ETERNAL GLORY: and if Jesus be not properly, essentially, and eternally God, He has not offered, He could not offer, such a sacrifice. The sacred writers are nervous and pointed on this subject, as we have already seen: nor can I see that any sinner, deeply convinced of his fallen guilty state, can rely on the merit of His sacrifice for salvation, unless he have a plenary conviction of this most glorious and momentous truth. As eternal glory must be of infinite value; if it be purchased by Christ, or be given as the consequence of His meritorious death, then that death must be of infinite merit; or else it could not procure what is of infinite value. So that, could we even suppose the possibility of the pardon of sin without such a merit, we could not possibly believe that eternal glory could be procured without it. It must be granted, if Christ be but a mere man, as some think; or the highest and first of all the creatures of God, as others suppose; let his actions and suffering be whatever they may, they are only the obedience and sufferings of an originated and limited being; and cannot possess infinite and eternal merit but the contrary has, I hope, been satisfactorily proved.

2. It is necessary to believe that His sufferings were not accidental, or the mere consequence of Jewish malice, and His own inflexible integrity. Jesus was not a martyr, but a sacrifice. Before Jews or their malice existed, His sacrificial death was designed, because it was absolutely necessary; therefore is He called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Here is no martyrdom, no fortuitous suffering; here is nothing less than a sacrificial offering.

3. It is necessary to believe, to be fully persuaded, that He died for our offences, and rose again for our justification; that this was the very end or object of His incarnation, passion, and death. That He died for every human soul, for all who are partakers of the same nature which He has assumed; that the merit and benefits of His death must necessarily extend to all mankind, because He has assumed that nature which is common to all :-nor could the merit of His death be limited to any particular part, nation, tribe or individuals, of the vast human family. It is not the nature of a particular nation, tribe, family, or individual, which He has assumed, but the nature of the whole human race: and "God has made of ONE BLOOD all the nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth," that all these might be redeemed with one blood; for He is the Kinsman of the whole. The merit of His death must, therefore, extend to every man, unless we can find individuals or families that have not sprung from that stock of which he became incarnated. His death must be infinitely meritorious, and extend in its benefits to all who are partakers of the same nature, because He

was GOD manifested in the FLESH: and to contract or limit that merit, that it should apply only to a few, or even to any multitudes short of the whole human race, is one of those things which is impossible to God Himself, because it involves a moral contradiction. He could no more limit the merit of that death, than He could limit His own eternity, or contract that love which induced Him to undertake the redemption of a lost world.

4. We must believe that the way in which God saves man by Christ, is the way of faith. No human works can here avail; for were they ever so pure and perfect, they could not possess infinite merit, because their subject is a limited creature. Nor can any kind of sufferings be more available. I have proved elsewhere, that as sufferings are the effects, either near or remote, of SIN; consequently, they cannot destroy their cause. They can be no other in all points of view than the miseries of a limited and imperfect creature; and, consequently, cannot have that merit requisite to atone for offences against the Majesty of heaven; or procure for their patient, much less for the whole world, an infinite and eternal weight of glory.

Faith alone, therefore, is left, as the means by which the purchased blessings are applied. Although God is just, yet he can be the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus; of him that believes on and trusts to the infinitely meritorious death of the Son of His love. For God never can act without a reason, and such a reason as can amply justify His acting. The death of Christ for man is a sufficient reason why God should forgive the man who reposes all his trust and confidence in him. And this very thing is a sufficient reason for God's act, and for man's faith.

I dwell the more particularly on the necessity of considering Christ's death as a meritorious sacrifice, and the necessity of believing in it as such; in order to distinguish the true orthodox or scriptural faith in Christ, from that of Arianism. This latter doctrine, of which most who speak and write seem deplorably ignorant, is built ostensibly on the incomparable merit of Jesus Christ. This is not the Arianism which is spoken of by many of the fathers; for they are continually confounding the doctrine imputed to Arius, with that held by multitudes who professed to be his followers; whose doctrine appears to be, in many respects, nearly the same with what is now called Socinianism. The Arianism which I refer to is that of the present day, which is founded in the following scale of intellectual entities and perfections; and which the doctrine of metaphysics has been called in to accredit and support. "The principal things," says a late author, "relating to incorporeal essences or spirits, taught us by Revelation, are the following:

1st, That God Himself is a Spirit; and infinitely the most perfect of all others; whose high dignity and singular majesty we call the Godhead, or Deity.

2d, That next to God there is another being, originally a pure spiritual essence, which in time assumed thereunto a corporeal substance or body, of a most excellent and superlative nature, who therefore is called the Son of God, or next to Him in dignity.

3d, We are informed also, that in the third degree of the scale of spiritual essences is one of a peculiar nature; having a near relation to the other two; and, from his office, has the name of Holy Ghost, as being the sanctifier of men.

4th, At an immense remove from these we find a fourth class of incorporeal substances, called angels by us, but by the heathens, dæmons, genii, &c. concerning which we read of various denominations, numbers, and subordinations: which latter is called the hierarchy of angels, and is usually reckoned threefold,' viz. The first hierarchy contains the three most honorary orders, called seraphims, cherubims, and thrones; the second hierarchy consists of three intermediate orders, called dominions, virtues, and powers; the third hierarchy contains the three lowest orders, called principalities, arch-angels, and angels."MARTIN'S Philology, article Metaphysics, p. 180.

This scheme is formed on the philosophical principle of the graduated scale of intelligences, and of entities in general; which maintains that there is no chasm or break from God, the Fountain of being, to the lowest inorganized particle of matter, or atom; and that all proceed from the indivisible particle of inert matter, through different forms of organized being, up to animal life; and through different degrees of animal life up to intellectual; and through various degrees of intellectual life up to GOD. Matter being more perfect as it approaches to, or arises from inertness, to organization; organization being more or less perfect as it approaches to, or recedes from vitality; vitality, being more or less perfect, as it approaches to, or recedes from intellectual existence; and intellectual existence, being more or less perfect, as it approaches to, or recedes from the ENS ENTIUM, or GOD. This scheme also supposes, that all orders of created beings are connected by certain links, which partake of the nature of the beings in the ascending and descending scale :--e. g. ANIMALS and VEGETABLES are linked together by the polype, or plant animal; FOWLS and REPTILES, by the bat; FISHES and BEASTS, by the hippopotamus; QUADRUPEDS and MAN, by the ouran outang; and MAN and ANGELS, by men of extraordinary powers, such as Plato among the ancients, and Sir Isaac Newton among the moderns.

This graduated scale of entities is highly illustrative of the manifold wisdom of God; and to it I have no objection, provided the holy and adorable TRINITY be left out of the question. From the lowest particle of matter, up to God, the scale may

be accurate enough: but when it attempts to graduate the Sacred Persons in the Holy Trinity, saying, as in the preceding extract, that the Son of God is next in dignity to God; that "the Holy Ghost is the third degree in spiritual essences, having a near relation to the other two;" we are not only to receive such assertions with caution, but to reject them in toto, as being utterly repugnant to Divine revelation, in which the preceding system says they are taught.

Revelation most certainly teaches us that there are Persons in the Holy Trinity, Matt. iii. 16, 17; but it no where teaches us that there is any inequality among those persons; for, "In this Trinity none is AFORE or AFTER other; none is GREATER OF LESS than another: for, although there be one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost, yet the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is ALL ONE; the glory EQUAL, the Majesty co-ETERNAL; for, the whole Three Persons are co-ETERNAL together, and co-EQUAL." Thus far the Athanasian creed is consistent with itself, and with the Sacred Oracles; and is point blank opposed to the Arian system, already produced; and to all refinements on that system of origination, begetting, proceeding, &c.: though, in other places, in contradiction to the above, it countenances those spurious doctrines.*

But I have intimated above that this doctrine is intended to oppose all sacrificial merit in the passion and death of Christ, while it allows Him a moral merit, in consequence of which God gives the covenant of salvation to the Gentiles; and pardons, sanctifies, and saves, all who believe the Christian revelation, and lead a holy life. This is specious, but radically unsolid. Its imposing aspect has deceived many, as it seems to magnify the Lord Jesus, while it strips Him of every kind of merit, but that which He has as a righteous and holy man.This is by no means the view which the Sacred Scriptures give us of the merit of Christ, in His passion and death: and appears to me both defective and dangerous.

This scheme has got its best support, and highest colouring, from Dr. J. Taylor, whom I have often quoted in another place, with deserved approbation and delight; but whom I must refer to here with widely opposite feelings. From his Intro

*This Creed, far from being a work of Athanasius, to whom it does not appear to have been attributed before the seventh century, is probably, not the work of any Greek Father. All the ancient copies ofit are in Latin; and the Greek copies are evidently translated from them, and are of no antiquity.The Benedictines have proved that it is not the work of Athanasius; and think it was written in France. They have entered it at the end of their edition, among the spuria. When, where, or by whom it was written, no maɛ knows.

duction to the Apostolic Writings, I collect the following extracts; which contain, at least, the fair outlines of his scheme. "God," says he, "grounded the extraordinary favours enjoyed by the Israelites, on Abraham's faith and obedience; and selected them out of respect to the piety and virtue of their ancestors."-Pag. 4.

"Jesus Christ, having assumed a human body, exhibited a pattern of the most perfect obedience, even unto death; in firm adherence to the truth He taught; and, in consequence of this, He is a pattern of reward, by being raised from the dead; and having a commission to raise all mankind: and to put all into the possession of eternal life who shall, in the last day, be found virtuous and holy.-Ib. p. 25.

"The BLOOD of Christ is the perfect OBEDIENCE and GOODNESS of Christ: nor is the blood of Christ to be considered only in relation to our Lord's death and sufferings; as if mere death or suffering were, in itself, of such a nature as to be pleasing or acceptable to God. But His blood implies a CHARACTER; and it is His blood, as He is a Lamb without spot and blemish, (1 Pet. i. 19.) that is, as He is perfectly holy, which is of so great value in the sight of God. His blood is the same as his offering himself without spot to God." Heb. x. 14.—Ib. p. 44.

"What Christ did was neither to incline God to be gracious, nor to disengage Him from any counter obligations, arising from law or justice, or what the sinner's case might deserve; but what Christ did and suffered was a proper and wise EXPEDIENT, a FIT GROUND and METHOD of granting mercy to the world.". Ib. p. 47.

"When I say, Christ's love and obedience is a just foundation of the Divine grace, I know not how to explain myself better than by the following instance :-there have been masters willing, now and then, to grant a relaxation from study, or even to remit deserved punishment, in case any one boy, in behalf of the whole school, or of the offender, would compose and present a distich, or copy of Latin verses: and one may say that the kind verse-maker purchased the favour in both cases; or that his learning, ingenuity, industry, goodness, and compliance, with the governor's will and pleasure, was a just ground or foundation of the pardon and refreshment; or a proper reason of granting them."-1b. p. 49, note.

"Agreeably to this scheme, Abraham is proposed as a bright example of obedience and reward; and his obedience is given as the reason of conferring blessings upon his posterity; and particularly of having the Messiah, the Redeemer, and greatest blessings of mankind, descend from him.-Ib. p. 50.