“no, we shall immediately inquire.
Others grant many free acts of the mind and will of God in this matter; as, first, the creation of man in such a condition as that he should have a moral dependence on God in reference unto his ut- most erid was an effect of the sovereign pleasure, will, and wisdom of God. But on supposition of this decree and constitution, they say, the nature, authority, and holiness of God required indispens- ably that man should yield unto him that obedience which he was directed unto and guided in by the law of his creation; so that God could not suffer him to do otherwise, and remain in his first state, and come unto the end first designed unto him, without the loss of his authority and wrong of his justice. Again, they say that God did freely, by an act of his sovereign will and pleasure, decree +0 permit man to sin and fall, which might have been otherwise; but on supposition that so he should do and would do, and thereby infringe the order of his dependence on God in reference unto his utmost end, that the justice of God, as the supreme governor of all things, did indispensably require that he should receive “a meet re- compence of reward,” or be punished answerably unto his crimes: so
404 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. IL
that God could not have dealt otherwise with him without a high derogation from his own righteousness, Again, they say that God, by a mere free act of his love and grace, designed the Lord Jesus Christ to be the way and means for the saving of sinners, which might have been otherwise. He might, without the least impeach- ment of the glory of any of his essential properties} have suffered all mankind to have perished under that penalty which they had justly incurred; but of his own mere love, free grace, and good pleasure, he gave and sent him to redeem them. But on the sup- position thereof, they say, the justice of God required that he should lay on him the punishment due unto the sons whom he redeemed; it became him, on the account of his natural essential justice, to bring him into sufferings. And in this opinion is contained the truth laid down in our proposition, which we shall now further confirm, namely, that it became the nature of God, or the essential properties of his nature required indispensably, that sin should be punished with death, in the sinner or in his surety; and therefore if he would bring any sons to glory, the captain of their salvation must undergo sufferings and death, to make satisfaction for them. For,—
(1.) Consider that description which the Scripture giveth us of the nature of God in reference unto sin; and this it doth either metaphorically or properly. In the first way it compares God unto fire, unto “a consuming fire ;’ and his acting toward sin as the acting of fire on that which is combustible, whose nature it is to consume it: Deut. iv. 24, “Thy God is a consuming fire;” which words the apostle repeats, Heb. xii. 29.‘ Devouring fire and everlasting burnings,” Isa. xxxii. 14, Hence, when he came to give the law, which expresseth his wrath and indignation against sin, his pre- sence was manifested by great and terrible fires and burnings, until the people cried out, “ Let me not see this great fire any more, lest I die,” Deut. xviii. 16. They saw death and destruction in that fire, because it expressed the indignation of God against sin. And therefore the law itself is also called “a fiery law,’ Deut. xxxiii. 2, because it contains the sense and judgment of God against sin; as in the execution of the sentence of it, the breath of the Lord is said to kindle the fire of it like a stream of brimstone, Isa, xxx. 33: so chap. Ixvi. 15, 16. And by this metaphor doth the Scripture lively represent the nature of God in reference unto sin. For as it is the nature of fire to consume and devour all things that are put into it, without sparing any or making difference, so is the nature of God in reference unto sin; wherever it is, he punisheth and revengeth it according to its demerit. The metaphor, indeed, expresseth not the manner of the operation of the one and the other, but the cer- tainty and event of the working of both from the principles of the
VER. 10.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 405
nature of the one and the other. The fire so burneth by a neces- sity of nature as that it acts tothe utmost of its quality and faculty by a pure natural necessity. God punisheth sin, as, suitably unto the principle of his nature, otherwise he cannot do; yet so as that, for the manner, time, measure, and season, they depend on the con- stitution of his wisdom and righteousness, assigning a meet and equal recompence of reward unto every transgression, And this the Seripture teacheth us by this metaphor, or otherwise we are led by it from a right conception of that which it doth propose; for God cannot at all be unto sin and sinners as a devouring fire, unless it be in the principles of his nature indispensably to take vengeance on them.