Manton:

1)

SERMONS UPON EZEKIEL XVIII 23.

SEKMON I.

Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? says the Lord God ; and not that he should return from his ways, and live?

EZEK. xviii. 23.

THERE is nothing so necessary to draw us to repentance as good thoughts of God. In the first temptation the devil sought to weaken the reputation and credit of God’s goodness in the hearts of our first parents, as if he were harsh, severe, and envious in restraining them from the tree of knowledge, and the fruit that was so fair to see too, Gen. iii. He lays his first battery against the persuasion of God’s goodness and kindness to man; if he could once bring them to doubt of that, other things would succeed the more easily. So still he labors to raise jealousies in our hearts against God. David was fain to hold to this principle when the prosperity of the wicked was a temptation to him; yet ‘God is good to Israel.’ Ps. Ixxiii. 1. That was the truth which the temptation did oppose, that God is good to his people. With carnal men he prevails the more easily. The blind pagan world had this for a maxim, to daimonion phthoneron, the gods were envious, and took no pleasure in the felicity of man, and therefore looked for some notable cross after some eminent triumph or applause for any worthy under taking. In the bosom of the church this conceit possesses many men’s hearts, that God is harsh and severe, and delights more in our ruin than salvation, and therefore they cast off all care of their soul’s welfare. Oh, what a monstrous picture do men draw of God in their thoughts, as if he were a tyrant, or an inexorable judge, that gave no leave for repentance, or left any hope of pardon to the guilt! Thus in the prophet’s days there were some that thought they must die and be miserable, and none could help it. They had a proverb, that, ‘The fathers had eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth were set on edge.’ They must smart for their fathers’ sins, whether they repented, yea or no. Therefore God stands upon his justification and vindication from so foul a surmise. Here you have a part of his purgation; ‘Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die, says the Lord God?’

The words are propounded by way of interrogation; in which form of speech there is more evidence, efficacy, life, and convincing force; q d., Ye know it is evident that I have no such desire, no such pleasure.

It dares not enter into your thoughts that I should take pleasure in the bare destruction of the creature. This pleasure of God is expressed

1. Negatively, what he delights not in, ‘Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?’

2. Positively, what he doth delight in, ‘That he should turn from his ways, and live.’

God had rather his conversion. In both are implied two great truths; as, omnis qucestio supponit unum et inquirit aliud; namely, the connection between sin and death, repentance and life, wicked and die, return and live. God doth not obscurely null or disown his judgment and execution according to that law, or give you any hopes that his law shall not be executed, but tells you what he takes pleasure in; rather in the conversion than in the destruction of the creature. The first question implies a strong negation, that he doth not delight in the mere slaughter of the wicked. The latter question is a strong affirmation; only remember in both parts that these things are spoken by way of comparison. Repentance is more accept able to God, as an holy God, than sin and wickedness; their conversion than their disobedience. And as God is a merciful God, and loves all the creatures which he hath made, so their life is more pleasing than their death; a thing more acceptable in itself to such a being as God is.

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Appendix 1:

English Translation of Moyse Amyraut’s Sermon on Ezekiel 18:23¹

[37] On the Words of the Prophet Ezekiel, Chapter 18, verse 23:

Would I in any way take pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that he turn from his way and that he live?

If, on one hand, you see today prepared before your eyes, my brothers, the table on which is offered for you the bread, which is the commemoration and the token of him who descended from heaven for the life of the world, with the wine which represents the [38] blood of the New Testament; and, on the other hand, with your ears you hear pronounced as being the subject of the discourse by which we must invite you to participation in these graces, a judgment drawn from books of the old covenant, you should not at all find it strange, as if these things did not go well together. Even though it is the Lord who makes himself heard in these words of the Prophet and though in the Old Testament this word has I know not what of grandness and majesty, which fills the soul with respect and reverence, more than it tempts it and draws by its gentleness; yet it is the same God who has manifested himself in these last times in his Son, full of an incomparable gentleness, and bearing a marvelously attractive and mild appearance. Although these tokens of the Body and of the Blood of Christ are the assurances of his most ardent and vehement compassion, they also represent this mercy of which the Prophet speaks in this passage. Although it was to the people of Israel that this voice spoke, so has it been pronounced for the Christian people, and resonates nowhere so loudly as in the Gospel. Although we are .invited to eat the body of our Lord Jesus, and to drink his blood in the celebration of this Sacrament, the faithful of the past did not eat it any less than we, who had recourse with true faith, to [39] this mercy that the Lord God offered them in these words.

The difference is extremely great on one point: That is that the one by whose mouth God held this conversation with his people in the past, was a great and distinguished Prophet, in whose spirit the spirit of God had stimulated excellent and extraordinary insights, to shine in the midst of this very dark age. Whereas the one who speaks now to you is a feeble instrument of the grace of God in your place, who is nothing like the former. Nevertheless this disadvantage will be abundantly overcome, as you come to recognize who it is that has committed this ministry to us, and who consequently speaks to you by our mouth; that is, our Lord Jesus, who in dignity and excellence has so far surpassed all the Prophets. For since the beginning of the preaching of the Gospel until the end of time, these words have their place and their truth, for God having in times past spoken at diverse times and in diverse manners to our fathers by the Prophets, has spoken to us by his Son in these last times. Indeed, whatever weakness there may be among the Ministers of the Church of our time, they can still say to the praise of the grace of God toward you, to whom the last times have come, that they have a [40] clearer and more distinct know ledge of the doctrine of salvation by the Gospel of Christ, than the Prophets had previously, notwithstanding the excellence of their inspirations and heavenly revelations. Because the one who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven, is in this matter greater than John the Baptist, who nevertheless, because he was the precursor of our Lord Jesus and because he had the honor of seeing him with his eyes, was greater even than all the Prophets in that way. Thus, my brothers, the weakness of those who repeat this voice to you again today, must not diminish the attention and the honor that you should render to it. We will undertake therefore, with the assistance of the grace of God, to show it to you, and this by a method a little different from that we have been accustomed to use. But all things are not appropriate to all times and all circumstances.

One asks, my Brothers, how that sentence ought to be understood, That God does not at all desire the death of the sinner, but that he convert and live? Given that he not only punishes and will punish in the future so many people for their sins, but also that he leaves so great a number of them lying in their natural misery, to whom far from making them feel the efficacy of the grace of his Spirit to believe in Christ when he is announced to them, [41] that he does not even have him announced to them. As is clearly seen in many miserable nations among which he is not preached at all, and he was preached still less at the time when the Prophet spoke, because no one knew of him in any nation except Judah. Again if you compare that with the light of the New Testament, the knowledge that they had in Judah was very vague. If we say therefore, that this passage teaches that God in no way wishes the death of the sinner who converts; but that if he does not convert God necessarily wishes his death, because the Judge wishes the punishment of the one who is guilty; although we have spoken the truth, that neither exhausts the entire meaning, nor equals the whole emphasis of this passage. For firstly, who can doubt that God pronounces these words to invite sinners to repentance? And furthermore who can doubt that he, if! must say it this way, wants men to repent? That is to say, that he takes a sovereign contentment in their conversion, since the Angels, who are, without doubt, not as good as he, rejoice in the Heavens when a sinner converts on the earth? And yet he says it, and wants us to say it with feeling, to preach it, and to insist upon it as a thing which to him is extremely [42] agreeable. Now no one would speak in this way of the Justice of God, that because he loves the exercise of it, and that he takes pleasure in it, he takes pleasure also when men commit the sins which give him the occasion, and without which there would be no exercise of Justice at all. This would be a statement directly opposed to the nature of God and his Gospel. And so he must want the life of the sinner and take pleasure in his conversion in another way than he wants his death: for the mere thought that he takes pleasure in sin, is a horror and a blasphemy. Truly, other than that this is the aim of God and of his Prophet, not in this sentence only, but in all similar ones in the old and new Testament, the very words of the text have a particular efficacy. For he does not say only that he takes pleasure in the life of the sinner, but that he takes pleasure in his conversion. I have no pleasure in the death of the sinner, But that he should convert and that he should live. Now the conversion of man may be considered in two manners: either as the means of coming to life, arid without it the sinner will not obtain life: or as, besides that, a thing good and agreeable to God in and of itself, as far as it consists in illumination of the understanding and the knowledge of that which is beautiful, just and honest, [43] which draws in its train the virtues of piety and justice, in which consists the image of God himself. Now it appears clearly from this, that God loves the conversion of the sinner as it is the means of coming to life. But that he only loves it because of this, is a thing unworthy of the excellence of the nature of God, whose sovereign perfection consists in his being holy, and in his sovereignly loving the holiness which shows him in his creature. Therefore there must be something here which testifies to the greater vehemence, in this pleasure that God takes in the conversion and in the life of the sinner, than he takes in the exercise of his Justice.

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Truman:

4. Look too, that this Blood be not lost; this great Counsel of Heaven lost as to us, “Look to yourselves, that we lose not the things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward,” 2 John v. 8.

it is a sad thing for a man to complain, I have beaten the air, and spent my strength in vain. Have you done and suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain? But much more should this prevail with us: “Take heed that you lose not the things that Christ has wrought.” A sad thing for Ministers to complain, “We have spent our strength in vain,” but much more for Christ to say, “I have lost my labors, tears, wounds, death, as to these men.

The Righteousness, and Pardon, and Life, which he has purchased, were not for himself; he has no more need of them, than the Heavens have need of rain, or the Sun of light. Cut off, but not for himself: therefore, if you refuse this offer, you endeavor interpretatively that it may be said of Christ, “He died as a fool dies.” You say to Christ’s face virtually, “you might have been wiser than to work and take pains for one that gives you so little thanks.”

Is this your kindness to your friend? Is this your thanks to your redeemer? Has not Christ deserved you? If the Devil and Sin have, and will do more to you, let them take you: Say then, “I love my Master Sin and Satan, and will not go out free.” But study how you will answer it to God, and look to your Redeemer in the face. Do you mock God, and your redeemer? and say, “You might have spared yourself, as Peter bade you?” Who bade you thus love me? You might have let the loving alone. God will not be mocked; “Be you not mockers lest your bonds be made strong;” And Christ will yet have some reward in well-doing, and honor in your ruin; your refusal, and punishment for it.

But these are secondary Ends, and Ends only upon the supposition of rejection of his Grace. The primary End of his Death and Law and Grace, is your salvation: for, he came not into the world primarily to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. God swears, he “desires not the death of the wicked, but rather that he would turn and live.” The primary End of the Gospel and law of Grace is your Obedience and Salvation; and secondarily, upon supposition of your refusal, Condemnation. It cannot be said of a Governor making a Law. It was weakly done of him when he foresaw many would break it, except he want Power or Justice to vindicate it. Dare you say, “It was not wisely done of God to make the first Covenant and promise to Adam, because he foresaw he would lose the benefit of it, and incur the curse? And dare you say, “It was no kindness?” Suppose God had not known; Would that have made any change in the thing, by making the sin greater, and God’s kindness more? This is to say, God’s Omniscience hinders him from being Rector of the Word, from being able to make gracious Promises to the obedience, and just Threatenings to the disobedience. Take heed of such Doctrines as would in their own nature cause you to have thoughts of God, and discourage your return to him; and conclude they are false, that are so expressly contrary to the whole tenor of the Gospel: Though you know not how to answer the Objections, I dare confidently tell you others can, and have answered in the main such difficulties satisfactorily, and that in a way well agreeing with special grace. And I could do it satisfactorily to you I think; and should now, if I thought it inconvenient to turn to an alien subject. But suppose I could not, no nor the ablest men, must we therefore deny plain Scripture-truths,  because men know but in part, and can answer many difficulties but imperfectly? But to return: Shall Christ fall short of the primary End of the travail of his soul; to see his seed, a generation of sinners, turning and accepted his offered salvation; and then he will say, “My blood was well shed indeed; I am well paid, well satisfied,” so Israel be but thus gathered: and this he waits for, strives with you about.

Joseph Truman, The Great Propitiation; or Christ’s Satisfaction and Man’s Justification by it, Upon His Faith; that is Belief of, and Obedience to the Gospel (London: Printed by A. Maxwell, for R. Clavell, in Cross-key Court in Little Britain), 277-281.  [Some spelling modernized, some reformatting, and underlining mine.]

Hughes:

[Proverbs 14:32 The wicked is driven away in his wickedness: but the righteous hath hope in his death.]

2. Let us now inquire into the import of what is here asserted in reference to the righteous; “he hath hope in his death.”

By his death some understand the wicked man’s death, and put this construction on the text:

When the good man is struggling with the troubles of life, the many of which perhaps are occasioned to him by the wicked; he has hope, that God will cut off the wicked, and then it shall be well with the righteous.

But I confess this construction appears to me unwarranted and forced; nor indeed can I see how it is consistent with the character of a righteous man, to hope or wish the death of any, how wicked and troublesome soever they are; the repentance and conversion and forgiveness of the wicked is the only proper matter of prayer with reference to them; our Savior has taught us to show our charity and good-will to our worst enemies in this way: and as the blessed God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked [Ezek. xxxiii. 11.]; it cannot surely be desired or hoped for by his servants.

Obadiah Hughes, The Righteous Man’s hope in death consider’d and improv’d, in a Sermon On Occasion of the Death of the late Reverend Mr Samuel Say. Preached in Westminster, April 24, 1743. (London: Printed and sold by M. Fenner, at the Turk’s head in Gracechurch-street, 1743), 12-13.  [Some spelling modernized; some reformatting; underlining mine; and verse insert mine.]