dejected would a person be if he were sure all the angels in heaven
and men upon earth, did perfectly know his crimes, with all their
aggravations! But what is created knowledge to an infinite and just
censuring understanding! When we consider that he knows our actions,
whereof there are multitudes, and our thoughts, whereof there are
millions; that he views all the blessings bestowed upon us; all the
injuries we have returned to him; that he exactly knows his own bounty,
and our ingratitude; all the idolatry, blasphemy, and secret enmity
in every man’s heart against him; all tyrannical oppressions, hidden
lusts, omissions of necessary duties, violations of plain precepts,
every foolish imagination, with all the circumstances of them, and
that perfectly in their full anatomy, every mite of unworthiness and
wickedness in every circumstance; and {a497} add to this his knowledge,
the wonders of his patience, which are miraculous upon the score of
his omniscience, that he is not as quick in his revenge as he is in
his understanding, but is so far from inflicting punishment, that
he continues his former benefits, arms not his justice against us,
but solicits our repentance, and waits to be gracious with all this
knowledge of our crimes; should not the consideration of this melt
our hearts into humiliation before him, and make us earnest in begging
pardon and forgiveness of him? Again, do we not all find a worm in
our best fruit, a flaw in our soundest duties? Shall any of us vaunt,
as if God beheld only the gold, and not any dross; as if he knew one
thing only, and not another? If we knew something by ourselves to
cheer us, do we not also know something, yea, many things, to condemn
us, and therefore to humble us? Let the sense of God’s infinite
knowledge, therefore, be an incentive and argument for more
humiliation in us. If we know enough to render ourselves vile in our
own eyes, how much more doth God know to render us vile in his!
6. The consideration of this excellent perfection should make us to
acquiesce in God, and rely upon him in every strait. In public, in
private; he knows all cases, and he knows all remedies; he knows the
seasons of bringing them, and he knows the seasons of removing them,
for his own glory. What is contingent in respect of us, and of our
foreknowledge, and in respect of second causes, is not so in regard
of God’s, who hath the knowledge of the futurition of all things;
he knows all causes in themselves, and, therefore, knows what every
cause will produce, what will be the event of every counsel and of
every action. How should we commit ourselves to this God of infinite
understanding, who knows all things, and foreknows everything;
that cannot be forced through ignorance to take new counsel, or be
surprised with anything that can happen to us! This use the Psalmist
makes of it (Ps. x. 14): “Thou hast seen it, the poor committeth
himself unto thee.” Though “some trust in chariots and horses” (Ps.
xx. 7), some in counsels and counsellors, some in their arms and
courage, and some in mere vanity and nothing; yet, let us remember
the name and nature of the Lord our God, his divine perfections, of
which this of his infinite understanding and omniscience is none of
the least, but so necessary, that without it he could not be God, and
the whole world would be a mere chaos and confusion.
{a498} DISCOURSE IX.
ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
ROMANS xvi. 27.――To God only wise be glory, through Jesus Christ,
for ever. Amen.
THIS chapter being the last of this Epistle, is chiefly made up of
charitable and friendly salutations and commendations of particular
persons, according to the earliness and strength of their several
graces, and their labor of love for the interest of God and his people.
In verse 17, he warns them not to be drawn aside from the gospel
doctrine, which had been taught them, by the plausible pretences and
insinuations which the corrupters of the doctrine and rule of Christ
never want from the suggestions of their carnal wisdom. The brats of
soul‑destroying errors may walk about the world in a garb and disguise
of good words and fair speeches, as it is in the 18th verse; by “good
words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.” And for
their encouragement to a constancy in the gospel doctrine, he assures
them, that all those that would dispossess them of truth, to possess
them with vanity, are but Satan’s instruments, and will fall under the
same captivity and yoke with their principal (ver. 18); “The God of
peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.” Whence, observe,
1. All corrupters of divine truth, and troublers of the church’s
peace, are no better than devils. Our Saviour thought the name, Satan,
a title merited by Peter, when he breathed out an advice, as an axe
at the root of the gospel, the death of Christ, the foundation of all
gospel truth; and the apostle concludes them under the same character,
which hinder the superstructure, and would mix their chaff with his
wheat (Matt. xvi. 23), “Get thee behind me, Satan.” It is not, Get
thee behind me, Simon, or, Get thee behind me, Peter; but “Get thee
behind me, Satan; thou art an offence to me.” Thou dost oppose thyself
to the wisdom, and grace, and authority of God, to the redemption of
man, and to the good of the world. As the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of
truth, so is Satan the spirit of falsehood: as the Holy Ghost inspires
believers with truth, so doth the devil corrupt unbelievers with error.
Let us cleave to the truth of the gospel, that we may not be counted
by God as part of the corporation of fallen angels, and not be barely
reckoned as enemies of God, but in league with the greatest enemy to
his glory in the world.
2. The Reconciler of the world will be the Subduer of Satan. The God
of peace sent the Prince of peace to be the restorer of his rights,
and the hammer to beat in pieces the usurper of them. As a {a499} God
of truth, he will make good his promise; as a God of peace, he will
perfect the design his wisdom hath laid, and begun to act. In the
subduing Satan, he will be the conqueror of his instruments: he saith
not, God shall bruise your troublers and heretics, but Satan: the fall
of a general proves the rout of the army. Since God, as a God of peace,
hath delivered his own, he will perfect the victory, and make them
cease from bruising the heel of his spiritual seed.
3. Divine evangelical truth shall be victorious. No weapon formed
against it shall prosper: the head of the wicked shall fall as low
as the feet of the godly. The devil never yet blustered in the world,
but he met at last with a disappointment: his fall hath been like
lightning, sudden, certain, vanishing.
4. Faith must look back as far as the foundation promise. “The God
of peace shall bruise,” &c. The apostle seems to allude to the first
promise (Gen. ii. 15),――a promise that hath vigor to nourish the
church in all ages of the world: it is the standing cordial; out
of the womb of this promise all the rest have taken their birth.
The promises of the Old Testament were designed for those under the
New, and the full performance of them is to be expected, and will be
enjoyed by them. It is a mighty strengthening to faith, to trace the
footsteps of God’s truth and wisdom, from the threatening against the
serpent in Eden, to the bruise he received in Calvary, and the triumph
over him upon Mount Olivet.
5. We are to confide in the promise of God, but leave the season of
its accomplishment to his wisdom. He will “bruise Satan under your
feet,” therefore do not doubt it; and shortly, therefore, wait for it.
Shortly it will be done, that is, quickly, when you think it may be a
great way off; or shortly, that is, seasonably, when Satan’s rage is
hottest. God is the best judge of the seasons of distributing his own
mercies, and darting out his own glory: it is enough to encourage our
waiting, that it will be, and that it will be shortly; but we must not
measure God’s shortly by our minutes.
The apostle after this, concludes with a comfortable prayer, that
since they were liable to many temptations to turn their backs upon
the doctrine which they had learned; yet he desires God, who had
brought them to the knowledge of his truth, would confirm them in the
belief of it, since it was the gospel of Christ, his dear Son, and
a mystery he had been chary of and kept in his own cabinet, and now
brought forth to the world in pursuance of the ancient prophesies, and
now had published to all nations for that end that it might be obeyed;
and concludes with a doxology, a voice of praise, to Him, who was only
wise to effect his own purposes (ver. 25, 26, 27), “Now to him that
is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching
of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was
kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by
the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the
everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.
” This doxology is interlaced with many comforts for the Romans. He
explains the causes of this glory to God, power, and wisdom; power to
establish the Romans in grace, which includes his will. This he proves
from a {a500} divine testimony, viz., the gospel; the gospel committed
to him, and preached by him, which he commends, by calling it the
preaching of Christ; and describes it, for the instruction and comfort
of the church from the adjuncts, the obscurity of it under the Old
Testament, and the clearness of it under the New. It was hid from
the former ages, and kept in silence; not simply and absolutely, but
comparatively and in part; because in the Old Testament, the doctrine
of salvation by Christ was confined to the limits of Judea, preached
only to the inhabitants of that country: to them he gave “his statutes
and his judgments, and dealt not so magnificently with any nation” (Ps.
cxlvii. 19, 20); but now he causes it to spring with greater majesty
out of those narrow bounds, and spread its wings about the world.
This manifestation of the gospel he declares, 1. from the subject, All
nations. 2. From the principal efficient cause of it, The commandment
and order of God. 3. The instrumental cause, The prophetic Scriptures.
4. From the end of it, The obedience of faith.[760]
_Observ. 1._ The glorious attributes of God bear a comfortable
respect to believers. Power and wisdom are here mentioned as two props
of their faith; his power here includes his goodness. Power to help,
without will to assist, is a dry chip. The apostle mentions not God’s
power simply and absolutely considered, for that of itself is no more
comfort to men, then it is to devils; but, as considered in the gospel
covenant, his power, as well as his other perfections, are ingredients
in that cordial of God’s being our God. We should never think of the
excellencies of the Divine nature, without considering the duties they
demand, and gathering the honey they present.
_Observ. 2._ The stability of a gracious soul depends upon the
wisdom as well as the power of God. It would be a disrepute to
the Almightiness of God if that should be totally vanquished which
was introduced by his mighty arm, and rooted in the soul by an
irresistible grace. It would speak a want of strength to maintain
it, or a change of resolution, and so would be no honor to the wisdom
of his first design. It is no part of the wisdom of an artificer, to
let a work wherein he determined to shew the greatness of his skill,
be dashed in pieces, when he hath power to preserve it. God designed
every gracious soul for a piece of his workmanship (Eph. ii. 10). What,
to have the skill of his grace defeated? If any soul which he hath
graciously conquered should be wrested from him, what could be thought
but that his power is enfeebled? If deserted by him, what could be
imagined, but that he repented of his labor, and altered his counsel,
as if rashly undertaken? These Romans were rugged pieces, and lay in a
filthy quarry, when God came first to smooth them; for so the apostle
represents them with the rest of the heathen (Rom. i. 19); and would
he throw them away, or leave them to the power of his enemy, after
all his pains he had taken with them to fit them for his building? Did
he not foresee the designs of Satan against them, what stratagems he
would use to defeat his purposes and strip him of the honor of his
work; and would God so gratify his enemy, and disgrace his own wisdom?
The {a501} deserting of what hath been acted is a real repentance, and
argues an imprudence in the first resolve and attempt. The gospel is
called the manifold wisdom of God (Eph. iii. 10); the fruit of it, in
the heart of any person, which is a main design of it, hath a title to
the same character; and shall this grace, which is the product of this
gospel, and therefore the birth of manifold wisdom, be suppressed? It
is at God’s hand we must seek our fixedness and establishment, and act
faith upon these two attributes of God. Power is no ground to expect
stability, without wisdom interesting the agent in it, and finding
out and applying the means for it. Wisdom is naked without power to
act, and power is useless without wisdom to direct. They are these two
excellencies of the Deity the apostle here pitches the hope and faith
of the converted Romans upon for their stability.
_Observ. 3._ Perseverance of believers in grace is a gospel
doctrine. “According to my gospel,” my gospel ministerially, according
to that gospel doctrine I have taught you in this epistle (for, as
the prophets were comments upon the law, so are the epistles upon the
gospel), this very doctrine he had discoursed of (Rom. viii. 38, 39),
where he tells them, that neither death nor life, the terrors of a
cruel death, or the allurements of an honorable and pleasant life, nor
principalities and powers, with all their subtelty and strength, nor
the things we have before us, nor the promises of a future felicity,
by either angels in heaven or devils in hell, not the highest angel,
nor the deepest devil, is able to separate us, us Romans, “from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus.” So that, according to my gospel,
may be according to that declaration of the gospel, which I have made
in this epistle, which doth not only promise the first creating grace,
but the perfecting and crowning grace; for not only the being of grace,
but the health, liveness, and perpetuity of grace is the fruit of the
new covenant (Jer. xxxii. 40.)
_Observ. 4._ That the gospel is the sole means of a Christian’s
establishment; “According to my gospel,” that is, by my gospel. The
gospel is the instrumental cause of our spiritual life; it is the
cause also of the continuance of it; it is the seed whereby we were
born, and the milk whereby we are nourished (1 Pet. i. 23); it is
the “power of God to salvation” (1 Pet. ii. 2), and therefore to all
the degrees of it (John xvii. 17); “Sanctify them by thy truth,” or
through thy truth; by or through his truth he sanctifies us, and by
the same truth he establisheth us. The first sanctification, and the
progress of it, the first lineaments, and the last colors, are wrought
by the gospel. The gospel, therefore, ought to be known, studied,
and considered by us. It is the charter of our inheritance, and the
security for our standing. The law acquaints us with our duty, but
contributes nothing to our strength and settlement.
_Observ. 5._ The gospel is nothing else but the revelation of Christ
(ver. 25); “According to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ;”
the discovery of the mystery of redemption and salvation in and by him.
It is _genitivus objecti_, that preaching wherein Christ is declared
and set out, with the benefits accruing by him. This is the privilege,
the wisdom of God reserved for the latter times, which the Old
Testament church had only under a veil.
{a502} _Observ. 6._ It is a part of the excellency of the gospel
that it had the Son of God for its publisher: “The preaching of Jesus
Christ.” It was first preached to Adam, in Paradise, by God; and
afterwards published by Christ in person, to the inhabitants of Judea.
It was not the invention of man, but copied from the bosom of the
Father by him that lay in his bosom. The gospel we have, is the
same which our Saviour himself preached when he was in the world:
he preached it not to the Romans, but the same gospel he preached
is transmitted to the Romans. It, therefore, commands our respect;
whoever slights it, it is as much as if he slighted Jesus Christ
himself, were he in person to sound it from his own lips. The validity
of a proclamation is derived from the authority of the prince that
dictates it and orders it; yet the greater the person that publisheth
it, the more dishonor is cast upon the authority of the prince that
enjoins it, if it be contemned. The everlasting God ordained it, and
the eternal Son published it.
_Observ. 7._ The gospel was of an eternal resolution, though of
a temporary revelation (ver. 25); “According to the revelation of
the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.” It is an
everlasting gospel; it was a promise “before the world began” (Titus
i. 2). It was not a new invention, but only kept secret among the
arcana, in the breast of the Almighty. It was hidden from angels, for
the depths of it are not yet fully made known to them; their desire
to look into it, speaks yet a deficiency in their knowledge of it
(1 Peter, i. 12). It was published in paradise, but in such words as
Adam did not fully understand: it was both discovered and clouded in
the smoke of sacrifices: it was wrapped up in a veil under the law,
but not opened till the death of the Redeemer: it was then plainly
said to the cities of Judah, “Behold! your God comes!” The whole
transaction of it between the Father and the Son, which is the spirit
of the gospel, was from eternity; the creation of the world was
in order to the manifestation of it. Let us not, then, regard the
gospel as a novelty; the consideration of it, as one of God’s cabinet
rarities, should enhance our estimation of it. No traditions of men,
no inventions of vain wits, that pretend to be wiser than God, should
have the same credit with that which bears date from eternity.
_Observ. 8._ That divine truth is mysterious; “According to the
revelation of the mystery, Christ manifested in the flesh.” The whole
scheme of godliness is a mystery. No man or angel could imagine how two
natures so distant as the Divine and human should be united; how the
same person should be criminal and righteous; how a just God should
have a satisfaction, and sinful man a justification; how the sin should
be punished, and the sinner saved. None could imagine such a way of
justification as the apostle in this epistle declares: it was a mystery
when hid under the shadows of the law, and a mystery to the prophets
when it sounded from their mouths; they searched it, without being able
to comprehend it (1 Peter, i. 10, 11.) If it be a mystery, it is humbly
to be submitted to: mysteries surmount human reason. The study of
the gospel must not be with a yawning and careless frame. Trades, you
{a503} call mysteries, are not learned sleeping and nodding: diligence
is required; we must be disciples at God’s feet. As it had God for
the author, so we must have God for the teacher of it; the contrivance
was his, and the illumination of our minds must be from him. As God
only manifested the gospel, so he can only open our eyes to see the
mysteries of Christ in it. In verse 26 we may observe,
1. The Scriptures of the Old Testament verify the substance of the New,
and the New doth evidence the authority of the Old, by the Scriptures
of the prophets made known. The Old Testament credits the New, and
the New illustrates the Old. The New Testament is a comment upon the
prophetic part of the Old. The Old shews the promises and predictions
of God, and the New shews the performance. What was foretold in the Old,
is fulfilled in the New; the predictions are cleared by the events. The
predictions of the Old are divine, because they are above the reason
of man to foreknow; none but an infinite knowledge could foretel
them, because none but an infinite wisdom could order all things for
the accomplishment of them. The Christian religion hath, then, the
surest foundation, since the Scriptures of the prophets, wherein it
is foretold, are of undoubted antiquity, and owned by the Jews and
many heathens, which are and were the great enemies of Christ. The Old
Testament is therefore to be read for the strengthening of our faith.
Our blessed Saviour himself draws the streams of his doctrine from
the Old Testament: he clears up the promise of eternal life, and the
doctrine of the resurrection, from the words of the covenant, “I am
the God of Abraham,” &c. (Matt. xxii. 32.) And our apostle clears up
the doctrine of justification by faith from God’s covenant with Abraham
(Rom. iv.) It must be read, and it must be read as it is writ: it was
writ to a gospel end, it must be studied with a gospel spirit. The
Old Testament was writ to give credit to the New, when it should be
manifested in the world. It must be read by us to give strength to
our faith, and establish us in the doctrine of Christianity. How many
view it as a bare story, an almanack out of date, and regard it as a
dry bone, without sucking from it the evangelical marrow! Christ is,
in Genesis, Abraham’s seed; in David’s psalms and the prophets, the
Messiah and Redeemer of the world.
2. Observe, The antiquity of the gospel is made manifest by the
Scriptures of the prophets. It was of as ancient a date as any prophecy:
the first prophecy was nothing else but a gospel charter; it was not
made at the incarnation of Christ, but made manifest. It then rose
up to its meridian lustre, and sprung out of the clouds, wherewith
it was before obscured. The gospel was preached to the ancients by
the prophets, as well as to the Gentiles by the apostles (Heb. iv. 2);
“Unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them.” To them first,
to us after; to them indeed more cloudy, to us more clear; but they
as well as we, were evangelized, as the word signifies. The covenant
of grace was the same in the writings of the prophets, and the
declarations of the evangelists and apostles. Though by our Saviour’s
incarnation, the gospel light was clearer, and by his ascension, the
effusions of the Spirit {a504} fuller and stronger; yet the believers
under the Old Testament, saw Christ in the swaddling bands of legal
ceremonies, and the lattice of prophetical writings; they could not
else offer one sacrifice, or read one prophecy with a faith of the
right stamp. Abraham’s justifying faith had Christ for its object,
though it was not so explicit as ours, because the manifestation was
not so clear as ours.
3. All truth is to be drawn from Scripture. The apostle refers them
here to the gospel and the prophets: the Scripture is the source of
divine knowledge; not the traditions of men, nor reason separate from
Scripture. Whosoever brings another doctrine, coins another Christ;
nothing is to be added to what is written, nothing detracted from it.
He doth not send us for truth, to the puddles of human inventions, to
the enthusiasms of our brain; not to the See of Rome, no, nor to the
instructions of angels; but the writings of the prophets, as they clear
up the declarations of the apostles. The church of Rome is not made
here the standard of truth: but the Scriptures of the prophets are to
be the touch‑stone to the Romans, for the trial of the truth of the
gospel.
4. How great is the goodness of God! The borders of grace are
enlarged to the Gentiles, and not hid under the skirts of the Jews.
He that was so long the God of the Jews, is now also manifest to be
the God of the Gentiles: the gospel is now made known to all nations,
according to the commandment of the everlasting God. Not only in a
way of common providence, but special grace; in calling them to the
knowledge of himself, and a justification of them by faith, he hath
brought strangers to him, to the adoption of children, and lodged them
under the wings of the covenant, that were before alienated from him
through the universal corruption of nature. Now he hath manifested
himself a God of truth, mindful of his promise in blessing all nations
in the seed of Abraham. The fury of devils, and the violence of men
could not hinder the propagation of the gospel: its light hath been
dispersed as far as that of the sun; and that grace that founded in the
Gentile’s ears, hath bent many of their hearts to the obedience of it.