Thirdly, God would hereby instruct us both in the use that we are to make of his creatures, and the improvement that we are to make of the work of the creation unto his glory. For the first, it is his will that we should not use any thing as merely made and cre~
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82 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. I.
ated by him, though originally for that purpose, seeing as they are so left they are under the curse, and so impure and unclean unto them that use them, Tit. i.15; but he would have us to look upon them and receive them as they are given over unto Christ. For the apostle, in his application of the 8th Psalm unto the Lord Christ, Heb. ii. 6-8, manifests that even the beasts of the field, on which we live, are passed over in a peculiar manner unto his dominion. And he lays our interest in their use, as to a clear, profitable, and sanctified way of it, in the new state of things brought in by Christ: 1 Tim. iv. 4, 5, “Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.” The word of promise confirmed in Christ, called on by the Spirit, given by Christ in prayer, gives a sanctified use of the creatures. This God instructs us in, namely, to look for a profitable, sanctified use of the creatures in Christ, in that himself ordered them in the very first creation to fall at length naturally under his rule and dominion, making them all by him. And hereby also we are instructed how to learn the glory of God from them. The whole mystery of laying the works of the old crea- tion in a subserviency unto the new being hidden from many ages and generations, from the foundation of the world men did, by the effects and works which they saw, conclude that there was an eter- nal power and infinite wisdom whereby they were produced: but whereas there is but a twofold holy use of the works of the creation, —the one suited unto the state of innocency, and the moral-natural worship of God therein, which they had lost; the other to the state of grace, and the worship of God in that, which they had not at- tained,—the world and the inhabitants thereof, being otherwise in- volved in the curse and darkness wherewith it was attended, exer- cised themselves in fruitless speculations about them (“foolish imaginations,” as the apostle calls them), and glorified not God in any due manner, Rom. i. 21. Neither do nor can men unto this day make any better improvement of their contemplation on the works of creation, who are unacquainted with the recapitulation of all things in Christ, and the beauty of it, in that all things at first were made by him. But when men shall by faith perceive and consider that the production of all things owes itself in its first original unto the Son of God, in that. by him the world was made, and that unto this end and purpose, that he being afterwards incarnate for our re- demption, they might all be put into subjection unto him, they can- not but be ravished with the admiration of the power, wisdom, good- ness, and love of God, in this holy, wise, beautiful disposition of all his works and ways. And this is the very subject of the 8th Psalm. The psalmist considers the excellency and glory of God in the creation of all things, instancing in the most glorious and emi-
‘VER. 1, 2.| EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 83
nent parts of it. But doth he do this absolutely as they are such? doth he rest there? No; but proceeds to manifest the cause of his admiration, in that God did of old design, and would at length actually put, all these things into subjection unto “the man Christ Jesus,” as the apostle expounds his meaning, Heb. ii.: which causeth him to renew his admiration and praise, Ps. viii. 9,—that is, to glorify God as God, and to be thankful; which yet Paul declared that they were not who considered the works of God only absolutely, with re- ference to their first original from infinite power and wisdom.
But against what we have been discoursing it may be objected, that God, in the creation of all things, suited them perfectly and ab- solutely unto a state of innocency and holiness, without any respect unto the entrance of sin and the curse that ensued, which gave occa- sion to that infinitely wise and holy work of the mediation of Christ, and the restoration of all things by him; so that they could not be laid in such a subserviency and order, one to the other, as is pre- tended, though the former might be afterwards traduced and trans- lated into the use of the other. But,—
1. What is clearly testified unto in the Scripture, as that truth is which we have insisted on, is not to be called into question because we. cannot understand the order and method of things in the hidden counsels of God. “Such knowledge is too wonderful for us.” Neither do we benefit ourselves much by inquiring into that which we cannot comprehend. It is enough for us that we hold fast re- vealed things, that we may know and do the will of God; but secret things belong to him, and to him are they to be left.