consider singly the wisdom of God, but his various and manifold wisdom, Eph. iii. 10. and affirms that all the treasures of wisdom are hid in it, Col. ii. 3. plainly intimating that it is a work so suited unto, so answering the infinite wisdom of God in all things throughout, that it could no otherwise have been disposed and effected. And this as well upon the account of the wisdom of God itself absolutely considered, as also as it is that property whereby God designs and effects the glorifying of all other excellencies of his nature, whence it is called various or manifold; so that we may well conclude, that no other way of deliverance of sinners was suited unto the wisdom of God.

Secondly, This way alone answered the holiness and righteousness of God. He is a holy God, who will not suffer the guilty to go free: he is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and his judgment is, that they who commit sin are worthy of death. Sin is contrary to his nature; and his justice requireth that it go not unpunished. Besides, he is the great and supreme Governor of all; and whereas sin breaketh and dissolveth the dependance of the creature upon him, should he not avenge that defection, his whole rule and government would be disannulled. But now, if this vengeance and punishment should fall on the sinners themselves, they must perish under it eternally; not one of them could escape, or ever be freed or purged from their sins. A commutation then there must be; that the punishment due to sin, which the holiness and righteousness of God exacteth, may be inflicted, and mercy and grace shewed unto the sinner. That none was able, fit, or worthy to undergo this penalty, so as to make a compensation for all the sins of all the elect; that none was able to bear it, and break through it, so,'s that the end of the undertaking might be happy, blessed and glorious on all hands, but only the Son of God, we shall farther inanifest in our progress, and it hath been elsewhere declared.

1. And this, first, should teach us to live in a holy admiration of this mighty and wonderful product of the wisdom, righteousness, grace and goodness of God, which found out, and appointed this way of delivering sinners, and have gloriously accom plished it in the sacrifice of the Son of God himself. The Holy Ghost every where proposeth this unto us, as a mystery, a great and hidden mystery, which none of the great, or wise, or disputers of the world, ever did or could come to the least acquaintance withal. And three things he asserts concerning it: First, That it is revealed in the gospel, and is thence alone to be learned and attained, whence we are invited again and again to search and inquire diligently into it, to this very end, that we may become wise in the knowledge and acknowledgment of this deep and hidden mystery. Secondly, That we cannot in our own strength, and by our own most diligent endeavours, come

to a holy acquaintance with it, notwithstanding that revelation that is made of it, in the letter of the word; unless moreover we receive from God the spirit of wisdom, knowledge and revelation, opening our eyes, making our minds spiritual, and enabling us to discover these depths of the Holy Ghost in a spiritual manner. Thirdly, That we cannot by these helps attain in this life unto a perfection in the knowledge of this deep and unfathomable mystery, but must still labour to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of it, our thriving in all grace and obedience depending thereon. All these things the Scripture abounds in the repetition of. And besides, it every where sets forth the blessedness and happiness of them, who by grace obtain a spiritual insight into this mystery; and who thus also find by experience the satisfying excellency of it with the apostle, Phil. iii. 8. All which considerations are powerful motives unto this duty of inquiring into, and admiring this wonderful mystery, wherein we have the angels themselves for our associates and companions.

2. We may also consider the unspeakable love of Christ in this work of delivering us from sin. In this the Scripture also abundantly goeth before us, setting forth, extolling, commending this love of Christ, and calling us to a holy consideration of it. Particularly it shews it accompanied with all things that may make love expressive and to be admired. For, first, It proposeth the necessity and exigency of the condition wherein the Lord Christ gave us this relief; that was when we were sinners, when we were lost, when we were children of wrath, under the curse, when no eye did pity us, when no hand could relieve us. And if John mourned greatly, when he thought that there was none found worthy in heaven or earth to open his book of visions, and to unloose the seals thereof; how justly might the whole creation mourn and lament, if there had been none found to yield relief, when all were obnoxious to this fatal ruin! And this is an exceeding commendation of the love of Christ, that he set his hand to that work which none could touch, and put his shoulders under that burden which none else could bear, when all lay in a desperate condition. Secondly, The greatness of this deliverance: it is from wrath, and curse, and vengeance eternal; not from a trouble or danger of a few days' continuance, not from a momentary suffering, but from everlasting wrath, under the curse of God and power of Satan in the execution of it, which necessarily attend sin and sinners, And, thirdly, The way whereby he did it; not by his word whereby he made the world; not by his power whereby he sustains and rules the things that he hath made; not by paying a price of corruptible things; not by revealing a way unto us only, whereby we ourselves might escape that condition where

might with any hopes or probabilities expect relief in this case, would yield them any at all.

The best that the Gentiles could attain, all that they had to trust to, was but the improvement of natural light and reason, with an attendance to those seeds and principles of good and evil, which are yet left in the depraved nature of man. Under the conduct and in obedience to these, they sought for rest, glory and immortality. How miserably they were disappointed in their aims and expectations, and what a woful issue all their endeavours had, the apostle declares and proves at large, Rom. i. 18. to the end.

The Jews, who enjoyed the benefit of divine revelations, having lost for the most part the true spiritual import of them, sought for the same ends by the law, and by their own diligent observance of it. They "rested in the law," Rom. ii. 17. namely, in the hope, that by it they should obtain deliverance from sin, and acceptance with God, and "followed after it," chap. ix. 31. that is to attain righteousness and salvation by it. And this seemed to be a sufficient foundation for them to build on; for having lost the spiritual understanding of the use and end of the law, as renewed to them in the covenant of Horeb, they went back to the primitive use and end of it, on its first giving in innocency, and foolishly thought, as many more yet do, that it would do the same things for sinners, that it would have done for men, if they had not sinned in Adam, that is, have given them acceptance with God here, and eternal life hereafter. Wherefore the apostle in many places takes great pains to undeceive them, to rectify their mistake, and to prove that God had no such design in giving them the law, as that which they would impose upon him.

And first, he asserts and proves in general, that the law would deceive their expectation; and that by the deeds of the law no flesh should be justified, Rom. iii. 20. and that it would not give them life, Gal. iii. 21. or righteousness. And that they might not complain, that then God himself had deceived them in giving a law that would not serve the turn for which it was given; he declares, secondly, that they had mistaken the end for which the law was renewed unto them; which was not that it might give them life or righteousness, but that it might discover sin, exact obedience, and by both drive and compel them to look out after some other thing, that might both save them from their sin, and afford them a righteousness unto salvation. And furthermore, he thirdly, acquaints them whence it was, that the law was become insufficient for these ends, and that was, because it was become weak through the flesh, Rom. viii. 3. The law was able to continue our acceptance with God, in that condition wherein at first we were created; but after that

man by sin became flesh, or had a principle of enmity against God in him, bringing forth the fruits of sin continually, the law stood. aside, as weakened and insufficient to help and save such an one. And these things the apostle expressly and carefully insists upon, in his epistles to the Romans and Galatians.

But, thirdly, Though the law, and an earnest endeavour after the observance of it in general, would not serve to save us from our sins, yet there were especial institutions of the law, that were appointed for that end and purpose; as namely, the sacrifices in particular, which were designed to make atonement for the deliverance of sinners, and to procure their reconciliation with God. These the Jews principally rested on, and trusted unto; and indeed to expect righteousness and justification by the Mosaic sacrifices, as they did, was far more rational, than to expect it by the works of the moral law as some now do, for all good works whatever are required in the law, and so far are works of the law. In the sacrifices, there was a supposition of sin, and an appearance of a compensation to be made, that the sinner might go free; but in the moral law, there is nothing but absolute universal and exact righteousness required or admitted, without the least provision of relief for them who come short therein. But yet our apostle declares, and proves, that neither were these available for the end aimed at, as we shall see at large on the ninth and tenth chapters of this Epistle.

Now within the compass of these three, natural light or reason, with ingrafted principles of good and evil, the moral law, and the sacrifices thereof, do lie and consist, all the hopes and endeavours of sinners after deliverance and acceptance with God. There is nothing that they can do, or put any confidence in, but may be referred unto one of these heads. And if all this fail them, as assuredly they will, which we might prove by reasons and demonstrations innumerable, though at present we content ourselves with the testimonies above reported, it is certain that there is nothing under heaven can yield them in this case the least relief.

Again, This is the only way for that end which is suited to the wisdom of God. The wisdom of God is an infinite abyss, into which, as it lies in his own eternal breast, we cannot at all look. We can only adore it, as it breaks forth and discovers itself in the works that outwardly are of him, or in the effects of it. Thus David, in the consideration of the works of God, falls into an admiration of the wisdom whereby they were made, Psal. civ. 24. and Psal. cxxxvi. 5. The wisdom of God opens and manifests itself in its effects; and thence according unto our measure, do we learn what doth become it, and is suitable to it. But when the Holy Ghost cometh to speak of this work of our redemption by Christ, he doth not only call us to

consider singly the wisdom of God, but his various and manifold wisdom, Eph. iii. 10. and affirms that all the treasures of wisdom are hid in it, Col. ii. 3. plainly intimating that it is a work so suited unto, so answering the infinite wisdom of God in all things throughout, that it could no otherwise have been disposed and effected. And this as well upon the account of the wisdom of God itself absolutely considered, as also as it is that property whereby God designs and effects the glorifying of all other excellencies of his nature, whence it is called various or manifold; so that we may well conclude, that no other way of deliverance of sinners was suited unto the wisdom of God.

Secondly, This way alone answered the holiness and righteousness of God. He is a holy God, who will not suffer the guilty to go free: he is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and his judgment is, that they who commit sin are worthy of death. Sin is contrary to his nature; and his justice requireth that it go not unpunished. Besides, he is the great and supreme Governor of all; and whereas sin breaketh and dissolveth the dependance of the creature upon him, should he not avenge that defection, his whole rule and government would be disannulled. But now, if this vengeance and punishment should fall on the sinners themselves, they must perish under it eternally; not one of them could escape, or ever be freed or purged from their sins. A commutation then there must be; that the punishment due to sin, which the holiness and righteousness of God exacteth, may be inflicted, and mercy and grace shewed unto the sinner. That none was able, fit, or worthy to undergo this penalty, so as to make a compensation for all the sins of all the elect; that none was able to bear it, and break through it, so,'s that the end of the undertaking might be happy, blessed and glorious on all hands, but only the Son of God, we shall farther manifest in our progress, and it hath been elsewhere declared.

1. And this, first, should teach us to live in a holy admiration of this mighty and wonderful product of the wisdom, righteousness, grace and goodness of God, which found out, and appointed this way of delivering sinners, and have gloriously accomplished it in the sacrifice of the Son of God himself. The Holy Ghost every where proposeth this unto us, as a mystery, a great and hidden mystery, which none of the great, or wise, or disputers of the world, ever did or could come to the least acquaintance withal. And three things he asserts concerning it: First, That it is revealed in the gospel, and is thence alone to be learned and attained, whence we are invited again and again to search and inquire diligently into it, to this very end, that we may become wise in the knowledge and acknowledgment of this deep and hidden mystery. Secondly, That we cannot in our own strength, and by our own most diligent endeavours, come