It is most important to bear this well in mind, for it places the subject beyond the sphere of human speculation. If a man starts a new system of philosophy, or if people advocate any particular system in politics, we are perfectly at liberty to criticise it. What one man does, another man may criticise. But it is a very different thing with the salvation of God. Once admit that it is a divine plan, arranged in divine wisdom and carried out in divine power, and it is then manifestly beyond the reach of human intellect. There may be things in it which seem to us very mysterious; but what else can we expect when the infinite and divine arrangements of God are subjected to the speculations of the finite mind of man? If the whole salvation were of such a character as to present no points of difficulty to the human inquirer, we might almost doubt its divinity, and believe that as it is within the range of man’s mind, so it had its origin in man’s ingenuity. But when we see it beyond the reach of man, then we are taught by our own inability to fathom it, to regard it as a plan above ourselves, for the simple reason that it is divine. III. DIVINE REVELATION. But when we have acknowledged that the Saviour and the salvation are divine, there remains a further question of the utmost possible importance. It is this. In what way is this divine salvation made known to mankind? Is it known by human discovery or divine communication? Do we know it by thinking out the subject, or by receiving a revelation from God? Surely the answer to this question is obvious, that a divine salvation can only be known by a divine communication. The eternal purpose of God can only be known by divine communication from Himself. A supernatural salvation requires in the very nature of things a supernatural communication from God. Thus an Apostle describes {21} the faith, not as having been _discovered by_ the saints, but as having been _delivered to_ the saints, delivered to them, that is, in God’s own inspired Word. As God has planned a complete salvation, so He has given a complete revelation of that salvation. He has not left us to grope for it as blind men feeling for the wall; but has revealed His plan in His own word, and taught us to rest in the scripture of truth as His own revelation of His purpose of grace. IV. THE DIVINE APPLICATION.