SERMONS UPON GENESIS 24:63

SERMON 9

And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the even-tide.-GEN. 24:63.

THIRDLY, The matter I am now to propose to you is the excellent contrivance of the gospel as a subject for your meditation ; an argument that challengeth all our reverence and thoughts and wonder, a mystery of mysteries, the fairest draught and picture that ever came out of the workhouse of God: 1 Tim. 3:16, 'And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness.'
This is a depth that cannot easily be fathomed; here are miracles enfolded in miracles, and mysteries within mysteries; God would astonish mankind, and save it at the same time. Christ is called the wisdom of God: 1 Cor. 1:24, 'Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God;' not only as the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in him, and through him conveyed to the creatures, but because herein is God's wisdom most discovered by disposing and putting our salvation into the hands of Christ; not only as a fountain of wisdom, but as a map of wisdom, as discovering the excellent contrivance of God, and the curious variety that is in his counsels. God showeth wisdom in all things: Ps.104:24, 'O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all.' Every creature is disposed into apt cells and storehouses, and contributes to the glory of their creator. But here God would discover the curiosity of his wisdom. The world is his work, but the gospel is his plot. And therefore in your solemn and most deliberate thoughts you should take a view of it. It is the great duty of saints : Eph. 3:18, 19,' That ye may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.' This should be your continual task and search. There are two great mysteries in the world—Christ and antichrist, the mystery of the gospel and the mystery of iniquity. It is the great advantage of Christians to discern the mystery of iniquity, and to meditate upon the mystery of godliness; to observe antichrist's cunning, and to consider the contrivance of the gospel. Oh! then exercise your thoughts herein, and study the excellency of God's design; bring hallowed and reverend thoughts, that by a deliberate gaze you may raise your souls into an holy wonder and admiration.
1. I shall lay down some preparative considerations.
2. I shall come to the work itself.
I. To prepare you to consecrate your thoughts for the entertainment of so great a mystery, consider these things—
1. When you have done your utmost, your thoughts will still fall short: Isa. 40:28, ' There is no searching of his understanding.' There is an excess in every attribute above all human thought and conceit, and though we follow on after God, yet we cannot find him out to perfection. Now among all his attributes none is more hidden from us than his wisdom, as children that are only busied in puppets and baubles cannot imagine what it is to govern a commonwealth. Power is obvious, but our foolish spirits cannot trace the wisdom of providence, much more his wisdom discovered in the gospel. One of the names of Christ is Wonderful, Isa. 9:6. It is a point that we should always be studying, and yet we can never come to the bottom of it, and therefore what is wanting in thoughts must be supplied by wonder. When we have done all, we must cry out, Rom. 11:23,' O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!' As if he had said, I have done as much as I can, I have discovered as much as I am able; but I must leave off disputing, and fall now to wondering. The light of the scripture doth not discover him fully: 1 Cor. 13:9, ' We know in part, and we prophesy in part.' Full knowledge is our portion in heaven; these are but partial discoveries we have even in the word of God. However this is no excuse for negligence and barrenness. Not for negligence, for we must ¡®follow on to know the Lord,' Hosea 6:3. It is the fault of Christians that they keep always to their milk and first childish thoughts and apprehensions; we should rise higher in our considerations and admirations of the love and wisdom of God. It is notable that Moses his first request to God was, ' What is thy name?' Exod. 3:13. and then, ' I beseech thee show me thy glory,' Exod. 33:18. We must follow on from considering God's name to clearer sights of his glory. Not for barrenness; empty thoughts void of argument and discourse be get a confused stupor, not a wonder; the thoughts are only stayed, not raised.
2. Not only men, but angels themselves are at a loss in this great mystery; they study it as well as we, and cannot come to the bottom of it: 1 Peter 1:12, ¡®Which things the angels desire to look into.' The word parakuphai, signifies to bow down and bend the body; it is an allusion to the cherubim, that were pictured over the ark stooping, and as it were bending their bodies, as prying into the mysteries of the ark. The mysteries of the gospel are so sublime that the angels which do continually behold the face of God cannot perfectly comprehend them ; they are learning and improving their knowledge by learning and improving the dispensations of God to the church : Eph. 3:10, ' To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God ;' that they may know the curious contrivances of God's wisdom by observing the revelations that are made, and the dispensations God hath used towards his church. And possibly this may be the meaning of the apostle in that expression, 1 Tim. 3:16,' Seen of angels;' that is, with reverence, admiration, and wonder, to see Christ stoop so low, to he clothed with flesh, to condescend to a nature so much beneath their own. This is the work of angels, either they desire to know more of Christ, or they delight themselves in beholding of that they know. Oh I we should never be weary of searching into these holy mysteries, and acting our thoughts upon them.
3. They wonder most at the contrivance of the gospel that have most interest in it; to others it is but a cold story or naked plot. Concernment sharpeneth invention and affection, a man doth then more seriously consider of it; their eyes are open, and they have more of sense and feeling. And that is the reason why the enjoyments of the saints have notes of wonder annexed to the expressions of them; as Phil. 4:7, ' The peace of God, which passeth all understanding,' &c. 1 Peter 1:8, ' Joy unspeakable and full of glory;' they that have a taste of it know what it is to enjoy a calm and serene conscience through the application of the promises of the gospel. They can best wonder at the contrivance of the gospel, who are 'called out of darkness into his marvellous light,' 1 Peter 2:9. They wonder in their thoughts that God and Christ should design their heaven, be plotting and contriving their salvation before all worlds, how they may be vessels filled up with glory. O marvellous light! wonderful, unutterable joy! These are the apprehensions of God's children; others may look upon the gospel as a probable truth, but they have found it a comfortable truth, therefore their hearts are raised in wonder.
II. I come to the work itself. You may manage it three ways—
(1.) By observations;
(2.) By arguments;
(3.) By comparisons.
1. By observations. Observe what is beautiful and excellent in the gospel.
[1.] God did not contrive to save the fallen angels: Heb.2:16, ' For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.' He was not made an angel for angels, as he was made a man for men. O Lord! thou sawest angels sinning, but not returning ; in them thou didst discover the severity of thy justice, but in us the riches of thy mercy. God would not so much as treat with fallen angels, but plotted a way to recover man. In the election of angels mercy is not so much glorified as in the election and calling of men; there was grace showed in the election of angels, but not mercy; none of the fallen angels were saved, but fallen man is called to grace in Christ. Certainly whatever the causes were, there was much of wisdom and mercy in it. Whether it be for this cause, that when Adam sinned the whole human nature fell, but the whole angelical nature did not fall, but only a part of it; the kind itself needed not to be repaired, but all the mass of mankind was poisoned; or whether this be the cause, merely the will of God, certainly there is much of mercy in it. Love after a breach is more glorious; it is more to be reconciled than to be confirmed, Paenitens, the penitent, have more cause to glorify God than innocens, the innocent; those that are received to mercy than those that are confirmed by grace. Or else was this the cause? Because the angels sinned out of their own motion. Angels had no other temptation but their own ambition and aspiring thought, but man sinned by the devil's suggestion. Certainly it is more to be a tempter than a sinner, and he that sinneth himself doth not offend God himself so much as he that made Israel to sin. However it be, we have cause to bless God that he hath revealed his justice against them and his mercy to us.
[2.] Observe God's wisdom fetched a large compass and circuit; and those things which we count the ruin of man were through the wisdom of providence his preservation. The fall of angels, the fall of man, those crooked things which seemed to be the destruction of the creature, through the overruling of God made for the manifestation of his glory. Gregory called the sin of Adam foelix scelus, because it occasioned the coming of Christ. Providence hath many creeks and turnings, but all concur to the beauty of the whole frame. The apostle calls it polupoikilos sophia the manifold wisdom of God,' Eph. 3:10. Therefore we are not to judge by present sense. God's mending is better than his making; he would have all fall to pieces to discover more of his mercy. Man must commit a shameful act, and Christ must suffer a shameful death, and all this to advance his own glory. As a vessel that is cracked and soldered is the stronger there, or a leg that has been broken, and set again by a skilful hand, is the stronger; so the Lord would first have man to fall and ruin himself, that he might be the better established by his own grace.
[3.] Observe again, that God should pitch upon this way of sending his Son. God was not limited or bound up; he could have done it by an angel, or of his own will have released the creature of his offence; but ¡®it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell,' Col. 1:19 ; it was God's will that salvation should be brought about this way. In the whole business of salvation God would proceed by choice, not necessity. I confess, supposing the determination of the divine decrees, no creature was qualified to do us good; the angels do but their work, they could not so fitly supererogate for us; but if God would send his own Son, he might have come as a king in glory and triumph, and wrestled with Satan, and rescued all the elect out of his hands. But the Lord would not now discover power, but love; he had discovered power in creation: Rom. 1:20, 'For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead;' But in redemption he discovered his wisdom; every attribute of God was to be discovered in its season. Again, the Lord would meet with the sin of men and angels. The angels had lost their holiness out of a desire of greatness, they would be over all, and under none; and man was sick of the same disease, and did desire to be rather great than good. Adam would be as God; Adam fell by pride, and to counterwork this, Christ was to restore mankind by humility. When he cometh to save mankind, he lays aside his majesty, and puts on a humble garb; he would not save mankind by power, but by suffering; the Lord's design was by the quality of the remedy to show the nature of the disease.
[4.] Observe, man or angel could not have found out such an excellent plot or design as this is. It could not have come into our heads or hearts, and therefore it came merely from the breast of God; it was devised by Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: Rom. 11:34, ' Who hath known the mind of the Lord ? or who hath been his counsellor ?' What creature did prescribe to God, or direct him to such a way? The apostle showeth it could not enter into the creature's thoughts: 1 Cor. 2:9, ' Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.' You will find by the context he speaks of the doctrine and contrivance of Christ crucified; neither sense, nor fancy, nor reason could suggest such a thing to the creature. There are some seeds of the law in nature, but not the least seeds of the gospel. We see in other nations they cannot so much as think of a way of a recovery: Isa. 59:16, ' He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor, therefore his arm brought salvation unto him;' it is chiefly understood of the everlasting salvation by Christ. If the Lord had tarried till man had devised a way for his own comfort, we had been miserable to all eternity.
[5.] Observe, God discovered this design before it was accomplished in the fullness of time: Isa. 42:9, ' Before they spring forth I tell you of them.' This love was too big to be contained in his heart, but he must open his mind. The prophecies and promises of the Old Testament were the eruptions and overflows of God's love; his heart was so full of love, that it could not be contained within the bounds of secrecy. He openeth his heart, and gives vent to his love in the midst of anger. As soon as man had displeased him, God drops out the promise that the seed of the woman should break the serpent's head.
[6.] Observe again, God discovered this by degrees, first in types, then in truths; first in promises, then in performances. God spake to his people formerly not so much by words as by things. We teach children to fight with puppets, and in the oriental nations it is their genius to be taken with allegories and figures. God would prepare the world by degrees, as the day groweth till it cometh to high noon; to us he hath opened all his good treasure. And further, it was for our instruction, that wickedness should be perfectly discovered. And besides the former ages needed restraints more than comforts. Every age had sufficient revelation for what God required of them.
2. Follow this meditation by arguments. There could not have been a better way to save the creature, whether we respect God's glory or the creature's comfort and profit.
[1.] If we consider God's glory.
(1.) It was the best way to commend his love: Rom. 5:8, ' But God commended his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.' Herein was the commendation of the divine love, that God would give up the Son of his own love and bosom to die for us that were sinners. As the apostle saith, Heb. 6:13, ' When God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself.' So when the Lord could give us no greater gifts, he gave us his Son. David seems to be amazed with wonder when he considers the power of God in making such creatures as the moon and stars, much more when he considers the love of God in framing of man: Ps. 8:3, 4, ' When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that thou visitest him?'
But here the Son of God himself is become man for us. Oh! that Jesus Christ should stoop so low ! that he that fills all things should be shut up in the narrow straits of the virgin's womb ! that Christ should disrobe himself of all his glory, and submit to the greatest abasement! John 3:16, ' For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'
(2.) Hereby his justice is discovered. One attribute is not to be exercised to the wrong and prejudice of another. Now in this excellent contrivance God did glorify his mercy so as his justice was no loser, that being sufficiently satisfied in the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore justice, which in itself is our dread, is in Christ the ground of our comfort and support, and that attribute which would discourage sinners doth now invite and draw unto Christ: 1 John 1:9, ' If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' So Rom. 3:25, 26, ' Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare at this time, I say, his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.' God would dispense acts of grace with the greatest advantage to his justice. This is the beauty of his design, he would be just in justification, and those acts which to us are acts of mere grace, are now made acts of righteousness.
(3.) Hereby the authority of the law is still preserved. God in innocency had written a law in man's heart, and he was to preserve the honour of it. Man transgressed this law. Now by appointing Jesus Christ to die for us, the dignity of the law is kept up. Impunity maketh sin to be lightly esteemed; when laws are relaxed there must be some commutation or recompense, or else their authority is not preserved: Matt. 5:18, 'Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled.' The omission of punishment would detract from it, therefore Christ must be made under the law: Gal. 4:4, 5, ' But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.' Christ endured the severity of it.
(4.) Hereby God's essence is discovered, even the whole Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The doctrine of the Trinity was but darkly revealed in the Old Testament till Christ came in the flesh. One of the main designs of our redemption was to discover God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. There is a God that must be satisfied, there is a God that must satisfy, and there is a God that must seal up all this to the soul. At Christ's baptism, when he was solemnly inaugurated into the mediatorship, there was a discovery of the Trinity, the Father in a voice, the Son in person, and the Holy Ghost in the shape of a dove.
[2.] If we consider the creature's comfort, it was the best way to establish that.
(1.) Here is excellent provision made against the infiniteness that is in sin by the infiniteness of Christ's sufferings; for though sin be but a temporary act, yet it is infinite because of the object, being committed against an infinite majesty ; so Christ's sufferings were but a temporary act, yet they were infinite, he being a person that was both God and man. Therefore as sins receive a value from the person against whom they are committed, so Christ's sufferings receive a value from the person by whom they are performed. The apostle puts a ' how much more' upon the blood of Christ: Heb. 9:14, ' How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God?' His Godhead did put a value and merit upon his blood to expiate the guilt of sin, and therefore the blood of Christ is called the blood of God: Acts 20:28, ' Feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.' So that if sin did abound, grace had superabounded; if sin be put into one scale, put the blood of Christ into the other. The great purpose and design of God was to give us triumph over the clamours of our own conscience. Sin is expiated and done away by the blood of the Son of God.
(2.) There is an excellent provision made for all that the creature stands in need of. There are three things which trouble the creature, and they are only accomplished and made good in this great contrivance of God—the bringing of God and man together, the bringing of justice and mercy together, and the bringing of comfort and duty together. How God and man are brought together, who were separate by sin: 1 Peter 3:18, ' Christ also hath once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.' To unite man fallen to God, there is mortal and immortal, greatness and baseness, finiteness and infiniteness brought together. There is God and man in one person, that there might be a commerce between us and God; our nature, as it were, grafted and planted into the person of Christ, that our persons might have social communion with God. Then justice and mercy are brought together. The great inquiry of nature is, how to have a satisfaction for justice, that mercy might have a free course? What shall we do to recompense justice? Creatures would sacrifice themselves, and all they have: Micah 6:6, 7, ' Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before his face with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousand of rams, or with ten thousand of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? ' But it is not our first-born, but God's first-born. So also comfort and duty are sweetly united together, the Lord having provided a merit against our defects, and a spirit against our weaknesses; the Lord is at peace with us, and we are enabled comfortably to serve God.
[3.] If we consider the profit of the creature.
(1.) This way serves to represent sin. You have nowhere such a sight of sin as upon Mount Calvary, when you see the Son of God stretched out upon the cross, and crying out, ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? ' When the punishment of our sins was laid upon Christ, God showeth how displeasing sin was to him.
(2.) To wean us from vanity. We make great matters of trifles, are apt to idolise every petty and vain thing in the world; therefore in Christ the Lord would show us the highest self-denial when he took the human nature on him, and endured the wrath of the Father. The whole world wondered after the beast, and the disciples wondered at the goodly stones of the temple, Matt. 24:1. Oh! what will you do at the Son of God, in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily ? This should beget a special veneration and reverence towards God.
(3.) To overcome us by love. There is a great engagement laid upon a sinner hereby. When the king of Moab was pressed hard by Israel, ' he took his eldest son, that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt-sacrifice upon the wall,' 2 Kings 3:27, according to their superstition, who were wont in extreme dangers and desperate cases to sacrifice their children, whereupon they raised the siege, and went home. God hath taken his own Son, and sacrificed him, that we might leave off fighting against heaven. God would overcome sin by the highest act of goodness and kindness imaginable, hereby he would shame and overcome the heart of a poor sinner.
(4.) That we might have a high and glorious pattern of obedience. We are referred to angels, and to Christ himself, who would leave us a more glorious example.
3. Magnify this great contrivance of your salvation by comparisons. Compare it with creation, with other deliverances, and with the works of nature.
[1.] Compare it with creation. The Lord discovered much of his glory in making the world out of nothing, but he discovered more of his glory when Jesus Christ was born of his own creature, a vine out of the berry or grape. This was his masterpiece and grand design, in which he purposed to gain to himself most honour and glory. The world was made with a word, but redeemed with a serious plot and contrivance. The world was made for man and woman, but Christ was made out of a woman. In the creation God made us like himself, but here the Lord made himself like us. In the creation all things were made out of nothing, here order came out of confusion. In the creation man was made out of the earth, but here God was made man. In the creation God went the high way to do us good, in redemption he came the lower way; Jesus Christ abased himself for our sakes.
[2.] Compare it with other deliverances. It was a great thing to be delivered out of Egypt and Babylon, but it is far greater to be delivered out of hell, and from damnation and wrath to come. Read the story of the children of Israel's deliverances, Ps. 107. They were delivered from the oppression of Pharaoh, but we from Satan. God gave them food, and satisfied the longing soul, and filled the hungry; but Jesus Christ incarnate is made bread and food to the soul. They had deliverance from diseases, but we from sin, the sickness and disease of the soul, and from the vanity of our own spirits. Then he goes on to the wonders in the deep, but we may see the depth of mercy swallowing up the depth of sin, and the glorious love of God breaking out in such a wonderful deliverance by Jesus Christ, that we may well cry out with them, ver. 31, ' Oh ! that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men.'
[3.] Compare it with the miracles of nature. There are strange things among the creatures, yet there may be some footsteps of reason seen; but it cannot enter into the heart of man to conceive of this glorious salvation brought about by the Son of God. Therefore bless God for the revelation, and complain of thyself for not thinking of these things with serious admiration, scarce vouchsafing to look into these things, but are more pleased with every bauble and vain contrivance than the great and serious plot of the gospel.
 
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