he has made his Son a sin-offering for us, that we might be made perfectly righteous through him. Now, all this is comprehended in that cardinal proposition, on the belief of which the Lord promised to build his church, viz:—that "Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God." It is this sublime proposition, apprehended and realized by faith, that works repentance unto life; that subdues, softens, pacifies, and reconciles the heart to God, and prepares it to be a temple of the Holy Spirit.

This is that cardinal element in the gospel which contains in it the principle of eternal life. Christ, indeed, is our life. "Our life is hid with Christ in God." But to us Christ is first presented in the testimony concerning him; then he is in the faith of him that believes that testimony; then in his heart he becomes "the hope of glory ;" and, finally, in his life of righteousness and holiness, he is manifested to the world. This, indeed, constitutes " a reformation not to be repented of.”

Now, the preaching of the gospel is the only divinely-appointed means for producing this sublimely moral and spiritual renovation of heart. Christ must be revealed to us by the Holy Spirit in all the fulness of his grace, and all the attractions of his love. He must be made to stand out before us as "the brightness of his Father's glory"-as the "express image" of his glorious and lovely character. His obedience unto death, his voluntary sacrifice of himself for our sins, the unspeakable value of his blood, as the only means of expiation and personal purification, must be fully set before the mind, as well as the necessity of his death, to honour and justify God in justifying a sinful man.

If, indeed, repentance unto life be a change of our views, of our affections, and of our conduct, as it most certainly is, then that person, in relation to whom our views, affections, and conduct are to be changed, must be developed to our apprehension in such an attitude and character as to be the proper means of accomplishing such a change.

The revelation of the Father, and of the Son, is not made to us through the works of nature or the schemes of providence and moral government. This revelation is exclusively confined to the work of redemption. Hence the necessity of correct views and a just appreciation of the nature of the death of Christ as an atoning sacrifice. That is the radiating centre of the whole remedial system. It is in that we discover all the divine excellencies. It is there, and only there, that inflexible

justice, immaculate purity, inviolate truth, and infinite mercy, appear in perfect harmony with each other, combining all their effulgence and glory in opening for us a way into the holiest of all. Beholding there, as in a reflecting mirror, the purity of God and our own deformity; the majesty of his government and the dignity of his law; the malignity and hatefulness of sin, in contrast with the beauty and loveliness of holiness, righteousness, and truth, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord. Thus contemplating him whom our sins have pierced, we begin to mourn over them, and to abhor them; we prostrate ourselves before his throne of mercy, and, with the humble and penitent publican, we say: "God be merciful to me a sinner." Such is that repentance unto life which God, through Jesus Christ, has granted to the Jew and to the Greek.

In the Geneva version of the New Testament, as well as in some other ancient English versions, "amend your life" and "amendment of life" are used for repent and repentance. Reform and reformation, in the judgment of some of our best critics, are to be preferred to repent or amend your lives. But all sound interpreters agree in this, that, while a change of mind, including a change of views and a change of feelings, is, by the etymology and use of the original term, clearly indicated, and essential to the requisitions of the gospel; still the consummation and evidence of "repentance unto life," or of "repentance towards God," is a new and holy life. To which, indeed, a change of views and a change of the heart are indispensable. Therefore it is that the phrases "repentance unto life," reconciliation to God," "reformation," are representatives of the same great radical change contemplated under different forms and figures of speech.

97 66

True repentance never fails to manifest itself in all cases of injury to the person, character, or property of our neighbour, by an immediate redress, as far as possible, of any injury we may have done him. The Jewish law of offerings for trespass on the rights of others, made a restitution and satisfaction to the injured in all cases in which it was possible, essential to forgiveness. No acknowledgment to the Lord-no offering to the priest, could obtain remission, unless the injury done was redressed to the full amount possible. Zaccheus repented of all his wrongs done to his neighbours in this way, and was honoured

by the Messiah in a very public and impressive manner. It has reason and law, and the approbation of the Messiah, to enforce it.

Christians, when delinquent in any duty, when backsliding or simply growing cold, are also commanded to repent-to do their first works. Every allusion to repentance unto life indicates that it is no mere change of a creed, a theory, or a profession. It is a real, positive change of heart and of life. "Old things are passed away, all things are become new." "Fruits meet for repentance" are always expected to be consequent upon the profession of it. Without these, the pretension is idle and deceptious. These fruits are truth, piety, justice, humanity; the crucifixion of the flesh, with all its affections and lusts. The grace of God which brings salvation teaches us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present evil world.” Such is evangelical repentance, in deed and in truth.

66

Its connection with faith as its fruit, as its constant concomitant, is, we hope, from the evidences adduced, and the accompanying reflections, sufficiently apparent. Its whole importance in the Christian system cannot be contemplated apart from other precepts and duties very intimately associated with it. We have but in part traced its connection with faith, with the word of truth, with the Spirit of God, with the sacrifice of the Messiah. It is intimately associated with Christian baptism. So intimate is this connection, that both by John the Baptist and Peter, and the other Apostles, it is made to precede it as essential to its practical benefit to the subject of that holy ordinance. It will again fall in our path to hear and contemplate the connection between faith, repentance, baptism, and the remission of sins. Meantime, it must suffice to say, that all the links of that golden chain of grace which connects and binds our souls to the throne of God, are most intimately connected with one another; and the institutions and ordinances that call for them as prerequisites, are most happily devised, not only to display that connection, but also to make each one of them contribute, in the proper time and place, that amount of blessing to us which our condition and circumstances in life so necessarily require.

The duty of repentance is, indeed, always obligatory on every one that commits any act of impiety or immorality. Without repentance, pardon of sin is impossible. God cannot forgive

the impenitent. It would be doing the offender a great wrong, and God a great dishonour. There is a state of mind suitable to the reception of the grace of forgiveness. In the absence of that state, it could not be enjoyed. Hence, motives to lead man to this state are indispensable; and according to the motives, so is that state of mind to which the Lord has always been pleased to vouchsafe this gift. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance-thereby indicating that then, and not till then, can any one be saved.

CHAPTER VI.

COVENANTS OF PROMISE-CIRCUMCISION.

"And he gave him the covenant of circumcision; and Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day."-STEPHEN. Acts vii. 8.

THE Creator of the universe, the Father of angels and of men, has always operated according to a previous purpose, and governed according to an antecedent law. Creation, providence, and redemption are, indeed, but the execution and development of eternal counsels. The universe is one grand system, the result of a well-matured plan, the consummation of a previously-existing scheme. It is not an accident, a contingency, a fortuitous concourse of atoms; but a sublime system of adaptations tending to a complete and perfect development of its author, according to the intellectual and moral capacities of his rational offspring. With our greatest apostle we say—“Of him, and through him, and to him are all things: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen!"

So much of the universe, its author, and plan, as man can understand and enjoy, as he is now constituted, God has kindly opened to his contemplation and apprehension. All beyond this is designed for future development, or for other ranks of intelligence above us. Meantime, a volume has been kindly presented to man, containing an account of himself, his origin, present condition, and future destiny. It is such a revelation of God and of man, such a record of the past, and such an anti

cipation of the future, as meets all the intellectual wants and moral exigencies of the human race.

This divinely-inspired volume proceeds upon the plan of a gradual and progressive development, adapting itself to all the conditions of human existence. The human family having an infancy, a childhood, a manhood, and an old age, the Book of God not only recognises these conditions of our existence, but admirably adapts itself to them all. We have the bud and the blossom, the green and the ripe fruit of humanity, as we have them in other departments of nature. So have we a characteristic unity of plan, a characteristic progression and development in all the works and ways of God to man. It is the same great mind, the same supreme intelligence, the same active benevolence, working everywhere and at all times in the communication of himself to his intelligent and moral offspring.

God appears first as a Creator; next as a Preserver; then asGovernor of his own universe. In all these attitudes, as in the special case of man's redemption, he not only uniformly acts. according to a previous plan, but in all his plans and operations there is a peculiar unity or similarity of action. In creation he operated through authoritative precepts. "He spake, and it was done;" he commanded, and, from nothing previously existing, the hosts of the universe arose at his bidding; his simple volition, assuming the form of an oral precept, gave birth to the universe and all that inhabit it. The six days' operations make but one imperative sentence, solemnly pronounced. The word of God is, therefore, the Constitution of the Universe.

As the human body to the soul, so is the word of God to his volition. His word is but the vehicle through which his creative power manifests itself. It is the mere form or embodiment of his volition-the annunciation of his purpose. God always works by means, never without them. The means, indeed, are but the envelope of his will. The connection between the means and the end is not always apparent, and probably never fully understood,

Can any one show the necessary connection between commanding light to spring out of darkness, and the shining forth of light? Yet, at the bidding of God, darkness brought forth light! We still enlighten the world by making the darkest and blackest of all things the parent of light, and the medium of general information. What is more opaque than a metallic