THE

HARMONY

OF THE

DIVINE ATTRIBUTES.

CHAP. I.

The Introduction. A short view of man's primitive state. His conformity to God; natural, moral, and in happiness and dominion over the creatures. The moral resemblance, as it refers to all the faculties. The happiness of man, with respect to his sensitive and spiritual nature. Of all sublunary creatures he is only capable of a law. What the law of nature contains. God entered into a covenant with man. The reasons of that dispensation. The terms of the covenant were becoming God and man. The special clause in the covenant concerning the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The reasons of the prohibition.

THE felicity which the Lord Jesus procured for believers, includes a perfect freedom from sin, and all afflictive evils, the just consequences of it: and the fruition of righteousness, peace and joy, wherein the kingdom of God consists. In this the evangelical covenant excels the natural; the law supposes man upright, and the happiness it promises to exact obedience, is called life; it rewards innocence with immortality: but the blessedness of the gospel is styled salvation, which signifies the rescuing of lapsed man from a state of misery, and the investing of him with unperishing glory.

In order to the discovering of the excellency of this benefit, and the endearing obligations laid on us by our Redeemer, it is

necessary to take a view of that dreadful and desperate calamity which seized upon mankind: the wretchedness of our captivity illustrates the glory of our redemption. And since the misery of man was not the original condition of his nature, but the effect of his guilty choice, it is requisite to make some reflection upon his first state, as he came out of the pure hands of God; that comparing our present misery with our lost happiness, we may revive in our breasts the affections of sorrow, shame and indignation against ourselves; and considering that the heavenly Adam hath purchased for us a title to a better inheritance than was forfeited by the earthly one, we may, with the more affectionate gratitude extol the favour and power of our Redeemer. .

God who is the living fountain of all perfections, spent an entire eternity in the contemplation of his own excellencies, before any creature was made. In the moment appointed by his wisdom, he gave the first being to the world. Three distinct orders of natures he formed, the one purely spiritual, the other purely material, and between both one mixed, which unites the extremes in itself. This is man, 'the abridgement of the universe, allied to the angels in his soul, and to material things in his body, and capable of the happiness of both; by his internal faculties enjoying the felicity of the intellectual, and by his external tasting the pleasures of the sensitive world. Man's greatest excellency was a perfect conformity to the divine pattern. “God created man in his own likeness, in the image of God created he him." This includes,

First, The natural similitude of God in the substance of the soul, as it is an intelligent, free, spiritual and immortal being. This is assigned to be the reason of the law, that “Whoso sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made he man.” Gen. 9.6.

Secondly, A moral resemblance in its qualities and perfections.

Thirdly, That happiness and dignity of man's state, which was the consequent and accession to his holiness. The natural resemblance I shall not insist on. For the distinct illustration of the other, we must consider God in a threefold respect.

1. In respect of his absolute holiness, unspotted purity, infinite goodness, incorruptible justice, and whatever we conceive under the notion of moral perfections.

2. With respect to his complete blessedness, (the result of his infinite excefleneies; as he is perfectly exempt from all evils which might allay and lessen his felicity, and enjoy those pleasures which are worthy of his pure nature and glorious state. • 3. In regard of his supreme dominion, which extends itself to all things in heaven and earth. Now in the participation of these the image of God did principally consist. The holiness of man was the copy of the divine purity; his happiness a representation of the divine felicity; and his dominion over the lower world the resemblance of God's sovereignty.

I will take a particular survey of them.

I. Man was conformed to God in holiness. This appears by the expressions of the apostle concerning the sanctification of corrupt man, which he sets forth, by the renewing of him in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, after the image of the Creator. The renovation of things is the restoring of them to

' their primitive state, and is more or less perfect, by its proportion to, or distance from the orignal. Holiness and righteousness are the comprehensive sum of the moral law, which not only represents the will, but the nature of God in his supreme excellency, and in conformity to it the divine likeness eminently appeared. Adam was created with the perfections of grace: the progress of the most excellent saints is incomparably short of his beginning: by this, we may, in part, conjecture at the beauty of holiness in him, of which one faint ray appearing in renewed persons is so amiable. This primitive beauty is expressed in scripture by rectitude: “God made man upright.”

There was an universal entire rectitude in his faculties, disposing them for their proper operations. This will more fully appear by considering the distinct powers of the soul, in their regular constitutions.

1. The understanding was enriched with knowledge. Nature was unveiled to Adam, he entered into its sanctuary, and discovered its mysterious operations. When the creatures came to pay their homage to him, “whatsoever he called them, that was the name thereof,” Gen. 2. 19.

And their names expressed their natures. His knowledge reached through the whole compass of the creation, from the sun the glorious vessel of light, to the glow-worm that shines in the hedge. And this knowledge was not acquired by study, it was not the fruit of anxious inquiry, but as the illumination of the air is in an instant by the light of

the morning, so his understanding was enlightened by a pure beam from the Father of lights.

Besides, he had such a knowledge of the Deity, as was sufficient for his duty and felicity. His mind did not stick in the material part of things, but ascended by the several ranks of beings to the universal cause. He discovered the glory of the divine essence and attributes by their wonderful effects. (1.) Almighty power. When he first opened his eyes, the

, stupendous fabric of heaven and earth presented itself to his view, and in it the most express and clear characters of that glorious power which produced it. For what could overcome the infinite distance between not being and being, but infinite power? As there is no proportion between not being and being, so the cause which unites those terms, must be without limits. Now the divine word alone (which calls the things that are not, as if they were) caused the world to rise from the abyss of empty nothing. “At God's command the heavens and all their host were created.” And this led him to consider the immensity of the divine essence; for infinite power is incompatible with a finite essence, and by the consideration of the immensity he might ascend to the eternity of God. To be eternal without beginning, and infinite without bounds, infer one another, and necessarily exist in the same subject. For it is impossible that any thing which is formed by another, and hath a beginning, should not be limited in its nature by the cause that produced it. Therefore the apostle declares, Rom. 1. 20. that the eternal power of God is set forth in the creation of the world; joining with the discovery of his power, that of his eternity.

(2.) Admirable wisdom appeared to man in the creation. For by considering the variety and union, the order and efficacy, the beauty and stability of the world, "he clearly discerned that wisdom 'which so regularly disposed all. It is thus that wisdom speaks, Prov. 8. 27, 28, 29. " When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: when he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: when he gave the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandments: when he appointed the foundations of the earth; I was with him,” contriving all in the best manner for ornament and use. The knowledge of this

filled his soul with wonder and delight. The psalmist breaks forth with astonishment, as one in the midst of innumerable miracles, Psal. 104. 24. “O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all.” And if he discovered such wonderful and divine wisdom in the works of God, when the vigour of the human understanding was so much impaired by the fall; how much more did Adam, who perfectly understood universal nature, the offices of its parts, the harmony of the whole, and all the just laws of union, by which God hath joined together such a multitude of beings so distant and disagreeing, and how the public peace is preserved by their private enmity? 'This discovery caused him to acknowledge, that “great is the Lord, and of great power : his understanding is infinite."

(3.) Infinite goodness shined forth in the creation. This is the leading attribute, that called forth the rest to work. As there was no matter, so no motive to induce God to make the world, but what arose from his goodness: for he is an all-sufficient being, perfectly blessed in himself. His majesty is not increased by the adoration of angels, nor his greatness by the obedience of nature; neither was he less happy, or content, in that eternal duration before the existence of any creature, than he is since. His original felicity is equally incapable of accession, as of diminution. It is evident therefore, that only free and unexcited goodness moved him to create all things, that he might impart being and happiness to the creature, not enrich his own.

And as by contemplating the other works of God, so especially by reflecting upon himself: Adam had a clear sight of the divine"attributes which concurred in his creation. Whether he considered his lowest part, the body, it was formed of the earth, the most artificial and beautiful piece of the visible world. * The contrivance of its parts was with that proportion and exactness, as most conduced to comeliness and service. Its stature was erect and raised, becoming the Lord of the creatures, and an observer of the heavens. A divine beauty and majesty was shed upon it. And this was no vanishing ray, soon eclipsed by a disease, and extinguished by death, but shined in the countenance without any declination. The tongue was man's peculiar glory,