revealed his glory to mankind. In that he has shewn how " mercy and truth could meet together, and righteousness and peace could kiss each other1." There he has proclaimed his name as " merciful and gracious, and yet as not by any means clearing the guilty k." It is this harmony of his perfections that chiefly constitutes his glory. Previous to the revelation of his Gospel, the highest archangel could not have conceived how God could be "a just God, and yet a Saviour1." But in Christ Jesus the whole difficulty is solved. By sending him into the world, and laying our iniquities on him, the fullest demands of justice are satisfied, and a way is opened for the richest exercise of mercy towards a guilty world : the truth of God which was pledged for the execution of all his threaten- ings, is preserved ; and yet may the sinner, who was obnoxious to them, be absolved, and be restored to the enjoyment of his forfeited inheritance. This is the mystery in which all the glory of the Godhead shines ; and which all the nations of the earth shall in due time have revealed to them in its meridian splendour. This is fully declared by the prophet in a preceding chapter : " Arise, shine ! for thy light is come ; and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people : but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising"1." And the prophet Habakkuk also marks it with peculiar precision : " The earth," says he, " shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."]
2. Assuredly to be fulfilled in its season —
[Were we to judge by present appearances, we should say, that such an event could never be accomplished. But so we should have thought respecting the deliverance of the Jews from Egypt, and from Babylon; and of the establishment of Christianity by the ministry of a few poor fishermen. But it is not in this way that we are to form our judgment or our ex- pectations. We have only to ask ourselves ; " Has God pro- mised these things ? and, Is he able to perform them ?" These points being ascertained, we are as sure of the event, as if we already saw it before our eyes : for " God is not a man that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should repent." In fact, the prophet did, as it were, behold it actually accomplishing in his day : he saw the Gentile world " flying to Christ, as doves to their windows ; " and he called upon the Church to rejoice in it : " Break forth into joy ; sing together, ye waste places
1 Ps. lxxxv. 10. k Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7.
1 Isai. xlv. 21. ,n Isai. lx. 1 — 3. and lxii. 2.