Object. You will say, Christ desires it to paiss: Mat. xxvi. 39, ' Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.' How could Christ make an offer of pra5'ers rei)ugnant to God's will and purpose ? He knew it was the will of his Father that he should suffer many things, and be slain, and had rebuked Peter resisting the soldiers. ' The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it ? ' John xviii. 11.
Many answers may be given for the clearing of this matter.
[1.] We must know, contrary to the monothelites, that there was a double will in Christ, as there was a double nature — divine and human. These are not contrary, but yet distinct. The divine nature would, because it was necessary to our redemption. The human nature was to show a reasonable aversion of what was destructive to it ; and yet the human nature did not contradict the will of God, because he did it not absolutely, but only conditionally : ' Father, if it be possible.'
[2.] There is a deliberate elective will and a natural velleity. Now mark, the human nature did except against his suffering, not with a deliberate, elective will, but only by a natural velleity. There is a resolute will which overcometh all impediments, and there is an in- nocent desire, showing itself in a simple complacency in that which is good, or a displacency to that which is evil, but goes no farther. Apply this to the business in hand. When Christ would have the cup pass, it is not meant of his resolute and effective will, but only of his will expressing a simple displacency of the human nature to what is destructive to it.
Aquinas gives us another distinction. There is a will natural and indehberate, and a will deliberate and elective. The one showeth the sudden inclination of nature to what is good for us as we are living creatures ; the other is an act of reason as we are reasonable creatures. The natural inclination of all creatures is to preserve themselves ; but
334 THE rirTEENTH SERMON. [ACTS XXL 14.
the deliberate will cliooselh what the understanding judgeth to be good, all circumstances considered. The inclination of nature flees death and torments, but reason submitteth to it. As for instance, a bitter potion is against the inclination of nature, for, as we are living creaturt's we would be put to no pain ; but the reasonable creature, by an elective will, takes that bitter potion for health. Cutting off a gangrened member is against the first inclination of man, as a living creature ; we submit to it as a reasonable creature, lest it corrupt the whole body. So in the martyrs, the; flesh could not but be against suf- ferings, being contrary to their well-being as living creatures ; but the spirit, that is their rea.son, guided by grace, submitted to the greatest tor- ments for the glory of God. Thus the Lord Christ saith, * Let this cup pass.' There was the incliuation of an innocent nature declining so dreadful an evil ; but yet it was his meat and drink to do his Father's will ; therefore, ' Xot my will, but thine be done.'
Others to the same purpose. There were two things willed by Christ ; one was boniim natitne, the good of nature ; the other w-as tlie glory of God with our salvation ; and the first was desired but subordinately to the second. >So that the Lord Christ is a notable pattern that our appetites and desires are not to be according to the interests of the flesh, but for the glory and honour of God, and the good of others.
The next pattern we have is David, a man after God's own heart, in 2 Sam. xv. 25, 2G, ' Behold, here am I ; let him do to me as seemeth good unto him.' What a meek submission was here to God's pleasure, resigning up his person, crown, and estate to the wise and gracious disposal of God, to receive a benefit or punishment as the Lord should determine. David sets his name to a blank, and bids God write w^hat he pleaseth. It is hard for us to consent to known articles, but David ■wholly referreth himself unto God : ' Let him do what seemeth good unto hira.'
So Abraham, the father of the faithful, how contentedly doth he speak ; and he thought no other but that Lsaac, the son of the pro- mise, should be sacrificed, Gen. xxii. 8, when his son asked him, ' Where is the burnt-offering for sacrifice ?' and he answered, ' My son, the Lord will provide an offering; and so they went on their way together.' When God declareth his will not only contrary to our natural affection, but our gracious hopes, when he taketh away instru- ments upon whose life his glory seems to depend, we have the same answer, ' God will provide.'
The next shall be of Eli : 1 Sam. iii. 18, ' It is the Lord ; let him do whatsoever he pleaseth.' When the sentence w^as passed, he humbly submitteth. He doth not murmuringly say. Must I bear the punish- ment of my sons' iniquity ? their will is not in my power; if they be wicked, let them answer for it. No, ' It is the Lord ;' and his will nuist stand ; ' It is the Lord,' who is too just to do us wrong, too good to do us Imrt.