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his righteousness, that they which do such things,' as sin, ' are worthy of death;' Rom. i. 32. But this is to no other end but to make them cry, Who amongst us shall dwell with that devouring fire?' Isa. xxxiii. 14. Others fix upon his patience, goodness, mercy, forbearance, but it doth not at all lead them to repentance. But they despise the riches of his goodness, and after their hardness and impenitent hearts, treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath ;' Rom. ii. 3, 4. Others by the very works of creation and providence come to know his eternal power and Godhead, but they glorify him not as God, nor are thankful, but become vain in their imagination and their foolish hearts are darkened;' Rom, i. 20. Whatever discovery men have of truth out of Christ, they hold it captive under unrighteousness;' ver. 18. Hence Jude tells us, ver. 10. that in what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.'

That we may have a saving knowledge of the properties of God attended with consolation, these three things are required.

(1.) That God hath manifested the glory of them all in a way of doing good unto us.

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(2.) That he will yet exercise and lay them out to the utmost in our behalf.

(3.) That being so manifested and exercised, they are fit and powerful to bring us to the everlasting fruition of himself, which is our blessedness. Now all these three lie hid in Christ, and the least glimpse of them out of him, is not to be attained.

(1.) This is to be received, that God hath actually manifested the glory of all his attributes in a way of doing us good. What will it avail our souls; what comfort will it bring unto us; what endearment will it put upon our hearts unto God, to know that he is infinitely righteous, just, and holy, unchangeably true and faithful, if we know not how he may preserve the glory of his justice and faithfulness, in his comminations and threatenings, but only in our ruin and destruction? if we can from thence only say it is a righteous thing with him to recompense tribulation unto us for our iniquities? What fruit of this consideration had Adam in the garden? Gen. iii. What sweetness, what encourage

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ment is there in knowing that he is patient and full of forbearance, if the glory of these is to be exalted in enduring the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction? Nay, what will it avail us to hear him proclaim himself The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, abundant in goodness and truth,' yet withal, that he will by no means clear the guilty ;' so shutting up the exercise of all his other properties towards us, upon the account of our iniquity? Doubtless not at all. Under this naked consideration of the properties of God, justice will make men fly and hide, Gen. iii. Isa. ii. 21. xxxiii. 15, 16. patience render them obdurate, Eccles. viii. 11. holiness utterly deters them from all thoughts, of approach unto him; John xxiv. 19. What relief have we from thoughts of his immensity and omnipresence, if we have cause only to contrive how to fly from him? Psal. cxxxix. 11, 12. if we have no pledge of his gracious presence with us? This is that which brings salvation, when we shall see, that God hath glorified all his properties in a way of doing us good. Now this he hath done in Jesus Christ. In him hath he made his justice glorious, in making all our iniquities to meet upon him, causing him to bear them all, as the scape-goat in the wilderness, not sparing him, but giving him up to death for us all; so exalting his justice and indignation against sin, in a way of freeing us from the condemnation of it; Rom. iii. 25. viii. 33, 34. In him hath he made his truth glorious, and his faithfulness in the exact accomplishment of all his absolute threatenings and promises; that fountain-threat and commination, whence all others flow, Gen. ii. 17. In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death,' seconded with a curse; Deut. xxvii. 26. Cursed is every one that continueth not,' &c. is in him accomplished, fulfilled, and the truth of God in them laid in a way to our good. He by the grace of God tasted death for us; Heb. ii. 9. and so delivered us who were subject to death;' ver. 14. and he hath fulfilled the curse, by being made a curse for us;' Gal. iii. 13. So that in his very threatenings, his truth is made glorious, in a way to our good. And for his promises; They are all yea, and in him amen, to the glory of God by us;' 2 Cor. i. 20. And for his mercy, goodness, and the riches of his grace, how emif Isa. liii. 5, 6. Lev. xvi. 21. Rom. viii. 32.

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e Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7.

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nently are they made glorious in Christ, and advanced for our good? God hath set him forth to declare his righteousness for the forgiveness of sin; he hath made way in him for ever to exalt the glory of his pardoning mercy towards sinners. To manifest this, is the great design of the gospel, as Paul admirably sets it out, Eph. i. 5-8. There must our souls come to an acquaintance with them, or, for ever live in darkness.

Now this is a saving knowledge, and full of consolation, when we can see all the properties of God made glorious and exalted in a way of doing us good. And this wisdom is hid only in Jesus Christ; hence when he desired his Father to glorify his name, John xii. 24. to make in him his name, that is, his nature, his properties, his will, all glorious in that work of redemption he had in hand; he was instantly answered from heaven, 'I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.' He will give it its utmost glory in him.

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(2.) That God will yet exercise and lay out those properties of his to the utmost in our behalf. Though he hath made them all glorious in a way that may tend to our good, yet it doth not absolutely follow that he will use them for our good; for do we not see innumerable persons perishing everlastingly, notwithstanding the manifestation of himself which God hath made in Christ. Wherefore, farther, God hath committed all his properties into the hand of Christ, if I may so say, to be managed in our behalf, and for our good. He is the power of God, and the wisdom of God, he is the Lord our righteousness, and is made unto us of God wisdom, and righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.' Christ having glorified his Father in all his attributes, he hath now the exercise of them committed to him, that he might be the captain of salvation to them that do believe. So that if in the righteousness, the goodness, the love, the mercy, the all-sufficiency of God, there be any thing that will do us good, the Lord Jesus is fully interested with the dispensing of it in our behalf. Hence God is said to be "in him, reconciling the world unto himself;' 2 Cor. v. 18. Whatever is in him, he layeth it out for the reconciliation of the world, in and by the Lord Christ. And he becomes

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"the Lord our righteousness;' Isa. xlv. 24, 25. and this is the second thing required.

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(3.) There remaineth only, then, that these attributes of God, so manifested and exercised, are powerful and able to bring us to the everlasting fruition of him. To evince this, the Lord wraps up the whole covenant of grace in one promise signifying no less; 'I will be your God.' In the covenant, God becomes our God, and we are his people; and thereby all his attributes are ours also; and lest that we should doubt, when once our eyes are opened, to see in any measure the inconceivable difficulty that is in this thing, what imaginable obstacles on all hands there lie against us, that all is not enough to deliver and save us, God hath, I say, wrapt it up in this expression, Gen. xvii. 1. 'I am,' saith. he, God Almighty, all-sufficient:' I am wholly able to perform all my undertakings, and to be thy exceeding great reward. I can remove all difficulties, answer all objections, pardon all sins, conquer all opposition, I am God all-sufficient. Now you know in whom this covenant and all the promises thereof are ratified, and in whose blood it is con-firmed; to wit, in the Lord Christ alone; in him only, is God an all-sufficient God to any, and an exceeding great reward. And hence Christ himself is said to 'save to the utmost them that come to God by him;' Heb. vii. And these three things, I say, are required to be known, that we may have a saving acquaintance, and such as is attended with consolation, with any of the properties of God; and all these being hid only in Christ, from him alone it is to be obtained.

This then is the first part of our first demonstration, that all true and sound wisdom and knowledge, is laid up in the Lord Christ, and from him alone to be obtained; because our wisdom, consisting in a main part of it, in the knowledge of God, his nature, and his properties, this lies wholly hid in Christ, nor can possibly be obtained but by him.

For the knowledge of ourselves, which is the second part of our wisdom, this consists in these three things, which our Saviour sends his Spirit to convince the world of,

h Saddai, Aquila interpretatur äλov, quod nos robustum et ad omnia perpetranda sufficientem possumus dicere. Hieron. Epist. 136.

1 Ἡ σοφία ἐστὶ τῶν τιμιωτάτων. Arist.

even 'sin, righteousness, and judgment;' John xvi. 8. to know ourselves in reference unto these three, is a main part of true and sound wisdom, for they all respect the supernatural and immortal end whereunto we are appointed, and there is none. of these, that we can attain unto, but only in Christ.

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[1.] In respect of sin. There is a sense and knowledge of sin left in the consciences of all men by nature. To tell them what is good and evil, in many things to approve and disapprove of what they do in reference to a judgment to come, they need not go farther than themselves; Rom. ii. 14, 15. But this is obscure, and relates mostly to greater sins, and is in sum that which the apostle gives us, Rom. i. 32. they knew the judgment of God, that they which do such things are worthy of death.' This he placeth among the common presumptions and notions that are received by mankind, namely, that it is righteous with God, that they who do such things are worthy of death;' and if that be true, which is commonly received, that no nation is so barbarous or rude, but it retaineth some sense of a Deity, then this also is true, that there is no nation but hath a sense of sin, and the displeasure of God for it. For this is the very first' notion of God in the world, that he is the rewarder of κ Τὸ δικαίωμα τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐπιγνόντες ὅτι οἱ τὰ τοιαῦτα πράσσοντες ἄξιοι θανάτου εἰσὶν. Rom. i. 12. Perfecto demum scelere, magnitudo ejus intellecta est.-Tacit.

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Ορέστα τλῆμον, τὶς σ ̓ ἀπόλλυται όσος;

Η σύνεσις, ὅτι σύνοιδα δείν' εἰργασμένος.—Eurip.

Primus est deorum cultus, Deos credere: deinde reddere illis majestatem suam, reddere bonitatem, sine qua nulla majestas est. Scire illos esse qui præsident mundo: qui universa vi sua temperant : qui humani generis tutelam gerunt. Senec. Epist. 96.-Neque honor ullus deberi potest Deo, si nihil præstat colenti; nec ullus metus, si non irascitur non colenti.-Lactan.

Raro antecedentem scelestum

Deseruit pede pæna claudo.-Horat. Od. iii. 2. 241,

Quo fugis Encelade? quascunque accesseris oras,

Sub Jove semper eris, &c.

Hos tu

Evasisse putes, quos diri conscia facti,

Mens habet attonitos, et surdo verbere cædit?-Juvenal, Sat. xiii, 192,

Οιει συ τοὺς θανόντας, ὦ Νικήρατε,

Τρυφῆς ἁπάσης μεταλαβόντας ἐν βίῳ,
Πεφευγέναι, τὸ θεῖον ὡς λεληθότας ;
Εστιν δίκης ὀφθαλμὸς, ὃς τὰ πάνθ ̓ ὁρᾷ
Καὶ γὰς καθ ̓ ᾅδην δύο τρίβους νομίζομεν,
Μίαν δικαίων, ἑτέραν δ ̓ ἀσεβῶν ἔιν' οδόν
Κ ̓ εἰ τοὺς δύο καλύψει ἡγῆ, φασὶ, χρόνῳ
Αρπωζ', ἀπελθὼν, κλέπτ ̓, ἀποστέλει, κύκα.
Μηδὲν πλανηθῆς, ἔσται καν ᾅδου κρίσις.
Ηνπες ποίησει θεὸς ὁ πάντων δεσπότης,

Οὗ τούνομα φοβερὸν, οὐδ ̓ ἂν ὀνομάσαιμ' εγώ. κλ.

Philemon. juxta Clement. seu Diphil. juxta Justin. Martyr.

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