine beauty of Christ, it refreshes his inward man, it
rejoices his heart, it quiets his soul. If it before has been in a tumult, it
gives quietness and peace to his soul; if he has been weary, it gives rest to
the soul; if it has been before pained and afflicted, it gives comfort and
pleasure. It is pleasant to his soul, as dainty food is to the body; it is
sweeter to him than any of those dainties that are served up at kings’ tables
would be.
A
seeing the glorious beauty of the Son of God enlivens the soul of a believer,
as agreeable and suitable food enlivens the body. If the soul has before been
dull and dead, yet, if God pleases to give a discovery of the beauty of Christ,
that gives new life to it; it makes it lively in the way of God’s commandments.
When
a believer has the discovery of the beauty of Christ, it satisfies his soul. A
believer hath an appetite to it, a longing desire after a seeing the glory of
Christ, as a man hath after bodily food.
A
discovery of the glory of God in the face of Christ gives life to the soul, and
this maintains life, as bread doth the life of the body.
Such a discovery gives holiness,
which is spiritual life. The discovery of the beauty of Christ is a sanctifying
discovery. It changes the soul to a beauty of a like kind. This begets and
draws forth gracious inclinations and desires and holy affection, and enables
to perform truly gracious and holy actions, and to bring forth fruit unto
holiness; to walk and run in the ways of God’s commandments, and be of a
heavenly conversation. If holiness has been languishing in the heart before,
yet let there be a new discovery of the excellency of Christ, and that will renew
it; it will give new life to that holy principle.
It
strengthens the soul as food strengthens the body. When God discovers the
excellency of Christ, it gives new strength to the soul to resist temptations,
and to perform difficult duties.
Knowledge
is the food of the understanding, especially the knowledge of great and worthy
objects. The knowledge of the glory of the person of Christ, is the food of the
understandings of believers. It is the best entertainment to their minds.
Believers
are happy in the contemplating the excellency of the person of Christ as
appearing in his word and works, and especially in his glorious work of
redeeming mankind.
2. Men do partake of or feed on
Christ in his person, as they are happy in his love. All believers are the
beloved of Christ’s soul, and when Christ discovers his love to them, this is
to the rejoicing and great contentment of their hearts.
Christ
gives himself to believers, to be possessed and enjoyed by them as their
everlasting portion, and gives his love to them. He takes them into union with
himself, and they enjoy communion with him. The manifestations of the love of
Christ has the same tendencies to sanctifying, refreshing, enlivening and
strengthening the soul as the discovery of his glory.
Believers,
in thus partaking of blessedness in Christ, do as it were feed upon him: for
Christ in his beauty and love don’t only become as food to the soul, but in
partaking of it there must be the act of the soul, as eating is the act of the
man. Men come thus to partake of Christ, by their receiving of him by faith,
and loving of him.
Second. The second sense wherein men are
said to feed on Christ, is in receiving and partaking of the benefits which he
purchased, such as the favor of God, a being received into the number of his
children, and eternal life.
The
receiving and accepting these in the way wherein, they are offered, and being
made partakers of them, is what is more especially meant in the Scriptures by
partaking of Christ’s body and blood, or eating the flesh of the Son of man and
drinking his blood. John 6:53, “Then Jesus said
unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son
of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.” The eating of the
flesh and drinking the blood of Christ, signifies the receiving and partaking
of those benefits which he purchased by his body and blood.
The
matter is represented thus: that God had such love to us, and so pitied our
famishing souls, that he gave us his own Son to be slain for us, that he might
be our food to nourish and give us life. John 6:51, “And the bread that I will
give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world”; that is,
“Seeing the world is perishing in spiritual famine, I so love the world that I
am content myself to be slain that my own flesh should be a feast for them,
that they may live upon that.”
Not that Christ’s flesh is to be
eaten literally, but ’tis as if Christ should resign up himself to be slain,
that by eating of his flesh and drinking his blood we might live; inasmuch as
we live by Christ being slain, as much as if we lived by literally eating his
flesh and drinking his blood. We live by those benefits that the bruising his
flesh and spilling his blood procured for us. And it was as necessary that he
should be slain in order to our coming to partake of those benefits, as if
those benefits were in eating and drinking the body and blood of Christ
themselves. ’Tis as impossible that we should have those spiritual benefits of
Christ by which we live without Christ being slain for us, as it is that we
should eat up the flesh of beasts without their being slain.
So
that eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ, means our receiving and
partaking of those benefits which we come by, by the slaying of Christ’s body
and spilling his blood.
II. Men in thus feeding on Christ,
do eat angels’ food.
First. The angels have life and
happiness in contemplating the glory and enjoying the love of the same Son of
God.
The
angels of heaven do live as absolutely upon God, and by the views of the glory
and excellency of God, and upon the love of God, as the souls of men.
Their
happiness all consists in this. This is the entertainment and food of their
understandings, viz. the glory and beauty of the Divine Being. And ’tis by this
they live: by this they have their glory and beauty; ’tis the image of God’s
beauty begotten and upheld by a seeing the glory of God. God’s beauty is
communicated this way to them, as well as to men, viz. by their seeing and
understanding of it. Their light is a borrowed light, and they borrow it this
way: by seeing God’s light so, they derive it, and come to have the glory of
God reflected from themselves.
The
holiness of the angels is a derived holiness; and thus it is they derive the
exercises of holiness, by their views of the glory of God. Holiness is the life
of those heavenly beings, as well as of the souls of men, but that they have
from beholding the glory of God: they perpetually behold the glory [of God].
Matt. 18:10, “their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in
heaven.” And this is their life. Thus it is that they will live eternally; they
live by beholding God’s glory.
And
so they live and have joy and happiness, by the love of God. The angels are
beloved of God, as is implied in their being called the sons of God, Job 38:7,
and they live upon the manifestations of his love, as upon streams of rivers of
life.
And they live upon the beauty and
love of the Second Person of the Trinity as well as the first. They are happy
in the contemplating Christ’s glory, as is evident, because they worship and
adore him. Heb. 1:6, “Let all the angels of God worship him.” Adoration implies
the supreme regard, admiration, love and rejoicing in the excellency of the
person adored.
Yea,
the angels rejoice in and as it were feast themselves upon the glory of Christ
as it appears in him as our mediator. God manifest in the flesh is an object
beheld and contemplated by them with great delight, as is signified in I Tim.
3:16, “And without controversy, great is the
mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit,
seen of angels.” It is not meant that he is merely seen, but
contemplated with admiration and joy; and the joy they have in Jesus Christ, God-man,
appears by their songs when Christ was first incarnate. There was a multitude
of the heavenly hosts, praising God saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and
on earth peace, good will toward men,” (Luke 2:13-14).
And
so their praises of the Lamb that was slain, show the same thing. Rev. 5:11-12,
“And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and
the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten
thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is
the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength,
and honor, and glory, and blessing.”
They
joyfully feed and entertain their souls in beholding and contemplating the
glory of Christ as appearing in the work of redemption. We are told they desire
to look into these things, I Pet. 1:12. That implies that it is their
employment, and that[ii] their
spirits are greatly engaged in it. They entertain and feast their souls with
it.
The
angels do, and forever will, feast their souls in beholding and contemplating
the beauty of Christ appearing in his person and works. This is the food of
angels.
Second. The benefits of Christ’s
purchase, which believers partake of, are of the same kind with the blessings
that the angels enjoy in heaven. ’Tis the favor of the same God, the same kind
of eternal life, the same riches, the same kind of honors and pleasures that
the angels do enjoy.
Indeed,
one of the benefits of the purchase of Christ for us is the pardon of sins, which
the angels have no occasion [for], but the difference is only relative. The
thing is peace with God. This is the same in us and in the angels. It differs
in us only relatively, viz. as we are brought into this state from being
subject to the just displeasure [of God], and they never had that displeasure.
So
that in feeding on Christ’s body, we eat angels’ food, that is, we thereby come
to partake of the same kind of benefits which the angels partake of, though
they don’t come to partake of them by Christ’s body, and by his being slain, as
we do.
Third, and lastly. The angels are
dependent on the same Christ for these benefits, though not the same way. They
ben’t dependent on Christ for their heavenly blessings as mediator and by
purchase, as we are, but yet they are dependent on Christ for them as their
head, as their king. As Christ is constituted by the Father the universal head
and king of all the heavenly hosts, so he is the universal dispenser of God’s
benefits of life and honor and blessedness to the whole society.
Christ, we are taught in the
Scriptures, is the head of the heavenly world. They are all put in subjection
to him. Heb. 2:5, the Apostle showing how much Christ is above the angels,
says, “for unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come.”
But this God had done unto Christ, as the Apostle shows in the following
verses.
And we are particularly told that
Christ is the head of the angels. Col. 2:10, “We are complete in him, which is
the head of all principality and power.” I Pet. 3:22, “Who is gone into heaven,
and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made
subject unto him.”
The
saints on earth and the saints and angels in heaven are all one society, one
family, one body, and they have all one head, and that is Jesus Christ. Eph.
3:13-14, “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.” They are all
made one body under this one head, Eph. [1]:10, that “he might gather together
in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth;
even in him.” They are gathered into one in him, and he is the universal head
of government and head of communication; and as their head, is the dispenser of
life and blessedness and glory to the whole society, whether they be angels or
saints. Thus, they that partake of Christ and his benefits, eat the food of
angels. See Eph. 4:10.[iii]
APPLICATION.
I. Hence we learn the excellency of
Jesus Christ. It is spoken of in the text as what argued the great excellency
of the bread that God bestowed upon the children of Israel, that it was angels’
food, and elsewhere, that it was the bread of heaven.
It argues the superlative
excellency of Christ Jesus, that he is he upon whom the angels live for their
perfection and blessedness; that his glory and beauty is that upon which they
live for the entertainment of their understandings, and that his love is the
fountain that supplies their eternal ecstasies of joy.
The
angels are the most noble sort of creatures that God hath made. They excel in
strength and in wisdom; they are called “morning stars”, Job 38:7, by reason of
the brightness of their understandings and their exalted station in glory, and
“sons of God” upon the account of the dignity and excellency of their natures,
whereby they are more like God than any other mere creatures. When they are
mentioned in the New Testament it is commonly under some such appellations as
“principalities and powers” and “authorities, thrones and dominions.”
And yet our Jesus Christ, that took
on him our natures and died for us, is he in whose beauty is the glorious
entertainment of their noble and exalted powers, of their bright and enlarged
understandings: this employs the utmost strength of those heavenly
intelligences. Our Redeemer’s beauty and love fills the vast capacities of
those spirits with joy and happiness.
To enjoy Christ, they esteem a
happiness noble enough for them; they look upon the fountain as large enough.
The glory of Christ is bright enough for the strength of their eyes to sustain.
They look upon the love of Jesus Christ as a stream that is satisfying, even
unto them.
They
are prying and searching into the discoveries of Christ’s glory in his work of
redemption, esteeming it an employment that they are hot debased but honored
and exalted by.
Christ
is the darling of heaven. He is the glorious light of that world, that
enlightens saints and angels; he is the tree of life that grows in that
paradise, that bears the delicious fruit that is the food of all the heavenly
hosts. How glorious and excellent a person, then, doth this argue Jesus Christ
to be.
II. Hence we learn the greatness of
the sin of unbelief, for by that men do despise and reject Jesus Christ and his
benefits. They refuse angels’ food when God offers it to ‘em; they make no
account of the bread of heaven when it is laid in their way, and they may have
it at as cheap a rate as the children of Israel had manna, only for taking of
it. We need not say, “Who shall ascend into heaven, to fetch it down for us
from thence?” God hath sent it down, and it is nigh us, and lies round about
us.
Unbelievers
do indeed despise and loath Christ and his benefits, as the children of Israel
did manna in the wilderness. Their hearts go wholly after other things; they
are hankering after the vanities of the things, the enjoyments and
gratifications of their lusts, as the children of Israel did after the food of
Egypt. Num. 11:5-6, “We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely;
the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the
garlic: but now our soul is dried away.” So unbelievers look upon it,
that they shall be in a famishing condition without something else besides
Christ, and there is nothing at all besides this manna before our eyes,
accounting that as nothing at all. So unbelievers have no relish of Christ;
they see nothing in him that should satisfy or delight their souls.
And
again, Num. 21:5, “And the people spake against God, and against Moses,
Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?
For there is no bread”—they did not count manna worthy the name of
bread—“neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light
bread.”
God
heinously resented the people’s despising manna as they did. He smote them with
the plague at one time, Num. 11:33, and sent fiery serpents among them at
another [Num. 21:6-7].
But
if it was so heinous to slight that corporeal manna that was but a type of
Christ, how much more heinous is their sin who loath the spiritual Manna, the
true Bread from heaven, and that which is indeed the food of angels.
III. Hence we learn how much cause we
have to admire at the grace of God in advancing us to such an honor and
happiness as the feeding upon Christ; that we who dwell in houses of clay, and
have our foundation in the dust, and are such poor sinful creatures, should
have angels’ food given [us] that God should rain upon us in great plenty of
that spiritual and heavenly bread.
That
God should provide such a feast for us, that we, that dwell upon earth, may sit
at a table that God has furnished with the same kind of fare as their feasts
are made of in the heaven of heavens: what great cause have we to bless the
name of God, that he should deal in such wonderful grace with us!
And this consideration should
especially excite our wonder to God’s grace: and that is that this food is
provided for us at immensely greater expense than ’tis for the angels. We not
only have the same food that the angels have, but God has been at great expense
to provide it for.
’Tis
provided for us at a great price: ’tis bought by the precious blood of the Son
of God. We could not have it at any cheaper rate. Christ was slain in order to
our partaking of him; we could not feed upon him by any other means.
Now
it is not so with the angels: God never was at such expense to provide it for
them; it did not cost God anything to give it to them: so that the goodness of
God has been more wonderful to us than them.[iv]
IV. Hence learn how great the sin of
those is who neglect the Lord’s Supper. The bread and wine at the Lord’s Supper
is angels’ food, in the same sense that the manna in the wilderness was, that
is, it[v]
represents that spiritual food of angels: Jesus Christ and his benefits.
And
we know how God was provoked by their slighting the [manna in the wilderness]
and doubtless, for the same reason, he is provoked by persons, turning their
backs upon this ordinance.
And
there is this difference that makes the sin more provoking: that is, that the
relation between the sacramental bread and wine to this heavenly food is much
more known amongst us than the relation of the manna in the wilderness. We have
the spiritual[vi] benefits
which this sacraments represents most plainly and particularly set before us,
and they had not so concerning the manna.
A
neglecting of this ordinance, that signifies this angels’ [food], can be no
other than interpretationally a despising of that bread itself.[vii]
Notes on sermon on 78:25
[i] Check MS
[ii] MS reads “it is also an
employment.”
[iii] Or, Eph. 1:10?
[iv] The remainder of L. 9v. contains fragment outline
on Prov. 19:21.
[v] MS = “is”
[vi] MS = spiritually”
[vii] L. 10r. contains fragment of
outline on Prov. 19:21, and the verso the beginning of a sermon on the text.
Life through Christ Alone
Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom should we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. John 6:68
The least happiness or the least misery that is eternal is more to be regarded [than] the greatest happiness or the greatest misery that is but temporal and will have an end; so that the smallest additions to our eternal happiness and treasure in heaven is of more value than the greatest additions to our outward prosperity, because there is no proportion at all between the greatest finite and least infinite, the greatest temporal and the least eternal, the one so much exceeds the other.1
Much more is a great and unspeakable happiness that is eternal: of infinitely more value than the little pleasures that last but a few days, and therefore, the grand question should be, "What shall I do to obtain eternal life?" and this life in comparison of it be neglected and overlooked and counted as not worth the taking notice of with it.
It seems as if this was a great question amongst the Jewish rabbis about the time of Christ's coming into the world, what was the condition of eternal life, for all believed [in] a future state of happiness but only the Sadducees. But the question was how it was to be obtained; this they expected the Messiah would plainly tell them when he came into the world.
And accordingly, our blessed Savior fully and clearly resolved this question while he was on earth, for he tells us that he himself is the way, the truth, and the life. It was his prophetical office to teach us the way to eternal life. 'Tis his priestly office to purchase it for us and it is his kingly office, by his almighty power, to bring us to it.
Christ Jesus had been fully instructing his disciples and others in these things in this chapter in an excellent discourse to them and to some of the multitude that he had miraculously fed with five loaves and two fishes, occasioned by their asking him this same grand question about the condition of eternal life, in the twenty-eighth verse, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" That is, "What shall we do that we may do that work which God has appointed in order to everlasting life?"
Christ fully answers them this question in the ensuing excellent discourse. He tells them in it that the work of God was to believe on him; that he that believes on him should [have] everlasting life; that he is the bread of life, and that he that eats this bread should hunger nor thirst no more, and should never die.
But the effect these heavenly instructions had upon them, instead of moving them to come to Jesus and believe on him that they might have this everlasting life, was quite the contrary: their final departure from him, in the sixty-sixth verse, "From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then Jesus said to the twelve, Will ye also go away?" This is the occasion of these words of Peter in our text, "Lord, to whom should we go? thou hast the words of eternal life." We do believe that thou alone canst teach us the way to everlasting life. We believe that it is as thou sayest, that believing in thee is the work which God requires of us, to do [so] that we may receive everlasting [life]. We believe that thou are the bread of life, and if we leave thee, we can find none else by whom we may obtain everlasting life; for we believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, that was to come and teach us and lead us to eternal happiness.
In the words observe a twofold assertion: first, that Christ has the words of eternal life; that is, that he has the dispensing and communication of eternal life, his word being the means of communication. Second, that none else has the words of eternal life, strongly implied in this interrogation, "To whom shall we go?" There is none else we can go to, but to thee alone.
Doctrine.
It is by Christ alone that eternal life is ever communicated to men.
It was by Christ that eternal life has been communicated from the foundation of the world.
It was by Christ that holy men in the old world, before the flood, received life; 'twas by faith in him that Enoch was translated; 'twas by the reception of Christ that Abraham received eternal life; 'twas [by] faith in him Moses received eternal happiness, that faith whereby he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. It was by Christ and him alone that Job, Samuel, David, and the prophets were saved; he is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, in whose blood the godly have been washed and with whose righteousness they have been clothed—never ever have been or ever will be saved any other way to the end of this world. There is none else can communicate eternal life to us, or deliver us from eternal death.
I. We cannot obtain it by ourselves. Our own strength, our own righteousness, our own suffering, are all good for nothing to procure this life we speak of. If we make our ways never so clean, if we worship God never so well, if we sacrifice thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of oil, yea, if man should sacrifice the fruit of his body for the sin of his soul, it is nothing.
Abraham's being so freely willing to offer his only son, Isaac, was not sufficient to satisfy God for the least of Abraham's sins, not for the least wrong thought and sinful action; but it was Christ that satisfied for Abraham's sin, and it was through that faith in Him by which he offered him up that he received pardon of sin and eternal life, and it was for His sake that this action of his was accepted and rewarded.
II. All the world can't procure eternal life for us. If all the men in the world should offer to be crucified for the sake of one man, it would be absolutely to no purpose; instead of satisfying for all our sins, they could not satisfy for one of them; instead of procuring eternal life, they could not procure one drop of water for us in hell: the flames of hell would not be at all the cooler for it. They are not able to pay one farthing of all that ten thousand talents which we owe, but we must have been in hell till we had paid the uttermost farthing, notwithstanding all that they could do or suffer; and so,
III. Neither could angels help us. If the archangel, the chief angel in heaven, with all the rest of those bright, excellent, and glorious spirits, should assume human bodies and all undergo as much disgrace as Christ did, and should hang upon crosses in pain and intolerable torment thousands of years, 'twould be to as little purpose.
[IV.]2 'Tis the Lamb of God alone that can take away the sins of the world, and it is the Lion of the tribe of Judah alone that is strong enough to work our way through to everlasting happiness. The reasons why it is so are:
First. None else is able to endure the wrath of God against sin. God's hatred of sin and his wrath against it are infinite, and no finite person can bear such an infinite weight. No angel or man could have held out to bear what Christ bore, but before the [agony] grew to that height as to cause them to sweat blood as Christ did, their strength would fail, and they would relent. Now, Christ was able to lay down his life, and was able to take it again of himself.
Second. The suffering and righteousness of none but Christ could have been sufficient and satisfactory. The least sin deserves eternal punishment, and the suffering of none but of an infinite person can be equivalent to eternal sufferings. Christ is an infinite person, and he is one that the Father loves with an infinite love; and therefore whatever he doth is accepted upon his own account, upon the account of that love which the Father hath to him.
Third. None other is of power and wisdom and grace enough to fit us for, to bring us to, and make us eternally happy in heaven, but Christ alone. Our old natures must be destroyed, or else heaven, although it be bought for us, cannot be bestowed upon us. We must be sanctified and made holy, and all the men and angels in the universe can't do that; they have not power enough to raze3 out the old image of Satan, nor skills enough to draw the image of God upon our souls. This [is] a work of the almighty power and wisdom of God, which is Christ: 1 Corinthians 1:24, "Christ the power of God, and wisdom of God"; Ephesians 1:19, "And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power."
There is none else that can fill our hearts with grace: we must receive of his fullness and grace for grace. 'Tis he alone that has received the Spirit without measure: "For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God, for God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him" (John 3:34). He is an infinite vessel; he has enough for himself and for us too, but it is not so with angels. None else can give us spiritual wisdom, for none know the things of the Spirit; and Christ alone can send into our hearts the Holy Spirit to dwell in us, to teach us heavenly things.
There is no other vine that we can [be] ingrafted into, that can communicate vital and spiritual nourishment, and, at last eternal life unto us but Christ alone, by whom and for whom are all things, who is before all things, by whom all things consist. There needs an almighty power to give us our natural life, and less will not suffice to give us our spiritual.
There is no one else can conquer our enemies but Christ alone: that can conquer the world; that can triumph over the devil and make a show of him openly, as Christ did upon the cross; that overcame death and break his bands, that can take away his sting, and that can raise us up at the last day.
Or that [can] make us happy when we get into the other world. Christ Jesus is the only source and fountain of true happiness; 'tis he alone that can fill the soul and satisfy it forever.
Christ Jesus is the only complete Redeemer that has worthiness enough, that has power, wisdom, and an inexhaustible fountain of grace, sufficient for our spiritual life here and our eternal life hereafter.
In these several respects eternal life is communicated by Christ:
1. He has bought it for us. If we had not sinned, God would have given us eternal life upon the account of our obedience. But by our sin we have lost it and Christ alone can redeem it, seeing divine justice must be satisfied and it would not have been just with God to let sin go unpunished. Christ so loved the offender that, rather than he should die, He would pay all that justice demanded, and [that] He has done, so that justice is paid and everlasting life is purchased and is to be received, without any money or price, by those that will come to Christ for it.4
2. By preparing a place for them in heaven. Christ having been here on earth and done all that was necessary towards satisfying and purchasing heaven, he is gone to heaven to prepare for those that come to him: to intercede with the Father and plead his obedience, his passion, for them. John 14:2–3, "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there ye may be also."5
3. By leading and conducting of them to eternal life, by his Word and Spirit and mighty power. The Scriptures, which are our rule to go to heaven by, are the word of Christ;6 the ministers of the gospel speak nothing otherwise than representing their great master, Jesus Christ. That Holy Spirit by which Christians are led, and guided to heaven, is the Spirit of Christ: he dwells with them and in them by his Spirit. That power by which they, when they have believed, are brought on in the way to eternal life, through all obstacles and oppositions, in spite of all the powers of darkness, is the power of Christ. John 10:28, "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand."7
4. By communicating and infusing grace and holiness, which is the principle of eternal life. The spiritual life [through] which the souls of the saints are alive unto God, and do live to him, is the beginning of life eternal. 'Tis the same life, but only in a far less degree. Holiness, love to God, and the love of the saints is the very life of a Christian in this world, and the same is his life forever, but only in its perfection.
Grace and holiness is the same in this world as in the next: but only in this life it is like a spark, but there shall be like a flame; here mixed with much sin, which is the death of the soul, which quenches the exercises of grace as water quenches the fire, but there they shall be pure and undefiled, perfectly free from the least stain of sin. They shall be all life and vigor in the exercises of divine love; there shall be no darkness or dullness, which the best complain of in this world. They shall be active as angels; their souls shall be full and overflowing with an active, sprightly holiness, love and joy.
5. By raising from the dead. The resurrection is four times mentioned in the chapter of our text as a means whereby he will bestow eternal life on those that believe: in the thirty-ninth verse, "And this is my Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." In the fortieth verse, "And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." In the forty-fourth, "No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day." In the fifty-fourth verse, "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day."
The wicked shall be raised, too, but not to life; but theirs shall be the resurrection of damnation. But the true Christian shall rise to life and eternal joy: their bodies also shall partake of eternal life, for it is sown a natural but shall be raised a spiritual; sown in corruption but raised in incorruption; sown in weakness but raised in power; sown in dishonor but raised in glory [1 Corinthians 15:42–44].
6. Christ is the eternal life of the believer. He is the life of the soul in this world, and will be the life of it to all eternity. Christ is all the life that a believer desires or hopes for. When Christ is present the soul is alive, but when absent, it is dead; and when the soul is present with Christ, then the soul enjoys eternal life: Colossians 3:4, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear"; 1 John 5:20, "And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life."
This sermon has been published in Jonathan Edwards, Sermons and Discourses 1720-1723 (WJE Online Vol. 10) , Ed. Wilson H. Kimnach
1. For a later preaching of the sermon, JE formulated a new introductory sentence to be inserted at the head of the textual exegesis: "Our eternal condition is that which infinitely more deserves our care and concern than anything else." ↩
2. The MS originally had neither head number nor indentation at this point; however, JE perceived that it was a division of significance and drew a heavy line before it in the text. Here the inserted number indicates the head's actual place in the structure of the sermon, including the subheads under it. ↩
3. MS: "race." The word "raze" (or arch. "race") suggests scraping as with the blade of a knife, a method of erasure sometimes employed by JE in his manuscripts. ↩
4. In this and the two succeeding heads JE later added amplifications of the material in blank spaces left at the time of composition. The following passage was added at this point:
Eternal life was not bought by silver and gold, and such corruptible things, but by the precious blood of the Son of God (1 Peter 1:18). Christ's life went for ours. So great a thing as eternal life, so infinite [a] blessing, was not purchased by anything but that which in God's sight was of infinite value: even the blood and obedience of his own and only Son. ↩
5. At this point the following passage was later inserted:
Though Christ is in heaven and we on earth yet, and so he is at a great distance as to place, yet he is not unmindful of us but is continually doing for us. He is as it were making ready for those friends of his he expects home to his Father's house. He is preparing things for the reception of his spouse. ↩
6. MS: "and they are the word of Christ." ↩
7. At this point the third of the amplifications was added:
God the Father has committed the care of all the church, of all the redeemed, unto our ascended Redeemer; and it is his care that preserves his people in all changes. He watches over them night and day; he restrains the power of Satan in all his attempts against them; he directs them in difficulties and finds out their way for them; he fights against all their enemies and carries them through all the opposition they make in their way to eternal life.
After this insert, about one third of a page remains blank. ↩
Seeking After Christ
And when they saw the star, they rejoiced
with exceeding great joy. Matthew 2:10.
These words are a part of the story of the wise men that came from the
east to see and to worship Jesus Christ after his birth. 'Tis not known who
these wise men were. There are various opinions about it. This is certain: that
there was at that day a very great expectation in the world of some great
person that was to arise in Judea that was to rule over the world, which
probably arose from the Jews being dispersed all over the world, as they were
after the captivity into Babylon, and so their carrying the prophecies of the
Messiah with them.
And 'tis most probable that those wise men that came from the east
were some that had received instruction from the holy writing of the Jews that
had been carried into the east, first to Babylon, which was many hundred miles
to the east of Judea, and afterwards to Shushan in Persia, which was yet a
great deal further to the east. There was Daniel, that great prophet exalted to
great dignity, and there was Nehemiah, and there was Elisha and Mordecai; and
these had the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning Christ with them. And
Daniel himself, who was set over the wise men of the east as their master, was
himself a great prophet and wrote one of those books of Old Testament prophecy—
whose prophecy of Christ is in some respects more particular than [that] of any
other prophets— and probably wrote it in Persia when he was in great dignity
there, and doubtless left instructions among the great and wise men of that
eastern part of the world, whose master he was, concerning Christ, and probably
might leave his own prophecy and the other prophecies of Scripture concerning
the Messiah in their hands.
The word in the original that is translated wise men is magai.
And learned men observe that there is to this day in those eastern parts of the
world, and particularly in Persia, a sect called by this very name, Magai or
Magi— and have been time out of mind— that have many parts of the Old
Testament in their hands and have had 'em delivered down from their
forefathers for a great many ages. And it is supposed that they received 'em
from the Jews that were carried captive, and particularly from Daniel. 'Tis
certain that those wise men or Magi that came from the east to see and to
worship Christ, had some further instruction and direction than they had by the
light of nature, and that two ways:
1. They were probably instructed [in] one of the prophecies of the Old
Testament concerning the star that should arise out of Jacob. This they
probably had from Balaam's prophecy. Numbers 24:17, “I shall see him,
but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a star out of
Jacob, and a scepter shall arise out of Israel, that shall smite the corners of
Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.”
Balaam himself, who prophesied thus, came out of the east and, it may
be, from the same country that those wise men came from, and there might leave
his prophecy.
2. They were instructed3
by immediate direction from heaven. There was [an] extraordinary hand of God
stirring them up to come and seek Christ, and directing them how to find him;
as is manifest, because God caused a miraculous star to appear for their
direction. This star appeared to 'em in their own country together with an
intimation from God that Christ now appeared in Judea, as appears by the second
verse. They see this wonderful star and they knew it was a sign that Christ was
come, and so came into Judea. It seems this star appeared to them a while and
then disappeared; and they came to Jerusalem to inquire after Christ and, while
they were diligently seeking him, the star appeared to 'em again, as in the
next verse before the text: “When they had heard the king, they departed; and,
lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and
stood over where the young child was.”
And then come in the words of the text: “and when they saw the star,
they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.”
Four things may be particularly noted:
(1) Whom they had been seeking. They sought Christ. They had come a
very long journey to seek him. We read of some that came from the utmost parts
of the earth to see the wisdom of Solomon. And probably these came from as
great a distance to see and to worship Christ, that was now born into the world
to be the Savior of the world. They had doubtless undergone a long fatigue. It
was a tedious and wearisome journey, and they had been inquiring of the priests
and scribes where they should find Christ.
(2) We may observe how it was discovered to 'em where Christ was. They
saw a bright and lovely star that was the emblem of his glory. This arose to
them to enlighten and direct them. This star represented Christ, who is called
a star rising out of Jacob in Balaam's prophecy, and is said to be the bright
and morning star (Revelation 22:16).
(3) We may observe what kind of effect this discovery had upon their
minds. The effect was joy in them. As the star arose to their view, joy arose
in their hearts.
(4) The degree of this effect. The joy was4
exceeding great; they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
Doctrine.
When those that have been earnestly seeking
Christ come to find him, [they] have reason to rejoice with exceeding great
joy.
The following reasons may be given of the doctrine:
I. The person that they find is exceeding excellent and lovely. Before
Christ is found, there is nothing that is truly lovely that is ever found or
seen. Those things that they had been conversant with before and had set their
hearts upon, had no true excellency. They only deceived 'em with a false, empty
show. But now they have found Christ, they have found one that is excellent
indeed. They see in him a real and substantial excellency.
Before that, while they were under trouble, they had before them only
those things that were objects of fear and terror, such as their own guilt, the
wickedness of their hearts, and the wrath of God, and death and hell, but
nothing pleasant or lovely. But [when] they came to find Christ, what was
terrible in those objects disappears, and they found a glorious object and far
surpassing all things that ever they saw, one of excellent majesty and of
perfect purity and brightness, purer than the light of the sun, infinitely
farther from all deformity or defilement than the highest heavens themselves;
and this conjoined with the sweetest grace, one that clothes himself with
mildness and meekness and love. How refreshing and rejoicing must this be after
they have nothing before their eyes but their sins staring them in the face,
appearing with a frightful countenance, and God's terrible anger, and frightful
devils, and death's pale and ghastly countenance, and the devouring flames of
hell. How exceeding refreshing must it be to find so lovely an object after
they have so long had nothing but such objects before 'em.
It was doubtless the more refreshing and joyful to the wise men to see
Christ's star arise because, till then, they had been travailing in a great
wilderness; for there, a vast, dry, desolate, howling wilderness lay to the
east of Judea, through which they travailed in seeking Christ, where they found
no pleasant objects, nothing but dry sands and barren rocks, and pits and
drought, and serpents and wild beasts. But now they have a pleasant object, a
bright star arising.
So sinners that seek Christ, they seek him in a wilderness. They have
a wilderness to travail through before they can find him. But what exceeding
great joy does it cause to behold so glorious an object after travailing in
such a dreadful desert. How joyful may it well [be], after travailing in a
night of gross darkness, beholding no pleasant object, having nothing but
darkness, to behold so bright a star with such pleasant, refreshing light
enlightening and smiling upon them.
They that find Christ, find him who is the chiefest of ten thousand,
altogether lovely [Canticles 5:10]. They find one with a loveliness
altogether new, such as they never saw anything like it before. They find a
pearl of great price, a jewel that is exceeding precious. The brightness with
which it sparkles is precious and sweet. The brightness of the sun is but
darkness to it, and therefore it fills the soul with exceeding gladness.
II. They find Christ exceeding ready to receive them. Though he be so
glorious and excellent a person, yet they find him ready to receive such poor,
worthless, hateful creatures as they are, which was unexpected to 'em. They are
surprised with it. They did [not] imagine that Christ was such a kind of
person, a person of such grace. They heard he was an holy Savior and hated sin,
and they did not imagine he would be so ready to receive such vile, wicked
creatures as they. They thought he surely would never be willing to accept such
provoking sinners, such guilty wretches, those that had such abominable hearts.
But behold, he is not a whit the more backward to receive 'em for that. They
unexpectedly find him with open arms to embrace them, ready forever to forget
all their sins as though they had never been. They find that he as it were runs
to meet them, and makes 'em most welcome, and admits 'em not only to be his
servants but his friends [Luke 15:11-24]. He lifts 'em out of the dust
and sets 'em on his throne; he makes them the children of God; he speaks peace
to them; he cheers and refreshes their hearts; he admits 'em unto strict union
with himself, and gives the most joyful entertainment, and binds himself to
them to be their friend forever. So are they surprised with their
entertainment. They never imagined to find Christ a person of such kind of love
and grace as this. 'Tis beyond all imagination or conception.
III. They that find Christ find that deliverance that is exceeding
great. They were before the children of wrath; but now, behold, they are
delivered from that wrath and God is become their friend. Before they were in
the possession of Satan, a dreadful adversary; but now they have found
deliverance out of his hands. Christ has rescued 'em. He has conquered the
strong man armed [Luke 11:21]. He has forever set 'em out of the devil's
reach as to any power to destroy them.
Before they were terribly afraid of death; but now they have
deliverance from all hurt that death can do 'em. They have no need now to be at
all afraid of death. They may now in Christ set their hearts at rest about it. Hebrews
2:15, [Christ came] to deliver those “who through fear of death were all
their lifetime subject to bondage.”
Before they were in a terror about the day of judgment; but now they
are delivered. They need not fear to hear the last trumpet at any time. When
that day comes that the earth shall be removed and the mountains {shall be
moved out of their places},5
they need not fear.
They were before, every day and night, in danger of devouring fire and
everlasting burnings; but now they have found safety. They before were in an
horrible pit; but now they are delivered. They have found a rock on which to
set their feet. Before they were in dreadful captivity; but now they are
brought out of it. Their chains are knocked off. The prison doors are set open
and they are set free from their taskmasters.
IV. They that find Christ find a defense that is exceeding strong. As
they are delivered, so they may be sure that they shall be forever safe. Their
enemies that before held 'em in captivity was vastly too strong for them. They
were in their hands as infants in the hands of giants, but now they have found
a Savior infinitely stronger than they. They have found a strong rock and an
high tower where they may dwell on high.
Christ is between them and their enemies like a great, steep, rocky,
impassable mountain, like that mountain that divided between Saul and David
when Saul sought David's life, of which we read, 1 Samuel 23:26, “And
Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men on that side of
the mountain.” And 'tis said, v. 1 Samuel 23:28, “therefore they called
the place Selah Hammahlekoth,” which signifies “the Rock of Divisions,”
because it was the mountain or rock that divided between David and his enemies.
It seems that that mountain was a very steep, high, and rocky
mountain, so that it was impassable, so that it divided between David and Saul
and was a defense to David, so that Saul could not come at him to hurt him,
though he must [have been] just by him. But Christ is the true Selah
Hammahlekoth, like a great and high mountain of rock to be a wall of
division between them and their enemies. Their enemies can as soon penetrate a
rocky mountain as they can hurt those that have found Christ.
V. They that have found Christ have a fountain that is exceeding full,
full of that which they stand in need of for the supply of the wants, and
satisfying the cravings of their souls; a fountain of that happiness that is
true happiness, that which is exquisitely sweet, a fountain of living waters
from whence rivers are continually flowing. They that find him find rivers of
waters in a dry place.
Here they find an inexhaustible treasure. Here they find balm to heal
the wounds of their souls, excellent food, “fat things full of marrow, and
wines on the lees well refined” [Isaiah 25:6]. Here they find that fruit
that is sweet to the taste. Here they find gold tried in the fire. Here is
white raiment to clothe them. Here are crowns of glory.
Here they have enough, enough to live upon as long as they live in
this world, and to all eternity. Here is enough; they can desire no more. The
fountain is inexhaustible and never can be diminished. And has not a poor,
ragged, naked beggar, a wretched outcast, a wandering, famishing, lost
creature, cause of exceeding great joy when, after it has long wandered in the
wilderness, it finds such a fountain?
Application.
Use I. [Of] Exh. to those that never have found Christ, earnestly
to seek him. You that never yet have found Christ, how sorrowful is your
condition. What a dreadful wilderness and what darkness are you in. How empty,
how needy is your poor soul. How have you all your lifetime been a poor,
wretched, miserable, lost creature, and never have yet seen any true good, and
are in great danger of perishing forever and ever.
Consider what have you been following after, what have [you] been
spending your life in pursuit of and spending your strength for. How have you
spent your precious time, and what have you got by all that you have been
doing? And will you still follow the devil, who as it were befools and
infatuates your will? You yet follow after those shadows that have bewitched
you. Will you not now, at last, set yourself to Jesus Christ, that excellent
Savior that you have heard of at this time?
I hope some of you are in some measure convinced of your former folly
and are seeking Christ. But be exhorted earnestly to seek him. If you do so,
and continue in it, there is reason to hope that you will find him; and then
you will rejoice with exceeding great joy. Now you are a very miserable
creature; 'tis beyond the power of either men or angels to declare your misery.
But how happy a person would you be, if you should find Christ. Then you would
find a precious jewel indeed, that would be more worth to you than all the gold
and jewels in the world.
Now some of you are weary. You stand in fear what will become of you.
You can't lie down on your beds a-nights quietly. You are afraid that you shall
perish forever. You have heard of a devouring fire and everlasting burnings
that you can't bear, and you are afraid that you shall suffer them. You can't
have any rest in the condition that you are in.
But if you find Christ, then you will find rest. You will have in him
a pleasant rest, an hiding place from the world, a covert from the tempest, a
strong rock.
Now [you] are concerned because you are a captive of Satan. And
indeed, you have reason to be concerned. 'Tis indeed a dismal thing to be in
the hands of such an enemy. But if you find Christ, you will find a deliverer;
he'll rescue you out of Satan's hands and will stand like a rocky mountain
between your soul and your enemies, a mountain that they can't pass over.
You find that it is not comfortable living as you be now: 'tis more
uncomfortable than to wander in a dry, scorching wilderness under the burning
heat of the sun. But if you find Christ, then you will find a pleasant, cool
shade to rest in, an pole tree, a tree of life. You may set down under his
shadow with quiet rest and sweet delight. If you find Christ, you will find
that precious balm that will heal all the wounds of your soul; he'll pour in
the oil of comfort into your heart.
Now you wander in darkness. This darkness is a dismal darkness. Some
persons are afraid to walk in the dark for fear they should meet with the
devil, and would be terribly afraid to be left alone out in an howling
wilderness in a dark night for fear of being haunted by evil spirits.
However vain the fears of such persons may be, yet the darkness that
you wander in is really an haunted darkness; it is full of evil spirits, full
of devils. You wander about on a vast, howling, desolate wilderness in a night
of darkness and the shadow of death, amongst evil spirits that meet you and
haunt you wherever you go.
O how happy will you be if you, in this state, should find that star
which arises out of Jacob! That would be to you as a light shining in a dark
place. It would be a pleasant sight to behold, the most beautiful and lovely
object that ever your eyes beheld.
It would scatter your darkness and it would drive away the devils that
haunt you. Evil spirits can't bear the pure and heavenly light of that star;
they hate it and dread it. But you would find it a pleasant light to your soul,
filling it with a sweet calm and excellent refreshment.
There is a kind of infinite power in the light of this heavenly star
to fill the heart with gladness and rejoicing. Its light in the soul is
holiness and happiness itself. Let not any seek or expect to see a star in
their imaginations, as though we saw something up in the air shining with an
outward light. The star that I speak [of] is Christ as held forth in the
doctrine [of the] Word of God, and in the glorious gospel, which is to be seen,
not with bodily eyes, not in the imagination, but in the understanding and
sense of the heart.
If you find this star, then will you come out of darkness into
marvelous light. You'll find the brightest light in the universe. You will find
the pleasantest and sweetest light that is to be seen in heaven itself, the
most beautiful object that ever the eyes of angels beheld.
That which at the distance appears to be a star, a bright and morning
star, will hereafter, as you come nearer to it, appear to be the Sun, the light
of the world, a Sun in comparison of which the sun in the firmament is dark,6
yea, black as sackcloth of hair [Revelation 6:12], and yet a sun whose
light is so mild and sweet that its glorious brightness shall not at all dazzle
or pain your sight. If you find this you will find that beautiful, lovely
object, in beholding which God the Father himself has his infinite and eternal
happiness. It rejoices God's heart to behold its beauty. It fills it every
moment with infinite delight. God himself has no greater, no sweeter happiness
than this, to behold and enjoy the brightness of this light. Here the love and
rejoicing of God's heart is maintained in its infinite height.
How, then, would you have reason to rejoice if you should find Jesus
Christ. How would you then find “the oil of joy for mourning and the garments
of praise for the spirit of heaviness” [Isaiah 61:3].
If you find Christ, this glorious star, this excellent heavenly jewel,
will be yours. He will be your own, your Savior, your Lord, your portion. Then
may you say, as in Canticles 2:16, “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” O
how rich and happy will you be then! What will all the riches of kings be in
comparison of yours? If you find this, what can you desire more? Would you
desire a better treasure than the most precious jewel to be found anywhere, not
only in this lower world but in the highest heavens itself?
Would you desire to find a better treasure than the best and choicest
jewel, that the King of kings himself possesses?
If this star arises in your heart, it will bring day along with it.
The day will dawn when the day star arises. The night, by degrees, will vanish
away till, at length, perfect day begins. And this light will be to you an
everlasting light. If once this star rises, it will never set any more; and the
joy and comfort that you have in its beams never will finally cease. And though
it may sometimes go into a cloud in this world, yet it will break out again.
And the time will soon come when all clouds and darkness shall be totally done
away, and then this excellent light shall shine with perfect brightness upon
your soul to all eternity without any interruption.
Is it not worth the while for poor, benighted, miserable, perishing
souls to seek this light, this jewel? Consider that if you seek it, as you may
do, there is great hope that you may find it. Some have now no opportunity to
seek it and find; their opportunity is past. But 'tis not so with you: you have
full opportunity, a blessed opportunity, if you can but find it in your heart
to improve it, as you may do.
And if you find him, you are made forever. You will be a blessed
person. Blessed are they that have truly found the Lord Jesus Christ. Their
blessedness is worth millions of worlds. Happy is the man that has found such a
treasure.
If you find this glorious star, and that shines upon your soul, the
effect will be that your soul itself will be made to shine with an image of its
glory. Isaiah 60:1, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, for the glory of
the Lord is risen upon thee.” If you find the blessed light of this star, you
yourself shall hereafter shine as the stars forever and ever.
But if you never find Christ, you will lose your soul. Your precious
soul, that is more worth than all the world, will be eternally lost, and you
yourself will be a poor, lost, undone creature. Christ is not to be found in
hell; if you don't find him now, you will never find him. The morning star
never rises in hell.
Directions.
1. Be willing to lose all other things, that you may find Christ.
Whatever has been dear or pleasant to you heretofore, if it seems to stand in
the way of your finding Christ, be willing to part with it. If there is any sin
that has been especially dear to you and you are loath to part with it, or if
you reform from it for a time yet are loath to part with it, always let that be
no stick with you. Be willing forever to lose the pleasure or profit of your
dearest lusts.
And be willing to part with all the enjoyments of the world, if they
stand in the way of your finding Christ. Make all stand by and give place to
this great business of seeking Christ.
If it be needful that you shall miss of profit, or if it be needful
you should part with your credit or with any manner of worldly comfort or
convenience, be willing to do [it].
“Forget your own country and your father's house” (Psalms 45:10).
Part with all that is dear and pleasant to you in your native country, i.e. in
your old, natural state of sin and in this your native world that you naturally
love and are acquainted with, as Abraham, as Ruth. And as the wise men from the
east: they departed to a great distance from their own country to find Christ.
2. If you would find Christ, seek him as silver and search for him as
for hid treasures. So we are directed to seek wisdom, Proverbs 2:1-05.
What pains do men [take] for the treasures that are hid in the earth: how do
they dig and search; what hard labor do they undergo in digging for silver and
gold and after earthly jewels. And if any man has lost some precious thing, how
diligently and narrowly will they search for it. So diligently and earnestly
seek Jesus Christ.
3. Be willing to go through the difficulties of a wilderness travail
to find Christ. So did the wise men from the east. As I told you before, there
was a vast wilderness that lay east of Judea, {through which they travailed in
seeking Christ}. There they met, without doubt, with great difficulties: a parched
wilderness, a barren desert, hideous mountains, and rocks and pits, and
serpents and wild beasts. It is a great undertaking to travail through such a
wilderness, but 'tis well worth your while to find Christ. Expect no other than
to meet with many difficulties, and be prepared to go through 'em. Let it be
your resolution that whatever opposition, whatever self-denial, whatever labor,
whatever suffering, whatever discouragement is in the way, you will press
forward, you will go through all difficulties.7
Let there be as many mountains and rocks and fiery, flying serpents
and roaring lions as there will, yet you will hold on your way till you find
Christ, till you see that pleasant star rising out of Jacob.
4. Be willing to go a long journey to find Christ, i.e. be willing to
continue earnestly seeking him a very long time, if you should be called to it.
The wise men from the east went a long journey to find Christ. They came as it
were from the utmost part of the earth. They probably came from Persia, which
was a great many hundred miles. So the Queen of Sheba, she came from the
uttermost part of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon [1 Kings 10:1-13].
And how do many men nowadays go long voyages for earthly treasures: how many go
to the East Indies, and more than half compass the globe, to get gold and
precious stones? And will not you be willing to go a long journey to find and
obtain Jesus Christ?
Therefore take heed that it is not with you as it was with the
children of Israel on their long journey in the wilderness, of whom we read
that their soul was much discouraged by the length of the way [Numbers 21:4].
3. MS: “Instruction.” ↩
4. MS: “as.” ↩
5. The first part of this sentence includes
a conflated paraphrase of parts of Isaiah 13:13 and (presumably) Revelation
6:14. ↩
6. See Christ the Spiritual Sun,
above, in which JE explores the description of Christ as the Sun of righteousness.
↩
7. See the “Blank Bible” note on Matthew 2:10, which chronologically parallels the sermon, for language similar to that in this paragraph. ↩
Commentary (by Wilson H. Kimnach)
ZECHARIAH 4:7.
And he shall bring forth the headstone thereof
with shouting, crying, Grace, grace!
One of the most powerful of the early sermons, "Glorious Grace" is dominated by the spirit of celebration, even in its exhortations, and seems to belong to some celebratory occasion. So subtle are Edwards' occasional references that one is tempted to link the sermon with the Christmas season merely on the basis of two references to the angels' singing at the birth of Christ, not to mention the overall emphasis upon praising God for the gift of salvation through Christ. This supposition stretches the probable date of the sermon's composition, however, unless it was composed well in advance of its delivery. Furthermore, Edwards does not acknowledge Christmas in later sermons and these hints simply may have been part of the overall spirit of celebration.
Second only to this invocation of celebration is the sustained emphasis upon the essential dependence of the redeemed upon mere mercy in the context of the overall "work of redemption" through the gospel dispensation. Indeed, the Application of this sermon provides one of the first significant expositions of the anti-Arminian argument which was to receive a more systematic articulation in God Glorified in Man's Dependence (Boston, 1731) some nine years later. A defensive theological position carefully stated before an audience of professional peers, God Glorified would develop more theological subtleties, but the essential doctrine was well put in New York in the fall of 1722.
Rhetorically, this sermon is one of Edwards' most exuberant. Not only is the theme presented with elaborate repitition in the statement of the doctrine, but many passages, both of affirmation and denunciation, are developed through insistent a fortiori patterns of incremental repetition. The intensity of rhetoric is confirmed by an argumentative strategy which mediates a sucession of surprises and paradoxes in the process of revealing the method of God in the work of redemption. This celebration of the workings of grace is thus reminiscent of the English Metaphysicals [FN: A group of seventeenth-century English poets, including John Donne, George Herbert, and Edmund Spenser, whose work attempted to look beyond reality.] in its essential rhetorical and theological mentality; however, Edwards largely eschews their quaintness, or their attempts to realize the experience of surprise in verbal figures. He rather directs the reader to a referent beyond his text, an objective reality which embodies and manifests the strange grace of God's gospel dispensation
Sermon
GLORIOUS GRACE
ZECHARIAH 4:7.
And he shall bring forth the headstone thereof
with shouting, crying, Grace, grace!
The mercy of God is that attribute which we, the fallen, sinful race of Adam, stand in greatest need of, and God has been pleased, according to our needs, more gloriously to manifest this attribute than any other. The wonders of divine grace are the greatest of all wonders. The wonders of divine power and wisdom in the making [of] this great world are marvelous; other wonders of his justice in punishing sin are wonderful; many wonderful things have happened since the creation of the world, but none like the wonders of grace. "Grace, grace!" is the sound that the gospel rings with, "Grace, grace!" will be that shout which will ring in heaven forever; and perhaps what the angels sung at the birth of Christ, of God's good will towards men, is the highest theme that ever they entered upon.
In order to understand the words of our text, we are to take notice that the scope and design of the chapter is to comfort and encourage the children of Israel, returned out of their Babylonish captivity, in the building of Jerusalem and the temple: who it seems were very much disheartened by reason of the opposition they met with in the work, and the want of [the] external glory of the former temple before the captivity, so that the priests and the Levites, and the chief of the fathers, wept aloud as the rest shouted at the sight, as you may see in Ezra 3:12, "But many of the priests and Levites, and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice, and many shouted aloud for joy." You may see a full account of their great oppositions and discouragements in the fourth and fifth chapters.
The prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, were sent on this occasion to comfort them under those discouragements, by foretelling the glories of the gospel should be displayed in this latter house, which should render the glories of it far beyond the glories of the former, notwithstanding it was so far exceeded in what is external. In Hag. 2:3-9,
Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work: for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts: according to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not. For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts: The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.
See also, in the third chapter of this book, at the eighth verse, "Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at; for behold, I will bring forth my servant, the Branch." And the same subject is continued in this chapter, even the glorious grace of the gospel, which was to be manifested by Christ in this temple, particularly in our text, "and they shall bring forth the headstone with shouting, crying, Grace, grace unto it." The headstone is that which entirely crowns and finishes the whole work, signifying that the entire gospel dispensation was to be finished in mere grace.
This stone was to [be] brought with repeated shouting or rejoicings at the grace of God, signifying the admirableness and gloriousness of this grace.
D O C T R I N E.
The gospel dispensation is finished wholly and entirely in free and glorious grace: there is glorious grace, shines in every part of the great work of redemption; the foundation is laid in grace, the superstructure is reared in grace, and the whole is finished in glorious grace.
If Adam had stood and persevered in obedience, he would have been made happy by mere bounty [and] goodness; for God was not obliged to reward Adam for his perfect obedience any otherwise than by covenant, for Adam by standing would not have merited happiness. But yet this grace would not have been such as the grace of the gospel, for he would have been saved upon the account of what he himself did, but the salvation of the gospel is given altogether freely. Rom. 11:6, "And if by grace, then it is no more works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace; otherwise work is no more work."
That we may give you as full explication of this doctrine as we can in a little space, we shall first, show free grace shines forth in the distinct parts of this wondrous work of redemption; second, speak a little of the gloriousness of this grace.
[I.] But as to the first, every part of this work was performed of mere grace.
First. It was of free grace that God had any thoughts or designs of rescuing mankind after the fall. If there had not been an immense fountain of goodness in God, he would never have entertained any thoughts at all of ever redeeming us after our defection. Man was happy enough at first, and might have continued so to all eternity, if he would; he was not compelled to fall. If he had not willfully and sinfully rebelled against God, he would never have been driven forth, like an unworthy wretch, as he was. But although God had been so overflowing in his bounty to him as to make him head over the lower creation and ruler of all other creatures, and had planted a garden on purpose for his delight, and would have fixed him in an eternal happiness only on the reasonable condition of his obeyinng the easy commands of his maker; but yet notwithstanding all, he rebelled and turned over, from God to the devil, out of a wicked ambition of being a god himself -- not content in that happy state that he was in as man -- and so rebelled against God's authority.
Now who but a God of boundless grace, would not have been provoked, after this, to leave him as he was, in the miserable state into which he had brought himself by his disobedience; resolving to help him no more, leaving him to himself and to the punishment he had deserved, leaving him in the devil's hands where he had thrown himself, not being contented in the arms of his Creator: who, but one of boundless grace, would ever have entertained any thoughts of finding out a way for his recovery?
God had no manner of need of us, or of our praises. He has enough in himself for himself, and neither needs nor desires any additions of happiness, and if he did need the worship of his creatures, he had thousands and ten-thousands of angels, and if he had not enough, he could create more; or, he could have glorified his justice in man's eternal destruction and ruin, and have with infinite ease created other beings, more perfect and glorious than man, eternally to sing his praises.
Second. But especially was it of rich and boundless grace that he gave his only Son for our restoration. By our fall, we are cast down so low into sin and misery, so deeply plunged into a most miserable and sinful condition, that it may truly be said, although all things are infinitely easy to God with respect to his omnipotency, yet with respect to God's holiness and justice, God himself could not redeem us without a great deal of cost, no, not without infinite costs; that is, not without the expense of that, that is of infinite worth and value, even the blood of his Son, and in proper speaking, the blood of God, of a divine person.
This was absolutely necessary in order to our redemption, because there was no other way of satisfying God's justice. When we were fallen, it was come to this: either we must die eternally, or the Son of God must spill his blood; either we, or God's own Son must suffer God's wrath, one of the two; either miserable worms of the dust that had deserved it, or the glorious, amiable, beautiful, and innocent Son of God. The fall of man brought it to this; it must be determined one way or t'other, and it was determined, by the strangely free and boundless grace of God, that this his own Son, should die that the offending worms might be freed, and set at liberty from their punishment, and that justice might make them happy. Here is grace indeed; well may we shout, "Grace, grace!" at this.
The heathens used to reckon that an only son slain in sacrifice was the greatest gift that could be offered to the gods. It was that, that they used sometimes to offer in times of great distress, and in some parts of the world it is constantly at this day performed. But we have a stranger thing than that declared to us in the gospel; not that men sacrificed their only sons to God, but that God gave his only Son to be slain, a sacrifice for man. God once commanded Abraham to offer up his only son to him, and perhaps the faith and love of Abraham may be looked upon as wonderful, that he was willing to perform it --there are few that would do it in these days -- but if you wonder at that, how wonderful is it that, instead of Abraham's offering his only son to God, God should give his only Son to be offered for Abraham, and for every child of Abraham. Certainly, you will acknowledge this to be a wonder not to be paralleled.
And beside, God did not do this for friends, but for enemies and haters of him. He did not do it for loyal subjects, but for rebels; he did not do it for those that were his children, but for the children of the devil; he did not do it for those that were excellent, but for those that were more hateful than toads or vipers; he did not do it for those that could be any way profitable or advantageous to him, but for those that were so weak, that instead of profiting God, they were not able in the least to help themselves.
God has given even fallen man such a gift, that He has left nothing for man to do that he may be happy, but only to receive what is given him. Though he has sinned, yet God requires no amends to be made by him; He requires of him no restoration; if they will receive His Son of Him, He requires neither money nor price; he is to do no penance in order to be forgiven. What God offers, He offers freely. God offers man eternal happiness upon far more gracious terms since he is fallen than before; before, he was to do something himself for his happiness; he was to obey the law: but since he is fallen, God offers to save him for nothing, only if he will receive salvation as it is offered; that is, freely through Christ, by faith in Him.
Third. It was of mere grace that the Son was so freely willing to undertake our salvation. How cheerfully, yea how joyfully, did he undertake it, although he himself was the very person that was to suffer for man. Though He himself was to bear his sin and be made sin for him, yet how cheerfully doth He speak: Ps. 40:7-8, "Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O God." He says, in Prov. 8:31, that his "delights were with the sons of men," for so did he love them that it seems he himself was willing to die in their room, rather than that they should be miserable. He freely undertook this out of mere love and pity, for he never was and never will be, repaid by them for his blood. `Twas only that we might be happy.
Fourth. The application of the redemption of the gospel, by the Holy Spirit, is of mere grace. Although God the Father has provided a savior for us, and Christ has come and died, and there is nothing wanting but our willing and hearty reception of Christ; yet we shall eternally perish yet, if God is not gracious to us, and don't make application of Christ's benefits to our souls. We are dependent on free grace, even for ability to lay hold on Christ already offered, so entirely is the gospel dispensation of mere grace. Eph. 2:8-10, "For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." That is, we shall [be saved] freely and for nothing if we will but accept of Christ, but we are not able to do that of ourselves, but it is the free gift of God: "not of works, lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."
II. We shall briefly speak to the gloriousness of this grace. As the grace of the gospel is altogether free, so it is glorious; the angels stoop down, with eyes full of wonder and joy, to look into, and shout for gladness and admiration, at the sight of it. How did the multitudes of heavenly hosts shout at the birth of Christ, crying, "Glory to God in the highest; on earth peace and good will towards men!" Well may the topstone of this house be brought forth with shouting, crying, "Grace, grace!" to it.
All the attributes of God, do illustriously shine forth in the face of Jesus Christ: his wisdom in so contriving, his power in conquering, death and the devil, and the hard and rocky hearts of depraved men; his justice in punishing sins of men rather upon his own dear Son, than let it go unpunished; but more especially, [in] his grace, that sweet attribute, he has magnified his mercy above all his names.
The grace of God, exhibited in the gospel, is glorious,
First. Because of the greatness of it. Every circumstance of the gospel, grace surprisingly heightens it; let us look on what part we will, we shall see enough to fill us and all the angels in heaven with admiration forever. If we consider it as the grace of God the Father, and consider his greatness, his holiness, his power and justice, immensity and eternity; if we diligently consider how great a being he is, who took such pity and compassion on mankind, it is enough to astonish us. Or, if we consider ourselves, on whom this great God has bestowed this grace, we are nothing but worms, yea less than worms, before God; and not only so, but sinful worms, worms swollen with enmity against God. If we consider him by whom we receive [grace], the Son of God who made heaven and, by his almighty power, [is] equal with the Father; if we consider the greatness of what he did -- he died most ignominously and painfully in our nature --it all infinitely heightens the grace of the gospel.
Second. Because of the glorious fruit of this. No less than salvation and eternal glory are the fruits of this grace of the gospel; adoption, union with Christ, communion with God, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, the heavenly happiness, the pleasure of the eternal paradise, the new Jerusalem, the glorious and truimphant resurrection of the body, and an everlasting reign with Christ in the height of glory, and pleasure and happiness: no less than these things are the effects of this marvelous grace.
What a vast difference is there between a poor, miserable sinner, full of sin, condemned to hellfire, and, a saint shining forth in robes of glory, and crowned with a crown of victory and triumph; but `tis no less difference than this, is made in the same man by the grace of God in Christ.
A P P L I C A T I O N.
I. Hence we learn, how they dishonor God and the gospel, who depend on anything else but mere grace. The gospel is far the most glorious manifestation of God's glory that ever was made to man, and the glory of the gospel is free grace and mere mercy. Now those that will not depend on this free grace, they do what they can to deprive the gospel of this glory, and sully the glory of God therein shining forth; they take away the praise, glory, and honor, that is due to God by his free grace and mercy to men, and set up themselves as the objects of it, as if their salvation at least partly, was owing to what they have done.
This must needs be very provoking and highly affronting to God. For miserable sinners, after they are fallen into such a miserable estate that it is impossible they should be saved by any other means than pure grace, and God is so gloriously rich in his goodness, as to offer this free grace unto them out of pity to them: how provoking must it be to God for these miserable, helpless wretches to attribute any of their salvation to themselves!
It is not an opportunity to buy and procure our own salvation that God offers, but an opportunity to lay hold on that salvation which is already bought and procured for us; neither are we able to [do] this of ourselves, it is the gift of God.
There are some, that hope to be saved quite in another way than ever the gospel proposed; that is, by their own righteousness, by being so good and doing so well, as that God shall take their goodness as sufficient to counterbalance their sin, that they have committed, and thereby they make their own goodness to equal value with Christ's blood. This conceit is very apt to creep into the proud heart of man.
Some openly profess to be able to merit salvation, as papists. Others hold that they are able to prepare and fit themselves for salvation already merited, or at least are able to do something towards it of themselves, and it is to be feared that many that don't openly profess either their own righteousness or their own strength, do very much depend upon both. By this doctrine, how much they dishonor the free grace of the gospel!
II. Let all be exhorted to accept the grace of the gospel. One would think, that there should be no need of such exhortations as this, but alas, such is the dreadful wickedness and the horrible ingratitude of man's heart, that he needs abundance of persuading and entreating to accept of God's kindness, when offered them. We should count it horrible ingratitude in a poor, necessitous creature, to refuse our help and kindness when we, out of mere pity to him, offer to relieve and help him. If you should see a man in extremity of distress, and in a perishing necessity of help and relief, and you should lay out yourself, with much labor and cost, out of compassion to him, that he might be relieved, how would you take it of him, if he should proudly and spitefully refuse it and sniff at it, instead of thanking you for it? Would you not look upon it as a very ungrateful, unreasonable, base thing? And why has not God a thousand times the cause, to look upon you as base and ungrateful, if you refuse his glorious grace in the gospel, that he offers you? When God saw mankind in a most necessitous condition, in the greatest and extremest distress, being exposed to hellfire and eternal death, from which it was impossible he should ever deliver himself, or that ever he should be delivered by any other means, He took pity on them, and brought them from the jaws of destruction by His own blood. Now what great ingratitude is it for them to refuse such grace as this?
But so it is: multitudes will not accept a free gift at the hands of the King of the World. They have the daring, horrible presumption as [to] refuse a kindness offered by God himself, and not to accept a gift at the hands of Jehovah, nor not his own Son, his own Son equal with himself. Yea, they'll not accept of him, though he dies for them; yea, though he dies a most tormenting death, though he dies that they may be delivered from hell, and that they may have heaven, they'll not accept of this gift, though they are in such necessity of it, that they must be miserable forever without it. Yea, although God the Father invites and importunes them, they'll not accept of it, though the Son of God himself knocks and calls at their door till his head is wet with the dew, and his locks with the drops of the night, arguing and pleading with them to accept of him for their own sakes, though he makes so many glorious promises, though he held forth so many precious benefits to tempt them to happiness, perhaps for many years together, yet they obstinately refuse all. Was ever such ingratitude heard of, or can greater be conceived of?
What would you have God do for you, that you may accept of it? Is the gift that he offers too small, that you think it too little, for you to accept of? Don't God offer you his Son, and what could God offer more? Yea, we may say God himself has not a greater gift to offer. Did not the Son of God do enough for you, that you won't accept of him; did he [not] die, and what could he do more? Yea, we may say that the Son of God could not do a greater thing for man. Do you refuse because you want to be invited and wooed? You may hear him, from day to day, inviting of you, if you will but hearken. Or is it because you don't stand in need of God's grace? Don't you need it so much as that you must either receive it or be damned to all eternity, and what greater need can there possibly be?
Alas, miserable creatures that we are, instead of the gift of God offered in the gospel's not being great enough for us, we are not worthy of anything at all: we are less than the least of all God's mercies. Instead of deserving the dying Son of God, we are not worthy of the least crumb of bread, the least drop of water, or the least ray of light; instead of Christ's not having done enough for us by dying, in such pain and ignominy, we are not worthy that he should so much as look on us, instead of shedding his blood. We are not worthy that Christ should once make an offer of the least benefit, instead of his so long urging of us to be eternally happy.
Whoever continues to refuse Christ, will find hereafter, that instead of his having no need of him, that the least drop of his blood would have been more worth to them, than all the world; wherefore, let none be so ungrateful to God and so unwise for themselves, as to refuse the glorious grace of the gospel.
III. Let those who have been made partakers of this free and glorious grace of God, spend their lives much in praises and hallelujahs to God, for the wonders of his mercy in their redemption. To you, O redeemed of the Lord, doth this doctrine most directly apply itself; you are those who have been made partakers of all this glorious grace of which you have now heard. `Tis you that God entertained thoughts of restoring ater your miserable fall into dreadful depravity and corruption, and into danger of the dreadful misery that unavoidably follows upon it; `tis for you in particular that God gave his Son, yea, his only Son, and sent him into the world; `tis for you that the Son of God so freely gave himself; `tis for you that he was born, died, rose again and ascended, and intercedes; `tis to you that the free application of the fruit of these things is made: all this is done perfectly and altogether freely, without any of your desert, without any of your righteousness or strength; wherefore, let your life be spent in praises to God. When you praise him in prayer, let it not be with coldness and indifferency; when you praise him in your closet, let your whole soul be active therein; when you praise him in singing, don't barely make a noise, without any stirring of affection in the heart, without any internal melody. Surely, you have reason to shout, cry, "Grace, grace, be the topstone of the temple!" Certainly, you don't want mercy and bounty to praise God; you only want a heart and lively affections to praise him with.
Surely, if the angels are so astonished at God's mercy to you, and do even shout with joy and admiration at the sight of God's grace to you, you yourself, on whom this grace is bestowed, have much more reason to shout.
Consider that great part of your happiness in heaven, to all eternity, will consist in this: in praising of God, for his free and glorious grace in redeeming you; and if you would spend more time about it on earth, you would find this world would be much more of a heaven to you than it is. Wherefore, do nothing while you are alive, but speak and think and live God's praises.
Two paragraphs originally followed here, but JE moved them through key signs to a position at the end of the second use of the Application.
The fourth subhead was inserted after the completion of the sermon, probably in conjunction with the transfer of the two paragraphs from the end of the third head.
This and the preceding paragraph were transferred to this place through key signs from the third subhead under the Doctrine.
