O profound wisdom ! which from the loss and ruin of our primi- tive glory (which was the undoing of us, soul and body) takes the
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occasion of raising us to a far better state, and settles us in it with a much better security than the former.
Who but Jesus Christ, the wisdom of God, as he is called, 1 Cor. i. 24. could ever have ordered and over-ruled the worst of evils, so as by occasion of the breach of the law, to raise more glory to God, than ever could have been given to him by the most punctual ob- servation of its commands, or by the most rigorous execution of its penalties ? O the astonishing depth of wisdom !
Thirdly^ The love of God is in Christ. Behold the Lamh of God ! and in him behold the love of God, in the highest and most triumphant discovery that ever was, or can be made of it in this world ! 1 John iv. 10. ' Herein is love, not that we loved him, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.' O here, here is the love of God to sinners ! he manifests love to us, in our daily provisions, protections, deliverances, and comforts. That we have health when others groan under pains : therein is love : that we have bread to eat, when others are ready to perish ; therein is love. O ! but to have Christ to be a propitiation for us, when the angels that fell were left desperate ; therein was love indeed ! All the love that breaks out in the variety of providences for us in this world, in our healths and estates, in our relations and comforts, is nothing compared with this love : Herein is love indeed !
Fourthly, The tender mercies of God over poor sinners are in Christ. As Christ is the mercy promised, Luke i. 12. the capital mercy ; so he is the channel, through which all the streams of God's mercy flow freely to the sons of men, Jude 21. The mercy of God to eternal life, or his saving mercies, are only dispensed to us through Jesus Christ. Behold the Lamb of God! sl Lamb prepared by the astonishing mercy of God, a sacrifice for us, when no sacrifice was laid out for fallen angels. Mercy alone hath made this difference : mercy opened its tender eye, and looked through Christ upon us, in the depth of our misery : in Christ it is that the milder attribute of mercy is exercised upon us, whilst severe justice punishes them.
Fifthly, All the hopes of poor sinners are in Christ, Col. i. 27. Take away Christ, and where is the hope of our souls ? Tim. i. 1. it is by the blood of the Lamb that we have hope towards God : m his oblation, and no where else, our hope of salvation finds footing: on him it is the anchor of hope is fixed, and the soul stayed, when the storms of fear and inward trouble do arise, and beat violently upon it.
Sixthly, The salvation of our souls to eternity, is in Christ; Acts i. 12. ' Neither is there any other name given under heaven by which we must be saved.' He is the ark, in whom we are preserved, Jude ver. 1. Look, as the sprinkling of the blood of the Paschal I^amb upon the door-posts of the Israelites, was that which pre- served them from the destroying angel ; so the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, typified by that blood, saves believers from the wrath to come.
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But who can open the unsearchable riches, or recount the ravish- ing excellencies found in Christ? Angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect, behold, and admire for evermore, the incomparable excellencies of Christ ! Heaven would be no heaven to them, if they could not behold Christ there, Psal. Ixxiii. 25.
But my business rather lies in improving this point, than endea- vouring farther to unfold it : for new wonders will appear in Christ, if we behold him to eternity.
Use. And all the improvement I shall make of it, shall be in one use of exhortation ; beseeching every one of you, whatever your present condition and estate may be, ' to behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world :' And,
Fir,st, If there be found among you any that are sensible of a stony hard heart, which cannot relent and mourn for all the wrong done to Jesus Christ, by sin, whose affections are benumbed and stupified by sin, so that no considerations they can urge upon their own hearts, are able to thaw them, and cause a relenting pang for sin ; to such I would direct the words of this text, as the most effectual means to melt such hearts. Look hither, hard heart ; ' Behold the Lamb of God!" Consider, believe, and apply what is here sensibly represented ; and thy heart is hard indeed, if it relent not upon such a view of Christ. It is said, Zech. xii. 10. ' They shall look upon me, whom they have pierced, and mourn.' Behold the Son of God, brought ' as a Lamb to the slaughter' for thee, a vile, pollutted sinner ! Be- hold the invaluable blood of this sacrifice, shed for thee ! Bring thy thoughts close to this subject; think who it is that was made a hamhfor sacrifice ; for whom he endured all his unspeakable suf- ferings ; how meekly and willingly he endured all the wrath of God and men, standing in his perfect innocency, to be slain for thee. Behold ! he was ' made sin for thee, who had no sin ; that thou, who hadst no righteousness, mightest be made the righteousness of God in him.' Oh ! whoever loved thee at that rate Christ hath done ? Who would endure that misery that Christ did endure for thy sake ? Would thy father, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, that is as thy own soul, be content to feel that for thee, (though but one hour) which Christ felt, when ' his sweat was as it had been great drops of blood falling down to the ground.^' Nay, thou wouldst never taste such a cup for the saving of thine own child, as Christ drank off, when he cried, ' My God ! my God ! why hast thou forsaken me ?'' Behold how he loved thee !
Surelv, if the rocks rent asunder at his passion, thy heart is harder than a rock, if it thaw not at such a sight as this. Fix thine eyes a while here, and thine eye will affect thine heart.
Secondly^ Is there any among us that make too light of sin, and are easily overcome by every temptation to the commission of it.? Ocome hither, and « behold the Lamb of God !' and you cannot possibly have slight thoughts of sin after such a sight of Christ. See here the
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price of sin 1 behold what it cost the Lord Jesus Christ to expiate it. bid he come into the world as a Lamb, bound with the bands of an irreversible decree, to die for sin ? Did he come from the bosom of the Father, to be our ransomcr, and that at the price of his own life ? Did the handof severe justice shed the heart-blood of this immaculate Lamb, to satisfy for the wrongs thy sins have done to God ? And yet, canst thou look upon sin as a light matter ! God forbid !