pel." There is a vast comprehension in this sentence, and, at the same time, the grand truths are fully expressed. It is a sentence in which every word tells; and the glorious events declared to have been accomplished, are greater in magnitude than the creation or destruction of a thousand worlds. The Infinite nature and dignity of His person, to whom alone is ascribed such stupendous acts the acts themselves, being beyond the grasp of all created power, and incapable of achievement by any arm less than God. The eventful consequences involved in this mystery, in abolishing death, is not simply killing death, if the term be admissible, but annihilating death, and bringing life and immortality to light through the Gospel; by which the whole Church of God are recovered from all the consequences of sin, to the Everlasting enjoyment of salvation: these are the trophies of our most glorious Saviour, the result of His own personal and incommunicable work, when, as the prophet described, "his own arm brought salvation unto him, and his fury upheld him."* In following up the subject, under the leading particulars concerned in it, I propose, as the Lord shall be pleased to enable me, and in the consciousness of its first and highest importance, to beg the attention of the spiritual reader to the contemplation of His Almighty Person and character, by whom the destruction of death and the restoration of life and immortality are accomplished; and also the mighty deeds themselves, and of the blessed and happy consequences resulting to the Church of God from them—namely, the free gift and *Is. lxiii. 5. Sovereign grace of God through the Gospel. And if the Lord who gives the subject, will accompany our contemplations of it with His Divine teaching and unction, the savour of His name and His salvation, will not only open to His redeemed and regenerated people the fulness grace, but daily become a source of unspeakable comfort through the whole of our time state upon earth, until faith is lost in sight, and hope consummated in glory. of And let me remark, that the spiritual understanding must first be enlightened of the Lord, or there will be no saving taste or relish in the heart for him. For though our Lord hath wrought and accomplished all that is here said of him, and is Himself divinely suited alike for all his people, including the most desperate cases, and the most ignorant cases of sinners as sinners; yet, without Divine instruction, both the knowledge of His person and the belief of His finished salvation are not attainable by all human learning. That single scripture, which I before mentioned and there are many others to the same purport-throws to the ground all the presumptuous reasoning of man, and all that philosophy, falsely so called, can invent. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned;"* such is the physical impossibility of the thing itself. Before I enter upon those distinct branches of the subject which I have proposed, and others of the same interesting nature, I would gently take the reader by * 1 Cor. ii. 14. the hand, and request a pause at the threshold, in order to impress the mind with a few observations for the better apprehension of it, by considering human nature as it is depicted in the word of God. CHAPTER III. Man further considered, in a prominent view, respecting his fixed Station of Human Depravity. Let us consider man as the creature of God, a compound of soul and body-dust modified, enlivened by the breath of the Almighty. He was made a little lower than the angels, but by his apostacy from God he became impotent and helpless. He is now a fallen creature, has broken his allegiance to God, and joined a confederacy against him. He is compared in the Scriptures to everything hurtful; "and that the thoughts of his heart are evil, and that continually; and that he drinketh in iniquity like water." This is not the case of one man, but every man and all men; not one, or two, or ten million, but every son and daughter of Adam, who are all alike by nature involved in the same universal corruption; and while continuing in the unregenerate state of an unrenewed mind, must necessarily follow the bias of their depraved nature, which the sacred word of God declares to be "enmity against God:" so that it is not this man or that nation, a single person or a community, but man himself; his whole nature; the inherent delinquency of sin in all his members; himself rotten at the core, and as impossible to create love towards God in his unregenerate heart, as to create a world. The Lord's statement cannot but be correct when he saith, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil."* As a sinner, he is under condemnation, and can do nothing acceptable to God. In this deplorable state he will talk of his power and ability to turn and convert himself, though impotent and helpless, and not possessed of one excellency to recommend him to the Divine favour, being "dead in trespasses and sin," destitute of spiritual life and grace. In this pitiable state are all mankind; and if God takes knowledge of any in a way of mercy, it cannot proceed from any worthiness in themselves to recommend them to the Divine favour; for whatever regard God shows unto us, is of His own good-will and pleasure: for he says, "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean. A new heart also will I give you." This is all free mercy: for God expressly asserts, "I am sought of them that asked not after me; I am found of them that sought me not;" insomuch that man never seeks after God, until God seeks after him in a way of mercy. Now, the ruling principle of the heart, being in opposition to God, (in whose judgment no word or action can be directed to His honour,) and not seeking the glory of the Great Supreme, man necessarily and exclusively aims at self in all he undertakes to do. Our Lord has taught us, that as is the tree, such are its fruits. If we are enemies in our mind against God, our works must of course be wicked * Jer. xiii. 23. ↑ Ezek. xxxvi. 25. Is. lxv. 1. works; for none can "bring a clean thing out of an unclean." Let our works be what they may in themselves and in the esteem of men, in the estimate of God, whose judgment is always according to truth, they are truly wicked, because the streams can never rise higher than the fountain. There is not a perfection in the Divine nature, nor a testimony of the Divine will, either in His word or in His providence, to which the unrenewed mind is not averse, especially the Sovereignty of grace in the salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ; because this leaves a fallen creature a mere dependent on the good pleasure of God, as entirely lost and ruined in himself. This branch of Divine truth has in all ages excited the warmest rancour of the human heart, and has been opposed in every possible form; and never can be acceptable to the unrenewed mind: and yet there is no view of the character of God in which His true glory shines with more magnificent brightness. For if it be acknowledged that He is the great first cause and last of all things, He must possess an independent right of doing as He pleases; and if He be not, then He ceases to be God. There is no alternative. When the Inspired writings declare that the "heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,"* and that "death hath passed on all men, for that all have sinned;"† this, with many other similar declarations, reconcile us to the present event of man's dissolution, and sets aside the fond notion of the innocence and moral purity of human nature; insomuch "that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."‡ The immutability of human depravity is manifested by * Jer. xvii. 9. ↑ Rom. v. 12. Rom. iii. 23. |