The justice of God is here more seen than in punishing all the damned.

The mystery of god’s will is here more seen than in hanging the earth upon nothing; while he condemneth Christ though righteous, and justifieth us though sinners, while he “maketh him to be sin for us, and us the righteousness of God in him.”

The power of God is here more seen than in making heaven and earth; for, for one to hear and get the victory over sin when charged by the justice of an infinite Majesty, in so doing he shows the height of the highest power; for where sin by the law is charged, and that by God immediately, there an infinite Majesty opposeth, and that with the whole of his justice, holiness, and power; so then, he that is thus charged and engaged for the sin of the world, must not only he equal with God, but show it by overcoming that curse and judgment that by infinite justice is charged upon him for sin.

When angels and men had sinned, how did they fall and crumble before the anger of God!  They had not power to withstand the terror, nor could there be worth found in their persons or doings to appease displeased justice.  Here then is power seen:  sin is a mighty thing; it crusheth all in pieces, save him whose Spirit is eternal.  Heb. 9:14.  Set Christ and his sufferings aside, and you neither see the evil of sin nor the displeasure of God against it; you see them not in their utmost.  Jesus Christ made manifest his eternal power and godhead more by bearing and overcoming our sins, than in making or upholding the whole world. 1 Cor. 1:24.

The love and mercy of God are more seen in and by this doctrine than any other way.  Here is love, that God sent his Son—­his darling—­his Son that never offended—­his Son that was always his delight!  Herein is love, that he sent him to save sinners—­to save them by bearing their sins, by bearing their curse, by dying their death, and by carrying their sorrows!  Here is love, in that while we were yet without strength, Christ died for the ungodly!

God A father.

O how great a task is it for a poor soul that comes, sensible of sin and the wrath of God, to say in faith but this one word, Father!  I tell you, however hypocrites think, yet the Christian that is so indeed finds all the difficulty in this very thing; he cannot say God is his Father.  O, saith he, I dare not call him Father.  And hence it is that the Spirit must be sent into the hearts of God’s people for this very thing, to cry Father; it being too great a work for any man to do knowingly and believingly without it.  When I say knowingly, I mean knowing what it is to be a child of God and to be born again; and when I say believingly, I mean for the soul to believe, and that from good experience, that the work of grace is wrought in him.  This is the right calling of God, Father; and not as many do, to say in a babbling way the Lord’s prayer by heart.  No, here is the life of prayer, when in or with the Spirit, a man being made sensible of sin and how to come to the Lord for mercy, he comes, I say, in the strength of the Spirit, and crieth, Father.  That one word spoken in faith, is better than a thousand prayers in a formal, cold, lukewarm way.