In these words we are led to contemplate tJie pro- vince of the Holy Spirit in relation to the great mystery of redemption ; to contemplate it, I say, I. As exercised by him in reference to God —
He " searcheth the deep things of God :" he searcheth,
1. The eternal pmposes of his grace —
[From all eternity did God determine to suffer the fall of man, and to provide means for his recovery. The means ordained by him were, the incarnation and death of his only dear Son, whom he would send into the world to be a pro- pitiation for sin, and to work out a righteousness whereby the believing penitent might be justified. Every particular relative to this mysterious plan was foreseen and fore-ordained. The person of whom the Son of God should take our flesh ; the time at which he should come into the world ; the various incidents of his life ; the minutest circumstances of his death ; the agents that should effect it, and the precise part which every one of them should bear in effecting it, whether Judas in betraying him, or Pilate in condemning, or the Romans in crucifying, or Joseph and Nicodemus in burying him : every thing also relating to his resurrection and ascension, and the sending of his Holy Spirit, and the consequent establishment of his kingdom in the world; all was ordained of God the Father : but all was searched out by God the Holy Ghost. He had the same perfect knowledge of it as the Father iiim- self; and not the smallest incident that occurred in any part of it was hid from his all-seeing eye. " No eye saw it, besides his:" but he saw it in all its parts, and in all its bearings: not the slightest thing connected with it was hid from him.]
2. His particular dealings with every individual of mankind —
[The salvation of all was to be of grace, from beginning to end. Yet was man to be dealt with as a rational and responsible being ; every man being left to the freest exercise of his own will, yet subject to an agency within, which, in all that should be saved, should be effectual for the overcoming of all the evil propensities of his nature. It was not ordained that all should ultimately be saved : but it was ordained, that those who were saved should have nothing to boast of; and that those who perished should have nothing to complain of: the saved should owe their salvation to him alone ; the lost should owe their condemnation wholly to themselves. But who could fathom such depths as these ? Who could tell how God should ordain all, and yet not interfere with the free
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agency of any ; and how he should reserve to himself the praise from all that were saved, and leave all the blame of con- demnation to rest on those who should bring that doom upon themselves ? But the Spirit of God searched out all these unfathomable depths. He saw how the whole should be car- ried into effect, in every individual of the human race : at what time, in what manner, and by what means, the elect should be converted, preserved, perfected ; and, at the same time, how the rest should be left to reject the mercies offered them, and to perish under an accumulated weight of misery. If St. Paul, in relation to the calling of the Gentiles and the restoration of the Jews, exclaimed, " O the depths !" much more must we, in the contemplation of such mysterious works as these.]
3. The glorious issue of all his dispensations —
[The result of all will be the glory of God, both " in them that are saved, and in them that perish." " Though Israel be not gathered, yet will He be glorious ^" God declared that he would get himself glory on Pharaoh and all his hosts'' : and, on his destruction of them all, Moses said, " Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power : thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy''." In the judgments also that were executed on Nadab and Abihu, God was " glo- rified^." In like manner, even in the torments of the damned, will God be glorified : for all who behold the infliction of his wrath will be constrained to say, " Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments^" It is indeed a tremendous thought, and to our weak apprehensions it appears incredible, that God should be glorified in the eternal condemnation of any of his creatures. But so it will be : and at the last day, when Jesus " shall come to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe^," will the objects of his wrath be confounded before him, and never have one word to utter in arrest of his judgments''. Now all this the Holy Spirit saw from the beginning. He saw, that if mercy was glorified in the salvation of some, justice would be glorified in the con- demnation of others : and that the whole issue of this stu- pendous mystery would be worthy of the Most High God ; of the Father, who had planned it ; of the Son, who had executed it ; and of the Spirit, who had carried it into full effect.]