' "E.irTu) V/) 'iXio;, Xiirri ri; It] (paivsfntcu jtaxu ^^u^tikZ xai XvrA^if Toy ava^icv Tuy^d-
viiv Arist. 2. Rhet. "Quid aiitein niiseiicordia, nisi alieiue miseriae quaedaiii iu
nostro cordo compassio; quaalicui, si possunius,subvcnire compelliniui?" — August, de Civit. Dei, lib. i-N.. cap. 5.
OF COMMUNION WITH THE SON JESUS CHRIST. 83
^his righteousness is also manifested in the business of forgiveness of sins : and therefore it is everywhere said to be wholly in Christ, Eph, i. 7. So that this gospel grace and pardoning mercy is alone pur- chased by him, and revealed in him. And this was the main end of all tjq^ical institutions, — to manifest that remission and forgiveness is wholly wrapped up in the Lord Christ, and that out of him there is not the least conjecture to be made of it, nor the least morsel to be tasted. Had not God set forth ^ the Lord Christ, all the angels in heaven and men on earth could not have apprehended that there had been any such thing in the nature of God as this grace of par- doning mercy. The apostle asserts the full manifestation as Avell as the exercise of this mercy to be in Christ only. Tit. iii. 4, 5, " After that the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man ap- peared,"— namely, in the sending of Christ, and the declaration of him in the gospel. Then was this pardoning mercy and salvation not by works discovered.
And these are of those properties of God whereby he will be known, whereof there is not the least glimpse to be obtained but by and in Christ ; and whoever knows him not by these, knows him not at all. They know an idol, and not the only true God. He that hath not the Son, the same hath not the Father, 1 John ii. 23 ; and not to have God as a Father, is not to have him at all ; and he is known as a Father only as he is love, and full of pardoning mercy in Christ. How this is to be had the Holy Ghost tells us, 1 John v. 20, " The Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true." By him alone we have our understanding to know him that is true. Now, these properties of God Christ revealeth in his doctrine, in the revelation he makes of God and his will, as the great prophet of the church, John xvii. 6. And on this account the knowledge of them is exposed to all, with an evidence unspeakably surmountmg that which is given by the creation to his eternal power and Godhead. But the life of this knowledge lies in an acquaintance with his person, wherein the express image and beams of this glory of his Father do shine forth, Heb. i. 3 ; of which before.
(2.) There are other properties of God which, though also otherwise discovered, yet are so clearly, eminently, and savingly only in Jesus Christ ; as, — [1.] His vindictive justice in punishing sin ; [2.] His patience, forbearance, and long-suffering towards sinners ; [3.] His wisdom, in managing things for his own glory; [4.] His all-suffi- ciency, in himself and unto others. All these, though they may re- ceive some lower and inferior manifestations out of Christ, yet they clearly shine only in hun ; so as that it may be our wisdom to be acquainted with them.
* KosTaxai/^ara; iXto; x^iirtas, JaUieS ii. 13. " Tl^oi(iT<i.
84 OF COMMUNION WITH THE SOX JESUS CHRIST.
[1.] His vindictive justice. God hath, indeed, many ways mani- fested his indignation and anger against sin ; so that men cannot but know that it is " the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death," Rom. i. 32. He hath in the law threat- ened to kindle a fire in his anger that shall burn to the very heart of hell. And even in many providential dispensations, " his wrath is revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness of men," Rom. i. 18. So that men must say that he is a God oi judgment. And he that shall but consider that the angels for sin were cast from heaven, shut up under chains of everlasting darkness unto the judgment of the great day (the^ rumour whereof seems to have been spread among the Gentiles, whence the poet makes his Jupiter threaten the infe- rior rebellious deities with that punishment) ; and how Sodom and Gomorrah were condemned with an overthrow, and burned into ashes, that they might be " examples unto those that should after live ungodly," 2 Pet. ii. 6 ; cannot but discover much of God 's vindictive justice and his anger against sin. But far more clear doth this shine into us in the Lord Christ: —
\st. In him God hath manifested the naturalness of this right- eousness unto him, in that it was impossible that it should be diverted from sinners without the interposing of a propitiation. Those who lay the necessity of satisfaction merely upon the account of a free act and determination of the will of God, leave, to my apprehension, no just and indispensable^ foundation for the death of Christ, but lay it upon a supposition of that which might have been otherwise. But plainly, God, in that he^ spared not his only Son, but made his soul an offering for sin, and would admit of no atonement but in his blood, hath abundantly manifested that it is of necessity to him (liis holiness and righteousness requiring it) to render indignation, MTath, tribula- tion, and anguish unto sin. And the knowledge of this naturalness of vindictive justice, with the necessity of its execution on supposition of sin, is the only true and useful knowledge of it. To look upon it as that which God may exercise or forbear, makes his justice not a property of his nature, but a free act of his luill; and a will to jninish where one may do otherwise without injustice, is rather ill-will than justice.