The Christ Man In Type, Boaz - Elder David Bartley (1827-1908)

 We have seen that the types of the Man of God’s right hand, whom he made strong for himself, are varied in name and character and mission, yet not antagonistic, but rather variety in unity, so that all make one symmetrical whole, and all find their full complement or perfection in the Brother born for adversity, of whom even the pagan Pilate said, “I find no fault in this Man.”  In every way and in all his life and ministry and work, Jesus of Nazareth was a perfect Man.  He alone, of all men, was this.  In him the blessed and holy God himself is well pleased.

We now come to another type of this faultless Man, BOAZ.  In his very name, which signifies fleetness and strength, he represented Christ.  Boaz was noble and good and great in Israel.  Bethlehem was his home, the home of his son David, and the birth place of David’s son Jesus.  Jesus was swift to run in the race that God set before him, and strong to finish the work he came to do.  Never did he falter or turn back.  To his mother he said, “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?”  To his Father he said, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.”

In this virtue Boaz was a type of Jesus.  Naomi said to Ruth, “Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall: for the man will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this day.”

In the little book of Ruth is given a very touching biography of Elimelech and Naomi his wife, their two sons, and Ruth and Boaz.  It says, “And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband’s a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.”  Because of a famine in the land of Israel, Elimelech, with his wife and two sons, went to the country of Moab to dwell, and Naomi remained there about ten years.  But the Lord did not prosper them in that idolatrous place; or her husband died.  Then her two sons married maidens of Moab, named Orpah and Ruth.  But, alas! The sons, Chilion and Mahlon, also died, and the three childless widows were left alone in their poverty and sorrow.  It was then in the heart of Naomi to return to Bethlehem; “for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread.  Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah.”  

Naomi entreated them to return each to their mother’s house, saying, “the Lord deal kindly you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me... Then she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice, and wept.  And they said unto her.  Surely we will return with thee unto thy people.”  But she again plead with them to return, and said, “nay, my daughters; for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD is gone out against me.  And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law; but Ruth clave unto her.  And she said, Behold thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods; return thou after thy sister-in-law.  And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and they God my God; where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried; the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.  When she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her.  So they two went until they came to Bethlehem.  And it came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi?”  (The name means pleasant.)  “And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Marah; for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.  I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty; why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the LORD hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?”

This was indeed another very mysterious and afflictive providence of God; for it seemed to have well nigh cut off the family of Elimelech; but really it was rich in wisdom and goodness and blessing, not only to the house of Elimelech, but as well to the house of Israel, and overflowing with mercy to the Gentiles.  Truly did Cowper write, “God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform.” &c.

We have read the words and sentiments of Naomi and Ruth, and have seen how they were received in Bethlehem.  Let us seek instruction from them, seeing that the Lord was dealing with them.  The sorrowful confession of Naomi showed bitter irreconciliation tot he dealings of the Lord with her, and also unbelief and distrust.  This was natural and of the flesh.  With her husband and sons she had left her home-land and inheritance and people, that they might do better for themselves among the idolatrous Moabites.  She returned in ten years to Bethlehem, bringing only Ruth with her, each of them widowed and empty handed.  Her husband’s inheritance in Judah had been sold for debt, and this left herself and Ruth, the widow of her younger son Mahlon, homeless, for they could not redeem the forfeited inheritance.  Naomi was old and infirm, and so the youthful Ruth was under the humbling necessity of gleaning after the reapers in the harvest field, to pick up the crumbs that fell from the master’s table, that Naomi and herself might have bread.  This sadly explains the words of Naomi: “I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty.”  She was willing to go out, that she might keep all she had, and not lose it by the famine in Israel; but now, because she was empty, she was willing to return home again.  It was in this way that the Lord brought her home again.

In all this there is a wonderful lesson of spiritual doctrine and truth.  Naomi was an Israelite, as were her husband and their two sons; so all their inheritance and fullness was under the first and legal covenant.  All this had been forfeited under the law, and was gone from her, and she had neither husband nor son to redeem it.  She was no longer a married wife, neither full nor rich, but empty, grieved and forsaken.  She had left to her the cleaving, loving, Ruth  only, but she was as poor and homeless as herself.  Naomi confessed that the Lord brought her home again in this sorrowful way, having Ruth only with her; still it was true that the Lord had brought her home, home to Bethlehem, home to his people and her people, home to her kinsman, the mighty man of wealth, the noble Boaz.

In all this sorrowful way, which was of the Lord, the bereaved and dear Naomi, who was still pleasant, was a beautiful and true type or figure of the Hebrew church of Christ.  For all that was true of Naomi in her experience in going out full, and in the Almighty dealing very bitterly with her, and in bringing her home again empty, was as touchingly true also in the Lord’s dealings with the gospel church among the Jews.  For he took away from them their legal head, their first husband, their children under the law, and all their inheritance and fullness in the old covenant.

As Naomi went away from Judah to the country of Moab, so did her legal people depart from that covenant, and they lost all their legal fullness.  To suffering Naomi it was a bitter way indeed, yet it was the Lord’s good and best way to bring her home to a better inheritance, and to rest in a richer faith and trust.  Paul clearly shows all this, by relating all his advantages and fullness in the law as an Hebrew, and then says, “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things.”  In this way only could Paul know and be brought into the fullness of Christ, and Christ become more than all else to him, and blessedly be all in all.

Having seen how the Lord was wonderfully shown us that in the typical Naomi, let us now return to the lovely Ruth in the little city of Bethlehem.  She was a Gentile, but had forever turned away from her natural people and their gods, henceforth to live and die with the people of Naomi, and to worship her God.  We have read her precious words to Naomi.  Truer love, stronger faith, firmer trust and more undying devotion to God and his people could not dwell in the heart of any one, even Mary the mother of Jesus.  It beautifully manifests the blessed and sweetly overcoming power of the God of all grace in bringing home to himself the stranger, the Gentile Ruth, to live to him in the same faith and can fail to be filled with hearty admiration and esteem for both the Jewish mother and her Gentile daughter, for their endearing love and union to each other.  This is a sweet wonder, seeing that the Jew looked upon the Gentile as unholy and unclean, as no better than swine.

We have seen that Ruth, whose name means a friend, the true and loving Ruth, was a woman of faith, a faith that could not be turned back, an overcoming and trusting faith in the God of Israel,  This was Naomi’s God, and now no less the God of Ruth.  In this faith and uniting love they two were one, and their people one.

All will now see in lovely Ruth a beautiful type of the Gentile church.  Poor in herself and a stranger, her faith in God had separated her from the world in which she once was at home, and it had joined her to Naomi and her people in Bethlehem.  Most touchingly Ruth walked by faith, and was saved by hope.  For her faith and hope in the God of Naomi was all she had in the world to look to and trust in.  True, Naomi was with her as her loving mother, but Naomi was as poor and needy herself as Ruth, and they were then both desolate widows, sorrowful and having no inheritance.  God alone could provide for them now, build them a house and give them an inheritance.  With nothing in their hands, having neither husband nor son, the God of Abraham had brought these two sorrowing women to Bethlehem.  O how sadly interesting they were!  It is no wonder “that all the city was moved about them;”  for our own hearts are moved about them in love and sympathy.

We behold in Naomi and Ruth, Jew and Gentile, thus united as one in the same faith and love to God, the one church of Christ in her desolate widowhood and poverty in herself, before the spiritual Bridegroom manifestly betroths her unto himself in bonds of love and faithfulness, and seals her upon his heart as his bride, all fair and lovely.

In this place it is edifying and profitable that we notice the commendable example the Lord has wisely given the church in Ruth, of a true believer in coming to dwell with his people in the church.  Naomi, a type of the church, did not urge or persuade Ruth to go, nor even invite her, but urged her to go back to her natural people, as Orpah had done, and told her of her own afflictions, and that she could offer her no natural inducement to cast her lot with hers in Bethlehem.  This proved the faith of Ruth, that it was in God, and she must be true to her faith.  “Faith worketh by love, and purifieth the heart.”  It was her faith that separated Ruth from her worldly people, and turned her willing feet to go with Naomi.  The same faith in Moses led him also to choose to suffer affliction with the people of God, rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin.  Seeing this in sweet Ruth, Naomi was content to have her with her.  Had she urged Orpah, as many are urged now, she would also have gone on with them to Bethlehem, as she had started to go.  But this would have been worse for both Naomi and Orpah, because she was moved by sympathy and natural affection only, and she could not have felt at home with the Lord’s poor and afflicted people.  It is needless and wrong, therefore, to urge any one to go to the church; for until they are drawn and moved, like Ruth, it were better to follow the example of Orpah.  The Lord in his perfect love and wisdom has given his people these true examples and patterns for our learning.

Boaz now appears to Naomi and Ruth, and he is another worthy and noble example.  The Lord, the God of his people Israel, raised Boaz up for that time, and specially honored him, so that he became renowned in Israel, as we shall see.  Yea, the Lord made Boaz the head of the house of Elimelech, the restorer of the lost inheritance to both Naomi and Ruth, and the illustrious ancestor of the house of David the king, of whom Christ came according to the flesh.  All this was through blessed Ruth, and for her sake.  For both King David and his son King Jesus were sons of lovely Ruth, the woman of faith.  “This is the LORD’S doing; and it is marvelous in our eyes.”  Do we wonder now that Elimelech and his two sons, in whose name was the inheritance, must be sent through famine into the country of Moab and there lose their inheritance through poverty and death, and there leave three desolate and poor widows?  For this was God’s way to take away the legal inheritance, to restore to his poor people the better gospel inheritance, to bring in the Gentiles as fellow-heirs with the Jews, and to bring salvation to both Jews and Gentiles.  The hand of the Lord directed it all.

It was the time of barley harvest at Bethlehem when the Lord brought his daughter Naomi home, and her trusting Ruth with her, to share her poverty.  And thus through hunger Ruth went into a near field to glean, or gather up the heads of grain that might be left by the reapers.  This was the law in Israel, that the poor might live.  The Lord blessed the poor, and they have the gospel preached to them.  It is because they are poor that they feast on its riches.

“And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him whose sight I shall find grace.”  Behold her faith!  “And she said unto her, Go my daughter.  And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech.  And, behold Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, The LORD be with you.  And they answered him, The LORD bless thee.”  Seeing Ruth gleaning, Boaz asked them, “Whose damsel is this?”  Being told, he said to her, “Hearest thou not my daughter?  Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens: let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go thou after them: * * * and when thou art athirst go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn.  Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him ‘Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?  And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath fully been shewed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother-in-law since the death of thine husband: and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore.  The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.  Then she said, Let me find favor in thy sight, my lord; for that thou hast comforted me, and for that thou hast spoken friendly unto thine handmaid, though I be not like unto one of thine handmaidens.”

“So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest.”  He had commanded his young men to let her glean even among the sheaves, and to let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she might glean them.  Ruth related all this to Naomi, who said unto her, “Blessed be he of the LORD, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead.  And Naomi said unto her, the man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen.”

To the nearest kinsman in Israel belonged the right of redemption of the forfeited inheritance, that he might justly restore it to the family in rightful possession.  Naomi and Ruth were the only remaining heirs of the family of Elimelech, and they were equal heirs.  Now it was in the heart of Boaz to perform the kinsman’s part for Ruth, by making her his wife, thus restoring her and Naomi to the inheritance, and making them the happy possessors with himself of his own rich inheritance and home.  But there was a nearer kinsman than Boaz, as he told Ruth, whose claim upon Naomi and their lost inheritance was first.  So Boaz said to Ruth, “If he will perform unto thee the part of a kinsman, well, let him do the kinsman’s part: but if he will not do the part of a kinsman to thee, then will I do the part of a kinsman to thee, as the LORD liveth.”

Before ten of the elders of the city this one thus answered Boaz: “And the kinsman said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance: redeem thou my right to thyself; for I cannot redeem it.”

“And Boaz said unto the elders, and unto all the people, Ye are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and all that was Chilion’s, and Mahlon’s, of the hand of Naomi.  Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye are witnesses this day.  And all the people that were in the gate, and the eldres said, we are witnesses.”

“So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife.”  Unto them was born a son, And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the LORD, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel.  And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age, for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him.  And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it.  And the women and her neighbors gave it a name saying, There is a son born unto Naomi, and they called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David.”  Obed means worshiping God.  How true this name was of Boaz and Ruth and Naomi, and how true the prophecy of the women, that this son should be famous in Israel, and should restore the life of Naomi; for of his sons there should be raised up unto Naomi and Ruth and the house of Israel a line of famous kings, from David unto Christ.  And so Ruth was indeed better to Naomi than seven sons.

Now all this is truly blessed and wonderful.  The infinite love and wisdom and omnipotent power of the God of Boaz and Ruth only could have accomplished it.  Here was poor Ruth, a Gentile stranger, who had come from afar, an humble gleaner, now exalted to honor and riches, and made the happy wife of Boaz, a Jew!  Yea, she became the near ancestress of the renowned King David; yea, too, of King Jesus, the Son of David, and the last King to reign upon the throne of his father David; for he was of her family in Israel!  It is al most blessed and glorious.  God, and not man, had wrought it all.  Most wonderfully did the Lord fulfill the blessing of Boaz upon Ruth at their first meeting, saying, “The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.”

Boaz and Ruth are one, she the happy bride, he the rejoicing bridegroom; and in them the Gentiles are one with the Jews, their fellow-heirs to the same inheritance.  And better still, through the lovely Ruth, our friend, the holy child Jesus, the Son that God gave unto us, is one with us Gentiles.

Now this leads us to enquire, By what law of righteousness Boaz redeemed the forfeited inheritance of Elimelech, restored it to Namoi and Ruth, made her his bride, and raised up a son and heir to Elimelech and kindredship.  This was God’s law in Israel.  The right of redemption and of marriage to the widow of the kinsman belonged to the brother or nearest kinsman.  This was a sacred right.  Boaz was a noble son of Abraham, the friend of God, and he esteemed it an honor to himself to honor this righteous law.  But there was a nearer kinsman than himself and this one held the first claim against this poor family.  But we have seen that Boaz redeemed this claim unto himself, and then fulfilled all the law of redemption, most happily to Naomi and Ruth.  In all this it could be truly and righteously said of him, “Then I restored that which I took not away.”  These are the words of One greater than Boaz, even of the Redeemer of his father’s family, our spiritual near kinsman.

Thus it was in all these respects, as we have seen, and very specially as the near kinsman and redeemer, the restorer, that Boaz was the noble and renowned type of our Brother Redeemer.  What, then, did the nearer kinsman typify? Who said, “I cannot redeem it,” and whose claim Boaz honored by redeeming it to himself.  He evidently represented the law of justice; for we know that the law could not redeem that which was forfeited and held under bonds.  Yet the claims of the law were just, and they must be met righteously, and met, too, by a near kinsman, one in whom was the right of redemption, as shown in the typical Boaz.  Paul therefore says, “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, (not by us,) who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

We may truly say of Naomi and Ruth, that in the spirit of the law of redemption it was fulfilled in them, and they walked in its fulfillment rejoicingly, but their rejoicing and their happy freedom from condemnation, and justification unto righteousness, was in Boaz, their near kinsman and redeemer, and not in themselves.  In this Naomi and Ruth personated the church under the law, and the redeemed church under grace, even as Boaz personated Christ, the spiritual Bridegroom and Head of the church.  In Boaz there was a blessed redemption and free inheritance for both Naomi and Ruth, Jew and Gentile.  The same is more blessedly true in Christ Jesus the Savior of the Jews and also of the Gentiles.

“Wherefore my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.”  This is true as well of the Jew as of the Gentile.  “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into on Spirit.”

“But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.  For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh and enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby; and come and preached peace to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh.  For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.  Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.”

How happily this was prefigured by Naomi and Ruth in the house of Boaz, and how dear was their love and sacred their peace!  We have seen that Boaz was the same near kinsman to Ruth that he was to Naomi, before he married Ruth, he being the brother of their husbands, or their near kinsman.  In the absence of this kindredship, which must be near, the right of redemption could not have vested in Boaz, but because of it, Naomi and Ruth, representing the children of God among the Jews and the Gentiles, are made one blessed family in Boaz and in Jesus.  For Jesus was no less the near kinsman of Ruth than he was of Naomi and Boaz, both in the flesh and in the Spirit.  As the Son of David, Jesus was descended from no less than four Gentile women.  Of these our typical Ruth, the bride and the joy of the mighty Boaz, was the most illustrious, because she was the very embodiment of overcoming Faith and blessedly personified the bride of the Son of God, the household of faith.

Boaz loved Ruth, and gave himself for, her that all his honor and riches might be hers with him; so likewise did Christ love the church, and gave himself for it, that he might present it to himself a glorious church.  Boaz, the near kinsman, redeemed Naomi and Ruth up out of poverty, putting them in possession of his own inheritance; and so Christ brings home all his kindred from legal bondage and Gentile idolatry, to love and worship God in the beauty of holiness, and will say to them.  “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

Excerpt from Elder David Bartley's work, The Christ Man In Type

Gadsby's Questions About The Law - William Gadsby (1773–1844)

GADSBY'S QUESTIONS ABOUT THE LAW

The following article was taken from William Gadsby's work The Present State of Religion
where he dealt with the law as a rule of conduct for the Christian.

Dear Sir,

Friend G. informs me you wish me to write to you, and inform you what law it is that I say the believer is in no sense under. I therefore write to say (though I cannot help thinking you must know) that it is the law given to Moses on Mount Sinai, commonly called the moral law, or ten commandments, recorded in Exod 20, and hinted at, with its curses annexed to it, in Deut 27. This is the law I intend, and do venture to say that the believer in Christ is in no sense whatever under it; so that it is not a rule of life to that man who is led by the Spirit. As you promised to answer me if I should write to you, I will propose to you a few questions, and I hope I shall do it in the fear of God, and shall expect you to answer them In plainness of speech; and,

1st. If the law Is the believer's rule of life, shall thank you to tell me what is intended by the letter written by the apostles and elders, and sent to the believing Gentiles, as recorded in Acts 15:1-20, and shall expect you to explain the chapter.

2ndly. Hope you will tell me what the apostle means in the first six verses of Romans 7:1-6, where he says that the believer is dead to the law, and free from the law; and let me know how that law can be his rule, when he is as dead to it, and as free from it, as a woman is from her husband when she has buried him. Should you be disposed to say that the believer is dead to it as a covenant, not as a rule of life; you will, no doubt, point to those scriptures which make a distinction between the law as a covenant and as a rule of life; for unless you do this, you will not move me.

3rdly. You will have the goodness to inform me what is intended by the first four verses of Romans 8:1-4; and let me know how it comes to pass that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has made me free from the law of death, and yet that the law of death (called in another place the killing letter) is my rule of life; and how is it that it is my rule of life after it has killed me, and I am made free from it?

4thly. You will read 2 Corinthians 3:2,13, and let me know how it is that the administration of death, written and engraven on stones, is the living man's rule of life, and how this can be consistent with what the observes in verse 2, where he says 'it is done away,. and in verse 13, where he says "It is abolished.' Now, my dear son, you are to tell me how that law which is done away and abolished still remains the believer's perfect rule of life.

5thly. You will also show me how it is that the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that when faith is come we are no longer under a schoolmaster, and yet that this schoolmaster is our rule of life after faith is come (Gal 3:24,25.)

6thly. You will inform me how it is that if we be led by the Spirit we are not under the law, and yet that the law is a perfect rule of life to that man who is led by the Spirit (Gal 5:18) There are many things in the Epistle to the Galatians which you will find worthy of your attention in this business. I hope you will read the whole.

7thly. Shall expect you to tell me how it is that the hand-writing which was against us, and contrary to us, is taken out of the way, and nailed to the cross (as Col 2:14) and yet remains a perfect rule of life. Should you be disposed to say that the ceremonial law is here intended, you will tell me how that law, which was the gospel in its day, came to be against the believer, and what there was in it contrary to him.

8thly. You will be sure to inform me how it is that that law which is not made for a righteous man is the righteous man's rule of life (I Tim 1:9.)

9thly. As Christ was made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law (as Gal 4:4,5) you will say how it comes to pass that they still remain under it in any sense that Christ was made under it, seeing he was made under it to redeem them from under it.

10thly. But as whatsoever the law says, it says to them who are under the law (as Rom 3:19) and as the believer is not under the law (as Rom 6:14; Gal 5:18) you will inform me what the law says to them who are not under it.

11thly. If the law contains the whole revealed will of God, as to matter of obedience, as Fuller and others have said, you will let me know upon what ground you prove that unbelievers have no right to be baptized, and partake of the Lord's supper, seeing that what the law says it says to them that are under it; and if it contains the whole of obedience it must require unbelievers to be baptized. You will be sure to reconcile this, if you can.

12thly You will inform me how it is that while men contend for the law being a perfect rule of life to believers, and call those ill names who do not, they can and do, openly, knowingly, and designedly, break the fourth commandment every week. 'You will inform me whether doing every sort of work on the seventh day is walking according to that rule which says, 'Thou shalt not do any work, no, not so much as kindle a fire' (Exod 35:3.)

13thly, and lastly. You will inform me how it is that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth (Rom 10:4) and yet that the believer, who is got to the end of the law at once, namely, by faith in Christ, must come back again, and begin at the beginning, by taking it for a perfect rule of life.

It does appear that most teachers think there should be a distinction made between the sheep and goats, but does it not appear that the greatest part of preachers, in this day, are attempting to give to the goats what belongs to the sheep, and to the sheep what belongs to the goats? For when on the one hand they address the unconverted, they tell them that it is their duty to look to Christ, and believe in him, and that they are warranted to offer them all the blessings of the gospel, thus making the gospel the unconverted man's rule of faith and practice; they, on the other hand, send the sheep to the law of works, and tell them that their comfort depends upon their walking according thereunto. 

And when any poor soul is in darkness, through the power of the world, the flesh, or the devil, instead of pointing them to Christ, and telling them that it has pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell, they tell them to 'remove the cause, and the effect will cease;' and thus the goats are sent to the law of life, and the sheep to the killing letter. But there will be a reckoning day by and by; and a thousand to one but some of these men will be proved to have got over the wall. Thus, my dear Sir, I have proposed a few plain, simple questions, and shall expect you to come to the point in your answers, and it shall be my prayer to the great Head of the church that God will be with you. Waiting your answer, I remain,

Yours, tried, and condemned, upon the evidence of Diotrephes, by the Associated Ministers,
LOVE-TRUTH Manchester, Aug. 8, 1806.

A Discourse Upon The Decrees Of God - Hercules Collins (1646-1702)

A DISCOURSE UPON THE DECREES OF GOD 

By Hercules Collins, 1696

Ephesians 1:11 — "Who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will"

Ephesus was a great and rich city, but given much to idolatry: Paul, Appolos and Aquila, preaching the gospel among them, many were brought off from their idolatrous temples and worship, for the Word of God grew mightily, and many believed and were baptized. The idol-worshippers seeing their idolatry like to fall before the Gospel, as Dagon before the Ark, and their craft in danger: the great goddess Diana despised, and her magnificence destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshipped; a great uproar was among them: which when ceased, Paul called the disciples together, embraced them, so went to Macedonia; but left Timothy there, to charge some, they preach no other doctrine than Christ crucified, and not to give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions rather than godly edifying (I Tim. 1:3,4).

The Apostle in the context treating of election, predestination, redemption, justification, adoption, sanctification, and an eternal inheritance; he comes in our text to resolve whence all these flowed; which is from no other fountain that the counsel of God's own will: that those who were by nature children of wrath, walked according to the course of this world, and dictates of the prince of the power of the air, fulfilling the delights of the flesh and of the mind, were without hope, and without God in the world, as to any saving knowledge of Him; that those that were afar off, are made nigh; of strangers, fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of faith; that those who were once idol-worshippers, are now sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, are gracious works in time, flowing from His purposes in eternity, as the Apostle in our text above affirms.

In the words we consider these parts:

First, The Agent. Who "God, the Father: "(verse 3). "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath chosen us in Him: " that is, as He is the Head, and the Church the body; as He the King, the Church the Kingdom; for Christ, as man is God's Elect (Isa. 42:1), yea, the Head of Election and Predestination: He was fore-ordained to be the Head of a holy, glorious, mystical body; the King of a glorious kingdom, perfect Captain of a glorious company; the Bridegroom of a glorious bride: Yet if He will have this honor, He must purchase it; if He will make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed (Isa. 53:10). He shall be Head of this body, King of this kingdom, Captain of this company, Bridegroom of this bride. Is it likely that this purchase can be capable of losing? Then He may be a King without a kingdom, a Bridegroom without a bride, a Head without a body: but how is this possible?

If He be a Head, He must have a body, if a King, He must have a kingdom, if a Captain, He must have a company; if a Bridegroom, He must have a bride, because relatives: He that is a Father, must have a child; He who is a Husband, must have a wife; or if Christ be a Bridegroom, He must have a bride: If so, where is any room for a total and final fall from true grace? A child cannot cease to be one's child; and if once children, then heirs (Romans 8:17), no fear then of losing the inheritance.

Mark, when it is said, "We are chosen in Christ, " we are not to understand, as if the death and merits of Christ were the foundation of election: No, that's from the grace and love of the Father. This is the Fountain from whence election flows; hence the elect are called the Father's (John 17:16), "Thine they were, and Thou gayest them Me. " Yet the death of Christ is the foundation of all grace in the Church-militant, and glory in the Church-triumphant (I Thess. 5: 9, 10). The Father from free Sovereign Grace, choose a number out of the world in their fallen state when in misery, and makes them vessels of mercy (Romans 9:23) [a sublapsarian viewpoint – Ed.] But, if Christ will have the honor to be their Lord, He must pay a certain sum for them, no less than His blood; because Justice had said, the man (if he transgressed) should die, either in his person or in a Surety. So here is "Mercy and Truth met together, Righteousness and Peace kiss each other,” (Psalm 85:10). Here, the Mercy of the Father meets the Righteousness of the Son; the Mercy of the Father, in providing a Surety to pay and satisfy Himself; the Justice of Christ, in laying down His life. These sweetly agree in order to the everlasting peace of a lost sinner; so that when it's said, "We are chosen in Christ," it intends as He was to be the Head, of the Church the body; as He the King, the Church the kingdom: but not chosen in Christ, as if His death were to merit our election, that was from the Father's love; yet His death is the fountain of all grace in time, and all glory in eternity.

Secondly; The Act, "worketh:" It's not said, He hath wrought, or will, but worketh; signifying, that all the acts of Divine Providence, past, present, and to come, are nothing but the execution of His eternal counsel, purpose and will.

Thirdly; The Universality of it, "all things:" This word, "all things," is not limited to the context; but as if the Apostle should say, "All that I have spoken of before concerning redemption, justification, salvation, and all other acts of Divine Providence, which I have not mentioned, are all according to His eternal purpose, and counsel of His own will.

Fourthly; The manner of the Agent's Act, is "according to the counsel of His own will;” not work according to the counsel of another's will, but of His own. As God took no counsel of man's will in the work of Creation (Isa. 40:13,14), neither does He in the work of salvation: As God wrought according to His own will, and not of man's in the first Creation; so He works according to His own will and counsel, and not man's in the New Creation (Romans 11:34). Of His own will the Child of Grace is begotten, and the Seed of Grace sown, as the Apostle James asserts (James 1:18). If then it be of His own will, `tis not of man's.

OBSERVATION

All the acts of Divine Providence in time; whether in the Church or the world, are all the effects, products and executions of God's eternal pleasure, purpose, counsel and will. I shall speak to three general heads:

I. The Demonstration
II. Speak to some Properties of the Divine Will
III. Draw some Natural Inferences from the Doctrine, with some other uses in the close.

That this doctrine is true appears from the Creation: If God had not first willed and decreed it, it had not been. David's members were written in the book of God's decrees (Psalm 139:16), when as yet there were none of them in being, but in time had a being, by virtue of their having been there written. Yea, our very habitation where we dwell, were beforetime determined and appointed: which doctrine Paul preached to the Athenians on Mar's Hill (Acts 17:26), to bring them off from their idolatry to worship the true God who made Heaven and Earth, and all things therein; and made all nations of one blood, to dwell upon the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitations that they might seek the Lord; so that the time of our being, and the place of our being, is according to God's determination aforetime. Moreover, Pontius Pilate, the Jews, and Gentiles act of crucifying Christ, was the fulfilling of God's counsel, which "He determined before to be done" (Acts 4:27,28). God may be said to be the cause of an action, when no cause of the sin of that action, that ariseth out of the heart, saith our Lord (Matthew 15:19) — "Evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, etc." Everyone will grant, no man can do any sinful acts, as swear and lie with the tongue, steal and murder with the hand, without the power of God concur to uphold and strengthen those organs and members, "For in Him we live and move, and have our being," (Acts 17:28), yet they are not upheld and strengthened for that end, but His glory: but man abuses his physical and natural strength.

God's determination that Christ should die to save man, laid none under a necessity of sinning: but God foreknew in His counsel what the malice of the devil, Jews and Gentiles would be against this Person to put Him to death: And God did determine not to prevent it, but suffer it, because He knew how to bring Glory to Himself out of it. It was necessary Christ should suffer, that God might not be mistaken in His foreknowledge, or come short of His determinate decree. But this neither took away the liberty of Christ's suffering, neither did it take away the liberty of the Jews, and their voluntariness in putting Christ to death. God's decree that Christ should suffer, did infallibly secure the event; but did not annihilate and destroy the liberty of the act, neither in Christ as aforesaid, who freely suffered Himself, nor the Jews, who as freely and voluntarily put Him to death, as if there had been no decree of God at all about His death.

The gardener' foreknowledge that such seeds and roots will in the Spring produce such leaves and flowers, is not the cause of their rise and appearance in the Spring; but knowing the virtue of such roots, so concludes: So God's foreknowledge what wicked works would proceed from the root of a wicked heart concerning Christ's death, is no more cause of those evil acts, than the gardener is the cause of the rise of such flowers in Spring from such roots, because he foreknew the nature of them. God's foreknowledge that Adam would fall, put 'him under no necessity of it, but `twas done voluntarily and freely; yet God foresaw infallibly he would fall, and God determined not to prevent it, knowing how to glorify Himself by it. So God's foreknowledge of the Jews putting Christ to death, did not necessitate them to it, but `twas done as freely as if it had not been foreknown, nor any determination of God about it. Thus we have proved those acts of Divine Providence in time in the world, are the product of God's eternal purpose.

Now we come to show and demonstrate, that all the gracious acts and providences in the Church are the products and executions of His eternal will.

As for the act of effectual vocation (II Timothy 1:9), it is not according to our works (Acts 13:42), but according to His own purpose and grace, which He purposed in Christ before the world began (Ephesians 1:3). That the Gentiles believed in Christ, was because they were "ordained to eternal life:" that the Ephesians were holy, was, because chosen to it, not for it, "before the foundation of the world." The reason why a people are drawn in time to God is because "loved with an everlasting love," (Jeremiah 31:3). The new creation and good works found in the Ephesian Church (Ephesians 2:10), was the pure effect of what God had "before ordained." The hope of eternal life in the saints, is the product of that promise which was made of God, that cannot lie, "before the world began" (Titus 1:2). The sanctification of the Church at Thessalonica, and their belief of the truth (II Thess. 2:13), was in order to that salvation they were chosen and appointed unto "from the beginning" (I Thessalonians 5:0). In a word, our calling, justification, and glorification, are all the effects of God's eternal purpose. This was the doctrine Paul taught the Church of the Romans (Romans 8:28-33), Ephesians, Thessalonians, Timothy and Titus, etc. Christ being manifested in time to the Church, was from His foreordination to it, "before the foundation of the world" (I Peter 1:20). His being slain in time actually, was from the decree in eternity, hence called "the Lamb slain from the .foundation of the world;" not so actually, but in God's decree.

To speak to some of the properties of the Divine Will.

1. It's an eternal will; His will is as Himself and habitation, eternal. God's will is not suspended unto time, to see the creatures' will before He wills concerning them; as if man's will were to determine His; as if God could not determine His own will until He saw man's. His counsels are called "counsels of old," (Isa. 25:1), to signify the eternity of them. We poor creatures will in time; but there is no time with Him, all is eternity with Him. His mercy is said, not only to be everlasting, but "from everlasting," (Psalm 103:17). His love is said to be the same; His covenant is an "everlasting covenant," (II Samuel 23:5), as it has no end, so no beginning. The acts of God's will are all one with His will, His will is all one with His essence, His essence is one pure simple act; God is love essentially, Wise essentially. We may have a being, yet be neither good or wise; but God can as soon cease to be, as cease to be either. If there be no Divine will (saith Polbill upon the Divine Decrees), the glass of the Divine Prescience must be broken; because as God knows all essences in His own Essence, all possibles in His own Omnipotency, all congruities and tendencies to His own glory, in His own unsearchable Wisdom; so He knows all futures in His own eternal will: for all things future were in their own nature but possibles, and could never become future, but by the Divine will; this future of the saints' holiness is from the Divine will, "before the foundation of the world" (Ephesians 1:4).

2. The second property of the Divine will, is righteousness: hence His counsels called by the prophet Isaiah, "faithfulness and truth," (Isa. 25:1) called counsels in respect of the wisdom of them, old in respects of the eternity of them, true in respect of the performance of them. Men often will what's unjust, as Ahab Naboth's vineyard, the Jews the death of Christ, though innocent; Pharaoh and Haman, the destruction of the Church: but it is incompatible with the Divine Being, to will anything unrighteous; as Elihu said. (Job 34:10), "Far be it from the Almighty that He should commit wickedness", "The judge of all the earth will do right; " He who takes no pleasure in wickedness, cannot will it. The sanctification of the Thessalonians was the will of God, and that they "should abstain from fornication," (I Thess. 4:3-5). Things may be better said to be just and righteous because God wills them, than will them because they are just and righteous: For God's will is the Rule of Righteousness: "His work is perfect," saith Moses (Deut. 32:4), "for all His ways are judgment; a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He." When the viols of God's wrath are poured out upon His implacable enemies, it's said, "Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints." Though the foundation of justification be from the free grace of God the Father; yet in consideration of Christ's paying the sinner's debt, God is said to be just in justifying him which believeth in Jesus. God's willing honor and eternal life to those who by patient continuance in well-doing, and God's willing the wicked to the day of evil, are all according to the holy and righteous will of His nature; and when you cannot comprehend some mysterious providence, still retain Jeremiah's principle, conclude, "God is righteous," (Jeremiah 12:1).

3. A third property of the Divine will, is graciousness. The Ephesians being predestinated unto the adoption of children (Ephesians 6:7) as it was according to the good pleasure of His own will, so also to the "praise of the glory of His grace; " so our redemption and justification is according to the riches of His grace. That a Savior is proclaimed by the angels, in order to man's eternal peace, was from the good will of God. What had become of the burning bush in Egypt, had not the good will of God dwelt in it? This name God has commanded to be proclaimed (Exodus 34:7), "The Lord, the Lord God, gracious and merciful, longsuffering, abundant in goodness and truth, pardoning iniquity, transgression and sin, shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love Him," etc. There is a great deal of unmercifulness in sinners' will, as the Devil has a will to destroy all; but blessed be God, who has the great Red Dragon in a chain, his power is not absolute; for though he go up and down the earth seeking souls' destruction (I Peter 5:8), yet it is not whom he will, but whom he may devour. God's will is a gracious will: when He gives His Church Himself in covenant, and all His attributes; His Son and all His offices, and purchased blessings; His Spirit, and all His saving operations: whence can this flow but from the Fountain of Free-grace? Hence `tis said (Ephesians 2:8), "By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God."

4. A fourth property of the Divine will is immutability. Hence His decrees are compared to "mountains of brass," (Zech. 6:1,2), which are immoveable; with Him is not the least shadow of turning; it is not compatible with Him, whose name is Jehovah, to change; if so, the Church had been destroyed e're now. It's not for want of sin in Jacob they are not destroyed, but because He is Jehovah, and changeth not (Mal. 3:6), neither is it possible He should change, because He perfectly foreknows whatever will come to pass. Indeed men who have not that power, do often will and purpose this and that, and change their mind after, not foreseeing he cause of the change; which if they had, would not have will that which they must undo again, because it's some dishonor to men to be changeable, but "God is not a man that He should repent, (Numbers 23:19). "For the gifts and callings of God are without repentance," (Romans 11:29).

When the Scripture speaks about God's repenting He made man (Genesis 6:6), it is not to be understood properly, as if God were capable of repentance, as man is: but it is spoken to our capacity, God is said to repent, when He doth such things as men do when they repent: when God withheld those judgments and effects of His anger He threatened against Ninevah, He is said to repent; so when God lets out His judgment, the effect of His anger upon the old world, God is said to repent: According to our capacity, and man's practice, who when he doth repent of a thing, doth shew it by some visible act. It's because God's compassions fail not, but are ever the same, that the Church is not consumed (Lam. 3:22). Though David's house nor heart was as it should be, yet this was his comfort, God had made with him an everlasting covenant (II Sam. 13:5). God foreknew Israel would be a transgressor from the womb (Isaiah 48:9). Yet for His namesake would defer His anger, and for the praise of His grace would not cut them off. God foreknew Peter's sin, Paul's sin; yet that hindered them not from being "chosen vessels," elect according to the foreknowledge of God (I Peter 1: 1,2). So that whom He once loves, He must love to the end, because there can be nothing hid from Him that might make Him change His mind, as it is often with men. So that we may conclude this with the Apostle, "He who hath begun a good work in you will finish it," (Phil. 1:6).

5. A fifth property of the Divine will is, that it is a Sovereign and Supreme will. He hath an absolute freedom of will (Isa. 41:13). If He will work none can let (hinder) Him (Daniel 4:35). "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 dost Thou?" (Lam. 3:37) "Who saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?" (Psalm 103:19) "God's kingdom ruleth over all." He has absolute power over men and devils. Hence, "He will be gracious to whom He will be gracious, and He will shew mercy to whom He will shew mercy, and whom He will (after the abuse of much patience) He hardeneth," (Romans 9:18). What reason can be given why Christ must take the human nature to save man, and not the angelic nature to save angels? We must answer as Christ in another case, "Even so Father, for so it pleased Thee, it was Thy will and pleasure." So if God will choose Abel, and pass by Cain; choose Isaac, and pass by Ishmael, choose David and Solomon, and pass by Saul; choose Peter and Paul, and pass by Judas: that some of the natural seed of Abraham are elected, and the rest left in their blindness and hardness: what shall we say in this case, but as Moses and the Apostle, "He will be gracious to whom He will be gracious," (Romans 11:7,8)?

If God will convert a profligate sinner, as the thief upon the cross, and take his soul into Paradise the same day, who never gave God a day's service, but a subject of the Black Prince all his days: I say, if God will give him the same happiness He gives another, who has served and suffered for Him forty years, who shall fault God? May He not do with His own grace and glory what He will? When the Apostle said (Acts 10), "God is no respecter of persons," the meaning of that is, God doth not respect the person of a Jew, because a Jew, more than a Gentile, a Roman; as Peter did suppose, before God showed him otherwise in a vision: then he saw Cornelius, though a Roman or Italian, and no Jew, yet believing in Christ, and working righteousness, was accepted as much as the believing Jew. Yet effectual vocation (calling), and saving faith must always be concluded to be, not according to our works, but God's purpose in election, as the Apostle asserts in Romans 9:16, whether it be a Jew or Gentile, that is called effectually. God's will is a Sovereign Supreme will, yet a righteous will; God's power is suitable to His will: Many will great things against the Church, as the Devil and his kingdom wills the destruction of Christ's Kingdom; but their power is not suitable and adequate as God's is to His will; if He has a mind to open and change such a heart, rescue such a one out of the Devil's power, He can do it. He can carry His will through: God's will is a Sovereign and Supreme will, "For there is none above Him, that He should give an account unto any of His matters," as Elihu said unto Job, when under some discontent about Divine Providence (Job 33:13).

6. A sixth property of the Divine Will, is, That it's a will of perfect Wisdom: Hence counsel is joined with it in the text; it's not a mere will, but a will with a depth of Wisdom. He doth everything, which may render any wise, if it be wisdom to act to a right end; so doth God act all for Himself and His own glory. "As He made, so He ordered all things for Himself" (Proverb 16:4). Moreover He knows and observes all circumstances of actions, all second causes are before God, how they will act, and when, and carries all on in an exact harmony with His Divine will and pleasure. This will is not mere will, but a will guided by the Reason and Counsel of His own Infinite Understanding. We never count a willful man a wise man, but all God's acts are said to be in judgment, and working all things according to counsel. The wisest of men often miscarry in their ideas and contrivances; but God never did miscarry for want of Wisdom in anything; all the wisdom of men and angels is from Him. The Prophet Isaiah, speaking of man's wisdom in plowing, sowing, threshing, "This wisdom cometh from the Lord of Hosts," saith the Prophet, "who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working," (Isa. 28: 24,29). As He made the world in Wisdom, so He governs it: for "He works all after the counsel of His own will."

Use 1. By way of instruction. If God works "all things after the counsel of His own will;" then know that God's purposes are some way or other concerned in Satan's tempting of the best of saints. If Satan could not enter into a herd of swine without Christ's leave, surely he cannot without it disturb one saint; the Devil must have leave from God before he could touch a hair of Job's head; and this is very observable, that Satan generally sets most upon the most holy, and those who bring most glory to God, because he envieth their glorifying of Him: this is the chief design of Satan in all your temptations, and the destruction of the soul is his subordinate end. The Devil's assaults are not so much against the weakest as strongest saint; and therefore it is no good inference to conclude, you cannot be a child of God because so much harried, for it's rather an argument you are one of God's choice jewels. David is called "a man after God's own heart," yet he was often set upon by the Evil one. With Job, God gives him the character of "a perfect and an upright man," yet none more plagued by the Serpent than he. And Satan desires to have Peter in His own power, to sift him as wheat, though one of whom Christ said, "I will build My church" upon that faith of his, wherein he believed Christ to be the Son of God. And Paul, though Christ asserts "he is a chosen vessel," yet he must have a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet him. In a word, our dear sinless Savior passed not through the world without Satanical temptations, and some of the worst sort, for he tempted his Maker to worship him.

From hence we may not wonder that we sometimes hear the best and strongest saints mourn under temptations, because Satan sets most violently upon them, knowing they are the greatest enemies unto his kingdom of darkness, and most capable to glorify God, and enlarge Christ's Kingdom. Moreover, he knows God will have more dishonor in the fall of one eminent saint, than of many weak ones; hence he sets most upon them by his temptations. And if the saints would be conquerors in times of temptation, they must not deal with Satan by presenting their duties, what they have done, or their own holiness and righteousness; because Satan will find a flaw in the best of yours; but you must always fight him and overcome him with the blood of the Lamb, and His Righteousness, and rather confess thyself a sinner, leaning upon Christ's imputed righteousness, than stand upon anything of thine own, for then Satan will be too hard for thee. 0 labor to be one of those who come out of great tribulation and temptation, with thy robes washed in the blood of the Lamb.

Use 2. By way of information. Doth God work "all things after the counsel of His own will”? Then we infer this Agent is an independent Being and Worker; If He works "all things after the counsel of His own will," then He doth not depend upon the will of another. Regeneration is not according to "the will of man," but of God (John 1:13), that is, of God's free grace and Divine power; for a child cannot beget itself; he who is dependent upon another's will, cannot do his own, because he depends on another: God depends upon none for Being, Wisdom, Power, Authority to act anything, for "He works all after the counsel of His own will"

The work of sanctification spoken of in the context, was the product and effect of God's eternal counsel and will, and not the effect of man's; God's will depends not upon the creature's will: for when He speaks of a new heart, He doth not say, "If the creature will be willing he shall have it," but He speaks like a Monarch (Ezek. 36:26,27), "I WILL take away the heart of stone, I will give a heart of flesh; I will put My Spirit within them, and will cause them to walk in My statutes." I wait not the creature's motion till he be willing; but I will make him willing, in My working all things after the counsel of My own will. If we consider what regeneration is, it will clearly demonstrate God's will doth not depend upon the creature's will in that work at all, because it is a Divine Seed and principle of grace put where there was never any before; so that in regeneration man is wholly passive, and can contribute no more to his being a new creature, than his being a creature; wherever it is wrought, it is the pure product of God's eternal will, and not the creature's: "Of His own will begat He us," (James 1:17).

The creature's will doth not determine God's, God's will doth not wait the motion of the creature's will before He determine about him; but "He works all things according to the counsel of His own will: " God works in time according to His own purposes, and not men's purposes, in a way of salvation: "For it is not of him that runneth, nor of him that willeth, but of God that sheweth mercy," (Romans 9:16). It's from the merciful purpose of God, and not the creature's will, that any are vessels of glory, and that all are not vessels of wrath; so then man's will cannot prevent nor determine God's because "He works all things after the counsel of His own will: " Both the "will and to do" is wrought in the Philippians, according to God's good pleasure, and not according to man's good pleasure (Phil. 2:12,13).

Use 3. Of inferences. If God "works all things after the counsel of His own will;” then we infer, (1) He is irresistible in His will, because He actually works what He wills. In this sense we say with the Apostle (Romans 9:19), "Who bath resisted His will?" that is, His effective and determinative will: indeed God's ordinative revealed commanding will may be rejected; so the Pharisees rejected the counsel of God against themselves, in not being baptized with the baptism of John (Luke 7:30).

So the Jews resisted the Spirit in the doctrine of the prophets (Acts 7:45). So the false prophets in Jeremiah's time are said, "not to stand in the counsel of the Lord, "(Jeremiah 23:22). So we are to understand the prophet Isaiah to the Church, when he saith, "What could God have done more, which He had not done?" (Isa. 5), that is, in respect to His revealed will and external means, but not in respect of internal grace; for all must confess in that respect He could have done more; but in respect of His revealed will and external means, what could have been done more? "He gave His law to Jacob, and His statutes to Israel, He hath not done so by any other nation," (Psa. 147: 19,20). To them was committed the oracles of God (Romans 3:1,2).

No nation so great in this respect (Deut. 4:7). But though the ordinative will of God may be resisted, yet His will whereby He hath determined to effect this or that, cannot: for in this sense "He is of one mind, and who can turn Him?" (Job 23:13), This counsel of the Lord shall stand, "whatever devices may be in a man 's heart, " (Prow. 19:21, "this counsel of God shall stand," saith the prophet Isaiah, "and He will do all His pleasure," (Isa. 46:10). We can as soon stop the ebbing and flowing of the ocean, and the sun from going its course, as supercede and put a stop to God in His determinative will. How soon did God change the will of the thief on the cross, when this will of God came to act? Though many strong bars be upon the heart against God, by nature and actions, yet if this be the counsel of His will, "He will work, and none can let Him;" "for He worketh all things according to the counsel of His own will." (2). If "God work all things after the counsel of His own will;" then we refer He must be an Omnipotent and Almighty Operator and Worker; for He works what He has a will to do: He willed the creation of the world, but had He not been Omnipotent, He could never have made all things out of nothing, with only, "Let it be so," (Genesis 1:3). He must be Omnipotent, because He wills that which none but an Omnipotent arm can perform: He willed Christ's and the saints' resurrection, which none but Omnipotency can effect; but God can raise the dead, though none else can. He willed the working of saving faith, the faith of Christ, in the souls of the Ephesians, and the knowledge of the riches of the glory of the saints' inheritance:

But the Apostle saith (Ephesians 1:18-20), "No less power can effect it, than that which raised Christ from the dead;” which is set forth by several graduations, he called it "power, great power, mighty power, exceeding greatness of His power, in them who believe according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead." And as by a mighty power, saints are put into a state of grace so they are kept in that state by the mighty power of God through faith unto salvation (I Peter 1:5). This was the doctrine and the experience of the Apostle Peter; He is able to keep you from falling, in respect of His Omnipotency; and willing, in respect of His purpose: "For He worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." It's His purpose and will to overthrow mystical Babylon (Rev. 20:6), but it could not be done, if God were not Omnipotent, and reigned over her. Omnipotency, as `twas required in the first creation, so also in the second. Omnipotency brought light into a dark world, and the same brings Divine Light into a dark heart. Can less than Omnipotency raise and quicken a dead body from the grave? No less power is required to quicken one dead in trespasses and sins; thus the Ephesians were quickened according to the counsel of His own will (Ephesians 1:1,2). (3). If God work "all things after the counsel of His own will:" From hence we infer God's Prescience and Foreknowledge; if whatever comes to pass, cometh to pass because it is the "counsel of His own will," then He must needs foreknow all things: "For known unto God are all His work from the beginning of the world," (Acts 15:18). If there can be nothing come to pass but what He hath determined, then He must of necessity foreknow whatever comes to pass. This is an incommunicable property of the Divine Being. When Jehovah would debase all false gods, He interrogates their worshippers, if they could declare things to come to pass as He could? (Isa. 41:26), "Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? And before time, that we may say, He is righteous?" The true God "declares the end from the beginning," (Isa. 46:10), therefore He must foreknow whatever comes to pass. And albeit God did not decree sin, as sin, to be in the world, because contrary to His Nature; yet He decreed to permit it, knowing how to bring glory to Himself out of it, else would never have permitted it.

Now if God foreknow all things, then He cannot be disappointed in anything, as man is, who knoweth not what shall be on the morrow (Prov. 27:1). Hence when the Scripture saith, "God looked for grapes, and behold wild grapes," (Isa. 5:2), it is not to be understood, as if God were disappointed as man is, who sometimes looks for one thing, but behold another occurs which he looked not for, nor foreknew anything of. But it's written thus, to shew what God might justly expect from that people, considering the means and mercies were bestowed on them: But `tis not compatible with Jehovah to be frustrated in His expectations as man is, "He declares the end from the beginning," He foreknew infallibly who would be saved, and who would miscarry, before He made man; notwithstanding all the means afforded, God foresaw many thousands would perish.

Yet let none say, If so, why did God make man? 0 have a care of thy thoughts! (Romans 9:19-23). "Who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that form it, Why hast Thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? What if God willing to shew His wrath, and make His power known, endured with much longsuffering, the vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction? And that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory." God foreknow the defects of the elect, who are, saith Peter: "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God," (I Peter 1:1,2), yet that did not hinder them from being vessels prepared afore to glory. If all things in time come to pass according to His eternal will, then He must needs foreknow all things, seeing He could not be ignorant of His own will; So He worketh in time "all things after the counsel of His own will" in eternity. (4). If God works in the world, and in the Church, "all things after the counsel of His own will; then we may infer God's Immensity and Infinite Presence. He must be in all places, if He works in all places, nothing is more clear than that! He fills Heaven and Earth with His Presence (Jeremiah 23: 23-24).

He is in the world in the way of providence, in Heaven most glorious, in Hell in His power and Justice; God is in every place, and totally in every place, not a part of God in one place, and a part in another. Neither is God like earthly kings, who can be but in one place at one time, in person, and act in other nations by their representatives; but God is personally present in every place (Psa. 139:7-9), how else could He work all things for the best to them who love God, and "work all things after the counsel of His own will"? He who is of an Infinite Being, must be of an Infinite Presence; this must be, because He hath promised His Presence to the Church to the end of the world: therefore He must be with them in all places of the world, or else cannot make good His Word. God's power is everywhere, therefore Himself: For Himself and attributes are all one: It is not enough to say, God knows all things in the world, as one upon a high mountain may see what is under him; But God is everywhere personally present; as David saith, "Whither can we go from Thy presence?" God is everywhere inclusively, nowhere exclusively: hence David would cry unto God from the ends of the earth (Psa. 61:2), believing God would work all things after the counsel of His own will, for the answering the saints' prayers is according to His purpose. (5). Doth God work all things after the counsel of His own will? Then we infer, that all those things we call casual, fortuitous, accidental, chance, are all the products of the counsel of His will: if that we call chance, be things, it must be some of those "all things" in the text which God worketh; that which we call casual, accidental, in the way of second causes, are all ordered by the first Cause.

"A man cuts down a tree, the head slips off the helve (axe) and gives his neighbor a mortal wound," though done not designedly, but "accidentally" by the man; yet the text saith, "God delivered him into his hand," (Deut. 19:5 compared with Exo. 21:12,13). As for the periods of preservation, they are all fixed on the Divine decrees; there the days of men are determined, their months numbered, and their impassable bounds appointed, as Job saith (Job 14:5). Hezekiah had 15 years added to his days; but there was no addition to the Divine decree. Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, yet they live out all the days set down by the Divine decree.

The Jews, though they had great malice against Christ, could not kill Him until His time was come; rain nor drought, fruitfulness, barrenness, riches, nor poverty, health nor sickness, prosperity nor adversity, life nor death, come not upon us by "chance", but according to the counsel of His own will. Divine Providence extends itself to all persons, things, places and times: This Job knew, he saw God in the loss of his estate and children (Job 1:20,21). Though God made use of the Sabeans and Chaldeans as instruments, yet he looked beyond the second causes to the first Cause. David was dumb under very severe providences, from this principle (Psa. 39:9). God's Divine Providence extends itself to the lion, unicorn, whale, raven, hail, snow; as God tells Job (Job 38, 39, 40, 41). Yea, the fall of a sparrow, nor a hair, is without it: If our hairs are all numbered, much more our years, if a sparrow cannot fall without it, much less a child, a man! That which is "casual" to us, is all ordered by God in infinite Wisdom: Many things fall upon us we never dreamed of, but nothing comes to pass but what God did foreknow; and whatever second causes God may make use of, it is all to bring about the will of the first Cause. Joseph's selling unto Egypt, Shimei's cursing of David, Ahab's going up to Ramoth Gilead, the arrow entering between the harness, though shot at "a venture," was disposed of by God, and had its commission to give him his death wound. The change of government we are under is God's working, according to the counsel of His own will: (Psa. 75:6,7), "For promotion cometh not from the East nor West, North nor South; but God putteth down one and setteth up another. " The great reason there are so many discontented under general and particular providences, is, because they overlook the Finger of God in it; always quarreling with second causes, not considering "God worketh all things after the counsel of His own will."

Some Considerations To Quiet Any Under Trials, In Order To Their Patient Submitting to, And Cheerful Doing of The Divine Will.

First, consider, who can govern the world better than He who made it? Who can dispose of His creatures better than He who gave them a being? Who can tell how to keep a house or watch in order, better than He who made them? Shall magistrates acquire the name of wise governors, and shall not the Governor of the world, who is essentially Wise, be so accounted in His "working all things after the counsel of His own will"? Who is fitter to govern the world than He who made it? This was the very argument God stilled Job withal, (Job 38-42). "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?" Hadst thou no hand in making the world, and wouldest thou a hand in governing it? Am I not able to govern and dispose of My creatures by the same wisdom I made them? Did I take no counsel of man in framing it, and shall I come to man for wisdom to govern it? Had I no counsel of man when I made My decrees, and shall I now come to man for wisdom to execute them, when it's My own glory to "work according to the counsel of My own will"?

Secondly, consider, God takes pleasure in all His purposes and decrees; as God's counsels will stand, because immutable, so His counsels are called "His pleasure" (Isa. 46:10). God's electing, redeeming, adopting, sanctifying, saving the Ephesians, is called "the good pleasure of His will: " that wherein He took delight, or was well-pleasing to Him (Ephesians 1:5). Shall God take pleasure in His decrees, and the execution of them, and shall we not be pleased with what God is pleased withal? Shall we cheerfully submit to the just decrees, will and pleasure of earthly governors, and not to Him whose "Kingdom rules over all" (Psa. 103:19)? All good men do delight in their own just decrees and purposes, and shall not God in His, who cannot go out of Himself or His own purposes to a greater Good, because He is the chief Good? If it do please God to make you His people (I Samuel 12:22), and for your profit is pleased to correct you (Hebrews 12:10), shall we not say, "Blessed be God" for the one, as for the other (Job 1:21)? Although it is too low for a Christian to say, I must submit; it's the glory of the Christian to choose the Divine will.

Reprobates and devils must submit. If God will dispossess a poor sinner of the Devil, he must come out, will he, nil he! Pharaoh indeed obeyed God's will in letting Israel go; but it was sore against his will! A believer should submit to the Divine will out of choice, not force, that's no more than devils and reprobates do: Herein Christ is our Pattern, though the human flesh did sometimes recoil and draw back under the sense of approaching trouble, as good men sometimes do; yet His judgment and will was for complying with the Divine will, though it was to die, (Luke 22:42), not only from the eternal transaction between the Father and Himself, about man's salvation, but knowing it was best to choose the will of such a One who is not only righteous, holy and good, but can "work all things after the counsel of His own will"

Thirdly, consider, Divine content ariseth alone from this principle: Am I content with this revolution, {reference to the reformation during the reign of the Protestant prince, William of Orange, 1688-1702} this alteration in the nation, in my family, my person, in my estate, because it is my Lord's will? So Paul could never be content in every condition, but from this principle, knowing not only that the condition he should be in was best for him, but that it was also according to the purpose of God's own will (Philippians 4:11). Some heathens, called Stoics, labored after contentment in every condition, from the improvement of natural principles: but that was far from Divine contentment, God's content and satisfaction ariseth out of Himself and His decrees, knowing Himself perfect: Now when our content is Divine, it flows from this principle purely, and abstract from all other considerations, this is the Divine will, therefore I submit, and therefore am content, and can do no other but choose it, because it is the will of One who is perfect in Wisdom. Lord, if Thou shouldst refer any case to me, to make my own choice, I would refer it to Thee again, and say as the brethren of Berea and Thessalonica, concerning Paul whom they loved dearly, and shed so many tears for at parting, "The will of the Lord be done."

Fourthly, consider, all in God, and all about God, serves to bring about His decrees and eternal counsel.

First, all in God, if I may so express it, all the attributes of God are concerned in the accomplishment of His will; His will decrees all, His Wisdom orders all, His Truth and Power accomplisheth all. Mark, God's Power acts not beyond His Purpose: though in point of power, God could do many things more than He doth, and prevent many things that come to pass; yet in point of His decree, cannot: In point of power God could prevent those garments rolled in blood in the nations of the world, and many family, relative, personal afflictions upon us, and upon His Churches; yet in point of His decree cannot: The Power of God is active, one while to accomplish His will (Acts 17:24), and at another time ceaseth to act, to bring about the Divine purpose: If God withdrew His Power from a creature, he quickly ceaseth to move; and if God do send forth His Spirit, we are created (Psa. 104:29,30). Some may say, I committeth my near relation, husband, wife, or child, into God's hand, with a firm belief God could raise them up; and yet they died: Soul, thou didst well to believe in God's Power. But would you have God act His Power contrary to, or in the preventing His decrees? Remember God's Power acts not beyond His decrees, but all in God, either in a way of action or cessation from act, serves to bring about His own eternal, unchangeable will.

Secondly, all about God serves to complete His Divine purposes and decrees. I mean the holy saints and angels in glory (Psa. 103:20). "They do His commands hearkening unto the voice of His Word " The spirit of the living creatures, and the wheels, went in Ezekiel's vision, wherever the Spirit of God went for to accomplish His will: So the four spirits or chariots in Zechariah's vision (Zech. 6:104), which came out from between the mountains of brass, the immutable decrees of God, these are all employed in the four quarters of the world, to accomplish those eternal decrees; so that whatever providences they were employed about, whether frowning providences, toward the enemies of God and His Church, signified by the red and black horses, or mixed providences signified by the grizzled and bay horses, some mercy and some affliction; or whether smiling providences upon the Church, signified by the white horses in the third chariot, these all serve to accomplish the immutable decrees of God: And seeing none shall enter the Holy Place "but he which doth the will of the Father," (Matthew 7:21), let it be our daily cry, "Lord help me to do Thy will on earth, as it is done in Heaven," (Matthew 6:10). To suffer patiently, and do cheerfully the will of God upon the earth, is a very great resemblance of the Heavenly life; there is nothing in Heaven, but the Divine will done and delighted in. The angels which are in chains of darkness, their hearts did no sooner rise against the Divine will, but were cast out of the airy Heaven into Hell; and all such as obey not the gospel of Christ, can expect no less than flaming fire (II Thess. 1:8). Is it fit a King should entertain a company of rebels, which continually oppose his will?

Let such remember, as God hath Power and Goodness enough to fix the godly and obedient in everlasting bliss, so He hath Power and Justice enough to fix the disobedient in complete misery. Remember, 0 disobedient soul! "He can work all things according to the counsel of His own will. Will you not tremble at His presence, who appointed the sand for the bound of the sea?" (Jeremiah 5:22). "Who knows the power of His anger?" (Psa. 90:11). Whoever hardeneth himself against God, and prosper? Who but one lunatic would oppose the joint commands of a general, whose army is an hundred thousand strong, that can crush him as a moth? Oh! What armies in Heaven and earth can God raise against an impenitent sinner, an army of angels, stars, lice, frogs, caterpillars, locusts; yea, God can arm thy own conscience against thee, which is more than all. Provoke not this Lord to jealousy: Are you greater than He, who can destroy soul and body in Hell? Rather labor to "make peace with Him, and you shall make peace with Him," (Isa. 27:5).

Finally, Doth "God work all things after the counsel of His own will"? Then "blessed is the nation, whose God is the Lord, and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance, because the counsel of the Lord standeth forever, and the thoughts of His heart to all generations," (Psalm 33:11,12).

FINIS

The Christ Man In Type, Adam - Elder David Bartley (1827-1908)

"Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of Him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. " Romans 5:14-17

These wonderful testimonies of the Scriptures reveal to us the truth that God made Adam in the image and likeness of his beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

The figure or image of the Man Christ Jesus. This figure Adam is. No other man is called the figure of Christ, although others were also types of him, but not in the pre-eminent way that Adam is.

It will instruct and comfort us to trace in the Scriptures this likeness of Adam to Christ. The first is, God gave Adam dominion over all the earth, and put all things under his feet. In this Adam is a noble figure of the second Man, the Lord from heaven. To no other man has God ever given this dominion, authority and honor. This entire dominion, power and glory is perfectly fulfilled in the last Adam, to whom God said: “Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.”

 When the risen Jesus had put death under his feet, he came to his disciples and said: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” Paul speaks of the working of God’s mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all Principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the Head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.” This is the glorious anti-type of Adam.

 Adam is the head of Eve and all her children. In this he is the figure of Christ. Paul says: “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the Head of the church: and he is the Savior of the body.” It is in this oneness of the head and the body, the husband and the wife, that Adam is specially the figure of him that was to come. “And Adam said: This’ is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” In life and nature and name they two were truly one. Yea, also, in estate, whether of goodness or woe, life or death, they were one. Neither life nor death could separate Adam and Eve. When she sinned, and death passed upon her, it behooved him to partake with her and suffer and die with her and for her. Life and Love united them. God had made them one. How touchingly they are the figures of Christ and the church: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”

In this Christ is infinitely greater than Adam. For the first Adam could only die with Eve, and remain with her under sin and death, but the last Adam had power both to lay down his life, and had power to take it up again. He said: “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” This is most wonderful and glorious. To no other man or being did God give this power. Power here means, lawful and rightful authority. “There is a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” said our heavenly Friend to us.

This wonderful Man is the Head and Husband of his Bride. “He that hath the bride is the Bridegroom, said John the Baptist, the friend of Jesus. It was only because of this union or oneness, a unity in life and substance, in name and interest, between the Bridegroom and his bride, that Jesus had the power to lay down his righteous life for the church. In all things Christ and the church and all her members or children are one; therefore he loved the church, which is his body and fullness, and gave himself for it.

In this oneness with his bride and love for her which sin nor guilt nor death could sever, Adam is a beautiful and wonderful figure of our heavenly Bridegroom. Paul says that Adam was not deceived; but Eve had been deceived and had sinned unto death. In every dear and sacred way they were still one, and this bond of life and love behooved him to give himself and his life for her. So he willingly partook of her sin, and went down into death with her. Thus far Adam is a figure of Christ, and Eve is a figure of the church.

 O how pathetic is their betrothal and oneness under the law of sin and death! Let us go with them to lovely Eden, and view them in their innocence as God put them there, and said of all his work that he had created and made that “It was very good.” In perfect wisdom and goodness God made all his work, and ordained it unto his own glory. In all his great and wonderful work which the LORD God created and made, there was not the least mistake or blunder. Wisdom and Knowledge, Counsel and Purpose were with him, and presided over all his manifold works. Not only do his perfect attributes establish the certainty of all this, but the holy Scriptures fully testify that it is so. Believing this truth, we in spirit go back to Eden, from whence we were driven out.

Here we look, behold with wonder and read: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” But, lo, the man is there alone in his beautiful paradise! How strange this is to us. As we gaze in wonder and surprise at this, our vision is raised to heaven, and with still greater wonder we behold in the paradise of God a glorious One, and he speaks and says: “The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth; while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there; when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: when he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: when he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment; when he appointed the foundations of the earth; then I was by him, as one brought up with him; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights, were with the sons of men.” We look to behold the objects of his delights, but our vision sees only him with the omnipotent Maker.

 Seeking light, we read again: “My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” So God clearly saw from the dateless beginning that which we could not see.

Again we read: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. “And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.” To the church in Christ Paul said: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” In spirit we are now carried up to Christ in heaven; and, behold, the bride, the Lamb’s wife, was there in him in her spiritual substance before the world was, before God made Adam, who is the figure of Christ. And certainly the figure could not exist before its substance. Just before he died, the Son of God asked his Father to glorify him with the glory which he had with him before the world was.

 Our vision now beholds wonderful Eden again; and, lo, the voice of God says: “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. * * * And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.” God had raised Adam up out of his deep sleep; and now, behold, Eve stood by his side! spotless and fair, and Adam was blessed and happy in her, and could well say, as the divine Bridegroom said, “Thou art all fair, my love:” “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.” O lovely bride and bridegroom! blessed of God, your Maker. His hands made and fashioned you. And he made you lovely types of the wonderful Bridegroom of heaven, his beloved Son and his bride.

Oh! with amazement and sorrow, we see the scene all changed in Eden, and in vision we follow the man and his wife, as hand in hand, with bowed heads and tear stained faces, they slowly turn away from lost Eden, and go forth to till the ground and eat their bread in sorrow, until their mother Earth received them into her bosom. For they sadly know now that their darkened way surely leads them down, down to death. Oh! How dreadful the word DEATH!! Why must it be so? Did not God bless them? Did he not pronounce all that he had made “very good?’ Has his beneficence and goodness failed? Does he hate this yet lovely pair that he had blessed? All is fearfully dark, and seems against them and lost. Looking back to Eden, with terror they see that the fiery cherubim and a flaming sword guard the tree of life, and the weeping man and woman flee away. Blind unbelief would say, that God himself was defeated and all his grand purpose was a woeful failure.

But O, look and wonder again at penitent Adam and Eve! for they are clothed with the seamless skins of innocent animals, whose blood and life have been taken; and their Maker himself has wrought their robes and put them upon them. Yea, also, they hear him say to the beguiling serpent: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”

This decree of God is absolute, and it must be accomplished. God himself put this enmity between the woman and the serpent, the devil, and between her seed and his seed. Here in type is Christ and the church, the seed of the woman, for they are all born of woman, and are all partakers of flesh and blood, both the Son of God and all the children of God. The devil and his seed of evil doers all hate and persecute the woman, the church, and her Son and children. And so in their flesh they must all be bruised, suffer and die, even as Adam and Eve and all their children must die because of sin. So of Christ and the children God gave him it is written: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

 This decree of God is absolute, and it must be accomplished. God himself put this enmity between the woman and the serpent, the devil, and between her seed and his seed. Here in type is Christ and the church, the seed of the woman, for they are all born of woman, and are all partakers of flesh and blood, both the Son of God and all the children of God. The devil and his seed of evil doers all hate and persecute the woman, the church, and her Son and children. And so in their flesh they must all be bruised, suffer and die, even as Adam and Eve and all their children must die because of sin. So of Christ and the children God gave him it is written: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

 Thus the purpose of God is unfolded by the solemn events in Eden, and his infinite goodness and the exceeding riches of his mercy are made known. All was as he purposed. God made the subtil serpent; he planted the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden, and gave the command to Adam not to eat of it, and made the penalty of disobedience death. He then caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, took a rib from his side, near his heart, made woman, the companion and help meet of man, and brought her to Adam. She was beguiled by the serpent to eat and sin. This brought Adam down under the law of God, that he might die with her. All was thus fixed and sure, and resulted in the determined end. In this wonderful way God made Adam the figure of the Christ-Man, whom God had verily foreordained to come into the world and die for the church, his bride and body. Neither Adam nor Christ were deceived, but the bride of each were deceived, and were in the transgression. But the sin and death of these two brides brought the head and husband and life of each one down into death with them. God ordained that it should be so. In this way God and his Christ were to be glorified, and heaven was to be filled with the happy people saved by the Lord.

 It was not possible for almighty Power, guided by infinite Wisdom and Love, to be at fault or err; therefore every thing that God created and made was according to his perfect counsel and eternal purpose, and was very good, and his purpose was fulfilled in all the deeply solemn events of Eden, and not the least thing in all the counsel of God failed. To say it did, and that God would have had it different, would be to charge him with both weakness and folly. None that fear God will do this, but all who thus do are themselves irreverent, ignorant and foolish. “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.” They have not this wisdom.

 In this fear and wisdom, let us now again look upon a profoundly wonderful event in Eden, in which Adam is the figure of him that was to come. With awe and deep amazement and sorrow we behold him prostrate as one dead, his eyes closed and the life-blood flowing from his wounded side. While we look and weep, that the life of this lovely man should end so early, our sorrow is turned into astonished joy; for the lonely Adam not only revives and lives again, but out of his wounded side, lo, there is with him a living and loving bride, most beautiful and lovely to behold! The bridegroom rejoices over his bride. They now both live a new life. To him Eden is all the more beautiful because she is there to enjoy it with him. O how blessed and good is the work of God! So far from complaining at his deep sleep and suffering, without which there had been no living and happy help meet with him, Adam the more adores and praises God for all his great and marvelous works, and Eve joins in the praise.

 How touchingly wonderful is this type! Our faith beholds in it the beloved Son of God, the devoted Bridegroom of heaven, wounded and bleeding; then in a deep sleep, out of which God raises him up; and, O wonder of wonders! out of his wounded side there arises with him the happy queen of heaven, the living and glorious church of the First-born from the dead! The word is fulfilled that says, “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” The lovely Man of sorrow said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” He spoke this of himself and the church, for it should come forth with him out of death, a living, spotless church. “It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him,” says Paul to us. Death is first, and out of the death of Christ, and our death unto sin with him, there arises a living Christ and living church, a glorious Bridegroom and his bride, and they two are one. This is God’s own way. Out of it there arises an exceeding and eternal weight of glory. The infinite wisdom and love of God only ordained this way, and his almighty power fulfilled it. The unbelieving world fights against it; but saints and angels will love and praise him for ever for it.

Adam and Eve shall be with the church in that new song of joyful praise; for God himself made the atoning sacrifice and clothed them with salvation. We shall never cease to behold and admire with joyful wonder this figure that God gave us, with its spiritual and heavenly antitype. Upon the first Adam, who was alone in Eden, he causes a deep sleep, symbol of death, to fall. Then God awakes Adam and raises him up, and wonderful to tell, his fair and lovely Eve is with him in beautiful Eden! From Eden we look away to the beautiful paradise of God to see the meaning of this picture, and with joyful praise to God we see the last Adam and his heavenly queen.

Now the vision changes, and, alas! the husband and the wife are going down from Eden to the dark tomb! For her sake he must die with her; for she is life of his life, bone of his bones, and flesh of his flesh. Her sin and woe and death are his, because she is his and he is hers. In life they two are one, and in death they are one. As yet all their countless children are unborn; so they, too, are one with them in sin and death. All is lost! not only Eden and its innocent joys, but themselves as well, their life, their all is lost! This is the dark picture or figure.

The vision changes now, and angels and men are filled with adoring wonder: A child is born in Bethlehem; and, behold, he came down from heaven! and God was his Father!! This is the last Adam. But Oh, he is under the law, and is bruised and persecuted, afflicted and sorrowful. He calls a little flock to follow him, but they, too, are under the law and its curse, are sorrowful and poor. He teaches them that the kingdom of heaven is near, when the Bridegroom shall enter into it with his bride; but it had not come yet. He says that he will build his church upon the living Rock.

But he sorrowfully assures them again, and again, that he must first suffer and die, and thus do the will of his Father; that for this cause. he came down from heaven, and came into the world; and that only in this ordained way could he enter into his glory, and redeem his bride, the church, and present her unto himself and to his Father in glory. His Father gave him the commandment to lay down his life, that he might take it up again. The people that God had given Christ, who should be the members of his body and of his flesh and of his bones, as Eve was of Adam, were all sinful and guilty under the curse of the holy law of God, as was Eve and her children. Yet they were the people of his choice and the objects of his love. They were in the world, yet they were his own, and he loved them unto the end. He said to his sorrowing disciples, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” And all his beloved people were to be his bosom friends for ever in the perfect love of his Father, who also loved them as he loved his Son.

The love of Adam for his sinful Eve was strong and beautiful, and so he gave his life for her; but the love of Christ for the church far surpassed all finite love. The bond that made him one with his people is infinitely near and dear, and it is divine and heavenly. God made them one. This Beloved says to his bride, “And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord.” In the deathless bonds of this holy betrothal, he says, “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues: O grave, I will be thy destruction.”

O sorrowful hour! Satan bruises the heel of the Son of the woman, and in the body of his flesh the last Adam, the only hope of Eve and her sorrowing children, goes down into death and the grave closes over him. His sorrow had been exceeding great, but his love to his Father and his brethren was greater. “In his love and in his pity he redeemed them.”

Through Satan beguiling Eve, the first Adam and all his race or people must follow them down into death. And now, because of sin, the last Man is dead. This is the end of the law. Satan sought to defeat the counsel and work of God. He spoiled the happiness of Eden and it was lost. This last deadly enmity is aimed to destroy heaven and shut all people out of it. Sin and death and the grave seem indeed to have the victory. All now turns upon whether the last Adam, the Man of the cross, shall awake and rise up again, to die no more. For unless he has bruised the serpent’s head, destroyed the devil, that had the power of death, made an end of sin, abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the power of an endless life, then hopeless infidelity obtains, and there shall be no redeemed gospel church with him on earth, clothed with his salvation as his loving bride, to rejoice in his name, and no glorified church in heaven. If he rises not, then sin has dominion over all, heaven is void and all are perished. This is the claim and boast of black infidelity. So the resurrection of Christ in the power and glory of his new and holy life is the salvation of his people, the birth of the gospel church, the bride, the Lamb’s wife, the ushering in of the new covenant and the new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth everlasting righteousness. All this is gloriously fulfilled in the Son of the woman. The death of the Bridegroom gives life to his bride, and she glorifies him.

“It is finished,” cried the dying Man on the cross. “Finished,” sin and death; “finished,” justice and the law; “finished,” redemption and righteousness; “finished,” the devil and the power of darkness; “finished,” the suffering and the warfare; “finished,” the covenant with death and the league with hell; “finished,” the debt and the bondage; “finished,” the cup of woe and the baptism of death; “finished, “the sting of death and the victory of the grave; “finished,” the night and the darkness; yea, “finished,” the way to the tree of life and into heaven! All hail to conquering Jesus! “Glory to God in the highest!” “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.” “Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me. Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.”

Of the risen Christ and his apostles Luke says, “And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.” In vision we now are with John on Patmos, who saw Jesus in heaven, and says, “And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, lam alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. * * * And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.”

The above is the beautiful mount Sion, the gospel church, that Christ said he would build. It is not earthly, nor worldly, nor legal, for it is not under the law; but it comes down from God out of heaven, and is spiritual, holy and heavenly, and is the bride, the Lamb’s wife. He, the Head and the Husband, came down from heaven; his doctrine is the doctrine of God; his ordinances and order are heavenly; his brethren are all born of God, and the heavenly Jerusalem is their mother, and his words are spirit and life.

The church of Christ was not manifested under the law and the old covenant, but he built it under the gospel of salvation and the new covenant of life and peace. It was first organized and built and adorned as a bride for her husband on the day of Pentecost, when the apostles were endued with power from on high. “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” “The number of the names together were about an hundred and twenty.”

After the resurrection of Christ, and before he ascended up to heaven, being assembled together with his disciples, he “commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. * * * Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

This baptism of the church of Christ by the Holy Spirit was divinely glorious and blessed. She was now anointed and illuminated, and was clothed with salvation and adorned with the robe of righteousness, her glorious wedding, dress. This church was shown to John by an angel, who came and said to him, “Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain; and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God,” &c.

As shown to John it is a glorious and heavenly city, having no need of any worldly light. “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it. * * * And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” And now, most wonderful and glorious, the angel showed John in this city of God, “a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life.”

O praise the Lord! the flaming sword was not there, to smite the one who would eat of the tree of life, as it was in lost Eden. For the Man who is the equal of the Lord of hosts had fought the fearful battle with death, and had been cut down by the sword that awoke against him; but O, all glory to his precious name! he had taken the sword away from his church, and had planted the tree of life in the midst of the holy city. “And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.” And now, Jesus, who over came for us, says, “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”

Now, turning to Paul, who writes of Adam and of the Man of whom he is the figure, comparing them, we read: “But not as the offence so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.

Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation: even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteousness.”

How strong and unconditional and absolutely sure this doctrine is! It is the imputation of sin unto the condemnation of death by the first man, and the imputation of righteousness unto the justification of life by the last Man, by virtue of the close relationship of each one of these two public heads to their respective bodies or families or people, as has been shown in these pages.

 By the offence of Adam judgment came upon all men in him to Condemnation of death; and even so by the righteousness of Christ the free, gift of God’s grace came upon all men in him unto justification of life. The disobedience of Adam brought all his people down into sin and death with him, and they could do nothing to bring them back into life. His death was theirs in him, and for all men in him there is no possible escape.

Just so, the obedience of Christ for all his people shall bring all men in him up out of sin and death into holiness and life with him, and it is not possible for one of them to perish. Christ’s righteous life is theirs in him, and to them he says, “Because I live, ye shall live also,” The body either dies with its head, or lives with its head.

This shows that Adam is truly a great figure of Christ. And God has thus shown to his people in a clear strong light both his justice and his Grace. He has here shown them also that there is not the least condition on their part in their salvation, but that it is entirely “the gift by grace,” and “the free gift.” ‘For since by man came death, by Man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

The all in Adam die because they are in him, and their life is his dying life. On the other hand, all in Christ shall be made alive because they are in him, and his eternal life .is theirs in him by gift of his Father.

The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have born the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”

Excerpt from Chapter 1 (Adam) of Elder David Bartley's work, The Christ Man In Type.