DISCOURSE X. 221 Again, here is an example of the harmony and co- operation of unsearchable wisdom and all- commanding power in the per- son of the blessed Jesus ; and what a happy design is hereby executed, namely ; the reconciliation of sinful man and the holy andglorious God : and who could do this but one who was pos- sessed of such wisdom and such power ? When there was no creature in heaven or earth sufficient for this work, God was :pleased to appoint such au union `between a creature and the Creator, between God and man, as might answer all the in- conceivable purposes concealed in his thought. If there be wanting a :person fit to execute any of his infinite des igns, he will not be frustrated for want of au agent, he will appoint God and man to be so nearly united as to become one agent to execute this design. 2. In the manner of our salvation, viz. by an atonement for sin. The great God 'did not think it proper, nor agreeable to his sublime holiness, to receive sinful 'man into his favour -without an atonement for sin, and a satisfaction made to the 'Governor of the world for the abuse and violation of his holy law here-on earth ; and -therefore he appointed such -a sacrifice of atonement as might be sufficient to do complete honour to the lawgiver, as well as to save and deliver the offender from death : Therefore Jesus was made a inan capable of suffering and dying, that he might honour the majesty and the justice of the broken law of God, and that he might do it completely by the union of godhead to this man and Mediator; the dignity of whose divi- nity diffuses itself over all that he did, and all that he suffered, so as to make his obedience completely acceptable -to God in- stead of thousands of creatures, and fully satisfactory for the offence that was given him by them ; here is a sacrifice -pro- vided equal to the guilt of sin, and therefore sufficient -to take it away. You see here what a blessed harmony there is between the. justice of God doing honour to his own law, and his compassion resolved to save a ruined creature : Here is no blemish cast upon the strict justice and righteousness of God, when the offender is forgiven in such a method as may do honour to justice and mercy at once ; Rom. iii. 24, 25. We are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ; whom God bath set forth to be a propitiation through faith ire his blood, to declare his righteousness, even his perfect go- verning justice, though he passes by and pardons tire sins of a thousand criminal creatures ; to declare, I say, at this tinie his righteousness, that he might appear to be just to his own autho- rity and law, while he justifies the sinful man who believeth or trusteth in Jesus the Mediator as becoming a proper sacrifice and propitiation for sin.
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