we not here a striking reprefentation of the natural fituation of the foul? It appears "with"out form," totally difordered; the inferior faculties ruling over the fuperior, the will and affections trampling on the understanding and confcience, fpurning all their dictates, and threatening the eternal deftruction of the finner. It is "empty" of every thing, that God calls good. Vanity is the predominant character of the mind ". As the foul refembles "the troubled fea," it is covered with grofs darknefs; with the darkness of ignorance, of error, and of prejudice. What was the firft work of God in giving form to the confufed mafs? He created light. This is the very method of his procedure in the new creation. He makes light to enter into the benighted understanding. In what manner were all things created? How did light receive its being from God? Was it not by a word of almighty power? "He fpake, "and it was done: He faid, Let light be, and light was." This mode of operation, peculiar to omnipotence, is particularly marked by the Apoftle as characterizing the new creation. It is marked with a fpecial reference to the old; as evidently denoting that the fame almighty power is not lefs neceffary in the one, than it was in the other. "God, who commanded the light to "fhine out of darknefs, hath fhined in our hearts, "to give the light of the knowledge of the glory "of God, in the face of Jefus Chrifto." He not only n Eph. iv. 13. o 2 Cor. iv. 6. only made light to fhine by a word of power, but made it to fhine "out of darknefs." In what a lively manner does this exprefs the work of God in converfion! He ftill fhows that he is that God, who "calleth the things that be not as though they were." He directs his efficacious word to the finner who is in grofs darknefs, and makes him "light in the LORD." He fays, "Look ye blind;" and at his word they fee. 66 In the first creation, "God divided the light "from the darknefs." For even after the formation of light, the darkness was not totally difpelled. Thus, in the Chriftian, two contrary principles remain. But the light is fo divided from the darkness, that the former can never be extinguifhed by the latter. Were the evening and the morning one day? So is it in the new creation. The evening, the imperfect ftate of grace in the prefent life, a ftate partly clear and partly dark, and the morning of glory at the refurrection, make but one day to the renewed foul. The day of glory hath dawned. He is "changed from glory to glory." His prefent life, as "hid with Chrift," is not fubftantially different from that which awaits him in heaven. For as he hath the Son, he hath life, even life for evermore. He, who is himself " the Refurrection," says; "I give unto them eter 66 "nal life." Each Perfon of the godhead was engaged in the creation of the world. ated all things by the Son. The Father cre- "moved," "moved," with an incubating power, 86 on the "face of the waters," communicating life. In like manner, "we are the workmanship of God, created again in Chrift Jefus. It is the Spirit "that quickeneth. Except a man be born of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Was man created by God in his image, after his likeness? The fame work is performed, the fame power is neceffary, in the new creation. For "the new man is renewed in knowledge, after "the image of him that created him P." II. This neceffity alfo appears from the inefficacy of the fevereft judgments, that have ever been inflicted on men, with respect to any real change. Could any difpenfation towards mankind be more awful, or in more expreffive characters declare the hatefulness of fin, than the univerfal deluge? Yet fo obdurate was the heart of Ham, that scarcely were the waters of deftruc tion dried up, ere he " made a mock at fin," and confidered that inftance of human imperfection as matter of profane fport, which fhould have covered him with blushes 9. How great, and how general was the corruption of the pofterity of Noah, even during his own life! He might have feen Terah, the father of Abraham; and we may believe that he still retained the character of " a "preacher of righteousness," and continued to remind his defcendants of the procuring caufe of p Col. iii. 10. Vid. Witf. Oecon. p. 640: q Gen. ix. 22. the the deluge. Yet before his decease, many of them. had apoftatized from the true God. 66 66 66 It deserves our particular attention indeed, that what in one place is given as the reafon of the deluge, is in another given as the reafon why there fhould never be a fecond deftruction of afimilar kind. "God faw that the wickedness "of man was great in the earth, and that every: imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.-And the LORD faid, I "will deftroy man, whom I have created.-I will deftroy them with the earth." After the deluge, "the LORD faid in his heart, I will not again curfe the ground any more for man's "fake; for the imagination of man's heart is "evil from his youth." Shall it be imagined, that the Spirit of revelation can contradict himfelf? Or that He, who " is of one mind," fhould be "turned" to another? Or, that God tried this destruction as an experiment, and determined never to try it again, becaufe it did not answer his purpofe? Far be fuch thoughts from us, as derogatory in the highest degree from the perfection of the only wife God! Whence, then, is the fame thing mentioned as the reafon of modes of procedure diametrically oppofite? This ftriking connexion, which might at firft view appear as a contradiction, lets us know, that God had a twofold defign in the deluge; that while he was pleafed thus to manifeft his deteftation of fin, it was at the fame time his pleasure to fhew that VOL. II. .B.h the the most tremendous judgments cannot change the heart of rebellious man. To declare what fin deferves, he calls for a deluge; and to proclaim the incorrigible nature of the disease, he promises a future exemption from this judg ment. The fhocking impurity of the daughters of Lot may be viewed as an illuftration of the fame truth. Some writers have endeavoured to extenuate their . guilt, by fuppofing that they might reckon the race of men extinct, in confequence of that deftruction from which they had efcaped: or, that they were actuated by an earneft defire, and perhaps by hope, that the one or other of them might be the mother of the promifed feed. But their conduct undoubtedly fhows, how little they were affected by the deftruction of the cities of the plain. For they were not deterred, even by this awful judgment, from the commiffion of a crime, which, as being against nature, partook of the general character of that by which their former fellow-citizens were marked out as monuments of divine vengeance. Here I inight alfo mention the obftinacy of Ifrael in rebellion, both in the wilderness, and in the land of promife, notwithstanding the many and awful judgments executed on them. This is illustrated in a very striking manner, in the twentieth chapter of Ezekiel. Let us for a moment advert to what has been formerly mentioned. Two hundred and fifty princes, who intruded themselves into the office of the priesthood, had been |
