VeR. 22.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. 179
have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horsei? ; I have made the stink of your camp to come up into your nostrils.' God hath variety of ways to punish man in blasting the creature ; and on all the occasions the land appeareth as in a mourning weed ; and the barren parched ground and withered fruits of the earth are, as it were, the groaning of the creature under man's sin. These things, premised, we may see in what sense the creature is said to groan.
[1.] In a way of supposition. If they had any life, sense, or reason, they would groan, or be thus affected ; being wearied with labour, liable to destruction, and perverted from their natural use ; often blasted by God's judgment. If God should open the mouth of the creature, as he did that of Balaam's ass, it would rebuke our madness, groan under their hard servitude : 2 Pet. ii. 16, ' Balaam was rebuked for his iniquity ; the dumb ass, speaking with man's voice, rebuked the madness of the prophet.' So if the creature could speak with man's voice, and had man's affections, they would loudly groan in the ears of the Lord of Hosts, and blame us for our disobedience and unthankfulness to God.
[2] By analogy. There is some proportion and suitableness between our affections, and the inclinations of the creature ; there is something in them which is as it were sense and reason, that is, a shadow and resemblance of it. The grass growetli as if it grew by art, and knew how to grow ; and the corn sprouteth forth as regularly as if it were under direction ; every creature acteth by a rule from which it swerveth not ; a stone in descending, falleth by a straight line as if it had reason to pick it out ; all the art of man cannot draw a straighter line, than that by which a stone falleth down, when it is thrown up into the air. Every creature hath an obediential instinct to glorify God, as if it obeyed by reason. The creation did, as it were, mourn at the crucifying of Christ ; for nature seemed to be routed into a disorder ; the rocks were rent, the earth quaked, the sun was struck blind with astonishment. There is an intellective assistance, which runneth along with the creature; that is, the wise and powerful providence of God leadeth them, and governeth them, and directeth them to a better estate ; so that they do in their kind groan under their present burden, till they be delivered from it.
Secondly. How are we concerned in these groans ? Very much. 1. They are upbraiding groans, as they upbraid us of our security and unthankfulness. We that have reason are more senseless than the creatures ; the creature groaneth, and we are stupid, neither affected with our sin or misery : Jer. xii. 14, ' The land mourneth ; yet they say, he shall not see our last end ; ' that is, no evil shall come unto us ; they thought all would be well enough. So, ' For swearing, and lying, and stealing, and adultery, the land mourneth,' Hos. iv. 2, 3 ; but doth the swearer mourn, the adulterer mourn ? ' The vines howl, and the fig tree languisheth,' Isa. xxiv. 7; but doth the drunkard mourn, be- cause God is provoked by his filthy excess ? It is very observable that the prophets do often turn from men, and speak to creatures ; as Lam. ii. 18, ' 0 wall of the daughter of Zion, let thy tears run down as a river day and night ; let not the apple of thine eye cease.' He calls on tlie wall, either because no men left to mourn, or no men had an heart to mourn, or for both reasons. So Micah vi. 1, 2, 'Hear, ye mountain.?.
180 SERMONS UPON ROMANS Till. [SeR. XXIX.
tlie Lord's controversy, and the strong foundations of the earth, hear the word of the Lord ;' so Jer. xxii. '29, ' 0 earth, earth ! ' as if it were in vain to speak to men. Insensible creatures are more fit to be spoken to, than an incredulous, and self-willed, and obdurate people ; they keep still their obediential subjection to their creator, and do tremble whea he threateneth, and groan when he afiiicteth ; and therefore the creature is brought in groaning here, as in our stead ; the earth groaneth, which hath not sinned, but only suffcrcth for sin, to upbraid the hardness of our hearts, because we who are the criminal parties groan not.
2. They are awakening groans. It is spoken hyperbolically to quicken our consideration, and to represent the more emphatically the great misery the creatures are in while they serve sinful man, especially ia fulfilling his lusts. Carnal men do not think of these things, and so have no ear to hear these groans ; the creatures speak by our thoughts, and they groan by our afl'ections ; namely, as they excite and stir us up to sigh and long for a better estate than is to be had in this reeling and un- certain world, where sin hath introduced so many changes. Job saitli, chap. xii. 7, 8, 'Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee ; or speak unto the earth, and it shall teach thee ; and the fishes of the sea, and they shall declare unto thee.' What was the point he had then in hand ? That by the providence of God wicked men may prosper ; not only as these things do most serve the wicked, but the strong keep under the weak, and the great devour the less. But how do the creatures speak, or tell, or declare ? even the mute fishes, that scarce make any sound or noise ? We ask them by our study and meditation, and they answer us by our own thoughts, by the convictions and conclusions we draw from them ; there is a great deal of morality in the bosom of nature, and much wisdom to be learned from the creature, if we would pick it out, and seriously employ our thoughts that way. This is one lesson among the rest ; the creature hath something to say to us concern- ing the vanity and decay of all things, and a better estate to come ; we hear the creature groaning, as it oftereth matter to us to sigh, and groan, and long» for a better estate, that we may be at home with God, and free from the miseries of the present world.