Section 8 of Select Sermons of Jonathan Edwards. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Kenneth Lane. Select Sermons of Jonathan Edwards. Section 8. God's Sovereignty in the Salvation of Men. Part 1. God's Sovereignty in the Salvation of Men. A Sermon by Jonathan Edwards. Romans 9 18. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. The Apostle in the beginning of this chapter expresses his great concern and sorrow of heart for the nation of the Jews who were rejected of God. This leads him to observe the difference which God made by election between some of the Jews and others, and between the bulk of that people and the Christian Gentiles. In speaking of this, he enters into a more minute discussion of the sovereignty of God in electing some to eternal life and rejecting others than is found in any other part of the Bible. In the course of which, he quotes several passages from the Old Testament confirming and illustrating this doctrine. In the ninth verse, he refers us to what God said to Abraham, showing his election of Isaac before Ishmael. For this is the word of promise. At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son. Then to what God had said to Rebekah, showing his election of Jacob before Esau, the elder shall serve the younger. In the thirteenth verse, to a passage from Malachi, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. In the fifteenth verse, to what God said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. In the verse preceding the text, to what God says to Pharaoh, for the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. In what the apostle says in the text, he seems to have respect especially to the two last-sided passages, to what God said to Moses in the fifteenth verse, and to what he said to Pharaoh in the verse immediately preceding. God said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. To this, the apostle refers in the former part of the text, and we know how often it is said of Pharaoh, that God hardened his heart. And to this, the apostle seems to have respect in the latter part of the text, and whom he will, he hardeneth. We may observe in the text, one, God's different dealing with men. He hath mercy on some, and hardeneth others. When God is here spoken of as hardening some of the children of men, it is not to be understood that God by any positive efficiency hardens any man's heart. There is no positive act in God as though he put forth any power to harden the heart. To suppose any such thing would be to make God the immediate author of sin. God is said to harden men in two ways, by withholding the powerful influences of his spirit, without which their hearts will remain hardened, and grow harder and harder. In this sense, he hardens them as he leaves them to hardness. And again, by ordering those things in his providence, which through the abuse of their corruption become the occasion of their hardening. Thus God sends his word and ordinances to men, which by their abuse prove an occasion of their hardening. So the apostle said, that he was unto some, a saver of death unto death.  Isaiah 6.10. Was in itself of a contrary tendency to make them better. But their abuse of it rendered it an occasion of their hardening.  Second Chronicles 1822. That is, he suffered a lying spirit to enter into them, and thus he is said to have bid Shimei curse David. 2 Samuel 16.10. Not that he properly commanded him, for it is contrary to God's commands. God expressly forbids cursing the ruler of the people. Exodus 22.28. But he suffered corruption at that time, so to work in Shimei, and ordered that occasion of stirring it up as a manifestation of his displeasure against David. 2 The foundation of his different dealing with mankind, vis his sovereign will and pleasure. He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. This does not imply merely that God never shows mercy or denies it against his will, or that he is always willing to do it when he does it. A willing subject or servant, when he obeys his Lord's commands, may never do anything against his will. Nothing but what he can do cheerfully and with delight. And yet he cannot be said to do what he wills in the sense of the text. But the expression implies that it is God's mere will and sovereign pleasure which supremely orders this affair. It is the divine will without restraint or constraint or obligation. Doctrine God exercises his sovereignty in the eternal salvation of men. He not only is sovereign and has a sovereign right to dispose and order in that affair, and he not only might proceed in a sovereign way if he would, and nobody could charge him with exceeding his right. But he actually does so. He exercises the right which he has. In the following discourse, I propose to show, 1. What is God's sovereignty? 2. What God's sovereignty in the salvation of men implies? 3. That God actually doth exercise his sovereignty in this matter? 4. The reasons for this exercise? 1. I would show what is God's sovereignty? The sovereignty of God is his absolute, independent right of disposing of all creatures according to his own pleasure. I will consider this definition by the parts of it. The will of God is called his mere pleasure. 1. In opposition to any constraint? 2. Men may do things voluntarily, and yet there may be a degree of constraint. A man may be said to do a thing voluntarily, that is, he himself does it, and all things considered he may choose to do it, yet he may do it out of fear, and the thing in itself considered be irksome to him and sorely against his inclination. When men do things thus, they cannot be said to do them according to their mere pleasure. 2. In opposition to its being under the will of another? A servant may fulfill his master's commands and may do it willingly and cheerfully, and may delight to do his master's will. Yet when he does so, he does not do it of his own mere pleasure. The saints do the will of God freely. They choose to do it. It is their meat and drink. Yet they do not do it of their mere pleasure and arbitrary will because their will is under the direction of a superior will. 3. In opposition to any proper obligation? A man may do a thing which he is obliged to do very freely, but he cannot be said to act from his own mere will and pleasure. He who acts from his own mere pleasure is at full liberty, but he who is under any proper obligation is not at liberty but is bound. Now the sovereignty of God supposes that he has a right to dispose of all his creatures according to his mere pleasure in the sense explained, and his right is absolute and independent. Men may have a right to dispose of some things according to their pleasure, but their right is not absolute and unlimited. Men may be said to have a right to dispose of their own goods as they please, but their right is not absolute. It has limits and bounds. They have a right to dispose of their own goods as they please, provided they do not do it contrary to the laws of the state to which they are subject or contrary to the law of God. Men's right to dispose of their things as they will is not absolute because it is not independent. They have not an independent right to what they have, but in some things depend on the community to which they belong for the right they have, and in everything depend on God. They receive all the right they have to anything from God, but the sovereignty of God imports that he has an absolute and unlimited and independent right of disposing of his creatures as he will. I propose to inquire, too, what God's sovereignty in the salvation of men implies. In answer to this inquiry, I observe it implies that God can either bestow salvation on any of the children of men or refuse it without any prejudice to the glory of any of his attributes except where he has been pleased to declare that he will or will not bestow it. It cannot be said absolutely, as the case now stands, that God can without any prejudice to the honor of any of his attributes bestow salvation on any of the children of men or refuse it because concerning some, God has been pleased to declare either that he will or that he will not bestow salvation on them and thus to bind himself by his own promise. And concerning some, he has been pleased to declare that he never will bestow salvation on them, these those who have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost. Hence, as the case now stands, he is obliged. He cannot bestow salvation in one case or refuse it in the other without prejudice to the honor of his truth. But God exercised his sovereignty in making these declarations. God was not obliged to promise that he would save all who believe in Christ nor was he obliged to declare that he who committed the sin against the Holy Ghost should never be forgiven. But it pleased him so to declare. And had it not been so that God had been pleased to oblige himself in these cases he might still have either bestowed salvation or refused it without prejudice to any of his attributes. If it would in itself be prejudicial to any of his attributes to bestow or refuse salvation then God would not in that matter act as absolutely sovereign because it then ceases to be a merely arbitrary thing. It ceases to be a matter of absolute liberty and is become a matter of necessity or obligation for God cannot do anything to the prejudice of any of his attributes or contrary to what is in itself excellent and glorious. Therefore, one, God can without prejudice to the glory of any of his attributes bestow salvation on any of the children of men except on those who have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost. The case was thus when man fell and before God revealed his eternal purpose and plan for redeeming men by Jesus Christ. It was probably looked upon by the angels as a thing utterly inconsistent with God's attributes to save any of the children of men. It was utterly inconsistent with the honor of the divine attributes to save any one of the fallen children of men as they were in themselves. It could not have been done had not God contrived away consistent with the honor of his holiness, majesty, justice, and truth. But since God in the Gospel has revealed that nothing is too hard for him to do nothing beyond the reach of his power and wisdom and sufficiency and since Christ has wrought out the work of redemption and fulfilled the law by obeying, there is none of mankind whom he may not save without any prejudice to any of his attributes except those who have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost and those he might have saved without going contrary to any of his attributes had he not been pleased to declare that he would not. It was not because he could not have saved them consistently with his justice and consistently with his law or because his attribute of mercy was not great enough or the blood of Christ not sufficient to cleanse from that sin but it has pleased him for wise reasons to declare that that sin shall never be forgiven in this world or in the world to come and so now it is contrary to God's truth to save such. But otherwise, there is no sinner that can be ever so great but God can save him without prejudice to any attribute if he has been a murderer, adulterer or perjurer or idolater or blasphemer God may save him if he pleases and in no respect injure his glory though persons have sinned long, have been obstinate have committed heinous sins a thousand times even till they have grown old in sin and have sinned under great aggravations let the aggravations be what they may if they have sinned under ever so great light if they have been backsliders and have sinned against ever so numerous and solemn warnings and strivings of the spirit and mercies of his common providence though the danger of such is much greater than of other sinners yet God can save them if he pleases for the sake of Christ without any prejudice to any of his attributes he may have mercy on whom he will have mercy he may have mercy on the greatest of sinners if he pleases and the glory of none of his attributes will be in the least sullied such is the sufficiency of the satisfaction and righteousness of Christ that none of the divine attributes stand in the way of the salvation of any of them thus the glory of any attribute did not at all suffer by Christ's saving sum of his crucifers one God may save any of them without prejudice to the honor of his holiness God is an infinitely holy being the heavens are not pure in his sight he is of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on iniquity and if God should in any way countenance sin and should not give proper testimonies of his hatred of it and displeasure at it it would be a prejudice to the honor of his holiness but God can save the greatest sinner without giving the least countenance to sin if he saves one who for a long time has stood out under the calls of the gospel and has sinned under dreadful aggravations if he saves one who against light has been a pirate or blasphemer he may do it without giving any countenance to their wickedness because his abhorrence of it and displeasure against it have been already sufficiently manifested in the sufferings of Christ it was a sufficient testimony of God's abhorrence against even the greatest wickedness that Christ, the eternal son of God died for it nothing can show God's infinite abhorrence of any wickedness more than this if the wicked man himself should be thrust into hell he should endure the most extreme torments which are ever suffered there it would not be a greater manifestation of God's abhorrence of it than the sufferings of the son of God for it 2. God may save any of the children of men without prejudice to the honor of his majesty if men have affronted God and that ever so much if they have cast ever so much contempt upon his authority yet God can save them if he pleases and the honor of his majesty not suffer in the least if God should save those who have affronted him without satisfaction the honor of his majesty would suffer for when contempt is cast upon infinite majesty its honor suffers and the contempt leaves an obscurity upon the honor of the divine majesty if the injury is not repaired but the sufferings of Christ fully repair the injury let the contempt be ever so great yet if so honorable a person as Christ undertakes to be a mediator for the offender and in the mediation suffer in his stead it fully repairs the injury done to the majesty of heaven by the greatest sinner 3. God may save any sinner whatsoever consistently with his justice the justice of God requires the punishment of sin God is the supreme judge of the world and he is to judge the world according to the rules of justice it is not the part of a judge to show favor to the person judged but he is to determine according to a rule of justice without departing to the right hand or left God does not show mercy as a judge but as a sovereign and therefore when mercy sought the initiation of sinners the inquiry was how to make the exercise of the mercy of God as a sovereign and of his strict justice as a judge agree together and this is done by the sufferings of Christ in which sin is punished fully and justice answered Christ suffered enough for the punishment of the sins of the greatest sinner that ever lived so that God when he judges according to a rule of strict justice and yet acquit the sinner if he be in Christ justice cannot require any more for any man's sins than those sufferings of one of the persons of the trinity which Christ suffered Romans 3, 25 and 26 whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness that he might be just in the justifier of him which believeth in Christ 4 God can save any sinner whatsoever without any prejudice to the honor of his truth God passed his word that sin should be punished with death which is to be understood not only of the first but of the second death God can save the greatest sinner consistently with his truth in this threatening for sin is punished in the sufferings of Christ in as much as he is our surety and so is legally the same person and sustained our guilt and in his sufferings bore our punishment it may be objected that God said if thou eatest, thou shalt die as though the same person that sinned must suffer and therefore why does not God's truth oblige him to that I answer that the word then was not intended to be restrained to him that in his own person sinned Adam probably understood that his posterity were included whether they sinned in their own person or not if they sinned in Adam their surety those words if thou eatest meant if thou eatest in thyself or in thy surety and therefore the latter words thou shalt die do also fairly allow of such construction as thou shalt die in thyself or in thy surety Isaiah 42 21 the Lord is well pleased for his righteousness's sake he will magnify the law and make it honorable but 2. God may refuse salvation to any sinner whatsoever without prejudice to the honor of any of his attributes there is no person whatever in a natural condition upon whom God may not refuse to bestow salvation without prejudice to any part of his glory let a natural person be wise or unwise of a good or ill natural temper of mean or honorable parentage whether born of wicked or godly parents let him be a moral or immoral person whatever good he may have done however religious he has been how many prayers so ever made and whatever pains he has taken that he may be saved whatever concern and distress he may have for fear he shall be damned or whatever circumstances he may be in God can deny him salvation without the least disparagement to any of his perfections his glory will not in any instance be the least obscured by it 1. God may deny salvation to any natural person without any injury to the honor of his righteousness if he does so there is no injustice nor unfairness in it there is no natural man living let his case be what it will but God may deny him salvation and cast him down to hell and yet not be chargeable with the least unrighteous or unfair dealing in any respect whatsoever this is evident because they all have deserved hell and it is no injustice for a proper judge to inflict on any man what he deserves and as he has deserved condemnation so he has never done anything to remove the liability or to atone for the sin he never has done anything whereby he has laid any obligation on God not to punish him as he deserved 2. God may deny salvation to any unconverted person whatever without any prejudice to the honor of his goodness sinners are sometimes ready to flatter themselves that though it may not be contrary to the justice of God to condemn them yet it will not consist with the glory of his mercy they think it will be dishonorable to God's mercy to cast them into hell and have no pity or compassion upon them they think it will be very hard and severe and not becoming a God of infinite grace and compassion but God can deny salvation to any natural person without any disparagement to his mercy and goodness that which is not contrary to God's justice is not contrary to his mercy if damnation be justice then mercy may choose its own object they mistake the nature of the mercy of God who think that it is an attribute which in some cases is contrary to God's mercy is illustrated by it as in the 23rd verse of the context that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had afford prepared unto glory 3. It is in no way prejudicial to the honor of God's faithfulness for God has in no way obliged himself to any natural man by his word to bestow salvation upon him men in a natural condition are not the children of promise but lie open to the curse of the law which would not be the case if they had any promise to lay hold of End of section 8 Section 9 of Select Sermons of Jonathan Edwards This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Kenneth Lane Select Sermons of Jonathan Edwards Section 9 God's Sovereignty in the Salvation of Men Part 2 3 God does actually exercise his sovereignty in men's salvation We shall show how he exercises this right in several particulars 1. In calling some people or nation and giving them the means of grace and leaving others without them According to the divine appointment salvation is bestowed in connection with the means of grace God may sometimes make use of very unlikely means and bestow salvation on men who are under very great disadvantages but he does not bestow grace wholly without any means but God exercises his sovereignty in bestowing his means All mankind are by nature in like circumstances towards God Yet God greatly distinguishes some from others by the means and advantages which he bestows upon them The savages who live in the remote parts of this continent and are under the grossest heathenish darkness as well as the inhabitants of Africa are naturally in exactly God with us in this land They are no more alienated or estranged from God in their natures than we and God has no more to charge them with and yet what a vast difference has God made between us and them In this he has exercised his sovereignty He did this of old when he chose but one people to make them his covenant people and to give them the means of grace and left all others and gave them over to heathenish darkness and to the tyranny of the devil to perish from generation to generation for many hundreds of years The earth in that time was peopled with many great and mighty nations There were the Egyptians a people famed for their wisdom There were also the Assyrians and the Chaldeans who were great and wise and powerful nations There were the Persians subdued a great part of the world There were the renowned nations of the Greeks and Romans who were famed over the whole world for their excellent civil governments for their wisdom and skill in the arts of peace and war and who by their military prowess in their turns subdued and reigned over the world Those were rejected God did not choose them for his people but left them for many ages Heathenish darkness to perish for lack of vision and chose one only people the posterity of Jacob to be his own people and to give them the means of grace Psalm 147 19-20 He showeth his word unto Jacob his statutes and his judgments unto Israel He hath not dealt so with any nation and as for his judgments they have not known them This nation were a small inconsiderable people in comparison with many other people Deuteronomy 7-7 The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because ye were more in number than any people for ye were the fewest of all people So neither was it for their righteousness for they had no more of that than other people Deuteronomy 9-6 Understand therefore that the Lord thy God hath not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness for thou art a stiff-necked people God gives them to understand that it was from no other cause but his free electing love that he chose them to be his people That reason is given why God loved them it was because he loved them Deuteronomy 7-8 which is as much as to say it was agreeable to his sovereign pleasure to set his love upon you God also showed his sovereignty in choosing that people when other nations were rejected who came of the same progenitors Thus the children of Isaac were chosen when the posterity of Ishmael and other sons of Abraham were rejected So the children of Jacob were chosen when the posterity of Esau were rejected As the apostle observes in the seventh verse neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children but in Isaac shall thy seed be called and again in verses 10, 11, 12 and 13 and not only this but when Rebekah also had conceived by one even by our father Isaac the children moreover being not yet born neither having done any good or evil that the promise of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth it was said unto her the elder shall serve the younger as it is written Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated the apostle has not respect merely to the election of the persons of Isaac and Jacob before Ishmael and Esau but of their posterity in the passage already quoted from Malachi God has respect to the nations which were of the posterity of Esau and Jacob Malachi 1, 2 and 3 I have loved you saith the Lord say wherein hast thou loved us was not Esau Jacob's brother saith the Lord yet I love Jacob and I hated Esau and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness God showed his sovereignty when Christ came in rejecting the Jews and calling the Gentiles God rejected that nation who were the children of Abraham according to the flesh and had been his peculiar people the Jews and who alone possessed the one true God and chose idolatrous heathen before them and called them to be his people when the Messiah came who was born of their nation and whom they so much expected he rejected them he came to his own and his own received him not John 1, 11 when the glorious dispensation of the gospel came to those who had been heathens to enjoy the privileges of it they were broken off that the Gentiles might be graft on Romans 11, 17 she is now called beloved that was not beloved and more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife Isaiah 54, 1 the natural children of Abraham are rejected and God raises up children to Abraham of stones and that nation which was so honored of God have now been for many ages rejected and remain dispersed all over the world a remarkable monument of divine vengeance and now God greatly distinguishes some Gentile nations from others and all according to his sovereign pleasure 2 God exercises his sovereignty in the advantages he bestows to secular persons all need salvation alike and all are naturally alike undeserving of it but he gives some vastly greater advantages for salvation than others to some he assigns their place in pious and religious families where they may be well instructed and educated and have religious parents to dedicate them to God and put up many prayers for them God places some under a more powerful ministry than others and in places where there are more of the outpourings of the spirit of God to some he gives much more of the strivings and the awakening influences of the spirit than to others it is according to his mere sovereign pleasure 3 God exercises his sovereignty in sometimes bestowing salvation upon the low and mean and denying it to the wise and great Christ in his sovereignty passes by the gates of princes and nobles and enters some cottage and dwells there and has communion with its obscure inhabitants God in his sovereignty withheld salvation from the rich man who fared sumptuously every day and bestowed it on poor Lazarus who sat begging at his gate God in this way pours contempt on princes and on all their glittering splendor so God sometimes passes by wise men men of great understanding learned and great scholars and bestows salvation on others of weak understanding who only comprehend some of the plainer parts of Scripture and the fundamental principles of the Christian religion yea there seem to be fewer great men called than others and God in ordering it thus manifests his sovereignty 1 Corinthians 1 26, 27 and 28 we see your calling brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty not many noble are called but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen yea and things which are not to bring to naught things that are 4 in bestowing salvation on some who hath had few advantages God sometimes will bless weak means for producing astonishing effects when more excellent means are not succeeded God sometimes will withhold salvation from those who are the children of very pious parents and bestow it on others who have been brought up in wicked families of good abidja in the family of Jeroboam and of a godly Hezekiah the son of wicked Ahaz and of a godly Josiah the son of a wicked Ammon but on the contrary of a wicked Amnon and Absalom the sons of holy David and that vile Manasse the son of a good Hezekiah sometimes some who have had eminent means of grace are rejected and left to perish and others under far less advantages are saved thus the scribes and Pharisees who had so much light and knowledge of the scriptures were mostly rejected and the poor ignorant publicans saved the greater part of those among whom Christ was much conversant and who heard him preach and saw him work miracles from day to day were left and the woman of Samaria and other Samaritans at the same time who only heard Christ preach as he occasionally passed through their city so the woman of Canaan was taken who was not of the country of the Jews but once saw Jesus Christ so the Jews who had seen and heard Christ and saw his miracles and with whom the apostles labored so much were not saved but the Gentiles many of them who as it were heard the glad tidings of salvation embraced them and were converted five God exercises his sovereignty in calling some to salvation who have been very heinously wicked and leaving others who have been moral and religious persons the Pharisees were a very strict sect among the Jews their religion was extraordinary Luke 1811 they were not as other men extortioners unjust or adulterers there was their morality they fasted twice a week and gave tithes of all that they possessed there was their religion but yet they were mostly rejected and the publicans and harlots and openly vicious sort of people entered into the kingdom of God before them Matthew 2131 the apostle describes his righteousness while a Pharisee Philippians 3.6 touching the righteousness which is of the law blameless the rich young man who came kneeling to Christ saying good master what shall I do that I may have eternal life was a moral person when Christ bade him to keep the commandments he said and in his own view with sincerity all these have I kept from my youth up he had obviously been brought up in a good family and was a youth of such amiable manners and correct deportment that it is said Jesus beholding him loved him still he was left while the thief that was crucified with Christ was chosen and called even on the cross God sometimes shows his sovereignty by showing mercy to the chief of sinners on those who have been murderers and profaners and blasphemers and even when they are old some are called at the 11th hour God sometimes shows the sovereignty of his grace by showing mercy to some who have spent most of their lives in the service of Satan and have little left to spend in the service of God 6 in saving some of those who seek salvation and not others some who seek salvation as we know both from Scripture are soon converted while others seek a long time and do not obtain at last God helps some over the mountains and difficulties which are in the way he subdues Satan and delivers them from his temptations but others are ruined by the temptations with which they meet some are never thoroughly awakened while to others God is pleased to give thorough convictions some are left to backsliding hearts others God causes to hold out to the end some are brought off from a confidence in their own righteousness others never get over that obstruction in their way as long as they live and some are converted and saved who never had so great strivings as some who not withstanding perish 4 I come now to give the reasons why God does thus exercise his sovereignty in the eternal salvation of the children of men 1 it is agreeable to God's design in the creation of the universe to exercise every attribute and thus to manifest the glory of each of them God's design in the creation was to glorify himself or to make a discovery of the essential glory of his nature it was fit that infinite glory should shine forth and it was God's original design to make a manifestation of his glory as it is not that it was his design to manifest all his glory in the apprehension of the creatures for it is impossible that the minds of creatures should comprehend it but it was his design to make a true manifestation of his glory such as should represent every attribute God glorified one attribute and not another such manifestation of his glory would be defective and the representation would not be complete if all God's attributes are not manifested the glory of none of them is manifested as it is for the divine attributes reflect glory on one another thus if God's wisdom be manifested and not his holiness the glory of his wisdom would not be manifested as it is for one part of the glory of the attribute of divine wisdom is that it is a holy wisdom so if his holiness were manifested and not his wisdom the glory of his holiness would not be manifested as it is for one thing which belongs to the glory of God's holiness is that it is a wise holiness so it is with respect to the attributes of mercy and justice the glory of God's mercy does not appear as it is unless it is manifested as a just mercy or as a mercy consistent with justice so with respect to God's sovereignty it reflects glory on all his other attributes it is part of the glory of God's mercy that it is sovereign mercy so all the attributes of God reflect glory on one another the glory of one attribute cannot be manifested as it is without the manifestation of another one attribute is defective without another and therefore the manifestation will be defective hence it was the will of God to manifest all his attributes the declarative glory of God in scripture is often called God's name because it declares his nature but if his name does not signify his nature as it is or does not declare any attribute it is not a true name the sovereignty of God is one of his attributes and a part of his glory the glory of God eminently appears in his absolute sovereignty over all creatures great and small if the glory of a prince be his power and dominion then the glory of God is his absolute sovereignty herein appear God's infinite greatness and highness above all creatures therefore it is the will of God to manifest his sovereignty and his sovereignty like his other attributes is manifested in the exercises of it he glorifies his power in the exercise of power he glorifies his mercy in the exercise of mercy so he glorifies his sovereignty in the exercise of sovereignty two the more excellent the creature is over whom God is sovereign and the greater the matter in which he so appears is his sovereignty the sovereignty of God in his being sovereign over men is more glorious than in his being sovereign over the inferior creatures and his sovereignty over angels is yet more glorious than his sovereignty over men for the nobler the creature is still the greater and higher doth God appear in his sovereignty over it it is a greater honor to a man to have dominion over men than over beasts and a still greater honor to have dominion over princes nobles and kings than over ordinary men so the glory of God's sovereignty appears in that he is sovereign over the souls of men who are so noble and excellent creatures God therefore will exercise his sovereignty over them and the further the dominion of anyone extends over another the greater will be the honor if a man has dominion over another only in some instances he is not therein so much exalted as in having absolute dominion over his life and fortune and all he has so God's sovereignty over men appears glorious that it extends to everything which concerns them he may dispose of them with respect to all that concerns them according to his own pleasure his sovereignty appears glorious that it reaches their most important affairs even the eternal state and condition of the souls of men herein it appears that the sovereignty of God is without bounds or limits in that it reaches to an affair of such infinite importance God therefore as it is his design to manifest his own glory will and does exercise his sovereignty towards men over their souls and bodies even in this most important matter of their eternal salvation he has mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardens application one hence we learn how absolutely we are dependent on God in this great matter of the eternal salvation of our souls we are dependent not only on his wisdom to contrive a way to accomplish it and on his power to bring it to pass but we are dependent on his mere will and pleasure in the affair we depend on the sovereign will of God for everything belonging to it from the foundation to the top stone it was the sovereign pleasure of God that he contrived a way to save any of mankind and gave us Jesus Christ his only begotten son to be our redeemer why did he look on us and send us a savior and not the fallen angels it was from the sovereign good pleasure of God it was of his sovereign pleasure what means to a point his giving us the bible and the ordinances of religion is of his sovereign grace his giving those means to us rather than to others his giving the awakening influences of his spirit and his bestowing saving grace are all of his sovereign pleasure when he says let there be light in the soul of such and one it is a word of infinite power and sovereign grace two let us with the greatest humility adore the awful and absolute sovereignty of God as we have just shown it is an eminent attribute of the divine being that he is sovereign over such excellent beings as the souls of men and that in every respect even in that of their eternal salvation the infinite greatness of God and his exaltation above us appears in nothing more than in his sovereignty it is spoken of in scripture as a great part of his glory Deuteronomy 32 39 see now that I even I am he and there is no God with me I kill and I make alive I wound and I heal neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand Psalm 115 3 our God is in the heavens he hath done whatsoever he pleased Daniel 4 34 35 whose dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing and he doeth according to his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him what doest thou our Lord Jesus Christ praised and glorified the father for the exercise of his sovereignty in the salvation of men. Matthew 11 25 26 I thank thee oh father Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes even so father for so it seemed good thy sight. Let us therefore give God the glory of his sovereignty as adoring him whose sovereign will orders all things beholding ourselves as nothing in comparison with him dominion and sovereignty require humble reverence and honor in the subject the absolute universal and unlimited sovereignty of God requires that we should adore him with all possible humility and reverence it is impossible that we should go to excess in lowliness and reverence of that being who may dispose of us to all eternity as he pleases 3 those who are in a state of salvation are to attribute it to sovereign grace alone and to give all the praise to him who maketh them to differ from others godliness is no cause for glorying except it be in God 1 Corinthians 1 29 30 31 that no flesh should glory in his presence but of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that according as it is written he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord such are not by any means in any degree to attribute their godliness their safe and happy state and condition to any natural difference between them and other men or to any strength or righteousness of their own they have no reason to exalt themselves in the least degree but God is the being whom they should exalt they should exalt God the Father who chose them in Christ who set his love upon them and gave them salvation before they were born and even before the world was if they inquire why God set this love on them and chose them rather than others if they think they can see any cause out of God they are greatly mistaken they should exalt God the Son who bore their names on his heart when he came into the world and hung on the cross and in whom alone they have righteousness and strength they should exalt God the Holy Ghost who of sovereign grace brought them out of darkness into marvelous light who has by his own immediate and free operation led them into an understanding of the evil and danger of sin and brought them off from their own righteousness and opened their eyes to discover the glory of God and the wonderful riches of God in Jesus Christ and has sanctified them and made them new creatures they should think how wicked they once were and how much they provoked God and how they deserved forever to be left by him to perish in sin and that it is only sovereign grace which has made the difference 1 Corinthians 6-10 many sorts of sinners are there enumerated fornicators, idolaters, adulterers effeminate abusers of themselves with mankind and then in the 11th verse the apostle tells them such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God the people of God have the greater cause of thankfulness more reason to love God who hath bestowed such great and unspeakable mercy upon them of his mere sovereign pleasure 4 hence we learn what cause we have to admire the grace of God that he should condescend to become bound to us by covenant that he who is naturally supreme in his dominion over us who is our absolute proprietor may do with us as he pleases and is under no obligation to us that he should as it were relinquish his absolute freedom and should cease to be merely sovereign in his dispensations towards believers when once they have believed in Christ and should for their more abundant consolation become bound so that they can challenge salvation of this sovereign they can demand it through Christ as a debt and it would be prejudicial to the glory of God's attributes to deny it to them it would be contrary to his justice what wonderful condescension it is in such a being to become bound to us worms of the dust for our consolation he bound himself by his word his promise but he was not satisfied with that but that we might have stronger consolation still he hath bound himself by his oath Hebrews 613 etc for when God made promise to Abraham because he could swear by no greater he swear by himself saying surely blessing I will bless thee and multiplying I will multiply thee and so after he had patiently endured he obtained the promise for men verily swear by the greater and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife wherein God willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us which hope we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast and which entereth into that within the veil whither the forerunner is for us entered even Jesus made an high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek let us therefore labor to submit to the sovereignty of God God insists that his sovereignty be acknowledged by us and that even in this great matter a matter which so nearly and infinitely concerns us as our own eternal salvation this is the stumbling block on which thousands fall and perish and if we go on contending with God about his sovereignty it will be our eternal ruin it is absolutely necessary that we should submit to God as our absolute sovereign and the sovereign over our souls as one who may have mercy on whom he will have mercy and harden whom he will 5 and lastly we may make use of this doctrine guard those who seek salvation from two opposite extremes presumption and discouragement do not presume upon the mercy of God and so encourage yourself in sin many hear that God's mercy is infinite and therefore think that if they delay seeking salvation for the present and seek it hereafter that God will bestow his grace upon them but consider that though God's grace is sufficient yet he is sovereign and will use his own pleasure whether he will save you or not if you put off salvation till hereafter salvation will not be in your power it will be as a sovereign God pleases whether you shall obtain it or not seeing therefore that in this affair you are so absolutely dependent on God it is best to follow his direction in seeking it which is to hear his voice today if he will hear his voice harden not your heart beware also of discouragement take heed of despairing thoughts because you are a great sinner because you have persevered so long in sin have backslidden and resisted the Holy Ghost remember that let your case be what it may and you ever so great a sinner if you have not committed the sin against the Holy Ghost God can bestow mercy upon you without the least prejudice to the honor of his holiness which you have offended or to the honor of his majesty which you have insulted or of his justice which you have made your enemy or of his truth or of any of his attributes let you be what sinner you may God can if he pleases greatly glorify himself in your salvation End of Section 9 In the last section of section 9 we will talk about the the authority that the author's youth and modesty were prevailed on to let him appear a preacher in our public lecture and afterwards to give us a copy of his discourse at the desire of diverse ministers and others who heard it but as we quickly found him a workman that needs not to be ashamed before his brethren our satisfaction was the greater his freedom will perceive in the following composure a subject which secures to God his great design in the work of fallen man's redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ which is evidently so laid out as that the glory of the whole should return to him the blessed ordainer, purchaser and supplier a subject which enters deep into practical religion without the belief of which for in proportion to the sense we have of our dependence on the sovereign God for all the good we want will be our value for him our trust in him our fear to offend him and our care to please him as likewise our gratitude and love our delight and praise upon our sensible experience of his free benefits in short it is the very soul of piety to apprehend and own that all our springs are in him our present grace and comfort and of our future glory and blessedness and that they all entirely flow through Christ by the efficacious influence of the Holy Spirit by these things saints live and in all these things is the life of our spirits such doctrines as these which by humbling the minds of men prepare them for the exaltations of God he has signally owned and prospered in the reformed world in Ireland especially in the days of our forefathers and we hope they will never grow unfashionable among us for we are well assured if those which we call the doctrines of grace ever come to be condemned or disrelished vital piety will proportionably languish and wear away as these doctrines always sink in the esteem of man upon the decay of serious religion we cannot therefore but express our joy and thankfulness that the great head of the church is pleased still to raise up from among the children of his people for the supply of his churches those who assert and maintain these evangelical principles and that our churches notwithstanding all their degeneracies have still a high value for such principles and for those who publicly own and teach them and as we cannot but wish and pray that the college in the neighboring colony may be a fruitful mother of many such sons as the author by the blessing of heaven on the care of their present worthy rector so we heartily rejoice in the special favor of providence in bestowing such a rich gift on the happy church of Northampton which has for so many lusters of years flourished under the influence of such pious doctrines taught them in the excellent ministry of their late venerable pastor whose gift and spirit we hope will long live and shine in this his grandson to the end that they may abound yet more in all the lovely fruits of evangelical humility and thankfulness to the glory of God to his blessing we commit them all with this discourse and everyone that reads it and are your servants in the gospel T. Prince W. Cooper Boston August 17 1731 end of section 10 section 11 of select sermons of Jonathan Edwards this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org select sermons of Jonathan Edwards section 11 God glorified in man's dependence a sermon by Jonathan Edwards preached on the public lecture in Boston July 8 1731 and published at the desire of several ministers and others in Boston who heard it this was the first piece published by Mr. Edwards 1 Corinthians 1 29 30 31 that no flesh should glory in his presence but of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that according as it is written he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord those Christians to whom the apostle directed this epistle dwelt in a part of the world where human wisdom was in great repute as the apostle observes in the 22nd verse of this chapter the Greeks seek after wisdom Corinth was not far from Athens that had been for many ages the most famous seat of philosophy and learning in the world the apostle therefore observes to them how God by the gospel destroyed and brought to not their wisdom the learned grecians and their great philosophers by all their wisdom did not know God they were not able to find out the truth in divine things but after they had done their utmost to no effect it pleased God at length to reveal himself by the gospel he quote chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and the base things of the world the things that are despised and things which are not to bring to not the things that are end quote and the apostle informs them in the text why he thus did that no flesh should glory in his presence etc. 1. what God aims at in the disposition of things in the affair of redemption is that man should not glory in himself but alone in God that no flesh should glory in his presence that according as it is written he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord 2. how this end is attained in the work of redemption is by that absolute and immediate dependence that we have upon God in that work for all their good in as much as first all the good that they have is in and through Christ he is made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption all the good of the fallen and redeemed creature is concerned in these four things and cannot be better distributed than into them but Christ is each of them to us and we have none of them in him he is made of God unto us wisdom in him are all the proper good and true excellency of the understanding wisdom was a thing that the Greeks admired but Christ is the true light of the world it is through him alone that true wisdom is imparted to the mind it is in and by Christ that we have righteousness it is by being in him that we are justified have our sins pardoned and are received as righteous into God's favor it is by Christ that we have sanctification we have in him true excellency of heart as well as of understanding and he is made unto us inherent as well as imputed righteousness it is by Christ that we have redemption or the actual deliverance from all misery and the bestowment of all happiness and glory thus we have all our good by Christ who is God secondly another instance wherein our dependence on God for all our good appears is this that it is God that has given us Christ that we might have these benefits through him he of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, etc thirdly it is of him that we are in Christ Jesus and come to have an interest in him and so do receive those blessings which he is made unto us it is God that gives us faith whereby we close with Christ so that in this verse is shown our dependence on each person in the trinity for all our good we are dependent on Christ the Son of God as he is our wisdom, righteousness sanctification and redemption we are dependent on the Father who has given us Christ and made him to be these things to us we are dependent on the Holy Ghost for it is of him that we are in Christ Jesus it is the spirit of God that gives faith in him whereby we receive him and close with him doctrine God is glorified in the work of redemption in this that there appears in it so absolute and universal a dependence of the redeemed on him here I propose to show first that there is an absolute and universal dependence of the redeemed on God for all their good that God hereby is exalted and glorified in the work of redemption one there is an absolute and universal dependence of the redeemed on God the nature and contrivance of our redemption is such that the redeemed are in everything directly immediately and entirely dependent on God they are dependent on him for all and are dependent on him every way the several ways wherein the dependence of one being may be upon another for it is good and wherein the redeemed of Jesus Christ depend on God for all their good are these that they have all their good of him and that they have all through him and that they have all in him that he is the cause and original whence all their good comes therein it is of him and that he is the medium by which it is obtained and conveyed therein they have it through him and that he is the good itself given and conveyed therein it is in him now those that are redeemed by Jesus Christ do in all these respects very directly and entirely depend on God for their all first the redeemed have all their good of God God is the great author of it he is the first cause of it and not only so but he is the only proper cause it is of God that we have our redeemer it is God that has provided a savior for us Jesus Christ is not only of God in his person as he is the only begotten son of God but he is from God as we are concerned in him and in his office of mediator he is the gift of God to us God chose and anointed him appointed him his work and sent him into the world and as it is God that gives what is God that accepts the savior he gives the purchaser and he affords the thing purchased it is of God that Christ becomes ours that we are brought to him and are united to him it is of God that we receive faith to close with him that we may have an interest in him Ephesians 2.8 for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God that we actually receive all the benefits that Christ has purchased it is God that pardons and justifies and delivers from going down to hell and into his favor the redeemed are received when they are justified so it is God that delivers from the dominion of sin cleanses us from our filthiness and changes us from our deformity it is of God that the redeemed receive all their true excellency wisdom and holiness in that two ways Viz, as the Holy Ghost by whom these things are immediately wrought is from God, proceeds from him and is sent by him and also as the Holy Ghost himself is God by whose operation and indwelling the knowledge of God and divine things a holy disposition in all grace are conferred and upheld and though means are made use of in conferring grace on men's souls yet it is of God that we have these grace and it is he that makes them effectual it is of God that we have the Holy Scriptures they are his word it is of God that we have ordinances and their efficacy depends on the immediate influence of his spirit the ministers of the gospel are sent of God and all their sufficiency is of him 2 Corinthians 4.7 we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us their success depends entirely and absolutely on the immediate blessing and influence of God 1. the redeemed have all from the grace of God it was of mere grace that God gave us his only begotten son the grace is great in proportion to the excellency of what is given the gift was infinitely precious because it was of a person infinitely worthy a person of infinite glory and also because it was of a person infinitely near and dear to God the grace is great in proportion to the benefit we have given us in him the benefit is doubly infinite in that in him we have deliverance from an infinite because an eternal misery and do also receive eternal joy and glory the grace in bestowing this gift is great in proportion to our unworthiness to whom it is given instead of deserving such a gift we merited infinitely ill of God's hands the grace is great according to the manner of giving or in proportion to the humiliation and expense of the method and means by which a way is made for our having the gift he gave him to dwell amongst us he gave him to us incarnate or in our nature and in the like those sinless infirmities he gave him to us in a low afflicted state and not only so but as slain that he might be a feast for our souls the grace of God in bestowing this gift is most free it was what God was under no obligation to bestow he might have rejected fallen man as he did the fallen angels it was what we never did anything to merit it was given while we were yet enemies and before we had so much as repented it was from the love of God who saw no excellency in us to attract it and it was without expectation of ever being requited for it and it is from mere grace that the benefits of Christ are applied to such and such particular persons those that are called and sanctified are to attribute it alone to the good pleasure of God's goodness by which they are distinguished he is sovereign and hath mercy on whom he will have mercy man hath now a greater dependence on the grace of God than he had before the fall he depends on the free goodness of God for much more than he did then then he depended on God's goodness for conferring the reward of perfect obedience for God was not obliged to promise and bestow that reward but now we are dependent on the grace of God for much more we stand in need of grace not only to bestow glory upon us but to deliver us from hell and eternal wrath under the first covenant we depended on God's goodness to give us the reward of righteousness and so we do now but we stand in need of God's free and sovereign grace to give us that righteousness to pardon our sin and release us from the guilt and infinite demerit of it and as we are dependent on the goodness of God for more now we are free and wonderful goodness we are now more dependent on God's arbitrary and sovereign good pleasure we were in our first estate dependent on God for holiness we had our original righteousness from him but then holiness was not bestowed in such a way of sovereign good pleasure as it is now man was created holy for it became God to create holy all his reasonable creatures it would have been a disparagement of the goodness of God's nature if he had made an intelligent creature unholy but now when fallen man is made holy it is from mere and arbitrary grace God may forever deny holiness to the fallen creature if he pleases without any disparagement to any of his perfections and we are not only indeed more dependent on the grace of God but our dependence is much more conspicuous because our own insufficiency in ourselves is much more apparent in our fallen and undone state than it was before we were either sinful or miserable we are more apparently dependent on God for holiness because we are first sinful and utterly polluted and afterward holy so the production of the effect is sensible and its derivation from God more obvious if man was ever holy and always was so apparent that he had not holiness necessarily as an inseparable qualification of human nature so we are more apparently dependent on free grace for the favor of God for we are first justly the objects of his displeasure and afterwards are received into favor we are more apparently dependent on God for happiness being first miserable and afterwards happy it is more apparently free because we are actually without any kind of excellency to merit if there could be any such thing as merit in creature excellency and we are not only without any true excellency but our full of and holy defiled with that which is infinitely odious all our good is more apparently from God because we are first naked and holy without any good and afterwards enriched with all good 2 we receive all from the power of God man's redemption is often spoken of as a work of wonderful power as well as grace the great power of God appears in bringing a sinner from his lowest state from the depths of sin and misery to such an exalted state of holiness and happiness Ephesians 1 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe according to the working of the power we are dependent on God's power through every step of our redemption we are dependent on the power of God to convert us and give faith in Jesus Christ and the new nature it is the work of creation if any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Corinthians 5 17 we are created in Christ Jesus Ephesians 2 10 the fallen creature cannot attain it again Ephesians 4 24 and that he put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness it is a raising from the dead Colossians 2 12 to 13 wherein also ye are risen with him through faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead yea it is a more glorious work of power than mere creation or raising a dead body to life and that the effect attained is greater and more excellent that holy and happy being and spiritual life which is produced in the work of conversion is a far greater and more glorious effect than mere being in life and the state from whence the change is made a death in sin a total corruption of nature and death of misery is far more remote from the state attained than mere death or non-entity it is by God's power also that we are preserved in the state of grace 1 Peter 1 5 who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation as grace is at first from God so it is continually from him and is maintained by him as much as light in the atmosphere is all day long from the sun as well as at first dawning or sun rising men are dependent on the power of God for every exercise of grace we are carrying on that work in the heart for subduing sin and corruption increasing holy principles and enabling to bring forth fruit in good works man is dependent on divine power in bringing grace to its perfection making the soul completely amiable in Christ's glorious likeness and filling of it with a satisfying joy and blessedness and for the raising of the body to life and to such a perfect state that it shall be suitable for a habitation and organ for the soul so perfected and blessed these are the most glorious effects of the power of God that are seen in the series of God's acts with respect to the creatures man was dependent on the power of God in his first estate but he is more dependent on his power now he needs God's power to do more things for him and depends on a more wonderful exercise of his power it was an effect of the power of God to make man holy at the first but more remarkably so now because there is a great deal of opposition and difficulty in the way it is a more glorious effect of power to make that holy that was so depraved and under the dominion of sin than to confer holiness on that which before had nothing of the contrary it is a more glorious work of power to rescue a soul out of the hands of the devil and from the powers of darkness and to bring it into a state of salvation than to confer holiness where there was no pre-possession or opposition Luke 11, 21 and 22 when a strong man armed to keepeth his palace his goods are in peace but when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him he takeeth from him all his armor wherein he trusted and divideeth his spoils so it is a more glorious work of power to make a soul in a state of grace and holiness and to carry it on till it is brought to glory when there is so much sin remaining in the heart resisting and Satan without his might opposing than it would have been to have kept the man from falling at first when Satan had nothing in man thus we have shown how the redeemed are dependent on God for all their good as they have all of him secondly they are also dependent on God for all they have all through him God is the medium of it as well as the author and fountain of it all we have wisdom the pardon of sin deliverance from hell acceptance into God's favor grace and holiness true comfort and happiness eternal life and glory is from God by a mediator and this mediator is God which mediator we have an absolute dependence upon as he through whom we receive all so that here is another way wherein we have our dependence on God for all good God not only gives us the mediator and accepts his mediation and of his power and grace bestows the things purchased by the mediator but he the mediator is God our blessings are what we have by purchase and the purchase is made of God the blessings are purchased of him and God gives the purchaser and not only so but God is the purchaser yea God is both the purchaser and the price for Christ who is God purchased these blessings for us by offering up himself as the price of our salvation he purchased eternal life by the sacrifice of himself he bruised 727 he offered up himself and 926 he hath appeared to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself indeed it was the human nature that was offered but it was the same person with the divine and therefore was an infinite price as we thus have our good through God we have a dependence on him in a respect that man in his first estate had not man was to have eternal life then through his own righteousness so that he had partly a dependence upon what was in himself for we have a dependence upon that through which we have our good as well as that from which we have it and though man's righteousness that he then depended on was indeed from God yet it was his own it was inherent in himself so that his dependence was not so immediately on God but now the righteousness that we are dependent on is not in ourselves but in God we are saved through the righteousness of Christ he is made unto us righteousness and therefore is prophesied of in a 236 under that name the Lord our righteousness in that the righteousness we are justified by is the righteousness of Christ it is the righteousness of God 2 Corinthians 5 21 that we might be made the righteousness of God in him thus in redemption we have not only all things of God but by and through him 1 Corinthians 8 6 but to us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him 3rdly the redeemed have all their good in God we not only have it of him and through him but it consists in him he is all our good the good of the redeemed is either objective or inherent by their objective good I mean that extrinsic object in the possession and enjoyment of which they are happy their inherent good is that excellency or pleasure which is in the soul itself with respect to both of which the redeemed have all their good in God or which is the same thing God himself is all their good 1 the redeemed have all their objective good in God God himself is the great good which they are brought to the possession and enjoyment of by redemption God is the highest good and the sum of all that good which Christ purchased God is the inheritance of the saints he is the portion of their souls God is their wealth and treasure their food their life their dwelling place their ornament and diadem and their everlasting honor and glory they have none in heaven but God he is the great good which the redeemed are received to at death in which they are to rise to at the end the Lord God is the light of the heavenly Jerusalem and is the river of the water of life that runs and the tree of life that grows in the midst of the paradise of God the glorious excellencies and beauty of God will be what will forever entertain the minds of the saints and the love of God will be their everlasting feast the redeemed will indeed enjoy other things they will enjoy the angels and will enjoy one another that which they shall enjoy in the angels or each other or in anything else whatsoever that will yield them delight and happiness will be what shall be seen of God in them two the redeemed have all their inherent good in God inherent good is two fold it is either excellency or pleasure these the redeemed not only derive from God as caused by him but have them in him they have spiritual excellency and joy by a kind of participation of God they are made excellent by a communication of God's excellency God puts his own beauty i.e. his beautiful likeness upon their souls they are made partakers of the divine nature or moral image of God 2 Peter 1.4 they are holy by being made partakers of God's holiness Hebrews 12.10 the saints are beautiful and blessed by a communication of God's holiness and joy as the moon and planets are bright by the sun's light the saints have spiritual joy and pleasure by a kind of a fusion of God on the soul in these things the redeemed have communion with God that is they partake with him and of him the saints have both their spiritual excellency and blessedness by the gift of the Holy Ghost and his dwelling in them they are not only caused by the Holy Ghost but are in him as their principle the Holy Spirit becoming an inhabitant is a vital principle in the soul he acting in upon and with the soul becomes a fountain of true holiness and joy as the spring is of water by the exertion and diffusion of itself John 4.14 but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life compared with chapter 7 38 and 39 he that believeth on me as the scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water but this spake he of the spirit which they that believe on him should receive the sum of what Christ has purchased for us is that spring of water spoken of in the former of those places and those rivers of living water spoken of in the latter and the sum of the blessings which the redeemed shall receive in heaven is that river of water of life that proceeds from the throne of God and the Lamb Revelation 22.1 which doubtless signifies the same with those rivers of living water explained John 7.38 and 39 which is elsewhere called the river of God's pleasures herein consists the fullness of good which the saints receive of Christ it is by partaking of the Holy Spirit that they have communion with Christ in his fullness God hath given the spirit not by measure unto him they do receive of his fullness and grace for grace this is the sum of the saints inheritance and therefore that little of the Holy Ghost which believers have in this world is said to be the earnest of their inheritance 2 Corinthians 1.22 who hath also sealed us and given us an earnest of the spirit in our hearts and chapter 5 verse 5 now he that hath brought us for the self-same thing is God who also hath given unto us the earnest of the spirit and Ephesians 1.13 to 14 he were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession the Holy Spirit the good things are spoken of in Scripture as the same as if the Spirit of God communicated to the soul comprised all good things Matthew 7.11 how much more shall your heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him in Luke it is chapter 11 verse 13 how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him this is the sum of the blessings that Christ died to procure and the subject of gospel promises Galatians 3.13 to 14 he was made a curse for us that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith the Spirit of God is the great promise of the Father Luke 24.49 behold I send a promise of my Father upon you the Spirit of God therefore is called the Spirit of Promise Ephesians 1.33 this promised thing Christ received and had given into his hand as soon as he had finished the work of our redemption to bestow on all that he had redeemed Acts 2.13 therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which he both see and hear so that all the holiness and happiness of the redeemed is in God it is in the communications in dwelling and acting of the Spirit of God holiness and happiness is in the fruit here and hereafter because God dwells in them and they in God thus God has given us the redeemer and it is by him that our good is purchased so God is the redeemer and the price and he also is the good purchased so that all we have is of God and through him and in him Romans 11.36 for of him and through him to him or in him are all things the same in the Greek that is here rendered to him is rendered in him 1 Corinthians 8.6 2. God is glorified in the work of redemption by this means by their being so great and universal a dependence of the redeemed on him 1. man hath so much the greater occasion and obligation to notice and acknowledge and all sufficiency the greater the creature's dependence is on God's perfections and the greater concern he has with them so much the greater occasion has he to take notice of them so much the greater concern anyone has with and dependence upon the power and grace of God so much the greater occasion has he to take notice of that power and grace so much the greater and more immediate dependence there is on the divine holiness so much the greater occasion to take notice of and acknowledge that so much the greater and more absolute dependence we have on the divine perfections as belonging to the several persons of the trinity so much the greater occasion have we to observe and own the divine glory of each of them that which we are most concerned with is surely most in the way of our observation and notice and this kind of concern with anything, this dependence does especially tend to command and oblige the attention and observation those things that we are not much dependent upon it is easy to neglect but we can scarce do any other than mind that which we have a great dependence on by reason of our so great dependence on God and his perfections and in so many respect he and his glory are the more directly set in our view which way so ever we turn our eyes we have the greater occasion to take notice of God's all sufficiency when all our sufficiency is thus every way of him we have the more occasion to contemplate him as an infinite good and as the fountain of all good such a dependence on God demonstrates his all sufficiency so much as the dependence of the creature is on God so much the greater does the creature's emptiness in himself appear and so much the greater the creature's emptiness so much the greater must the fullness of the being be who supplies him our having all of God shows the fullness of his power and grace our having all through him shows the fullness of his merit and worthiness and our having all in him demonstrates his fullness of beauty love and happiness and the redeemed by reason of the greatness of their dependence on God have not only so much the greater occasion but obligation to contemplate and acknowledge the glory and fullness of God how unreasonable and ungrateful should we be if we did not acknowledge that sufficiency and glory which we absolutely immediately and universally depend upon to hereby as demonstrated how great God's glory is considered comparatively or as compared with the creatures by the creature being thus holy and universally dependent on God it appears that the creature is nothing and that God is all hereby it appears that God is infinitely above us that God's strength and wisdom and holiness are infinitely greater than ours however great and glorious the creature apprehends God to be yet if he be not sensible of the difference between God and him so as to see that God's glory is great compared with his own he will not be disposed to give God the glory due to his name if the creature in any respects sets himself upon a level with God or exalts himself to any competition with him however he may apprehend that great honor and profound respect may belong to God from those that are at a greater distance he will not be so sensible of its being due from him so much the more men exalt themselves so much the less will they surely be disposed to exalt God it is certainly what God aims at in the disposition of things in redemption if we allow the scriptures to be a revelation of God's mind that God should appear full and man in himself empty that God should appear all and man nothing it is God's declared design that others should not glory in his presence which implies that it is his design to advance his own comparative glory so much the more man glories in God's presence so much the less glory is ascribed to God three by its being thus ordered that the creature should have so absolute and universal a dependence on God provision is made that God should have our whole souls and should be the object of our undivided respect if we had our dependence partly on God and partly on something else man's respect would be divided to those different things on which he had dependence thus it would be if we depended on God only for a part of our good and on ourselves or some other being for another part or if we had our good only from God and through another that was not God and in something else distinct from both our hearts would be divided between the good itself and him from whom and him through whom we received it but now there is no occasion for this God being not only he from or of whom we have all good but also through whom and is that good itself that we have from him and through him so that whatsoever there is to attract our respect the tendency is still directly towards God all unites in him as the center use one we may hear observe the marvelous wisdom of God in the work of redemption God hath made man's emptiness and misery his low lost and ruined state into which he sunk by the fall an occasion of the greater advancement of his own glory as in other ways so particularly in this that there is now much more universal and apparent dependence of man on God though God be pleased to lift man out of that dismal abyss of sin and woe into which he has fallen and exceedingly to exalt him and to be of great excellency and honor and to a high pitch of glory and blessedness yet the creature hath nothing in any respect to glory of all the glory evidently belongs to God all is in a mere and most absolute and divine dependence on the father son and holy ghost and each person of the Trinity is equally glorified in this work there is an absolute dependence of the creature on everyone for all all is of the father through the son and all in the holy ghost thus God appears in the work of redemption as all in all it is fit that he who is and there is none else should be the alpha and omega the first and the last the all and the only in this work two hence those doctrines and schemes of divinity that are in any respect opposite to such an absolute and universal dependence on God congregate from his glory and thwart the design of our redemption and such are those schemes that put the creature in God's dead in any of the mentioned respects that exalt man into the place of either father son or holy ghost in anything pertaining to our redemption however they may allow of a dependence of the redeemed on God yet they deny a dependence that is so absolute and universal they own an entire dependence of God for some things but not for others they own that we depend on God for the gift and acceptance of a redeemer but deny so absolute a dependence on him for the obtaining of an interest in the redeemer they own an absolute dependence on the father for giving his son and on the son for working out redemption but not so entire a dependence on the holy spirit for conversion and a being in Christ and so coming to a title they own a dependence on God for a means of grace but not absolutely for the benefit and success of those means a partial dependence on the power of God for obtaining and exercising holiness but not a mere dependence on the arbitrary and sovereign grace of God they own a dependence on the free grace of God for a reception into his favor so far that it is without any proper merit but not as it is without being attracted or moved with any excellency they own a partial dependence on Christ as he through whom we have life as having purchased new terms of life but still hold that the righteousness through which we have life is inherent in ourselves as it was under the first covenant now whatever scheme is inconsistent with our entire dependence on God for all and of having all of him through him and in him we are pugnant to the design and tenor of the Gospel and robbs it of that which God accounts its luster and glory three hence we may learn a reason why faith is that by which we come to have an interest in this redemption for there is included in the nature of faith a sensible acknowledgment of absolute dependence on God in this affair it is very fit that it should be required of all in order to their having a redemption that they should be sensible of and acknowledge their dependence on God for it it is by this means that God hath contrived to glorify himself in redemption and it is fit that he should at least have this glory of those that are the subjects of this redemption and have the benefit of it faith is a sensibleness of what is real in the work of redemption and the soul that believes doth entirely depend on God for all salvation in its own sense and act faith abases men and exalts God it gives all the glory of redemption to him alone it is necessary in order to saving faith that men should be emptied of himself be sensible that he is wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked humility is a great ingredient of true faith he that truly receives redemption receives it as a little child who soever shall not receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child he shall not enter therein it is the delight of the believing soul to abase itself and exalt God alone that is the language of it Psalm 115 1 not unto us oh Lord not unto us but to thy name give glory 4 let us be exhorted to exalt God alone and describe to him all the glory of redemption let us endeavor to obtain and increase in a sensibleness of our great dependence on God to have our eye to him alone to mortify a self-dependent and self-righteous disposition man is naturally exceeding prone to exalt himself and depend on his own power or goodness as though from himself he must expect happiness he is prone to have respect to enjoyments alien from God and his spirit as those in which happiness is to be found but this doctrine should teach us to exalt God alone as by trust and reliance so by praise let him that glorious glory in the Lord hath any man hope that he is converted and sanctified and that his mind is in doubt with true excellency and spiritual beauty that his sins are forgiven and he received into God's favor and exalted to the honor and blessedness of being his child and an heir of eternal life let him give God all the glory who alone makes him to differ from the worst men in this world or the most miserable of the damned in hell hath any man such comfort and strong hope of eternal life let not his hope lift him up but dispose him the more to abase himself to reflect on his own exceeding unworthiness of such a favor and to exalt God alone is any man eminent in holiness and abundant in good works let him take nothing of the glory of it to himself but ascribe it to him whose workmanship we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works End of Section 11


So here's another idea, this is kind of dangerous, right? So those of us who eat meat often justify doing so by appeal to this notion that humans have a kind of moral status that animals don't have. And the reason why humans have this moral status, which means that we have rights not to be used in these kind of ways, has to do with the sorts of rational capacities that we have, the variety of our consciousness, as contrasted with the level of consciousness that animals have and the kinds of rational capacities that they have. And that's thought to give us justification for treating them in a certain way. So now suppose we think about space exploration. We start to sort of expand our sense of the limits of what's possible for sentient beings. Now, one way to think about this is to think. Suppose we encounter extraterrestrial beings, okay? That's obviously again a bit sci-fi, but it's clearly something that you have to consider as a possibility. But another, I guess, more or less remote possibility is that if we're going to engage in space exploration, we're going to have to develop artificial intelligences that far exceed what they're currently capable of. It would have to be something in the realm of artificial general intelligence. This is basically because the magnitude of the distance between the earth and the sort of anywhere beyond the solar system was just so great that there's no way to create kind of, to sustain biological life for the duration of a journey from here to there, even if it were possible to get from here to there. But it could be possible to generate artificial intelligences that were able to sustain themselves through that kind of journey. So what you're going to have is other sentient beings in the universe with potentially significantly higher rational capacities than humans. So if it's the case that we're permitted to meet because animals have lesser rational capacities than humans, if we then imagine the existence of creatures with higher rational capacities than us, would they be able to treat us as tools in the way it seems to be permissible for us to treat animals? And again, you can take this as a reductio ad absurdum. You can say, OK, well, then that obviously shows that we shouldn't be eating meat. Or you can use it as a reason to kind of think through more about the underlying moral theory. Maybe the notion is that any entity that has a sufficient level of rational capacity gets a certain set of moral protections. And being well above that level doesn't necessarily mean that you get to kind of abuse those who do cross it, though, to a lower degree than you.