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For these light afflictions are but for a moment, and work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

No doctrine unites all the elements of grandeur and humility like. the truth as it is in Jesus. It produces the highest degree of happiness and joy. They are not only of the highest degree, but permanent in their duration. It passes all understanding; for the hope of it is more glorious than the splendours of the universe.

It should induce us to unite with the people of God, for this truth binds the hearts of Christians together: They are one in Christ. It brings them together at innumerable points of contact. They are thus made one body; they are one in condition and circumstances. When driven together by a common storm, they fly to the same refuge. Were it not for this uniting tendency in the truth, Christianity would never have subdued the world. Its adherents, however numerous, could only have been single lights; and they would soon have been extinguished by the gusts and storms of this tempestuous world.

IV.

THE WISDOM OF GOD AS DISPLAYED IN THE GOSPEL.* 1 CORINTHIANS, ii., 6, 7: Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to naught; but we speak the wisdom of GOD in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory.

[Preached at Denmark Place Chapel, Camberwell, June 24, 1827, on behalf of the Bristol Baptist College.]

THOUGH the apostle had planted the cross, with considerable success, among the Corinthians, they suffered themselves to be subverted from the truth, and were involved in a variety of dangerous errors. They gave way to many gross immoralities; they fomented the spirit of party, despoiling the harmony and disfiguring the beauty of the Church. The apostle applies himself to counteract these various evils; and his success appears to have been nearly equal to his desires. To accomplish his important purpose, he reminds them that the wisdom connected with the doctrine of the cross was greatly superior to the wisdom of this world. Corinth was one of the principal schools of science: it was the custom of her philosophers and orators to embellish their statements with all the subtleties of argument, and the ornaments and graces of speech. But the apostle well knew that the arts of human learning and the embellishments of human rhetoric would but ill suit the simplicity of the gospel, and would rather go to make it of none effect. "I came not unto you," says he, "with ex

Reported in the Pulpit, vol. viii.

cellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the tʊ amcy of God: for I determined not to know any thing among you, Fave esus Christ and him crucified. For my speech and my pre saing was not with the enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." The reason he assigns for so doing was, that their "faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but it the power of God." Yet, lest any should suppose that the doctrine of Christ crucified was really that system of incoherence and folly which some, in their wisdom, pretended to show, he adds, "Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect"-among them whohaving entered the school of Christ, have made some proficiency AN the Divine system: "yet not the wisdom of this worid, nor of tuo princes of this world"-not that wisdom in which the leading philosophers and rulers of the world are versed, and according to the maxims of which they act; "but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordamed before the world unto our glory." You will observe that the aposde again and again declares the gospel to be the WISDOM of God. It is that system which is peculiarly marked by the wisdom of its great Author. Let us meditate on this glorious display of Divine wisdom. The wisdom of God, as displayed in the gospel, may be considered in three points of view: either in relation

To its great end;

To the medium through which it is communicated'; or,

To the method in which it is announcea.

First. IN RELATION TO ITS GREAT. END.

The gospel may be considered as glad tidings of good: and in the nature of this good the wisdom of God eminently appears. He has set before us blessings such as never before entered into human apprehension. The good proposed to our view in the gospel is the most suitable good. Man is not merely corporeal; he is chiefly a spiritual creature; hence the gospel reveals a spiritual good. God, who well knows our nature, has adapted his gifts to the wants of our nature; he has, in his wisdom, regarded us as spiritual beings, who can only be sustained and satisfied with spiritual things. His wisdom appears, too, in that the good revealed in the gospel is of a permanent kind. God has formed us to endure forever, and the good which he has prepared for us is enduring also. Christ made himself known as eternal life. This is not the object of general regard; eternal life is not commonly pursued as a matter of unspeakable moment; and the wisdom of God appears in thus placing before us that good which we are most prone to forget-which most of all we need-and which will endure forever. God has manifested his wisdom also in revealing himself to us as the chief, the only satisfying good. He only can fill the powers of the soul-he only subsists through every changing And God does graciously propose himself as the portion of his people."Fear not," said he to Abraham; "I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." Who does not know that the creature cannot satisfy the creature? That which satisfies must be something

scene.

Let us admire the wisdom of and let us recollect that such a

above us something superior to us. God in proposing such a good to us; good as is proposed to us in the gospel is to be found nowhere else. View the gospel,

Secondly, IN RELATION TO THE MEDIUM THROUGH WHICH IT IS

COMMUNICATED TO THE CHILDREN OF MEN.

The gospel is not only a certain good, but the medium of communicating that good: it reveals the good itself, and the various steps by which we are put in possession of that good. The economy which God has set on foot he himself exhibits. The inediation of Jesus Christ, his incarnation, and all the various facts narrated in his life, are parts of this economy. The salvation of the human race is made to turn on the death of an individual. This is above all the ideas of men it never could enter the human mind to suppose that one man could be saved through the mediation of many, much less that all could be saved through the mediation of ONE. This was 66 a stumbling block to the Jews, and foolishness to the Greeks: but to them that were saved, it was Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." "We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory; which none of the princes of this world, such as Pilate and Herod, and other great men, knew for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory." But this fact, when properly considered, displays the highest wisdom. It is not an individual merely, but an individual made and fashioned expressly for the work. In the person of Christ,, we see a man with a person capable of suffering; and a Divine person, to make his sufferings meritorious. In his one person, the Divine and human nature were mysteriously and hypostatically united. Hence his blood is precious, and worthy of having salvation ascribed to it by all the rational creation. Here is a display of wisdom. Had Christ been mere man, there could have been no merit: had he not been man, he could not have suffered. It was necessary that he should be man, and perfect in purity as a man, that God might discov-, er in him no flaw; it was necessary that he should be dignified as well as innocent, or his sufferings could not have availed. In all the universe could no such individual be found; but in the union of the divine and human nature in the one person of Jesus Christ, "has been made known to the angels and principalities in heavenly places, the manifold wisdom of God." Had the question been asked, "How shall man be just with God?" it could not have been answered to eternity but, "in the fulness of time, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman-made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." He appeared in weakness as a man; but that weakness enabled him to suffer. He appeared as a Divine person; but as such he could not have suffered -he could not have died. Besides, the way to reconcile the holiness and the mercy, the justice and the love of God, could never have been conceived, but for the wisdom of God in fitting this manthis God-man, and sending him to suffer for the sins of the world VOL. IV-Q

God had sometimes been revealed in holiness, punishing his foes; and sometimes in mercy, "opening his hand, and satisfying the desire of every living thing" but in the gospel alone do we see, in one fact, in one transaction, God shining forth alike in truth and holiness, in wisdom and in love. The cross of Christ became a mirror, in which to reflect back all the exuberance of the Divine mercy, and the purity of his holiness, and the riches of his grace. Here God appears just, and yet a justifier; just, and yet a Saviour. In saving the sinner by the cross of Christ, God does not for a moment lose sight of the Divine law, or at all diminish the evil of sin. The sinner, in obtaining salvation at the cross, does not lose sight of his true character. He can sink in the deepest self-abasement, while he rises to the enjoyment of the love of God. He can feel his own nothingness, at the same time that he exults in God as his Father. He can behold God as a righteous sovereign vindicating his authority, and yet dispensing pardons to those who have trampled on his authority. Nowhere else is the wisdom of God displayed as in this constitution of the gospel.

:

The wisdom appears in the gospel, farther, in his defeating Satan by the very weapons which he employed to subvert his designs. The cross is properly the WEAPON of Christ; the weapon by which he effected his grandest triumphs. "Through death he destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." On the cross, where Satan supposed his own victory to be complete, Jesus "spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it." By the cross of Christ, God has, as it were, reversed the order of things. In the first Adam, man fell, by aspiring to be as God Jesus Christ, the second Adam, saves, by condescending to become man. Man was indebted for his ruin to an evil spirit; he owes his recovery to a good Spirit. Jesus Christ dispenses that Spirit to each believer; so that, as he was deluded and depraved by the suggestions of the wicked spirit, he is renewed and made holy by the influence of the Divine Spirit. As man was ensnared by deceit and vanity, and became miserable, he is liberated by truth and purity, and becomes happy. The machinery of Satan is thus turned upon himself; and, by a series of steps, reverse to those by which man fell, he is made to rise above all the consequences of his apostacy. The wisdom of God appears also,

Thirdly, IN THE DISPENSATION OF THE GOSPEL.

The truth, which was first dictated by Jesus Christ, was afterward declared and confirmed by them that heard him. In this was displayed the wisdom of God.

1. It appears in the manner in which the truths of the gospel are taught. There are two modes of communicating instruction: the one is by facts; the other is by argument. The latter mode is generally considered the most efficient, and was most commonly employed by the ancients in their schools of learning. They led their pupils by a concatenation of arguments, by a regular chain of reasoning, to the conclusion they wished to establish as truth. But many subtleties were resorted to in this mode of teaching. It was so possible for the

master to give what turn he pleased to the argument, that it was a very uncertain mode of teaching, and was by no means calculated for the instruction of mankind at large. Learning was clothed in such a garb, that it did not even attract the attention of the common people; they could not comprehend it; they could not be benefited by it. There was so much profundity about the teachings of the philosophers, that much acumen was required on the part of those who wished instruction. Their learning was elevated, and rarely reached down to the vale. The various sects of the philosophers, the Gnostics, the Aristotelians, and even that of the Pharisees and Sadducees, were among the higher classes: we never find that the people at large entered into their disputes, or bore the name of their sects. But when God designed to teach mankind, how did he proceed? He taught by facts-by testimony. "I came," says the apostle, " declaring unto you the testimony of God." Such were the facts the apostles asserted, that the truths they taught must stand or fall by those facts. They declared that Christ had appeared in the flesh; that he died; that he rose again. And these facts are the very soul of the gospel: he who believes that the apostles spake truth; that Jesus Christ really came, and died, and rose again, and ascended into the clouds of heaven, must also believe that he died for the salvation of sinners; that he "brought in an everlasting righteousness;" that he made a full atonement for sin; and the certainty of our rising, and appearing before God to give an account of ourselves, is as certain as the fact that Christ died and rose again. And he who considers the number of those witnesses, their character, the harmony of their testimony, the miracles they wrought in the name of Him of whom they testified, and, at the same time, refuses to believe their testimony, will be found neglecting his own salvation, and turning the gospel of the Saviour against himself. In all this the wisdom of God's teachings appears above the teachings of the philosophers. They retired from the crowd, and looked upon them with contempt; but heavenly wisdom is found "putting forth her voice by the way, in the places of the paths. She crieth unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men. O ye simple, understand wisdom." The language of the gospel is addressed to all, and is founded upon facts that all may understand. It declares that all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God: and it reveals a universal, an efficacious remedy. Its design is to bring man back to God; to reconcile him to the Being he has offended; to renew his soul in righteousness; to lead him in the way to glory, till at length he comes to the vision and enjoyment of God. And is not this a remedy? And is it not worthy the wisdom of God, to reveal such a remedy for the removal of mortal malady and disease? When Christ opened the eyes of the blind, and unstopped the ears of the deaf, and restored health to the sick, and raised the dead to life, he was only furnishing emblems of those moral miracles which were to be wrought on all those who embrace the gospel of salvation. But,

2. The wisdom of God appears also in committing the dispensation of the gospel to men. We might suppose that the designs of God

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