SECTION II. 531 tion committed to him ;" 2 Cor. v. 19, 21. " God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses tothem, for he bath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. IV. I would yet further ask Agrippa, why St. Paul should frequently represent the gospel as a great mystery*, a deep and sacred thing which the world knew not, nor could knowtill it was revealed ? A mystery which was hid from ages and generations; which was hid in God from all the ancient ages, or from the beginning of the world, the wisdom of God in a mystery, the manifold wisdom whichis made known by the church to the prin- cipalities and powers of heaven, or which the angels themselves desire to pry into, as St. Peter speaks, and which is made known to the nations by preaching the mystery of faith, the great mys- tery of godliness? Is there any such depth of divine wisdom manifested in thecommon truths of natural religion ? Is there any such hidden mystery in the doctrines which the light of nature teaches, as that the former ages of the world could not póssibly find it out, and which angels are forced to pry iute; in order to learn it ? Is. there any thing that deserves such Lan- guage in the dictates of reason, even if you should add the happy resurrection of the body to them, which is discovered by Christ as the reward of his faithful followers ? But that the Son of God who " dwelt in the bosom of the Father before the world was, who was with God, and who was God, should take flesh and blood upon him," that he !night be capable of dying, and that he should actually die in the room and stead of guilty men, as a sacrifice of atonement, that he should reconcile them to; God by his death, that he should rise again, and reign in heaven to complete this salvation, and that sinful men must,, obtain pardon of sin and eternal life, by the sufferings and death of the Son of God as a sacrifice in their stead, and by faith in his blood ; this is such a doctrine unknown to the world, such a divine mystery as deserves all these expressions of wisdom and honour which the apostle applies to it. Though the heathens as well as the Jews might easily understand this doctrine when it was preached unto them, according to the notion of expiation by sacrifices, which was familiar to them, yet it was originally a mystery which they could not have known without express revelation, and they were averse to receive it when it was revealed. * It is known Mr. Lockehas taught-some personsto imagine, that in almost if mot entirely all the places where the word a mystery" is applied to the gospel, it relates chiefly or only to the preaching of it to the gentiles as well as to the dews, and the admission of the gentiles into the kingdom of the Messiah. I grant it may include this in two or three places; but it is sufficiently evident, that in several other scriptures itrefers to the doctrines of the gospel itself, without any necessary reference to the reception of it by the gentileworld t But that is not my present business. L I 2
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