The Christian System - Chapter 8

THE PURPOSES OF GOD CONCERNING MAN

I. The universe issued from the goodness of God. Not to display his power and wisdom, but to give vent to his benignity, God created the heavens and the earth, and peopled them with all variety of being. Infinite wisdom and almighty power do but execute the designs of eternal love. Goodness is the impulsive attribute which prompted all that the counsel and hand of the Lord have executed. The current of the universe all runs on the side of benevolence. "Abundant in goodness and truth," all God's designs are for the diffusion of bliss on the largest possible scale. Evil there is; but, under the benevolent administrator of the Father of mercies, there will be as much good, with as little evil, as almighty power, guided by infinite wisdom, can achieve.
II. We may conjecture much, but can know little of the origin of moral evil in God's dominions. Its history on earth is faithfully detailed in the Bible; and that, in the divine prudence, is all that is necessary to our successful warfare against its power, and blissful escape from its penal consequences. It is not necessary that /17/we should analyze and comprehend the origin and nature of darkness in order to enjoy the light of the sun. The influences of light and darkness upon our system are quite sufficient, without any theory, to induce us to eschew the former, and delight in the latter. "By one man sin entered into the world," says Paul; and "by one tempter sin entered into man," says Moses; and "lust when it conceives brings forth sin, and sin when it is perfected brings forth death," says James the apostle; and these are the landmarks of our knowledge of the matter.

III. To limit contagion of sin, to prevent its recurrence in any portion of the universe, and to save sinners from its ruinous consequences, are the godlike purposes of the common Father of all. The gospel, or Christian system, is that only scheme which infinite intelligence and almighty love could devise for that benignant and gracious end. This purpose, like all God's purposes, is eternal and immutable. The scheme or theory was, therefore, not only arranged before the Jewish and patriarchal ages, but before the foundation of the world.

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The Christian System - Chapter 7

MAN AS HE IS.

I. "God made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions." Adam rebelled. The natural man became preternatural. The animal triumphed over the human elements of his nature. Sin was born on earth. The crown fell from his head. The glory of the Lord departed from him. He felt his guilt, and trembled, he saw his nakedness and blushed. The bright candle of the Lord became a dimly smoking taper. He was led to judgment. He was tried, condemned to death, divested of his patrimonial inheritance, but respited from immediate execution. A prisoner of death, but permitted to roam abroad and at large till the King authorized his seizure and destruction.

II. The stream of humanity, thus contaminated at its fountain, cannot in this world ever rise of itself, to its primitive purity and excellence. We all inherit a frail constitution, physically, intellectually, but especially morally frail and imbecile. We have all inherited our father's constitution and fortune: for Adam, we are told, after he fell "begat a son in his own image," and that son was just as bad as any other son ever born into the world: for he murdered his own dear brother, because he was a better man than himself. "Thus, by one man sin entered into the world, and death by that one sin, and so death, the wages of sin, has fallen upon all the offspring of Adam," because in him they have all sinned, or been made mortal--and consequently are born under condemnation to that death which fell upon our common progenitor, because of his transgression.

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The Christian System - Chapter 6

MAN AS HE WAS.

I. The original man was the rational and moral ultimatum of the mundane system. Naturally, or as he came from God's hand, he was the perfection of all terrestrial creations and institutions. In the elements of his constitution, he was partly celestial and terrestrial, of an earthly material as to his body, but of a spiritual intelligence and a divine life. Made to know and to enjoy his Creator, and to have communion with all that is divine, spiritual, and material in the whole universe, he was susceptible of an almost boundless variety of enjoyments.

II. And God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in [26] his own image created he him; a male and a female created he them." Gen. i. 26, 27. Man, then, was a companion of his Father and Creator, capable of admiring, adoring, and enjoying God. Having made the earth for him, God was fully glorified in all his sublunary works, when they made man happy, grateful, and thankful to himself. Man, then, in his natural state, was not merely an animal, but an intellectual, moral, pure, and holy being.

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