July 18

The glorious gospel of the blessed God.—1 Tim. 1. 11.

THE gospel is, indeed, glorious on many accounts. But let us here consider the glory which is stamped upon the gospel, as having God for its author.

Many things of small worth, have yet grown famous by the authors of them, and, like the unprofitable children of renowned progenitors, hold their estimation and nobility from their parents. And yet from men who are themselves impure, there will ever descend some impurity upon the works which they do. But the gospel is therefore indeed a glorious gospel, because it is the gospel of the blessed God.

There is glory in all the works of God, because they are his; for it is impossible that so great a workman should ever put his hand to an ignoble work. And, therefore, the prophet David uses his "glory" and his "handy-work," promiscuously for the same thing; "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy-work;"—to note that there is an evidence of glory in any thing which he puts his hands unto. And yet the prophet there shows, that there is more glory in the law of his mouth, than in the works of his hands: "The Lord is better known by Sion, and his name greater in Israel," than in all the world besides: the more God doth communicate himself unto any of his works, the more glorious it is. Now there is nothing wherein God has so much put himself, wherein he may be so fully known, communicated with, depended upon, and praised—as in his gospel. This is a glass, in which the blessed angels do see and admire the unsearchable riches of mercy to the church, which they had not, by their own observation, found out by the immediate view of his glorious presence. In the creatures, we have him a God of power and wisdom,—working all things in number, weight, and measure, by the secret vigor of his providence,—upholding that being which he gave them, and ordering them to those glorious ends for which he gave it. In the law, we have him a God of vengeance and recompense,—in the publication thereof threatening, and in the execution thereof inflicting, wrath upon those that transgress it. But, in the gospel, we have him a God of bounty and endless compassion;

humbling himself, that he might be merciful to his enemies,— that he might himself bear the punishments of those injuries which had been done unto himself,—that he might not offer only but beseech his own prisoners to be pardoned and reconciled again. In the creature he is a God above us; in the law he is a God against us; only in the gospel he is Emmanuel, a God with us, a God like us, a God for us.

There is nothing doth declare God so much to be God, as his mercy in the gospel. He is invisible in himself; we can not see him but in his Son. He is unapproachable in himself; we can not come unto him but by the Son. Therefore when he makes himself known in his glory to Moses, he sends him not to the creation, nor to Mount Sinai, but puts him "into a rock" (being a resemblance of Christ) and then makes a proclamation of the gospel unto him. Moses' prayer was, "I beseech thee, show me thy glory." How doth the Lord grant this prayer? "I will make all my goodness to pass before thee;" and then reveals him- self to him almost all by mercy:—"The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, trans- gression, and sin;" to note unto us, that the glory of God is in nothing so much revealed, as in his goodness. "Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the trans- gression of the remnant of his people?"

While, then, we admire God in his works, and stand in awe of him in the law, let us humbly and lovingly confide in him in his gospel. Let us seek by faith in Christ, to have his glory as it beams in its mild and sweet radiance from the gospel, im- printed upon our souls, that we may be changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord; so shall we be partakers of the happiness of the blessed God.