Say, Did ever any child of man, even among the Jews, foresee such things as these ? Did even the highest archangel ever form any adequate conception of them, before they were revealed to the Christian Church ? No : they were hid from angels, as well as men'*; and the angels are made wiser by the revelation of them to the Church'. But to us they are now revealed : they are revealed to us in the written word ; and they are revealed i?i us by the mighty power of the Spirit taking the veil from our hearts, and giving to us a spiritual discernment'^ : and we are authorized to declare, that the most ignorant of true believers at this day is greater than all the prophets, not excepting the Baptist himself, who personally knew Christ, and pointed him out as " the Lamb of God who should take away the sins of the world'."]
Improvement —
1. How inexcusable are they who inquire not into these things !
[Has God in his infinite mercy revealed such things to us, and shall we pay no attention to them? Shall we treat them as if they were no other than "a cunningly-devised fable?" Shall "the angels in heaven be desiring to look into them"*," and we be unconcerned about them? O, brethren, what account shall we give of ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, if, when he says to us, " Search the Scriptures, for they testify of me," we prefer every other book before them, and either neglect the Bible altogethei", or read it only as a formal exercise ? Surely our " study should be in it day and night," and it should be " sweeter to us than honey, or the honey-comb."]
2. How blind must we be, if we see no glory in them !
[What ! see nothing wonderful in an incarnate God ! Nothing wonderful in God dying in the place of his own rebellious creatures ! Nothing wonderful in our being brought by these means into union and communion with God, and an everlasting participation of his glory in the world to come ! If these things be not wonderful, tell me any thing that is. You would be filled with utter astonishment, if a fellow- creature were to tell you some of the phenomena of nature ; and are you not when God tells you all the wonders of his grace? If these things produce no admiring and adoring
^ This is particularly marked in the passage as it stands in Isaiah; " None, O God, besides thee." Isai. Ixiv. 4.
i Epli. iii. 9, 10. k 1 Cor. ii. 12, II. • Matt. xi. 11.
m 1 Pet. i. 12.