Now say, whether this be not " a great deep." Who can comprehend it ? Who is not lost in wonder at the contem- plation of it ?]
2. Our recovery by Jesus Christ — [That there should be a possibility of restoring man to the divine favour, is what no finite intelligence could ever have conceived. Not one of the fallen angels ever was restored: nor could the restoration of man, it might be thought, have ever been compatible with the honour of our offended God.
a 1 Cor. XV. 22. ^ Rom. v. 17, 18. <= Ps. li. 5.
^ Job xiv. 4. e Eph, ii. 3.
But God contrived a way, wherein he might be "just, and yet the justifier of sinful nien^." For this end he gave his only- begotten Son, to stand in our place, to bear our sins, to " make reconciliation for our iniquities, and to bring in an everlasting righteousness," wherein we might stand accepted before our God. Well might the Apostle say, " Great is the mystery of godli- ness s." Who can contemplate " God manifest in human flesh," and dying in the place of his own sinful and rebellious creatures, and not stand amazed at this stupendous effort of love and mercy? Truly, it far " surpasses all the knowledge" whether of men or angels. And, if it were not confirmed to us by testimony that is absolutely unquestionable, we could not but regard it altogether as " a cunningly-devised fable ;" so un- fathomable are the depths contained in it, and so incompre- hensible the love^.]
But let US contemplate God's judgments, II. As manifested in his works — Let us notice them in his works, L Of providence —
\_These also are as inscrutable as redemption itself. Who, that surveyed Joseph in all his different scenes of woe, corJd ever imagine whither they were conducting him, or to what they would lead ? Truly there is " a wheel within a wheel';" and whilst all appears uncertainty around us, every thing is working to a fixed end, even to accompHsh what God himself has predicted in his word. The smallest incidents that can be imagined are often productive of the most wonderful events : the casting of a lot, the sleepless restlessness of Ahasueru.s, the casual turning to a particular record, to a common observer would appear as matters of trifling moment: yet on them depended the preservation of the whole Jewish people''. And we too, if we look back upon our past lives, may find many minute occurrences, which seemed to be of no account at the time, but which contributed in the most essential manner to influence and fix our future destinies ; so that at this hour there is not one amongst us whose life would not serve for the illustrating of this point, and constrain him with the profoundest admiration to exclaim, " How unsearchable are God's judg- ments, and his ways past finding outM"]
2. Of grace —
[Who, that had seen Paul in his unconverted state, would ever have supposed that God had designs of love towards him ?
f Rom. iii. 2G. g 1 Tim. iii. 16. '^ Eph. ill. 18, 19.
' Ezek. i. 16. ^ Esther iii. 7. and vi. 1 — 3.
1 Rom. xi. 33.
560»] god's word and works mysterious. 281
Yet, when he had well nigh filled up the measure of his ini- quities, God arrested him in his career, and made him a most distinguished monument of his mercy; insomuch that all future ages were to regard him as " a pattern," by which the extent of God's mercy might be estimated, and the hopes of penitents be encouraged™. Certainly the conduct of Onesimus towards his master Philemon must appear a very strange link in the piu'poses of heaven, relative to his salvation : yet were his dis- honesty and flight made use of by God as means to bring him under the ministry of St. Paul, and, through that, to a conver- sion of soul to God, and to the everlasting possession of hap- piness and glory '^. Not that God's designs of mercy towards him lessened in any degree the guilt which he contracted : nor is sin of any kind the less sinful on account of the use which God may make of it for the accomphshment of his own designs : for then the murderers of our blessed Lord must have been accounted the best, rather than the most guilty, of mankind. No : sin is a deadly evil, by whomsoever it is committed, and whatsoever it may effect : but this I say, that God both does and will accomplish his own eternal counsels, in ways which no finite wisdom could have contrived, nor any finite power have brought to a successful issue. " Verily," says the prophet, " thou art a God that hidest thyself"." And so, indeed, we may all say. For who can look back upon the way in which he has been brought from his youth up even to this present moment, and especially upon the way in which he has been led to the knowledge of the Saviour, and not stand amazed at " the goodness and mercy that have followed him," and at the wisdom and power that have effected so great things for him ? Yes : we must all fully acquiesce in that sentiment of Zophar : " Canst thou by searching find out God ? canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection ? It is high as heaven ; what canst thou do ? it is deeper than hell ; what canst thou know? the measure thereof is longer than the earth, and bi'oader than the sea p."]