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