ment, and would reduce the entire universe to anarchy. This is one of its essential properties; its very essence is destructive of all that is good and beautiful, and truly desirable. Moreover, in God's sight sin is exceedingly loathsome. His very nature turns from it with instinctive loathing and abhorrence. The mediator between God and the sinner must sympathise with God in these feelings, or else he would not himself be holy. Hence he could not be a mediator.

He must also feel with God, or as God feels, in regard to all the interests of God's moral universe. Man, and man's interests, are not the only things to be thought of. Man is but a feeble member of God's moral government. The sacred Scriptures disclose to us the existence of angels, principalities, powers, thrones, dominions, all doubtless referring to different ranks of celestial hosts. These are, in Scripture phraseology, "innumerable, "

"ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands." The interests, the welfare of these, must be regarded as well as that of man; and nothing must be done for man which would in any way interfere with the perfect happiness of any of these sinless ones. And then there are the hosts of fallen ones, banished from happiness, yet under the divine rule. Nothing must be done for one set of sinners which would involve in any sense any injustice to the others. An enlightened regard must be had, therefore, to the interests and welfare of all these various subjects of the divine government. And to this must be added, an equal, if not superior regard for all the rights, prerogatives, and authority of God over the whole.

If the daysman did not possess all this knowledge and sympathy with God, the interests of the whole universe might be put in jeopardy by his counsels. But where shall we look for such an one? Will an angel do? The powers of the highest archangel are inadequate to a full conception of the interests involved. Mighty as his

intellectual powers may be, they cannot grasp all the interests of all concerned. Great as an angel's hatred of sin may be, Omniscience only can see all its destructiveness, and all its ruinous effects and consequences; and therefore only Omniscience can justly abhor it. No created intelligence is capable of being God's adviser in this matter, or of being admitted to His counsels. No created being, therefore, possesses the qualifications necessary for this mediatorship. It involves powers and capacities which belong only to the Infinite One. None but He himself can meet all the requirements of the case on God's side. But there is another aspect of the subject.

The Mediator must fully sympathize with man.- -He must feel as man feels. In order to do this, he must know man. He must know man's wants. This is only partially known to man himself. He feels a conscious need of something to make him happy. What that something is, he has a very imperfect conception. He is like a man groping about in the dark. He knows not exactly for what he is seeking; nor where to find it, if he knew what it was He feels that he is out of his place somehow. But what his true place is, and how to get into it, are both unknown to him. His mediator must know these things for him, to be an effective counsellor and friend. He must also know man's woes. Unless he can fully enter into these, he cannot properly appreciate the interests involved and at stake. It is to rescue man from these woes, and others which sin has entailed, that a mediator is required. Moreover, he must know man's desires. Desire prompts to action. are but the forms make itself known. of character are laid deep in the heart. He who would be a successful mediator, must therefore know the heart of man. He must sound its lowest depths, penetrate its inmost recesses, be intimate with all its windings, measure its aspirations, and bound its utmost desires.

Words and deeds thought takes to The secret springs

He must also know man's weaknesses. If he knows not his weaknesses, he is utterly unable to feel with him in a very essential part of man's condition. For his condition is that of absolute weakness in regard to everything good, until divine strength is infused into his soul.

It is evident that these various qualifications can only be found in one possessing man's nature. He must himself be a man who truly knows man's wants, woes, desires, and weakness. We cannot comprehend the nature, wants, desires, of angels; for a similar reason, they cannot comprehend man's. None but the spirit of a man knoweth the things of a man. Any daysman, therefore, who would efficiently represent man, must himself be a man. As we have already seen, he must also be God; for none less than God could so sympathize with God and the divine interests, as to be a safe counsellor of the Most High. The two requisites, when brought together, require that the mediator should be at the same time both God and man, Creator and created; possessing in one person the natures of both!

Reason, philosophy, experience, all combine to pronounce this necessity an impossibility. The thing seems selfcontradictory. And those who take reason only as their guide, or who subject even revelation to the touchstone of human reason, contemptuously reject all assertions that the two things can by any possibility be brought together. Yet Infinite love and Infinite wisdom have sounded the lowest depths of this problem; and Infinite compassion has disclosed the answer. And, oh, mystery of mysteries! we have all the requisites united in the Incarnate Messiah, God with us!

The Lord Jesus Christ is very God. "He thought it not robbery to be equal with God." "Before Abraham was, I AM." "I and my Father are "No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared

one."

Him."

"I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world, and go unto the Father." All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore, said I, 'He shall take of mine and show unto you." If these Scriptures teach anything authoritatively, they teach that the Lord Jesus Christ is God. He, therefore, is competent to be God's adviser and counsellor. He really, and truly, and fully sympathizes with God. He feels as God feels in regard to holiness. He feels as God feels in regard to sin. He sees and feels its heinousness, its destructiveness, its loathsomeness. He feels as God feels in regard to all the interests of the moral universe. Saint and angel lovingly acknowledge Him as God, while devils tremble at His power. The interests of the divine government are safe in His hand.

66

66

66

It

At the same time, He is very man. "God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law." Inasmuch as the children were made partakers of flesh and blood, He also took part of the same." He took not on Him the nature of angels, but He took upon Him the seed of Abraham." behoved Him to be made in all respects like unto His brethren.". We have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." To those who receive God's word as authority, no more need be quoted. Here we have the human nature as clearly declared as the preceding passages declared the Divine. It was predicted that both would be united in the Messiah. "To us a child is born, a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulders, and He shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of

Peace."

Since, then, the Lord Jesus Christ is truly man, He can fully sympathize with man. He knows man's wants, He knows man's woes, He knows man's desires, He knows inan's heart. What

ever belongs to man as such, belongs to Him. Yet He was without sin.

He unites the two natures, divine and human, in one person. He thus possesses in one person all the necessary qualifications to be a daysman between the offended God and offending man. He is, so to speak, the connecting link between God and man. He is the one Mediator of whom the Apostle speaks: "There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." Oh, how wonderful “is the mystery of godliness; God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory."

SANCTIFICATION.

"Through sanctification of the Spirit."2 THESS. ii. 13.

THE great system of divine truth and mercy revealed in the Gospel, is admirably adapted to the condition of our fallen race.

All its provisions clearly indicate that it must have proceeded from the fountain of wisdom and love. The blessings that it presents comprise all that we need, and yet nothing beyond what is necessary to the happiness of polluted but immortal beings. It finds us guilty and exposed to condemnation, and it sets before us a Redeemer dying for our sins, and reconciling us to God by His blood. It comes to us as depraved and alienated from God, and it provides for us a sanctifying Spirit, to renew our hearts, and to guide us to God.

We ask the reader's attention to a few brief remarks on the latter of these points, viz., "The sanctification of the Spirit."

I. We shall notice the distinguishing nature and glory of His work.

1. To sanctify is to make holy, in its application to the servants of God.— It is sometimes applied in the sense of setting apart to a sacred use and service. But the people of God are not only set apart to a holy service, but they are

fitted for that service by a holy influence, which is designed to lead them to the love and practice of all that is agree able to the holy will of God.

It will aid us in discerning the distinguishing nature of this work, if we observe in what respects it differs from our justification. The latter is by the work of Christ, the former by the operation of the Holy Spirit. Jus tification is through a work done for us, sanctification by a work wrought in us. We are justified by the righteousness of the Redeemer imputed to us, or placed to our account; we are sanctified when a holy principle is implanted in us. and manifested by us. Justification delivers from the guilt of sin; sanctification from the reigning power and love of sin. Justification removes the condemnation the law pronounced; sanctification takes away our enmity to the law, and leads to love and obey.

Justification frees us from the wrath of God, and introduces us into His favour; sanctification brings us to bear the image of God, and to delight in His character. The one gives us a title to life, the other makes us meet for the enjoyment of that life. In short, justification changes our relation to God; sanctification is a real change in our state towards God. It is, in fact, bringing us again to bear that image of God which was lost by the fall. We are to be "renewed after the image of Him that created us, in righteousness and true holiness." This was the glory of man's nature when he first came from the hand of God. His intellectual powers raised him far above the inferior creatures around him, but the possession of the holy image of God fitted him for the enjoyment of his Maker's love, and for habitual delight and improvement in His service, made him akin to angels, and near to God. The loss of this by the fall was the loss of the peculiar glory, beauty, and blessedness of the sons of man. Alas! how is the gold changed! The restoration of this is essential to the real happiness of man. The sanctification of the

Spirit is, therefore, a most glorious work, as bringing us to bear again the image of God, and to be consecrated to His service.

2. But this work is distinguished by its progressive character. It is not complete at once. It is begun, carried on, and perfected at last. In this respect it may be distinguished both from justification and regeneration. We are justified fully before God when we are believers in Christ. "All that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses."

The justification of believers is complete at once, in that they are freed from condemnation, introduced into the favour of God, and have a title to life. But their sanctification by the Spirit is not thus complete at once. This begins when the heart is first turned from the love of sin to the love of God and holiness; but it has then to be carried on in the further subdual of depraved propensities, and the further exercise and advancement of Christian graces, through the subsequent stages of the divine life, until the Christian shall have done with the evils of time.

In this view it may be distinguished from regeneration, in that one is the beginning, the other the further progress of the work.

Regeneration is like the first page of the book of grace; sanctification the further contents of the volume. Regeneration is like the planting of the tree; sanctification its growth and fruitfulness. The first is the essential change of the heart from sin to God; the other, is the further manifestation of that change in increasing conformity to the image and will of God. Regeneration is coming out of darkness into light; sanctification is that " light shining more and more unto the perfect day." By regeneration we are brought into the kingdom of God's dear Son; by sanctification we are meetened for the full glories of that kingdom hereafter. In regeneration we are new-born as children of God; in sanctification we 'grow up

66

into Christ, our great Head," towards the "fulness of the stature of the perfect man in Christ Jesus."

When the great change is first wrought, there is much remaining weakness, deficiency, and distance. There are evils that need to be subdued, there are graces that need to be exercised, principles that are to be strengthened, great objects to be attained, and a course of usefulness and improvement to be pursued.

This is a glorious work that is to be promoted through the whole course of the Christian believer's life on earth. He is to " grow in grace, and in the knowledge of his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

II. We briefly consider the great end and design of sanctification.—It is to fit us to glorify God on earth, and to enjoy Him for ever in heaven-to accomplish the highest object in the present life, and to lead to the greatest blessedness in the life to come-to secure our true happiness, and the glory of our God.

It is the highest duty and the noblest end of a rational being, to glorify his infinite and ever-blessed Creator. If this end is not answered, as to the great purposes of our being we are living in vain. It is our sin that we have gone off from this highest end of our existence, so that left to ourselves," the God in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways, we have not glorified." We are disposed to live to ourselves, to seek our own glory, to make self our idol, and to put other creatures also in the place of God, living estranged from Him. Now, "the sanctification of the Spirit" is to subdue the selfishness and carnality of our hearts, and to give to God the supreme place in our regard; to lead us to hate and expel the usurpers of His throne, and to "give Him the glory due unto His holy name." Then we are brought to love His character, to discern His excellences, to prize His favour, to delight in His service, to aim at His glory, to seek our highest