the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, which our Saviour himself has pronounced to be eternal life.

2. But then we must never forget, that mere doctrinal knowledge, however essential, will stand us in little avail, unless it issue forth into practice.

That same divine person, who declared the knowledge of God the Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ to be eternal life, declared also no less unequivocally: Not every one, that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven'. What God therefore hath joined to

duce therefore a text, in which Christ is spoken of as the man Jesus Christ, leaves the matter in debate just where it found it. The passage, contained in 1 Tim. ii. 5, is as much the creed of the catholic Church as it is of the Socinian party. We deem it heresy to deny, that the man Jesus Christ is the one mediator between God and man: but, while we contend for the true and proper manhood of our blessed Lord quite as strenuously as the most energetic Socinian can do, we say (with St. Paul), that the second man is the Lord from heaven, and (with St. John) that the Word made flesh is God. I repeat it therefore, because Socinian reasoners seem very apt to forget it, that the point between us is, not whether Christ be very man (for in this doctrine we are agreed), but (as the matter is soundly expressed in the Athanasian Creed) whether Christ be not God of the substance of the Father begotten before the worlds and man of the substance of his mother born in the world. Hence, to adduce such a text as 1 Tim. ii. 5 by way of settling the matter is quite childish and nugatory.

1 Mat. vii. 21.

gether, sound doctrine and holy practice, let not man presume to put asunder. Rather, on the contrary, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly-kindness, and to brotherly-kindness charity. But he, that lacketh these things, is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for, if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. For so an entrance shall be administered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ'.

1 2 Peter i. 5—7, 9-11.

CHAPTER IV.

RESPECTING THE MODE IN WHICH GOD'S LOVE ΤΟ FALLEN MAN IS DESCRIBED AS OPE

RATING.

PREVIOUS to the fall, the love of God to his creature man was absolute and immediate: but, after the fall, man stood in a very different condition with regard to his Creator. Henceforth, if the love of God operated at all, it must needs operate in a very different mode from what it did heretofore.

This peculiar mode of operation is darkly and typically set forth, under the two earlier Dispensations but, under the final Dispensation, it is revealed and explained in all its full-orbed glory.

I. Perhaps no one of the inspired writers sets forth the matter with greater distinctness and perspicuity than the beloved apostle St. John.

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love:

not that we loved God; but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins'.

We have here exhibited to us the peculiar manner, in which the love of God operates toward man viewed not as an upright but as a fallen creature. His love is described as operating, not absolutely but relatively, not immediately but mediately. Now, as the peculiar manner of its operation was obscurely intimated under the Patriarchal and Levitical Dispensations, so it constitutes the very sum and substance and basis of the Christian Dispensation. Let us attend then to the passage, which has just been cited from the writings of St. John: and let us thus endeavour to gain a clear conception of the important subject before

us.

1. The passage in question teaches us, that God does indeed love man; but that, since man is a fallen and therefore a sinful creature, this love cannot, in consistency with other divine attributes, be exerted toward him absolutely and immediately. A reconciliation must first be effected between the parties at variance; and, when the infinite superiority of the Supreme Being is considered, it is certainly a wonderful display of love and condescension on his part that he should be the person that contrives the mean of effecting a reconciliation.

2. It further teaches us, that God reconciles

man to himself, not by the agency even of the highest created spirit or angel (however remarkble such a circumstance might well be deemed); but by the agency of his only-begotten Son, whom he sent into the world for this express purpose, that we might live through him. Hence, as God works not superfluously, we seem bound to conclude, that, without the intervention of the Son, we could not have lived (in the scriptural sense of the word), but must have remained dead in our trespasses and sins.

3. Of what nature then is this intervention? Is it a mere embassage of mercy, declaring on God's part that he is willing to be reconciled to man, provided man is willing to be reconciled to him; an embassage, proclaiming after the manner of an earthly sovereign an amnesty to all such as shall be disposed to return to their allegiance?

The passage does indeed involve such an idea; but, according to the plain untortured import of the words, it involves much more.

We may observe, that the only-begotten Son is not simply to proclaim life and forgiveness to a world of condemned criminals; but that the love of God is peculiarly manifested in this, that he sent him to be even the propitiation for our sins.

Such phraseology can with no propriety be applied to the office of a mere ambassador: for how can a person of this description be said to be a propitiation for the sins of those to whom he