72 THE SUBSTANCE OF THE GOSPEL. ofblood, these bleeding lambs, and burning goats and bullocks, these veils, curtains and tabernacles, served for nothing else but to wrap up the duties of the light of nature in them, and to explain, or rather to darken, the common truths ofnatural religion ? And yet the apostle tells us in several places, that these were types or figures of the gospel of Christ. Surely every shadow bore the shape and figure ofthe substance : Every veil and covering was fitted to the body. All these were but shadows, but Christ is the substance or the body, and the shape of thebody appeared therein to those that had divinelight to discern it, especially to us, whom St. Paul has taught to understand many of these mysteries. Those therefore who impoverish the gospel of Christ, as some writers have done, and deny those glorious doctrines that are included in it, theydeny that gospel which was foretold by the prophets, that gospel which was hidden in the Jewish shadows, and they refuse to see it, though it be now broken forth into open light. III. Thegospel of Christ must needs be such a doctrine as we have before described, it must needs be so far superior to all the dictates of the light of nature, and to deserve thoseglorious. characters which the apostle frequently gives it, viz. that it is the wisdom of God in a mystery; 1 Cor. ii. 7. The great mystery of godliness; 1 Tim. iii. 16. Amystery, hidden from ages and gene- rations ; Col. i. 26. The mystery which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men ; Eph. iii. 3. 5. The mystery that was kept secret since the world began ; Rom. xvi. 25. hid- den inGod himself ; Eph. iii. 9. And is hid from the wise and prudent of this world ; Mat. xi. 25. It is made up of the deep things of God ; 1 Cor. ii. 10. And derived from the depths of his wisdom and knowledge ; Rom. xi. 33. It is the manifold wisdom ofGod, which was made known toprincipalities andpow- ers by thechurch ; Eph. iii. 10. " Which things the angels desire to pry into ;" 1 Pet. i. 12. In this he bath abounded toward us in all wisdom andprudence ; Eph. i. 8. And it contains the un- searchable riches of Christ ;Eph. iii. 8. And treasuresof wisdom and knowledge; Col. ii. 3; Now such sort of descriptionsas these are veryapplicable to the doctrine of the Son. of God, who is also one with the Father, and who is God blessedfor evermore, coming down to join him- self to flesh and blood that he might be able to die in the room and stead of sinful men, and that this glorious person, by whom the worlds were made, and all the hosts of men and angels ; Col. i. 15. that he should be made a sacrifice for our sins, that God might declare his unspotted holiness, or righteousness, his terri- ble justice, and his unchangeablehatred of sin even while he for- gives sinners, and justifies those that believe In Jesus ; Rom. iii. 24, 25. and that this Lord Jesus in human nature should rise
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=