unsearchable perfections, stand out with surpassing lustre. So glorious is the display, in the gospel, of the divine nature and attributes, that angels themselves, (strange, astonishing thought,) those sons of light, that have dwelt with God since they had a being, bend over it, with "desire to look into it." They are intent on knowing God, and they go to the gospel mystery, the wonders of the redemption that is by Christ,they search into that, they pore over that,—that they may discover him. To the principalities and powers in heavenly places is known, by the church, the manifold wisdom of God." (Eph. iii. 10.) There, too, we also must go, if we would learn anything, to any saving purpose, of the blessed God. Jesus is "the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person." (Heb. i. 3.) He is that only begotten of the Father, full

of

grace and truth, who "hath declared him :" (John i. 14, 18:) whose gospel declares the grace and love, the holiness and truth, the power and wisdom of Jehovah, as nothing else can.

In the first place, the gospel of God is "to the praise of the glory of his grace." It discovers it, as none, either men or angels, could have conceived of it before. O what marvellous riches of grace beyond degree, to look on sinful, rebel man, with feelings of love and pity! to change heirs of hell, children of wrath, into sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty! (2 Cor.

vi. 18.) to give his Son to die for them; to be one of them; to spare them, by not sparing him! (Rom. viii. 32.) Yea, not to spare them only, but to bless them "with all spiritual blessings ;" choosing them to be " holy, and without blame before him in love;" pardoning all their sins; giving them, freely, a rich inheritance of eternal life and blessedness; and sealing them, here, with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of the inheritance, (the present pledge and foretaste of it,) until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of his glory. (Read Eph. i. 3—14.)

My brethren, is this the grace of God, his favour toward men, in the gospel? and is his language, "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely?" Where, I ask, beside, is there any thing like this? What can creation tell you, what can any other of the works and ways of God tell you, of his love and mercy to sinners? No, the gospel is, eminently, in this respect," the gospel of the glory of the blessed God."

Again, the gospel is the glory of Jehovah's holiness. It displays his thoughts of sin, in a manner that casts every other revelation of them, however terrible, into the shade. Angels must have stood in silent amazement and adoring awe, they must have learnt much, very much, of God's abhorrence of sin, when they saw their fellows cast out for it from bliss for ever; shut up in that

"reserved in chains,

dreadful prison of hell; under darkness, to the judgment of the great day." They saw man, for the same cause, cast out of Paradise, groaning under his Maker's curse; and a world, once beautiful and happy, turned into a scene of desolation and death. But what is all this? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It tells you not one half of the mind of God towards sin. Go to Calvary. See, who is dying there. Not angels: not man: but, O strange sight, the divine, the spotless Son of God, in man's nature; the beloved of the Father's soul, that had been in the bosom of the Father from eternity! But, in that hour, he had sin upon him; man's sin, accounted to him; made his own, in love that must specially have endeared him to the Father; love, that voluntarily undertook to atone for it, and take it for ever out of the way. Were there no relentings? was there no allowance for it, when the very Son of God must suffer for it? My brethren, the groans and blood of a dying Saviour,-that cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" may answer the inquiry. spared not his own Son!" yea, and that holy sufferer himself approved, and demanded the vengeance, rather than sin should go unpunished. Here, then, I say, in the gospel,here, only,--you learn, to the full extent, what

"He

is the holy abhorrence, in the divine nature, of everything that is contrary to its own excellence. God grant the revelation of it may reach every sinner's heart! that they may see what sin is, and how God will certainly deal with those, on whom any spot of it is found, in the day of his appearing; who are not washed in the blood of the Lamb.

I may instance, yet again, the glory of God's power and wisdom, as illustriously displayed in the gospel. Creation has in it innumerable, overwhelming tokens of the matchless wisdom, the eternal power and godhead, of him who spake it into being. Inimitable beauty, exhaustless contrivances, and adaptations of means to an end, exquisite order, and harmony, and subservience of the several parts of creation to each other, -in a word, infinite wisdom, and exactest forethought, appear stamped on the minutest atom that has been called into being by the word of Omnipotence: from a blade of grass, to the brightest seraph before his throne, all things are "full of his glory." But, in this first creation, all was passive: there was nothing to be overcome; nothing to oppose, and thwart, and work, perpetually, counter to his will. All things again, when created, were, like himself, very, and only good: they answered the purposes, and tended, solely, to the ends for which

he had designed them. But, when sin came in, it spoiled all; overthrew the order which God had established, and wrought confusion and ruin in his creation. Countless beings,fallen spirits, and fallen men, -were leagued, in desperate rebellion, against him. To restore order and peace, and to glorify himself, otherwise than by the destruction of the offenders, O how hopeless, apparently, the undertaking! What creature could atone for sin? Not one:

the highest, more than the meanest.

Man had

sold himself to do the will of Satan, and not of God who should deliver him? How was enmity to be changed into love? corruption into purity? death in sins, into spiritual life and holiness? Who, moreover, could treat, at all, of peace, between man and his offended God? Would God demean himself to receive a rebel to parley? or go, himself, to solicit a reconciliation? O what impossibilities, without number, lay against the recovery of man to the favour and love of God!

But, see these impossibilities, my brethren, all met, all overcome, in the gospel, "the glorious gospel of the blessed God." Christ is "the power of God, and the wisdom of God." In that wondrous person, that adorable Emmanuel, God-man in one Christ, mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have

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