Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 1.djvu/536

 or known Him, but He manifested Himself. He manifested Himself by faith, by which alone it is possible to see. For that, who is the Master and Architect of all, who made all things, and disposed them in their place, was found not only benevolent, but also patient. Such, indeed, He always has been, and is, and will be,—kind, and good, and mild, and true: and only He is good; and having conceived that great and unspeakable counsel, which He communicated to His alone, so long as He retained the project of His wisdom, and reserved it in concealment, He seemed to be without care or consideration for us; but when, through his beloved, He revealed and made manifest the things which, from the beginning, were prepared, He at once presented to us all the scheme, so that we partake and behold His benefits. Who among us could conceive these things? But He, in Himself, and with His, foreknew the course of His Providence.

For the time past, therefore, He suffered us to be borne along as we would by irregular impulses, led astray by pleasures and desires; not that He feels complacence in our sins, but He permits them, from no gratification in the times of unrighteousness, but because He is working out the purposes of His justice:—that, during the time past, convicted by our own works of unworthiness to enter into life, we might now be rendered worthy through the goodness of ; and being proved of ourselves unable to enter into the kingdom of, we might, by the power of , be made able. But when our unrighteousness was assured, and it was clearly manifested that the wages of sin is punishment, and death was before our eyes, then came the time, which foreordained for the manifestation of His goodness and power, forasmuch as, in the abundance of His beneficence, love was alone displayed; He hated not, nor rejected us, nor remembered our guilt; but showed Himself long-suffering, and forbearing, and, in His own words, bare our sins. He gave His own as a ransom for us, the just for the unjust, the guileless for the guilty, the righteous for the wicked, the incorruptible for the corrupt, the immortal for the dying. For what other thing, except His righteousness, could cover our guilt? In whom was it possible for us lawless sinners to find