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any meaning at all, it means that his whole life, his whole character, was formed, and nourished, and sustained, by what he believed about the Son of God, who loved him, and gave himself for him. Now, can you conceive the meaning of this? When the proposition is stated to you, that he hath loved you and given himself for you, you may not dispute or deny it; but can you conceive a man living upon it, drawing all his motives from it, regulating all his desires by it, and actually forming his whole character upon it? I am sure you cannot, if you do not see Christ's Divinity: indeed, it is impossible in the very nature of things. Now I say that it is the soul's eternal life to live upon something it sees in God; and this life the Apostle had and your not understanding the language of that life is a proof that you have it not abiding in you. And thus, because of your not seeing Christ's Divinity, your eyes are holden to the glory of his pardoning love: up to this hour you have not been believing in it; and you are therefore still abiding far from God.

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'But I have not been accustomed to take that view of the Gospel which makes the Divinity of Christ a point so essential, so indispensable as this. I have been accustomed to believe that God is love; a tender-hearted, forgiving God ;-that Christ hath been sent by him into the world to teach us how to know Him, how to serve and please Him; and that, if we do so, we shall be accepted for his sake. And I do not see that for this view of the Gospel it is essential that I believe in Christ as God.'-To this I have just to say, that while it is certainly true that the Divinity of Christ is not essential to this view of the Gospel, it is equally true that this is fundamentally and essentially an erroneous view of the Gospel: for it makes the coming of Christ a mere circumstance; and so, if it be correct, we can conceive Christianity without Christ at all. But in the New Testament, Christianity is simply the knowledge of Christ. He is all in all. If he was a mere teacher, it would not lie so much in the knowledge of Him, as of what he taught. Now, it lies in the knowledge of Him, which, as I have shewn already, is declared to be as essential to salvation as the knowledge of the Father. Christianity is never said to lie in the knowledge of the Apostles, but always in the knowledge of their doctrine. And what blasphemy would it be, to say that it was life eternal to know the Father and Peter? We do not need to know any thing about Peter in order to eternal life; we merely need to know what Peter taught and if this view of the Gospel be correct, the same remark is applicable to the Christ of God. But the Holy Ghost has again and again declared that eternal life consists in knowing Him, in believing on Him, in feeding on Him, eating His flesh, drinking His

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blood; that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in Him; and that, therefore, the creature must know Him, before a single one of these treasures can be unlocked to him. This single consideration is sufficient to set aside this view of the Gospel; it does not give that prominence to Christ Jesus which the Holy Ghost gives. And, besides, this view of the Gospel is essentially unsound for the reasons I have already given: if this be the Christ of God, then he may be known without the love of God being known, and without the forgiveness of sin being known. But we know this to be impossible; and therefore such a Christ as you believe in is not the Christ of God. But that consideration which more than any other proves this view of the Gospel essentially unsound, is that it involves in it. a denial of the necessity of regeneration. If this be Christianity, a man may be a Christian without being born again. But the Son of God has declared this impossible : Verily, verily" (observe his solemn asseveration twice repeated), "I say unto you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God:" "Marvel not that I said unto you, Ye must be born again." The declaration of the Holy Ghost is equally explicit: "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away: behold, all things are become new." The Apostle James declares, that we are born again of the word of truth; i. e. that the word of truth which we believe makes us new creatures. But there is no truth, or number of truths, comprehended in that view of the Gospel which we are now considering, adequate to make men new creatures in believing it; adequate to make them pass from death to life, which is the Scriptural description of the change; for, "he that believeth on the Son," says the Son himself," is passed from death unto life." Nothing is adequate to effect this change, but the knowledge of the love of God and of the forgiveness of sin: but if these may be known, Christ is God. And if this view which you entertain of the Gospel does not necessarily comprehend his Divinity, then you know that what I say is true: you know that nothing you believe or have believed about Christ has ever had the power of effecting any such change upon you. And this itself may be an index to you that Christ, as you know him, is not the Christ which the Holy Ghost would have you know, and declares you must know for eternal life; that the Christianity you have taken up with is not Christianity at all. Search, then, the Scriptures, I pray you; not so much for proof of this proposition, that Christ is God, but to know what our state of sin is-what regeneration or deliverance from this state is what truth is adequate to this mighty effect-what believing on Christ is what the soul knows which knows him-what the eternal life is which is the consequence of knowing him-what

it is to be Christians-what that knowledge of God is which' is absolutely necessary to our walking with Him in holy obedience; and you will be convinced that the doctrine of the Lord's Divinity is absolutely essential to the Gospel of Christ, and to that Gospel being of any use or service to fallen man.

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

THE true and orthodox doctrine of Christ's assumption of our flesh, is more important than at first sight appears. There is not a single doctrine connected with the redemption of fallen man upon which it does not in some way or other bear. If Christ, as touching his humanity, was not made of the "substance of the Virgin" Mary-in other words, if Mary was not really the mother of Jesus; if he did not derive his human nature from her flesh and from her blood; if he was not verily and indeed bone of her bone and flesh of her flesh-how, I would ask, was he made, as St. Paul affirms, "of the seed of David according to the flesh?" what truth is there in the genealogy which St. Matthew gives of him, in which he traces his descent from David? how can that promise be fulfilled which says of David, "Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne?" We dare not spiritualize this promise away; for the Lord hath sworn in truth unto David," and "he will not turn from it." We contend, therefore, that Christ did not spiritually or figuratively, as some say*, but that he did really take the flesh of David; and that he will really sit upon the throne of David (Ps. cxxxii. 11). Moreover, does not the redemption of all men, the resurrection of all men, the sanctification and glorification of God's elect, which are precious truths of Scripture, depend on the fact, that it was our nature which Christ assumed?

But there is another precious truth of Scripture which rests upon this doctrine-namely, that Christ, being "made in the truth of our nature," passed" through the grave and gate of death" to a joyful and glorious resurrection, and became a new source of life unto his people, that out of his fulness they may all receive; partaking here of his very life, and growing up into him in all things. In reference to this, our Lord said, " Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die

The writer was told, a few days since, by one of his parishioners, that those passages of Scripture which speak of Mary as the mother of Christ are to be understood spiritually; and that our Lord did not take Mary's flesh, any more than Jonah took the flesh of the whale. It will scarcely be credited, that this person has taken on himself the office of a teacher; and is confident that he is a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness.

it bringeth forth much fruit." Christ now stands in the place of the first Adam, as the federal head of the human race. In this respect, as in many others, Adam was a lively type of Christ; "the figure of Him that was to come." As it is written, "The first man, Adam, was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening (or life giving) Spirit." As we through Adam, the parent stock of humanity, derive our human nature; so through Christ, the second Adam, the risen and glorified Redeemer, and Lord, do we derive a spiritual and divine nature; are made the sons of God; being "born, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God;" and because we are sons, God doth send forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying "Abba, Father." Christ, then, having taken our nature, and in it having condemned sin and conquered death and hell, ascended unto the Father, from whence he acts the office of the second Adam, a lifegiving Spirit; communicating that spiritual life unto us by which we are made the children of God and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. These are the spiritual seed of Christ. These compose the true church, called in Scripture the "body" of Christ, and the "bride the Lamb's wife." The church being thus constituted, she is prepared to receive all that Christ himself received, even the fulness of the Holy Ghost; by which she is enabled to trample upon all the powers of the enemy, and to manifest the very life of Christ in mortal flesh. As it is said, God "hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." No individual member is filled with all the fulness of God: in Christ alone dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; but his fulness is vouchsafed to the whole body, and each member partakes of that fulness, according to his office, and as it seemeth good to the Head to bestow. But, alas! not only is the church apparently destitute of this fulness, but she has forgotten "the gifts and calling of God;" so much so, that a great portion of the New Testament, which speaks of the spiritual man, is become obsolete and unintelligible*. Believers,

* Whitby says on 1 Cor. ii. 15; "Пveuμalixos here, and in other places of this Epistle, is not the man who is adorned with the fruits of the good Spirit; much less, as Mr. Cl. (Le Clerc) suggests, the man who relishes, or is affected with, the spiritual doctrines of the Gospel; but 3 της του πνευματος χαριτος ηξίωμενος, the man who is endued with a spiritual afflatus, and hath those gifts of the Spirit which are styled the word of wisdom and of knowledge (xii. 8). For he is the man who speaks in demonstration of the Spirit' (ver. 4); the wisdom of God in a mystery' (ver. 7); to whom God hath revealed it by the Holy Spirit' (ver. 10); that he might know the things that are freely given us of God' (ver. 12); and who speaks of them in words taught by the Holy Ghost' (ver. 13); and who by this revelation of the Spirit hath the mind of Christ' made known to him (ver. 16) who speaks EUμal ou, by 'the Spirit of God,' and by the Holy Ghost' (xiii. 3). Such were the prophets in the first age of the church, who by this afflatus performed all sacred offices in the church, before they had stated

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though quickened by the Spirit, and partakers of the body and blood of Christ, have forgotten this their high and holy calling; yet unto this are they called, even to "know the riches of his glory; to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith; that, being rooted and grounded in love, they may be able to comprehend ....what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge; that they might be filled with all the fulness of God." Therefore does the Apostle Paul exhort us to “walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called: with all lowliness and meekness; with longsuffering; forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace:" for he says, "There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling one Lord; one faith; one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all" (Eph. iv. 1—6).

The particulars contained in this passage are these-that the true church, or mystical body of Christ, is one; that the body is filled by the same Spirit; that the Christian calling is one; the Lordship of Christ one; the Christian faith one; the Christian baptism one; the God and Father of all one; who is above all, being the Head of Christ; and through all, by his pervading Spirit; and in all, even in each individual member, by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, who is one with the Father and the Son (John xiv. 15-23).

"There is one body." The Apostle, in this and other passages, shews forth the oneness of Christ's church, by comparing it to the natural body, which, though composed of many members, is one body. As we have many members in our natural bodiessuch as hands and feet, eyes and ears, nose and mouth-which, being connected together by joints and ligaments, and united to the head, from whence they receive nerve and energy and power and wisdom to fill up their several offices, and to act together for the

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church officers among them. Whence the Apostle saith, "If any man be a prophet among you, or spiritual, let him know (i. e. acknowledge and discern by his spiritual afflatus that the things which I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord' (1 Cor. xiv. 37). And to those people he writes thus: 'Brethren, if any man be overtaken with a fault, you that are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness' (Gal. vi 1). This is the constant notion of the spiritual man in Irenæus, who, speaking of those men who had the prophetical gifts for the edification of the church, saith, They are men whom the Apostle styles spiritual.' When afterwards church governors were appointed, they seem to have been chosen out of these spiritual men, or to have had for a time, together with their ordination, this gift, which therefore he styles The Gift of Truth: And from whom (saith he) the truth is to be learned by others.' If the Church of Rome would from this chapter gather the infallibility of their doctors met in council, let them shew it by their spiritual gifts, or exhibit charismata veritatis, as Irenæus speaks."

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