4. Seeing, therefore, it is essential for every good and holy purpose of the Creator, that a part of the creation should be left in its fallen state, or rather brought up again by a resurrection, and be constituted in the estate of the second death; which is not annihilation, and which is not life; but the second death, in which the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched; the question next occurs, by what means, and by what mighty workmanship is the redemption of the part to be redeemed accomplished? This is taught us in the redemption of the body of Christ, concerning which we have already discoursed. The fallen woman's substance was, by the Holy Ghost, sanctified, and preserved holy, against all the powers of hell and death. The human will of Christ was, by the power of the Holy Ghost, preserved perfectly concentric with the Divine and absolute will of the Godhead, so that the latter found the former always a vehicle for expressing itself intelligibly to the creatures: yet did the human will of Christ know temptation of the flesh, as we see by his temptation, when he said, "Not my will, but thine be done;" that is to say, the flesh which beareth our will to a side, away from its centre, and maketh it sinful, which is a will in bondage, was not able to carry Christ's will away, though nature shook, and shrunk, and quivered again, under the mighty power which held it unswerving from its rectitude. Ah that word, My will," toucheth me to the heart, shewing me that Christ called human nature by the name I!-and that his human nature would have swerved him from his centre, but from the Holy Ghost, which abode in him. Now, one

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who will receive this, and they are not many; for the time is come, when they shall not receive sound doctrine;-one who will receive this, I say, can understand how the distinction is made whereof I now discourse, between the redeemed and the unredeemed creature. The ground of that distinction is not in the creature, but in the Crea tor: it is the will of God to save whom it pleaseth him to save. This act of the Divine will being absolute, and not revealed, is properly reserved with the Father, who representeth and retaineth the absolute attributes of the Godhead; and thus without the doctrine of election, you have, I may say, no absolute God, but only a revealed and manifested God, and you can therefore have no worship of the invisible Godhead. I mention this, however, only by the way, because it doth not properly belong to the head of distinctions, but to the head of unions, which will come hereafter to be discoursed of. The ground therefore of the distinction between the redeemed and unredeemed of creation is in the absolute will of God; and the origin of it in the manifestation, is the eternal Son taking unto himself a body,-which body is the begin ning and the ending, the first and the last of the redeemed creation. Therefore, all redemption, which in the purpose dependeth from the good. ness of the Father, doth in the manifestation depend from the humiliation of Christ. It was an act of his own self-existent personality to contract that infinite circle of his being, in the bosom of his Father, and to make all its acting pass through that concentric and limited circle of the human being which he assumed. And for this act never to be unacted; for what God doth, he doeth for

ever; the Father bestowed upon his human na→ ture the power of the Holy Ghost, or, I should say, the Holy Ghost, in his independent per sonality, did condescend to inform that human nature, and never to act towards the creatures save in it and through it; so that the great operative cause in the redemption of the creature is the Holy Spirit taking the possession of it, and sanctifying or separating it from the wicked mass. Now, with respect to the manner in which this is effected, it is by taking it out from the waste, digging it out from the miry clay, drawing it up from the fearful pit of this our fallen nature; and by might of Divine influence, resisting the force of corrupt nature upon the will or spirit of man, which hath made it move contrary to the will of God, unto which will the Holy Spirit constraineth it to return back and be agreeable. It is not that there are two wills, or spirits, in the renewed man; but that his will is, upon the one hand, acted on by the powers of a fallen creation, and on the other by a power of the Holy Spirit acting under the risen God-man. And the effect of the Holy Spirit is, to unite the fallen creature unto, and make it one with, the body of Christ: so that the end of redemption is the gathering out for salvation of the fixed quantity of the creation's substance, and joining it to Christ's body; and when this is com pleted, the dispensation of election is completed, and the Son of God, who heretofore appeared one substance in one person, shall hereafter shew his glorious human substance in many persons; that is, in all the elect church, which shall come with him in the power and glory of his kingdom. But for himself, he alone partaking of the Divine na

ture, shall stand alone and eminent above them all, the manifest Godhead for ever. From which era, of the accomplishment of the elect, and the bringing in of the kingdom, shall begin the work of government, wherein the manhood shall manifest itself victorious over that with which it warred against; that is, flesh and blood, and sin, and Satan, and death;-not now in the Christ personal and individual merely, but in the Christ plural; that is, in the whole redeemed church. But further into this we may not enter at present. And for the creatures which are left unredeemed; all these, being raised up at the end of the kingdom in that form which is proper to endure the second death, and with them the fallen angels, shall in punishment of that resistance which they made unto the truth, and of that preference which they gave to sin over righteousness; and for their denial of the Law of God, written in their hearts by Christ their Creator; and for the distinguishing of boliness from goodness, and of sin from weakness; and in general for the eternal distinctions of obes dience and disobedience, of truth and falsehood, of right and wrong, and in order to lay the basis of government for ever,-be cast into the lake that burneth, which is the second death. And thus we have these four distinct things in existence: First, the invisible Godhead, which is never changed: Secondly, the manifest Godhead, in the creature-form of the God-man: Thirdly, the redeemed creatures, standing in the human nature of Christ, and parts of that one substance: Fourthly, the unredeemed forms of the wicked creation in the state called the lake that burneth, or the second death.

5. Now, the distinctness of these four existences

must be kept for ever and for ever. The invisible essence of the Godhead must be kept distinct, that the Creator may not be confounded with the visi ble creature, but receive its homage, and worship, and service for ever. Secondly, The great Head of creation, which is the Christ, must be kept distinct from the redeemed creatures, in order that he may be the representative, the brightness of the glory, and the express image of the invisible God, and, in this dignity, maintain for ever the or der and subordination of the redeemed creatures, ever looking up to him as the face of God, and ever listening to him as the Word of God, and ever honouring him and revering him as the way for the creature to approach unto God, and the way for God to come unto the creature. Thirdly, The redeemed creation, or body of Christ inhabited by the Spirit: must ever be kept distinct from the reprobate creatures lying in the penalty of the second death, in order that the eternal distinction between holiness and unholiness, between blessedness and misery, between God and sin, may be for ever established in the sight and know. ledge of all creatures, which are yet to be created of God, during the ages of eternity. Now, eternal distinctions, which enter into the purpose of God, must have an eternal basis to rest upon. These three eternal and unchangeable distinctions must have an eternal ground in the being of God himself; and this ground is, the personalities of the Godhead. If God is one personality, then there never can be a creation out of God. God and the crea ture will be for ever confounded and worshipped, and service of the Godhead is for ever lost. This is Unitarianism. Again, if there be but two persona.