Secondly, The counsels of God are the next spring and cause — as also the subject-matter or substance — of all truth that is so declara- tively. Divine truth is " the declaration of the counsels of God : " Acts XX. 27. Of them all the person of Christ is the sacred reposi- tory and treasury — m him are they to be learned. All their eflicacy and use depend on their relation unto him. He is the centre and circumference of all the lines of truth — that is, which is divine, spiritual, and supematm'al. And the beauty of it is presented unto us only in his face or person. We see it not, we know it not, but
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as God shines into our hearts to give us the knowledge of it therein : 2 Cor. iv. 6.
So he testifieth of himself, "I am the truth:" John xiv. 6. He is so essentially — as he is one with the Father, the God of truth: Deut. xxxii. 4. He is so efficiently — as by him alone it is fully and effectually declared ; for " no man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him:" John i. 18. He is so substantially — in opposition unto the types and shadows of the Old Testament; for in him dwelt " the fulness of the Godhead bodily:" Col. ii. 9. " The body is of Christ:" verse 17. He is so subjectively — for all divine truth, relating to the saving knowledge of God, is treasured up in him. " In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge : " verse 3. That is, the wisdom and knowledge of God — in his counsels concerning the vocation, sanctiiication, and salvation, of the church — concerning which the apostle falls into that holy admi- ration, " 0 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and know- ledge of God ! " Rom. xi. 83. And they are called " treasures " on a twofold account, both mentioned together by the Psalmist. " How precious are thy thoughts unto me, 0 Lord; how great is the sum of them!" They are treasures, because precious and invaluable — and are therefore usually prefen-ed above all earthly treasures which men most highly esteem: Pro v. iii. 14, 15. And they are so, because of the greatness of the sum of them; and therefore also called "unsearchable riches:" Eph. iii. 8. These precious, unsearchable treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God — that is, all divine supernatural truths — are hid, or safely deposited, in Christ — in and from whom alone they are to be learned and received.
So we are said to learn the truth as it is in Jesus: Eph. iv. 21. And the knowledge of all evangelical sacred truth is, in the Scrip- ture, most frequently expressed by the knowledge of Him : John viii. 19, xvii. 3; 2 Cor. ii. 14, iv. 5, 6; Eph. i. 17; Phil. iii. 8, 10; 1 John i. 1, 2, ii. 4, 13, 14, v. 20; 2 Pet. ii. 20.
Setting aside what we have discoursed and proved before — con- cerning the laying of the foundation of all the counsels of God in the person of Christ, and the representation of them in the ineffable constitution thereof — I shall give some few instances of this relation of all supernatural truths unto him — manifesting that we cannot leam them, nor know them, but with a due respect thereunto.
1. There are two things wherein the glory of truth doth consist. (1.) Its hght. (2.) Its efficacy or power. And both these do all supernatural truths derive from this relation unto Christ.
(1.) No truth whatever brings any spiritual light unto the mind, but by virtue thereof " In him is life, and the life is the light of
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men : " John i. 4. He is " the true Light, which hghteth every man that cometh into the world:" verse 9. Wherefore, as truth is the only means of illumination, so it cannot communicate any light unto the mind, but only as it is a beam from him, as it is an organ to convey it from that fountain. Separated from him and its rela- tion unto him, it will not retain, it cannot communicate, any real spiritual light or understanding to the souls of men. How should it, if all light be originally in him — as the Scriptiure testifieth? Then alone is the mind irradiated with heavenly truth, when it is received as proceeding from, and leading unto, the Sun of Righteousness — the blessed spring of all spiritual light — which is Christ himself. What- ever notional knowledge men may have of divine truths, as they are doctrinally proposed in the Scripture, yet — if they know them not in their respect unto the person of Christ as the foundation of the counsels of God — if they discern not how they proceed from him, and centre in him — they will bring no spiritual, saving light unto their understanding. For all spiritual life and light is in him, and from him alone. An instance hereof we have in the Jews. They have the Scriptures of the Old Testament, wherein the substance of all divine truth is revealed and expressed; and they are diligent in the study of them; howbeit their minds are not at all illuminated nor irradiated by the truths contained in them, but they live and walk in horrible darkness. And the only reason hereof is, because they know not, because they reject, the relation of them unto Christ — without which they are deprived of all enlightening power.