matter? It is that which is opposed to the magistrate's find- ing it out; what that is, we have a full description in Job xxix. 16, 17. ' The cause I knew not, I searched out, and brake the jaws of the wicked.' It is to make judicial in- quisition after, to find out hidden transgressions, that the offenders may be brought to condign punishment. So that God's concealing a matter, is his not searching, with an intention of punishment, into sins and sinners, to make them naked to the stroke of the law. It is his hiding of sin from the condemning power of the law.
The word here used is the same with that of David, Psal. xxxii. 1. 'Blessed is the man whose sin is covered.' And in sundry other places is it used to the same purpose 5 which is expressed Micah vii. 17. by ' casting all our sins into the bottom of the sea.' That which is so disposed of, is utterly covered from the sight of men. So doth God ex- press the covering of the sins of his people, as to their not appearance to their condemnation, they shall be * cast into the bottom of the sea.' Hence are our sins in the New Tes- tament said a(j>Hvai, which we translate ' forgiven' and * to forgive,' and u(pi.<yig, ' forgiveness,' in twenty places. The word signifies properly to * remove,' or ' dismiss' one : a/xapr/}- fxara a(piTvai, is ' Peccata missa facere,' ' to send or remove away our sins out of sight;' the same in substance with that which is here called ' to cover.' And so is the word used in another business. Matt, xxiii. 23. a^/jicars to. (^apvrepa tov vo/biov, ' you have omitted the weightier things of the law ;' that is, you have laid them aside as it were out of sight, tak- ing no care of them. Nov/ the bottom of all these expres- sions of removing, hiding, covering, and concealing sin, which gives life and significancy to them, making them im- port forgiveness of sin, is the allusion that is in them to the mercy-seat under the law. The making and use of it, we have Exod. xxv. 17, 18. It was a plate of pure gold lying on the ark called niDD or * a covering.' In the ark was the law written on tables of stone. Over the mercy-seat, between the cherubims, was the oracle representing the presence of God. By which the Holy Ghost does signify, that the mercy- seat was to cover the law, and the condemning power of it, as it were, from the eye of God's justice, that we be not con- sumed. Hence is God said to cover sin, because by the
316 THE STRENGTH OF FAITH.
niercy-seat he hides that which is the strength and power of sin, as to its guilt and tendency unto punishment. The apo- stle calls this ' mercy-seat,' to iXaaTiipiov, Heb. ix. 5. That word is used but once more in the New Testament, and then Christ is called so ; Rom. iii. 25. Or "Ov vpoidtTo 6 Oebg to IXuffTijpiov, * whom God hath proposed as a mercy-seat.' Christ alone is that mercy-seat, by whom sin, and the law, from whence sin hath its rigour, is hidden. And from that typical institution is that expression in the Old Testament, ' Hide me under thy wings ;' the wings of the cherubims, where the mercy-seat was ; that is, in the bosom of Christ.
Now, saith the holy Ghost, thus to hide, to cover, to pardon sin by Christ, is the glory of God, wherein he will be exalted and admired, and for which he will be praised. Give him this, and you give him his great aim and design. Let him be believed in, trusted on, as God in Christ, par- doning iniquity, transgression, and sin, so reconciling the world to himself, and manifesting his glorious properties therein, and he hath his end.
Should I now proceed to shew what God hath done, what he doth, and will do, to set up his glory, it would make it evident indeed, that he aimed at it. His eternal, electing love lies at the bottom of this design, this is the tendency of it, that God may be glorified in the forgiveness of sin. The sending of his Son, a mystery of wisdom, goodness, and righteousness past finding out, with all that by his authority and commission he did, suffered, and doth, was that his name might be glorified in this thing. Hath the new covenant of grace any other end ? Did not God on purpose propose, make, and establish that covenant in the blood of his Son, that whereas he had by his works of creation and providence, by the old covenant and law, giving glory to himself in other respects, he might by this glorify himself in the hiding of iniquity? The dispensation of the Spirit for the conversion of sinners, with all the mighty works ensuing thereupon, is to the same, and no other purpose. Wherefore doth God exercise patience, forbearance, long-suffering towards us, such as he will be admired for to eternity, such as our souls stand amazed to think of ? It is only that he may bring about this glory of his, the covering of iniquity, and pardoning of sin.