Fourthly, It would much add to the joyfulness of the news, if this were i?i- auditum or insperatum, 'unheard of, unlooked for,' when the tidings steal upon us by way of surprise. The farther our own ignorance or desjiair have set us from all thoughts of so great enjoyment, the more joy it brings with it, when we hear the news of it. 'fhe joy of a poor swineherd's son, who never dreamed of a crown, would be greater at the news of such a thing conferred on him, than he whose birth invited him to look for it, yea, promised it him as his in- heritance; such a one's heart would stand but level to the place, and there- fore could not be so ravished with it as another who lay so far below such a preferment.
Lastly, To fill up the joy of all these, 'it is most necessary that the news be true and certain,' or else all the joy soon leaks out. What great joy would it afford to hear of a kingdom befallen to a man, and the next day or month to hear all crossed again, and prove false? Now, in the glad tidings of the gospel, all these do most happily meet together, to wind up the joy of the believing soul to the highest pin that the sti'ings of his affections can possibly bear.
First, The news which the gospel hath in its mouth to tell us poor sinners is good. It speaks promises, and they are significations of some good intended by God for poor sinners. The law, that brings ill news to town, threatenings are the litigiia rernacula legis, it can speak no other language to sinners, but denunciations of evil to come upon them ; but the gospel smiles on poor sin- ners, and jdanes the wrinkles that sit on the law's brow, by proclaiming promises.
Secondly, The news the gospel brings is as great as good. It was that the angel said, Luke ii. 10, 'I bring you tidings of great joy;' great joy it must needs be, because it is all joy. The Lord Christ brings such news in his gospel, as that he hath left nothing for any after him to add to it ; if there be any good wanting in the tidings of the gospel, we find it elsewhere than in God ; for in the covenant of the gospel, he gives himself through Christ to the believing soul: surely the apostle's argument will hold, 'All things are yours, ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's,' 1 Cor. iii. 22. The gospel lays our ducts close to the fountain of goodness itself, and he surely must have all, that is united to him that hath, that is, all. Can any good news come to the glorified saints which heaven doth not afford them? In the gospel we have news of that glory. * Jesus Christ hath brought life and immortality to light by the gospel,' 2 Tim. i. 10. The sun in the firmament discovers only the lower world; Ob- signat caelum, dum revdat terrain ; O it hides heaven from us, while it shews the e.arth to us ; but the gospel enlightens both at once. ' Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come,' 1 Tim. iv. 8.
Thirdly, Thegospel doth not tell us news we are little concerned in ; not, what God has done for angels, but for us: 'Unto j-tju,' saith the angel, 'is born a Saviour, Christ the Lord.' If love made angels rejoice in our happiness, surely the benefit which is paid into our nature by it gives a farther ])Ieasure to our joy at the hearing of it. It were strange that the messenger, who only brings the news of some great empire to be devolved on a person, shoidd sing, and the prince to whom it falls should not be glad. And, as the gospel's glad tidings belong to man's nature, not to angels, so in particular to the poor soul, who- ever thou art, that embraceth Christ in the arms of thy faith. A pi'ince is a common good to all his kingdom; every subject, though never so nu'an, hath a part in him, and so is Christ to all believers. The promises are so laid, that, like a well-drawn pictiu'c, they look on all that look on them by an eye of faith. The gos])ers joy is thy joy, that hast but faith to receive it.
Fourthly, The glad tidings of the gospel were unheard of, unlooked for, by the sons of men ; such news it brings, as never could have entered into the heart of man to conceive, till God unlocked the cabinet of his own good pleasure and revealed the council of his will, wherein this mysterious piece, of love to fallen man, lay hid far enough from the prying eye of the most quick-sighted angel in hcaveiij much more from man himself, who coidd read in his own guilty
Q/[,Q THE GOSPEL OF PEACE.