Almighty, and must necessarily rest on many of his works, both of nature and of grace; and that it is, notwithstanding, as the Scripture most accurately and sublimely expresses it, "the wisdom of God in a mystery *" Yet still, by contemplating this mystery attentively, we may, even with our limited understandings, discover some marks of divine wisdom; some reasons which might induce the Almighty to prefer this method of redeeming the world to any other; reasons sufficient at least to show, that when the veil is wholly withdrawn, when we no longer "see through

a glass darkly," but are admitted to contemplate" in open day" the whole plan and the entire system of our Redemption, we shall have as much reason to reverence the depth of the counsels of the Almighty, as we confessedly have, even at present, with all our ignorance, and all the natural obscurity of the subject, to adore his goodness.

Out of many of these marks of divine wisdom, in the mode of our Redemption, which might be produced, I shall select only a few of the most important.

I. In the first place, it has often been, and cannot be too often, remarked, that the atonement made on the cross for the sins of man, removed a difficulty, which "the wise, the "scribe, the disputer of this world," with all their wisdom, were never able to surmount. It reconciled a contradiction, which to every human understanding appeared insuperable. It reconciled the mercy and the justice of God in his treatment of mankind. It gave salvation to a guilty world, without either inflicting on the offenders the punishment justly due to their offences, or giving countenance and encouragement to sin. By accepting the death of Christ instead of ours, by laying σε on him the iniquity of us all," God certainly gave us the most astonishing proof of his mercy: and yet, by accepting no less a sacrifice than that of his own Son, he has, by this most expressive and tremendous act, signified to the whole world such extreme indignation at sin, as may well alarm, even while he saves us, and make us "tremble at his

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severity, even while we are within the arms " of his mercy*

* Scott's Christian Life, b. 3.

II. The

II. The appearance of Christ in the form of man, and the death he suffered for our sakes, did not only make our peace with God, but it also enabled him to afford us the strongest possible proof of that most comfortable doctrine, our resurrection from the dead, by his own return to life again after lying three days in the grave. It was, therefore, a most eminent proof of divine wisdom, that the very same event, the death of Christ, should answer two such important purposes; should both afford us the means of reconciliation with God, and at the same time give birth to another great event, which fills us with the joyful hope and the certain expectation of everlasting life. Nay, even the public and ignominious manner in which our Lord expired, and which has sometimes been a ground of objection and of reproach, was in reality an additional indication of divine wisdom. For had our Lord's death been less public and notorious, and had his person been in his last moments less exposed to the observation of mankind, the proof of his resurrection from the dead would have been considerably weakened. Had his death been private and silent,

and

and after the ordinary manner of men, the reality of it would very soon have been questioned; and consequently his resurrection would have been represented as a gross fraud and a scandalous imposition on the credulity of mankind. But his crucifixion in the face of day, and in the presence of an immense concourse of people, took away every pretence of this nature, and gave a strong and irresistible confirmation to the truth of that astonishing miracle which followed; which is the foundation of all our hopes, and the great corner-stone of our whole Religion.

III. Before the appearance of our Saviour on earth, there was a notion universally prevalent in every part almost of the known world, that sin could no otherwise be expiated than by animal sacrifices. And this at length was carried so far, that in some extraordinary cases it was thought that the death of brute animals was not sufficient. Human sacrifices became necessary; and the more near and dear the person sacrificed was to them, the more valuable was the offering thought; so that they frequently slaughtered their sons and daughters, more especially their first-born, on

the altars of their gods. Now the death of Christ, at the same time that it was a gracious condescension to the prevailing opinion of the necessity of sacrifice, put an entire end (through a great part of the world) to that sanguinary species of devotion, by rendering it totally useless and inefficacious. For "Christ was offered once for all; by one offering "he perfected for ever them that are sancti

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fied* ;" and obtained, by one single act, that which mankind had, from the beginning of the world, been endeavouring in vain to accomplish, by innumerable and continual sacrifices, namely, the pardon of their sins, and reconciliation with God. After this universal and effectual expiation, no other was of the least use or value. Accordingly, in every country that embraced the Gospel, all sacrifices, both animal and human, immediately ceased; and a sudden and absolute period was put to that incredible effusion of blood, which had deluged the world almost from the very creation down to that time.

IV. At the same time that the sacrifice made by Christ upon the cross put an end to

* Hebrews X. 10. 14.

all