368 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. IL
all being of grace, they leave place unto nothing but eternal admi- ration and thankfulness.
Secondly, Had not God been thus mindful of man, and visited him in the person of his Son incarnate, every one partaker of that nature must have utterly perished in their lost condition, And this also renders the grace of it an object of admiration. .We are not only to look at what God takes us unto by this visitation, but to consi- der also what he delivers us from. Now, this is a great part of that vile and base condition which the psalmist wonders that God should have regard unto, namely, that we had sinned and come short of his glory, and thereby exposed ourselves unto eternal misery. In that condition we must have perished for ever, had not God freed us by this visitation. It had been great grace to have taken an innocent, a sinless man into glory; great grace to have freed a sinner from misery, though he should never be brought to the enjoyment of the least positive good: but to free a sinner from the utmost and most inconceivable misery in eternal ruin, and to bring him unto the highest happiness in eternal glory, and all this in a way of mere grace, this is to be admired.
Thirdly, Because it appeareth that God is more glorified in the humiliation and exaltation of the Lord Christ, and the salvation of mankind thereby, than in any of or all the works of the first crea- tion. How glorious those works are, and how mightily they set forth the glory of God, we have before declared. But, as the psalmist intimates, God rested not in them. He had yet a further design, to manifest his glory in a more eminent and singular manner; and this he did by minding and visiting of man in Christ Jesus. None almost is so stupid, but on the first view of the heavens, the sun, moon, and stars, he will confess that their fabric, beauty, and order, are wonderful, and that the glory of their framer and builder is for ever to be admired in them. But all this comes short of that glory which ariseth unto God from this condescension and grace. And therefore it may be the day will come, and that speedily, wherein these heavens, and this whole old creation, shall be utterly dissolved and brought to nothing; for why should they abide as a monument of his power unto them who, enjoying the blessed vision of him, shall see and know it far more evidently and eminently in himself? However, they shall undoubtedly in a short time cease as to their use, wherein at present they are principally subservient unto the manifestation of the glory of God. But the effects of this regard of God to man shall abide unto eternity, and the glory of God therein. This is the foundation of heaven, as it is a state and condition,—it denotes the glorious presence of God among his saints and holy ones. Without this there would be no such heaven; all that is there, and all the glory of it, depend thereon,
VER. 5-9.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 369
Take away this foundation, and all that beauty and glory disappears. Nothing, indeed, would be taken from God, who ever was and ever will be eternally blessed in his own self-sufficiency. But the whole theatre which he hath erected for the manifestation of his glory unto eternity depends on this his holy condescension and grace; which assuredly render them meet for ever to be admired and adored.
This, then, let us exercise ourselves unto. Faith having infinite, eternal, incomprehensible things proposed unto it, acts itself greatly in this admiration. We are everywhere taught that we now know but imperfectly, in part; and that we see darkly, as in a glass: not that the revelation of these things in the word is dark and obscure, for they are fully and clearly proposed, but that such is the nature of the things themselves, that we are not in this life able to compre- hend them; and therefore faith doth principally exercise itself in a holy admiration of them. And indeed no love or grace will suit our condition but that which is incomprehensible. We find our- selves by experience to stand in need of more grace, goodness, love, and mercy, than we can look into, search to the bottom of, or fully understand. But when that which is infinite and incomprehensible is proposed unto us, then all fears are overwhelmed, and faith finds rest with assurance. And if our admiration of these things be an act, an effect, a fruit of faith, it will be of singular use to endear God unto our hearts, and to excite them unto thankful obediénce; for who would not love and delight in the eternal fountain of this inconceivable grace? and what shall we render unto him who hath _done more for us than we are any way able to think or conceive?
II. Observe also, that such was the inconceivable love of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, unto the souls of men, that he was free and willing to condescend unto any condition for their good and salva- tion.
That was the end of all this dispensation. And the Lord Christ was not humbled and made less than the angels without his own will and consent. His will and good liking concurred unto this work, Hence, when the eternal counsel of this whole matter is mentioned, it is said of him, as the Wisdom of the Father, that “he rejoiced in the habitable part of the earth, and his delights were with the sons of men,” Prov. viii. 31. He delighted in the counsel of redeeming and saving them by his own humiliation and suffer- ing. And the Scripture makes it evident upon these two consider- ations :— .