02.01. Chapter 1 - Verse 18

James 1:18. Of his own good-will begat he us, by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures. The apostle showeth that his main aim was to set forth God as the author of spiritual gifts, and therefore instanceth in regeneration. Of his own good-will, βουληθεὶς.—Because he would, or being willing. The word is put:—(1.) To deny compulsion or necessity; God needed not to save any; and (2.) To exclude merit; we could not oblige him to it, it was merely the good pleasure of God; for this βουληθεὶς is equivalent to that which Paul calleth εὐδοκια, the natural bent, purpose, and inclination of God’s heart to do the creatures good: Ephesians 1:11, it is called ‘the counsel of his will,’ and elsewhere ‘abundant mercy;’ 1 Peter 1:3, ‘Out of his abundant mercy he hath begotten us to a lively hope;’ in other places ‘the pleasure of the Father.’

Begat he us.—A word that properly importeth natural generation, and sometimes it is put for creation; and so as we are men we are said to be his γένος, ‘his offspring,’ Acts 17:28; and indeed so some take it here, applying these words to God’s creating and forming us, and making men to be his first-fruits, or the choicest piece in the whole creation; or, as Zoroaster called him, τολμηροτάτης τῆς φύσεως ἄγαλμα, the masterpiece of over-daring nature. But this is beside the scope; for he speaketh of such a begetting as is ‘by the word of truth,’ which, in the next verse, he maketh to be an argument of more conscience and sense of the duty of hearing; therefore begetting is put to imply the work of grace upon our souls. The same metaphor is elsewhere used: 1 Peter 1:23 ‘Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth for ever;’ so 1 Peter 1:3, ‘Begotten to a lively hope.’ I have brought these two places to show you the two parts in the work of grace; the one is quâ regeneramur, by which we are begotten, the other quâ renascimur, by which we are born again; the one is God’s act purely, the other implieth the manifestation of life in ourselves; a distinction that serveth to clear some controversies in religion: but I go on with my work. By the word of truth.—Here is the instrument noted. Those that refer this verse to the creation, understand it of Jesus Christ, who is the eternal uncreated Word of the Father, and by him were all things made; see John 1:1-2; Hebrews 1:3, &c.; but clearly it is meant of the gospel, which is often called ‘the word of truth,’ and is the ordinary means whereby God begetteth us to himself. That we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.—Those that apply the verse to the creation say the apostle meaneth here that man was the choicest, chiefest part of it; for all things were subjected to him, and put under his feet, Ps. 8. But I conceive it noteth rather the dignity and prerogative of the regenerate; for as it was the privilege of the first-fruits of all the sheaves to be consecrated, so believers and converts among all men were set aside for the uses and purposes of God. The first-fruits of all things were the Lord’s: (1.) Partly to testify his right in that people; (2.) Partly for a witness of their thankfulness; they having received all from him, were to give him this acknowledgment: Proverbs 3:9, ‘Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of thy increase;’ this was the honour and homage they were to do to God. Now this is everywhere attributed to the people of God; as to Israel, because they were God’s peculiar people, called out from all the nations: Jeremiah 2:3, ‘The first-fruits of his increase is holiness to the Lord;’ that is, of all people they were dedicated to God. So the holy worshippers, figured by those virgins in Revelation 14:4, are said to be ‘redeemed from among men, to be a first-fruits unto God and the Lamb:’ these were the chiefest, Christ’s own portion. So the church is called, Hebrews 12:23, ‘the church of the first-born.’ All the world are as common men; the church are the Lord’s. The points are these:—

Obs. 1. That which engaged God to the work of regeneration was merely his own will and good pleasure: ‘Of his own will begat he us;’ Romans 9:18, ‘He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.’ God’s will is the reason of all his actions; you will find the highest cause to be will, love, and mercy. God can have no higher motive, nothing without himself, no foresight of faith and works; he was merely inclined by his own pleasure: John 15:16, ‘Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you;’ he begins with us first. When Moses treateth of the cause of God’s love to Israel, he assigneth nothing but love: Deuteronomy 7:7-8, ‘He loved you, because he loved you;’ he had no motive, and can expect no satisfaction. So Psalms 18:19, ‘He delivered me, because he delighted in me;’ that was all the reason he did it, because he would do it. So Hosea 14:4, ‘I will love them freely;’ there is the spring and rise of all. This is applicable divers ways: (1.) To stir us up to admire the mercy of God, that nothing should incline and dispose his heart but his own will; the same will that begat us, passed by others: whom he will he saveth, and whom he will he hardeneth. Man’s thoughts are very unsober in the inquiry why God should choose some and leave others: when you have done all, you must rest in this supreme cause, God’s will and pleasure: Matthew 11:26, ‘Even so, Father, because it pleased thee.’ Christ himself could give no other reason, and there is the final result of all disputes. Oh! admire God, all ye his saints, in his mercy to you; this circumstance giveth us the purest apprehensions of the freeness of God’s love, when you see that it was God’s own will that determined mercy to you, and made the difference between you and others; nay, in some respects, it puts a difference between you and Christ: εὐμένεια πάτρος σʼ ἀποκτείνει, ἀλλοῖς γίγνεται σωτηρία,¹ the good-will of the Father slayeth thee, and saveth others; he willed Christ’s death, and your salvation. In the same verse, Christ’s bruises and our salvation are called chephers, God’s pleasure: Isaiah 53:10, ‘It pleased the Father to bruise him;’ and then, ‘My pleasure,’ that is, in the salvation of the elect, ‘shall prosper in his hands.’ (2.) It informeth us the reason why, in the work of regeneration, God acteth with such liberty: God acteth according to his pleasure; the Holy One of Israel must not be limited and confined to our thoughts: John 3:8, ‘The wind bloweth where it listeth.’ All is not done after one tenor, but according to the will of the free Spirit; as, in giving means, you must leave God to his will: there are mighty works in Chorazin and Bethsaida, when there are none in Tyre and Sidon. Israel had statutes and ordinances, when all the world had nothing but the glimmering candle of their own reason. So for the work of the Spirit with the means, some have only the means, others the work of the Spirit with the means: John 14:22, ‘How is it that thou wilt reveal thyself unto us, and not unto the world?’ They have choice revelations. The spouse is brought into the closet, Song of Solomon 1:3, when the virgins, common Christians, stay only in the palace of the great King. Do but observe two places: Acts 9:7, it is said of Paul’s companions, that ‘they heard a voice,’ and yet, Acts 22:9, it is said, ‘They that were with him heard not the voice.’ Solomon Glassius reconcileth these two places thus: They heard a sound, but they did not hear it distinctly as Christ’s voice. Some only hear the outward sound, the voice of man, but not of the Spirit in the word; there is a great deal of difference in the same auditories. So also for the measure of grace; to some more is given, to some less; though all have a vital influence, yet all have not the same measure of arbitrary influences: Php 2:13, ‘He giveth both to will and to do, κατὰ τὴν εὐδοκίαν, according to his good pleasure.’ So for the manner; it is very diverse and various. God beginneth with some in love, with others by terrors, ‘plucking them out of the fire.’ Some are gained by a cross and affliction, others by a mercy. Some are caught by a holy guile (as the apostle saith of the Corinthians); others are brought in more sensibly, and with greater consternation. Upon some the Spirit cometh like a gentle blast, grace insinuateth itself; upon others like a mighty rushing wind, with greater terror and enforcement. So for the time; some are longer in the birth, and wait at the pool for many years; others are surprised and gained of a sudden: Song of Solomon 6:12, ‘Ere I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib.’ Therefore we should not limit God to anyone instance, but still wait upon him in the use of means, for his good pleasure to our souls.

¹ Nazianz. in his Christinus Pcaices.

Obs. 2. That the calling of a soul to God is, as it were, a new begetting and regeneration. He ‘begat us;’ there must be a new framing and making, for all is out of order, and there is no active influence and concurrence of our will; therefore grace is called, 2 Corinthians 5:17, καίνη κτίσις, ‘a new creation;’ all was a chaos and vast emptiness before. So elsewhere it is expressed by being ‘born again,’ John 3:5; and so believers are called ‘Christ’s seed,’ Isaiah 53:10. The point being obvious, I shall the less stay on it. It is useful—(1.) To show us the horrible defilement and depravation of our nature; mending and repairing would not serve the turn, but God must new make and new create us, and beget us again: like the house infected with leprosy, scraping will not serve the turn; it must be pulled down, and built up again. They mince the matter that say of nature as those of the damsel, ‘She is not dead, but sleepeth;’ as if it were a languor or a swoon into which Adam and his posterity fell. No; it was a death, and therefore are those two notions of creation and resurrection solemnly consecrated by the Spirit of God to express our regeneration or new birth. (2.) To show us that we are merely passive in our conversion: it is a begetting, and we (as the infant in the womb) contribute nothing to our own forming: Psalms 100:3, ‘It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves;’ we had no hand in it. (3.) It showeth us two properties oi conversion: (1st.) There will be life; the effect of generation is life. Natural men are said, Ephesians 4:18, to be ‘alienated from the life of God;’ they are altogether strangers to the motions and operations of the Spirit. But now, when the soul is begotten, there will be acting, and moving, and spiritual feeling; the soul will not be so dead towards God. Paul saith, Galatians 2:20, ‘Not I live, but Christ liveth in me.’ A man cannot have interest in Christ, but he will receive life from him. (2d.) There will be a change. At the first God bringeth in the holy frame, all the seeds of grace; and therefore there will be a change: of profane, carnal, careless hearts, they are made spiritual, heavenly, holy: Ephesians 5:8, ‘Ye were darkness, but now are light in the Lord.’ You see there is a vast difference. If men remain the same, how can they be said to be begotten? They are filthy still, carnal still, worldly still; there will be at least a desolation of the old forms and frames of spirit.

Obs. 3. It is the proper work of God to beget us: ‘he begat.’ It is sometimes ascribed to God the Father, as here, and so, in other places, to God the Son: believers are ‘his seed,’ Isaiah 53:10. Sometimes to the Spirit, John 3:6. God the Father’s will: ‘Of his own will begat he us.’ God the Son’s merit: through his obedience we have ‘the adoption of sons,’ Galatians 4:5. God the Spirit’s efficacy: by his overshadowing the soul is the new creature hatched and brought forth. It is ascribed to all the three persons together in one place: Titus 3:5-6, ‘By his mercy he hath saved us, through the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ.’ In another place you have two persons mentioned: Ephesians 2:10, ‘For we are his workmanship, created in Jesus Christ unto good works.’ It is true, the ministers of the gospel are said to beget, but it is as they are instruments in God’s hands. So Paul saith, ‘I begat you,’ 1 Corinthians 4:15; and of Onesimus he saith, ‘Whom I begat in my bonds,’ Philemon 1:10. God loveth to put his own honour many times upon the instruments.

Well, then—1. Remove false causes. You cannot beget yourselves, that were monstrous; you must look up above self, and above means, to God, who must form you after his own image. It is said, John 1:13, that we are ‘begotten, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.’ Not in the outward impure way that is meant by that ‘not of blood; nor by the will of the flesh,’ that is, in the carnal manner, as man begetteth man to satisfy a fleshly will or desire; ‘nor of the will of man,’ that is, any workings or desires of our will; but only by the power of the Spirit; for the intent of that place is to remove gross thoughts and wrong causes, that we might apprehend it right for the nature of it, and look up to the right cause of it.

2. It showeth what an honourable relation we are invested with by the new birth. He begat us. God is our Father; that engageth his love, and bowels, and care, and everything that can be dear and refreshing to the creature: Matthew 6:32, ‘Your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of these things.’ This relation is often urged by the children of God: Isaiah 63:16, ‘Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us.’ There is comfort in a father, much more in a heavenly Father. Evil men may be good fathers, Matthew 7:11; they cannot but obey those natural and fatherly impressions that are upon their bowels; how much more will a good God be a good Father? Tam pater nemo, tam pius nemo²—none can be so good and so much a father as he.

² Tertul. in lib. de Orat. Dom.

Obs. 4. The ordinary means whereby God begetteth us is the gospel. He begat us ‘by the word of truth:’ 1 Corinthians 4:15, ‘I have begotten you in Jesus Christ, through the gospel.’ There is the instrument, the author, the means: the instrument, Paul, ‘I have begotten you;’ the means, ‘by the gospel;’ the author, ‘in Jesus Christ.’ So 1 Peter 1:23, ‘Begotten by the incorruptible seed of the word.’ The word is, as it were, the seed, which, being ingrafted in the heart, springeth up in obedience: it is by the word, and that part of the word which is properly called the gospel. Moses may bring us to the borders, but Joshua leadeth us into the land of Canaan; the law may prepare and make way, but that which conveyeth the grace of conversion is properly the gospel. Well, then, let us wait upon God in the use of the word: it is not good to balk the known and ordinary ways of grace. Wisdom’s dole is given at wisdom’s gates: Proverbs 8:34, ‘Blessed is he that watcheth always at my gates.’ It was a great advantage to the decrepit man to lie still at the pool, John 4:1-54. God’s means will prove successful in God’s time. Urge your souls with the necessity of the means. ‘Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,’ Romans 10:17. Without grace I cannot be saved, without the word I cannot have grace; reason thus within yourselves, that you may awaken the soul to a greater conscience and sense of waiting upon God in the word. It is true, the divine grace doth all, he begetteth us; but remember, it is by the word of truth. The influences of the heavens make fruitful seasons, but yet ploughing is necessary. It is one of the sophisms of this age to urge the Spirit’s efficacy as a plea for the neglect of the means.

Obs. 5. The gospel is a word of truth; so it is called, not only in this, but in divers other places. See 2 Corinthians 6:7; Ephesians 1:13; Colossians 1:5; 2 Timothy 2:15; the same expression is used in all these places. You may constantly observe, that in matters evangelical the scriptures speak with the greatest averment and certainty; the comfort of them is so rich, and the way of them is so wonderful, that there we are apt to doubt most, and therefore there do the scriptures give us the more solemn assurance; as 1 Timothy 1:15, ‘This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came to save sinners.’ We are apt to look upon it as a doubtful thing, or at best but as a probable truth; therefore Paul prefaceth, ‘This is a faithful saying.’ So Isaiah 53:4, ‘Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.’ Thou sayest, surely I am a sinner; but it is as sure that Christ is a Saviour; naturally we are more sensible and sure of sin than of the comforts of Christ. The apostle speaketh of heathens, Romans 1:32, that they ‘knew the judgment of God,’ and that ‘they that commit such things are worthy of death.’ Natural conscience will give us a sight and sense of sin, but usually we look upon gospel comforts with a loose heart and doubtful mind; and therefore is it that the scripture useth such forms of certainty. Is it sure that thou art a sinner? so sure is it that he hath ‘borne our sins and carried our sorrows.’ So Revelation 19:9, ‘Blessed are they which are called to the supper of the Lamb: these are the true sayings of God.’ So Revelation 22:6, when he had spoken of the glory of heaven, he saith, ‘These sayings are faithful and true.’ The Spirit of God foresaw where we are most apt to doubt, and therefore hath laid in such solemn security (as the asseverations of God) aforehand. Thus Christ’s priesthood is ushered in with an oath, Psalms 110:4, ‘The Lord hath sworn, Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec.’ Points so far above the reach and apprehension of nature are hard to be believed, therefore are they prefaced with deep asseverations and oaths.

Use. The use is to press us to put our seal to these truths, to adventure our souls upon the warrant of them. How strange is it that our hearts should be most loose towards those points that have a special note of truth and faithfulness annexed to them! Well may it be said, 1 John 5:10, ‘He that believeth not maketh God a liar;’ for these things are propounded to you, not only in assertions, but asseverations. He hath told you they are faithful and true sayings; therefore you implicitly give God the lie when you think these things are too good to be true, or carry yourselves with a carelessness and loose uncertainty towards them, or, in despair, think there cannot be comfort for such sinners as you are. This is to lift up your own sense and experience against the oaths and protestations of God, which are everywhere interlaced with the proposals of the gospel. Oh! do not hang off. Bring up assent to the greatest certainty that may be; check those vile thoughts which secretly lurk in all our hearts, that the gospel is some fine device and rare artifice to cheat the world, some golden fancy to make fools fond with; as that profane pope said, Fabula Christi, the fable of the gospel. Oh! consider, all the wit of the creatures could not contrive or design such a plot and frame of truths, so satisfying to the conscience, as the gospel is, and therefore all assents that do not amount and come up to assurance are beneath the dignity of it.

Assents are of divers kinds; some are very imperfect. There is conjecture, which is but a lighter inclination and propension of the mind to that which is only probable; it may or may not be true. This is discerned by carelessness and disrespect towards things that are excellent; men do but guess, and have but loose thoughts of them. Higher than this there is opinion, when the mind is strongly swayed to think a thing true, however there is formido oppositi, a fear of the contrary, which is opposed to believing with all the heart, Acts 8. This is enough to engage to profession a man followeth his opinion. The next degree above this is ὀλυγοπιστία, ‘weak faith,’ which engageth the soul not only to profession, but to some affection and adherence to the truths acknowledged; they look upon them as true and good, but cleave to them with much brokenness and imperfection. Higher than this there is assurance; I mean, of the truths of the gospel, not of our interest in the comforts of it. This is intended by the apostle when he said the Thessalonians ‘received the word with much assurance,’ 1 Thessalonians 1:5; they were undoubtedly, and beyond contradiction, persuaded of the truths of the gospel. The same apostle, Colossians 2:2, calleth it, ‘The riches of the full assurance of understanding the mysteries of Christ;’ that is, such an apprehension of the truths of the gospel as is joined with some experience, and a resolution to live and die in the profession of it.

Quest. You will say, How shall we do to ripen our assents to such a perfection? What are those proper mediums or arguments by which (next to the infallible persuasion of the Spirit) the soul is assured that the gospel is a word of truth?

Ans. This question is worth answering at all times, because atheism is so natural to us,—if there were none in the world, yet there is too much of the atheist in our own bosoms,—but in these times especially, the reigning sin being atheism and scepticism in matters of religion, occasioned partly by corrupt and blasphemous doctrines, which have a marvellous compliance with our thoughts; partly by the sad divisions among the people of God. Every one pretending to be in the right, we suspect all; therefore Christ prayed for unity in the church upon this argument, ‘That the world may know that thou hast sent me,’ John 17:23. When there are divisions in the church, usually there is atheism in the world: partly by the scandals and villanies committed under a pretence of religion, by which Christ is, as it were, denied, Titus 1:16, and again, ‘crucified and put to an open shame,’ Hebrews 6:6; that is, exposed to the derision and scorn of his enemies, and represented as a malefactor. Now if ever then, is it needful to ballast the mind with solid and rational grounds, and to establish you in the holy faith. Many arguments are urged by the fathers and the schoolmen in behalf of the gospel; but I have always preferred the arguments of the fathers, as of Lactantius, Tertullian, Justin Martyr, Cyril, &c., before those of the schoolmen, as being more practical and natural, and so having a greater and a more constant awe upon the conscience; whereas those of the schoolmen (who questionless were the worser men) are more subtle and speculative, and so less apt to be understood, and are not so always present with the soul as the other are, that are founded in practical truths. Briefly, then, you may know the gospel to be a word of truth, because whatever is excellent in a religion is in an unparalleled manner found in our religion, or in the doctrine of the gospel. The glory of a religion lieth in three things—the excellency of rewards, the purity of precepts, and the sureness of principles of trust. Now examine the gospel by these things, and see if it can be matched elsewhere.

1. The excellency of rewards. This is one of the chiefest perfections of a religion. Therefore the apostle proposeth it a principle and foundation of religion and worship to ‘believe that God is, and that he is a plentiful rewarder of those that seek him,’ Hebrews 11:6. He that cometh to God, that is, to engage in his worship, next to his being must believe his bounty; and the reason is, because a man, in all his endeavours, is poised to some happiness and reward. Now since the fall there are ‘many inventions,’ Ecclesiastes 7:29. As the Sodomites, when they were smitten with blindness, groped about Lot’s door, so do we grope and feel here and there for a reward that may be adequate and of full proportion with our desires. The heathen were at a sad loss and puzzle. Austin,³ out of Varro, reckoneth up two hundred and eighty-eight opinions about the chiefest good. Some placed it in pleasures, and such things as gratified sense. But this were to make brutes of men, for it is the beast’s happiness to enjoy pleasures without remorse; and Tully saith, he is not worthy the name of a man, qui unum diem velit esse in voluptate, that would entirely spend one whole day in pleasures. Alas! this is a way so gross, so oppressive, and burthensome to nature, so full of disturbance and distraction to reason, that it can never satisfy. Some went higher for a reward for virtue, and talked of victory over enemies, long life, and a happy old age; but many that were good wanted these blessings. Others dreamed of a kind of eternity, and placed it in fame and the perpetuity of their name and renown, which is a kind of shadow of the true eternity; but this was a sorry happiness to those that lived and died obscurely. Those that went highest could go no higher than the exercise of virtue, and said that virtue was a reward to itself; and said that a man was happy, if virtuous, in the greatest torments, in Phalaris’ brazen bull, &c. But, alas! ‘If our happiness were in this life only, we were of all men most miserable,’ 1 Corinthians 15:19. Christianity would scarce make amends for the trouble of it. But now the gospel goeth higher, and propoundeth a pure and sweet hope, most pure, and fittest for such a sublime creature, a reasonable creature, as man is, and most sweet and contenting, and that is the eternal and happy enjoyment of God in Christ in the life to come; not a Turkish paradise, but chaste and rational ‘pleasures at his right hand for ever more,’ Psalms 16:11; complete knowledge, perfect love, the filling up of the soul with God; so that the gospel, you see, hath outbidden all religions, propounding a fit and most excellent reward to the holy life.

³ August, de Civit. Dei, lib. 11. cap. 1.

2. Purity of precepts. In the Christian religion all moral duties are advanced and heightened to their greatest perfection: Psalms 119:96, ‘The commandment is exceeding broad,’ of a vast extent and latitude, comprising every motion, thought, and circumstance. The heathens contented themselves with a shadow of duty. The apostle saith, Romans 2:15, that ἔργον νόμου, ‘the work of the law, was written upon their hearts;’ that is, they had a sense of the outward work, and a sight of the surface of the commandment. They made conscience to abstain from gross acts of sin, and to perform outward acts of piety and devotion, as sacrifice and babbling of hymns and prayers to their gods. All their wisdom was to make the life plausible, to refrain themselves; as it is said of Haman, when his heart boiled with rancour and malice against Mordecai, Esther 5:10, ‘Haman refrained himself.’ So Lactantius proveth against them that they had not a true way of mortification, and were not spiritual enough in their apprehensions of the law: Sapientia eorum plerumque abscondit vitia, non abscindit—all their wisdom was to hide a lust, not to quench a lust; or rather to prevent the sin, not to check the lust. But now our holy religion doth not only forbid sins, but lusts: 1 Peter 2:11, ‘Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts.’ Babylon’s brats (as we showed before) by a holy murder must be dashed against the stones. The precepts are exact, commanding love, not only to friends, but enemies. The law is spiritual, and therefore in all points perfect: Psalms 19:7, ‘The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul;’ that is, not only guiding the offices of the exterior man, but piercing to the thoughts, the first motions of the heart; we have a perfect law.

3. The sureness of the principles of trust. One of the choicest respects of the creature to the Godhead is trust and dependence. And trust, being the rest and quiet of the soul, must have a sure bottom and foundation. Now stand upon the ways, and survey all the religions in the world, and you will find no foundation for trust but in the gospel, refer it to any object, trusting in God for a common mercy, trusting in God for a saving mercy.

[1.] For a common mercy. There are no such representations of God to the soul as in the gospel. The Gentiles had but loose and dark thoughts of God, and therefore are generally described by this character, ‘Men without hope,’ 1 Thessalonians 4:13. I remember when our Saviour speaketh against carking and anxiousness about outward supports, he dissuadeth thus: ‘Take no thought what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, or what ye shall put on, for after these things seek the Gentiles,’ Matthew 6:31-32, implying such solicitude to be only excusable in heathen who had no sure principles; but you that know providence and the care of a heavenly Father, should not be thus anxious. It is true, the heathens had some sense of a deity; they had τὸ γνῶστον τοῦ θεοῦ, some knowledge of the nature of God, Romans 1:20; but the apostle saith in the next verse, that ‘they were vain, ἐν διαλογίσμοις, in their imaginations,’ that is, in their practical inferences and discourses; when they came to represent God as an object of trust, and to form practical thoughts and apprehensions of his majesty, there they were vain and foolish. But now in the gospel God is represented as a fit object of trust, and therefore the solemn and purest part of Christian worship is faith; and it is judiciously observed by Luther, Id agit lola scriptura, ut credamus Deum esse misericordem—it is the design of the whole scripture to bring the soul to a steady belief and trust; therefore the psalmist, when he speaketh of God’s different administrations in the world and in the church, when he cometh to his administrations in the church, he saith, Psalms 93:5, ‘The testimonies of the Lord are sure.’ God deals with us upon sure principles, though he hath discovered himself to the world only in loose attributes.

[2.] For saving mercies; and indeed that is the trial of all religions; that is best which giveth the soul a sure hope of salvation: Jeremiah 6:16, God biddeth them ‘stand upon the ways, and see, and ask for the good old way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls;’ intimating, they should choose that for the best religion which yieldeth most peace of conscience. Now, there are three things that trouble the soul—our distance from God, our dread of angry justice, and a despair of retaining comfort with a sense of duty; and therefore, ere the conscience can have any solid rest and quiet, there must be three matches made, three couples brought together—God and man, justice and mercy, comfort and duty, all these must mutually embrace and kiss each other.

(1.) God and man must be brought together. Some of the wise heathens placed happiness in the nearest access and approach to God that may be, as Plato for one; and Cœlius Rhodiginus, saith Aristotle, delighted much in that verse of Homer where it is said that it would never be well till the gods and mortal men did come to live together. Certain we are that common instinct maketh us to grope and feel after an eternal good: Acts 17:27, ‘They groped after God.’ Now, how shall we come to have any commerce with God, there being, besides the distance of our beings, guilt contracted in the soul? How can stubble dwell with devouring burnings? guilty creatures think of God without trembling? approach him without being devoured and swallowed up of his glory? The heathens were sensible of this in some part, and therefore held that the supreme gods were defiled by the unhallowed approaches of sinful and mortal men, and therefore invented heroes and half-gods, a kind of middle powers, that were to be mediators, to convey their prayers to the gods, and the blessings of the gods back again to them: so Plutarch, διὰ δαιμονίων πᾶσα ὁμιλία καὶ διάλεκτος μεταξὺ θεῶν καὶ ἀνθρώπων—that by these intermediate powers there was all commerce and communion between the gods and men. To this doctrine of the heathen the apostle alludeth, 1 Corinthians 8:5; the heathens had ‘lords many, and gods many;’ as they had many gods, many ultimate objects of worship, so many lords, that is, mediators. ‘But to us (saith he) there is but one Lord, and one God;’ that is, one supreme essence and one Mediator, which is that excellent and sure way which the scriptures lay down for our commerce with God. The device of the heathens, being fabulous and absurd, could not yield comfort; but in the gospel there is excellent provision made for our comfort and hope, for there the Godhead and manhood is represented as met in one nature. The Son of God was made the Son of man, that the sons of men might be the sons of God; therefore the apostle Peter showeth that the great work of Christ was ‘to bring us to God,’ 1 Peter 3:18, to bring God and man together. So the apostle Paul saith, Hebrews 10:20, we may ‘draw near through the veil of his flesh.’ It is an allusion to the temple, where the veil hid the glory of the sanctum sanctorum, and gave entrance to it. So Christ’s incarnation did, as it were, rebate the edge of the divine glory and brightness, that creatures may come and converse with it without terror. Christ is the true Jacob’s ladder, John 1:51, the bottom of which toucheth earth there is his humanity; and the top reacheth heaven—there is his divinity; so that we may climb this ladder, and have communion with God: ascende per hominem et pervenies ad Deum, as that father said—climbing up in hope by the manhood of Christ, we have social access to the Godhead.

(2.) Justice and mercy must be brought together. We want mercy, and fear justice; guilt impresseth a trembling upon the spirit, because we know not how to redeem our souls out of the hands of angry justice; the very heathens were under this bondage and torment, because of the severity of the divine justice: ‘Knowing the judgment of God, they thought themselves worthy of death,’ Romans 1:32. Therefore the great inquiry of nature is, how we shall appease angry justice, and redeem our souls from this fear. You know the question, Micah 6:6-7, ‘Wherewith shall I come before him? and wherewith will he be pleased?’ The heathens, in their blindness, thought to oblige the Godhead by acts meritorious (as merit is natural), either by costly sacrifices, ‘rivers of oil, thousands of rams, burnt-offerings, and whole burnt-offerings,’ hecatombs of sacrifices; or by putting themselves to pains or tortures, as Baal’s priests gashed themselves; or by doing some act that is unwelcome and displeasant to nature, as by offering their children in sacrifices, those dear pledges of affection, which certainly was an act of great self-denial, natural love being descensive, and like a river running downward; yea, this was not all, the best of their children, their first-born, in whom all their hopes were laid up, they being observed to be most fortunate and successful. And this custom also the carnal Jews took up, for bare outward sacrifice was but a dull way either to satisfy God (his being ‘the cattle of a thousand hills,’ Psalms 50:10), or to pacify conscience; for though it were a worship of God’s own appointing, yet it ‘did not make the comer thereunto perfect, as appertaining to the conscience,’ Hebrews 9:9; that is, the worshipper that looked no further could never have a quiet and perfect conscience, and therefore they ‘caused their children to pass through the fire to Moloch.’ Such a barbarous custom could not be taken up barely by imitation; nothing but horror of conscience could tempt men to an act so cruel and unnatural; and the prophet plainly saith, they ‘gave their first-born for the sin of their soul.’ Thus you see all ways are at a loss, because they could not yield a recompense to offended justice. But, in the gospel, ‘justice and mercy have kissed each other, righteousness and truth have met together,’ as it is Psalms 85:10. And we may sing, ‘Gracious is the Lord, and righteous,’ Psalms 116:5; ‘Our beloved is white and ruddy,’ Song of Solomon 5:10. For there is a God satisfying as well as a God offended, so that mercy and justice shine with an equal lustre and glory; yea, justice, which is the terror of the world, in Christ is made our friend, and the chief ground of our hope and support; as 1 John 1:9, ‘The Lord is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins.’ A man would have thought faithful and gracious had been a more proper term than faithful and righteous, pardon being most properly an act of free grace; but justice being satisfied in Christ, it is no derogation to his righteousness to dispense a pardon. So the crown of glory is called ‘a crown of righteousness,’ 2 Timothy 4:8. There is a whole vein of scriptures runneth that way, that make all the comfort and hope of a Christian to hang upon God’s righteousness; yea, if you will believe the apostle Paul, you shall see that God’s great intent in appointing Christ, rather than any other Redeemer, was to show himself just in pardoning, and that he might be kind to sinners without any wrong to his righteousness; in short, that justice being satisfied, mercy might have the freer course. Hear the apostle, and you shall see he speaketh full to this purpose: Romans 3:25-26, ‘Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness in the remission of sins.’ And lest we should lose the emphatical word, he redoubleth it: ‘To declare, I say, his righteousness, and that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus:’ that is, in the matter of justification, where grace is most free, God makes his righteousness shine forth, having received satisfaction from Christ.

(3.) Comfort and duty are brought together. The end of all religion is ut anima sit subjecta Deo et pacata sibi—that the soul may be quiet in itself, and obedient to that which is supposed to be God. Now how shall we do to retain a care of duty with a sense of comfort? Conscience cannot be stifled with loose principles. The heathens could not be quiet, and therefore, when their reason was discomposed and disturbed with the rage of sensual lusts, and they knew not how to bridle them, they offered violence to nature; pulled out their eyes, because they could not look upon a woman without lusting after her; and raged against their innocent members, instead of their unclean affections. And we, that have the light of Christianity, know much more that we cannot have comfort without duty; for though true peace of conscience be founded in Christ’s satisfaction, yet it is found only in his service: Matthew 11:28, ‘Come to me, and I will give you rest;’ but in Matthew 11:29 it is, ‘Take my yoke upon you, and ye shall find rest for your souls.’ As we must come to Christ for comfort, so we must stay under his discipline, if we would have a sense of it in our own souls. Well, now, you shall see how excellently these are provided for in the gospel. There is Spirit against weaknesses, and merit against defects and failings, so that duty is provided for, and comfort. They need not despair under weaknesses, having the assistance of a mighty Spirit; they need not put out their eyes, having a God to quench their lusts;⁴ they need not despair under the sense of their defects, there being such a full merit in the obedience of Christ. In short, when they have largest thoughts of duty, they may have sweetest hopes of comfort, and say, with David, Psalms 119:6, ‘I shall not be ashamed when I have respect to all thy commandments.’

⁴ ‘Democritus excæcavit seipsum quod mulieres sine concupiscentiâ aspicere non posset, et doleret si non esset potitus: at Christianus salvis oculis fœminam videt; animo adversus libidinem cæcus est.’—Tertul. in Apol., cap. 46. So much for the fifth observation.

Obs. 6. That God’s children are his first-fruits. The word hinteth two things—their dignity and their duty; which two considerations will draw out the force of the apostle’s expression.

1. It noteth the dignity of the people of God in two regards: (1.) One is, they are ‘the Lord’s portion,’ λάος περιούσιος, his ‘peculiar people,’ Titus 2:14, the treasure people, the people God looketh after. The world are his goods, but you his treasure. The word κτισμάτων in the text is emphatical. Others are but his creatures, you his first-fruits. He delighteth to be called your God; he hath, as it were, impropriated himself to your use and comfort: ‘Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord,’ Psalms 144:15. He is Lord of all, but your God. One said, Tolle meum et tolle Deum—it is the relation to God that is sweet, and a general relation yieldeth no comfort. Oh! what a mighty instance is this of the love of God to us, that he should reckon us for his first-fruits, for his own lot and portion! (2.) That they are the consider able part of the world. The first-fruits were offered for the blessing of all the rest: Proverbs 3:10, ‘Offer thy first-fruits, and so thy barns shall be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with wine.’ So here; the children of God, they are the ‘blessing in the cluster;’ others fare the better for their neighbourhood; they are the strength, the ‘chariots and horsemen’ of a nation. It was a profane suggestion in Haman to say, ‘It was not for the king’s profit to suffer them to live.’ These are the first-fruits that God taketh in lieu of a whole nation, to convey a blessing to the rest.

2. It hinteth duty; as (1.) Thankfulness in all their lives. First-fruits were dedicated to God in token of thankfulness. Cain is implicitly branded for unthankfulness because he did not offer the first-fruits. You, that are the first-fruits of God, should, in a sense of his mercy, live the life of love and praise. The apostle saith the mercies of God should persuade us to offer ourselves, Romans 12:1. Now, under the gospel, there are no sin-offerings, all are thank-offerings. Well, then, give up yourselves in a reasonable way, λογικὴ λάτρεια, of sacrifice. It is but reason that when God hath begotten us we should be his first-fruits. The principle and motive of obedience under the gospel is not terror, but gratitude: Luke 1:74, ‘That we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, should serve him without fear,’ &c. Your lives should show you to be first-fruits, to be yielded to God as a testimony of thankfulness. (2.) It noteth holiness. The first-fruits were holy unto the Lord. God’s portion must be holy; and therefore of things that were in their own nature an abomination the first-fruits were not to be offered to God, as the first-born of a dog or ass, but were to be redeemed with money. God can brook no unclean thing. Sins in you are far more irksome and grievous to his Spirit than in others. You shall see, Jeremiah 32:30, it is said, ‘The children of Israel and Judah have only done evil before me from their youth.’ The Septuagint read, μόνοι ποιοῦντες τὴν ἁμαρτίαν, ‘they alone, or they only, have been sinners before me;’ as if God did not take notice of the sins of other nations: Israel, God’s portion, are the only sinners. (3.) It noteth consecration. You are dedicate things, and they must not be alienated; your time, parts, strength, and concernments, all is the Lord’s; you cannot dispose of them as you please, but as it may make for the Lord’s glory; you are not first-fruits when you ‘seek your own things;’ you are not to walk in your own ways, nor to your own ends; you may do with your own as it pleaseth you, but you cannot do so with what is the Lord’s. First-fruits were passed over into the right of God, the owner had no property in them. Well, then:—(1st.) You are not to walk in your own ways; your desires and wills are not to guide you, but the will of God. ‘There is a way (saith Solomon) that seemeth right in a man’s own eyes;’ a corrupt mind looketh upon it as good and pleasant, and a corrupt will and desire is ready to run out after it. So the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah 53:6, ‘We are all gone astray, every man to his own way.’ Oh! remember you are to study the mind and will of God; your own inventions will seduce you, and your own affections will betray you. (2d.) Not to your own ends: 2 Corinthians 5:15, ‘Henceforth we are no more to live to ourselves,’ to our pleasure, profit, honour, interests: we have no right and property in ourselves, it is all given up to God. Those that gave up all to God did not reserve a liberty for self-pursuits and self interests.⁵ All pleasures, honours, profits, are to be refused or received as they make us serviceable to the glory of God.

⁵ ‘Nesciunt suis parcere qui nihil suum norunt.’— Ambros.