The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 262

!

V. Original Righteousness. *'

For in Him we live and move, and have our being: as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring."

—Acts xvii.

It

is

28.

the peculiar characteristic of the Reformed Confession that

more than any other

humbles the

it

sinner

and exalts the

sinless

man.

To disparage man

is

unscriptural.

Being a

sinner, fallen

and no

longer a real man, he must be humbled, rebuked, and inwardly But the divinely created man, realizing the divine purpose broken. or restored

by omnipotent grace in the

elect, is

worthy of

all praise,

His own image. Because he stood so high, he fell so low. He was such an excelThe excellent being, hence he became such a detestable sinner. lency of the former is the source of the damnableness of the latter. for

God has made him

after

said that while the present age properly appreciates and man, our doctrine only disparages him but with all its eulogy and praise this present age has never conceived a more exalted testimony than that of Scripture, saying " God created man in His It is

exalts

;

:

own image." We protest against the cry of the age, not because it makes of man too much, but too little, asserting that he is glorious even now in h.\s /alien state. What would you think of the man who, walking through your by a violent thunder-storm, called the stem-

flower-garden, laid waste

broken and mud-covered flowers, lying upon their disordered beds, Walking through magnificent? And this the present age is doing. the garden of this world, withered and disordered by sin's thunderstorms,

How

it

fair

cries in

What glorious beings these men And would say regardDo you call this beautiful? You should

proud ecstasy

and excellent

!

ing his disordered garden

as the botanist

" " :

"

:

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