Page:Harmony of the divine attributes displayed in the redemption and salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ.pdf/19

                               (19) such a solemnity as made the whole universe, as It were to tremble and quake: for then did God shake, not the earth only, but also the heaven : for when Christ was under the mighty load of terrible wrath in the sinner’s room, there was a great earthquake, and the heavens grew back, the sun was eclipsed ; and that at a time contrary to the common rules of nature, which made a Heathen philosopher at a distance, cry out, ‘ that either the frame of nature was on the point of a dissolution 'or the God of nature was suffering,:’ And indeed he was suffering unto blood and unto death. Behold the living and eternal GOD here in our nature wounded to death ; and bleeding out his life, to be a sacrifice for sin that justice might be satisfied, and mercy might be magnified and all the Attributes of GOD glorified to the highest. O wonder ! that Golgotha, the place of a scull should be such a famous meeting place for the divine perfections. It was a place of the greatest shame and ignominy, but in him ‘ who endured the cross, and ‘ dispised the shame,’ it was made a place of most resplendent glory; for on the cross of Christ, Mercy and Truth, righteousness and Peace met and embraced each, other. God’s Attributes did harmoniously join together, so that the one does not blacken, but illustrate the glory of the other; while they shined glorioufly in the face of Christ crucified, as a beautiful and bright constellation ; for he was set forth to be a propitiation to declare the righteousness and justice of God, together with his other glorious names. 7. Another remarkable period is their meeting together at the bar of GOD’s great justice court in heaven, ‘ within the vail, whether the forerunner hath for us ‘ entered, even Jesus,’ Heb. vi. last. When Christ was upon the cross, ‘ The vail of the temple was rent in ‘ twain, from the top to the bottom and a way was made for entering into the holy of holies; and as the priests under the law were not only to offer the sacrifice without the camp, but after that, were to enter the beliest of all, not without blood, but with the blood of the sacrifice, ‘ to sprinkle the mercy-feat, Lev. xvi. 14, 15. 'Even so Christ having offered himself a sacrifice, and C 2