Ess. IX.]

RECAPITULATION.

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of the just and of the unjust, when even our mortal part will be clothed with immortality and that the resurrection of the righteous, more especially, will be attended with circumstances unspeakably joyful and glorious, and will constitute the victory of the Messiah over the last enemy-death.

FOURTHLY, that man is a moral agent, capable either of righteousness or of sin; the standard of the former being the will or law of a perfectly holy God, and the latter being the infraction of that will or law; that we are made free to choose either good or evil, either life or death; that we are in every particular of our life and conversation responsible to God, from whom alone we derive all things which we possess, and to whom we must individually, in a future world, render the account of our stewardship; and that, when this account has been given, we shall be judged by the Son of God, and punished or rewarded individually, after a rule of perfect justice and equity, according to our works.

FIFTHLY, that the future rewards and punishments of men are declared by the apostles, and by our Lord himself, to be everlasting; and that, for many plain, critical reasons, the term everlasting, as it is applied to future punishment, cannot be fairly construed otherwise than in its highest sense. That this conclusion is confirmed by a very plain consideration; namely, that the present life alone is the period of our probation; the world to come being ever represented in Scripture (conformably with the dictates of natural religion) to be one of fixed and permanent retribution.

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PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS.

[Ess. IX. SIXTHLY, that Adam and Eve fell from their original righteousness and became sinners; that, in consequence of this mournful change, the whole race of their descendants inherit a sinful nature; that the heart or inward disposition of the natural man is infected with sin, and ever prone to evil; that unregenerate men are in a condition of darkness, alienated from the life of God by the ignorance which is in them, and incapable of understanding Divine truth by their own wisdom; that they are under the dominion of Satan; that they are dead in trespasses and sins, and universally sinners, as is amply proved by the historical, as well as the didactic parts of Scripture; and finally, that, being sinners, they are all guilty before God, and justly liable to the CURSE OF THE LAW.

What then are the practical conclusions to which these premises are calculated to conduct the awakening sinner? He must surely be convinced, that if he continues under the influence of his fallen nature, misery and destruction are his certain allotment. He beholds his deep moral degradation: he confesses that his enemy has triumphed over him: he knows that he is utterly unable, by any strength or wisdom of his own, to escape from the dominion of Satan, and from the bitter pains of eternal death. Stricken with the sight of his iniquities, he trembles under a sense of the Divine displeasure, and in the awful expectation of judgment to come; and he is sensible that he can entertain no hope of his soul's salvation. except in the spontaneous, unrestricted, unmerited mercy of God. Yet, while an indistinct view

Ess. IX.]

CONCLUSION.

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of that mercy may cast some gleams of consolation over his path of darkness, he perceives not how it can be reconciled with the Divine justice: he remembers the corruption and defilement of his own heart, and the perfect holiness of his Creator; and he still shrinks from the all-searching eye, from the pure and penetrating presence, of the Judge of all flesh. While such is his mental condition, he is prepared to pour forth his sorrows in the language of Job: "If I wash myself in snow-water, and make myself never so clean; yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. [God] is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment; neither is there any DAY'S-MAN betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both," Job ix. 30—33. He prays for a clean heart: he hungers and thirsts after righteousness; but he is inwardly persuaded, nevertheless, that he stands in need of some powerful and perfect Mediator, who can bear the weight of his iniquity, and perform for him the work of reconciliation. In the bitterness of his soul he exclaims, "A Saviour, or I die-a Redeemer, or I perish for ever!"

With how much eagerness and delight will he then receive the well authenticated tidings, that such a Mediator has been appointed-that such a Saviour and Redeemer has been freely bestowed-that now "mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other"-that God has given "HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON," that "whosoever be lieveth" in Christ "should not perish, but have everlasting life!"

ESSAY X.

ON THE SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT OF JESUS CHRIST.

HAVING Considered the lamentable condition of man, in his fallen and unregenerate nature, and having briefly adverted to the fact which forms the centre and spring of the whole dispensation of the gospel-that God sent his Son into the world to save sinners-it is natural for us to press forward, with no slight degree of eagerness, to the examination of those passages of Scripture which unfold to our view the person and nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. Diversified and numerous as those passages are, and relating to a variety of different points, they will, nevertheless, be found very remarkably to harmonize together to elucidate and confirm one another; and it will now be my endeavour to arrange a selection of them, in such a manner as will, it may be hoped, produce on the mind of the reader a clear and useful impression of the whole subject.

The clue which I propose to follow, in making this attempt, is the history of the Son of God, as it is revealed to us in the Bible; for I apprehend that the order of his history is the natural order of the subject before us; and the more closely we follow the natural order of any subject we may be investigating, the more satisfactorily and explicitly will that subject be

Ess. X.]

CHRIST IN HIS PRE-EXISTENCE.

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opened to our understanding. Now, the revealed history of the Son of God admits of being divided into three principal parts-his pre-existence, his abode upon earth, and his reign in glory; and while I hope not to forget the circumstances and results of our Lord's humanity, it will be my principal object to adduce, in connexion with each of these successive divisions, the testimonies borne by the sacred writers to the great doctrine of his Deity.

PART I.

ON CHRIST IN HIS PRE-EXISTENCE.

WHEN we open the New Testament, and peruse the various statements contained in the four Gospels respecting the qualities and powers, the discourses and actions, of the Founder of our religion, we cannot fail to perceive that he was an extraordinary and wonderful Being; and it is with irresistible force that the inquiry presents itself to our minds, Who was he, and what was his nature? The narrations of the four evangelists afford abundant evidence that he was born, lived, and died—that he was endowed with those physical and intellectual properties which we ourselves possess-that his body was a human body, and his mind a human mind; and therefore we cannot with any reason refuse to allow that he was really and absolutely mun. But did he possess any other nature besides the nature of man? Were his conception and birth