much "Lord of the Spirit," as he is the Lord of life and glory. The New Testament is a volume written by his servants. Six of his apostles and two of his evangelists wrote it all. That book is to us now in the stead of the personal presence of the Lord and his apostles. He gave gifts to men after he left their abode. "He gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers." As a means of our salvation; as one of the things which God had done for us, we place the New Testament, the living oracles, or gospel of Christ, as next in order, as it is in importance, to his sacrifice.

III. To the sacrifice of Christ we always look for the basis of our pardon; to his blood that cleanses from all sin, for justification and personal acceptance; and to his Word we look for counsel and instruction in Christian piety and righteousness. We are as dependent on his word for light, as we are upon his blood for pardon. "I am," said he, 66 THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." "In him was life, and the life was the light of men. "That was the true light," said John, "which coming into the world, enlighteneth every man." "As long as I am in the world," says Jesus, "I am the light of the world." Thus Isaiah spake of him: "I will also give thee as a light to the gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation to the ends of the earth." "I will give thee for a covenant of the people, or light of the gentiles, to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison; and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house." "His going forth is prepared as the morning." "The sun of righteousness will arise with healing under his wings." "I witness," said Paul, "both to small and great, that the Messiah should show light to the people and to the gentiles." The Word of Christ is the light of Christ; and therefore the Christian Scriptures are the light of the world; and he that followeth them shall have the light of life. "If you continue in my doctrine," says the Messiah," you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." "If the Son make you free, you shall be free indeed."

CHAPTER XIII.

THE LORDSHIP OF THE MESSIAH.

I. We are seeking to apprehend the things done for us in the Christian system. "Christ, our passover, has been sacrificed for us." As such, "not a bone of him was broken.' Yet he died for us." In the second place, he has become our prophet, as well as our priest; and has declared to us the will of God, the whole will of God concerning us. He is our light, as well as our sin-offering. But, in the third place, he has been made Lord for us. To make Christ Lord for us, as well as of us, was the last act of the sublime drama of man's redemption from sin. The last secret of the mystery of Christ, which Peter promulged on the day of Pentecost, was, "Let all the house of Israel know, that God has made the same Jesus, whom you crucified, both LORD and CHRIST." To make him Lord for us, was to invest him with universal authority, that he might have it in his power to give eternal life to all his people. Jesus, in one of his prayers, in anticipation of his investiture, says, "Thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he might give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." But after his resurrection from the dead, and ascension into heaven, he was crowned Lord of angels, as well as Lord of men; and therefore he said, "all authority," or lordship," in heaven and on earth is given to me.' He is now the Lord of HOSTS: legions of angels, the armies of the skies, are given to him; for what? That he might be able to do all for us that our condition needs. It was for us he became a Prophet; for us, he became a Priest; for us, he has been made Lord of hosts, King of the universe, Judge and avenger of all. He is Lord of life, Lord of the Spirit, Lord of all.

II. We need sacrifice-and therefore we need a priest. We need a Leader, a Luminary, a Sun of Righteousness; and we want one who can always help us in time of need, when we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with the rulers of the darkness of this world; with wicked spirits living in the air. If Jesus himself, in one of these conflicts, needed an angel to minister to him, we need it more.

III. Three things are done for us; a sin-offering is pre

sented; a lamp of life is put into our hands; and all the active powers and energies in the wide universe are placed at the command of our King whenever he needs them. These are things already done. Hence, the Holy Spirit, and all the angels of heaven, are now at the disposal of our Saviour: for in him, all the promises of God are laid up; all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and all the fulness of the Deity, reside fully and truly in him. All these things, it is true, might be comprehended in one gift-the gift of Jesus as our Mediator, our Prophet, Priest, and King. Still it is expedient to view the things done for us, severally, and distinctly, in the Christian system.

IV. Other things are promised to be done for us: but these are the things already done for us, and before we shall speak of the things yet to be done for us, and done in us, we shall summarily consider the things to be done by us, before any thing more can be done for us, or done in us.

CHAPTER XIV.

FAITH IN CHRIST.

I. The things done for us will truly be to us as though they were not, unless they are believed. Hence, to the untutored and unbelieving barbarian or infidel, the universe is without a sin-offering, a Sun of Righteousness, a Lord, Redeemer, and a Holy Spirit. Faith is necessary only as a means of attainment; as a means of enjoyment. It is not, then, an arbitrary enactment or requisition, but a gracious mean of salvation.

II. Faith in Christ is the effect of belief. Belief is the cause; and trust, confidence, or faith in Christ, the effect. "The faith" sometimes means the truth to be believed. Sometimes it means "the belief of the truth;" but here we speak of it metonymically, putting the effect for the cause— or calling the effect by the name of the cause. To believe

what a person says, and to trust in him, are not always identical. True, indeed, they often are; for if a person speaks to us concerning himself, and states to us matters of great interest to ourselves, requiring confidence in him,-to believe what he says, and to believe or trust in him, are in effect one and the same thing. Suppose a physician pre

sent himself to one that is sick, stating his ability and willingness to heal him; to believe him is to trust in him, and to put ourselves under his guidance; provided, only, we love health rather than sickness, and life rather than death.

III. While, then, faith is the simple belief of testimony, or of the truth, and never can be more nor less than that; as a principle of action it has respect to a person or thing interesting to us, and is confidence or trust in that person or thing. Now the belief of what Christ says of himself, terminates in trust or confidence in him: and as the Christian religion is a personal thing, both as it respects subject and object, that faith in Christ which is essential to salvation is not the belief of any doctrine, testimony, or truth, abstractly, but belief in Christ; trust or confidence in him as a person, not a thing.* We take Paul's definition of the term and of the thing, as perfectly simple, intelligible, and sufficient. For the term faith, he substitutes the belief of the truth. "God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through the sanctification of the Spirit; through the belief of the truth." And of the thing, he says, " Faith is the confidence of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." And John says it is "receiving testimony," for "if we receive the testimony of man," as a principle of action, or put trust in it," the testimony of God is greater," and of course will produce greater confidence. Any belief, then, that does not terminate in our personal confidence in Jesus as the Christ, and to induce trustful submission to him, is not faith unfeigned: but a dead faith, and cannot save the soul.

CHAPTER XV.

REPENTANCE.

I. Repentance is an effect of faith: for who that believes not that God exists, can have " repentance towards God"? Repentance is sorrow for sins committed; but it is more. It is a resolution to forsake them; but it is more. It is actual

* See the Essay on the "Foundation of Christian Union," on the terms, fact, testimony, faith, &c., where this subject is treated at large,

† 2 Thess. ii. 3. ‡ Heb. xi. 1. || 1 John v. 9.

re

ceasing to do evil, and learning to do well." This is " pentance unto life," or what is truly called reformation. Such is the force of the command," Repent, every one of you." It is not merely, Be sorry for what you have done wrong; nor is it, Resolve to do better; nor even try to amend your ways: but it is actual amendment of life from the views and the motives which the gospel of Christ exhibits. Gospel repentance is the offspring of gospel light and gospel motive, and therefore it is the effect, and not the cause, of belief of the testimony of God.

power.

II. True repentance is, then, always consummated in actual reformation of life. It therefore carries in its very essence, the idea of restitution. For no man can cordially disallow or reprobate his sinful course of life, who does not redress the wrongs he has done, to the utmost limit of his To God he can make no restitution, only as he refunds to his creatures, whom he has injured. If, then, any one is convicted in his own mind that he has injured the person, the character, or the property of his neighbour, by word or deed, and has it in his power, by word or deed, to undo the evil he has done, or to restore what he has unjustly taken away, he will certainly do it, if his repentance be according to either the law of Moses, or the gospel of Christ. Otherwise his repentance is of no value: for God cannot, without trampling on his own law, and dishonouring his own character, forgive any man who is conscious of any sin he has done to any man, unless to the utmost extent of his power he make good the injury he has done. Thus saith the Lord, “If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the Lord, and lie unto his neighbour in that which was delivered him to keep, or in fellowship, (i. e. trading,) or in any thing taken away by violence, or has deceived his neighbour, or have found that which was lost, and lieth concerning it, or sweareth falsely; in any or all these that a man doeth, sinning therein: then it shall be, because he hath sinned, and is guilty, that he shall restore that which he took violently away, or the thing which he has deceitfully gotten, or that which was delivered him to keep, or that lost thing which he found, or all that about which he has sworn falsely; he shall even restore it in the principal, and shall add a fifth part more thereto, and give it to him to whom it appertaineth, in the day of his trespass-offering. And he shall bring his trespass-offering to the Lord, and the priest shall make atonement for him