[5.] A lecture of repentance and solemn humiliation. If the creature groan under original vanity and corru])tion, brought upon it by the first sin, — sin being wonderfully increased, the world is ready to sink under the weight of it ; therefore when sin increaseth, it is a groaning time ; the multitude of the wicked ai'e a burden to the countries where they live. The heathens would call a wicked man, ' the burden of the earth ; ' the word of God showeth it more plainly ; therefore when the wicked increase and walk on every side, and they increase in wickedness, it is time to look about us, and seriously and heartily humble ourselves before God: Lev. xviii. 25, 'And the land is defiled, therefore I do visit the iniquities thereof upon it ; and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants ; ' Micah ii. 10, ' Because it is polluted, it shall destroy you with a sore destruction;, and Jer. ix. 19, 'Our dwellings have cast us out.' The land doth as it were loathe to bear and feed them that so grossly dishonour God.
[6.] A lesson of hope in long sorrow. We should keep up hope and expectation ; the creature groaneth till now ; yea, but still it expecteth its final deliverance. It is an expression of great rebellion, dislrust, and contempt, to say, ' Why should I wait on the Lord any longer ? ' 2 Kings vi. 33. God can bring the bitterest condition to a most comfort- able issue. Consider how he dealeth with other creatures ; the creature groaneth and travaileth in pain, but the birth will ensue ; the groaning of the creature is like a travailing in birth, and so the calamities of the saints: John xvi. 21, 22, 'A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come ; but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she is no more in anguish, for joy a man is born into the world ; and ye now are in sorrow, but I will see you again, and your hearts shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.' The throes of our sorrow may be very sharp and bitter ; but the birth will occasion joy enough to countervail the tediousness of it.
4. They are complaining, accusing groans. The apostle saith, Jam. v. 4, ' Grudge not one against another ; ' groan not one against another ; that is, give not occasion to one another to com- plain against you to God. It is sad when one christian com- plaineth against another for his froward, and perverse, and unbrotherly carriage; much more of near relations, husbands and wives, minis- ters and people. The apostle saith it is not profitable when they give their account with grief and not with joy, Heb. xiii. 17. This groaning of the creature must be interpreted by the standard of this notion : the creature groaneth not with us, but groaneth against us ; because of the slavery we put them unto they groan for vengeance and destruction ; not in fellow-feeling with thee, but in indignation against thee, if thou be a wicked man. There is a groaning by way of sympathy and compassion, as we are bidden, Rom. xii. 15, to ' rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep ; ' and there is a groaning by way of accusation and appeal, for revenge against those that have wronged us. We have abused the creature ; the groan
VeR. 22.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. . 183
of a worm in the ear of the Lord of Hosts will be heard ; so James v. 2, 3, ' Your riches are corrupted, your garments are moth-eaten, your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire ; you have heaped up treasure together for the last days.' In the day of judgment, the groans of the creature and the circumstances of our sinful actions shall be brought forth as witnesses against us ; the moth-eaten garments, the cankered silver shall be produced. So Hab. ii. 11, ' The stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it;' that is, the materials of the house built by oppression shall come as witnesses. There is a kind of antipathy between them therein represented. The stones of the wall shall cry, Lord we were built up by rapine and violence; and the beam shall answer, True, Lord, even so it is. The stones shall cry, Vengeance, Lord, upon our ungodly ones ; and the beam shall answer, Woe to him, because he built his house with blood ! Conscience is a terrible remembrancer ; the very creatures which sinners abused will be brought in testimony against them to their conviction and condem- nation. You will say, What is this to the restoration of the universe, or those elementary bodies in this lower world, to which you seem to confine this restoration ? These creatures shall be consumed in the last fire ; how then brought into the judgment?
Answer,
(1.) The elementary bodies do concur to the increase and preservation of these things. Lands gotten by violence are made fruitful by sun, air, and rain ; the sun now shineth upon these wicked men, and the rain falleth upon their fields ; the creatures abused to excess come from both the sunshine and the earth's fertility, which is the mother of all wealth.