First Things
by Gardiner Spring
Volume II — Chapter 16

THE FIRST QUARREL

The first promise involved a threatening. It predicted the overthrow of the seed of the serpent, and the conquests of the seed of the woman. “I will put enmity between thee and the woman; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” There was to be a conflict, a quarrel to the death between these two seeds. A judicious commentator remarks that this single declaration “stands and will stand to the end of time, an eternal demonstration that the Scripture was given by inspiration from God;” and because “it unfolds the whole history of the church and the world, through time and to eternity.” These two families ever have been, and ever will be thus set in battle array, and striving for the mastery.

It is interesting to us to know how this controversy began. Melancholy to relate, it began in the immediate family of our first parents; between the first-born sons of the first man and the first woman. It was a religious quarrel, and arose from the facts detailed in our last two chapters Abel, the younger of the two, was a pious man. Cain was a deist; and so irritated was he at the respect which God paid to Abel’s offering, and at the rejection of his own, that nothing could appease his anger until he had imbrued his hands in his brother’s blood.

Thus early did the direful effects of the first apostasy show themselves; and so tremendous were they, that the first descendant of these guilty parents was a murderer and a fratricide. Wickedness is in its nature malignant; it sleeps no longer than its exciting causes sleep; it needs but to be provoked in order to be the lapper of blood. Cain was not worse by nature than other men. Like all other men until they are renewed by grace, he had no delight in truth and holiness. He loved darkness rather than light, because his deeds were evil. The carnal mind is not only enmity against God, but enmity against man. “He that saith, I love God, and hateth his brother, is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” Not more certainly is love “the fruit of the Spirit” and “the fulfilling of the law,” than all unkindness and hatred to man is the fruit of that mother monster, enmity to God. The Apostle Paul, in describing the character of wicked men, affirms, that they are “filled with all maliciousness” — “full of envy, murder, debate, malignity,” — “backbiters, despiteful, implacable, unmerciful.” Nor is there anything that more certainly or more universally excites this malignant spirit than the truth of God. It required great obduracy on the part of Cain to resist the appeal which God made to him in regard to the unacceptableness of his sacrifice; but he did resist it unto blood. He felt the reproach most keenly when he learned that Abel’s sacrifice was accepted, and that his own was a vain oblation; it made him angry with God and angry with his brother. We repeat the observation, it was, throughout, a religious controversy. And we are confirmed in the truth of this remark by the teaching of the Apostle John, where he speaks of this very subject in the following language: “For this is the message that ye have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.”

Though the first religious controversy in the world, this was by no means the last. For six thousand years this controversy has been going on, and exists in violence at the present time. Even now the great moral question is being agitated, which decides the interests of three worlds, and which involves the character and destiny of all the generations of men even to the last judgment, and onward through interminable ages. It maybe that the reader and the writer have a deeper interest in it than at first view is presented to their thoughts. The first outbreak began on the part of Satan in the garden; the next onslaught was on the part of Cain; and the battle is now going on in different forms throughout the earth.

The PARTIES in this controversy comprise the whole intelligent universe. They are composed of the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness; the kingdom of holiness and the kingdom of sin, wherever extended, by whoever upheld, and whatever may be their conquests. On one side are all godly men on the earth. By whatever name they are called, wherever born and dispersed, and by whatever peculiarities their moral training is distinguished,—these all belong to the same kingdom, espouse the same cause, and are clothed with the same divine panoply. Be they who they may, that possess the faith and the works of righteous Abel, and are baptized into his spirit, they are all banded together by the same sacramental pledge, and intent on the same glorious conquests. They consist of individual men, of churches, of extended and combined families of churches, and of different ecclesiastical families, each under its own standard, and all under the standard of the cross. They are the disciples of Christ, the compact and embodied forms of a Protestant and spiritual Christianity. With these are combined all the saints in heaven. From Abel down to the last spirit that was borne by angels to Abraham’s bosom, patriarchs and prophets, apostles and martyrs, godly men and godly women of every age belong to some of the detachments of this great army. Though gone from earth to heaven, and separated from these scenes of sense, they have lost none of their interest in the conflict, but the rather has it become the more invigorated and intense, as they see it the more widely extended, and witness the zeal and ardor with which it is prosecuted in other worlds. There is no disunion of feeling or effort between the saints on earth and the general assembly and church of the First Born, in heaven. In league with these, are those angelic spirits who maintained their primeval integrity. These form an innumerable company, who have ever been among the foremost in the war. They are swift to do the will of their Leader, hearkening to the voice of his word; and ever ready alike on missions of assault or resistance. Sometimes they are sent forth on errands of judgment, and execute their commission to the terror of men; but more often on errands of mercy, sent forth to minister to them that shall be heirs of salvation. Endowed with the noblest created faculties—with wonderful power and activity—with unfading and immortal youth, and with consummate holiness, all these are fellow-combatants with saints on earth and saints in heaven;—the partakers of their grief and helpers of their joy. Often do they tempt their flight down to this lower world; often fill the towers of heaven; and
“_____Oft on the bordering deep
Encamp their legions,”
everywhere watching the progress of the enemy, and ever prompt and faithful.

At the head of all these forces is Christ the Son of God, and against whom the Foe is so embittered with rage. Of all the kings of the earth, he himself is the Prince, having on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords. He is the Lord of angels and men; the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. “In his right hand are seven stars; out of his mouth goes a two-edged sword; and his countenance is as the sun shining in his strength.” He “hath the keys of death and of hell, and openeth, and no man shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth.”

In this great warfare are enlisted all his wisdom, power, righteousness and love; and with its triumphs is identified the honor of his name and cross. God the Father is also identified with him; engaged in the same struggling cause, and pledging to it all his godlike attributes. With him also dwells the Holy Spirit without measure. His it is to instruct, convince, and reclaim the foe; and when converted and reclaimed, to build them up in holiness and comfort. His it is to overshadow with his celestial influence and presence this sacramental host, and guide and help them, and be their light and glory, their defence and shield. These form one division of this great army—one unbroken phalanx, one of the mighty parties in this momentous contest.

On the other side, are all the wicked, wherever they are found, and in whatever world. They are wicked men on the earth, whose minds are all at enmity with God; and who, with all the incidental variety of their character, in this respect agree. Whether moral or immoral, whether enlightened or ignorant, whether evangelical or heretical in their creed, whether cautious or incautious, whether exact in the forms of devotion or negligent, whether in the church or out of it, all over the world they have essentially the same spirit, and by their example and influence, by their rank, power and authority, are engaged in maintaining the same disastrous cause. The infidel, the scoffer, and the sensualist, the profane and the vicious of every description, disgorge their thousands upon this field of battle. Here are the worldly, the self-righteous, and the self-hardened; and here are the thoughtless and secure. Here are assembled whole nations, with kings, and despots, and princes and the nobles of the earth. Here is every false system of religion, including the millions involved in heathenish darkness, and millions more that are involved in Mohammedan delusion, Papal apostasy, and Jewish unbelief. Confederate with these, are the departed spirits of all who have died in their sins. Though inhabiting another and invisible world, their character is not altered; they all belong to the same benighted and polluted empire. So far from having suffered any diminution in their zeal, from this exchange of worlds, they have enlisted in the conflict afresh; have thrown off all disguise, and sworn eternal fidelity to the kingdom of unrighteousness, and eternal opposition to the kingdom of God. In the same guilty alliance are the fallen angels; they, too, are consociate with wicked men, both living and dead. Once they were holy; but they rebelled against their rightful Prince, and were delivered into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment. They are beings of superior power and intelligence, but of perfectly malevolent character; but for wise reasons, God permits them to exert a powerful influence in this lower world. From time to time, he unbinds their chains, and allows them to go abroad among the sons of men, tempting the good, blinding the minds of them that believe not, and so influencing their thoughts and their actions, as to seduce and destroy. Sometimes they appear as angels of light, and at others they throw off the mask, seeking whom they may devour. Their name is legion. Stirred up with envy and revenge, trained to ruin, and expert in deeds of wickedness, they omit no opportunity of testifying their hatred to the woman’s seed.

At the head of these puissant legions stands Satan their leader—the old Serpent who began the war—the accuser of the brethren—the angel of the bottomless pit—the prince of devils, and the god of this world, going to and fro through the earth, and walking up and down in it, to lead forth the fallen and embattled seraphim. His course never has been doubtful, marked though it has been with deceit and treachery. It was he who seduced our first parents to that “foul revolt;” it was he who moved David to the sin that cut off seventy thousand men of Israel in a few hours; it was he who impudently ventured on the desperate enterprise of tempting and corrupting even the holy Son of God. And it is he who is still endeavoring everywhere to spread misery and destruction through the earth, rejoicing in nothing so much as the widest scenes of devastation and crime, He is the most active and accomplished supporter of the kingdom of darkness; malignant, watchful, crafty, indefatigable, laying siege to every avenue of the enemy’s camp, disputing every inch of ground, and maintaining the contest with absolute desperation. These constitute the other division in this fearful conflict. The same spirit pervades the whole, whether on earth or in hell. Such are the parties in this contest.

The controversy itself it is not difficult to describe. The foundation of it is laid in the essential difference of character between the contending parties. Good men on the earth and in heaven, unfallen angels, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all possess a benevolent and holy character. Bad men on the earth, and in hell, fallen angels, Satan, Beelzebub, and Moloch, with all “their horrid crew,” have not one benevolent feeling, not one right affection of heart. The character of Abel was not more diverse from the character of Cain, than the character of these entire classes. The difference between them is not a difference of circumstances, but a radical and essential difference. Should Satan and all the associates of his fall conquer and subdue the Prince of Heaven and his devoted followers, the change in their condition would not alter their respective characters. Christ and his people would be still the same; and the devil and his angels would be still the same. No change of place from hell to heaven would induce “Satan and his peers” to love and praise God as do the unfallen and redeemed; and no change of place from heaven to hell would induce the unfallen and redeemed to hate and blaspheme God as do the devil and his angels. The character of the parties is radically diverse. Their views, designs, and desires are diametrically opposite; and so long as there is this irreconcilable spirit between them, there must be mutual hostility. There ever has been, still is, and always will be enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. If we trace these different seeds in their dispersion over the earth; if we observe the different characteristics of the different races of men, from the posterity of Seth on the one hand, and the posterity of all the other branches of Adam’s descendants; from the posterity of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob on the one hand, and the posterity of Ishmael and Esau; we shall find the same strongly marked difference of character. It is the world and the church; the spiritual Babylon and the New Jerusalem.

The controversy is also sustained by different and opposing interests. Where men have a common interest, though they may differ in character, their interests often unite and bind them together. But where, in addition to difference of character and disposition, there are differing and jarring interests, it is impossible there should be harmony. So it is with the parties in this controversy. They have throughout, jarring and opposing interests; selected deliberately and upon principle, and pursued with unintermitted constancy and perseverance. The one is contending for truth, the other for error; the one for holiness, the other for sin; the one for God, and his cause, the other against them; the one for the interests of the divine law and government, and aiming to advance and magnify them in the earth; the other striving all in their power to tarnish their purity, detract from their influence, and prostrate them forever. The one is contending for the prerogative of God’s eternal providence, and desirous that in all things his pleasure should be accomplished; the other is warring against the providence of God, and insisting that his ways are not equal. The one is contending for the rights of conscience; the other would bind conscience in chains. The one is contending for justice, and the proper punishment of incorrigible offenders; the other for the privilege of sinning with impunity. The one gives honor to Jesus Christ, bows the knee to him, and if they have fallen, accept his mercy, confide in his atonement, and rejoice in his salvation; the other reject and despise him, tread under their feet the Son of God, and count the blood of his covenant an unholy thing. The one would fain publish the gospel of the Lord Jesus to all nations, destroy every false system of religion from the face of the earth, and turn the whole world to the service and favor of the only true God; while the other is laboring to deceive and corrupt the nations, and hold men everywhere fast in the bonds of iniquity and death. Such are their different and opposing interests; interests as diverse as their character, as different as darkness and light—as wide apart as they can be. Just as the one prospers, the other declines; just as the one rises, the other falls.

Hence it is obviously a contest for ultimate dominion. Each party has a different king,— Christ and the devil. Each has a different empire. Each is governed by different laws; has different objects, and is engaged in different employments. Jesus Christ and his devoted followers are intent on enlarging and extending his empire, increasing his subjects, and dethroning and exterminating his and their enemies; while Satan and his confederates are alike intent on extending the boundaries of his dark dominion, multiplying his guilty subjects, and pushing his conquests,
“ ____with ambitious aim,
Against the throne and monarchy of God.”

The controversy is deep, and earnest, and long continued. The one will not yield; the other may not. On the part of God, it is a contest for principal; it is a contest for the highest interests of the universe; it is a contest for his glory, and his name, and the rights and stability of his throne, and he must maintain it to the last. Such is the subject matter of this great controversy.

Nor let any man so deceive himself as to be persuaded that in such a warfare as this, he can maintain, either an undesigned, or studied neutrality. The necessity is absolute of espousing the one side or the other. He that is not with me, saith the Saviour, is against me. Neutrality is as impossible, as it is that a portion of matter should be neither at rest, nor in motion. There is not a human being who does not either approve, or disapprove the design which Christ is carrying on in the world; who does not either fall in with it, or fall out with it; who does not at heart desire either to promote, or obstruct its progress; and whose views, and feelings, and power are not enlisted in favor of one or other of these contending parties. The controversy is of such a kind as deeply to affect the interests of the intelligent universe; nor is it possible for men to stand by and witness it, without taking sides. Every holy heart is on the side of Christ; every unholy heart is on the side of the adversary.

It is absurd to suppose that any man should feel indifferent to the final results of this contest. Men may determine to act a neutral part; but there is nothing in which they are more decided. They must view themselves, and be viewed by others, either on the Lord’s side, or on the side of the Foe. There the all-searching eye of God sees them; there they will be found when they come to die; and there will they appear throughout eternity. On which side is the reader found? Shut up to the necessity of a choice, what is it, and what shall it be? With the burden of this election upon him, to which side will he give the preference?

In considering this great question, let him consider the character of the contending parties. On one side, are all the holy; on the other, are all the unholy. With which will he be associated? Is he content to remain confederate with the enemies of God on earth and in hell—with the unbelieving and reprobate—with the vicious and the profligate—with the devil and his angels? Will he be found among the chaff and offscouring of God’s creation, or its joy and crown? Will he consent to be the slave of sin and death, or the child of God? Which is the more creditable to his heart, to his conscience, to his intellect, to his high ambition? Which is the “legion of honor?” “You see your calling, brethren”—a high and heavenly calling, and one that associates you with all that is high and honorable in the universe.

Consider also the claims of truth and rectitude. The cause of Christ, and angels, and saints must be a holy cause. It is the cause of truth and holiness, of peace and joy, against the machinations of error and sin, and the wretched and miserable contentions and woes which have torn and rent the universe. It is the cause which engages the first love and ardent pursuit of every virtuous mind; the cause for which God created and governs all things; the cause for which he gave his Son to die, for which that Son descended from the throne to the cross; the cause for which the ever-blessed Spirit dwells with men; the cause which will finally result in an aggregate of holiness and happiness which will perfectly gratify the infinite benevolence of the Infinite Mind. In espousing the right side of such a controversy, there is everything to give firmness of purpose, and diffuse a tranquillity of mind which nothing can disturb. We espouse it with confidence, because it is the side of truth and righteousness. And if there be a bosom that is not dead to all that is attractive, to all that is pure and lovely, it will not hesitate to come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty.

It deserves consideration also, that the cause of truth and rectitude will finally prevail and triumph. There have been seasons when to human view, it appeared that the issue of the controversy would be in favor of the adversary. The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent have alternately had the advantage. Success has seemed to hover over both sides, and the question has been on which it is to light. There is no uncertainty attending this question. Every promise in God’s word secures the victory of Christ and his people. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. He shall reign till all enemies are put under his feet. No weapon formed against thee shall prosper. He whose veracity may not be questioned has publicly and solemnly declared that he will increase the number, the power, and the influence of his people, and give them the superiority over the enemies of his Son. His faithfulness stands pledged, that the kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the saints of the Most High. And he has sealed these assurances by his blood.

In every age, he has also given his people significant preludes of their own victory, and the final overthrow of their enemies. The antediluvian world—the hosts of Amalek—the haughty Egyptians—the seven nations of Canaan—the Chaldeans and Babylonians—the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans, and finally, the Jews were all either destroyed or scattered over the face of the earth, and for their opposition to Christ and his cause. God is on the side of his people, and it cannot be otherwise than that they should prevail. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength. There is no understanding or counsel against the Lord. He has all means, instruments, and second causes in his hands, and is constantly employing them in his service. Seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, sun, moon, and stars, ocean and elements are all at his disposal, everywhere fulfilling his word. Legions of angels, the armies of heaven, and the soldiers of Christ on earth are at his command. Even his very enemies he can so control and direct as to make them subservient to their own overthrow and his advancement. The whole universe is a magazine of means to furnish him with the instruments of subjugation or death.

It would be a pleasant service, had we space for it, to present a sketch of his triumphs. For the outline of these we must refer you to the predictions of Isaiah, Daniel, and of John in his Apocalypse. You will find them verified in the Gospels, in the Acts of the Apostles, and in the subsequent history of the Church of God. The history of the Church is the history of this warfare, and of the triumphs of the seed of the woman over the seed of the serpent. Never was this controversy more violent than in the first ages of the Christian era, when the colossal form of paganism extended itself from the straits of Gibraltar to the Caspian Sea, and from the deserts of Africa to the British islands. Emperors with their power, priests with their superstition, and schools of philosophy with their learning, were all arrayed against the church of the living God.

The cities of the world were the prisons of her children, and formed the scaffolds where they bled. Yet three centuries had scarcely passed away before Christianity was established upon the throne of the Caesars, its persecutors became its disciples, and its temples eradicated the altars of paganism. Her next great contest was with the ignorance and darkness of the middle ages; it was a long and bitter contest, and far more terrible in its effects upon true piety than the persecutions under the Roman emperors. Christianity itself became corrupted. It lost its simplicity, its heavenly charity, its humble and self-denying character; and put on its borrowed robes of exclusiveness, worldliness, and pride, and identified itself with the grasping covetousness and unmeaning and absurd ceremonies of Rome. It survived this conflict, only to be plunged into the controversy with the deism and infidelity of the eighteenth century, and to contend with those great masters of thought and language, which were the pride of France, Germany, and England, and who, by a sort of magnetic intercommunication, were leagued together in order to crush the religion of the cross.

When at length it came forth unhurt from this contest, it came forth arrayed in the garments of strength and salvation, armed with the sword of the Spirit and the shield of faith, scattering the word of God throughout the nations, sending its missionaries to distant lands, praying always with all prayer, and standing still to behold the salvation of God in the quickening of his people, the multiplication and upbuilding of his churches, and the conversion of thousands and thousands of thousands from the error of their ways to the wisdom of the just.

It is the work of faith and the labor of love on the part of Christ and his people, against the works of darkness and sin of every form and kind. It is a crusade, not to rescue the holy land from the infidel, but to rescue the world from the dominion of the prince of darkness, and in which the saints shall overcome “by the blood of the lamb, and the word of his testimony.” The triumph is begun, but it is not completed. We can see what has been accomplished, and we know the conquests that are yet to be achieved. Even now, opposing armies are retreating and melting away. And who can tell how soon the predicted battle of the great day of God Almighty will be achieved, after which universal peace and holiness will overspread the earth, and the end will come. And then the voice of the archangel and the trump of God shall sound. The Redeemer shall come in the glory of his Father and of the holy angels, and the saints shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. And then all hearts shall be made known, all characters tried, and the final sentence go forth. And then this momentous controversy shall no longer hang in suspense; but an assembled and astonished universe shall see the hands, and hearts, and heads of God’s people lifted up, and the hands, and hearts, and heads of his enemies bowed down, and the Lord alone exalted in that day.

Most deeply does it concern us to know which side we have taken of this great controversy. To those who have enlisted under the banner of Christ, and wear his livery, allow us to say, take heed that you be not recreant to your leader, nor traitors to his cause. Take heed that you delight in his will, rejoice in his government, obey him in all things, glory in his cross, and habitually and supremely seek his honor. The people of God hold a most important post in this conflict. Be sober, be vigilant; for your Adversary, the devil, goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Let not your attention be diverted from the nature and importance of the contest. Let not other matters so absorb your minds as to induce you to lose sight of this spiritual warfare. The enemy will watch for your halting. You cannot be too wise, too harmless, too vigorous, too persevering. You have pledged your faith, and solemnly committed yourselves before God, and angels, and men. You have “published your manifesto,” and taken your oath, that you will never desert the cause, nor go over to the enemy.

Courage! then, Christian, courage to the last! Immanuel’s banner waves over your head, and Immanuel himself is with you. The cause in which you are engaged must finally prevail and triumph. Other kingdoms shall pass away, and become like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor; but the kingdom of Christ shall never be subverted. Though the numbers of the enemy are great, their strength is small; and though your numbers may be small, your strength is great. Gird on the whole armor of God. Fight the good fight of faith; and soon you shall be discharged from the warfare, put off the armor, and receive the crown.

It may be that some who read these pages are still on the side of the adversary. They stand on the field of battle, and are at war with God—with his law and government—with his gospel and grace—with his Son and people. They are leagued with the prince of devils and with the empire of darkness and sin. What presumption, what strange infatuation is this? You are contending with the infinite and eternal God, who kills and who makes alive, who is mighty to save or destroy. What a spectacle is this! To contend with God, the infinite and omnipotent God—the God of love—God your Father—God the source of your existence, and mercies, and hopes—what a shocking spectacle is this! You are persevering in the contest, though he has opened a way of reconciliation, and given his own Son a sacrifice on the altar of justice, that he might bring you back from this unreasonable and hopeless revolt. He sends his ambassadors with this treaty of peace, to beseech you to become reconciled to your offended Prince. And he is sending his Spirit to touch your consciences, and recall, and reclaim you. That Sacred Visitant hovers around your path when you wake and your pillow when you sleep, and is urging one and another to desert the adversary and enlist under the banner of the cross.

Who, then, will give up this fatal contest, and become reconciled to God? How long halt you between two opinions? As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ’s stead, lay down the weapons of your rebellion. The contest is fast coming to an issue. The end of all things is at hand Soon the kingdom of the adversary will be broken, and his throne will fall. Soon the Prince of Zion shall take the contest into his own hands, and decide it irrevocably and forever. And then shall the glorious company who have won the battle, meet on the plains of heaven, with their robes washed white in the blood of their Leader, with palms of victory and crowns of righteousness. Then shall the prince of this world be cast out, and all the enemies of God and his Christ take up their abode in outer darkness. And then shall there be conflict no longer, but eternal victory and eternal defeat—joy and transport on the one side, and lamentation and bitterness on the other, and never to pass away.