We should try to take better measure of our own expectations" The substance of things hoped for”— how much more is gained in Christ than ever Adam had to lose a peaceable nature, a perishable paradise, a terminable dominion over sublunary things; compared, or contrasted rather, with the terms in which our life in Christ is spoken of. Herein, we are indeed confined to terms; for ideas of such exalted bliss we have none; but the descriptive phrases are the words of God: they cannot mean less than they express; they do mean more than human language is competent to express-than eye hath seen, or ear hath heard, or heart of man conceived. Who knows what is meant by this? "The glory thou hast given me, I have given them." No destructible glory, but his own-an exceeding and eternal weight. Or this? "I will that they be with me where I am." No perishable Paradise, but an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away; fulness of joy and pleasure for evermore. And this?" He that overcometh shall sit down on my throne, as I have overcome and am sat down upon my Father's throne." No fading crown or terminable reign over the things that perish: "They shall reign for ever and ever." "With him," "in him," "like him."-We know not what it means, but we know what it cannot mean; for He is immutable, incorruptible, immortal. Judge then if it wants no more power to save than it did to lose: if the second Adam need be no more than the first or could be less than the Lord of Life from heaven. Suppose it even were so suppose it possible that what a man and the sin of man could do, a man and the righteousnes of a man could undo: to make

of humanity again "a living soul," in place of what he is, a dead one; and beget us alive, as Adam begat us dead. This comes but too near the notion many have of the new birth in Christ; and indeed, if Christ be not God, and his Spirit be not God, or if the new birth be otherwise derived than from our union with Him, I know not why it should be more than this: another, forfeitable, terminable life, which we may sin away a second time; and shall, if that be all. But, what a low, miserable estimate of our new creation in him, who is a quickening spirit—a well-spring of life which having the issues of being in itself, can never fail, or be cut off! "God hath given unto us eternal life; and this life is in his Son," It is not said from him-for then albeit he were God, as still he must be from whom life could be received; nevertheless, we should be but living souls, and liable again to death: as streams cut off, dry up before the sunshine. It is not said with him; for then albeit he were a high and holy being, and could sustain his own humanity in life, the power that upheld him might not be imparted or impartible to us, and therefore might afford no security for our standing. Now, pause a moment, and compare either of these positions with the believer's great and glorious expectations, founded and established on the word of God. Hardly shall we be then persuaded to forego our faith in the co-existent natures of our Lord, comprising as it does our life in him, and his in God, by union of our humanity to his, and his to Deity. "As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself." To have life in himself is the attribute of Deity, and therefore can go no further; we cannot have life in ourselves

unless we could also be gods: but we have it in Him, and He is it in us-" A fountain of living water, spring

ing up into everlasting yet true as God is true.

life." Mysterious identity— "That they may be one, even

as we are one:" "I in them, and they in me, that they be made perfect in one."

CHAPTER IV.

over.

IN HIS JUSTIFYING RIGHTEOUSNESS.

"SACRIFICE and offering thou wouldest not; but a body hast thou prepared me, In burnt-offerings and saerifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo! I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God." Few words are used to tell how man was lost: a brief and easy process: one guilty wish, the frightful train was fired, and all was The covenant of works was ended, I was going to say, for ever: but it is more than I know. Perhaps not perhaps when the work of redemption is completed, and the body of Christ entire : and He shall give up the mediatorial kingdom to the Father, "Having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven :" resting a second time from all his works which he has created and made, it may be-I pretend not to know what has not been revealed— but it may be, that on an earth recovered from the curse, the first covenant will be renewed, and the first purpose of the Creator be made manifest in the felicity of a faithful and obedient manhood: standing, as angels do, where others fell; witnesses for God before the

universe, that to fall was no necessity of man's first condition. "Behold I create a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." To me it is as hard to conceive an unaccomplished purpose in the divine mind, as it is to believe God ever purposed evil. Meantime the cherubim were set: the flaming sword was turning every way, to guard the tree of life for ever from the fallen, and close the source of life for ever from the dead: there was no remedy but in Jehovah's purpose. "I looked and there was none to help and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me." Unbelief asks, why redeem at so much cost, a debt which it was at the pleasure of the creditor to remit; and why purchase a pardon that might have been granted freely. We have remarked elsewhere, how much more was wanted than a pardon-"That God might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth." Could devils be pardoned, they would be devils still, and sinners only pardoned, would be like them. Forgive the dead, forget the lost, let alone the miserable: yes, doubtless that would have been a very easy thing to Him, who from the very stones could raise up children, obedient children to himself. Job in the writhing anguish of his soul proposed this method of forgiveness. "Let me alone, for my days are vanity. What is man that thou shouldst magnify him, and that thou shouldst set thy heart upon him, and that thou shouldst visit him every morning, and try him every moment?"... "And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity, for now shall I sleep in the dust, and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be." The natural heart never conceived or asked for more,