MYSTERIES IN RELIGION.

REV. H. M'Neile, a.m.

PERCY CHAPEL, CHARLOTTE STREET, FITZROY SQUARE, JUNE 19, 1834.

"Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour."—ISAIAH, xlv. 15.

"BE still," saith the Lord of heaven and earth, "and know that I am the Lord." "I will be exalted among the heathen; I will be exalted in the earth." "O taste, and see," saith the Psalmist, inviting the people of God to the enjoyment of their privileges, "taste and see, that the Lord is good." And again: "To know thee," saith the Saviour, in his prayer to the Father, "is eternal life; to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Among all the objects by which the human understanding can be exercised, or the human affections engaged, the most important beyond comparison, and, with all who believe that there is a God beyond dispute, is God himself God in the mysteriousness of his person and existence, God in the sovereignty of his creation and providence, God in the riches of his atoning love in Jesus Christ, God in the energy of his saving power by the Holy Ghost.

My dear Christian brethren, I gladly avail myself of this renewed opportunity of calling your attention in this place, to this the highest of all themes which can occupy the tongue or the attention of human beings. "Verily, thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour." Such was the exclamation of the prophet, when sinking under the weight of the revelation that had been given to him. Something of God was made known to him; but much remained unknown. A beam of light had fallen upon him, but it was only sufficient to make him intelligently conscious of the unfathomable depth of the Fountain of Light itself. More light hath fallen upon us, and, with the New Testament in our hands, we might truly say, "Verily thou art a God that revealest thyself, O Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour." And yet, when that revelation is examined, and examined, if possible, with apostolical skill, we must exclaim, in unaffected apostolical humility, in ignorance, conscious and confessed, "O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! His ways are past finding out! Who hath known his mind? Who hath been his counsellor?" "Of him, and through him, and to him, are all things; to whom be glory for ever and ever." I am persuaded, my brethren, that one of the most important features in the subject which I desire now to bring before you, is the indispensable necessity that exists for a mystery. The indispensable necessity of a mystery: for the human mind is so constituted, that either it abuses the mystery into superstition, or it rejects the whole truth because of the mystery, and plunges, however unconsciously, into infidelity. To recognise, without abusing, a mystery, is the attitude

to which a finite mind must be brought, in rightly receiving a revelation from the Living God. For observe: suppose God to make a full and adequate revelation of himself; there is a point in the examination of that revelation, at which man's understanding must fail; for man's understanding, at the best, is finite; God is infinite. The finite cannot grasp the infinite; and, therefore, there must needs be a point, at which the power of the finite understanding that can take in that infinite communication, would cease; and at a particular point, there would be an horizon to man's perceptions of truth. That is, to us there would be a point at which the revelation would cease to be explanation, and a man's view would be bounded, and a mystery would commence. For what is a mystery? A mystery is a revelation unexplained; a truth told, told distinctly, but not reasoned upon and explained; a truth so told that we can boldly say what it is, but not so explained as to enable us to say how it is. The personal existence of God, as declared in Holy Scripture, is a mystery; it is a revelation unexplained, a statement unreasoned; and it presents a horizon to the human understanding, which fades into mystery: and I wish to shew you how unreasonable the man is who will reject the objects in the foreground, and in the centre of the landscape, because he cannot, with equal precision, discern the objects in the horizon.

GOD; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; one God; distinct, yet not divided; separate, yet still one. The Son; co-equal and co-eternal with the Father; yet begotten of the Father. The Holy Spirit; proceeding from the Father and the Son. The Son sent by the Father, and filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit received from the Father, and sent by the Son. The Father God; the Son God; the Holy Spirit God; and yet there is but one God. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one God." God saying of himself, "I am, and there is none else; I know not any." God saying to himself, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." What human understanding can grasp this? There is a revelation unexplained; the Trinity is an imperfect discovery, not a contradic tion. There is a great difference between these two things. The intellect, to which nothing is mysterious, must be infinite: but a finite intellect can take cognizance of a contradiction. There may seem to be a contradiction in the truth; but the cause is in the infirmity of the creature, and not in the infirmity of the truth itself. The subject matter of the proposition is too high; it is beyond our reach. We cannot demonstrate a contradiction, for we cannot enter into the matter of the statement. If such a statement were made concerning three men being one man, the subject matter of the proposition being within the boundaries of our cognizance, so that we can reason concerning it, one should be capable of proving the contradiction; but when such a statement is made of God, the subject matter of the proposition is beyond our reach: and though this statement may seem contradictory, the fault is here-in man's understanding, not in the truth.

Is not this the same in other things, as well as in religion? Do we understand ourselves, my brethren? The metaphysician inquires into the human mind; and the anatomist searches into the veins, and arteries, and joints of the human body; and they each make many discoveries: but there is a point at which they are both baffled-the union of mind and matter, and the power of the one over the other. It is a mysterious region, the fact of which cannot be denied, but

the explanation of which cannot be given. They guess about it: and some, fastening upon the material structure, deny mind altogether, and would confine the man to organized matter. What I wish to shew, is, that in the science which connects itself with the existence of a man, there is a region of mystery; there is a fact: and in philosophy, facts hold the place which revelation holds in religion. This Book contains our facts. Experience gives the philosopher his facts; and facts bring him to a point where he must confess mystery. Where is the metaphysician that hath ever explained the action of mind upon matter, and the ready movements of flesh and bone, at the secret bidding of the mysterious visitant within? And where is the anatomist who hath discovered its origin, with his searching knife? No; there is a mystery in it. Now, where would be the philosophy, where would be the reason of the man, who would deny the proximate facts which are discovered by the anatomist, and the proximate statements which are made, truly, by the metaphysician, because, if you press them both a little further, you come to a mystery? Would there be reason, would there be philosophy, in rejecting both of these branches of human learning, because they bring you, when legitimately pursued, into a region where you must confess yourself a little child, and receive the fact unexplained? For a mystery in philosophy is a fact unexplained; as a mystery in religion is a revelation unexplained.

Take another instance. Much has been discovered, and much has been demonstrated, in the science of astronomy. The motions of the heavenly bodies have been made matter of calculation amongst men; and true calculation; the results proving themselves true, by periodical returns of infallible observation. But there is a point at which we reach a mystery here. Upon what do all these calculations depend; upon what do all these motions rest? Upon a quality, which Sir Isaac Newton baptized; he gave the mystery a name; he called it "gravitation." Grant gravitation, and we can reason about the solar system. But what is gravitation? Who can explain that? Why should matter have gravity? It has. Yes; we know it has; that is a fact: but why should it? There is here a mystery. Why should the tendency of matter be to the centre of the earth? Why is it a fact, that if you could bore through the centre of the earth, if you had a hollow diameter through the earth, and dropped a ball through it, it would vibrate at the centre, and, having fallen down, it would fall up again, back to the centre, and would never, and could never, fall through? No one can tell why it is. Here is a mystery: grant this, which is in the horizon, and you prove your nearer object. But this must be granted as the mystery in the matter. And where would be the reason, I ask, where the philosophy,where the sound sense, where would be the supreme discernment of the men, who, because they cannot reason through, and explain gravitation, would take upon them to reject the Newtonian system of philosophy in the heavens?

Now let us return to our sublimer theme. Here is a mystery concerning the existence of God; he is a "God that hideth himself;" he has given some information, but he has maintained a reserve, and there is a darkness. Suppose that the Trinity of persons in the Godhead were made plain to us; it would only be by the revelation of some farther-off point in the truth, which would throw forward the Trinity into the landscape, and enable us to look through it; and

then the point so revealed would occupy the place of the horizon, and we would have transferred the mystery from one part of truth to another; and we would still have a mystery; for we are finite, and God is infinite. Now, where is the sense, the reason, the philosophy, the superior discernment-where is the more reasonable religion, of rejecting the doctrine of the Trinity, because there is a mystery in it, and rejecting the proximate statements of redemption, which all hang upon the Trinity, because, that when pressed home, they involve the human mind in a mystery, and make man feel, what he ought to feel that he is a little ignorant child, at his highest attainments, in the presence of his Maker? No; this boasted reason is pride. This rational religion is the refusal of the mystery. It looks very like a determination to be what the devil said man should be, "as God," instead of being as a little child. And, verily, I say to you, dear brethren, except a man receive God's truth as a little child, willing to understand what his Father explains, he shall not enter into the kingdom of God.

My object in this much has been, to reconcile you to the existence of a mystery as regards the Godhead; revealed, but not explained, in the Bible. The Trinity is in the horizon, the Trinity in Unity: it is the horizon of revelation to us upon this point: it is the gravitation. Granting it, the whole statements of redemption are capable of demonstration: rejecting it, the whole scheme of redemption is a nonentity; for there is no Mediator, there is no atonement, there is no Sanctifier. Reject the Trinity, and the gap which sin has made between God and man finds no one that can fill it up. All false glosses upon Christianity leave this gap unfilled up. Admit the mystery; and by the assistance of it, and resting upon it, we are in possession of the fundamental element of truth; which invests with infinite importance, and with demonstrative clearness, the mediation, the atonement, the recovery of the fallen creature back into the very bosom of God, which is salvation.

"Verily God hideth himself;" not as regards his personal existence only, but as regards THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ALL HIS WORKS IN CREATION AND Providence, “Of him, and through him, and to him are all things." He is the origin, he is the support, he is the end of all creation: no creature can come into existence at any time, can continue in existence for a moment, or can perform one single act, mental or bodily, but in conformity to, in compliance with, and in subserviency to, the eternal will of the Living God. Angels, principalities, and powers in heaven-angels, principalities, and powers fallen to hell-all the visible creation of suns and planets, with their satellites innumerable, their atmospheres around them, and their millions of multitudinous being upon them, all at every moment of existence hang upon the absolute will of God, for life, for breath, for motion, for all things. He spake the word, "Let them be," and the solitude of eternity was peopled with the wonders of creation and were he to speak the word "Let them cease to be," annihilation would be instantaneous and universal, and God would be left again alone in the solitude of eternity. This is a glorious lesson for us to learn, my friends, that we may know our place, and that we may know something of our God; a God that hideth himself, indeed, but a God that revealeth himself in part.

Holiness, as well as power, is inseparable from our God; for as he has the power to do what he will without controul, he has also the right to do what

he will without injustice. There is nothing in the history of the fallen angels, which can excite the smallest hesitation about ascribing still unto God in glory, holiness, unsullied holiness. The elect angels see and know this; they perceive that their original numbers are thinned, that thousands who at one time joined with them in singing the praises of their God have been cast down into darkness and ruin. They know full well, that neither Satan, nor any of his company, possessed a single power but what God gave them; or were tempted by a single opportunity but what God made for them: and yet instead of reasoning upon that fact, as we are sometimes tempted to reason, and thereupon calling in question the holiness of their Maker, we know that the language of the elect angels before the throne, with that history before their eyes, and the torments of their former companions clear in their intelligence-that their language is, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts." Here is a mystery; we have intelligence enough to grapple with this mystery in its difficult parts, but we have not information enough to overcome this difficulty. Here again we are brought into a horizon. Where now is the sense, the reason-where is the superior discernment, and the greater exercise of soundness of discretion and judgment, in rejecting the sovereignty of God, in the absolute doing of all things, because that in following it out we are involved in a mystery as regards his moral government? If a man is to say, "If God do all these things absolutely, who hath resisted his will? who can resist his will? why, or how, can he then find fault?"—the language of the Scripture is in reply, an appeal to our ignorance; it is not a further explanation of the mystery, but it is a very significant instruction to us, that the apparent difficulty lies on us, and not on him; for the answer is, "Nay, but O man, who art thou that repliest against God?" And the illustration is, "Hath not the potter power over the same clay, to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?" Is there any explanation in that? Nay, brethren; it re-asserts the very depth of the mystery, and leaves it unexplained. It is a revelation unexplained: nothing can be more clearly stated; yet there is no explanation of it whatever.

There is, then, moral government with our God who hideth himself, at the same time that there is absolute sovereignty: and the principles of his moral "God government are the principles of equity, and righteousness, and truth. cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death." This is the pedigree of damnation: man's lust-unto sin―unto death. But if a man shall reason thereupon, and say, “Well, if it be so, that man's sin is his own, and the evil he does originates in himself; then, by parity of reasoning, the good that he does must originate in himself also." Hearken to the next words of the Apostle; "Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." Here again the mystery is repeated: sin is ascribed to the sinner's own act and deed, according to his own free will; and all that is good is ascribed to the sovereign grace of God. Verily God hideth himself whilst he revealeth himself. Mercy and truth go before his face, as a Saviour; justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne.