CHAPTER XIII.

THE GOSPEL.

THE manifestation of his own glory is the great end of God in creation, and in all his dispensations.* In the beginning he filled heaven with its angelic inhabitants, and to these blessed spirits were exhibited the wisdom, the power, and the goodness of God. The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. But the weakness and mutability of the creature became apparent; a multitude of the angelic host revolted from their allegiance and rebelled against their Maker; and none but the elect angels, in whom God displayed his almighty power for their preservation, remained faithful. On the occasion of this revolt, the justice of God, an attribute not before displayed, as far as is revealed, was exhibited; the rebellious angels being cast out from their original abode of happiness, and reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day,

* God is infinitely more excellent than the whole creation, and viewing things as they really are, he must regard himself as infinitely worthy of being most valued and loved. The manifestation of his glory, then, is the great end of creation, and God has himself chiefly in view in all his works and dispensations. Passages to this effect, both in the Old Testament and the New, far exceed in number what any one who has not examined the subject is aware of.

when justice to the uttermost will be finally and eternally executed upon them.

By the creation of this world, the perfections of the character of God were to be further illustrated, and another attribute of the Godhead was to be displayed in accordance and harmony with those before discovered. Man was created upright, but soon fell from his integrity. This second revolt was occasioned by the Prince of the rebel angels. And now God exhibited mercy in combination with justice, in a manner of which no created intelligence could before have formed any conception. In extending mercy to fallen men, he caused the wickedness of the seducer to recoil upon himself in a more tremendous punishment; and that which this grand adversary had planned for the erection of a new and independent empire, was made to issue in the total subversion of his power, and his own aggravated ruin. God likewise purposed to manifest his abhorrence of sin, in giving an additional exemplary instance of its punishment, by allowing justice to take its course on a portion of that race which had risen up in defiance of his authority. But towards another portion of the same race, the most unlimited mercy was now to be exercised, in combination with the most inflexible justice.

For these ends, the Son of God took upon him the nature of man, appeared in the world, and satisfied divine justice. By his obedience, and sufferings, and death, he executed the plan of redemption into which the holy angels, without being able to fathom all its wisdom and all its glory, desire to look. Those of the human race who were to be made the vessels of mercy, and in whom God was to show forth his power, were not to be restored to that high situation in which they

were created, but were to be advanced to a condition infinitely more exalted, commensurate with the dignity of their divine deliverer. They were destined to repeople heaven, from which so many of its original inhabitants had been expelled; to be raised to the highest honours of glory and immortality, and to be for ever confirmed in that state. But as the Captain of their salvation had been made perfect through sufferings, and had even passed through death before he entered into his glory, so all his redeemed children were in their successive generations to tread the same path, and through much tribulation, and death, to enter into the kingdom of God. And this dispensation, of justice and mercy united, was to continue till their triumphant Saviour should appear in the clouds of heaven as the King of Glory, and after having in their presence adjudged their great seducer to his final doom, and all those who shall have adhered to him in his apostasy, should conduct them to those mansions of everlasting blessedness prepared for them from the foundation of the world. Such are the great ends to be accomplished in the plan of salvation as revealed in the Gospel, through which, unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places is to be made known by the church, the manifold wisdom of God; according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Eph. iii. 10.

While every other system of religion extenuates what is evil in man, and degrades the divine perfections, the way of salvation proclaimed in the Gospel is adapted to the fallen state of humanity, and gloriously illustrates the character of Jehovah. The Holy Scriptures alone reveal in awful majesty the holiness and justice

of God, as well as his goodness and mercy. They proclaim his law in all its spirituality and extent; and, bringing every man to the test of its requirements, charge him as a guilty and condemned rebel, who has neither the means nor the inclination to reinstate himself in the favour of his Creator.

To fix guilt on the conscience of every individual, the Scriptures enter into minute details. They exhibit human nature in every possible way, sometimes in the histories of the best, and sometimes of the worst men-of men of all descriptions, and of every rank in life of the learned and the unlearned-of the barbarous and the civilized. They not only treat of outward conduct, but penetrate into the most hidden recesses of the heart, showing that, even where outwardly a man's conduct appears fair and blameless, all within may be hollow and corrupt. "Out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness." Such is the catalogue of evils which the Holy Scriptures represent as lodging within the heart, and which, coming from within, defile the man. But, above all, they teach his total alienation from God. Hence the evil heart of unbelief. Thus all men, ever since the fall, are, without exception, sinners. As born of Adam, who was overcome by Satan, and imbibed his poison, they are of their father the devil, who, from his power and influence, is called "the god of this world." Their judgment is perverted, their passions disordered, and, with strong propensities to evil, they have neither the fear nor the love of God. Such is the carnal mind, which "is enmity against God, for it is not subject to

the law of God, neither indeed can be." In this condition they cannot please God. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him."

In the Scriptures, the lost condition of man is written as with a sunbeam; it is often explicitly asserted, and everywhere implied. He is declared to be "shapen in iniquity, and conceived in sin,” Ps. xli. 5—“ estranged from the womb, speaking lies," Ps. xlviii. 3—" dead in trespasses and sins”—influenced by the devil-by nature a child of wrath, Eph. ii. 3. The character of man in his natural state, as collected from various parts of the Old Testament Scriptures, is fully described in the Epistle to the Romans, where it is applied by the apostle to both Jews and Gentiles. "There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways; ways; the way of peace have they not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes," Rom. iii. 10. It is here repeatedly affirmed that there is none, not one-no, not one, -who is righteous; all have gone out of the way—of their natural destination, of their duty to God, and of the road that leads to happiness. All the organs of speech-the throat, the tongue, the lips, the mouth, are employed in the service of sin; uttering corrupt communications, falsehood, calumny, malediction;