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a personal title, by which God the Father is distinguished from the other persons of the Blessed Trinity; who are also distinguished from each other, and from the Father by peculiar personal titles and attributes. But they all have those titles and attributes, which are truly divine. III. Objection. Christ acknowledges another as God, and his God. "My God, why hast thou forsaken me. I ascend to my God, and your God. My Father is greater than I," &c.

Answer. We grant that there is another person, distinct from Christ, who is God. The Father is a distinct person, but not another God. The distinct persons in the Godhead are one God, having the same divine nature or essence. It is only begging the question, taking for granted the point to be prov. ed, to conclude that a plurality of persons in the Godhead, is inconsistent with the unity of God.

Christ, as Man and Mediator, is by voluntary condescension subject and inferior to the Father, acknowledged him to be his God, did him homage, prayed to him, was obedient and submissive in all things; yea he was the creature of God in respect of his manhood and office, but not in respect of his divine nature. The Father made him Christ, but did not create him God. This is to be borne in mind, in order to our rightly understanding many pas. sages in the Scriptures, and reconciling seeming contradictions. So when Christ distinguishes himself from God (he shall know of the doctrine whether it is of God, or whether I speak of my. self) this has been urged as a

strong argument against his Deity.

But if we consider that he appeared in the human nature as the minister of God the Father, speaking and acting according to his commandment, we may see the propriety of his distin guishing himself in this capacity, from him by whose commission he acted. And his meaning in this expression is "He shall know whether the doctrine, which I teach, be conformable to instructions received from God the Father, or whether I speak of myself, as in a private capacity, unauthorized and uninstructed by God.

Upon the whole we grant Christ Jesus is, in respect of his manhood and office, the servant of God the Father, and does nothing of himself. The Father is greater than he. But the fulness of the Godhead dwells in him, as the eternal Son of God. He has those divine perfections by which he made and governs the world, but he exercises them in all things according to the commandment of the Father. We should not take advantage from his wonderful condescension for our sakes, to degrade the Son of God from his divine dignity, to the rank of a mere creature. He is not less worthy to be owned, honored, and worshipped by us as our Lord, and our God, for having stooped so low, and emptied himself for our sakes.

A Christian of the Old School. (To be continued.)

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the influence of the Holy Ghost in the renovation of the heart. It has also an intimate relation to all the leading principles contained in the Holy Scriptures. Were it not true that man had fallen from the primitive rectitude of his nature, this renewing operation would be unnecessary. Were it not true that nothing short of divine influence could produce holiness in the heart, it would be needless that the Spirit should effect it. And if sin were not infinitely evil and hateful in its nature, polluting all the powers of the soul, debasing the creature and dishonoring God; Immanuel would not have de. scended from heaven to earth, and taken human nature into union with his divine; that the moral law might be magnified, and this regenerating work completed in a way honorary to all the divine perfections.

A very fruitful source of op. position to this work of the Spirit is the pride of man. Exalted in self-conceit, and sheltered behind the blinding clouds of carnal reason, sinners set their mouths against the heavens, and reply against God. All their in. vention is exerted to prove them. selves independent of him, and that they have in their own pow. er the means of obtaining real enjoyment. But this disposition demonstrates the depravity which they deny, and, unless repentance prevent, out of their own mouths will they be finally con. demned.

That regeneration is absolute. ly necessary to present peace of conscience and future glory, is very plainly revealed. Our di vine Savior not only taught this truth to Nicodemus, but he also

clearly preached it to his inveterate enemies, who went about to kill him. When they were of. fended at his faithful instructions, he intimated that the ground of their hatred of him and his doctrine, consisted in an unregenerate heart. "Murmur not," said he, "among your. selves. No man can come unto me, except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him." And again, "If God were your Father, ye would love me; for I proceeded forth and came from God." And whilst he taught them their depravity, and the necessity of divine influence, he also shewed them that this was no new doctrine, but a principle recognized in their Scriptures, and published by their own ancestors. is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me."

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So entirely depraved is man, that the Scriptures declare the carnal mind to be enmity against God. It is also said of sinners, that they do not like to retain God in their knowledge. If, therefore, this enmity reigns in the heart, the sinner is not desir ous of its removal, and facts evince that no created power can subdue it. Neither will the af. flictions of life, nor its blessings, effect any moral change for the better without divine influence. Thus spake the Lord to ancient Israel, and his reproof to them is an illustration of this truth"Why should ye be stricken any more? Ye will revolt more and more." The reason is assigned in what follows-"The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot,

even unto the head, there is no soundness in it." So powerful is this reigning enmity, that the sinner, if left to follow the choice of his heart while unregenerate, would for ever endeavor to hide himself from God, instead of seeking his favor. How glorious, then, is God, in the grace which he manifests to creatures so guilty.

The necessity of this divine teaching is readily acknowledged by all those who have any right views of God and of themselves; but the delusive calm of impenitent sinners is founded in a wilful ignorance of God, and of their obligation to love and obey him. Sinful pursuits never produce real satisfaction; but they have a tendency to blind the un. derstanding, to harden the heart, and to silence the remonstrances of conscience. But when these external means of sinful gratification shall cease, and conscience shall be left faithfully to discharge its office in the world of wo; then all deceptive appearances will vanish, and unceasing self-accusation will complete the misery of the impenitent.

That it is solely the work of the Holy Ghost to communicate to the heart a spiritual taste, is proved from the fact, that in all those plans of happiness, which have been devised by wicked men, no soul-satisfying good is presented as the mark at which they aim. Their systems do not contemplate the production of holiness in the heart, but merely respect the external conduct, as it relates to this world.

The vain philosopher may boast of his abstruse speculations; the mere naturalist may amuse his mind with the wonders of

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creation, which constantly elude his research; the moralist may extol his visionary theories re. specting human merit; but it is the gospel alone which can raise a guilty creature from moral de gradation, and fix his affections on heavenly objects; it is the gospel only that reveals a par. don, and brings to view an almighty influence, which can de. stroy the enmity of the carnal heart, and make the rebel an obedient subject.

Wealth, honor, and worldly pleasures, though generally pursued as the supreme good, have never failed to disappoint their pursuers; and thousands have left their testimony, that these things have, through their abuse of them, given additional keen. ness to the reproaches of conscience, at the hour of death. But the religion of Jesus presents a good suited to the capacious powers of the immortal soul. It lays the axe to the root of depravity, and discovers to man, that the native bias of his heart is wrong, because it disposes him to seek that in the creature, which is alone to be enjoyed in the Creator. This divine religion, while it points out the path to glory and immortality, does not leave its friends in darkness, as to the means of attaining it, nor abandon them to merely human efforts. It exhibits Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life, enabling them to rest in the immutability of the oath and promise of God, and in a dependence on the communications of grace by his Spirit.

These thoughts furnish an incentive to watchfulness and pray

er.

"Watch and pray," said our Lord, "that ye enter not

into temptation." It is no less true, that those who have been renewed by the Holy Spirit are constantly dependent on his gracious operation, than it is that the unregenerate, while destitute of this influence, will remain in the native blindness of an unbelieving heart. "Without me," said Jesus to his disciples, "ye can do nothing." The experience of believers has taught them this fact in numberless instances; and it has had the happy tenden. cy of humbling their hearts, and of convincing them of their own insufficiency. It has also led them to admire the exceeding riches of God's grace in his Son, that notwithstanding their un worthiness and guilt, the Holy Spirit repeatedly visits their souls, enlightens their minds, and raises their affections to heavenly things. The necessity of this renewing operation on the unregenerate also furnishes a motive to believers earnestly to look unto Him, with whom is the residue of the Spirit, that he would pour out his influence in copious showers, and cause the lofty looks of man to be humbled, and the haughti. ness of men to be bowed down, that the Lord alone may be exalted. NEREUS.

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ject, many complain that they do not understand it, that the subject is not handled with sufficient plainness to satisfy their anxious feelings and inquiries. They wish to know, distinctly, what was requisite, after his fall, for man's justification before God; whether Christ has, and how he has answered the demands of the divine law on man, and finally admitting that Christ as Mediator, has attained to the righteousness of the law, how does that righteousness apply to us unto justification of life. These and similar inquiries have occasioned the following essay.

Justification is a a juridical term, expressive of a person's innocence and freedom from guilt, according to some appointed and decisive rule of judging. It im. plies or supposes a law of obe dience, and, that a man's actions are, by proper authority, brought up to, and compared with that law, and found perfectly conformable to it. If his actions run exactly parallel to the demands of the law, he is justified; the law finds no fault. And a declaration on judgment, is his legal justification.

Such is the plain and simple idea of justification, under all laws human and divine. Moral law, that law which subsists be tween God and his intelligent creatures, demands perfect love and obedience: and as it arises

out of the nature and relation of

things, it is necessarily abiding and unalterable, so long, as we stand in the relation to God, of his rational creatures. No moral change in us, can abate or change the demands of this law. Our indisposedness to love and obey, is no excuse for not loving and

obeying. In order, therefore, to justification by the moral law, our whole heart and life, every thought, word, and action, throughout the term of our existence, must perfectly conform to the law, in its whole extent and spirituality. The least possible deficiency is sin; and the judge must declare such deficiency, and so pronounce a legal condemna. tion. Such was the case with man and angels, respecting justification by the divine law, while in their state of innocence.

We are now to consider man in his fallen state. But it will not be necessary to my present purpose to go into a particular discussion of the nature of the first covenant, the fall of man, and derivative guilt. Let it suffice to say, that man being a moral agent, God was pleased to put him upon a trial of his obe. dience, in order, to establish him in moral rectitude or defection, according to his own free act and choice. The penalty of disobedience was death; death tempo. ral and eternal to him and his

posterity. The first man, as representative of our nature, was disobedient and the threat. ened penalty took effect. He had forfeited life and every good, and could make no reparation to the law; nor had he any remain. ing disposition to obey it in fu. ture. Having lost God's image, he could not even will to do good. Nor, indeed, had he recovered to a right disposition, could he have paid the forfeiture already incurred, because the highest possible love and obedience are merely present duty, and no reparation for past offence. Repentance, however sincere, is no reparation to, nor

does it fulfil any demand of that law, which forbids all occasion of repentance.

Such is the state of man by the fall. He is lost and utterly helpless in himself. Hence arises the necessity of a divine Savior, I say DIVINE SAVIOR; because no created being, however exalted and however innocent, could do more than his own duty. He could do no more than love and serve God with all his heart, and soul, and mind, and strength, which, is the present demand of law, on every intelligent creature; consequently, he could contribute nothing to the restoration of man to a state of justification before God.

This brings us to inquire how we are justified through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

It will be necessary here, that we keep in mind the requisites of justification in our fallen state: viz. perfect conformity to the law in heart and life, on one hand; and on the other, a fair discharge from its demands, as a covenant of life, by paying the forfeiture incurred by the first Adam. Now, if Christ has an. swered these two points, as the second Adam, then he is justified by law in the sight of God; I say by law, because justification, whether under the law or gospel, is the same in God's sight. The law is unalterable in its demands, and will have complete satisfaction from us, both in active and passive obedience, either in our persons or surety.

For the sake of brevity, I shall take it for granted, that Christ is our surety, that he acted in our stead, and, as God-man, was able and had a right to per

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