the law. Hence, under the law, the saint before the death of Christ sought to keep the law, in order to stave off the judgment under which he lay; and therefore the law was a great boon to him as living on the earth, for if he had kept it, it would have saved him for the time from the penalty resting on all men. Hence, the sense of a transgression was only felt or known when it was committed; for it was only after committal that the law declared the act as one of transgression; so that, though the law condemned evil, it did not prevent it, but condemned it when it noticed it, only to exact a penalty for be the breach of it.

Now, with the knowledge of a full sacrifice in Christ, there is, in the present day, an effort to appease the conscience for a transgression committed after believing, in the thought, that if the transgressions are put away, one is saved from the judgment after death; thus where the gospel of salvation is apprehended, the effort of the conscience on practical failure is to assure the heart of final salvation, while approving of its exercise, as to present forgiveness. But this gives no real rest or power. If I, as a responsible being, sin, I need an atoning sacrifice to free me from my sin; but if I return to that man which was once responsible, but now is dead because judged in the cross of Christ, and sin thereby, I find that the way for me into the presence of God is by the priest and not by a sacrifice. The Priest before God, in all the efficacy of the sacrifice, assures me of my acceptance before God. I confess my sins; repudiate them, as utterly abhorrent in me, because He suffered for me. I judge myself, and find my link before God, in the advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the source of, and link to, all blessing for me; and in Him only do I find my place of acceptance with God; and my place, as His child before Him. I do not seek to have a set-off for my transgressions in the repetition of the sacrifice. That set-off I have had; but it was by One who not only bore my sins in judgment, but in whom was crucified the old man, in and by which the sins were committed, so that I do not seek to relieve the old nature of a burden lying on it, but I now repudiate it, in all its working, as that

which is already judged, which I ought not to touch, and which it is horrible to be connected with, because in the cross I see the gulf between my flesh and God. In the one case, I seek to obtain a righteous exemption for a fault committed, so that the failing thing might still remain; in the other, I acknowledge my sins, as that which I denounce, and as that in which I ought not to be. I have no standing to maintain in that which commits the sins; and hence I confess them not because the law, or any one else, condemns me; I condemn myself; 1 do not wait for exposure; I expose myself, because I now stand against myself, instead of for myself; and I am freed in my conscience through God's grace, according to the extent of my confession. If I have a standing to sustain, I wait until I am exposed, or found out; but now having none, I discover myself unto God, because I repudiate the flesh, and its works. I am the first to throw a stone at myself: my return to the flesh is darkness; and inconsistent with the place of light, in which I am set. I own my sin, and repudiate my apostacy, and my heart finds its assurance, and solace in doing this, because Jesus Christ holds all my interests in Himself, and is the Righteous One, and has been the propitiation for my sins, and for the whole world. Is there not then necessarily great practical effect, from seeing that I have not to recognise the standing of that which cannot please God; that I have no standing in the flesh, and that when I touch or tamper with it I am the first to expose and denounce myself as having returned to that which I have renounced? Surely there must be, for thus practically I begin to see how all things are of God; and how, in order that all things should be of Him, everything of man, as to his first estate and condition, must have passed away. I then see, too, the force and necessity of the expression : "Though we have known Christ after the flesh, henceforth know we him no more." Nothing of the once order of the flesh remains. The flesh is an ended existence before Him, and the man now is of entirely another order: not an order in any way predicable, or to be determined or known by that which is judicially

ended, but by the last Adam, the Lord from heaven. It is not that the first man has reached up to God, but the Son of God, who has taken flesh and blood and has borne the judgment in the first Adam, forms the new creature now, entirely in Himself and thus in the place and life in which He is Himself. It is not man exalted into heaven exactly; nor is it the Son of God come down to man. It is a new man, the Son made flesh, and ending in His death the man under judgment; but then rising out of the judgment, He is the beginning of a new race and order, which is no wise comprehensible to, or like, the first Adam as to nature, though like in bodily appearance, and as God made man in His own likeness and image. One word more in conclusion. If man, in his first standing is still the existing one before God, then God must require of him; and if he fails on another trial, then there must be another sacrifice. The man must have been fully tried, and his total inability and depravity, under all trial proved and exposed. The truth is, that both have been done; there has been made full trial, and full exposure of his depravity; and the substitute has come, and has ended in Himself through judgment, the standing of the first; old things have passed away, and there is no dealing with that man now from God, but with regard to the offer of mercy, which he now presents to him through Christ, risen out from among the dead. If old things have passed away, there ought to be no return to them; though the will of the flesh would ever seduce one into them; and this in every specious way. The humanising of Christ, and the introduction of natural feelings into Christianity, allowing one's own feelings to influence one more than Christ's mind, are among the many devisings of the flesh to connect the soul with the old things passed away. If old things have not passed away, God cannot condemn man on the ground of refusing the light; He can condemn him for having been ever rebellious and self-willed; but if old things have passed away, God, on this ground, condemns man for not accepting the mercy which He freely and fully offers. Nay, "he that believeth not is condemned already;"

because he refuses to accept God's grace offered to him on clear ground-ground where there is nothing, no barrier, between him and God; nothing to bar his acceptance of it; no, nothing! The offer of mercy is on the very terms that every barrier, every old thing has passed away; and the condemnation necessarily is, not on account of disobedience, as in the day of the "old things;" but because man does not believe on the name of the only begotten Son of God. By that Son, God has cleared away all; and hence there is condemnation if I do not believe in Him who has effected this wondrous work. Man adheres to the old things as if they were not put away, and refuses the Son of God, who now before God occupies the place of the old things, and hence the wrath of God abides on him. If old things have not passed away, we cannot say "Behold all things are become new."

2 COR. V. 12-18.

"We commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart. For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh : yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation."

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No. XXVII.

MATTHEW XVI.

WHATEVER may help to make the mind clear on passages used to support the errors of Popery and Puseyism, is of use at this moment, at least to supply an answer to those whose minds are less exercised on such subjects, even though their own faith may be settled by positive truth. God's goodness may preserve a soul from Popish error; but, as to doctrine, where redemption is not clearly known, I have always felt that there was nothing to secure the soul from its inroads. Its positive superstitions and errors may suffice, under mercy, to lead the mind to reject it, and for this we may thank God; but, as to peace and acceptance, a vast portion of the evangelical world is so little removed from the Popish faith that one can never be surprised (in the present confusion, and prevalence of superstition) if people fall into the snares its agents lay for souls. Even the doctrine of the Reformation,of" assurance of salvation," held then by all, and condemned by the Council of Trent as the vain confidence of the heretics, is condemned by a vast body of Protestants now-a-days as presumptuous, and is possessed by few in simplicity of well-grounded faith, though the number of these be, thank God, increasing. Where redemption is clearly known, where what Christ positively promised is possessed, "In that shall know that I am in the Father and ye in me and I in you," the whole system of Popery and Ritualism falls to the ground, has no possible place in the mind. Popery and Ritualism profess to patch up continually the conscience for those who are still far from God; leaving them to answer for themselves in the day of judgment: the true believer is with a perfect conscience in the presence of God. He is accepted in the beloved and has boldness to enter into the holiest now, and VOL. I.-New Series.

day ye

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