But who is there, in earth or in heaven, that is able thus to interpose between our offended Sovereign and his rebellious subjects? Who can take their part, without seeming at least to oppose his authority and glory? Who is competent so to magnify the divine law and justice, by his single obedience and temporary sufferings, as to counterbalance the dishonour done them by the innumerable crimes of many millions of transgressors; and to render their exemption from deserved eternal punishment, and their admission to eternal felicity, conducive to the glory of God? In short, who and what is he, whose person and services are of such excellency and dignity as to render his interposition, in behalf of condemned criminals, worthy of the regard of the infinite Jehovah? All mere men are sinners, which must wholly disqualify them for such an interference. Holy angels or other pure created intelligences, cannot possibly do more than make suitable returns of love, adoration, and grateful obedience, for benefits already received; and thus ensure the continuance of them: compared with the Lord, even they are as nothing. Had any of them undertaken the sinner's cause, they would have seemed to be accomplices in his rebellion: nor could there be a dignity or worth in their services, in any degree adequate to the high character of mediator between God and his disobedient subjects; whilst a selfappointed mediator, or one chosen by the offending party, could not have had a proper admission to the exercise of so high an office. If then it had been revealed that the most high God was willing to treat with transgressors through a mediator; and to receive them to favour, in consideration of an obedience, connected with sufferings, to be voluntarily accomplished by him: still no one could have been found intrepid and loving enough to undertake, competent to sustain, or authorized to assume the arduous office; and the whole must have come to nothing, if God himself had not further interposed. But it was his right to nominate the mediator; and in his infinite wisdom and love he hath appointed his only-begotten Son, " by whom also he "made the worlds." He is "the second Adam, "the Lord from heaven," even "Jehovah our "Righteousness;" who, voluntarily assuming our nature into personal union with his Deity, became capable of obedience and suffering, and of infinitely honouring the law and justice of the Father, by fulfilling all righteousness as our surety, and by offering himself a sacrifice for our sins. Having thus finished his mediatory humiliation, he arose a glorious conqueror over Satan, sin, and death and, ascending into heaven, to " appear in "the presence of God for us," "he became the "author of eternal salvation to all them that obey "him :"-but to none else; for he is not a mediator in behalf of those who reject his mediation. "Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh:" and the mysteries which this stupendous plan implies constitute the only specious objection which can be brought against it on the ground of calm reasoning and argument: though pride and worldly lusts have many insuperable objections to a system which tends to their utter destruction. But why should mysteries be thought inconsistent with the doctrines of revealed religion, when no religion can be without them, that owns an incomprehensible God, the existence of spirits, or the distinction of soul and body; and when even the nature and powers of material substances are inexplicably mysterious? The doctrine, which we are considering, cannot be proposed and explained with precision, unless we speak of distinct persons in the unity of the Godhead. For the Father who sent his only begotten Son; the Son who was sent; and the Holy Ghost who testifies to, and glorifies the Son; must be in some respects distinct from each other: and we use the word persons, as most conveniently expressing that distinction, and not as if it conveyed to us any adequate idea of so incomprehensible a subject. The plan of redemption is of such a nature that we could not have known any thing of it except by revelation: and it has been argued with great force, that the whole design is so foreign to every conception of the human mind, and yet so perfectly suited to manifest the divine glory in our salvation, that its very mysteriousness proves it to be no human device, but the contrivance of the only wise God: for "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for "them that love him: but God hath revealed "them to us by his Spirit." We can, therefore, do no more than appropriate by faith the information which God hath given us : and, if the scriptures speak of the Father, the Son, 1 and the Holy Spirit, as standing in certain relations to each other, and sustaining distinct parts in man's salvation: if they are represented as willing, and acting distinctly, though in perfect harmony; and if the powers, attributes, and operations ascribed to each of them, be peculiar to Deity, and incommunicable to a finite being, (as omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience ;) then we have sufficient authority for asserting that there are three persons in the unity of that God, into whose one name all Christians are or ought to be baptized. The opposers of this mystery, therefore, should prove either that such things are not contained in the scripture, or that the scripture is not the word of God: for, till one of these be completely established, they only argue in a circle, and beg the question, when they assert the doctrine to be irrational and therefore false. Indeed we know so little of being, in general, that, where an evident contradiction is not implied, it only proves a man's arrogance, and rash presumption, to say that it is impossible for a substance to have such and such powers and properties, because he cannot conceive how it can possess them. What then must it be to affirm roundly, that the one living and true God cannot possibly subsist in three distinct co-equal persons; (that is, that he cannot be three in one respect, and one in another ;) though it has often been proved, and cannot be disproved, that he has revealed this concerning himself? It is impossible fully to explain, or clearly to conceive of, such mysteries; but it is very reasonable to believe them on the Lord's own 1 Matt. xxviii. 19. authenticated testimony: for, though the subject be out of the reach of our rational powers, and therefore out of their province; it does not thence follow that it is contrary to any of their sober and warranted decisions: as we do not mean that the Deity is three in the same respect in which he is one. It does not, therefore, accord with some men's self-voted applause for candour and liberality of sentiment, to censure or ridicule, as irrational, superstitious, or enthusiastical bigots, the whole remnant that in this respect adhere to the doctrine of scripture. The apostle allowed that his doctrine concerning Christ, as "God manifest in the flesh," was "without controversy a great mystery:" nay, he gloried in it" as the great mystery of godliness." From a spiritual and believing apprehension of this fundamental truth, all proper dispositions and affections in the hearts of fallen men, are derived; all godliness results from it, is connected with it, and centres in it and facts evince that, where it is opposed, explained away, or greatly kept out of sight, religion gradually dwindles into a lifeless form, or a heartless task; one truth of revelation is given up after another; and the progress is often very rapid to open impiety, infidelity, and atheism. Whereas vital piety, in its most pure, genuine, and ennobling exercises, has uniformly most flourished, where this doctrine has been most fully preached and attended to. Indeed what can the great enemy of all good devise more effectual, entirely to destroy godliness from among men, than to set them against "the great mystery of godliness?" But the church is "built on this rock;" and neither the power and |