Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 155
22-24.^ That Adam was invested and endowed with righteousness and holiness in his first glorious estate ; with righteousness, that he might carry it fairly, justly, evenly, and righteously towards man ; and with holiness, that he might carry it wisely, lovingly, reveren- tially, and holily towards God ; and that he might take up in God as his chiefest good, as his great All, might be sufficiently made good out of this scripture last cited ; but I shall not now stand upon the discovery of Adam's beauty, authority, dominion, dignity, honour, and glory, with which he was adorned, invested, and crowned in innocency. Let this satisfy, that Adam's first estate was a state of perfect know- ledge, wisdom, and understanding ; it was a perfect state of holiness, righteousness, and happiness. There was nothing within him but what was desirable and delectable ; there was nothing without him but what was amiable and commendable ; nor nothing about him but what was serviceable and comfortable ; and yet, in the height of all his glory he falls to apostasy and open rebellion against God ; he takes part with Satan against God himself; he transgresses his right- eous law, he affronts his justice, he provokes his anger, he stirs up his wrath against himself and his posterity. The sin of Adam was a voluminous sin ; all kinds of notorious sins were bound up in it, as backsliding, rebellion, treason, pride, unbelief, blasphemy, contempt of God, unthankfulness, theft, murder, and idolatry, &c. The philo- sopher being asked which was the best member of the body, answered, The tongue ; for if it be good, it is the best trumpet of God's glory. And being asked again which was the worst, answered, The tongue ; for if ifc be bad, it is the worst firebrand of hell. So if any should ask me, Which was the best creature of God ? I would answer, Man in honour before his fall. If you should ask me, Which is the worst ? I must answer, Man in his fall, Adam was once the wonder of all understanding, the mirror of wisdom and knowledge, the image of God, the delight of heaven, the glory of the creation, the world's great lord, and the Lord's great darling ; but being fallen, ah how low, how poor, how miserable, how sottish, how senseless, how brutish, yea how much below the beast that perisheth was he ! and yet God pardoned, changed, and sanctified him, and stamped his image of holiness afresh upon him, when he made a covenant with him in Christ, Gen. iii.
So Manasseh, he was a notorious sinner, he was a sinner of the greatest magnitude ; his sins reached up to heaven, his soul was ripe for hell, he had sold himself to work aU manner of wickedness, as you may see in 2 Chron. xxxiii. In ver. 3, ' He reared up altars for Baalim, and made groves, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them;' ver. 4, ' he built altars in the house of God;' ver. 5, ' yea, for all the host of heaven did he build altars in the courts of the house of God.' This was a horrid piece of impudence, to provoke God to his very face, by equalizing his altars to God's altar. Ver. 6, * And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom.' Here was inhuman superstition, and inhuman
^ In this scripture he speaks plainly of the renovation of that knowledge, holiness, and righteousness that Adam sometimes had, but lost it by his fall, Ps. viii. 4-6 ; Gen. ii. 20.
156 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14,
cruelty, to offer his own children in sacrifice to the devil. * Also he observed times, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards : he wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger ;' ver. 9, ' he made Judah and Jerusalem to err, by his example, and to do worse than the heathens.' The actions of rulers are most commonly rules for the people's actions, and their example passeth as current as their coin. The common people dare practise the very worst of wickedness that they see acted in a scarlet robe ; they are like tempered wax, easily receiving impressions from the seals of great men's vices ; they make no bones on it to sin by prescription, and to damn themselves with authority. i^ The heathen brings in a young man, who hearing of the adulteries and wickednesses of the gods, said. What, do they so, and shall I stick at it ? 2 So say most, when great ones are greatly wicked. Why, they do thus and thus, and why should we stick at it ? The Egyptians esteemed it graceful, and their duty, to halt on that leg on which their king limped ; most men think it a grace to imitate the greatest authority in their most graceless actings, which made the poet say,
* Subjects and kingdoms commonly do choose The manners that their princes daily use.'
Ver. 10, ' And the Lord spake unto Manasseh, but he would not hearken.' He was settled in idolatrj'^, and stopped his ears against all the counsel and admonitions of the prophets that were sent to reclaim him. Now who would ever have thought that one so abominably wicked and wretched should ever have obtained such favour with God, as to be pardoned, renewed, and sanctified ? and yet, ver. 12, 13, 'he besought the Lord, and humbled himself greatly before the Lord, and prayed unto him, and God was entreated of him, and heard his suppli- cation, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God.' He now acknowledges Jehovah to be the true God, and renounces all other gods, that he may cleave to God alone. There is no heart so wicked but grace can make it holy.
So Paul was once so great a sinner, that had he stepped but one step further, he had fallen into the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost.
In 1 Tim. i. 13 you have a brief survey of his great transgres- sions. He was a blasphemer: he blasphemed God and Christ, and his ways and truth ; he made a mock and scoff at holiness ; he made nothing of blaspheming that God that he should have feared, and of blaspheming that Christ that he should have sweetly embraced, and of blaspheming those truths that he should have readily enter- tained. Paul was a great proficient in the school of blasphemy, he made nothing of belching out blasphemy in the very face of heaven. And he was a persecutor too : he persecuted holiness to the death. Acts ix. and xxvi. 11 ; yea, he was mad in persecuting the poor saints and servants of Christ ; he did all he could to make their lives a hell, and
* The complaint is ancient in Seneca, that commonly men live not ad rationem, but ad similitudinem, —Seneca de vita beata, cap. i. ' Aristophanes an"d Lucian. — G.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 157