Mystery in all Ages, being kept fecret in the Counfels of God; but, fince the Coming of Chrift, 'tis no longer a Mystery, but is manifeft and made known to all Nations and People. Here then, you fee plainly, the Oppofition is between Mystery and Revelation: What God has referved to himself, without communicating the Knowledge of it to the World, that is a Mystery; what he has revealed, is no longer a Mystery, but a Manifestation of his Will and Purpose. In this Senfe, I prefume, there lies no Objection against the Gospel: That it was once hidden in the fecret Counfels of Prout is now, by the Revelation of Christ Jefus, made known to all Men, can afford us no Matter of Complaint, but may administer to us great Joy, and be a Subject of Praise and Glory to God; inafmuch as our Eyes have feen, and our Ears heard, thofe Things, which many righteous Men and Prophets have defired to fee, and have not seen them, and to bear, and have not heard them.

As the Gospel itself is in this Sense styled a Myftery, fo are the feveral Parts of it likewife: Ifhew you a Mystery, fays St. Paul; we shall not all fleep, but we shall all be changed. He did not mean that he would fhew them what they could not comprehend, K 3

but

but that he would declare to them the Purpofe of God, which they were ignorant of. The fame Ufe of the Word you may meet with in our bleffed Saviour himself: When he had defcribed the future State of the Church in Parables to the Jews, and came afterwards to explain them to the Disciples, he tells them the Reafon of his Proceeding: Becaufe, fays he, unto you it is given to know the Myfteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but unto them it is not given. All Futurities, because known only to God, are Mysteries; but, when revealed, they are no longer fo, being made known and manifeft. Thus, 'tis plain, St. Paul uses the Word in 1 Cor. xiii. where he joins the Gift of Prophecy and the Knowledge of Myfteries together: Though I have, says he, the Gift of Prophecy, and understand all Myfteries and all Knowledge: Where 'tis plain what he means by Myfteries, fince they are to be understood by the Gift of Prophecy. In the fourth Chapter of the fame Epistle he fhews what Account we are to make of our Paftors and Teachers: Let a Man, fays he, fo account of us, as of the Minifters of Chrift, and Stewards of the Myfteries of God. His Meaning is not, that they were Preachers of Mysteries in the vulgar Notion of it, that is, of Things which

no-body

no-body can understand; but that God had entrusted them with his Purposes and Intentions in the Salvation of Mankind, which they, like good Stewards, were to difpenfe to the whole Family, by declaring and revealing the whole Will of God.

The fame Apostle fays, Chap. ii. 7. We Speak the Wisdom of God in a Mystery; and. in the next Words explains what he means by Mystery, even the hidden Wisdom which God ordained before the World to our Glory: And in the tenth Verfe he tells us, this is no longer hidden, but the Mystery is laid open; God having revealed it unto us by his Spirit. In the fame Sense we read of the Mystery of Faith: Where we are not to understand the Apostle to mean incomprehenfible Articles of Faith, but the Revelations of God's Purposes and Defigns, which through Faith we receive, and are therefore ftyled the Mysteries of Faith.

In this Sense the Gospel is full of Myfteries, as containing the fecret Purposes of God's hidden Wisdom in the Redemption of the World, which were made manifest by Christ Jefus, who brought Life and Immortality to Light. Against this Gospel Senfe of Mystery the common Objections have no Force; fince Mysteries here are not understood to be fuch Things

K 4

Things as Reason cannot receive, but fuch Things as proceed from the hidden Wisdom of God, and are made manifest in the Gospel of Chrift.

Let us then, in the second Place, proceed to fhew, That the Notion of Mysteries, against which the Objection lies, does not belong to the Gospel. The Objection represents a Mystery as a Thing inconceivable, and altogether irreconcileable to human Reafon. But fuch Myfteries there are none in the Gospel of Christ. If Men, learned of unlearned, have run themselves into Contradictions by endeavouring to explain the Mysteries of God farther than he has explained them, be that to themselves: Let not the Gospel be charged with their Errors and Mistakes. Nothing indeed has proved more fatal to Religion, than the vain Attempts of Men to dive into the unrevealed Mysteries of God, and to account for, upon Principles of human Reason, the Things which proceed from the hidden Wisdom of God. All the fecret Purposes of Providence are, in the Sense of the Scripture, Mysteries; as likewife all Knowledge which God has not revealed. Of fuch Mysteries are there many: But then they concern not us to inquire after; if they did, God would reveal

them

be

them to us. God has declared to us, That he has an only-begotten Son, and that he was the Person who came down from Heaven for our Deliverance: That he has an holy Spirit, who shall fanctify our Hearts, and be affifting to us in working out our Salvation. This, and agreeable to this, is the Scripture Doctrine: And a Man would put to it to fix any Absurdity, or so much as feeming Contradiction, upon this Doctrine, or any thing said concerning it in Scripture. Concerning thefe Perfons there are indeed exceeding great Myfteries, which are not revealed: God has not told us, or enabled us to conceive, how his Son and his Spirit dwell in him, or how they came from him. These therefore are properly Mysteries, which are hidden in the fecret Wisdom of God, and which we are no-where called upon to inquire after. It is eafy, I think, to take God's Word, that he has a Son and a Spirit, who dwell with him and in him from all Eternity; a Son who came to our Affiftance, a Spirit who is ever with us to guide us into Truth: Thefe Things, I fay, are eafy to be believed, without entering into the Difficulties arifing from natural and philofophical Inquiries, which the Scripture no-where encourages us to feek after: And,

as