Chapter II
The excellency of the gospel proved from the profoundness of the knowledge
revealed in it.
I shall now go on to discourse the excellency of the knowledge of the
gospel by those properties that do lie in order in the 26th verse.
In this 26th verse, as I have told you, there are three properties ascribed
to this knowledge of the gospel which God hath made known himself by.
1. Here is the depth and profoundness of it, in that it is called a mystery. 2. Here is the secrecy and hiddenness of it ; it was hidden from all ages and from generations, till the apostles time and till Christ came.
3. Here is the rareness of the revealing of it, now when it is revealed ;
it is revealed, only to his saints, Even that mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints.
I shall open these three heads to you in their order.
1. First, It is called a mystery. That word importeth more eminently these two things
(1.) A profoundness and a depth of knowledge.
(2.) A secret and a hidden knowledge. Now because this second is contained in the words afterward hidden from ages and generations therefore I shall only speak to the first.
(1.) The knowledge, I say, of the gospel, and the things that are known
therein, they are all deep, they are profound, they are mysteries mysteries for their depth. In 1 Cor. ii., the apostle, speaking of this wisdom of the
gospel, he calleth it a mytery, as he doth here, and he calleth it a mystery for its hiddenness too. So ver. 7,
* We speak the wisdom of God in a
272 A DISCOURSE OF THE [CHAP. II.
mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world, &c. But if you read ver. 10, you shall find that he calleth the things revealed in the gospel, the deep things of God. The Spirit (saith he)
* searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God ; meaning the things contained in this
mystery. And hence, therefore, it is called a great mystery, 1 Tim. iii. 16,
* Great is the mystery of godliness, God manifesteth in the flesh, &c. Now when it is called a great mystery, it is not in respect of its being hidden, but in respect of the depth and profoundness of it. Things may be carried
hiddenly and secretly, that have no great depth in them ; therefore now
mystery imports more than merely a being hidden.
And, my brethren, in the general, how can it be otherwise, but that all the things the gospel revealeth, every one should be depths and mysteries ? For it is the wisdom of God, called so in a special manner. So in that
1 Cor. ii. 7, We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. It is therefore a mystery, because it is a wisdom of his inventing ; and therefore containeth
nothing but depth in it. What saith the apostle in Bom. xi. 33 ? (It is a
* Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! And of what wisdom and knowledge doth he
place full to this purpose.)
speak ? You must know that, of all epistles, that of the Romans is a system of divinity methodically laid down; and the apostle having in the latter
chapters uttered those great and glorious things of the gospel, and fetched them all out from the very bottom of God s breast he having handled elec
tion and reprobation just before, and the calling of the Jews, and how that God had shut up all under sin, that at last he might have mercy upon all when he had waded now so far into all these depths, that he felt himself as
it were over head and ears, he breaks off abruptly that whole discourse, and cries out,
* Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and know
ledge of God ! Like one that is wading into the sea, when he is gone so
far that he begins to be up to the neck, to the chin, he then cries out,
* Oh the depth ! and comes back again ; so doth Paul here. It is as if he had said,
* ye Romans, I have gone as far as I can, and now I am even swallowed up, I can go no farther. Oh the depth
! The things of the
gospel are depths (for that is the thing I quote this place for). It is a deep knowledge, because it is that knowledge which God appropriates unto him
self as his invention.
Which may easily be made out by a small degree of comparison. Solomon, in Prov. xviii. 4, saith, that the words of a wise man are as deep waters ; but yet, though the words of a wise man are as deep waters, anothei
* Counsel in the
wise man may fetch it out. So he tells us in Prov. xx. 5,
heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it
out. But now take kings amongst men, and of all others, if they be wise
(for that is Solomon s supposition), their hearts are unsearchable ; so he
saith in Prov. xxv. 3, where he compares the heart of a wise king, such
as he himself was, to the heavens for height, and to the earth for deepness
: The heaven for height (saith he), and the earth for depth, and the heart of
a king is unsearchable. And the reason is, because that they deal with
metaphysical things (as I may so call them), that is, they deal with generals, as with all states and nations about them, and what their interests are with
them, and their animosities against them ; and they deal with all the factions
of their own people, and they know all the provocations of them ; there are
a thousand such secret things by which their actions are guided that the
people know not ; they having therefore such a mighty compass in all their
transactions, their subjects cannot search into their hearts. Now then, if
CHAP. II.] GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 273
the heart of a king be thus unsearchable, what think you is the heart of God, who had in his eye all souls in all ages, who hath had millions of worlds in his thoughts, which he could have made, afore this world was ? In that 1 Cor. ii., when the apostle would commend the gospel, because it
is the wisdom of God, what doth he do ? He sets by it the wisdom (which
is the greatest wisdom in this world) of princes, and of the great ones of
the world ; We speak wisdom (saith he, ver. 6),
* yet not the wisdom of this
world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought ; but we speak the wisdom of God, &c. He instanceth, you see, in the wisdom of princes, as the greatest wisdom of all the rest ; and he makes that to vanish, and to come to nought before the deep things that are in the heart of God (as he
expresseth it, ver. 10), before the depth of this wisdom which God himself hath revealed. In Ps. xxxvi. 6, David makes the judgments of God to be a great deep. By the judgments of God there he means the works of his common providence, his ways of governing this world, whether in ways of
mercy or of judgment, for he doth not mean merely ways of judgment strictly taken for justice ; for in the Scripture phrase, the judgments of God are as well his works of mercy, as of justice ; and the works of his common pro vidence are meant, which appeareth likewise by what followeth in the next
words, He preserveth man and beast ; that is, his ways whereby he preserveth man and beast, and governs all the world, they are a great deep. But if you come to the salvation of men, he is the saviour of all men, by common providence, but especially of those that believe ; if you come to those judgments, Oh, how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out ! saith the apostle in that Rom. xi. 33, when he had spoken of
his ways of saving men.
The greatest wisdom that was ever set up in this world by the princes of
it, is the kingdom of popery ; it is a composition of all sorts of policies, called therefore a mystery of iniquity by the apostle in 2 Thess. ii. 7, and you shall find in Rev. xvii. 5, that the whore that rideth upon the beast hath this name written in her forehead, Mystery, Babylon the great, &c.
It is a very strange thing, that God in his providence should so order it, that in the old mitres that the popes used to wear, there was engraven in the inside Mysterium ; but since they were challenged out of the Revelation
to be that great antichrist and whore, they have left it out. It is a wonder
ful thing to read their schoolmen and casuists in their prosecution of what concerned the frame of religion they have invented, what great depths (but depths of Satan, which he hath helped men to invent), what harmony one head hath in it answering to another, what a great deal of profoundness of
learning there is in that system and fabric. Now this great mystery I may call the gospel of antichrist, it is another gospel made on purpose, and set up by Satan to advance his eldest son antichrist. And as Satan did make a gospel for his eldest son, a wisdom which the world never knew before, and which for the depths of it is called a mystery of iniquity, surely, my brethren, when God himself shall go and make a gospel for his Son Jesus
Christ, to reveal by it the riches of his glory unto the saints, what depths, think you, must needs be in this glorious gospel ? It is called the mystery of Christ, in Eph. iii. 4. And when Paul boasteth of the profoundneiss of his knowledge, he doth it of his knowledge in the mystery of Christ, Col.
* Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh, 1 Tim. iii. 16. The mystery of Christ s incarnation for the reconciling of the world (to instance but in that) was such a mystery, as all created understandings VOL. iv. s
iv. 3. And as was said before,
274 A DISCOURSE OF THE [CHAP. II.
could never have brought forth. For consider but this, how things did stand between God and man, (let me but state the difference and the con
troversy, as I may say, between God and man). First, God laid this for a
conclusion, that he would not put up the least wrong from his creature, but he would have full satisfaction from the sinner. In the second place, it was as clear and as apparent, that no creature could satisfy him, neither the sin ner nor any for him. And yet, thirdly, God stood upon this too, he would have satisfaction from a creature, and that nature that had sinned should
satisfy. Do but lay all these three things together. If God now should have gone and referred the untying of this knot to a consultation of all in
telligible* natures, angels and men, that ever were or shall be, it would have wildered, plunged their thoughts unto eternity ; and after millions of
years of consultation they would have returned this answer, they could think and find out no way. Therefore, saith he, Great is the mystery of
godliness, God manifested in the flesh ; and it is without controversy so
too, that is, it is such a mystery, as whoever understandeth the state of the
controversy before between God and man, and this to be the answer, he must needs acknowledge, that there are depths of God in it, and that no other could have invented it. It carries its own testimony of divinity with
it. Without controversy, saith he, or universally, must this be received to be a great mystery, God manifested in the flesh. That is a deep knowledge, and containeth depths in it, which contains
nothing but the reconciliation of contradictions, to make things, which in
appearance are seeming contradictions, meet. But so the gospel doth all
along. I shall give you instances, and some scriptures for them too. Take the doctrine of God s election and free grace. That at once a creature should be loved with the greatest love of God, and yet be a child of wrath at the same time (as before conversion he is), can you solve me
this ? That he should be a son, and an enemy ; the apostle hath it, Horn, xi., where he tells you (speaking of the Jews jn the root), that they are beloved for the fathers sake, and yet enemies for the gospel s sake. And in Eph. ii. 3, he hath it plainly,
* We (that is, I Paul and the rest)
* were by nature the children of wrath; and yet Paul was a chosen vessel, beloved of God, even from everlasting, with the highest and greatest love. So were the Ephesians he speaks this of ; and it was therefore a love borne
to them afore, which was the cause of this their quickening and bringing out
of that estate. That one and the same man should at the same time be blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places that you have in the
* But God who is rich in mercy, for the great love where with he loved us ; namely, then, when we were thus children of wrath, as is
very next words,
evident by that which follows after that, even when we were yet dead in
* hath he quickened us, as it is Eph. ii. 5 and yet be cursed with all the curses written in this book, and stand under them, what an amazing wonder is this ! It is plain that every man is so ; for cursed is every one that continueth not in everything that is written in
sins, out of that love
this book to do it. It is applicable unto all. The reconciliation is easy, the gospel makes these seeming contradictions meet : for if you take man s
person as considered in Christ, he is thus loved and blessed ; but if you take his person as considered in himself, without any to stand between God and his sin and guilt, he standeth under the curse of it. So that both
these are true of him, one in the one sense, and the other in the other.
So likewise, when the prophet considered in Isa. liii., that God had a * That is, intelligent, or rather, capable of intelligence. ED.
CHAP. II.] GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 275
Son as old as himself (as I may so speak) and equal to himself, he breaks
out, Who can declare his generation ? Here is a depth. Our Saviour Christ himself puts some of these riddles to the Pharisees.
Saith he to them, in Matt. xxii. 43, Solve me this : If David call Christ
Lord, how is he his son ? The gospel solveth this. That a virgin should conceive a son, this was a riddle to Mary her
self. How shall this be ? saith she to the angel in Luke i. 34 ? The
gospel revealeth this.
That this man Jesus Christ should be in heaven when he was on earth, and should be said to descend from heaven as man, and yet never was
there then when he said it ;* this was a riddle that Christ posed Nicodemus
with. He stood wondering at the doctrine of regeneration, that a man must be born again. What ! saith Christ, do you wonder at that ? I ll
* No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in
tell you a higher riddle than that :
heaven, John iii. 13. And if you mark the coherence of this with the
verse before, you shall see he utters this as an heavenly mystery, beyond that which he had expressed of regeneration, which he saith was but an
earthly thing in comparison of this ; If, saith he, I have told you
earthly things, and ye believe not, how will ye believe if I tell you of
heavenly things ? So you have it likewise in John vi. When Christ had told them that they must eat his flesh, and drink his blood, they strove amongst themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat ? And many of his disciples when they heard it said, This is a hard saying, who can bear it ?
. When Jesus (saith the text) knew in himself that his dis
ciples murmured at it (they were those that were not believers, though
disciples), he said unto them, Doth this offend you ? Can you not under stand this ? I ll give you a harder thing
: What, and if you shall see
the Son of man ascend up where he was before ? And yet he was but the son of a virgin, and was (as man) never but in her womb.
These riddles the gospel, you see, unfoldeth. Now as the person of
Christ affords all these mysteries and depths, so his obedience affords more. That that God thai> made the law should be subject to the law, and fulfil
* He was made of a woman, and made under the law. That God, who is nothing but spirit, should have blood to redeem men by, this you have in Acts xx. 28, Feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. That he, that is God blessed for ever, should be made a curse, this you have in Gal. iii. 13. That he, that is, the Holy One of Israel, should be made sin, aye, and what is more, he that cannot endure sin, for nothing is more contrary to the holiness of God than sin, and yet
it himself, this you have in Gal. iv. 4,
* he that knew no sin was made sin, this you have in 2 Cor. v. 21. That God should never be more angry with his Son than when he was most pleased with him, for so it was when Christ hung upon the cross, God did find a sweet-smelling savour of rest and satisfaction even then when he cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? Again, that God should be free in pardoning, and yet notwithstanding receive the fullest satisfaction, even to the rigour of justice, here is a riddle to all the world, yet you have it in Bom. iii.
23, 24, Being justified freely by his grace; but how? Through the
redemption that is in Jesus Christ. Why, if there were a price by way of
redemption paid, how was it freely by grace ? Yet it is both. And that
it should ever be said *Ht God is just, and the justifier of him that * That is, in his human nature. ED.
276 A DISCOURSE OF THE [CHAP. II.
believeth on Jesus, so it follows, ver. 2 ; that though he doth justify out of the freest grace, yet he is in the most absolute manner just in doing of it ; thus to bring mercy and the extremity of justice to meet, what a
reconciliation is this ! I ll give you another, for indeed the doctrine of the
gospel is nothing else, it is made up of these. God requires satisfaction of his Son Jesus Christ in his human nature, and God must be satisfied with
something that is not his own, for you can never satisfy any one with what
is his own already. How can this be reconciled ? Why, my brethren, the human nature being joined to the second person, he hath that right in it that the Father and the Holy Ghost hath not, it is his own in a more pecu liar manner ; for it is one person with him, which it is not with the other two persons. No creature could have made satisfaction unto God, for whatsoever the creature had was God s own already ; but this second per son, Jesus Christ, he could say to the Father, I will give you that which is mine own, I have such a propriety in it as you have not ; and yet all things are God s. This you see is reconciled in Christ, and therefore it is put upon redeeming us with his own blood.
To come to justification. What an amazing wonder is it that a man should be ungodly at the same time that he is justified, and at the same time that he is sanctified too. The Scripture is clear for this, Rom. iv. 5. Abraham, not only at his first conversion, but a long time afterward, yea, in his whole life, looked upon himself as a person ungodly, and to be justi fied by God as ungodly, considered in himself.
So if you come to conversion, there is no man that truly turns to God, but he turns freely to him ; it is the freest act that ever man did, or
else he will never be saved ; yet notwithstanding, though it hath the
highest freedom in it, it is wrought in him by an almighty power, even the same power that raised up Christ from death to life. Here is the
highest freedom of will, and God s everlasting purpose and power mixed
together.
Come to the life of a Christian after conversion ; take it as the gospel hath revealed it, and it consisteth of nothing but seeming contradictions. The apostle, in Gal. ii. 20, reckons up together two contradictions in appear ance ; saith he, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live ; well, yet not I this is strange but Christ liveth in me ; and the life which I live in
the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God. My brethren, for one soul
to live in another, and by another one s living in him, and that should be
his life, it is only the doctrine of the gospel that makes these things true. Adam knew no such thing, there was no such art and skill in his life. That likewise in Phil. ii. 13, God should work in a man all, both the will and the deed, and yet the man work freely with God, this is a seeming
contradiction, and yet made good by the gospel.
I have mentioned these, and have given you Scriptures which hold them
forth to you in very terms. I might mention a thousand others, and I ll
give you the reason why I mention them : it is not only to confirm the
point in hand, but let me tell you this, and know it for a truth, the cause
of all the errors that have been in the world hath been the want of recon
ciling these things together.
The Arians found great things spoken of the manhood of Christ, as of a
divine man, and therefore they denied that he was God. They could not
reconcile these two, how God should be man, and man should be God,
that both should be joined together ; therefore, taking part with one, they exclude the other.
CHAP. II.j GL/)RY OF THE GOSPEL. 277
Our Lord and Saviour Christ is God blessed for ever ; therefore, say the
papists, he did not suffer the displeasure of God in his soul. Why, say they, can God love his Son and be angry with him at the same time ? And he that is God blessed for ever, can he be made a curse in his soul ? Yes, take him as a surety. They take part with one truth of the gospel to exclude the other, whereas the gospel is a reconciliation of both these, and therein lies the depth of it.
So in point of justification. Say the papists, Can a man be justified by the
righteousness of another ? Are not the saints holy in themselves ? And doth not that make them holy ? Is not the wall white with the whiteness that is in the wall ? It is the want of reconciling these seeming contradic tions that is the ground of that error. I will give you a greater contradic tion in appearance to human reason : a man is ungodly and godly, a sinner and justified at the same time. This is true, the Scripture holds it forth
to be so.
As for the Socinians, they say there is no satisfaction for sin ; for if God
pardon freely, how can he pardon for a satisfaction ? Whereas the Scrip ture is clear, that there may be the freest grace in it, and yet satisfaction too ; and the truth of the gospel lies in reconciling these two, and that is the
depth of it ; but they take part with one truth to exclude another. Take Antinomianism, as you call it. All those glorious truths of the
gospel, that a man is justified from all eternity, yea, and glorified from all
eternity too, &c. ; men cleave to all these truths, whereas other truths are to be joined with them. A man, before he believeth, is unjustified, there fore he is said to be justified by faith ; and he is a child of wrath until he
believe. All believers are now glorified, and sit now in heavenly places with Christ, considered in their head, Christ; yet notwithstanding, what
poor miserable creatures are they here below. Take believers in their own
person, they are not so ; but considered in Christ, they are thus. I am
perfectly sanctified, and perfectly holy, considered in him, and I was cruci
fied with him, yea, but the remainders of corruptions are still. All men would desire to be more glorified than they are here, yet they are perfectly
glorified in Christ, considered in him. Here is still taking part with one truth to exclude another, whereas both must be taken in. So others object they cannot conceive that God should be angry with his elect, and chastise for sin ; for if he nothing but love me, how can that be ? It is easily answered : there is anger that proceeds from love. Though men s sins are
forgiven without interruption, yet there is a binding of sins in heaven, so saith Mat. xviii. 18 expressly. Take Arminianism. What is the foundation of their error ? It is
merely a want of reconciling seeming, though not real, contradictions in the
gospel. As, for example, they know not how to reconcile man s free will with God s peremptory decree. Say they, If God, out of his unchangeable peremptory love to a man, work irresistibly upon his will, how can his will be free ? Why, the freest that can be for all this. For consider this, who hath more freedom of will than the human nature of Jesus Christ ? For if he had not had the height of freedom of will, we could never have been saved by him. Yet infallibly and irresistibly, and with the greatest necessity that ever could be, was his will carried on always unto good. I say, the taking part with one truth, without reconciling it to another, hath been the foun dation of many errors, and therein lies the depth of the gospel, in recon
ciling all seeming contradictions whatsoever.
,f All these mysteries, I say, hath God knit up in the gospel, to shew his
278 A DISCOUESE OF THE [CHAP. II.
own wisdom, and to befool the wise men of the world. So that now, con
sidering all those poor and petty plots of reconciling nations and kingdoms,
all the ways of accommodation, whereby the greatest difficulties are resolved between men and men, and kingdom and kingdom, wherein the wise men and the princes of the world so glory (for their wisdom lies in ways of
accommodation, and reconciling things, and in them they spend their
thoughts, and in them they pride and magnify themselves) I say, take all
those depths of state, and the least of these depths that are in the gospel makes all the wisdom and policy of the world to vanish before it as mere
folly. It confoundeth the wisdom of the wise, and brings to nothing the
understanding of the prudent; so the apostle saith, 1 Cor. i. 19.
I might likewise shew you that the gospel, in the knowledge of it, is
excellent in respect of the depths that are in it, so in respect of all that har mony and correspondency that there is in the gospel of one truth with
another. The excellency of knowledge lies as well in the suiting of one
thing with another, as in the profoundness of the things themselves. Now
there was never such an invention as this, that as it is said in Ecclesiastes, God hath set one thing against another, so the harmony, the suiting of
all truths one with another here, in that glorious manner, is nowhere to be found in any wisdom or art whatsoever. The philosophers found a great deal of harmony in the things of this world, for the skill and art that God hath stamped upon the creatures consisteth in the harmony that is between one thing and another.
Now the observations would be infinite that might be made of this kind. How our sinfulness and Christ s satisfaction and obedience answers one
another : there is nothing in thy soul that thou canst object, but there is
that in the gospel which will answer it particularly. And so of all other
truths, it may be said they kiss each other. My brethren, it is the thread
that runs through all divinity ; therefore a man must make a whole body, a
system of divinity, that will do this, and when it is done, there is nothing more glorious.
Now, the gospel is not only a mystery and a depth in respect of wisdom, but let me give you another depth, and that is a depth of love, which is
laid up and revealed in this doctrine and knowledge of the gospel, Eph. iii.
18, 19, That you may comprehend, with all saints, the height, and depth, and length, and breadth, of the love of God, which passeth knowledge. Sin
is a great depth, which the law lays open ; therefore, saith Jeremiah, chap,
xvii. 9, The heart of man is desperately wicked, who can know it ? And Solomon saith, in Eccles. vii. 25,
* I thought myself wise enough, I set
myself to find out and to know the wickedness of folly. But he could not
find out that depth of wickedness that is in man s heart, or make an
anatomy of the heart. And poor souls, when they are humbled, find it so, and the damned spirits in hell find it so ; for what is it they study, and
shall do to everlasting ? Their own sinfulness and God s wrath, their parts
being extended and set upon the utmost tenter-hooks, and their sins being
set in order before them, they study nothing but their sins, and meditate
nothing but terror ; and this is hell. But now there is a mystery of love
as well as of wisdom revealed in the gospel, a depth that swalloweth up all
the depths of sinfulness that is in the elect, yea, and if they were a thousand
times vaster than they are. The apostle, in that place I quoted even now,
Eph. iii. 18, speaks of heights, and depths, and lengths, and breadths in
the love of God ; he compares it to a mighty sea, which swalloweth up hills
like molehills, a sea which is of that depth that the thoughts of men, though
CHAP. II.] GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 279
they shall be diving to all eternity to the bottom of it, shall never come
thither, a sea of that length and breadth, that though they are sailing over
it to everlasting, yet they shall never come to shore. It passeth knowledge, saith he. God s heart, my brethren, is as deep in love as it is in wisdom ;
yea, and his love was it that set his wisdom to work, to find out all those
depths whereby to shew his love. And, therefore, it is an observable place in Rom. xi. 33, which I quoted atthe first, the depth, saith he, of
the riches of the knowledge and wisdom of God ! You would think that
the apostle there speaks only of the knowledge and wisdom of God. No ; he means mercy and love, as well as wisdom, or rather, wisdom set a-work
by love. And it is clear by the context, for he had spoken in the words
before of God s shewing mercy to the elect, That through your mercy, saith he,
* For God hath concluded all under
* they might obtain mercy ;
unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all ; the depth, &c. Having spoken of love and mercy, which God intends to his elect, and the ways and contrivances that wisdom hath to shew mercy, he cries out, the
depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! And there,
in Rom. xii. 1, where he comes to make application to all, what saith he ?
I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you do
so and so. We have two gulfs in us, two vessels, understanding and will, and both these must be filled. Why, the gospel contains two depths in it, the one to fill your understanding, the other to fill your will and affections
for ever. It contains a depth of wisdom, and it contains a depth of love ;
it is a mystery of wisdom, and it is a mystery of love. And so now I have
despatched the first property of the excellency of the gospel, that it is a
mystery.
I shall but make a short use of it, and that is only this. These are great invitements unto men to become saints, and being so, to search in a more
especial manner into the things of the gospel. You know great under
standings seek after depths, as good swimmers do after great rivers, and
will not go to shallows. It is said of the leviathan, that he plays in the
sea. There is room enough to do so. If anything invites the under
standing of man to be searching and prying, the depths of the gospel will do it. And let me add this to it, which, as it enhanceth the worth of the gospel, so it should set on our spirits after the knowledge of it, and the knowledge of it as saints, the depths of it are so great that it will always produce new
knowledge ; though you know but the same things again, yet your know
ledge shall be always new. Why ? Because it passeth knowledge. Go, take all other things that are the greatest riddles and secrets in the world, and when you once know them, you know them, and they become trivial when you once know them. There was a secret in nature which the world
almost for three thousand years did not know I am sure the heathens did
not and that was the cause of the eclipse of the sun and the moon, and
they stood all wondering, as of late the West Indians did, when such a
thing happened. Now, we know that the moon s coming between the sun
eclipseth it, and the shadow of earth coming between the moon and the sun eclipseth it ; and this great riddle that amazed the world, we count it, now we know it, but a trivial thing ; and who almost, when the sun or moon are eclipsed, thinks of it with any admiration ? But when the depths of the gospel are unfolded to you, you may still search into them, and
search further with new pleasure, and to a renewed understanding they are always new and fresh. There is no new thing under the sun, saith
260 A DISCOUKSE OF THE [CHAP. III.
Solomon in Eccles. i. And lie speaks of natural, moral knowledge. But
there is nothing but new things which are above the sun, which believers know. Therefore, as the mercies of God are new every morning, so the
thoughts of these mercies, they are to an holy heart precious, sweet, new
every morning. And you shall find this, that as you grow up more in
holiness, still the things you knew before will be new to you, the very same
things, besides your enlargement in other things that you did not know before.
* When that which is perfect
So the apostle clearly saith, in 1 Cor. xiii. 10,
is come, that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I understood as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish
things. Every new degree of spiritual light swallowed up what he knew
before, that he thinketh that he did not know it before, the knowledge of
it, or that new light, being so pleasant to him.
Now, my brethren, to have the mind of man not only to have depths made the object of it, but the holier he grows to be carried on to further
depths, to be led along thus with continual new knowledge, there is nothing more pleasant ; and yet this the gospel is, and all the depths of it. And
then, when you shall have depths of love added, a sea of love breaking in
upon your hearts at every thought (if the apprehension be wound up high), to fill a man s will and affection, as the other filled his understanding, this must needs fill the heart with unspeakable pleasure and joy and content ment in the view and contemplation of this great and high mystery. Now,
if we had holiness enough, and love enough, and faith enough, and grew in these, this would certainly be our case. And so much now for this first
property of the gospel that is here mentioned, that it is called a mystery.